Tuesday night I texted my jobless buddy Kimiko to see if she wanted to go hiking with half-jobless me the following morning. I wrote PS, "Ask your mom to pack lunch boxes for us." If you know Japanese mothers at all, you know not to expect the run-of-the-mill sandwich, juice box and fruit. No school lunch here. I am talking about fresh fried fish, layered eggs, pumpkin and meat salad, pickled somethings, a burdock salad and a crisp apple slice to clean the palette. Woohoo! A day of walking in the sunshine with the award of good eats at the top.
Well, not all things go as planned. I'm an "ame onna" or "rainy weather girl." Unfortunately, Kimiko is too. But the rain didn't stop us!! Instead, it was everything else that got in the way.
The hike started at a water well that was the foreground to a backdrop of stepping rice fields in the town of KAWATANA. It then graduated into a thick evergreen forest and at the top surprised us with a 360 view of the sea on all sides. All that happened in a short 40 minutes. The way down took a little longer. 60 minutes later, 35 minutes after realizing we were in no way going down the same way we came up, we finished our hike among fields of stepping tea bushes (not rice), and ended up on the outskirts URESHINO, a tea town about 35 driving miles away from our origin. Eeeek!!
We then hitch hiked -- which means standing in front of a car driving down a road to force them to stop -- to a bus station. A pleasant OLD country-side farmer was our chauffeur. We took the bus 20 miles, so we were only 15 away from our starting point.
Then we hopped a train. In transit I was on my cell arranging a pickup from a friend of a friend. Now only 10 miles to go. The pick up lady, who is in her 60s, shows up at the arrival with a pimping new Benz and a fright of narrow roads and sense of direction. Grrr... urrr...enters my mind. We have a case of typical rich Japanese housewife afraid to leave her house syndrome here...damn. Three miles later we are dropped off. B*&#H! 7 miles to go.
10 minutes later we hitchhiked the final 6 from a down-to-earth country grandma and walked in glory the last mile. FREEEEEEDOM!!! Let's award ourselves with a naked hot spring.
"Something is different about my car," I said to Kimiko as we were pulling in the hot spring parking lot, "Do you smell smoke."
"No, but I see it," she replied, looking at the front hood. PANIC!! I thought. WATER...QUICK!! I said. OH NO, WHERE DO I POUR IT INTO.
WAIT... I KNOW A GUY.. I dialed my American mechanic who is always there to save the day. He tells me to look for the radiator cap. But, a homeless looking grungily toothless dirt-clad man strolls over in practically bare feet and already begins to save the day.
After my car was hydrated and seemingly fixed, I enjoyed a hot spring--offered the homeless guy one too but he said nah he didn't need one-- and came out to find a puddle below my car where I HAD poured a ton of water. "OK, my radiator is leaking." Called my mechanic friend (which I now believe everyone should have in their lives.) He said if the leak was a drip I could make it back to Sasebo by stopping every 10 mins to refill the water, if it was a gush no chance. So I drove 5 mins and stopped with a smoking hood.
AHH... PANIC AGAIN!! Quickly poured water into the radiator and watched it gush out at the bottom. oh no! Then an american guy in a suit with a broken arm stopped to help, jumped right in and under there to tell me he may have found that the leak is just a tube. We all look up and across the street in bright, welcoming, flashing letters is a shop that says "Car Service." Woohoo! I putt-putt "Zoomie" over there, but look down and realize I have 20 mins until my English lesson. The service tells me I can take a loan car, free of charge, and only asks my name and number (completely trusting me.) He also tells me the tube should only cost $20 - 30. Then I'm on my way and make it to class on time.
Why so Japanesey? For every time that I have been asked, "What is Japan like?" This post is my answer: It's food to die for, stepping fields of tea and rice, dense forests, stunning roundabout views, active kind old people, an impeccable public transit system, snotty sheltered housewives, stooped-over grandma farmers, fancy cell phones, kind people with no expectations of being paid back, healing hot springs, an above and beyond friendly expat community and dreamy customer service.
Above are the many reasons why Japan is one of the best places on Earth. Do you agree?
The mountain in the back is our destination
water spring in the beginning
dense forest
round about view
Not fair-weather partners
hiking down among tea leaves
backdrop of tea
8 comments:
Very cute. This could be published. - Gina
I probably would have tried to find my way back over the mountain again. I would probably still be there lost in the woods (:) m
Danielle!!! What a crazy adventure, and great pictures to document it!
you should thank me.if i was Ayako,you wouldnt get loss.
well, in retrospect backtracking would have been the quickest. But that's not my mantra in life, is it?? don't look back. keep going forward.
AND GINA...ahem... excuse me... this is published. It's published on my blog which proudly has a readership of 17 people today, four of whom are my family.
yeah tho, i know what you mean. I pitched a story to the ny times 3 weeks ago and the guy wrote back two days ago, "did i ever reply to your email." Must have been a good story, eh??!!
ps... pics were off my cell phone!
Hey! Fun story! :) Radiator tube gone bad was exactly how I lost the good ol' Montero way back in Tahoe...
Great story/adventure Danielle - enjoyed checking out the pics from your day out and about. Hope you are doing well.
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