A Life Incomplete

I got on the bus thinking it was going one way but it ended up going in an entirely different direction. My day was ruined for about 30 minutes, but the kindness of the bus driver and the person in charge of the Dozaki Church museum made things better. I headed back to the center of town with a rosary, some postcards, and the memory of a beautiful brick church on the coast – the same coast where storms came through that would cause enough damage that it could not be registered as a World Heritage site. Which makes it easier to visit, in the end. After having lunch at a restaurant Tora-san ate lunch, I made my way to Tamanoura, where Tora-san also I went. Getting off at a church with the oldest Lourdes grotto in Japan, I walked the few kilometers down the coast to Tamanoura Church, where Tora-san once passed by. Everything else in the town that Tora-san visited had changed. The church was still the same, though. As I was taking photos someone came by to lock it up – so I had made it just in time! I wandered down to the red lighthouse where Tora-san had also been. No one was around, just me and the waves crashing into the sea. I had now been to Abashiri where Tora spent time thinking while looking at the Hat Rock and the Goto Islands where Tora looked out into the sea next to the red lighthouse.