At long last, it's the third day.
On this day, my aunt and I visited Kiami-cho, Masuda City, Shimane Prefecture, where my grandmother's house used to be, to see the tree that I had carved with "Koshien" when I was in high school.
The reason I said "my grandmother's house used to be" was my grandma's house had collapsed a few years before when we visited.
Completely flat. haha
My grandmother had lived alone for a long time in a lonely house in the mountains.
It was a traditional Japanese house made of wood and mud walls.
The water supply was not connected, and water was drawn from a nearby pond with a bucket.
The bath was also heated by burning firewood, and the toilet was a drop toilet.
Next to it, an air-raid shelter remained.
For some reason, this air-raid shelter was a toilet exclusively for grandma. hahaha
There were many fields around, and my grandmother was growing vegetables.
One day, my grandmother slipped and broke her leg and she moved to Hiroshima Prefecture, after this.
Right after that,
Grandma's house collapsed.
I had heard the story that "Grandma's house collapsed" for some time, so I wanted to see what it was like with my own eyes and I actually visited where my grandma's house used to be,
IT WAS REALLY FLAT. hahaha
IT WAS SOOOOO BROKEN that I couldn't help but laugh, and it blew away even emotions such as sadness, painfulness, and loneliness. hahaha
"How flat is it!?"
Surprised and satisfied, I almost forgot my original purpose of looking at a tree carved with "Koshien" and almost left.
I took a deep breath, looked at the tree behind my grandma's house, and thought, "Oh, this tree, this tree."
Well, even though it was behind the house, the house was flat and the tree was in full view the whole time. hahaha
When I looked at the wood, I could see that there was a part where the bark had peeled off, as if it had been carved into something, but there were no letters.
Six years had completely erased the characters I carved for "Koshien". haha
"Oh, it's gone," I muttered unintentionally to the flat house.
“Yeah, of course,” I felt as if the flattened house had answered.
It took me three days on a motor bicycle to come all the way, but I was too frustrated that I couldn't achieve my purpose, so I changed my purpose to "Go around the *Chugoku region on a motor bicycle."
*The Chugoku region is the western region of the main island of Japan, and consists of five prefectures: Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, Hiroshima, and Yamaguchi.
I decided to leave Shimane Prefecture, pass through Yamaguchi Prefecture for a while, go south, cut through Hiroshima and Okayama, then head back to Hyogo, the place I lived then.
That night, I stayed at my aunt's house for another night.
to be continued...
