Day 17 | Home whole day, trip to Osaka postponed because of the typhoon

The first day of the camp officially started. And I was not able to be there. Simply because the whole Wakayama prefecture was cut from the world.

Survived the typhoon and preparing myself for Osaka

The typhoon that hit the island of Shikoku last night not only caused the big damage and trouble the island but also to other land nearby. If you remember Gobo and Hidaka were just about 50 kilometres away from Shikoku island and the center of the typhoon was about 100 kilometres more in the center of the island. Yet, when looking at the weather forecast we were located on its edge.

When going to sleep last night I felt the wind blowing strong between in the streets and the roll blinds shaking. The last thing I wanted was that everything collapses down on me.

But once I woke up everything seemed to be peaceful, no more wind and fear of a new one. However, there was one problem. Water and floods. The roads were under the water, the railways was out of use for 2 days, the high way was also almost whole day and a bit of the next one closed as it was flood everywhere.

In other words, we were not able to go to Osaka and there was no way except for the helicopter to get us out of Gobo. But I was fine with that and enjoyed one more day with my host family.

So, until the late evening I did not leave the house. Non of us did. We stayed in the living room, played piano, talked, prepared meals together... I was told then that the family Ishikura was going to pick me up in the evening and if the roads were cleaned we might go directly to Osaka and arrive during the night. Thus I started repacking my things and what should I leave in Gobo as we were obliged to take max two bags given as a present from Lions Club Japan as we were going to move a lot with the camp and there would be no space and time to carry 500 things with us.

I ended up only with one bigger black sports bag, washed my clothes and put it dry inside and was ready to go more or less.

Stubborn about the tea

During the lunch time we all spend more time sitting at the table in the kitchen, watching the news on the TV and talking about my adventures in Osaka. I had no idea what was awaiting me nor I had any clue of the programme. That might have been also much better. I just knew I was going to visit the Dojoji temple again.

As half of us were sick and had problems with the nose and this strange "cold" I was looking for the way to get rid of it. When I told my host mom and sister that it would be a good idea to drink some tea with lemon inside they immediately rejected the idea and said that is no good at all. A discussion followed in which we spent 15 minutes persuading each other. I was persuading them that the tea with the lemon does only good to your health. We even did not need to use the sugar. The bigger problem was that in the beginning they even refused to drink tea as a medicine. I promised I was not going to use the sugar bars for the taste and that we just need a simple hot tea in the cup and some lemon. Eventually we made an agreement and they were also drinking it.

I am not sure how much it helped but it was tasty.

The rest of the day I was hanging out with my host sister. We were doing together my presentation of Croatia and then played some games. I showed her the Battle for Middle-earth 2 and we tried together as a team the Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

Dad Tetsuya-san also surprised me pleasantly when he was more than kind to offer me one of his toys from childhood that he kept on his desk in the office. He said he wanted to give it to me, a robot doll, to keep it as a memory. I was more than honoured and after the refusal with all respect did not work I took it to my bag. This robot is now on my desk in Zagreb. He also wanted to give me some financial help but that was too much for me and I really did not want anything more as they did way too much already. Dad Tetsuya was laughing and was really persistent so I had no other option but to run around the table and the living room.

Moving back to the first host family to sleep before the early trip to Osaka

After dinner time, when it was already dark and raining again, we heard a car in front of the house. It was Mr. Ishikura and mom Mieko who came to pick me up with all the baggage. I was confused as everyone was mentioning Osaka and did not really expect to go there now at 9 p. m. Apparently there was still a possibility that the high way was opened and in that case they would bring me direct to the hotel in Osaka to join the campers. But then we had to give up.

Since Mr Ishikura is a big joker I was not sure whether he was joking or being serious. We were going the other way to the restaurant and our home and he kept mentioning Osaka so I even believed for a few minutes we were heading there but then the road was full of water and we turned home by using a long way around. As you can see on the photographs here the area around the restaurant was under the water.

It was still raining and we quickly brought in all my stuff. There was also the cat Mitsa greeting us at the entrance. I picked up quickly what I needed for morning and then went to sleep. Ishikura-san told me to wake up at 5 a. m. to check if the trains are going to drive. If not - we go by car.

What happened next and did I manage to arrive to Osaka find out soon.

Thanks for reading.

Photo credits to: 石倉大裕

Photo gallery