A Country Of Crystal Air

When our plane that departed from Copenhagen landed on Narsarsuaq Airport, a southern gateway of Greenland, the plane was filled with claps of the passengers. Everyone had smiles on his/her faces, and it was indeed the atmosphere that had done the trick. When I came out of the Air Greenland's red airplane and set foot on Greenland soil, I was taken by surprise by the fact that it wasn't cold at all. There was a warm sunshine, and I felt quite comfortable. Ohba-san and Nagatani-san were even wearing T-shirts. In a country of arctic region, I had never expected this much warm weather. Belly bands and pocket warmers that my friend gave me seemed useless, at least at this stage in time.

How would one describe the briskness that circulates around the body? Mountains towering up among the white snow... the seas floating the huge chunks of ice drifts... Is it the interaction between the white and the blue colors that flourishes our eyes with fresh air that lets our skins go soothe? It is definitely not that of Japan, nor the spiced odors of Southeast Asia, while distinguishing itself from those of Frankfurt and Copenhagen too... I now have encountered for the first time, a country that breezes the original fragrance of the air itself.

The Journey Of Our Luggage

At the airport, Jackie, the owner of the youth hostel in Narsarsuaq, welcomed us. Jackie is French although it has already been over 26 years since he moved to Greenland. He has long established his name as an outfitter and has been assisting us remotely via email prior to the launch of our expedition.

It turned out, as I had anticipated even before leaving Japan, that our luggage for the expedition did not arrive as scheduled. For the past few weeks, the flight schedule has been greatly affected due to the bad weather. In addition, there is only one weekly flight between Copenhagen and Narsarsuaq, resulting in our cargo being stranded at Copenhagen Airport. Our luggage, consisting of 25 boxes weighing 570 kg in total, is huge, comparable to moving goods.

After all, it was only the two large boxes containing two sleds that arrived from Narsarsuaq. On this flight, there was the postal service that had partially lost mails, who apparently gave complaints. There were 101 passengers and all the spaces were fully booked with luggage.

Without food and equipment we could not begin the expedition. The difficulties encountered at the very beginning, in a country I first time visited made me almost panicky. However, there was no time for stupefaction because there were still a lot of things waiting to be done. Anyway, we decided to go to the youth hostel and ask advices from Jackie on what to do next.

During the move, the local coordinator Sakiko-san phoned Jackie to his mobile. The maiden name, Sakiko Takada, now known as Sakiko Daorana is a Japanese resident of Greenland who married to an Inuit and was living together with two children in a village on the eastern coast called Tasiilaq. Her question was what to do with the luggage that was never sent. She has already corresponded with MAHE FREIGHT (an agent of Nippon Express) in Copenhagen, so we were to check and seek the best way to resolve the problem.

A sculpture of ships, and parents and a child engraved on a rock near the youth

"It's Greenland"

Because it was off season and there were no people except us at the youth hostel, Jacky told us that we could use the whole hostel as we wished. When I was expecting a key to my room, Jacky told me, "No keys needed. It's Greenland." Another "It's Greenland" when I reminded him of not locking the door of his car as we were leaving it behind at the airport.

I am still uncertain of what exactly lies ahead of us in our journey of Greenland. I thought for a second to want to become like Jacky who has lived in Greenland for 26 years and can say "It's Greenland" in just a matter of fact way, but that seemed far and far too distant in the future and too unreachable like the aurora over the horizon.

Mountain imposing behind the youth hostel's scenery

Noriko Miyashita