Japanese Grandpa Guides Me on My Trip, and His Most Impressed Memories Were the Terracotta Warriors and Toilets
On my last trip to Japan, it was during the autumn foliage season. I originally planned to visit Shinozawa Temple, but the early morning train was already gone, so I decided to explore Minoh in Osaka first. As soon as I got off the train, I realized that the town was really quiet. I followed the navigation along the small path and occasionally saw a small group of Japanese people. As I started to walk up the steps covered in green moss, I rarely saw anyone. Wondering about the road ahead, I just happened to see two grandmothers and a grandfather.
The Japanese grandfather pointed the way, listening carefully to what he said. If you want to see beautiful maple leaves, you need to walk for 2 hours. 'Wow, that's really a long way!' I sighed on the side, but the two Japanese grandmothers laughed. They asked me where I was from, and in doing so, they broke into their conversation. The grandfather advised us not to go further up the mountain; there's a place within a 10-minute walk that has beautiful maple leaves. Luckily, he had some free time, so he guided us. We chatted along the way.
Talking about China, the Japanese grandfather kept talking.
Looking at the grandfather's attire and his mastery of the forest, he must be a staff member of this area. Me and the two grandmothers listened to him explain along the way, without a dull moment. 'Saying that China, I most like へいばよう!' The grandfather suddenly changed the topic, I was two eyes one blank, what is へいばよう? The two grandmothers were also blank, because she and her two had never seen it before. The grandfather was a little anxious, said it is in Xi'an the most famous, he was very like to go to see. I suddenly reacted, immediately answered: 'Chinese people go to Xi'an, all must see the terracotta warriors, I went to university.'
'China's terracotta warriors are amazing! But China's toilets are… completely incomparable to Japan.' I didn't know how to respond, because I myself wanted to complain about Chinese public toilets. The grandfather saw me in a silent state and immediately said, 'But the hotel's toilets are much better, I stayed in Shanghai hotels before, the hotel's toilets were much better than public toilets.' I nodded, 'That's right, the cleanliness of hotels is much better, after all, guests spend a lot of money.' In Japan, traveling is hygienic and you don't need to worry about where the toilets are. They are all very clean.
Sorry to refuse the Japanese aunties,The two following grandmothers nodded frequently, one of them even said 'Hello', in a stiff Chinese. 'Auntie, your Chinese is great!' The short-haired auntie shook her head, 'No, no, I only know this sentence!' The long-haired auntie asked, 'Can you teach me how to say 'Nice to meet you' in Chinese?' I said it sentence by sentence: 'Seeing you is very happy!' The two grandmothers repeated the sentence every time they heard the word 'very' pronounce it incorrectly.
Although the Japanese grandfather's hair was half white, he walked with a swagger. He would take us to the temple. This place is really not seen tourists, only colorful red leaves. After chatting with the two grandmothers again, she and her two said that the purpose of this trip was to visit Minoh Waterfall, and continued to return to the mountain. I waved goodbye to them and turned back to the station. I looked at the map and thought that the two grandmothers were going to enter the mountain, but because they met the Japanese grandfather, they took a wrong turn, and they should have refused them. It wasn't until the grandfather left that they turned back. Japanese people are, probably, they can't help but refuse others, huh?
Later at the station, it started to rain lightly; through the window, I took a picture of maple leaf tempura. Maple leaf season, Japanese people wrap maple leaves in a layer of batter and fry them into maple leaf tempura. I had a high expectation, thinking it was a very romantic thing, seeing this appearance, I didn't dare to eat it much. I randomly boarded a train to visit Shinozawa Temple.
