10 Shikoku

We wanted to visit Shikoku, the smallest and remotest among the four main islands of Japan, because we have learned form experience that cities in Japan are constructed to be very functional: all concrete and look like they were made with copy and paste, not much surprise and soul food for someone as romantic as me and outdoorsy as Hunor. so wherever we can we look for the remote, the old and rundown and the countryside. However, we stayed longer at Rei's place than we originally planned and a typhoon was coming too, so eventually we didn't have the time and the guts to explore Shikoku, we just shortly passed by. Rei's family gave us a ride from Oita to the port of Saganoseki and from there we took a very short (70min) ferry ride to the tip of Shikoku, Misaki. As seasoned ferry-hitchhikers, we were the first to get off the boat and we were happily waving and smiling by the side of the road by the time the cars started to come. To our surprise, the first car stopped, a friendly young couple with a small kid, and they took us all the way to Matsushima, our destination, where or couchsurfing host was already expecting us. One thing I like about hitchhiking in Japan is that we know the language, so we can talk with the people, learn abut their life, their work, hear their stories. The young father who picked us up happened to work for the Japanese Self Defence Force as a first aid parachuter, which sounded very interesting so I asked him about his work in detail. How did it feel to jump for the first time? Has he got used to the feeling? Does wind make the jump difficult? He was very patient and answered all my questions. After our conversation his wife told him she had never heard so much about his work, so I guess it was good information for all of us. Meanwhile we were passing through a beautiful road winding on the northern coast of Shikoku, small fishing ports, islands in the calm inland sea on our left and mountains on our right. 

They took us all the way to Matsushima station where our host, Annlie was already waiting with her car. Given these circumstances it felt more like a luxury trip than a hitchhiking adventure. It turned out that we were Annlie's first couch surfers, so I felt the responsibility of giving a good impression for her about the system. She is a young medical student, speaks amazing English, and she is full of curiosity and ambition. She was interested in every detail of our trip from planning to the content of our backpacks. It was a good conversation, it made us sort our own thoughts once again concerning the decision of changing our lifestyle and planning our trip. We were proud and happy to show our backpacks, which became a lot lighter and compact after leaving much of our stuff with Rei and sending home a box of things. The eagerness Annlie was showing while listening to our story made me feel responsible for what I do and how I act while on the way. One thing that makes me happy is that I have never felt more authentic, living from my heart then now. I have the chance to experience something I have been dreaming about since childhood. I suppose the happiness and excitement are converted to energy and people around me can feel it. I hope they do, because that is the only thing i can give them for their generosity, for opening their homes, their cars and sharing their time with us. Annlie showed us around Matsushima, we went to the castle and Japan's oldest hot spring, Dogo. We sat down in front of the entrance and just watched people passing by in their yukatas. It was a beautiful sunset with sharp but gentle lights (perfect for Hunor to take pictures).

at Matsushima Castle with Annlie

Hunor taking a foot bath in front of Dogo onsen

the hometown of Matsu Basho, the famous haiku poet is the most poetic city ever: if you write a haiku on the bus you just put it in this box and it might be chosen for publishing 

The next day our destination was Hiroshima, already on the main island of Japan. We wanted to make it up there before the typhoon. Annlie's mom offered to give us a ride to Imabari, the city at the end of the bridge connecting Shikoku with Honshu. I was excited about the next ride, because it goes zig-zagging through small islands connected by bridges in the inland sea. The weather was still hot and it was our longest time to wait for a ride, more than an hour. An old man cutting the grass in a nearby parking lot came to us after about forty minutes, told us not to lose our spirits and handed us two bottles of cold soda with a smile.

Finally a small truck picked us up, and the high seats gave us a perfect view of the inland sea and the islands in the sunshine. 

Three rides later we were in Hiroshima by 7pm. We got a ride with a young university student, who was on his way back from buying his first car, so Hunor took photos of him with his new "baby". Then we met a family of six, who were going to a baseball match of the local team, Carps, and we also learned that this team is very special for the people of Hiroshima. It was founded shortly after the end of the war, as a sign of the locals will to survive even in the impossible conditions of the reconstruction after the atomic bomb. 

The local speciality in Hiroshima is okonomiyaki, which is something between an overfilled crepe and and a Spanish omelette. Veggies, meat and eggs. As we have learned, the big difference between the Hiroshima and Osaka style okonomiyaki is that Hiroshima puts even noodles in the mix. Don't ask me how, but it does work. We met up with my friend from university, Moe, who lives and works in Hiroshima after having graduated, and she invited us to an okonomiyaki dinner. After that we headed to our host's place which was an interesting experience by itself. A young japanese guy with an impossibly big apartment (especially for Japanese standards). He opened it up for counchsurfers, so it didn't feel like a one-to-one home stay thing as usual but more like a hostel. We were seven of us the night we arrived. There was a very active Colombian guy, who proudly introduced himself as someone from Barranquilla, the city of Shakira (well you can imagine that was enough to make me happy), he put on his music and gave a quick latin dance lesson to everyone. We were dancing for hours in the tatami room which was the most surprising ending to a day we started on another island a hundreds of kilometers away.

9 Oita

The next day my best friend, Rei and her family drove all the way to Aso from Oita to pick us up. Rei is a very close friend of mine, we met at the university, she was a guest lecturer at the textile department teaching bingata (Okinawan Dyeing). We connected very well from the first moment. She is bursting with energy, very creative, brave and very open too. Most of the time when i try to make Japanese friends, there is a wall that i can't break through but it was different with her. She asked my advice on her important decisions and she took me seriously but we had great laughs together too,  we can talk about everything. I couldn't wait to see her home and spend time with her again. She decided to leave Okinawa about a year ago and went back to her grandma's village to start her own textile dyeing studio in the old family house that hasn't been used for years after grandma had passed away. I was excited to see how this amazing idea and hard task was going. The Chitose Textile Dying Studio is a hub of creativity in the rural Japanese environment. It was entertaining to see the locals coming and peeping in every day, wondering what on earth was this girl doing in the village, She just smiles, shows everyone her new ideas and works and inspires people without even knowing it. I guess even her curious visitors themselves don't know but they keep coming back and bring her fresh vegetables, beer or other small presents. Her world brings color and fantasy to that little village.

Rei-chan, Lili (her niece) and us on the way to Ooita

We were sleeping at her studio, and were busy everyday. We kept asking her if there was anything we could help with, so finally Hunor renovated an old drum that Rei has to paint on, and carved a sign for the studio on granny's old cutting board. I did some English translations for her and worked on a photo-papercut that I had in mind after a sunset shot Hunor took of Rei and I the first night. We are both jumping, so I thought it would look good if i cut wings for us on the photo - to turn us into local angels. 

"Local Angels"

the drum Hunor is working on under the curious supervision of the girls from next door
one four year old asked me: "Is it your man?" "Yes" "You chose a good man!" she assured me and i thanked her.

Hunor carving the sign on granny's old cutting board

We were also busy with preparing to an event she organized for us. Sunday 25 August we were planning to do a screening of Under the Same Sun with a Hungarian and Okinawan mini concert. She and her family prepared everything, invited musicians, and arranged the place: the local Buddhist temple. When we first met the priest he seemed very cooperative but not very hopeful. He said people in this village are hard to get going so we should not expect more than around 30 people at most. I saw Rei was not very happy with the answer. She said she was hoping for a 100. Well, I told her, people who ask for miracles and work towards them, get miracles. She smiled and worked and worked, arranging meetings with the musicians, handing out flyers, brainstorming about decorations. Sunday, when we went to the temple, the place was all prepared, the priest cut bamboo sticks for a special light up and arranged the room for us. While we were preparing the food stall outside together with the priest Hunor had some time to ask a few practical questions from his "colleague" about church government and the everyday life of a buddhist temple. After all, a protestant pastor and a buddhist priest do not meet often so they need to use the opportunity for an inter-religious conference, right? The event started at 7, but people already started coming from 6 and soon the room was full, there were not enough seats for everyone. The sanshin  players started the event with three Okinawan songs, then it was my turn to sing Hungarian folk songs with a local guitarist and drummer. Then Hunor showed his skills on the jaw harp. When i was watching Hunor playing traditional Hungarian melodies on a jaw harp, jamming with a local blues-rock guitarist and a cajon drummer in a buddhist temple, followed by the curious eyes and ears of local farmers, I  was amazed how Rei's web of imagination could wrap all these people and bring them together in this funny capsule of time and space. As I looked at the full house I knew I was looking at a miracle, one that was asked for and worked for by Rei and it gave me goose bums. Her radiating creative energy inspires me so much! The priest told us after the event that there must have been around a 100 people and he has never had so many people at his temple before! Thanks Rei, for showing us a miracle.

Rei made time for sightseeing too, we went to a lotus field, which was the first time for me to see this intricately elegant yet simply funny flower. They look like shower heads, but then they have these beautiful light pink blossoms and perfect petals and what's more, water-repellent leaves. I mean this all just sounds impossible and contradictory, but when you look at it, it makes sense. No wonder it is traditionally a holy flower, the flower of Buddha. 

After that we visited Beppu, a city famous for hot springs and we went to an interesting restaurant. The name is Hell Steam Restaurant (very inviting). All kinds of food are steamed in wells built on top of a sulphuric hot spring. It is said to be very healthy and it is delicious even without any extra spice, since the salt and the aroma of the hot spring penetrates the vegetables and meat. We also visited a hot spring, and took a mud bath. It was a great time but we smelled like pigs for about a week after. Especially because we did a small competition with Hunor: who can cover his/her full body more elaborately. 

Rei is so playful and active, and she also has a nine year old niece who is a small artist, so creativity is all around the place. We spent the nights drawing and painting together on big pieces of paper, being immersed in colors, lines and circles. She and her sister, her niece, her mom and her stepdad had a great impact on me. A loving and caring family of artists, living together, sharing their life, their food their love and their ideas. I was totally inspired by the week we spent together.

9 Oita

         Eppen a fagyit majszolgattuk nagy megelegedessel, melyet kis extrakent kaptunk legutobbi autosunktol, mikor megjelent Rei, teljes csaladi kiserettel, hogy tovabbvigyen minket falujaba, az Oita kozeli Chitose-ba. Rei-t mar regota ismerjuk Okinawarol. Mindig nagyon vidam, energikus, bobeszedu lany es meg sok egyeb is jellemzo ra, ami a japan lanyok tobbsegere tapasztalat szerint nem. Az okinawai muveszeti egyetemen ismerkedtunk ossze vele a bingata, azaz a helyi hagyomanyos textilfestes kapcsan. Nagyon sokat segitett Teodoranak mindenben, ami kapcsolatos volt a bingataval, igy az Egyazon nap alatt c. filmunknek is egyik alapfiguraja. Rei nemregen tert haza szulofalujaba, ahol regen elhunyt nagymamaja regi hazat alakitotta at bingata studiova. 

A Chitose Bingata Studio, azaz textilfestomuhely

Rei, akinek a portfoliojajoz keszitettunk nehany portre fotot

Reszlet Rei egyik bingatamuvebol 

Rei bingata

              Igazi kis muveszfeszek jott igy itt letre, olyannyira, hogy elso pillanattol osztonzest erzunk mindketten arra, hogy itt valamit alkotni kell. Teljesen mindegy, hogy mit, de ez a hely kizarolag arra valo, hogy az emberbol kihozza a maximalis kreativitast. 

           Hozza is latunk rogton az eziranyu tevekenyseghez. Teodora rajzol, fest, egyik naplementeben keszult fotomat kinyomtatva pedig egy egeszen kulonleges kepet hoz letre. A magam reszerol a fotozason kivul egy regi kopott dob restauralasa jut meg feladatul. Letisztitani a regi festekreteget, ujracsiszolni, elokesziteni az uj diszes festeshez. El kell arulnom, nagyon elvezem ezt a munkat. Nem gyakran van alkalma ez embernek egy regi patinas dobot felujitani :) Ugyanigy orommel veszem azt a feladatot is, hogy a nagymama egyik regi vagodeszkajabol cegtablat keszitsek a studio reszere. 

Dob restauralas elott...

...meg nincs keszen, egyelore elotte jobban nezett ki :)

Teodora rajza Yakushimarol

Teodora kepeslap

Kozos alkotasunk...

Keszen van az uj cegtabla

        Az itt toltott bo egy het legnagyobb esemenye azonban filmunk, az Egyazon nap alatt bemutatasa. Az elokeszuleteket Rei mar regota rendezi. A megfelelo helyszin felkutatasa, a szukseges kellekek beszerzese, hangositas, kivetito, no meg a kozonseg beszervezese nem kis feladat. Raadasul a filmvetitesen kivul kis musorral is keszulunk. Magyar nepdal, okinawai nepdal, dorombjatek eloadasaval, melyekhez vendegmuveszek, zeneszek bevonasara is sor kerul. Az esemenynek kulon patinat ad, hogy helyszinul a falu elegge regi, kopottas buddhista templomat sikerult megszerezni. A helyi pap csupan nehany evvel idosebb nalam, nagyon nyitott es segitokesz. Az elso terepszemle utan rengeteget dolgozott maris a vetites helyszinenek szamunkra megfelelo atalakitasan, szekek berendezesen, es nagy meglepetesunkre a vetites estejere koros korul ezernyi kis gyertyat helyezett el a kulon erre a celra elokeszitett bambuszcsovekben es bambuszleceken. Aznap az idojaras elegge esosre fordult, ugyhogy aggodtunk is, mi lesz ha este is csorog az eso. Vajon hanyan jonnek igy el. Keso delutanra azonban megszunt az eso es ugy begyult a vendegsereg, hogy a pap is megjegyezte, ennyien meg soha nem voltak a templomaban. Mintegy szazan jottek el, ami tekintve a falucska meretet, elegge szep teljesitmeny.

          

Kisse rejtelyes a filmbemutatonkhoz a bejarat...

Es ime talan a vilag elso buddhista temploma, ahol filmbemutatot rendeztek :)

elokeszuletek...

a templomot estere bambusz mecsesek szazai diszitettek

Bemutato elotti bemutatas :)

Nepes publikum

           Mindezen elfoglaltsagok, esemenyek mellett aztan meg kis kirandulasra is jut ido. Egyik nap delelottjen egy gyonyoruszep lotuszvirag telepet keresunk fel, onnan pedig irany a nem tul messzi Beppu varosaba, mely Japan szerte a termeszetes hevizfurdoirol ismert. Egy nagyon erdekes etteremben ebedelunk. Itt mindent alaposan atgozolve keszitenek el, de nem akarhogyan. A foldbol feltoro forrasban levo kenes viz gozet hasznaljak, az alapanyagot pedig tobbnyire a vendegek hozzak. Mindenki szabadon viheti kedvenc eteleit, husfeleket, zoldseget, gyumolcsot, tojast es mindenfelet, amit csak el lehet kepzelni gozolve, es az etterem csak magaert a gozolesert szamit fel dijat.  

A finom ebed utan aztan mi sem esik jobban mint egy kis dogonyozes a kenes iszapban. Egy furdot keresunk fel, ahol mielott megtisztulnal, elobb irgalmatlanul osszekenheted magad sarral. Hmm … arra gondolok, hogy lam lam, meg a malacoktol is van mit tanulni az embernek. Odahaza a falunk szelen bizonyara nem veletlenul uzik ugyanezt a tevekenyseget oly nagy elvezettel az utszeli sarban :) Es raadasul ok meg ingyen is reszesulnek az effele oromokben.   

Lotuszvirag

Zuhanyrozsa :)

Mindent gozolos etterem

Egy kis csillagszorozos moka

Vacsoraasztalnal Rei unokahugaval Lilii-vel es mi ketten

Edesanya lanyaival es unokajaval

Mind egyutt :)

             Osszesen nyolc napot toltunk Chitose falucskaban. Szep emlek marad az egyutt toltott ido, Rei, es a japanban igen ritka olaszos temperamentumu csalad, es a studioba nap mint nap bekoszono, vidaman elcsevereszo szomszedok.