Japanese people never seize to amaze me. I got to Taketa city, and after an hour or one and a half, I was honestly thinking “how am I ever gonna spend a whole day here?” – I’m easily bored, and it doesn’t take me many minutes to look at things. However, after about an hour or two, I passed an old man who said “how are you” in Japangrish. He was extremely nice and said that he loves Danish cheese and cake. We spoke a little, and then he asked me something I didn’t understand, and then he just stopped what he was doing, and took me along to a shop across the street where he found a map for me where he drew a line to a place he thought I should go. After that, he wanted me to properly understand, and then took me to the tourist information where I met a German person called Claudia, with whom I had a really nice, long chat with; finally to communicate with properly!
She told me a little about the place and gave me some papers about it. It’s an old castle from about 1180-something. Very beatiful, and I took quite a lot of pictures which I’ll be showing later.
On the the second person: I met this man while buying a piece of fruit (you HAVE to try nashi in Japan; they’re awesome!) – anyways, I spoke a little with him, starting from the question I always get: “Where are you from?”. We talked a little back and forth, and when I left he came running after me and said that he had the oldest house in town, and that I should feel free to take a look around. I was STUNNED! He just left me there to look by myself! As I thought I had intruded enough I left and went to say thanks to him, but he just took me back inside and showed me around, telling me that the house was 180 years old, and the ROOF was 160 years old! There was apparently a huge fire that ate up the surrounding buildings, but his remained. He also took me inside where he showed me some pictures of this and that from the place, and gave me a handheld fan with some festival pictures on it. Then he gave me two photographs of the festival (I’ll post them later on); one of the bamboo-lights that the festival is famous for, and one of from a noh-performance (theater without conversation). Oh yeah, he also gave me his visiting card. I thanked many, many times, and he said I could come anytime. Kind person, really…
At his place I also met an elderly woman who also sometimes had foreigners staying with her. Didn’t speak much with her, but I met her while waiting for the bus home; she told me to take care of myself. Also a very kind person indeed.
Third person: An elderly woman sitting in the shadow in some park-ish area I was taking a look at. I just did my usual nodding and “konnichiha”, and then she just started talking, making gestures and have me sit next to her… she never stopped talking. I tried to tell her to speak very slowly, but whenever I did, she just thought for a second, re-phrazed herself but maintained the pace. I was lost, really. I have no idea what she was talking about! First off, it was FAST, second it was REGULAR Japanese, THIRD it was Ooita-ben (ben = dialect), but I decided it’d probably be best to sit and listen, nod and agree with “hai” and “uhm”-s now and then, and be sure to laugh when she laughed even though I didn’t really get any of what she said. I only got that she spoke about marriage, perhaps her daughter or daughter-in-law, whom she seemed to be imitating with a snobby attitude. Guess she didn’t like her… she also talked about a honeymoon-trip to Hawaii and money. She mentioned money quite a lot of times. I think I sat there for at least 15-20 minutes, just nodding and agreeing to what-do-I-know. It was very… strange. I seriously thought “how the heck am I gonna get away from her…?”, and suddenly she started speaking in a suggestive way, started packing her things up and I got the impression that she wanted me to follow her, and so I did. I first thought she would take me to her house or something, but it turned out that she wanted to show me some things. First was a place where a famous musician studied (I’d been told about him by Claudia), and she asked if I wanted to have a look. I said that I was ok without, and then she took me to a big stair, asking me if I wanted to have a look up there. I said that, yeah, I would like to; ok, well then she would just go to the bathroom, and so I climbed the stairs. There awaited me a fairly big shrine, however not as big nor beautiful as one I had seen on the other side of town. Walked around there for a bit, and when I returned, she was gone. I was kinda relieved, cos i honestly didn’t get anything of what she was saying, and I felt a little bad about it.
Fourth person: I was sitting on a bench outside an onsen (which I plan to visit some day), and there’s this fairly young guy who asks where I’m from (of course). We speak a little, and when I mention that I’m going home by bus, he asks if I know when to take it and so on. I said I didn’t really know when it would leave, so he started looking it up on his iPhone. He was really helpful, and even followed me to the bus station, helping me finding the time board for the place I was going to.
He told me that he had ridden his bike from TOKYO. Yes, from Tokyo on a bike. He was going around the country. I asked about his job, and he told me he’s a ramen-chef (ramen is noodles). That was pretty cool; haven’t had ramen yet, but I probs will when I get to a place a little colder.
Also, when I told him I was going to Hokkaido later on, he said that the fish there were the most delicious at that time; the cold made the taste more intense.
They’re utterly amazing, them Japanese peeps!
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