Episode 20 Preparing for Move/Lots of Memento

The "Yodoe Project" started the day before Christmas Eve in 2018. A major cleanup was done during the second round in late January 2019, and demolition and renovation proceeded during the third (March), fourth (May), fifth (July), sixth (September), and seventh rounds (December). Two months later, the eighth round was held over three days from February 20th (Thursday) to February 22nd (Saturday), 2020.

Yoko usually travels from Osaka by car, considering the convenience after arriving in Yodoe. In the winter, she changes to studless tires in advance and travels through the mountainous area near the border between Okayama and Tottori Prefectures. This time, she decided to take an express bus since there was a possibility of deep snow in February, and she needed to travel after the dark.

On the departure day, Yoko worked as an IT support at a transportation company near the Nishinomiya-kita Interchange (in Hyogo Prefecture) along the Chugoku Expressway until the evening. Then, she walked to the bus stop and boarded an express bus. As she expected, she saw snow in the mountainous areas. After arriving at Yonago Station, she took the JR train. There was still some snow left at Yodoe Station. She got excited since she hadn't seen this much of snow since she moved to Osaka nearly 20 years ago. While walking to the house at the easternmost tip of Yodoe, she enjoyed stepping on the remaining snow here and there for no reason. 

The mission of the eighth Yodoe Project was to clean up the Western-style room that Yoko had used until she graduated from high school. The room was filled with stuff that Yoko had decided to keep for now. There were about two and a half months left until Yoko and her daughter Momoko moved in. The interior construction work for the Western-style room was scheduled for next month, March, to make it a bedroom for them. So, Four project members of the neighborhood came to help.

★From Hamamura, Tottori Prefecture

• Shotaro (Shotaro Miyahara)
• Kyo-chan (Kyohei Nagakubo)

★From Yonago, Tottori Prefecture

• Morisato (Satoshi Morita)

 ★From Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture

• Atsuko (Hirose Atsuko)

Yoko was trying to move the things stored in the Western-style room to the second Japanese-style room in the back (currently the Edo-style room), which used to be  Yoko's grandmother’s room. When Shotaro saw Yoko doing that, he said, "Yoko-san, you won't be able to clean things up just by moving them around. Let's take the plunge and get rid of some of them!"

Prompted by those words, Yoko decided to get rid of things, even some chest of drawers.

Shotaro, Morisato, and Atsuko carried unnecessary things out from the Western-style room to the garage. For wooden materials, Kyo-chan dismantled and loaded them into the car. Items Yoko still wanted to keep were moved to the grandmother’s room or the outside shed. The Western-style room became empty within a day, and the first day's work was finished.

Members had homemade Okonomiyaki (savory pancakes with sauce, bonito flakes, etc.) made by Atsuko for dinner. She was a big help during the clean-up as well. At the dinner table, she called herself “a super girl who can do anything!” Whenever she said something and made some poses, people laughed out loud.

Atsuko: “Supergirl can cook. She is funny. She does construction work like a man. She can be a foreman. She is beautiful. What else?”

Shotaro: “I know there's more.”

Atsuko: “There are more. Supergirl is good at her job. She can cook. She has a cute face. She has a good style. She can drive a car. She's funny....”

Shotaro: “(With laughter) Hey, finish and eat!”

Atsuko: “Yes, I'm going to eat okonomiyaki. Sorry. Supergirl.”

On the second day, the 21st (Friday), Shotaro and Kyo-chan stayed behind and worked on things in the Western-style room. Until this eighth round, project members had checked and cleaned everything, including the main house and warehouse. The only place that remained untouched was the closet under the Buddhist altar in the Japanese-style room where we always ate meals together.

What was stored in there were incense sticks, candles, lanterns as well as bags and boxes filled with old photographs. There were photos of Yoko's grandmother, Masuyo, and her siblings when they were little (latter half of the Meiji era) and that of Yoko's father, Shigeru, and his younger sister when they were babies. Due to the lack of time, Yoko put them away in the shed, where she had already stored childhood albums and other memorable stuff Yoko and Shu made during their school years.

In other boxes, there were newspaper articles about when Yoko's mother, Keiko, and her three other friends held an oil painting exhibition. Yoko also found some booklets. One of them contained the short essay “What I Want to Say,” written by Shu, which won a prize when he was a junior high school student. Another one contained Yoko’s book review of “The Mouse's Marriage,” from which she won a prize as an elementary school student. There were also Yoko’s favorite puzzles with the design of Popeye and their report cards.

“After I move and start spending time here, I will make time to take a closer look!”

On the final day, 22nd (Saturday), only Shotaro stayed behind. After disposing of combustible garbage at the Yonago City Clean Center, Yoko and Shotaro met up with Yoko’s aunt (her mother’s younger sister), Sumie, who lived in Sakaiminato, an hour north of Yodoe. They all went to see Yoko’s mother’s birthplace in Nanbu-cho, which had been vacant since her uncle and aunt had moved into the care facility. The building dates back to the Taisho era (1912~1926). Yoko remembered this place as an attractive old house that looked like a samurai residence, with a high floor at the entrance and a large Japanese drum that could easily reach the ceiling. Unfortunately, her uncle and aunt had renovated and turned it into an ordinary house from the Showa era (1926~1989). In addition to that, the storehouse was destroyed by Western Tottori Earthquake in 2000. Yoko felt all of the old charm of this house was gone.

“After my daughter and I move in Yodoe, let’s take a closer look to see if we can renovate and utilize it!”

 On the 23rd (Sunday), Shotaro took Yoko to Hamamura, where he lived. Kyo-chan (Kyohei Nagakubo) joined along the way, and they all headed to Takarazuka in southern Hyogo Prefecture. The purpose of this trip was to attend the unveiling of “awai KIYOSHIKOJIN,” a shared house in which many Yodoe Project members had been involved (Yoko joined for the wall-painting project). After seeing the site, Yoko reconfirmed the high potential of the members involved in the Yodoe Project and returned to her home in Osaka feeling grateful to all of them.