Taking a Rest in Hidaka

our ride to Joes house!

It was finally Thursday morning when I woke up at 6 and left my house at around 7 to bike with Machis bicycle that she had left at my place to the train station where I met Machi and Noriko half an hour later.

We were invited from Joe, a friend of us, to stay in his families house for one night in the mountainous area of the state Hyogo. Hyogo is north-east of Okayama and you have to cross it on your way to Osaka or Kobe. I have never been at another place then Himeji, where an old castle watches over the city, and was really looking forward to spend two quite days in the country side with three wonderful friends. We arrived before 11 and helped the family to get everything ready for little feast Joes family was going to give for some of their friends. We were amazed how huge the property of the family was. Joes Dad bought the old house about ten years ago. At that time it was pretty wore down and broken and he spent much time and money into it to rebuild and modernise it step by step. Joe gave us a tour around and it was just impossible not to get lost with all those rooms and gang ways.

With Noriko and Machi on the Way to Hyogo - while both wee talking in the front I enjoyed a small pick-nick in the back (^.^)

2nd floor of the house! Joe gave us a tour around.

This is the old emblem of the former family, a たじばな (Tajibana)

Outer-Inner gang way. Traditionally are the room in the centre of the house and a gang way leads around the house, whereas the gang way in European houses often connects rooms in the centre of the house.

Friday morning and the girls are still in bed, while Joe prepared breakfast!

Lock of the front door!

Old Japanese way to drain the rain down from the roof. Who wants a pipe when you can drip-drop the water down in that way?!

We took lunch under the maple trees in the garden. Joe and his brother had planted these trees about 10 years ago from little plants they took from the forest in the mountains. I tried to imagine how inflamed the garden must look like in autumn! Joe and his brother made BBQ, while we and the other guests sat at the table, enjoyed the delicious food and talked with each other while drinking a glass of wine. Vernon from California and an artist couple were besides Machi and Noriko my main conversation partners. I was amazed that Vernon, who must have been above 80, came to Japan when he was 23 (like me when I came first here). The difference is that he came as American soldier in 1952 and just stayed here since that time! He saw Kyoto and Osaka and all other cities grew up and Japan rise from ashes to what it is now. While listening to his stories I was wondering if I might be one day like him - sitting in a garden somewhere in Japan and talking about my past 60 years that I have spent in this country...

The artist couple sat right next to me and I enjoyed their natural and joyful atmosphere. Besides this, I was astonished that he could drink more than 5 glasses of wine without getting drunk - it's rather rare to see that in Japan. They both invited us to their gallery for the next day. After the cleaning, cake, sweets, tea and saying farewell to the guests, Joe, Noriko, Machi and I finally left to something I was looking all the time forward to as well.

From left to right: Noriko, Joe, and Machi

Kanpai (かんぱい) and thank you for the party family Bito

We drove to a close city, which is famous for Onsen (hot spring) and wanted to take a long bath. I really do love Onsen and probably have spoken already a lot about this kind of the Japanese culture: you basically get naked and man and woman go in separated areas in a pool of hot groundwater! It was golden week and so many people stayed in the traditional hotels in the village, spending their time with shopping, hiking and taking hot bathes in the evening. We found an old style Onsen and I negotiated hard with Noriko to let me at least take a bath for one hour. That was definitive enough to get completely soak in the water which was pretty salty.

The Onsen we have chosen!

Relaxed, tired and after one ice cream did we drive home and played a bit of cards before sneaking into our futons. Machi really wanted to talk with us, while laying in the beds, since the whole scenery had something of camping: rain was falling outside and knocked at the window and roof; no one was around except us four in this big and dark house. But Joe and I just did lay there with our eyes closed and Noriko gave in soon as well so that Machi gave up and fell asleep.

The next morning we only had a quick breakfast and coffee before driving to a stork conservation area close to the place where we stayed. Besides storks you could also see all kinds of insects and other animals of the area.

Part of the butterfly collection you could see in the museum.

Machi was quite amazed by those bugs (~.~)

From there we brought Joe back to the "real" house of the family, where he grew up and drove to the gallery of the artist couple. He already expected us and two other visitors where also guests in the cute wooden house. I liked the place immediately. Carved wood and pieces of art everywhere. A homey atmosphere and a fire burning in the chimney. We were invited for lunch which was really delicious (Machi was wondering before where we could eat something before we drive back to Okayama). I told him that I'm looking since two years for a place where I can buy a hand carved wooden rice bowl, as I would like to have one for my daily meals. He gave me an address of an artist he knows in Okayama where Noriko, Machi and I definitely want to go before this summer!

Noriko and Machi enjoy the chimney in the house of the artist couple!