96 The Meadow Sakura’s Promise Alex Moore “Sakura…Shinto Meiji. Promise.” Her hand clasped Sakura’s. “I promise, Obaachan.” Her grandmother’s last words rang in her ears as the train slowed. The silence seemed to magnify her thoughts, especially the last memories of her grandmother. After stepping off the busy train, Sakura looked for the signs, trying to stay out of the way of the salarymen and women on their way to work. She was at the right stop but needed to figure out which direction to go. Her goal was to find Meiji Jingu, a Shinto shrine. It was where Obaachan went after her own grandmother died, where she wrote a prayer in kanji and hung it on the board with the rest of prayers. The promise had been a tradition for decades. Sakura’s family left Japan for America after World War II ended, so this wasn’t her first time visiting, but this was her first time going to this shrine. After walking in circles, she finally found the entrance to the shrine. It was a long road through the woods, the evergreen trees on each side filtering out some of the sunshine. Despite being March, spring wasn’t there yet. Other tourists were stopping to take photos, cameras poised at different angles. Some were leaving. She took out her camera but decided to put it back in her purse, burying it underneath the tissues she purchased at Family Mart. Her Hello Kitty sunglasses were on top of her head as a makeshift headband, but she brought them down to cover the tears in her eyes. The sunglasses were one of the last gifts Obaachan gave her on their last trip to Japan as a family. Sakura went with her parents, brother, and grandmother only a few months before Obaachan was diagnosed with cancer. By the time doctors caught the cancer, it was too
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