I went again on Saturday morning to the hill shrine, this time with the intention to visit the caretaker, Osho-san (this is her job title, but she figures it is easiest for me to pronounce). I took her some raisin oatmeal cookies I had baked the other day and was hoping to help her out around the temple. She invited me in again for tea... Japanese pickles... rice... and a little Japanese lesson. I tried to offer to help, but she insisted it wasn't necessary. As she drove me home, we stopped by a funky art gallery on the way home to visit her friend, the owner. This time she sent me home with a basket of veggies which I use to made potato-cabbage pancakes to share around. She is such a sweet lady.
In the afternoon, I walked to Ikue-san's house because she had been helping me with train schedules etc. for my summer trips and wanted to go through them with me. It was starting to get really difficult and seemed that it would take me 4 days of travel and 3 nights in hostels in go from Tokyo (where I will be visiting some friends next week) to Monbetsu (where I will be volunteering on a dairy farm for 4 weeks). Then we had a break through in that we found an overnight ferry! Now I can get there in 2 days and not have to spend a single night in a hostel! We also found a very handy bus on Hokkaido that saves me some time and money. What a relief!
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