During my Japan business trip in October, I managed to arranged a visit to Grace and family in Nagano. My initial plan was to visit them just on that Friday evening and then I would set off to Sado Island on Saturday morning and stayed there for two nights. I had even booked a car in Sado Island and all ready and excited to see the island where Nichiren was exiled to.
Friday finally arrived, but in that morning, my team member told me that a typhoon would be heading towards Sado Island and hit there on Saturday. She had advised me to cancel my trip there as I might not be able to go or come back if the infrastructure was affected. Without a doubt, I was disappointed as I had been planning this for a while, and the bad news came at such last minute. Moreover, if I had to cancel this, I would need to find another place to spend my long weekend (following Monday was a public holiday). Nevertheless, I cancelled the idea to Sado, not willing to take unnecessary risk. Jokingly, I also requested my Japanese colleagues to suggest an alternate place for me to spend my time. After querying about Grace's address, they proposed a place called Karuizawa where there were nice waterfall and volcano. I took up their suggestion without much hesitation and booked a hotel there. In that evening, I started my 'journey' to Sakudaira in Nagano, where Grace, Misaki and Aoi-san picked me up at the train station and we had dinner together.
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| Dinner with Grace and Family |
I spent a night at Grace's place, sleeping in Yasu's room. Next morning I took a walk around Grace's neighbourhood before setting off to explore around the place. We made a brief stop at a kaikan in Nagano, then headed to Grace's in-laws place. Along the way, we also visited some apple farms and a kind farmer even offered me a Fuji apple! Towards noon, Aoi-san and his brother 'activated' their motorcycles and kindly 'usher' us to visit the famous Karuizawa waterfall, Kusatsu Onsen area and also the Karuizawa volcano.
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| Kaikan in Nagano |
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| Apple farm |
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| Aoi-san and his brother motorcycles |
After resting a night in my hotel, I took a train to Grace place the next morning to experience a brand new experience, harvesting the rice in the padi field! Grace's in-law had about 10 plots of padi fields and they only harvested them once a year, so I was very lucky to play a small part in the harvest this year. The experience was fantastic although a bit tiring for me, I also came to appreciate and treasure every grain during this harvest.
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| Taking a short break during the harvest |
Thus, I did not manage to visit Sado Island this time, I thought I had gained something even more priceless, a good gathering with Grace's family and a good experience in the rice harvest. I had also learnt that it was not necessary to be too disappointed when things did not turn out the way you wanted, because something greater maybe awaiting, so applicable in our life, isn't it?
