Looking back, I've realized that some of the happiest
moments in my life have taken place on the top of some mountain, in the middle
of nowhere, and with little to no people around. Although I've felt I can deal
with them, I don't ever remember being too fond of crowds or big gatherings.
Being in the Tokyo area for the past little bit has been a bit of a change, but
I had a great escape this past week.
My good friend Elder Tree and I went on splits this past week and our schedule was completely blank, so we had a decent chunk of finding time ahead of us. That morning while we planned Elder Tree proposed the idea that we hop on our bikes, take off for the hills, and just knock on doors of all the farm houses up in the mountains until we find someone. I turned into a giddy little school boy in that moment. I knew it was gonna be a good day, but I had no idea how good it would be.
First we decided to visit a less active that neither of us have met before that lived that direction. While winding out way through a small mountain path we came across a small, frail looking old man walking who we decided to stop and talk to. Upon saying hello he looks dead at me, smacks his arm, points at me, puts out his hand, and says, "try." In English. I grip his hand and immediately he starts to arm wrestle me. Upon stopping his attempt at conquering my ego, we reset into the start position. He grunts and says, "one more." And Again the match continued. But alas, my arm stayed upright. He releases grip and says, "mmm, very strong. I show you my home". We followed him back to his small ranch where he showed us his fields and kiwi orchard. He then introduced us his exercise routine and how he does 100 pull ups every morning, although he is 87 years old, he was very proud of his health. He asked that we come back some time. But we weren't just coming back to visit. We're coming back to work in his fields. So Elder Tree and I were laughing about this whole situation, but it got better. Turns out this arm wrestling champion was the father of the less active we intended on visiting in the first place. So we are
definitely going back at this point.
Then at that point we hoped on our bikes, said goodbye, and took off deeper into the mountains. We weren't having much success so we decided to stop for dinner at a small, sketchy ramen shop in the middle of nowhere Japan. As expected we were the only ones in the shop where they had a TV playing a Korean soap opera. We ordered our food and while eating the lady who ran the ramen shop started asking about what 2 white dudes were doing in this part of Japan. After some discussion and a good little chat we ended up setting up another time to come back and teach about God and The Purpose of Life. She handed us 2 free pepsi's while we left and asked to be safe as we travel back. Elder Tree was ecstatic to be teaching the mountain ramen shop owner.
Before heading home that night we realized that we still had to complete our language study time for the day. The road leading through the mountains goes along a stream. So we dropped down to the stream, kicked off our shoes, found a rock to sit on, dipped in our toes, popped open a Pepsi, and studied some Japanese before finishing the night back in the city.
The rest of the week wasn't near as exciting as that day. But I did get to help our man Yamaguchi with his car this past week. It was a lot of fun playing in the garage with him. I'll get a picture of the car next week because now we're going over to his place once a week to help with the car and then teaching a lesson on top of the other times we meet. So things are going really well with him. Things have been cooling down which feels really good. The foods delicious, the people are amazing, the work is moving, and I get to learn something new everyday. I can't complain.
Don't forget to love one another! Also take some time to escape to the mountains this week or go on a hike or something. It's good for you.
"The Mountains are calling and I must go"
愛しています、
Elder Cuff
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