Japan Diary: March 14th (2010)

 

April 2011 flash back.

”So do we hand in the papers?” my soon to be husband asked and gave my, probably pale face a worried look.

As I stod there in the Japanese city hall, ready to hand in marriage papers so many memories rushed through my head. How did I even end up here and was I making the right choice? If I hadn’t gone on the 9 week travel to Japan last year, I wouldn’t have been in this situation. I wouldn’t have been standing in this spot, that life would have been worlds apart from my actual life. I suddenly didn’t feel afraid about handing in the papers – I wanted to see my life as an adventure, a travel, even if it meant making mistakes.

 

Sunday March 14^th (2010) – “A trip to the mountains”

Today Hiro and his father decided to take me to mountain area close to their home. I had to borrow shoes from Keiko, since they for some reason didn’t see my black, pointy boots as fit for some mountain hiking – I think they were right. So I was lucky that Keiko’s sneakers were a perfect fit, apparently we had the same height and the same shoe size.

It was around a 30-minute car trip where I enjoyed the beautiful views of the countryside passing by. We parked the car and got out. The first challenge was to climb some very steep stairs leading up to the hiking road.

I was walking behind the father and in front of Hiro. I didn’t want to slow people down and appear like a weak city girl – which I probably were. So I did my best to hide any traces of exhaustion. I often looked back at Hiro in hopes of catching him showing weakness, like a tired face, heavy breathing or slowed walking, which I could use for future teasing, but nothing. Stupid, countryside boy.  The path got more and more uneven and I often had to jump from rock to rock, while enjoying a great view of a very steep mountainside, with no fences and a promise of death if I thought about falling in. I started hearing the sounds of splashing water coming closer. Some time later we passed a small waterfall and after some more walking we reached the end of the hiking trail. A big waterfall appeared before us and I took in the nice view. Hiro decided to play show off and jumped out on the big rocks in the middle of the busy river, he reached the other side and went closer to the waterfall to take pictures. After that we headed home.

Like always, that night Hiro and I tried to have a conversation, but I’m still sure I could have more successful conversations with one of my pets. Maybe he just didn’t enjoy talking with me, but if he didn’t like our awkward conversations he could just stay in his room. Maybe he was just being nice to me.