Buddists following the Eightfold Path
I’ll never forget these two guys who were out to do me a good deed that day. In Buddhism, salvation (Nirvana) is claimed to be achieved via one’s good works. These fellows found an excellent opportunity in this foolish American who ran off the road.
This beautiful area is close to scenic Lake Towada, a volcanic crater lake, and the road leads (in the other direction, up the hill) to the Tsuta onsen ryokan. An onsen is a hot-spring bath, and a ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn. I had just come from the ryokan, although I did not stay at this one–just drove by to see it. On the way down the hill, driving on the left side of the road, as all who drive in Japan do, I glanced down at my road map in the passenger seat. I took my eyes off the road for only a moment and slid off the road with two wheels. I was lucky I didn’t flip over. This road, like most in Japan, had no shoulder, and in this case there was a sharp drop-off of about six feet (two meters).
I hadn’t seen another vehicle for some time, so I grabbed my water jug, put on my coat, and started jogging down the hill to find the nearest service station, which turned out to be several kilometers away. Then it started to rain. These young Japanese men were going up the hill to the ryokan and turned around to help me. They took me to the service station and tried to get their auto club to help, but they had to go to plan B. They purchased a tow cable, but they would not let me reimburse them. They even refused my offer to buy them food or a drink.
Unfortunately, they were unable to pull my car off the ledge.
Towada tour bus
No vehicles, then, all of a sudden, people everywhere. I think this busload of people must have been staying at the ryokan. Everyone wanted to “supervise” my rescue. After a bit, the passengers re-boarded the bus and went about their way.
At the service station we had met a heavy-equipment driver with his Komatsu earth-moving equipment. He had promised to come up the hill to pull my car back onto the road, and now he had finally arrived.
Road grader to the rescue
In this shot you can see how the wheels on the right side (the driver’s side) of my car were not even touching the road. The ditch was deeper than it looked. When the grader finally pulled my car free, it rolled into the yellow monster and got a nice dent in it’s right-front fender, just above the parking light. The driver didn’t mind taking my offer of 5000 yen (about $35), so no fast track to Nirvana for him. You can’t tell much about him in this photo, but the other two gentlemen (never caught their names) have now been immortalized in my blog. Domo arigato gozaimashita, tomodachi!
