The way to Aomori took all day. They set out around 10am and the drive took them into real Japanese wilderness. Arriving at the care home as the last rays of day light turned the sky red as storm clouds rolled in from the sea. Aomori is a mountainous region that is most well known for a place rumored to be the gateway to the afterlife, a cremation ground beside a mountain shrine called Osorezan. The address for the care home seemed off as it was in a rural area that once held a fortress and monastery long burned down. As they wind the mountain roads they see wild deer, flocks of birds, eagles, Tanuki raccoons who look far more like wolves than their US counterparts. Crossing the road they see a family of horned Serow Horses that looks like a cross between a wooly goat and an muscular antelope. The animals have no fear of people and when Cynthia opens the window to feed them pear slices they bite her fingers. Furyo screams at them until they move off the road.

At the gate of the care home they cant get a response and turn back to find an inn for the night. They come to a row of cottages near a traditional hot spring. The caretaker is a little old lady hunched over from advanced arthritis but she is kind and brings them warm soup, biscuits, cookies and mochi ice cream balls. Breaking in the new digs with rough sex, they are started as they notice a family of mischievous red faced snow monkeys have burrowed though the bamboo rafters and darted down the wall to steal their leftover cookies. This put a damper on the lovemaking as the monkeys strange golden eyes stared at them as if they are the intruder. A baby monkey was the first to come down and interact with them, when they woke up they see the entire tribe of Japanese macaques was curled up around them for warmth but darted away screaming at the first sign of movement. The caretaker brought them a steaming tray of breakfast with warm tea, sake, eggs, fish, sweet beans and pickled yams. The food was under a heavy wire crate to keep out of the hands of wild monkeys from spoiling it.

The Onsen in beside the inn was filled with sleepy monkeys resting in the warm waters. Finding one of the pools with out any forrest life, they glided into the peaceful waters. It was cold here at this high elevation, the warm waters bubbled with geological thermal heat and the grey pools gave off steam that wafted in the lazy wind. It was lightly sprinkling rain and the trees danced with the breeze. Far off they heard lightning but the traditional architecture of the roof and grounds made Furyo think of Samurai movies he saw as a kid. The Inn keeper had friendly Akita dog to keep the bear away, but he wasn’t doing his job as he slept through a small black bear stole a bag of garbage and ran into the forrest. They paid for another day and left their belongings in the room. Returning to the care facility around noon, they had stopped to go grocery shopping to bring some candy to Furyo’s grandmother. Pulling into the gate, they find a massive traditional building that looked like a castle. The walls were wood that was stained black with age. Along the high walls were statues of ferocious buddhist protector gods with spears and swords, fu dogs and pagodas.

At the door they are met by the nurse named Mariko who told them Mrs. Matsuno was unwell, she is in the garden temple praying for death. They are ushered through a maze of hallways with golden mural walls and though several paper doors until they reach the back entrance to the meditation pond. The garden is full of manicured trees, fluttering butterflies, ladybugs and dragon flies. The way the light bounces off the pond almost makes Cynthia pass out, as the beauty of the area makes her think about death and the afterlife. A large statue of Buddha looms over the pond surrounded by white flowering plum trees. Orange and silver koi are friendly in the pond. Coming to the edge seeking alms from the visitors. Beyond the pond and over a red bridge is the memorial shrine where Furyo’s grandmother sits in a wheel chair with her back to them. She is so small with her grey hair tied up over her head and a grey and red kimono covered in translucent flowers and birds in the design.

The nurse turns her wheel chair around and they are greeted by a smiling woman with hands in prayer. She bows to them and the nurse speaks for her since her small voice is a whisper. She tells Furyo she hasn’t seen her daughter in years but she thinks Furyo’s mother is living somewhere in the Fukushima province to the south. They offer her the sweets they brought and she passes them to the nurse for safe keeping. Furyo looks at the tomb stones and altars beyond. His grandmother tells the nurse that these are his ancestors and he fights back tears in his eyes. He vaguely remembers his grandmother but his mother never told him any history of the family other than his father was mixed blood, Japanese and Korean, descended from invaders in the era of the Imjin war in the Sengoku Period.

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Furyo doesn’t even know his fathers name since his last name comes from his mother. Through Cynthia and the nurse Furyo asks about his father and hears the words “Kuroi Inu” 黒い犬 “Black Dog” comes from his grandmother in a hiss. With this she becomes enraged and starts pounding the arm rests of her chair and rips her prayer beads to pieces that scatter at their feet. Rocking back and forth in a rage, the nurse ushers them back to the side path back to the front and tells them to come back the following day. Furyo feels sad he upset his grandmother. He was surprised to see her tantrum, his father must have been a real bastard to the family. The word she used sounded familiar. “Black Dog” was something he over heard the Yakuza say when he was out drinking in his first days as a deportee.

They drive into Aomori proper to see the coastal beauty. They visit some temples and do some shopping downtown. Spending the rest of the day picnicking at the beach. The sky cleared and it was a bright sunny day despite the ocean breeze being ice cold. The trees here are permanently twisted from the constant wind. It reminds Furyo of the bluffs above the Sutro Baths where the trees are look tortured and contorted into anguished shapes. They drink sake in the tide and dance to music coming from a resort nearby playing sad love songs from the 70s. Finally they get tired of the beach as the sun sets and the bottles of sake have been long emptied. Returning to the Onsen Inn, they fall into their western style bed and sleep though the violence of fighting monkeys in the rafters and wind rattling the paper windows.

Returning to the care facility the next day. They are met with tears from the staff, his grandmother had died in the night. Furyo wants to see her and they enter a long dark room like a church with hundreds of candles along the walls. At the end of the vast room lies his grandmother in an opulent carved wood casket, covered in ornate gold flourishes and surrounded in a sea of pictures and flowers. Furyo cant believe the only family member he knows of in the world died the day he came to see her. He feels a pain behind his eyes and wishes there was some opportunity to start a fist fight to have the anger and frustration he feels pour out of his fists like a whirlwind.

The staff is very polite, bowing and trying to not cry. They tell Cynthia that his grandmothers family has left him a large inheritance with specific conditions to the trust and to expect a call from the lawyers. Markio hands him a piece of paper with his mothers phone number and address. They decide to stop in and see her. Taking the eastern coast roads down to the Fukushima prefecture. Coming to the place, it’s another strange locale. A sea side cottage that is completely burned and deserted. If his mother lived here once, she doesn’t know. Furyo is curious and wants to go inside. The street is abandoned and there doesn’t seem to be any one to complain.

Cynthia waits in the car as Furyo explores inside. The estate was once likely very nice but now rain streams in holes in the roof and all thats left here is blackened wood, cobwebs and pieces of burned pictures. He finds a couple worth saving of him self and his mother when she was young. Publicity stills from her music career and a couple magazines about organized crime that has pictures of his father circled in red pen with English captions. “The Black Wolf.”

They find the local police station and the man at the desk doesn’t know much, the property burned a few years ago and they have no information on where the woman who lived there moved after. No one died in the fire and the cause was believed to be old wiring. They decide to drive back to Tokyo overnight and they don’t talk much. Furyo is glued to the Yakuza magazine until he remembers the journalist from the plane specialized in Yakuza in movies and reality. Maybe he would have some info on his father if he really is a Yakuza.

Furyo had a strange dream as Cynthia drove them back. He was in the care facility alone, the corridors looked like a castle from a movie. Women with worm eaten faces and nuns habits follow him and he comes to a room full of 100 men in traditional funeral clothes. Each takes up a sword as trapped birds struggle to be free in the eves of the room. Monks chant in a hellish ferocity with chimes and bells. In a ceremonial metal bowl papers with names and pictures burn. Each of the 100 men places a small sword to his stomach as Furyo walks to the from of the room and sits on a throne made of demonic deities and fearsome animals. The nuns who look like long mummified bodies take candles to the walls and light the room on fire. The 100 men all plunge the swords into the stomaches, falling forward and screaming in agony. Smoke burns his eyes and chokes his nose. Furyo wakes up both screaming and profusely sweating in a puddle of urine.