July 2023
I pulled three futon mattresses out of the cupboard. The triple bunks were finished and my sister in-law and her two boys were on their way. This house-built-for-two would be The Beehive come evening!
We’d all been preparing over the last few weeks. I had finished plastering the living room walls, had set the bookcase in its new position, emptied the boxes of books that had been scattered around the house where there had been available floor space, and filled the shelves of the bookcase. We had cleared out a little bit more of the clutter that had still filled the house, and now things were not only looking good, but feeling more spacious!
All this work had me dreaming about installing a small wood stove in the living room. I know, I know. How could I even be thinking about heating when it was so HOT?!! But the very cold and long winter was still too fresh in my memory, and I knew it would be coming back around far too soon, and I wanted to be warmer next winter! So I had moved the bookcase, in anticipation that perhaps, we could get a small wood stove and sit it in the corner where the bookcase use to be.
But for now, it was time to make beds! Okasan and I had vacuumed and wiped down the bunks and now I took one of the futon mattresses and carried it over. I observed the ladder at the front of the bunks and thought how it was rather inconvenient… I’d need to bend and squeeze the mattress through the small space beside it. I went ahead, trying to push the mattress in but then pulled it out, deciding to do the easier bunk first, the top. The ladder wasn’t blocking the way! I folded the mattress like a taco and slid it across the the wooden bunk only to discover that the mattress was too wide! Oh no! This was a disaster! Didn’t my husband measure up this space and say it was big enough to build triple bunks here? What was I going to do if we couldn’t use the mattresses?!
My frustrations were soon directly projected onto Shujin as I phoned him and had a good whinge! I’d now need to somehow use bedding for make-shift mattresses, but then there might not be enough bedding to keep the kids warm! Even though it was summer and we were having some lovely warm weather, the nights still cooled down. This was a disaster! We should have just thrown the kids into tents outside!!!
I got off the phone totally dejected. I couldn’t believe the mess Shujin had created that was now left for me to fix. Argh!
Okasan, having heard and witnessed the whole episode, had already started thinking of options. “Oh look Debbie, we could do this!” She unzipped the futon cover and pulled out two of the three pieces of foam that made up the bi-fold futon mattress. Holding the two pieces of foam she turned them so they were end to end and said, “we could do this!”
Suddenly, I was excited. Yes! That’s it! We eagerly slid them onto the bunk beds and they were the perfect fit, both length and width!
“Brilliant! Thank you so much!” Okasan had saved the day!
We went ahead, deconstructing two futon mattresses to make three mattresses. I made the beds, and had enough bedding for each bed so no one would be cold. I called Shujin back, letting him know his mum saved his bacon!
I’d had a very full and stressful day, topped with school dramas, post office sagas, preparing this Beehive (ie, our house!) for our guests and the first-day-of-school-holidays parenting dramas! By late afternoon I was dreaming of deserted islands and eating ice-cream alone! But all the stress soon faded into distance memories when Shujin pulled into the driveway that evening, with Yumi and the boys. He had picked them up from the station and now it was all excitement and smiles as they piled out of the car. I was so happy that my sister in-law, Yumi, was here! I knew Missy was going to love having her aunty stay. Missy loved girly things, and Yumi did too, so they would have a grand time together.
As I stood in the kitchen getting the last of dinner ready, Yumi stood beside me to give me a hand. The evening was warm and balmy, children’s voices filled the air and the house-built-for-two which had turned into the Beehive, was filled with people. It suddenly felt like Christmas! All that was missing were the Christmas carols! Ahhh, summer holidays had begun! We piled into the living room, crowding around the table for dinner. My, this was going to be a fun five weeks!!
Our first adventure was had just a few days later. Shujin decided we should do a day trip to Oze National Park. It was about a 2 hour drive from our place. He invited another family to join us, having recently made friends with the husband. It would be the first time for us to meet the wife and two children.
Wanting to get out of the house early, we decided that instead of making packed lunches for all of us, we would stop by a bakery on the way and buy lunch to take. I’m not sure where the communication went wrong, but our new friends understood it that we would meet there for breakfast. They arrived before us, only to find out that there were no table and chairs. Just a take-away bakery! Oops! They were thankfully very kind about it and bought breakfast to go.
At the bakery all our clan piled in. It was a small bakery but the usual Japanese style of picking up a tray and tongs, doing a loop through the shop and selecting items as you go. The kids were far from civilised about it and rather than walking sensibly around the loop once, they were like flies in garbage can, going all over the place. There was so much excitement and yelling out to each other and at us adults and asking Shujin what this item was and what was in that, and giving me suggestions but not giving me ANY space at all to make any decisions! It all got far too much for me! Despite sending the kids outside after they'd made their selections I was still just so overwhelmed by it all I couldn't even think straight. I left the shop and retreated to the car, asking Shujin to make selections for me!
After the hectic bakery stop we were back in the car and headed for the highway. We hadn't been this direction before so it was fun watching the scenery and seeing familiar places but from a different vantage point. Japanese scenery is incredible. Dense but sprawling cities at the base of a mountain lush with green forests. Rice paddies and market gardens amidst dwellings. Towns nestled in a valley, forested mountains on either side. Extremely tall bridges, sometimes the river below can't be seen, but other times fast flowing clear water makes its way over rocks and around bends.
Shujin and I were immensely enjoying the picturesque drive. Meanwhile, the cousins in the back were yelling out, “How long until we get there?”
“One and a half hours,” replies Shujin.
“One and a half hours??!!” The boys sounded like they were going to die. Shujin listened with understanding since they weren’t use to traveling long distances. I felt a little sympathy for them, but at the same time I thought how privileged they were to experience this, I hoped they realised!
Off the highway, we now travelled on the country roads. It felt like you were part of the scenery you had been enjoying just moments before. Country driving in Japan is painful. It's very slow. With speed limits usually only 40 or 50km/hr it takes a long to to get anywhere! But I enjoyed the drive. The cousins asked again. And complained again. But I enjoyed the views. The mountainsides had been a patchwork green a few months ago with new Spring growth. Now all the leaves on the trees had matured into their rich green Summer colour. Below the mountains, it was fascinating looking at how old some buildings were, their glory days long passed in a world so different from this current one. It was interesting observing the farms and towns and being surprised by unusual things. Like a supermarket in the middle of seemingly nowhere. Where do all their clientele come from?!
As we got closer to the mountain we had to ascend in order to reach the National Park there were a few tourist looking villages. Road stations, local produce stores, restaurants and other such business lined the road. And carparks. Elderly people stood at boom gates, motioning with their hands to choose their carpark. It looked like the day was starting to buzz with activity and people were walking about. We drove on. The shops lessened but carparks still popped up. We drove a little further and then turned onto the road that leads up the mountain. I looked across the river and there sat a very sizable carpark, about the same size as at our local shopping centre. But no people. And certainly no shops. In fact, it was off the main road and not near anything except forest!
“Where are all the people?” I ask Shujin. “Why are so many cars parked there?”
He shrugged and had no clue. We drove on and keep passing carparks!
“This is so odd! So many cars but no people!” I thought about the time we did a mountain hike and considered that perhaps there were tracks around here and people were hiking. But it was so odd that we didn’t see people walking from the carpark to the start of a track...
We turned from the town to start going up the mountain. This was real country area now. No buildings. No farms. No rice paddiess. Just a forrest. The cousins asked how long until we get there. They groaned at the response. My kids joined them. They were all tired of sitting in the car. “Just 15 minutes more, we're almost there!”
The road snaked alongside a river, gradually ascending up the mountainside. We rounded a corner and a very surprised deer stood in the middle of the road and stared at us. We stared in awe at her. I fumbled to take a photo but she leaped into the forest before I could snap the memory. It was a great distraction which almost lasted until the next one. Shortly we came to a checkpoint. It felt odd seeing a man standing on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere! We stopped. He talked to Shujin. Shujin started to turn the car around. What?! We were but 5 minutes from our destination! Could we have come all this way, only to find out we couldn’t get in???
What a cliff Hanger...lol
Hurry, I need part 2