Year: 2007
Month: November
Location: the old castle in the city of Marugame, Kagawa prefecture, Shikoku island
Bill and I were staying with the Kubos again at Hiroko's new and spiffy home in Takamatsu. On this day we took the train by ourselves southward to the city of Marugame to see the ancient castle there. The train trip itself was lots of fun, and at a future date I may post a pic or two from it and the resulting memories. When we got to Marugame, I was very surprised. I'd thought it was a small town with a big castle. Turned out to be a huge city with a medium-sized castle! Anyway, after making our way by trolley and foot (and almost getting lost, another story) we managed to find the castle and take the gondola up the hill to where it was perched. To get into the castle itself you had to go by a circuitous route that made you climb up and up and up around its walls to the entry way. Lots of stairs involved, and by this time on the trip we were starting to seriously tire, so one or both of us would lag from time to time. When this picture was taken, it was Bill's turn to lag; partly because he was tired and partly because he had been stopping to take video and 3-d pictures as we wound our way up (the 3-d pics didn't turn out, that's another sad, sad story I just don't feel inclined to share at this point, if ever). I managed to drag myself to the top of the steps and turned back to take this photo. And that's when it hit me, really hit me.
It finally struck me that we had now achieved a world-traveler milestone--we've been someplace very, very, very old.
The foundations of the castle--the steps we were walking on--were far older than anything we had ever walked on in our entire lives. Far older than most people we knew personally had ever walked on. Older than 95% of the buildings from the country we came from. Older than I had ever dreamed I'd ever find myself walking on.
It was a very strange and exciting realization. As I said, I never gave it any thought before even though I have been to another place in Japan that qualifies for this honor--namely Nijo castle in Kyoto, in 2003 (someday I'll post photos from that trip, too).
Without realizing it I have passed into the status of world traveler. I've traveled far more than my parents ever did (my dad did not voluntarily go to Korea, although he did his duty by going). My sister's traveled far more than I have, but for some reason I didn't feel like going to Japan put me in that specialized category. Too many friends there, I guess--it just seemed like visiting a friend's house. A very unique, exotic, different house, but a friend's place nonetheless.
God has given us the privilege to go places and do things that I never dreamed I'd get to do. Oh, I had some vague idea that I might someday go to England (still not realized), but I never expected to find myself in an exotic locale like Japan. It just wasn't on my radar list.
Welcome to the big, wide world of international travel, Bill and Kathleen Webb!
