Couch Surfers

This past weekend, Ian and I hosted our second couch surfers.  Peter and Ginny were a married couple who were living and teaching in Nagoya.  He’s from Oregon, she’s from Hong Kong, and they met and married in Hawaii.  They were an incredible couple to meet and get to know.

On Friday night we picked them up in Hitoyoshi and went out to dinner with a few of our friends.  I think everyone and their mother in the Hitoyoshi area went out for dinner that night because we tried two restaurants (both were full) before trying a sushi place.  Even there we had to wait for a table for a few minutes and had to split our eight person group into two tables of four. 

On Saturday we took Peter and Ginny up to Shiromizu Falls in Mizukami.  It’s a gorgeous white waterfall that cascades down the rock face of the mountain.  What makes it more incredible is that there are two suspension bridges crossing in front of the waterfalls, so that you can get relatively close to them and watch the water drop from hundreds of feet above you to hundreds of feet below you.  It’s beautiful!

 

We came to one suspension bridge in which a tree had fallen on it.  We paused for a second, wondering if we should walk across it.  Although the main trunk had fallen to the side of the bridge, there were huge limbs covering the walkway.  On one hand, we didn’t drive thirty minutes and hike twenty minutes just to turn around.  On the other hand, none of us liked the option of death, either.  None of the strong steel cables seemed to be affected by the tree.  Ian said, “Let me walk my fat ass across it.  If it doesn’t fall, then you guys should be okay.”  Ha, ha, ha!  Since Ian is still here today, the bridge proved to be sturdy.

Since we were so high up, we decided to spice up the afternoon by chucking huge pieces of rotten wood off of the bridge onto the rocks and falls below.  It was so awesome!  Since the wood was rotten, and there was so much force behind the fall, the wood exploded upon impact and then was swept away by the water.  COOOOOOL!  We threw limbs, logs, and rocks off the side, and like small children waited with anticipation until they smacked the rock and splattered.  Downstream should definitely have some good compost! 

 

After our hike, we rolled back into Yunomae famished.  We quickly stopped by the grocery store for lunch before making our way down to the swimming hole.  After walking there, we had built up a sweat and were ready to dive in!  Thanks to the recent rain on Friday, the river was up higher and had a slightly stronger current than previous times.  All of us took turns jumping from the rock and swimming.  I decided to blow up both of our tubes.  I tossed one fully inflated tube into the water and jumped on it (something that I’ve done several times before) and was MORTIFIED when a startling POP sounded across the river.  Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at me as I sank lower and lower into the river.  Melissa asked, “Did you just pop that float?”  While we laughed uncontrollably about it for a long time, nothing makes you feel like a fat heifer quite like popping a pool float.  Ugh!  We stayed at the river until dark and then invited everyone back to our house for pizza and peach cobbler.

The following morning we woke up in time to have breakfast and show Peter and Ginny Yunomae’s famous boob shrine before heading back to Hitoyoshi so that they could catch their bus.  Although we were gone for about four hours, when we got home, our front door was wide open.  Ian asked me, “Did you leave the front door open?”  I said no, that HE was the last one out the door.  Our door will prop itself open if fully extended, and I suppose while carrying out their luggage and loading up the car, the door locked in place.  That’s not a problem.  The problem is that Ian Reed was the last one out the door and forgot about it.  I wasn’t so much afraid that someone had stolen something.  (That’s right.  We left our front door wide open, unmanned, and with valuables in sight for four hours, and no one stole anything.  Could you say the same thing in the States?)  I was more concerned of what creepy-crawlies had come in.  UGH!  I never saw anything, THANK GOD!     

I would like to take this time to interject and say what a wonderful experience couch surfing is.  It’s a great way to meet some interesting people.  I would like to surf one of these times instead of hosting, but it seems like surfers have to be a bit flexible with their travel plans, and generally when we travel we have certain things that we want to do at certain times.  Therefore, we haven’t been able to surf yet.  While I don’t mind opening my door in Japan (where I can actually trust people), I’m a little more hesitant about trying it in the States.  Ian says that he wants to continue couch surfing in the States, but I don’t know.  I think we’ll just have to see about that.  I hate that it’s this was, but you just can’t ever trust people at home! 

That’s all for this week!  Tomorrow I’m off to Kumamoto City for the 2013 ALT Leaver’s Conference for all of the ALTs leaving in August and then Kumamoto’s Got Talent (talent show) on Saturday night.  Since I probably won’t be seeing my city friends anymore, this will be the first round of goodbyes that I have to say.  Eek!  Time is slipping away……