Sorano

Hana is a girl who lives in a New York penthouse with her mom and dad. Her mom’s name is Jenny and her dad’s name is Kiyoshi. He was a Japanese immigrant who came to the US to study engineering, and along the way ended up marrying Jenny and staying in the USA without returning home for a long time. Hana’s parents thought that now she had completed her 8th grade, they should take her to see his dad’s hometown which was in Shinjuku, Japan. 

Hana was not that excited as she wanted to hang out with her friends from school and have some fun, but then, within a few days of her parents informing her about this trip she got to know that the few friends she had were also going on vacations with their families. After getting to know that she would be bored during the holidays, she said yes to her parents, half-heartedly though. Her mother encouraged her to search the internet for the activities they could do, places they could visit, or, you know, at least learn something about the people and culture of Japan. Little did Hana know, she was in for an eye-opening experience that would change her entire way of life. 

So… the trip began. They landed at the airport and took a cab straight to Hana’s grandparent's house. After a traditional Japanese welcome, exchanging gifts, and eating dinner, everyone went to sleep as they were too tired from their trip. For the next two weeks, the whole family explored various novelties they could find and learned as much about Japanese culture as they could. Now, this week was the last week of their stay and Hana’s grandparents decided that they should go to their village house where the whole family can enjoy some peace and bond with each other. Hana was particularly not that excited about this as she was already finding the Japanese culture to be a little restrictive and rule-bound. But, as the whole family wanted to go, she complied with their idea without any rebellion. As they reached after a four-hour, non-stop drive (yeah, looks like Japanese people restrict their bladder as well), they were all pretty tired and everyone just ate dinner and went to sleep early. 

Much to Hana’s surprise, she woke up at 5 in the morning the next day, and, unable to go back to sleep, she thought she would listen to some music in the back garden. Now… much not to her surprise, her grandfather was sitting in the garden wide awake. Now… for some context, her grandfather is a 72-year-old, traditional Japanese man who has never missed his 5 am gardening hobby from the day he retired and Hana knew about it as she witnessed this happening every single day during her stay. Her internal voice told her to just run from there as she was used to listening to songs alone, in her comfort of thoughts (but, mind you, all she listened to was songs about twerking and dancing half naked… I mean what are you expecting, she’s an eight grader living her life in a penthouse going to private school!). And out of nowhere, her grandpa signaled her saying come here, sit beside me for a few minutes. Hana walked towards him with her head down looking towards the ground, you know, just like every teenager does when they don’t want to comply but they know they don’t have any other choice, especially for Hana, no other choice at 5 am. 

They both sat down and with a weak voice her grandpa asked, “So, how is your trip going my little Hana chan? Do you like the food? The culture? The people? And just like a typical 8th grader would respond, Hana said, “it’s alright.” Hmm… Grandpa said. After that, there was an awkward silence for a one long minute and with the teenage urge to fill that awkward silence, Hana asked, “what are you thinking grandpa?” Grandpa said, “oh nothing much, I’m just looking at the sky, trying to learn something new about it.” Hana looked confused and said, “What can we learn about by just looking at the sky Grandpa!? It’s just the sky, it’s always there! Instantly, Grandpa smiled at this naive thought and went on to ask, “Hana chan, do you know what’s the sky called in Japanese?” No. Said Hana. Grandpa said, “ In Japanese, we call it Sorano.” That’s much better than what we call in English “Sky”, Hana said while doing the air quotes. Grandpa started laughing looking at her little grandchild and said, “Yes, Yes, that does sound beautiful in Japanese, doesn’t it!?” But what will you learn from it? Hana asked. 

“Okay”, said the grandpa. “Tell me, Hana Chan, how do you feel when your school starts and after a year it ends?” Grandpa asks. “Well… it does feel exciting in the beginning and towards the end it does feel a little sad but I also get happy that I’m going to go into the next grade,” Hana replies. “So you see when you look at the sky, the sunrise and the sunset are just like that, they signify the beginning and the end of your journeys, whenever every journey begins it feels exciting, and whenever every journey ends, no matter how or when, you feel a little bit of sadness and more excitement for the future. Also, these moments are always beautiful to watch, just like the sunrise and sunset.” Grandpa says with a smile. Hana looks confusingly at him and asks, “ What about the rest of the day then, what does that mean?” “Well… that’s the part where you have to wait patiently and keep on doing what is necessary to reach the end, you see Hana Chan, if you want to see a beautiful ending, you need to have the patience to go through a long boring day and put in the work,” Grandpa says. 

“Huh…” Hana thinks for some time and asks Grandpa, “What about the days where you can’t see the sunrises and the sunsets, what does that mean?” “Well, then it might be a different season, and the seasons have their meaning too,” Grandpa replies. “You see, every season comes in your life to show you how differently your day will go by, sometimes it’s cloudy, which means you can’t see the beauty and maybe not the sunset, but that does not mean that you won’t see the sunshine occasionally.” “ These days are the bad days, where most of the things are not going your way but you can still find a moment of happiness, just like the sun coming out on a cloudy day and getting rid of that gloomy feeling… I hate cloudy days!” Grandpa says laughing. “ And sometimes… it rains! And that too for long long times, maybe days or weeks, do you know what that means Hana Chan?” Grandpa asks. Hana just nods her head signalling she has no clue at all. “Well, those are even worse days!” At this point, Grandpa is laughing like a child. “These are the days where you need to work even harder, try harder, and get through the day somehow.” “Oh! And then there’s thunder! You better stay and rest at home on those days, that’s the universe telling you to take a break from your problems.” “But don’t worry child, there are other seasons as well, seasons, which an individual like,” Grandpa says. “These seasons are the days where you are enjoying your journey, where you are putting in the work but also not worrying about the outcomes because you feel confident and happy in those seasons.” 

Now Hana has been sucked up in this conversation and her teenage mind is sitting in the backseat because now she is more interested in listening to someone than she has ever been in her life. You might ask why she’s interested. Because, her inner voice said, “Wow!, that’s so cool!”. 

Now Hana is wondering what you all are thinking, what about the night then? And that’s what she proceeds to ask. Hana asks, “ What about the nighttime Grandpa, what does that mean?” “It means hope, dear Hana. The night is all about hope, and not just because you’re hoping to see the sunshine the next day, it’s because there are the stars and the moon who glow in pitch darkness to make the night sky look beautiful.” “You see, even if you’re going through the most never-ending confusing moments of your life, there are going to be some glimmers of light, just like the stars, that will give you hope whenever you look at them. And then… Grandpa laughs a little and says, “ Once in a while, there will be moments that will be so beautiful that they are going to reassure you that life can be full of hope, just like the nights of a full moon.” “Also, Hana Chan, even during some nights, there are clouds and rains, remember this, the stars and moon will be still there, hiding behind the clouds and showing their face once in a while.” 

After this surreal explanation of what life is, Grandpa points his finger in the sky, and tears start to fall from Hana’s eyes, happy tears. Why? You might ask? Remember how it was 5 am? Well… the sun is rising now!