(temple path exploration / hidden children / dentist lunch expectation)
I’m on vacation. The others go back to the hotel, but I decide to go on an adventure. The place feels like Okinawa, with similar architecture and statues.I go down a narrow path that doesn’t look made for cars, though I saw one go down it. I follow it as it continues to narrow and eventually enters a pitch-black tunnel. I use my phone to light the way.
After the tunnel, the path turns to gravel and goes uphill past a building that might have been the car’s destination. The path is clearly too narrow for a vehicle. I continue up the hill, around a bend, and up some stairs toward what looks like a temple.
At the top platform, my way is blocked by a fallen statue of a two-headed creature. It’s large and heavy. I try to push it but can only shift it slightly. There are other fallen decorations along the path, and I pick them up and lean them back into place. Looking out over the temple, it seems like a storm has knocked everything over. Broken statue pieces are scattered everywhere.
The temple area consists of the platform I’m on with a few statues and small hut-like buildings, and then the main grounds below, with a single building in the center. The ground is gravel, with stone slab paths cutting through the middle and along the edges.
At first I see movement and wonder if the area is a playground for neighborhood kids. I go forward toward the main building and down some stone steps, and then the kids appear. They initially think I don’t understand Japanese. I do, but I respond in English.They’re a little disappointed that I cleaned up the path, since it means adults can get here more easily, but they also think it’s strange that one statue is still toppled, so they work together to put it back. I’m impressed because it was very heavy, but they move it easily.
The kids are curious about me but not direct. They follow me, tap me, and run away. When I ask them direct questions, they hesitate to respond.
I go into the building. Inside, it looks like a small gym room with mats on the floor and lockers around the edges. The layout shifts between an open space and a more structured locker room with rows of lockers and a small bench.Two kids, a boy and a girl, follow me in. I comment on how worn the lockers look, and the girl explains that the tall lockers are still used for gym class, while the smaller cubbies are used when they come to change.
On the other side of the room, there’s a display of books like a small library. I point out One Piece. The girl says that the series in front isn’t actually One Piece, but a spin-off where a side character transitions into a man and that’s his story, with book seven on display.
Next to it is a thick book labeled as a One Piece Guide. I open it and find something completely different. It’s about the Millennium Earl versus Mickey Mouse, written in English. Mickey goes on vacation and leaves his empire to the Earl. The Earl quickly takes over, rebrands everything, and starts putting out videos with things like Cool Ranch Doritos as a background because that’s something Americans like. Someone watches one of the videos and says they don’t know what it is about him, but he seems cool. Soon, the Earl is brainwashing America.
I find it interesting that the Earl, who is a manga character, is drawn in a Western comic style, even though it’s still black and white.
I’m the adult son of a dentist. My dad is youthful and wants a good relationship, but I’m grown and feel jaded and find him cringey. One day I offer to bring lunch and eat with him.
He gets very excited and tells all his morning clients that his son is bringing lunch to eat with him. But we have different expectations. I plan to bring convenience store bread and eat quietly on a park bench. He expects something I made, or at least a proper bento, and that we’ll eat at his office and talk.
I’m also late, and as it gets closer to one, he becomes nervous waiting for me.