Life Still Happens

This weekend I went on a voyage much like the famous Odysseus did thousands of years ago. My goal was to drive from the heart of Kyushu--where I live--to the stomach of Kyushu. I accomplished this goal and it will be a voyage that I will not soon forget.

The winding 265 highway connected me from my area near Namino first to Takamori where I again saw outstanding views of Mt. Aso from the south as well as the strange camel shaped, globulous hills that exist out there.

My 1996 Dauhatsu Charade Detomaso was passing through the winding roads like a champ--often at around 2000rpms, 55-80kph. Agile, yet efficient--my good friend despite its squeaks.

Then after miles (or shall I say kilometers) of curvy roads I ran into some strange sights. For instance, a middle school (Shiiba JHS) that was laid out on a sort of cliff in a deep arroyo next to a formidable damn and amidst the cliffs and cherry blossoms. I also found a bridge over green water with sights and two workermen that stay clear in my mind.

A little later I was driving up a curvy road that was only around 15 kilometers from my intended destination and all of a sudden an early nineties Subaru Legacy (a beast of a beat up car) comes storming down the road like nobody's business. I immediately pulled as far to the left of the road as the road permitted and slowed down leaving plenty of room for the Subaru to pass and then watched as it didn't turn enough and slammed into the right front of my car.

It turns out both of our cars were still drivable, although my right front wheel was a little farther back than it should be (which suggested a damaged suspension). The dude, a 55-60 year old man from Kagoshima-ken (the prefecture on the southermost part of Kyushu) appeared to have bad eyesight and maybe a drinking problem. He was nervous as heck; I think he knew that he had driven poorly. I decided to leave him there in order to find reception for my phone and a friend who could help me communicate in Japanese.

Then as luck would have it, or not have it, I was driving down another narrow road and decided to pull over to let a big truck pass and then somehow landed my left front wheel in a ditch. That was nice. Complete with a huge crashing sound of the bottom of my car hitting pavement. That had to happen at some point with all these crazy ditches on the roads here. And this ditch was very small and invisible--a randomly placed road-water drain (unlike the most of them that run down the entire side of a road and are pretty noticeable). Haha. And as luck really would have it, miraculously a truck shows up with four men ready to pull my car out of this ditch. Meanwhile the Subaru shows up to drive to the town with me where I met my friend and other friendly people (like a Japanese forestry professor who taught at Duke University for a year, his wife, and their three little kids) who would help me translate the events in the police office for a good 2.5 hours. As usual, the foreigner will probably get the raw end of the deal in the insurance case, but we'll see. Since nobody saw the accident it is my word against his and I guess that leaves it up to how honest he will be.

And after all this I will have no regrets. I made it safely home with the help of my friend John after a train ride from Kumamoto City. My car is sitting at a Daihatsu dealer (that is about three hours away) waiting for insurance to be dealt so that it may be repaired. Luckily I have a nice friend in the town there to keep an eye on it for me.

Life is by nature hazardous yet most of us stay alive and well amidst the chaos for a good while. I am not worried about the monetary loss, if there is one, because it is probably not too substantial. I am just happy that things like this don't get to me too badly, and that I walk away with few scratches and many memorable moments. So I will continue making my journies.