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So it was just 5 days to be counted and my last weekend in Japan. The eagerness to touch the land I love the most, to inhale the air, I have grown up on and to touch the face of my niece has been growing and in sch situation, sitting in house is a difficult proposition. I decided to make the best of the weekend.

Saturday morning, I found my self on the train to a place called Sasaguri. In my earlier post, I had written that I met a monk. He had suggested me to go to this place. A place, so near and yet totally unknown to whole of my group. Half and hour of train travel through the hills, jungle and sunshine was more than I had expected it to be. The hills all around were telling not only the tale of the nature but also about the labor and determination that human beings had put in to make tunnel through them and to make the land plain, drivable and livable and many a time arable.

The moment I learnt Sasaguri, I got the lesson of honesty and helpfulness of Japanese. I got down at the station and started trying to take some snaps, totally oblivious to the fact that I had left something behind. I saw a lady waiving at me and I thought her to be a railways staff. I also noticed that the driver had gotten down from his cabin and was standing on the platform. The moment I reached the lady, I could see my mobile phone in her hand. I did not have words to thank her. The moment she handed over the mobile to me and returned too her seat, the driver got back to his cabin and started the train. It was a good beginning of the end of my interaction with Japan.

Sasaguri boasts of the longest statue of lord Buddha in reclining posture. It is made of bronze and is 41 meter long and 11 meter tall. Enormity is an understatement for that. I was totally enamored in the very first sight. The words cannot capture my feelings and the camera had its limitation in capturing the beauty of the statue. One of the event MC ( there was a walking event going on there) tried his best to explain each and every aspect of the place, the status and the structures around it. A group of student volunteers were more than eager to interact with the foreigner, whose language they could hardly understand. The waterfall and the jungle around it were attracting the tourist in me and I could not stop myself.

If the Saturday went in the name of the symbol of peace, Sunday was dedicated to the fierceness of the nature. We decided to go to Mt. Aso, a volcano of Japan. Early in the morning, my friend Satish, his wife, his daughter Ketaki, her soft toy Akash and I were on our way to Mt Aso. The chopper ride and a look at the crater were equally exciting.

But the best part was the lunch. I could never have thought carrying so much of food with me on a 6 hour ride. The thepla, Aaloo ki sabzi, curd, pulao, fruits etc were more than what could have eaten in a day. I must advice, if you have to go on a trip and if you are a food lover, you better go with a Gujarati family. And the drive after such a heavy food was amazing. All of us were sleeping and my friend Satish, who was driving, also caught forty winks while driving and all of us, passengers, were oblivious to the situation we could have been in.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and the one, I would never forget – it was an ode too Japan.