Chapter 11: CHAPTER ELEVEN

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CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Looks like you’re learning how to judge your fuel! It took less than two liters,” smiled the friendly gas station attendant as he clanked the gasoline hose nozzle back on its holder.

“Yeah, I really learned my lesson last time. And you were right about the road from here to Shirakawa. I enjoyed driving my cub on it and the scenery so much I’ve decided to go back to Kyoto using the same route I came out here on. Wish the weather were as nice as that day though.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll change quick enough. Might be a little cloudy right now but the sun could pop right out at any second. Or start pouring rain. You never know up here in the mountains.”

“So I’m also learning.”

“Who’d you stay with in Shirakawa?”

“Hmm. They were always just Okusan and Dannasan to me while I was staying with them. Let’s see,” I checked the meishi business card I’d asked the Okusan for as I left. “Umm, the Okumura-sans?”

“Ha, then you picked the best minshuku there as far as I’m concerned! Real nice friendly people, beautiful well preserved gassho house and really great food. I always stay with them myself whenever I go to Shirakawa. Oh, by the way, remember Abe-san the mechanic? Well, he said you almost ruined your cub’s engine with dirty oil and a worn out spark plug.”

“Yeah, he really chewed me out about that. I wish he’d been as friendly as most of the people out here seem to be.”

The attendant laughed. “He does get a bit cranky at times, particularly when people mess up their machinery real bad. He treats machinery like they’re his own kids that need to be cared for real nice. It’s people he thinks can be discarded when they’re no longer of any use.”

I nodded. “But why didn’t the mechanic that sold me my cub warn me to change the oil and plug? He knew I’d never driven any motorcycle before. And why didn’t he put in a new plug and new oil before I went to pick it up?”

“Salesman just want to sell, I guess.”

A car drove up, honked

“Well, it looks like you’re getting busy,” I said as I kicked the cub to life.

As I putted off, he waved, “You be careful!” and grabbed the nozzle off its holder again.

“Oh, it’s nice to see you back!” welcomed the kimono-clad proprietress of the minshuku I had stayed at that second night. “And since you’re so early this time, you can choose from any of our rooms that are for only one or two guests.”

I chose one that was a large four-and-a-half mat and still felt it was a deluxe suite. The ofuro bath could fit eight people easy. Dinner was brought by a kimono-clad young maid carrying a large tray and who set all the different kinds of dishes on the low table in my room. It seemed much more like a kaisekiryori many different small Japanese dishes dinner they served in a high class Japanese style restaurant than the home style food I’d eaten in Shirakawa. It was certainly delicious but I felt a bit lonely eating it in my own room instead of around the communal irori fireplace.

When I’d finished, the maid came back, collected all the empty dishes and carried them away. Then she returned with the proprietress and together they laid down my sleeping futon. Then bidding me a goodnight “Oyasuminasai” they left.

What’s with all this special service? And the special food? Is this really just a minshuku?

I got the answer when I asked the proprietress for her meishi the next morning as I was getting ready to leave.

“Shirotori Riverside Ryori-ryokan and Minshuku” it read. “Our minshuku is closed for renovations right now, so I gave you a room in our ryokan instead but only charged you for a room in the minshuku.”

Hey, I really was lucky to find this place in that nightmare of a storm! Particularly when I glimpsed the rather old and shabby building next to the main ryokan Japanese style inn on my way out that must have housed the minshuku and looked like it had been built long before the ryokan. I'd read about ryori-ryokan that offered not only a great Japanese style room and full service but also top class Japanese style food. But I never dreamed I'd be able to afford one.

Once again bathed in sparkling mountain sunshine, I found the road that had terrified me during that nightmare of a storm was actually surrounded by gorgeous Japanese mountain scenery. “Feels like driving through that storm is ancient history, doesn’t it little buddy?

Be-Beep!

I spied the small cluster of farm equipment sheds where I’d met that farmer’s wife. They too looked completely different in brilliant daylight.

I tried to find the overhang roofing the road where I’d hunkered down with that other miserable biker that night, but there were so many overhangs that I couldn’t figure out which one it was. This time I did see the many road signs warning of falling rocks and guessed that was what the overhangs were built for.

The waterfalls ‘up there’ were still beautiful all right. But like almost everything else on my way back they somehow looked different seeing them go by in the opposite direction.

I rested at that turnout just beyond the pass leading to the road going down the mountains to Ono. The view was still great but by now I’d seen so many beautiful views it didn’t impress me as much. Then I glimpsed the squiggly road going down. “Well, little buddy the road going down to Ono should be lot easier than coming up, huh?”

Be-Beep!

Wrong again.

I didn’t have to rev up the engine going down but gravity started pulling the heavily loaded cub faster and faster and faster. So when I swerved us around the first sharp curve going much too fast I ran us straight off the road and damn near slammed us into the face of the cliff shooting up alongside it before I could bring us to a screeching halt.

“Whew! Hey little buddy, thank God we were going around an inside curve. If this had been an outside curve I would have driven us right over the cliff on the other side! "

Beeep!

Getting my wits about me, I put the cub in first and putted us on again. But this time I kept the cub in first with the throttle pushed all the way in. Even with the strong engine-braking that gave me, I still had to squeeze both brakes so hard around each hairpin curve, I was afraid I'd burn them out. And I had to keep our speed below twenty to keep my poor cub's engine from melting.

It took us almost as long to go down that squiggly road to Ono as it had going up it. But at last we were down. “Now we should get us moving again!”

Be-beep!

I could put us in third and get us up to a good fifty as we putted along the mostly level road. But God it was so much hotter down here! And heavily crowded with cars. My lungs full of delicious mountain air began to fill up with exhaust fumes. And I got lost again on all the different and confusing roads leading to Takefu. And the noise and congestion of that small city was maddening after the serenity of those mountain villages and almost empty roads.

“My God, little buddy. If Takefu seems this bad now, what’s it going to feel like when we get back to Kyoto?”

Beeep!

Submitted: July 06, 2019

Romance romance japan gaijin travel-in-japan japan-1970s

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Comments

B Douglas Slack

A delightful chapter, Ken. Been a while. You posted this on my birthday. Riding minibikes through the mountains can be very hazardous. I once took a small one on a day trip to Lake Towada. The hills werent extremely steep, but there certainly were a lot of them.

BIll

Sat, July 6th, 2019 7:22pm

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Glad you're still with me and found the chapter delightful! Yes, it has been a while and will probably be a while longer until I post the next chapter as my wife and I will be leaving for Cairns, Australia, for seven weeks tomorrow. I have the story fairly well plotted out in my mind and am confident that my writing style is even better than my 'American Love Song'. But my problem is, unlike 'American Love Song', does anybody really give a damn about a guy and his cub that truly changed his life? I would love to read your comment about that or anybody else's that reads this.

Ken

PS. I hope like hell you were driving a cub and not a scooter when you took that trip to Lake Towada. Unlike a scooter, the cub has wheels almost as large as a regular motorcycle and a really low center of gravity. That and many other reasons makes it an incredibly versatile and magnificent machine!

PPS. Happy Birthday!

Mon, July 8th, 2019 11:21pm