In 1970 Lucia had the opportunity to live in Japan in 
the Nakatsu family's tea house and wrote letters to 
her family back in Florida.   The Tokaido Road, 
written 20 years later, and republished in December '05
had its beginnings here.  

Here are excerpts from those letters.  New letter will be posted from time to time.  Many thanks to Lucia's mom Jeanne Robson for saving and transcribing them. Thanks also to her old friend Masaaki Hirayama for contacting the Nakatsu family and identifying the folk in the photos.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Excerpt from February 11, 1970:

         "Let's see-- how about if I tell you about my tea house and garden.  My living room is about 12'x12' with 2 1/2' along one wall being taken up by the Tokonoma, or alcove, with a scroll, flower arrangement, etc. displayed there, and two shelves and small cupboards above it.  It's a "six-tatami room, or six tatami mats worth of floor space.  A tatami mat is about 3'x6' and rooms are built to accommodate them... such as a six-tatami room or an eight.

         The bedroom is four and a half mats not counting the huge closet and shelves which have sliding doors.  Also, sliding paper-paned screens separate the two rooms.  The porch that runs along two sides is about three feet wide, with floors of polished cherry wood.  It's separated from the interior rooms by paper shoji screens, the bottom panes of which slide up to give a view of the garden.  They're called  yuki no shoji, snow-viewing screens, because you can see the snow in the garden while sitting on cushions on the floor.

         To reach the benjo, or water closet, I go from my porch to the Nakatsu's porch via a plank and in through their side door.  The WC is smaller than the average closet.  It consists of a hole in the linoleum tile floor with a porcelain rim to catch the splatters.  Toilet paper is neatly laid out in a pile in a shallow basket (the sheets come like sections of paper towels and aren't a whole lot softer.  One American put them on the table as dinner napkins till she found out to here embarrassment what they were)

       The only other "furnishings" in the WC are an ash tray and a vase of fresh flowers.  There's a plastic bucket with a nozzle hanging by the side door. You wash your hands there and dry them on the towel hanging next to it.  I know that some dark night if I don't step in the hole I'll at least lose a slipper down it.  Better'n Caripito anyway.  At least here the chickens are penned in the backyard and the WC is spotless.  I will have to get used to ducking to go through doors (since they're all 1/2" than I am), and to slurping my soup since they don't serve spoons with it (or napkins either), and to shuffling in slippers that come off if you lift your feet off the ground.

          Top of page

Home  Books  Book Clubs  Personal  Previews  Links  Site Map

email Lucia directly:  looshr@aol.com

©Lucia St. Clair Robson 2001 - 2008

Website by: www.Sky-Bolt.com