Plans and Postponements

    The plan had been simple and followed a pattern we had used many times before. My parents would prepare on their ends and in April we would buy tickets so my mother could come to see her eldest grandchild’s last shichi-go-san this autumn. My dad would finally see the part of this country I live in and be in the Land of the Rising Sun for the first time in more than forty years. It would be amazing.

    It still will be amazing when it does happen, but shichi-go-san will go on without my mom this year. Everything else gets pushed back until vaccination is possible and affordable. On the up side, my family is still set on visiting and we had not bought non-refundable tickets yet, so we’re not out anything but a little planning. A lot of those plans will likely still be good in 2021 or 2022 or even 2023.

    That isn’t to say it isn’t disappointing. Of course it is, but I am so much happier that they are taking this seriously and staying safe. Having to essentially shut them out for their own good would be so much harder than this level of mutual disappointment.

    So what do you do to help prepare for those plans put on hold? In my case, continue meandering toward the plan that was almost in progress before things went haywire. In the latter half of January, I spent some time in the big English section at a major book chain in Sendai and looked through every guidebook, trying to find something useful to send to my dad. I know most people would use the internet and send their tourist relatives to one website or another. Unfortunately, my dad isn’t big on computers but he does love reading. A physical guidebook would be just the thing to get him planning his trip out a little bit. Unfortunately, every single book I picked up had scant to nil on Tohoku, the region I live in, much less Miyagi. Why? Because we aren’t Tokyo or Kyoto or in between them. Even the tiny mountain town I lived in back in Gifu got more coverage in some of these books and realizing this made me a bit livid.

    Luckily, I am a writer, so I started planning out what to put together for a quick and easy guidebook. If I used old blog posts, I could have it whipped up in a month, but no, I thought, I can spend a little time getting fresh information and photos this year and put it together all in 2020. I can make it fresh!

    Except of course, I couldn’t. I did spend the last day of freedom before the schools were shut down walking up to and around Shiogama Shrine, taking a thousand pictures in preparation of a nice, long entry that I still haven’t gotten around to writing.

    I look forward to things being normal enough that my anxiety abates and I can actually start working on this book. I am anxiously waiting to feel comfortable enough on public transit to take a couple of photography trips to Sendai and Ishinomaki to shoot new pictures of the places I want my dad to want to see. Once things resolve to a new normal, I will find a way to accomplish these things and more. Until then, I'll just have to ease forward with little steps.

A decorated local train, the Mangattan Liner, bound for Ishinomaki and celebrating the work of a famous manga artist from there. I still haven't been to the manga museum there. Maybe one day.