Haikyo – Route 303 (Part 3 – The Lonely House)

   So this is the third and final part of the 303 trilogy that’s taken me over a year to blog – and which probably never would have been blogged if it hadn’t been for the continued hits and comments I keep getting. So thanks for that!

Anyway, this final part is, as the title says, one lonely house I spotted besides a branch off from 303.

After spotting the site from a distance a quick check of the exterior quickly confirmed it’s haikyo status. The sliding doors at the front were unlocked and the kitchen door was just gaping open, in short you could have asked for a more inviting site.

I always enjoy small domestic haikyo because of all the personal details that you can find, and this one delivered as soon as you walked through the door. The tatami floor, of a room which had obviously been raided by deer several times, was scattered with faded photos of children spilt from an old tin box. I can’t really say why, but I just loved the bleached and blurred edged the water damage had dealt these pictures.

The bright lit kitchen opened onto a much darker pair of back rooms, a living room (piled with futons) and a larger (empty) tatami room.

By far my favourite feature of these back rooms was the wardrobe, with its door open and a single, simple, white dress hanging inside – beautiful.

A narrow flight of stairs at the far end of the living room led up to a loft, however one part of this space bad been boxed off to create a small makeshift bedroom; which, going by the evidence of school book and old posters, had been a kids room. I must have been quite strange to have such a boxy little room, only separated from the loft by a flimsy partition.

  Beyond that I really can’t tell you anything about the story of this place – but as Neil Gaimen once observed it’s the mystery not the answer that survives, so maybe not knowing anything is better anyway.

I really did like this funny, lonely little house though and actually went back again after my initial winter visit (so those photos were compiled over two visits).

It was nice to see the same place both covered in snow and surrounded by green grass; the ability to re-visit is a big advantage of local haikyo and enjoy these seasonal variations.

To date that’s the extent of my discoveries on route 303 having covered the whole section in reasonable cycling distance from my flat.

I still have another 6 or 7 haikyo trips to write-up, and though I will try to do it sooner rather than later I may well slip.

At the moment I don’t only have my life, my wife and my work (as usual), but also I’m spending most of my free time studying for a big Japanese language test in December right now.

So wish me luck with that, and I promise I haven’t abandoned this blog!

Oh – there’s also an album online now. A big collection of pictures from all three 303 reports. You can check that out at the link below –

Route 303 photo album

Enjoy!

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