Behind the scenes

 

We present our annual behind-the-scenes tales of our time here in Noto. Not everything here will be that serious, nonetheless we hope you find it interesting.

The stories about the konbini (convenience stores) such as Family Mart are absolutely true! You can get a very decent meal for an affordable price. I think what see here cost me about $5.

We do occasionally take a break from Family Mart to visit a local restaurant. It was a risk to go to a kaiten sushi (sushi made to order) restaurant with a group of youngsters, I admittedly was a bit scared. Surprisingly we were able to feed all of us plus Adachi Sensei for a little over $20 / person. That's Ty, by the way, admiring his work (?).

Noto Help assigns us a car, not necessarily providing us driver training to adjust to driving on the left side of the road. Also, a number of the roads involve curves and hairpin turns. Nonetheless, the three of us with international drivers licenses all took turns behind the wheel. This is Miyuki during her first time making the drive, which she actually enjoyed. And she did a great job!

We're housed in two separate buildings that are next door to the other. Only one building has hot water, and it's not our building. Consequently, we've relied on various onsen (hot springs) to get ourselves bathed and civilized. The cost is about $3 in US currency. It's a good place to relax and get clean.

I didn't know food trucks were a "thing" as they are in the States. We found something parked outside of a community center. They specialized in kara age (Japanese fried chicken) which was really good! A pleasant surprise.

I posted this photo earlier of me sitting on the world's longest bench. What I forgot to mention was I'm wearing the hat, which I described in a previous entry, which was my Dad's, a hat he inherited from his oldest brother. I've thought about my Dad more than I thought I would while on this year's trip. The hat indeed made it back to Japan.

As my better half Donna has told others, this isn't a vacation. The guys are staying upstairs from the main meeting room / chapel, the women are next door also on the second floor (the bottom floor is partly used for storage). I affectionately refer to this as the "stairwell of no return." One slip down these steep stairs, and it's an one-way ticket to a sprained ankle. Also note there's no handrails.

We'd show you the room we're stying in, just assume it's a tatami (woven straw flooring) room that currently houses the three of us. It's a bit of a mess, thus the lack of a photo. Nonetheless, the rooms serve their purpose, we're able to get a good night's sleep -- at least until the trucks start rumbling by at about 7 AM.

Ty and Daniel purchased some inexpensive fishing poles and have tried a couple of times to catch something. I was told they almost caught a good sized fish, but they had to cut bait. "The one that got away," I suppose.

As we left Wajima, we again encountered an area filled with the kasetsu (temporary housing) buildings. Wherever there's open space that can be spared -- a parking lot, any vacant land, space between undamaged buildings -- can become a place to set up kasetsu buildings. We were reminded why we're here. One resident told me she fully expects to be residing in her buildings for at least another year.

The rest of the week will include a return to the orchards plus more community work in the kasetsu, then again we're prepared for almost anything. Please stay tuned.

#notohelp #glints