Leda Dorikou
Hitotsubashi University-School of Commerce, Researcher Oct. 2005 - March 2007

Waseda University- Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (GSAPS)
Doctor of Philosophy in International Studies, Apr. 2007 - March 2011


Dear Friends of Japan,

It was eight years ago, during the Japanese Speech Contest, when I shared with the audience and other participants my thoughts, my efforts, my satisfaction,  joy and anticipation for what it was soon going to happen: in a few months I would land – at last!!! – in the one place which it seemed that I had been, long time ago, bonded to with a magical and powerful knot: Japan.

What would I meet there?  What would I see? How would I respond and how would I react towards watching my dream coming true? Was there really a supernatural connection or was it just all in my head?

It was the tiny but extremely functional rooms…
It was one of my first images, my room at the dormitory…small, yet such a darling, like a doll’s room! If I sat in the middle, I could reach almost everything with my hands! A unique situation in which I had never been before!! It was just a small little room, yet it was the one sheltering my dream! And my apartment, later… Just 18 sq.m., but it was enough… so full of light… the familiar neighbours, the sounds – familiar too – of the vending machine nearby, the Origin-bento at the corner – the numerous times it saved me when I was hungry…
Ouedo-sen… Always full of people in the morning and in the evening… hurrying to catch the last train… and 25 people behind me doing exactly the same thing…

It was the sumo….
…When I was sitting at the third row from the douhyou, the ring (at the Masu-seats)!! I could see the sumo wrestlers from a very close distance: Hakuhou, Asashouryuu (he hadn’t retired yet at that time), Harumafuji (previously known as Ama), Baruto, Burugaria-Yoguruto Kotoushu (you really need to have lived in Japan and have watched his advertisements to understand this!!) and Takamisakari… when he is winning he is distinctively leaving the ring with his head high up, as high as possible, while when he is losing he is leaving the ring with his head low down…
We were trying to get some of the salt the wrestlers were throwing during the purifying process before the game started…for good luck… The presentation and the entering of the Yokozuna with the striking tsuna around their waists, the parade of the sponsors prior to every game, the obento named after the most popular wrestlers, Kokugikan… the geisha that happened to be sitting right across, wearing black kimono with white flowers…

It was Hakone…
With the fast cars. groups of friends going hiking with super cars of all kinds… With the close and stiff turns but the wide open ones as well, the special routes for unofficial rallies, against time and against the limits of the driver and the car….
The amazing Ashinoko no Merodi- Roudo (Melody Road of Ashinoko), where, while viewing Fuji san, the tires cause the listening of “Fuji no Yama”, a Japanese melody, if the car is moving with a specific speed – and not less than that…

It was the onsen….
It took me some time to discover it…but once I did, I realised the magic in the experience… made of bricks or stone, in the middle of Tokyo or on a remote mountain, with many others or almost alone, with lukewarm or near-to-boiled water (what an experience!!!) of various colours and contents, indoors or – my favorite – rotenburo (outdoor onsen)… Usually combined with snow… when the snow is falling and it melts in the air before it makes its landing on your skin… One of the most exquisite ones: the grey stone-made jar-like one-person rotenburo, the water falling from above, burbling, and the cold wind on the face…
And the most beautiful experience, Takaragawa onsen… there are no words… the nature, the sounds of the river, the leaves, walking around to choose a rotenburo to relax in…. Beautiful, unforgettable moments…..


It was the sushi!
Looking for the perfect not ramen, but sushi in Tokyo! (By the way, the perfect ramen was at a tiny small little restaurant with wooden counters and benches).
The process of finding it was marvelous!! Avoiding all sushiya with presence of western people (and definitely avoiding ALL tourist sushiya), finally it was found!! Huge pieces of sea-food and fish, more fresh than alive!! And the tuna-cutting show every Friday… The divine chuutoro… I will never forget the last time we went there… The good people already knew us, since we were the only western people there… The last piece of chuutoro I ate was three times bigger than the normal one… As if the good man (Suzuki-san, with the most striking lemon-yellow-coloured skin!!) knew…

It was Kyoto…
When I was dressed up and made up like a maiko, with October’s flower in my hair and went for a walk dressed like this at Gion…

when I went to a small, traditional restaurant with the darling name “Magokoro”, where you can only enter if you have a reference from a customer. It was there, where I tried habushu, alcohol with a snake in it!

It was the hanami…
Seeing the blue, plastic groundsheets everywhere with happy people singing and laughing… or walking for hours and seeing bunches of cherry blossoms around Tokyo… or at Yoyogikouen… Or the yozakura at Nakameguro, with the smiling lanterns at both sides of the river and Sapporo biru at the narrowest – and cutest – table I ’ve ever seen…

And the gorgeous sukijo (or should I say ski-jyo?)…
Ichinoze Shigakougen, where the snow-monkeys are taking their bath in rotenburo and you can ski along the Olympic course, at Dragondola in Yuuzawa, Naeba, Kagura, Mitsumata and the night snowboarding, the – always full – Fujiten, Hakuba, the snowmonsters at Madarao, Zao, at Nozawa during the himatsuri (the fire festival), at Karuizawa… and so many more…

It was the kouyou…
The spectacular colours of the leaves and the fabulous images of nature, like paintings… hunting kouyou… when we were going from one place to another, trying to get to see it… but the winter was faster every time that year….

And the hanabi in August…
When, wearing my own yukata, I was walking in Tokyo to see the fireworks and their reflections on the glasses of the skyscrapers, or at Odaiba, over the Reenbou buriji.. or at Saitama, over a bridge when the shinkasen was passing by… Spectacular!!!

It was the everyday life…
The wondering gentleman with the little trumpet, promoting his tofu for sale… or the gentleman that was often wondering around the neighborhood shouting with his melody voice “yakiimo yakiimo!” for the grilled sweet potatoes, which were really hot and every time he was suggesting I should be careful not to get burned… Mr. Tanaka, who owns a small restaurant near my place… we were saluting almost every morning and evening, when I was returning home, sometimes he would make me some coffee, we would talk about various subjects, I would give him presents from Greece and we would smoke a cigarette together…

In short, all the simple, beautiful, unique things, situations and people, that are never mentioned, but that actually form up this magical country.

So, I guess that my answer to the question as to what the Japan I met was like, would simply be this: 私の心の日本….