17 November 2005

Fuji-San, Take 2

Here's an edited version of a recent post. It's about 350 words, but I want to submit it for a JET publication that has a cap of 250 words. If you have suggestions on what to cut, please let me know.

Fuji – San

I have lived in Fuji City a mere four months. But I don’t think it’s brash to claim that I already know how to love Mt. Fuji.

When I photocopy lesson plans, when I struggle to recall the name of a sea urchin’s ovary but confuse it with the word for raw salmon eggs, when my students’ eyes light up because they have made me laugh, when I’m thinking about something so hard all I see is my right foot, my left foot, and my right foot again on the sidewalk…in any of these moments, I might happen to look up. And there is Mt. Fuji.

Just there, like she was the day before. So stereotypically huge, yet so freshly unimposing – unaware that she exists, much less that she is beautiful. (I say “she” because my friend Mayumi insists that Mt. Fuji is a woman. And without asking for an explanation, I agree.)

I realize that I have a lot in common with her. Maybe the humidity reflects so much light that she is invisible – the clouds are an illusion that look not like the shroud of an ancient volcano, but like an open gap in the landscape. Maybe at dusk she is blushing in the naked wink of the sun. Maybe you can barely discern the vague trace of her shape, and in the dark you are left to wonder about the living texture of her body. Maybe the snow, shocking in its purity, has crept to the tree-line that is finally visible after the haze of summer.


Every day there is something new to learn, but every day I know that she remains. Perhaps the spirit of Mt. Fuji is not really a woman. But I think within every woman, there is the spirit of Mt. Fuji. Unlike the Japanese word for salmon egg, this understanding need not be taught.



2 comments:

Jessica Letizia said...

If I were to cut anything, it would be in the last two paragraphs. I think you can express what you want to express without using all of the analogies that you do (however appropriate they are) -- and perhaps, if you want to make it not woman-specific (because you are excluding men from having Mt. Fuji in them right now) you can play around with that sentence. Just my two cents... I do think it's lovely as it stands.

Mimi said...

Hmmm...I think the feminity of the mountain shows a deeper connection, so I don't think its something to be eliminiated. I'm not sure what I would take out though...