Sachie-chan was nice enough to invite all of us back to her parents’ home in Oita Prefecture. Oita is a part of Kyushu I have yet to visit before this trip and it was a very nice treat to spend a little time in the countryside part of Japan. Best of all she said that this was the perfect season for seeing fireflies!
Getting There
We had agreed to meet in downtown at 12 to catch a bus to Oita but we had all partied the whole night before and everybody was either exhausted, nursing a hangover or still drunk. Combine this with getting Axel, Baptiste, Jonathan and me together, out the door, to the train to Tenjin all before noon and you have one hell of a time. We make it to Tenjin station just in time to be greeted by a spritely young Japanese girl who walked straight up to Baptiste and started giving him directions for getting tickets. We were confused until we realized how much this girl looked like Sachie and realized it was her younger sister, Tomoe.
The Sagara Women
Sachie’s parents picked us up from the bus stop and we enjoyed a nice scenic drive through the huge open rice plains and endlessly tall pine and evergreen trees that reminded me of drives through Lake Tahoe. The most striking thing that we soon realized was how alike all of the Sagara women were. On the self built property of Sachie’s home, there were 3 generations of Sagara women living together. The grandmother is a small and frail woman hunched over from years of hard work in the fields. Sachie’s mother has exactly the same bright smile as Sachie and Tomoe. And last but not least, her father stands on the side stoic and mostly silent. He seems to be the strict and powerful leader of the family who only speaks when necessary.
Little House on the Prairie
The log-cabin style home was a pleasant surprise nestled in the Japanese countryside. Designed and built by Sachie’s father, this home was inspired by none other than the old 70’s American television show, The Little House on the Prairie. Ironically, mixing American log cabins and Japanese construction equals something that resembles a German house, says Jonathan. The house was small, quaint, simple and cozy with interlocking wood logs and rounded doorways. Inside there are classic American style bedrooms and also a multipurpose living room with tatami mats that can be opened up to create a larger space or closed to become a bedroom. Outside, we picked onions and potatoes out of the small garden beside the house. There’s no existence as pure as actually living off the land. I’d like a small garden of my own some day. I think it’s a rewarding and self fulfilling hobby.
See the Resemblance?
Home Grown Food Pwns Trader Joes
The Land of Oita
I’ve always been and will always be a city slicker. I simply enjoy modern conveniences, a bug-less environment and concrete too much to ever live in the countryside, but I must say visiting the countryside is really quite a nice. What Oita lacks in loud obnoxious pachinko parlors and congested city streets, it makes up for tenfold in sweeping green hills, pockets of green forests and picturesque postcard worthy moments.
And rest assured that If you somehow get sick of the constant idyllic landscapes you can always enjoy one of the many famous onsens (hot springs) or admire the occasional scrap metal sculpture of Godzilla.
Thought I was Kidding About Godzilla?
Catching My First Firefly
There’s something iconic about the image of catching a firefly. For me, it conjures up images of a time far simpler than the modern quick paced lives we’re used to living. Where nature provides the only illumination at night and you can capture a piece of the magic in the palm of your hand. Anybody who knows me at all knows I’m not a particularly big fan of insects, but for fireflies I can make an exception. They maybe some of the most mesmerizing and fascinating bugs I’ve ever seen. They fly slowly with no real course, wildly changing directions and with no inherent goal. They are surprisingly easy to catch and I even had a few fly right into me as if they wanted to be caught. Jonathan started to collect them in his front shirt pocket and even gave them individual names. He insisted his new pets have their own identities. The fireflies would strobe on and off as if they had built in dimmer switches that were slowly being pushed up and down. Each one has their own internal beat, but when you put them together, they automatically sync to each others’ rhythm. That’s why off in the distance deep in the woods, there are just hundreds, maybe thousands of little green lights flashing on and off in unison. Nature is so amazingly organized.
Japanese Hospitality
The Sagara family really took great care of us. Besides giving us a place to stay, they cooked us a delicious barbeque dinner, explained to us a bit of history and gave us a tour of their homes, walked us around the extensive grounds of their property and even taught us to make our own breakfast donuts. At night, Baptiste and I shared one of countless bro moments watching the stars and philosophizing about the universe before Sachie, Axel and Jonathan ambushed us with wet wads of paper. I ran right by them trying to catch them but was lost in the pure darkness. The only light coming from the single house on the hill, everything in the distance was black. No neighbors to be seen or heard of. I enjoyed every moment of the breathtaking scenery and was more impressed by the bamboo forest in their backyard than the one I visited in Arashiyama, Kyoto. It was an absolute pleasure to spend some time with such a kind and wholesome family and I can’t thank them enough for their gift. ありがとう ございます！
Tomoe and Kone (Neko = Cat)
Rasta in Oita
Breakfast as One Big Happy Family
From Above
No Japanese Home is Complete Without a Small Totoro Collection
