Sometimes the best part of the souvenir is the memory about buying it.
In high school I was studying Japanese and our teacher assigned us a project to go to a local university’s Asian culture week. I was obsessed with all things Japan, and so had a great time. One of the panel sessions that I went to was on the history of the song Sukiyaki. In 1963 this song reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US and is the only Japanese language song to do so. It is also one of the best selling singles of all time.  It also has been covered in many languages including different lyrics. Some English covers later in the 80’s and 90’s also hit the top of the music charts and continues to receive new covers to this day.  But the panel didn’t just cover the long lasting and worldwide usage of this song but also the career and later tragic death of the original singer Kyu Sakamoto. I remember writing a paper on the panel, and throughout the panel heard many different versions and covers of the song.
Fast forward to the summer after I graduated from high school, I was an exchange student in Japan. I had done research and found that a store in Tokyo called the Oriental Bazaar was recommended as the best “one stop shop” for many Japan related souvenirs. And it was! I got so many things here, from my Kimono, fans, dolls, silk handkerchief, and much more. The store is huge and also deals in antiques. I wandered upstairs and met an older Japanese woman alone upstairs. She obviously worked there and would lead me to things she thought I should know about (and she singlehandedly sold me most of the things I bought and would not have otherwise.) She didn’t speak English and instead would just pick something up and smile insisting that I take and buy it.
One thing she picked up was a typical music box with a cardboard image around it. Pretty cheap looking and I wasn’t planning on buying it. But she kept insisting, and played the music for me. I realized I knew the song, but couldn’t figure out why. She must have seen me listening hard so she kept playing it as I leaned in, straining my ears to remember. I hadn’t heard that song in years but after listening to cover after cover I had learned the song well. I suddenly shouted “Sukiyaki” and the woman nodded, smiled, and handed me the music box, pleased that I knew the song. At that point it was obvious that I couldn’t say no.
So every time I play this music box, I think back to that old woman, in the dark part of the antique section, playing it and then her huge smile when I knew the song. And then I cannot help but sing the harmony for hours afterwards.
Souvenir Saturday is an every-other week series on the items that represent travel memories.
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