TANANA -- It would have been easy for the 16 Japanese tourists to stop in Fairbanks and call their Alaska trip complete. They wanted more, though. They wanted to see the Alaska that lies far beyond the cities.
So they flew to Tanana, a village of 300 people about 130 miles west of Fairbanks.
The visitors, most of whom were 50 and older and from Osaka, were seeking an informal exchange of cultural traditions and ideas with the Koyukon Athabascan people of Tanana.
In a just a few hours, the visitors got their wish as the two groups mingled their silk kimonos and hide vests, their origami and beadwork and their beef-and-potato nikujaga and moose stew.
The visitors originally planned to come last year but canceled when the tsunami hit Northeast Japan one week before their departure date. But they didn't give up.
University of Alaska Fairbanks professor Anthony Nakazawa, who helped coordinate the visit, contacted Tanana City Manager Bear Ketzler and arranged the tour stop.
Hiroyuki Matsuura, who with Nakazawa served as a translator and coordinator, had been to Tanana several years before to study solid waste management and wanted to return with a group of Alaska enthusiasts.
The 16 people boarded two Warbelow's Air flights Tuesday morning. They arrived on Tanana's airstrip next to the frozen Yukon River less than an hour later.
Ketzler was waiting at the airstrip with a short school bus. With the visitors aboard, Nakazawa drove around the small, snowy streets of town while Ketzler pointed out different landmarks and told their history. He pointed out the washeteria that is powered solely by driftwood lumber and the solar panels that came from Japan. He pointed out the mission house and Episcopal church and its priest, who happened to be walking down the street. He pointed out one of the town's gas stations, a single pump that was selling gas at about $6 per gallon.
The group ended up at the newly renovated Maudrey J. Sommer School. There, in the gym, about 100 community members congregated to greet the visitors and help share their culture.
Athabascan dancers kicked off the event by treating their visitors to a few songs and dancing, inviting them to join in for the last couple of songs.
The visitors laughed and smiled as they moved to the beat of the drumming.
Afterward, Mori Ken, a member of the Japanese group and a renowned harmonica player, played the crowd several songs on his instrument, sometimes using two at a time. Some were soothing Japanese tunes that could pick up into faster-paced music that had the crowd clapped along. Other songs were familiar American songs like "Yankee Doodle" and "When the Saints Go Marching In."
After the harmonica, the Japanese visitors got up and performed a dance called the "Awa Odori." They formed a snake of dancers that paraded around the gymnasium, picking people from the crowd to join in. Elders and children followed along, laughing and smiling like the Japanese had during the Athabascan traditional dance.
The visitors and elders were the first to be invited to partake in the potluck, which included both cultures' foods. A vat of moose stew steamed on the table, not far from the sweet and salty nikujaga dish. Salty rice crackers sat next to sweet American desserts.
At one table, a group of Japanese women treated elders to a powdered green tea mixture prepared with proper ceremony. "It's like a green tea but kind of thick," said Rev. Helen Peters after drinking the sweet tea from a bowl.
As kids played with Japanese toys and snacked on Japanese candy, Julie Hyslop, chairwoman of the Tanana Tribal Council, sat with Sachico Nakagawa, a visitor who wore a green silk kimono in the Osaka fashion.
Hyslop traded Nakagawa a necklace for a small painting of a husband and wife. The exchange delighted both.
"I'm really excited, because in 1972 I went to Japan," Hyslop said.
The visitors brought back plenty of memories for Hyslop, who shared old books she had from the trip. She was a high school student who got the chance to visit the foreign country for two months. The first time she drank green tea was in Japan, she said.
"It was a beautiful trip," she said.
Before long, the visitors had to pack their things so they wouldn't miss their flights. They boarded the planes and took off over the snowy terrain and frozen river, completing their trip.
By REBA LEAN
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner