Piczo

Riding the Gomen-Nahari Line

I woke up the day after the massive typhoon, in a bad condition. The night before, as the typhoon churned off the coast of Kochi, we briefly lost power. Even though it returned quite quickly, my air conditioner decided not to come back to life. So that morning I woke up to the feeling of being overheated into a room that was pitch black. This was because the metal shutters were still covering the window, not allowing any sunlight to creep through. I had also assumed that the remnants of the storm would still be hammering Kochi, so today would be a very boring day. How wrong! The first thing to conform this was when I opened my door. I thought I must have instantly died and been welcomed into heaven. The brightness was blinding. The shuttered Windows had been opened, and the angelic appearing Sunshine was pouring in like Butterscotch. Plus I know heaven isn't going to be that welcoming for me. haha. My host mom, seeing me come out of my room, greeted me as warmly as the sunshine, and slid into my room to open my own shuttered windows. I thought I had been blinded, when the sunshine filled my previously darkened room. In the sky, there was only a few lazy clouds to offset the deepest and cleanest blue I think I have ever seen. There was no demented winds blustering television antennas and flinging trees across the lawns, there was clouds the greyest and most ominous as there were before, and most importantly the sky was no longer dumping water onto my Kochi. In essence, the storm appeared to not have existed at all. When I headed down the stairs for my usual morning routine. Coffee. I walked into the living room and into Michiyo on the phone. I hear her ask for a reservation, but I didn't listen into it too much. Instead I went straight for the door. The weather certainly didn't show much evidence of a typhoon, but surely the damage to properties would. Sure enough, the drains were nearly flooded over, and their were thousands of leaves and branches combined with mud in the middle of the streets. All in all, though, it wasn't quite as bad as I suspected. Back inside, I drank my coffee with Toshiki, when Michiyo came into the room with Okasan. They announced that Michiyo, Toshiki, and I would be going on the Gomen-Nahari line. This, semi-private line running from Gomen to Nahari is fairly new. And it isn't very well known except in toursit magazines about Kochi. It make a stop at about 15 different (EXTREMELY small) stations while running along the mountain sides, through rice paddies, and along the crystal clear Pacific ocean. It brings ut the best in the Kochi prefecture, traveling through the countryside as well as into the towns, which are slightly poorer than the rest of the Japan, thus are not very modern. The houses are the traditional Japanese type, and thus very nostalgic for the typical Japanese person. I had never ridden on the Gomen-Nahari, but it was on my list of things to do here in Kochi while I was living here. So when I found out we would be going on the train, I was more than happy to jump on to the idea. Michiyo informed us that she got the idea because she wanted to see the coastline, after the typhoon. I also thought this would be a pretty cool idea. At 9:30, we set off for Kochi Station, and arrived just barely in time for the train out to Gomen. For the record, Gomen in Japanese means Sorry. Even though the Chinese characters aren't the same as the apology characters, people all over Japan joke around about this shere silliness of it. One station is now called Arigato, which means thank you. Imagine the next meeting of the Kochi Prefecture stationmasters’ association: Thank You stationmaster: “Thank you for coming. Sorry, but which station do you represent?” Sorry stationmaster: “Sorry. Thank you, Thank You.” Thank You stationmaster: “Sorry?” Sorry stationmaster: “Sorry.” Thank You stationmaster: “Oh, Sorry! Sorry, Sorry. Thank you.” Gomen has been around for a long time, but officially turning the pair into Thank You Station and Sorry Station was the idea of Takashi Yanase, 85. Mr. Takashi is famed for his original thinking, being the creator of the cartoon superhero Anpanman, a bean paste-filled roll of bread which fights crime with superhuman powers. The obvious question, at least to anyone non-Japanese, is: Why? There’s no answer to this. Not unless you have lived around the Japanese long enough to just understand. But Mr. Takashi had other influences on the line as well. In an effort to promote it for tourism, he also drew a character for each of the stations on the line. I'm not totally sure how many stations there are, but there is at least 15 different characters. At Kochi Station, the three of us boarded our train, a small car with an open deck. The car itself was covered in silly sea characters. What shocked me was that I could name all of them in Japanese. I can't help thinking that exchange students in Europe, probably don't know their host language word for Blowfish, Octopus, Eel, and Bonita Fish. But that's what living in Japan for 11 months will do to a person. On the train, I decided that I was going to take lots of pictures of the Kochi prefecture. When we reached the Gomen station, the three of us got up and went to stand on the open air balcony, looking out onto the sea. Even the weather was scorching hot, it was impossible to stay inside for long. We were all enjoying the scenery of Kochi, from the luscious mountains to small country side town. As we pulled through each station, I tried to get a snap shot of each of the characters, but had a hard time because of the moving train. When we passed over rivers and came close to the coastline, we all grew silent. It was undeniable that the coast was wrecked by the typhoon. The rivers, normally the color of water, clear and not shaped, were a murky brown and flowing at an ominous rate. The places where the rivers flowed into the ocean were brown as mud, and becoming dangerously high. It was visible in every part of the coastline, that a typhoon had just recently come through. What was even more thought provoking was the waves. Since the typhoon was still churning off the coast of Tokyo, farther North in Japan, the waves were still being effected. I had never seen such high waves before. I couldn't help but think about those crazy surfers that run around the world looking for this kind of action. Kochi is known for its surfing on days without typhoons, so try to imagine what it was like with one. We did pass one area, where a few brave souls were attempting to surf. I only got to see them for a few minutes, but they were being tossed around and crushed pretty bad. On the return journey, they were no longer out there. But the three of us did not let the damage get us down. We laughed and cheered as we approached small towns. My taking shots of the Station characters become sort of a game, and everything I missed Michiyo and Toshiki would crack up, then cheer when I got the shot. We passed through tunnels, under the famous green Shikoku mountains, where we could reach out and feel a rare feeling of being cold. From our hands hanging off the side of the balcony, a slight sunburn was starting to appear. I had early tried to smother myself in Sunblock, but I'm too white for the Kochi sun. After a few pictures of the 3 of us, Michiyo, getting overly heated went into the car for the air conditioner. I stayed outside, trying to get more shots of the Station characters and admire the dangerous waves and overflowing rivers. TOshiki stayed with me. Eventually, we reached Nahari, and exited the train. Michiyo and Toshiki were starving, so we went and bought lunch at a local Supermarket. I got a Tuna Onigiri and Bean Paste Ice Cream (Azuki) Outside the station we ate our lunch and waited for the man who ran the bike rental place to return. When we were finished, we rented bikes and went for a small ride around Nahari. Nahari is really too small for anything special, and all the fun attractions were hour bike rides away. We only had one hour to spend because Michiyo and I had to get back for Yosakoi practice. Annoyed that there wan't much we could do, Toshiki led us through the narrow streets of Toda Town and onto the beach. Toshiki and I whipped off our shoes and ran for the water, both knowing that swimming was much too dangerous. We just got our feet wet, while Michiyo built a sand mountain. Just off the beach were cement girders used for breaking Tsunami type waves. We watched as these huge brown waves hurled and were crushed by the girders. Even though they are a bit of an eye sore, without them, Nahari and TOda would be washed away for sure. Looking at the time, and taking in the fact that we were all hot and tired, it was decided that we should head back to Kochi. First we stopped at a Shinto Shrine and prayed to our ancestors. Back into Toda, we biked alongside of a huge place, where people were coming in and out of it. One man told Michiyo that he and his family, as well as half the town had spent the night there. It was the town evacuation shelter. I think that was when we realized just how bad things really were for this part of Kochi. When we arrived back at the station, we did some shopping while waiting for the next train. Toshiki bought me a vile of Coral and a pin for my blazer, while Michiyo treated us all the famous Kochi ice cream. Famous because it is probably the weirdest ice cream in the world. Michiyo got Pumpkin flavored, while I tempted Roast Sweet Potato. Toshiki chickened out of Eggplant and ordered Green Tea (a popular Japanese flavor, here considered normal.) On the train, we zoned out and drifted in and out of sleep. Everyone was slightly sun burnt and tired. Still I managed to get in a few pictures of the stations that I had previously missed. The ride was a little boring, and it came as a relief when we got back into Kochi City. We biked back home, where I took a little nap before dinner. My body was exhausted, but as soon as I was finished eating, Michiyo reminded me about Yosakoi practice. Oh god.