I got a message from Keiko on my phone just as I was heading to the bus terminal. “It looks like rain, and I can’t give you a ride home tonight either. Are you sure you want to come?” But in my mind, I was already halfway to Kamiyama.

As soon as I arrived, Keiko asked me to help her carry Liz Roth’s paintings from her 24 Hours /24 Portraits project over to the office so we could scan them. When we looked more closely at the paintings, some of the thicker bits of oil paint still looked wet and we got nervous about smudging them so we left them for Liz to take a look at.

After lunch, Liz and Andrea popped by and Liz started scanning her paintings right away. She laughed at Keiko and I for being so timid. Hah! Now we know better for next time.

In the end it didn’t rain, and actually it was very warm and sunny. Sadako Kawano, who also works in the Kaizen Center with Keiko, offered to take me around to some of the restaurants and cafés in order to take pictures of the menus. Why? So I could translate them into English for all our non-Japanese speaking visitors! We even popped by Michi no Eki so I could get a snap of all the ice cream flavors.

I left the Kaizen Center at about 5:45 to catch the second-to-last bus of the day into the city. As I walked out, I yelled to Sadako, “I’m not sure where to wait for the bus!” but she didn’t hear me. I figured it wouldn’t be that hard to figure out, so I just left.

You see, I have ridden the bus to Kamiyama many times, but I almost always manage to catch a lift home with someone. When I got to the bus stop I usually get off at there was no corresponding sign on the opposite side of the road, so I kept walking until I found a bus stop that was on my side of the road.

Big mistake! Do you see that road in the distance that slopes down towards the right? By the house with the blue roof? As I happily snapped pictures of rice fields in mid-harvest, my beloved bus crept into the frame, rolling down that other road.

I’ll confess, I did run a little bit. Then I stopped. And I phoned the Kaizen Center. In the end, Mr. Ominami kindly gave me a lift home. We talked about the value of making mistakes. And about how this would make a great story for the Kamiyama blog.

Sometimes I feel like I am missing out by not driving a car, but I am always grateful for the conversations I get to have when people like Keiko, Nikolai, and Mr. Ominami give me a ride home.