Kugui Village is a small fishing community in the southern corner of Saidaiji, Okayama City. It is as quaint as a seaside village can be with a thriving farming and fishing heritage. When I first moved to Saidaiji I saw the name written on a road sign but I had no reason to venture to this remote place.Years passed,jobs changed and I seemed to always meet people with a friend who lived in Kugui. I had yet to find a reason to try to get there myself. Transportation was a problem because at that time I didn’t have a car and the only way in by public transportation was a coastal bus that started from Saidaiji Station. Of course I could catch the bus in Kanzaki or even Asahi walking from my house, but why?
People I worked with told me it was great, not something you see every day in Japan.Then, I started working with a guy who just happened to live in Kugui. Like me, he had no family connection to Saidaiji but rather serendipitously happened upon a beautiful Japanese style home in Kugui with a low rent. Although we lived a full five kilometers from one another we were as good as next door neighbors. In my neighborhood I was the guy from the States and in his he was the guy from Australia.
His house was a few hundred meters from the sea and was on a large piece of land full of palm trees and his leisure oriented constructions, like a deck he built over his seasonal pool. His parties were legendary for foreign types and locals. I remember one of his neighbors coming by with a real fully sharpened samurai sword and allowing us drunken fools to wield it. His house in Kugui was the first place where I felt that anything was possible in Japan.
Sadly, he and his family decided to return to Australia and try something different. They are gone but surely missed by everyone,including the local community for the vitality they brought to Kugui. I still drive through there once and awhile, hoping his cars will be under the tarp over the dirt driveway. They are never there but what remains is the fact Kugui Village opened its arms to a family of four from Australia.
