京阪電車。京都。鳥羽街道駅。

“Sabishi na.” This is the first impression of Tobakaido station I got from my host father. From Tambabashi to Shichijo on the Keihan line, there is a concentration of stations; Tobakaido is a small and very ordinary station comparing with other stations in this section which at least are known for nearby sightseeing spots in Kyoto. Even though Tobakaido is in the middle of Tofukuji and Fushimi-inari which are stations frequently visited by tourists, it can be barely noticed for people who pass by. I got off at Tofukuji and walked to Tobakaido in order to know the area better, but I passed the station on my way without noticing its location at all. It was not until I got to Fushimi-inari did I realized that I walked pass Tobakaido already. When I walked back to the Tofukuji direction, I still had a hard time locating Tobakaid. It was the noisy busy train tracks right next to the station that draw my attention and led me to the station.

There are four tracks in front of Tobakaido of which two are Keihan line and the other two are the JR line. They run next to each other while there is a narrow space in the middle separating the Keihan and JR. This space is just big enough for a little Japanese style restaurant. I stood in front of the restaurant for about half an hour, there were three trains ran pass the station in 5 minutes in average.  As a result, the traffic lights and the stop bars on both sides of the tracks keep changing all the time. Cars, bikes and pedestrians have to stop frequently to wait until all the trains are gone. I do not know why the restaurant locates in the middle of these tracks which are very noisy and the trains somehow shake the restaurant by passing by in a high speed.  But among all these trains, only the sub express and local trains on the Keihan line actually stop at the station. Meanwhile, there is no transfer to other train lines or bus at Tobakaido. The structure of the station is very simple and typical. There is nothing much other than the entrance which is also the exit, the small office of the station attendant, the ticket selling machines and the platforms.  During the time I was standing by the entrance, there are about a couple of people entering the station in 10 minutes. It was in the early afternoon on a Saturday, so that might be the reason why I did not see many passengers. There are highly concentrated residential areas around the station with narrow streets and old houses. On the back of the station is where the Nintendo Company building locates which used to be the head quarter of Nintendo in Kyoto.

Tobakaido station on the Keihan website:

http://www.okeihan.net/navi/spot/station/detail.php?station_info_no=35

When I was wondering why the station is called Tobakaido, my host mother suggested that it might be because it used to the place where people started walking from Kyoto to Toba. But since she is not a local person living in the area, she asked the owners of the local business the day she went there with me. The owner of an old family style Japanese restaurant in which we had lunch told us that Tobakaido got its name because its location was where the ancient Toba-fushimi battle took place since Kyoto was the base for the Shinsengumi.  Tobakaido is 20 minutes’ walking distance from Tofukuji and 15 minutes’ walking distance from Fushimi-inari. It is not known for any famous temple or sightseeing spots, but Tobakaido is there to serve residents and whoever may one day visit it, someone like me.

主婦。ホストお母さん。日本舞の達人。

41 years ago, Hashimoto Matsuko wore a beautiful rented kimono and became the wife of Kataoka Kooji through a Shinto ceremony when she was 22 years old. Today, the retired 63 years old Kataoka Matsuko is an experienced housewife, a professional host mother and a talented dancer who is trying to make my life in Japan fruitful and unforgettable.

Before I met my host mother, all that I can relate to housewives in Japan is a life which follows the same routine every day, cooking, shopping, and picking up children from school. But my host mother gave me a whole new view of Japanese women. On one hand, my host mother is an ordinary housewife and mother like any other married women in Japan. She is good at cooking both Japanese food and western food. For my host mother, who has been a housewife for 41 years, the most challenging task now is to think about the daily menu. She is trying her best to offer different food everyday so that I, a foreign student, can taste different Japanese food from which I learn about Japanese culture. It is from her that I knew the four seasons have an important role in Japanese cuisine. It is from the every meal which she prepares and cooks that I start to sense the depth and richness of Japanese food culture.

My host mother always knows where I want to travel to or what kind of information I may be interested because she has been hosting international students for 20 years. She told me the first day we met that I am the 18^th foreign student she is hosting. My host mother first host students when her son is in college and her daughter is a high school students. The initial reason for her to become a host mother is simple, she wanted to learn English herself and she also wanted her children to become better at English. The beginning of her life as a host mother does not surprise me, while I was completely amazed when she told me about her being an exchange student in New Zealand. When my host mother was 49 years old, she went to New Zealand in order to improve her English where she stayed with her host parents who were at that time both over 90 years old for a month. According to my host mother, that one month is too short for her to have any major improvement in English. But the study aboard program allowed her to experience the life of home stay students.

It was in the same year when my host mother started hosting students that she also became one of the first few members of Minatsukikai, a local Japanese dancing community. At the beginning, my host mother did not enjoy her dancing activities very much since she was busy with her part-time job at Resona Bank and housework. She joined the community mainly because her sister is both the founder and the teacher of it. However, as my host mother continued to participate in more and more dancing performances, she became deeply into Japanese dancing. Today, there are 30 members in the community. Every October, the community will hold a dancing workshop at Kansai Gaidai in which foreign students are taught how to wear kimono and some simple Japanese traditional dance. It was in this year’s workshop when I had the chance to see my host mother performing for the first time. She participated in both feminine and masculine dances in which she worn female kimono or male kimono. The performance allowed me to discover another side of my host mother. She was very confident, skillful and passionate when she is dancing.

The life of my host mother is definitely a multi-dimensional one. It is she who shows me how colorful and energetic the life of an ordinary Japanese woman can be. This year’s dancing workshop at Gaidai is the 24^th one, and my host mother will continue it as long as she can.