Chapter 50: CHAPTER FIFTY

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PART XIX

SHIRAKAWA AGAIN

CHAPTER FIFTY

When I told John about my bonus at our usual our watering hole that Saturday night, he smiled and nodded. "Didn't I tell you'd get at least eighteen months salary or more if you're a full time faculty member. And now you're going to enjoy six weeks of vacation?"

"Again. More like seven, I think."

"Like I said, Dave, I envy you. The best I can get at any one time is two weeks. So, where are you going to go with all that time?"

"That's just it, John. I'm not sure. I want to go back to Shirakawa and stay with the Okumura's in their wonderful gassho-zukuri minshuku again. But that'd be only for five or six nights at most. Do you know anywhere I can go from there?"

"Hmm. There's the old castle town of Kanazawa not too far from there. It might take you a night on that cub of yours, though."

"Have you been there?"

"Yeah. But only for a night. It's got a really famous garden. Kenrokuen. But you can see that in a hour. I mainly went there to find out just how fast I could go on my 250 that I'd just bought back then. I wasn't really all that interested in any of the places I went to. I could even drive it legally on the Meishin Expressway for a bit unlike my old cub. But I'll tell you man. That little bit scared the shit out of me. I could go fast, yeah. More than eighty klicks. But I wasn't used to going anywhere near that fast on my cub. And the gaggles of speeding cars and buses hurtling along on it at more than a hundred kept zooming past me as if me and my 250 didn't exist."

"Hmm, that would add a couple more days to my trip at any rate. But that still adds up to only ten days or so even staying in Shirakawa both going up and coming back. Any place else up there?"

John thought for a moment. "Well, there's the Noto Peninsula nearby. I've heard it's nice. I haven't been there myself. Like I said, I just wanted to really see how fast I could go on my new 250. And the road up that peninsula didn't look like I could go very fast on it."

"Guess I'll check all those out. I'm not really interested in how fast I can go. I just want to get out this of muggy hot Kyoto for a while."

"Then get on your cub and go man!"

"Well little buddy," as I was checking my poor loaded down cub to make sure all our luggage was strapped on tight, "let's get going to Shirakawa again. I'm hoping we can make it in only one night on the way this time. Now that I know all the roads fairly well. But pray we don't get zapped by one of those damn mountain storms."

Beeep!

"I pray to hell it's going to be cooler up there, too. God, it's so damn hot down here in Kyoto now. Feels like a good hundred degrees Fahrenheit. I still don't know what that is in the centigrade they insist on using here in Japan. And this fucking humidity is driving me crazy! I swear to God, it's got to be at least ninety percent if not one hundred! I hope we can make it to that Shirotori Riverside Minshuku I really liked on the way to Shirakawa my last trip out there.

Be-beep!

"But that means it's going to be a hell of a long drive today, little buddy."

Beeep!

So once again it was back to putting along Route 367. And this time I didn't get lost on the way to it. "Hey little buddy," as we were resting at a lookout I had stopped at, "it sure is nice and cool up here in the mountains, isn't it?""

Be-Beep!

The drive on from there was cooler than Kyoto, particularly putting on the long mountain stretches. The small cities of Takefu and Ono we had to putt through were a lot hotter than the mountain roads of course, but still didn't seem as hot as Kyoto. Or as muggy. Probably because the mountains that surrounded them were so much closer. And Kyoto has so many more cement buildings and asphalt pavements radiating oppressive heat. As we slowly, slowly, slowly climbed up the mountain road from Ono, it got cooler the higher we climbed. Nor did the humidity seem anywhere near as bad.

At any rate, we did make it to that ryori-ryokan Japanese Inn by five o'clock. I prayed their minshuku hadn't finished being renovated. I couldn't tell by only looking at the outside of it.

"Oh, welcome back," greeted the kimono-clad Okusan. "I remember you from last time. We get so few gaijin in this area. And fewer still stay with us. Are you going to be staying with us tonight? You know, our minshuku has recently reopened from its renovation."

And my heart sank.

She must have seen my look of disappointment. "Well, since you're a regular now, I can let you have your room in the ryokan back. It's still vacant for tonight."

"Thank you. That's really kind of you," I said greatly relieved."

"Why don't you take your ofuro bath now before our other guests arrive?"

"I'll do that just as soon as I change out of my clothes and into a nice cool, cotton yukata robe

Soaking in their large bath with no one else in it was really relaxing and helped take the kinks out of my body that had built up with the more than six hours of putting on my cub to get us here in one day.

Again the tray of many different dishes for my dinner was brought into my tatami mat room by the maid, including the bottle of hot sake I ordered extra. She even poured the first sip of it into my tiny sake cup. After I finished, the Okusan and the maid laid down my sleeping futon and bid me a good night, "Oyasuminasai!"

I watched a few programs on the color TV my room came equipped with. Then gratefully, I slipped under the upper futon.

Really tired from the all the putting, relaxed from the ofuro, stuffed silly with all the Japanese goodies from dinner and knowing that tomorrow's drive would be nowhere near as long and much more pleasant with very little traffic to worry about, I fell asleep instantly.

Submitted: August 05, 2024

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

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B Douglas Slack

Nothing better for what ails you than a great ofuro. Before my wife joined me in Misawa, I regularly visited the ofuro just off base by a couple of blocks. It had been "Americanized" but the hot water felt great. Then, once my wife was with me, we frequented a public bath we found in Hachinohe, a short drive south.

Bill

Tue, August 13th, 2024 6:56pm

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You're right about ofuro! Particularly if you're in a minshuku or public facility. My wife and I stayed at many putting on our small bike trips around Japan. And although segregated by sex, we usually arrived before anyone else and we could each have the whole ofuro bath to ourselves. We have a small ofuro in our house. But it's so small only one of us can soak in it at one time. It's just not the same thing. We usually take showers instead. Even a SENTO public bath was better.
As for Hachinohe: We've driven through all of Aomori Prefecture on our bikes. It's quite nice. Unfortunately, we were coming down from Hokkaido and all we wanted to do was get back to Hokkaido.

Ken

Tue, August 13th, 2024 11:28pm