Bullet train is over, I have played with deer, I have seen and hiked some wondrous things… I am sitting on the 7th port mid-ship deck of the MV explorer and thinking about what’s next. That’s all this really is, is what’s going on and what’s next… its hard to comprehend time and “what just happened” because the “what’s next” is raging. Chinas next and here’s what just happened:
The bullet train was nice, but I think I gave the country side too much credit at the time… it was beautiful and proved to me that Japan had mountains, and valleys and agriculture… but the towns had a familiar trend of rice patties-homes-business-mountains… and they would start again with the next flat land. In Kyoto and Nara, I saw some really small farms and patties that were stuffed between even the largest buildings. You see, Japan doesn’t import or export rice, so they grow it all, even in the tightest areas, and this keeps the price real high. Their communal spirit and acknowledgement of their country as their top priority is something we don’t have in the states, and something I learned to appreciate in Japan.
Day 3 Continued: after we got off the bullet train we wandered the streets of Kobe with the hopes of finding a hotel for the night. Kobe is a really narrow city, and a modern one too, in the past 60 years it has had 2 devastating earth quakes, and thus has been recently rebuilt. Its tucked in between a mountain range and the ocean. After 3 subways, and an hour on foot… we hopped in a taxi and it found a place for us. I headed out with my friend Pete to do some exploring, and without a map we managed to find a temple several blocks away… apparently it was locking up for the night and we were nearly locked inside the grounds for the night… a monk let us out. We then headed down an ally and dropped into a “pachinko” which is a slot machine parlor. WE played for a few, and then cashed out… (the lady gave us a tablet, we walked across the street, put it inside a hole in the wall… and a hand popped out with our money). We walked around some more, got cleaned up, and hit the town with some friends. After dinner, we walked around and my friend Cara ran into these Japanese school girls (15-16) and asked them about Karaoke. They led us to the 20th floor of a building where we Karaoked the night away together (it was strangely awkward though). However, since Karaoke was invented in Kobe, it was epic. We got some rest, and boarded the MV explorer early in the morning.
Day 4: After nearly missing my trip, I boarded the motor coach and we headed to Nara. This day we visited the oldest wooden temple, and largest wooden building in Japan (largest in the world actually). After this we went to a few more shrines and temples and yada yada yada… this story will be told better through pictures. In Nara though, they have this deer park that has 1000 tame deer. So, we sat with them, fed them… bowed to them (to which they would bow back) and had a lovely time in the park. The process of feeding them is hilarious… 1) if you have paper in your pocket they will eat it, 2) if you hold a cookie in the air they will bow down to you, 3) if you taunt them long enough they WILL bite you… which they did. It was really cool, and weird to think that if I wanted to bag an 8 point, I would just have to snap his neck… and had the means to do so easily. This night, in Kyoto… we stayed in a Ryokan. Which is a Japanese style hotel. After checking in, we took off our shoes, and put on our Kimonos and had green tea in our rooms before having a Kobe steak dinner that we cooked our selves while sitting on the floor. It was wicked. Kobe steak is actually not from Kobe, but rather shipped from there… so the official name for it is actually “Japanese beef” (Tal’s interesting fact for the day). That night I went down to the Geisha district with some friends. I went up to random dudes and asked if they knew where we could find a Geisha, they all adamantly shook their heads no and ran away… I would later find out that we were looking for Gei Ko’s and not geishas… geishas are whores (that would be like a guy asking for a slut in new york) which in retrospect provides for a sufficiently awkward memory. We retired to our ryokan and slept on a mat on the floor.
Day 5: I woke at 5:30 while the sun was rising to walk around the grounds of a local monastery. After hiking through the peace garden in the woods, I went into a closed door and down a hall where a guy was chanting and beating a very large drum. I was definitely not allowed here, and a monk let me know this very soon… I hope that I can pray with a monk sometime soon. As a whole, the non-religiosity of the Japanese people is staggering. The sacred temples to them are tourist sites… I only saw praying at 2 of the ten or so temples I visited, the rest had donation and fortune shops… that’s like going and seeing nobody praying at Notre Dame, which is ludicrous to think. Anywho, I prayed at both, and rang the gongs, and it was sweet. Today we went to the golden pavilion and the Shoguns castle, and some other places… but two places stood out like no other places I have ever been in the world. One was called the “Pure water temple”… and its uber old and built on stilts on top of a cliff. It was breathtaking, because it overlooked a beautiful mountain range, and the industrial city of Nara. There were three streams here (one for wealth, health and happiness) that people drank from… ohhh, the temple is all wood and the stilts were built without a single nail or latching. At this place I saw a dragon ceremony where a bunch of monks processed around doing crazy things. The second place was a long hall with 1000, 12ft tall bronze Buddha statues. Each one had 40 arms (each finger had 5 special blessings, 25 per hand, 50 per set… times 20 for 1000… thus the 1000 statues), and was equally beautiful and unique. The hall was about 300 meters long, and stinking breathtaking. I illegally snapped a photo for you. These two places completely made me understand why I want to study this, and burnt up any doubt I may have had. We made our way back to Kobe, and boarded the Explorer. Last night I had a 3 hour convo with my room mate and 2 dudes from Walla Walla, Washington. The subject was the desireability of eternal life. And whether not living forever is something that would be really boring and even miserable… and something that is beautiful and sacred (like the Christian tradition)… I am going to have to learn a lot more about this. But, nonetheless, I live for this type of stuff, and I think the intellectual stimulation my peers are about to offer is about to go through the roof.
Kyoto and even Japan as a whole exemplified tradition and respect; at first I would snap a photo of a house that looked cool… but soon realized that temples and historical markers are commonplace when your tradition goes back so long, and your country is rich with several religious traditions and influences. The reverence the people have for each other and for visitors is unparalleled. The bow is a habit is a habit that I hope to not soon break, because unlike us, who yell at each other and live for the approval and dominance of others. They live to respect and lift each other up. That was Japan for me.
China is next, and Japan just got shredded by Thomas Ashton Leon DeBauche.
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