Golden week - part 2

May 17

This post picks up where we left off last time, in the little cozy guesthouse in 尾道 (Onomichi).

The village of cats

I woke up in the guesthouse on Thursday morning and had cozy breakfast in the garden. We had decided to split up today with Mt since we wanted to see different things. So, after breakfast I started exploring the village!

path. — Starting the day walking in these narrow corridors.

postcards. — Pick your favorite postcard and pay 100円. They all had photos of cats.

flowerroad. — Pretty hanging flowers. There were so many huge buzzy bees, like the size of a large grape. They made me nervous, even though they were just doing their thing. I saw some people jumping away from them.

platform. — A viewing platform at the top of the hill.

onomichitop. — The views on the top were amazing - this photo hardly does them justice. I was feeling emotional about how beautiful it looked there. Onomichi is on this side of the water, there's another village on the island.

I started descending from the hill towards the village, and suddenly heard somebody shout konnichiwa! It was an old man sitting on a large rock. He was waving their hand at me, gesturing me to climb up and sit next to him. Of course I did.

As I sat down, he asked me where I’m from and was very excited about chatting with a foreigner: “English practice!” So, we sat there speaking a mixture of English and Japanese, talking about where we live, what we do etc. Towards the end of our talk, he gave me a landscape drawing he’d made in that same spot.

I asked if I can take a selfie of us with my film camera and they said “no, not here, special place”. Then he started moving down the rocks with insane agility for a person who was 70 years old. He lead me a bit down the hill and we took a photo there.

After the photo shoot, he still showed me a graveyard and a Buddhist temple where he asked me to pull a circular rope with hanging balls, since it would clear my sins: “For you one round is enough, I probably need two.”

As I was about to begin my rope cleansing and offering a 100円 coin to the temple (it’s a custom to give some money before praying) he wouldn’t let me pay. “It’s too much, too big coin”. I only had 50 and 100円 coins, so in the end he paid for me with a 5円. I guess he understood the realities of students. Afterwards, we said goodbye and continued on our ways.

His name was Kazu. And this was probably the most special interaction I’ve had with a random Japanese person so far.

flowers. — After we said bye with Kazu, I kept walking around the village. I found more hanging flower things. They were really pretty and I liked the shadows the sun cast under them.

curlytree. — The trees that made the flowers were really curly.

catstreet. — Soon after I found a little cat street.

catstones1. — There were funny cat stones.

ferry. — Here I'm looking back at Onomichi after hopping on the ferry to the other village.

abandoned. — Exploring the island village. There were so many pretty abandoned houses. I love them.

graves. — I also found a cool graveyard. The top part was completely overgrown. I clamb up and sat there for a while. It was really peaceful and the bamboo trees were making a beautiful knacking sound in the wind.

After I got back to Onomichi, we went for an evening dinner with Mt at a pizzeria. They had vegan pizza (??!), which was quite surprising. It wasn’t very good, which was less surprising. But it made me happy nonetheless.

The restaurant had a bit of a weird vibe. It was an open kitchen, and the chef was shouting all the time and constantly thumping his chest with his fist yelling “IO, IO, IO” - apparently meaning “I/me” in Italian. It seemed like all the waiters were afraid of him. I was a bit afraid too.

pitsa. — The restaurant could have used more humming and less yelling.

Hiroshima

We had the last breakfast together with Mt on Friday, and then continued our travels to different destinations. Mt headed towards the islands, and I decided to go see 広島市 (Hiroshima).

gate. — I had lunch picnic in this park.

salapoliisi. — I walked into a library dedicated only to manga and the first thing I saw was this. Wtf? It was completely in Finnish.

potato. — Surely you couldn't resist? They were yummy.

vending. — And here somebody couldn't resist alcohol and had tried to break into a vending machine. I guess they didn't realise the displayed bottles are not the real deal.

After spending the morning walking around the outskirts of the city, I headed to the atomic bomb memorial museum. It was touching, and I’m happy I went there - as happy as I can be for learning more about horrible war crimes.

But, I also have to say that the presentation was not great - most of the information was just walls of text. So, I spent 2 hours there mostly just reading signs hanging on the walls. At the end of the visit I was equally exhausted by the story and the amount of text.

The memorial park around the museum was really beautiful, so I naturally don’t have any photos of it. Just believe me please.

dome. — The dome above which the atomic bomb exploded on 6.8.1945. Here, the sun and the streetlamp are painting a ghastly shadow on the right side of the main door. It felt a bit surreal.

In the afternoon, I met two other exchange students, A and R, who happened to also be in 広島市. We walked around a bit, visited a gallery, and went to eat local-style お好み焼き (okonomiyaki). In contrast to the one they serve in Tokyo, this one had noodles inside. Strange but tasty.

noodles. — In the evening, we also visited a game parlor with A and R. Some of the machines were a bit extravagant. This one allowed you to combine your gambling addiction with instant noodle dinner.

kawaii. — We took some kawaii photos, showcasing our natural beauty.

roomevening. — Back in my room in Onomichi - it was my last night at this guesthouse.

Onomochilero and hiking

On Saturday I wanted to go hiking. I also wanted stay one more night at Onomichi, because I really liked the village, but the guesthouse was fully booked. So, after breakfast I carried my stuff to nearby hostel called Mochilero (if it was up to me, I would’ve definitely named it Onomochilero). It was a cute little place run by a Peruvian couple.

When I was checking in, I realised their English was not that great and asked them in Spanish if they prefer that instead. I was really surprised with how natural and easy it felt to do all the communication in Spanish - usually I’m really nervous about using the language in such situations. But apparently a week of struggling to communicate with my Japanese has made me more confident in other languages? Go figure.

roombreakfast. — Last cozy breakfast in my room at the guesthouse.

onomochilero. — And here's my hostel for the final night.

About the hiking: I took a train to a random little village by the sea, ~1 hour away from Onomichi. The train ride itself was extremely beautiful, I was just staring at the sea and the islands the whole way. Once I got to the village, I bought some snacks and started climbing up the nearest hill.

warning. — These trees are trying so hard to prevent the landslide :(

halfwaythere. — Climbing up, I'm halfway there. Woooo-ou living on a prayer!

buddhas. — Found some little buddhas close to the top.

shelter. — This seemed like an ideal spot for a snack, but I was kinda in-between my first and second lunch so I didn't stop here.

mic. — Finally at the top. The soundscape was really serene so I made a recording. At this spot I also saw my first スズメバチ (suzumebachi, giant hornet). It was like a massive wasp, the length of my index finger. Quite spooky.

bell. — There was a big bell at the top. I rang it and it made a beautiful deep sound. Not that loud, but somehow really resonant. In the evening, when I had returned down to the village, I could hear people ringing it from 10 km away. Made me think of how important bells like this were in the past for alerting people of danger.

feet. — A little break with beautiful views, and my gorgeous trusty sneakers.

boats. — Back down at the village, there were some cute canals.

seaboy. — I had to wait almost an hour for the train back, so I just sat by the shore on a breakwater listening to the waves and watching this small child fish.

ononight. — Last evening walk in Onomichi. It somehow looks bigger in the dark.

On Sunday morning, I started heading back to Tokyo. I took the shinkansen from Fukuyama, and got back to my apartment on Sunday afternoon. After entering my room, I just fell on the bed, completely exhausted.

Not much happened during the week following the trip (5.5.-). I was feeling really tired and spent a lot of time resting and doing normal compulsory things like school, going through sound recordings from the trip etc.

I was also experiencing extreme mood swings on the weekdays after returning. Some days I was feeling really content with my life. Others, I was feeling extremely gloomy and lonely, and was really missing human touch and hugs. Strange post-trip rollercoaster.

I suppose it felt difficult to return from such a fun and intense trip to a place that still doesn’t completely feel like home, and get back to daily routines.

But, towards the end of the week everything slowly got better: I had some calls that helped, and started feeling more energetic and meeting people. In the weekend, visited a really cool onsen with friends, where we sat outside in a hot pool watching the sun setting on mount Fuji. And I attended a Japanese tea ceremony. More about those adventures next time!