The Pink House

Asia » Japan » Ehime
September 1st 2006

Published: March 8th 2008

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Yellow Head

The Old and the Young

The words “welcome to your new home” rung in my head as I made my way down from the ferry’s walkway and onto the island’s dock.

I struggled under the weight of my over-packed luggage and attempted to wipe the stream of sweat from off my brow so that I would look a little more presentable, but it was useless. The heat was just too much, even at this hour. I cursed myself for ignoring the advice of others and not packing light.

I must have been quite the sight that night. I had just arrived from Tokyo and was dressed in my most formal of attire. The locals all wore small towels draped around their necks or tied across their foreheads to combat the relentless heat. At that moment I could tell that carrying about my looks was a worry of the past. Massive men walked around me wearing pink towels tied about in nice little bows at the front without a second thought in the world. I wondered; where could I get one of those? That’s really all you need to survive in a jungle like this.

The locals shuffled around me in their summer sandals

The Little Beast

It looks harmless enough but they get into the fisherman's nets, cut up all of the fish and make a general mess of things.

and helped me with my luggage, no questions asked. I tossed them a weary smile and muttered my piss-poor greeting in Japanese that they probably didn’t even understand. But it is just the point that matters, right?

In my delirious state I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. All I knew was that after a long wait I had finally made it to the island that I would call home for the next couple of years. I asked where we where going and they looked at me with a smile and said the
“pinku howsu”. The pink house you say, what in the world is that. I figured I would soon know and just followed the flow. As we made our way along the harbor I stopped to take it all in. It was beautiful. The deep blue waters of the Japanese Inland Sea stretched out for as far as my eyes could see. A couple of islands dotted the horizon but they looked worlds away. I really am in a different world.

The sun was just beginning to set and the sound of cicadas filled my ears. Besides this and the sound of our footsteps there

Islanders

put two city boys on isolated islands and this is the result

was not much else in the way of noise. The road, if you can call it that, was completely empty and the intense orange glow of the setting sun set the village aglow. I wondered where all the people were then I remembered the town statistics from my welcome letter. There are only 120 people here after all, well now 121 including me. The people that surrounded me at that moment must have made up quite a large percentage of the population. Thinking about that brought a smile to my face.

After all of 2 minutes we had arrived at the “pink house”. In that span of time, and I might add that we were walking at quite the leisurely pace, we had managed to span the entire village. It turned out that my new apartment sat at the bottom of this building. The name was quite suiting as well since the building was well, quite pink. I was handed my key and I cracked the door.

I tossed my bags in the entranceway with a sigh of relief and went to investigate. I was shocked. I thought they must have made some type of mistake. It was

Having a go at my camera

your praying mantis style is no match for my iron crotch shaolin kungfu

perfect. Two rooms were strewn across with fresh tatami mats and the smell filled the house. Everything I could possibly want or think of was there. You couldn’t think of a more perfect place to live. I let out a string of thank yous in both Japanese and English and sprawled out onto my new tatami mats. After a long journey I could now truly say that I had arrived at my new home.

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