Unexpected gifts at the Prayer House

Broken pipes, septic tanks, poo and some cherry blossoms thrown in for good measure!

April 2024

Dad and I were on a mission: Find where the kitchen pipe is leaking! Actually, even though it was my mission, dad was the one doing most of the work! Once we (he!) found the leak we (my husband who could speak Japanese!) would call the plumber and get it fixed.

I helped a little, but dad was the one hammering into the wall and making holes. The wall was tiled, and the tiles were on cement at least 1 inch thick! It was slow going. Dad started at the top, where the tap was, and made his way down the wall, but found nothing. It was so strange, the sound of water escaping a pipe was so near, but couldn’t be found, nor could any leaking water!

Dad explained that the sound travels along the pipes, so it can be difficult to actually find the problem. You can’t rely on the sound as a location indicator.

Having found nothing inside, it was time to dig from the outside.

Dad set to work. Digging a hole in dirt was much quicker than making holes in a tiled and cemented wall, so it wasn’t long before dad was finding soggy soil and sure enough, it quickly led to the problem: a broken pipe.

We (dad) found it!

I phoned Shujin, who phoned the plumber, who came that same day. He spent a good hour and charged us just $70. So awesome! We asked him some plumbing questions regarding the rest of the house, so that was very handy too. He confirmed that we can use the toilet, but the septic system needed changing. We had been informed of this before we acquired the house, so that was no surprise.

Mum stressed that dad had made such a mess of our kitchen wall.

I reassured that we didn’t mind. I was dreaming about knocking down that wall anyway. I was hoping our budget would stretch so that we could push the kitchen wall out to extend the kitchen. I loved so much about the Prayer House, but the pokey size of the kitchen was a real bummer!

With the plumber assuring us the toilet was usable, it occasionally got used. I’m not sure who bravely used the toilet first, but someone did. The toilet just had a pipe in the bottom, not usually what you see in the bottom of the toilet. But it was so dark, you couldn’t see down it. Where did it go? Of course, it must go to some sort of septic, but just looking at the toilet, it felt like it went into the black void!

Initially, we didn’t even know where the septic system was. There was no signs of anything in the yard. One day, as we were walking around the house my foot stood on something very hard (opposed to the very soft ground that seemed to be all around the house.) I looked down and noticed a patch of cement was visible. I scrapped acroos it with my foot and uncovered a curved side.

“Oh wow, look what I found!”

Shujin looked and immediately recognised what it was.

“Don’t stand on it! You might fall in and I will not be coming in to get you out!”

“Yes you will too!” I retorted back, appalled that my husband’s poo-phobia would prevent him from rescuing his wife and allowing her to drown to her death in a septic system!!

Since Shujin and I had given mum and dad our bedroom at Okasan’s house and we had been sleeping in the Prayer House, we occasionally used the toilet. And then it happened.

One morning when I flushed it, water came UP the drain pipe on the floor. Now, if the toilet water had of risen instead of being flushed away, that really would have been my worst nightmare. Coming out the floor drain was a very close second! (Doesn’t just the thought of that cause fear in your heart?!)

I immediately reported to Shujin. Shujin called the Poo Man. (There is a man who maintains the septic systems in our area, and he drops into Okasan’s house from time to time to check the system, and pump it out when it’s too full. This man has become affectionately known in our house as the Poo Man.)

Thankfully he responded quickly and before we knew it, the Poo Man was kneeling down beside the septic tank, scraping off the moss, dirt and grass to reveal the metal lid in the centre of the cement. He opened it up. I leaned forward and looked in. Emptiness. Deep emptiness. With rocks on the bottom.

Well, fancy that!

I never expected it to look like that! I wouldn’t had drowned to my death after all! (Just broken a leg or something!) It was so deep, I think my dad could have stood on the bottom with his hands in the air and not touched the lid! 

A few pipes were coming into the tank. The Poo Man had Okasan go inside the Prayer House and turn on the kitchen tap, bathroom sink tap and shower tap. Water flowed into the tank from the corresponding pipes. Then he asked her to flush the toilet.

Nothing.

Where does the toilet waste go??!! 

The Poo Man started digging around the ground outside the toilet. It didn’t take too long before he found the pipe for the toilet waste. It was cracked with a big hole in it. The man started cleaning out the dirt that was in the pipe, using his tool to dig into the pipe.

As he was digging, he made a surprised noise and I was kinda scared for what he may have found... He reached his hand into the pipe (he was wearing thick rubber gloves) and pulled out a crevice tool from a vacuum cleaner. 😱😱😱 🤣🤣🤣

What??!!

How did that…??!!

<Gobsmacked!>

“Alright, which child tried to get out of the vacuuming and flushed the crevice tool down the loo???”

Nah, I knew it wasn’t my kids! But seriously, how did that get there??!!

Being the problem solver that he was, the Poo Man kept digging and pulled out some toilet paper - Yay! That confirmed it really was the toilet pipe. I guess he still wanted to be sure, so asked Okasan to go back inside and flush the toilet.

Soon a little water started coming out, then whoosh! It sprayed out the pipe in great gusto! I’m so glad the man wasn’t still crouched down on the ground near the pipe like he had been, otherwise he’d have had a very unpleasant shower!

More toilet paper came and then I knew what was coming... poo.

Our (my) poo exposed for the whole world to see!

The Poo Man kept carefully digging, away from the house, following the pipe. It ran alongside the septic tank but kept going past it. But soon enough, Bingo! He hit cement.

Almost as carefully as an archaeologist, he gently pulled aside grass, more moss, scraped away dirt and started uncovering what ended up being a very large rectangular cement slab, with two large metal lids in the middle, and a third smaller lid to the side. I couldn’t believe that had been hiding right alongside the other septic tank!

He brushed away as much dirt as possible from around the first lid, sweeping it back with his gloved hands. He grabbed his tool, hooked it onto the lid and carefully lifted.

And then he said the strangest thing. In a gentle, almost in awe voice, he said,

“kide mizu (the water is clean/pretty).”

I understood this simple sentence, knowing that in Japanese, “pretty” and “clean” was the same word. I couldn’t believe my septic system was being described as “pretty!”

Surprised and curious, I leaned forward and there, inside the septic tank number two, was clear, clean water! (Apart from a sanitary pad that looked unused... Ladies please note, they clearly don’t break down within any decent timeframe and should never be flushed! Just like the crevice tool!)

I stood in amazement. Amazed that this large tank was right here, and we had no idea. And amazed at what the septic tank looked like on the inside. It was certainly not what I expected. Not what I had seen in Australia, which resembled more of a what actually gets flushed down the loo, in one big mixing pot of grossness! 

The Poo Man proceeded to open the second lid which revealed the other half of the septic tank. He was impressed. The whole system was like a mini sewage treatment plant. Having clean water in this type of septic tank was good news. It meant that the septic system was in good working order. He did a few more checks and confirmed that yes, there was no need to replace it! Well that was music to my ears! We had just instantly saved $10k!¹ Woohoo! I was sooooo happy! 

We thought we needed to replace the septic, but all that needed replacing was a broken pipe - YAY! The down side was that septic tank number 2 which had been hiding under the dirt, was outside the kitchen, right where I was hoping to knock out the wall and extend the kitchen!

Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

I was devastated.

There was a plus side though. It meant I, potentially, just saved another $10k or so. I had to focus on the positives!

Having a working septic system though, really felt like such a gift. The Poo Man may as well of handed me the $10k cash, it felt that good!

Talking so much about poo and septic systems kinda leaves me feeling a bit yucky, so let’s end this post with some beauty!

Mum and dad had specifically chosen to come to Japan in the Spring so they could enjoy the cherry blossoms. We patiently waited and finally in mid April, the bursts of colour could be seen spreading across trees, parks, avenues and mountain sides.

We went on a week long Cherry Blossom crawl. Every day was an outing to another destination to view the fairy-floss trees. Mum and dad’s family and friends back home in Australia were getting bombarded with pink and white photos! (Sorry UD, you thought those photos were over, but here’s some more!!)

One afternoon, late in the week after being out all day viewing cherry blossoms, we got home to Okasan’s place and I walked down the street to the Prayer House. As I neared the house I stood to admire the beauty. The cherry blossoms in our yard were now in bloom and they were stunning.

I don’t need to go anywhere, I thought. The best cherry blossom viewing is right here at my house. Thank you God, for such beauty. What a gift!

1. $10,000 Australian dollars, which roughly converts to ¥1,000,000. Looking at all those zeros, now you can appreciate why I prefer to speak in dollars!