A Voice Crying Out in the Desert — Statues in Yokohama Part One

My walks around Yokohama take me along streets to parks, museums, graveyards, and along lesser-known pathways through silent wooded areas. Amazingly, as I walk I encounter statues in the most likely and unlikely places. In front of Yokohama Station, I passed by two statues almost daily. I hardly noticed them until one day I looked up at one of the statues. A woman looking down regally at the crowds passing by below her

One day a few weekends ago, I met my friend in front of a Starbucks on Bashmichi Street in Yokohama. I arrived a little earlier but instead of going into the coffee shop, I became fascinated by the sculpture of a mother and child. I might have passed it by, as were so many pedestrians were doing, had not been for the news from a former student of mine of the birth of a baby boy.

Recently during one of my meanderings, I came across a statue of a young woman on my way back from Yamashita Park. At first, I didn’t notice her. My attention was drawn to the Barney’s of New York Store. Through the reflection of the store display window, I saw the girl behind me. I turned and crossed the street for a closer look. She sat with her legs tightly closed and her arms resting on her knees.  She had a pensive look on her face, as though she was pondering her life in years to come. The future full of wonders and challenges awaited her.

I was reluctant to leave her alone and ignored by passers-by, but I had a lunch engagement. Soon even I had forgotten her.