I Thing My Dream Forever

Today I went for a walk.  I just figured I'd walk around town, get to know what's out there, check out the stores and restaurants and parks and whatnot.  I ended up walking around for about 4 hours.  I walked all the way to where I work, which is at least a few miles.  But first I walked to the sea. I timed it, just so I could brag on my blog.  Yes, it took me 4 minutes to walk here.

There are a lot of cats who live near the sea.  I guess that's because there are a lot of fish parts that end up getting tossed around.  Omura grew out of a fishing community and is still chock full of fishermen.

Just your average suburban Japanese neighborhood

It's also a fairly suburban town.
Sure, there are a lot of stores and restaurants and things to see and do, but it's very quiet and laid back, and people don't see foreigners very often so when they do, they often stop and gawk or blatantly point, and if they get up the courage to say hello (usually in Japanese), they look SO proud of themselves.  And rightly so!  I'm proud of them when they do it too!

I did run across a group of 3 elementary-school aged boys who got really quiet as I was passing them, and then when the crosswalk turned green for them they shouted "Hallo!" (in English) and ran across the street giggling.

When I was mistakenly chosen as the Crown Prince of Omura, they took me to this park for the  coronation.  Of course everyone was already on their way to the after-party when I took this picture, but you can see where they would have been sitting, in the amphitheater area, and where I was officially crowned out over the water.  It was quite the event.  And I made it home in time to blog about it!

Below you can see it from a different angle, plus in the far background you can see the incredibly frightening footbridge over the dam from whence I took this first picture.  Also you can see the view from the top of the amphitheater where one would descend to the crowning zone.

I don't actually know how to get these pictures to sit just exactly where I want them, so you'll have to deal with the weird, awkward layout of my page.

Anyway, while I was hiking up the mountains, I did stumble across another little historic spot, all covered with bramble and dried leaves and dust.  I thought it was forgotten or abandoned, but then when I reached the top of the steps I saw that someone had put fresh clothing on the Buddha and fresh-ish offerings alongside him, so someone must be tending to it.  Or at least to the Buddha's clothing and dietary needs.  Someone might want to think about cleaning up his place a little though.

Lastly, on my way home, my right ankle started hurting.  Then it spread to my foot.  Then my right knee started hurting too.  Then my left knee.  Then my right hip.  I concluded that that had been enough walking for the day, and I needed to go home.  Right after the grocery store, of course.  Lots of little old ladies were shopping at the store while their husbands (I assume...it was quite a large number of old men for them to have just showed up) milled slowly around the alcohol section.  Little old small-town ladies like to do everything in their power to avoid foreigners, so no matter how many people were shopping in an aisle, it was usually completely empty within seconds of me entering it.

But, it's like I always say: I thing my dream forever, I wish you will be happy life.