Sodo Yokoyama and Keikoen Park

Sodo Yokoyama was a Zen monk who lived in Komoro, Nagano. Every day of the year he would come to Kaikoen park to sit zazen, serve people tea, write calligraphy and play the leaf flute. I first read about him in Arthur Braverman's book Living and Dying in Zazen. I have uploaded the first few pages on Yokoyama below. After you have read them you will probably understand why I felt an instant affection for this childish and playful monk (or Zen master). He reminded me of a passage in Shunryu Suzuki's book Not Always So which I have always held close to me:

"Whatever happens, whether you think it is good or bad, study closely and see what you can find out. This is the fundamental attitude. Sometimes you will do things without much reason, like a child who draws pictures whether they are good or bad. If that is difficult for you, you are not actually ready to practise zazen."


Sadly Yokoyama died in 1980. Braverman recently wrote a short article about visiting the park again, and talking to Yokoyama's only deciple. After reading it I decided that I had to visit the park myself, and I was overjoyed to find that it was only 2 hours drive from where I live.

The park itself is very beautiful. Below is a video I made with photos of the park and a recording of Yokoyama's leaf music which played from a small electronic box where he used to sit (something which he would probably find very amusing). Go to the youtube site to see it in better quality.



The only sad thing about the park was a horrible animal zoo adjoined to it. The zoo was in a devastated condition, it smelt like shit because the cages had not been cleaned for a while (there was shit in some of the animal's drinking water, and it's summer now in Japan), the cages themselves were far too small and completely bare. I decided not to take any photos. Kotomi and I released a small squirrel that was locked up in a 30cm square cage out in the sun with no shade. I hope it survives. I felt really depressed after leaving that place.

Update: American Ninja in Japan Edition

I tried not to laugh. I swear. I tried to stop myself from smirking. But I think they noticed that my words were saturated with sarcasm.

Grumpy called me over. Please talk to these foreigners. Some fat Americans. Ok, chubby, not fat. Three guys, one girl. Kotomi had been translating for grumpy. I say hi, I'm the resident gajin here. [Joke, haha]. Oh hello. [American English is so painful to listen to] We're visiting Noda, and we saw the dojo and thought we'd have a look. Oh, so you do kendo? Um no. So what do you do? We do [incomprehensible Japanese]. Oh yea, and what's that? Oh... that's [quietly] ninjitsu. Oh, and what's ninjitsu? [Acting dumb. Sarcasm, remember? I could tell what they were right from the start]. Oh... umm, ninja... stuff. Oh. Smirk. So, ah, yea, we're here in Noda, visiting the sensei of my sensei. [Aparently Noda is famous for ninja. Actually, Noda has pretty damn good ninja; I haven't seen a single one yet]. He says, I run a ninja dojo at home in [nasal American English] Co-lo-radoooo Sp-rrri-nnnngssss. Oh, that's nice. [Thinking of excuses to leave.... damn, none coming to mind]. We really like Noda. Kotomi and me look at each other, try not to laugh. Smirk. Oh really? What do you like about Noda? [The soy sauce factory? The run-down shops? The small railway station?] Oh, you know, it's so great here. We're staying for two weeks. Oh, well... er, that's nice... I have to... er... go pack up my stuff. Bye.

I think they were pretty relieved when I left them.

Idiocy

I'll try not to write how I feel about this, so make up your own minds:

In some parts (perhaps all) of Japan there are efforts under way to fight terrorism. For example:

• They have sealed off the vending machines at the Noda and Kashiwa train stations. (Noda, in case you are wondering, is a tiny station. In fact, there is almost no station: it just has a few ticket machines, and 3 ticket gates... no shops or anything.)
  
• They have sealed off all the coin lockers.
• They have sealed off the few remaining rubbish bins.
• There are people walking around with arm bands who look at you in a strange way.
• There is a huge banner in Kashiwa that says in big letters "FIGHT TERRORISM".
• There are posters everywhere which ask people to please call the police if they see anything suspicious. There are images of masked robbers on these posters, which are labelled "terrorists".
  

And this is all because some world leaders are gathering in Hokkaido. On a fortified island. A thousand kilometres away. Who runs this country?

Wooop! and other things

Haha, I knew the Japanese were great with fireworks, but I didn't know you could find them at the 100 yen store. We bought a few packs of those fireworks that fly up into the air and explode (do they have a name?). I only remember playing with them as a child as they were banned in New Zealand several years ago. The restrictions on fireworks in New Zealand are quite strict, with shops only being allowed to sell them on the 5 days before guy fawkes day (5th November) and at no other time. One of the best memories I have: I was young and had saved up a lot of money to buy smoke bombs, and when I carried a huge storage box (containing something like 30 small boxes) of them to the check-out I was only charged for one small box. I felt like a million birthdays had come at once.

In other news, Kotomi has started her new job. Apparently its going well, so I'm happy for her. She is going to a woman-only kendo session on Sunday, no men allowed :( Oh well.

I had a long talk with one of the sensei about something that's been bothering me. When I strike and move forward I tend to slow down and lift my hands high. I believe I do this because I fear hurting the other person: I've already knocked one guy on his back. I'm 2 meters tall and weigh close to 90kgs, and when I get going, especially after a men cut, with my arms in front of me (at the hight of other peoples faces) I could probably really hurt someone. However, the sensei said not to worry, especially with teachers. I should just steam right at them. But if it's older people I should be more gentle. I'm going to give it a try next time. It seems to fit in with my resolution to become 'more aggressive'.

Visit to Totoro's Forest

Yesterday we visited Totoro's Forest, which is located between Tokyo and Saitama about 2 hours away. We decided to get up really early (4:30am) and catch the first trains to try to get past Tokyo before morning rush hour.

Unfortunately our plan failed, and I got a first hand experience at what sardines must feel like. I cannot believe that millions of people put up with this every day! Luckily the sardine experience only lasted about 20 minutes, and after that we were able to get seats. The last train was the best, in which we got the entire carriage to ourselves.

From the last train station we walked about two kilometres through what the Japanese consider farmland (houses a few meters apart with fields in-between). After a while we came to Totoro's Forest.

There were tea plantations everywhere.


And signs I couldn't read.


And really long walkways to climb up.


And beautiful paths to walk along.


And small farms.


And more tea plantations.


And a temple.


And a lake (although not technically in the forest).


We also encountered, in no particular order: giant mosquitoes (which we squished), killer hornets (which we promptly ran away from), a frog in a hole (which we talked to), a funny dog (which we smiled at), swooping birds on the lake (which we composed haikus about) and all sorts of other interesting things.

We came back home and fell asleep.

Happenings in Japan

Recycling is a big thing in Japan. Once a month, at least in the area where I live, everyone gets together and sorts their collected recyclable rubbish into neat, orderly piles ready for collection. At 7 in the morning. And they enjoy doing it, as you can see.


But I feel this is all somewhat wrong. Recycling should not be promoted. If it is then people get the feeling that they are doing something good, and that producing all this rubbish is acceptable. Instead I feel that the initial consumerism which causes all the rubbish should be discouraged. Especially in Japan, where people seemingly cannot buy anything if it is not wrapped in several layers of plastic.

Also, the other day I sent a huge package back home to New Zealand. About 30kg of books. I opted to buy insurance, and estimated the value of the books at $2000 (yea right, but hey, if it gets lost I'll be rich). The insurance cost me about NZ$10, which is pretty cheap. Then, today, there's a knock on the door and the postman is returning the package. He says that the maximum insurance for New Zealand is only about $1500, and that because of this (the mistake the post office made) I now have to hold onto the package until they refund all my money, including the initial postage, into a bank account (which can take a week, and means Kotomi has to go to the bank to get money back, etc.). Then I can send it again. And this is all over NZ$2.50. I seriously wanted to throw the box at the postman.