Following my chance meeting of Taku, I felt great and full of positive energy after such a strange and lovely encounter. The pouring rain outside quickly dissuaded me from taking a walk... Besides I still had to charge my extra batteries some more.
After an hour or so, a few young middle school aged Japanese boys walked into the one room station. They were completely soaked and getting water everywhere, shaking and yelling and running as young boys do. Trying to keep my things dry, I gathered them and packed up a bit... And just in time. Pretty soon there were almost 40 thirteen to fifteen year old boys screaming their heads off, laughing, stripping down to their underwear to change out of sopping wet clothes, and, did I mention, screaming their heads off?
They quickly overwhelmed me, and I felt like shoving my disgusting dirty clothes into their mouths so would shut up... That or just opening my dirty clothes bag so they would run out in horror. However, like a swarm of locusts, they dispersed as suddenly as they'd arrived leaving just a few stragglers playing some sort of magic or Pokémon-esque card game and two middle aged women, who I naturally assumed were the schoolboys' chaperones.
Just on a whim, I asked the women how old the boys were... To which I got confused looks and laughter. With some effort, I learned that these women were not teachers but nurses... In fact, they didn't even know each other! It seemed that during the traumatic locust-like schoolboy extravaganza, we found common ground and bonded (as people tend to do in life-threatening disasters).
After one of the women left, the other (who luckily spoke some English) introduced herself as Ami Okahata. She immediately went looking for me on Facebook. With pictures of our pets and gestures, we had a lovely conversation lasting about an hour before her bus to the airport arrived at the station. Another wonderful chance encounter!
Soon after, the rain subsided so I went in search of food. Of course, I ultimately ended up back at the same ramen shop for another bowl of delicious shoyu ramen. As soon as I entered and ordered, a very German sounding fellow asked... "Excuse me. Where are you from?" Swinging around, there indeed was a very German looking fellow sitting at the table adjacent to mine. This was Mike. Upon my reply, he seemed slightly disappointed, apparently on the lookout for his fellow countrymen. He had thought the colors on my Patagonia hat were white, red, and black (German colors)... The colors are in fact three shades of yellow and a green melon of sorts. I know... How did he mix that up??
Intrigued at his uncanny ability to speak very passable Japanese, we started talking about a whole manner of random things, of which I cannot recall exactly. However, seeing as he was with a group of Japanese and we did not want to appear the ignorant and rude foreigners, he told me to swing by the hostel he was residing at later that night.
With nothing else of note happening throughout the afternoon (except for more torrential rain), I found myself in the Guest House, hostel and dive shop, reading and waiting for my new friend.
Soon enough, in he comes with a gaggle of other Japanese of varying ages who seem to be either employees or the owners or family... Or some combination of the three (as well as another older white dude). After settling in, we all introduced ourselves, and lo and behold... The other white guy was in fact from Granada, España.... Again... The chances!!
We spent the next few hours drinking beer and sake, speaking in English, Japanese, and Spanish and laughing and laughing (with most of us only understanding half of the jokes given the language barriers). The funniest must have been the grandpa of the hostel owner, he put on a traditional native Ainu people hat and coat and was showing off for us. He also seemed pretty confused that I spoke Spanish and not Japanese... Later claiming that I have a Japanese face.
Seeing as it had been a solid... Well, about four days without a shower (and some 50-60 miles of hiking), I kindly asked about paying them to use their shower. They wouldn't hear it, insisting that I use the facilities free of charge (not to mention the snacks and alcohol they also bestowed on me pro-bono). After finishing a quick shower in a very peculiar bathroom (which resembled a large closet with a waterproof glaze painted over the walls and containing a giant industrial restaurant-sized sink embedded in the floor, presumably supposed to be used for baths), I discovered that curfew had passed and all had gone to upstairs to sleep.
A little befuddled, the English speaking receptionist and dive instructor came down, handed me a ridiculously soft blanket, and told me I could spend the night on the tatami mats in the shared living area... Of course, free of charge, stating that they were all worried about me sleeping outside without a tent. Ecstatic... I slept fantastically, and despite my best efforts to help with anything in the morning, they wouldn't let me.
Unfortunately, my luck had run its course on this trip, and it was all downhill from there.
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