hana no kage (shadow of a flower)

It strikes me that I’d like to do a ‘before’, ‘during’ and ‘after’ and that that would be interesting. I’ll put down my proposed itinerary in Japan, what I expect to find and see; then I’ll blog things as near as possible to as they’re happening; then I’ll rework that material into as many forms (film, performance, articles, poems, cut-up…) as I get inspired to. Before, during and after. I realize it’s a good way of making an idiot of myself since in the ‘projection’ phase I’ll be waffling on on the basis of no actual on-the-ground experience (oh come on, Hoyte, you have been immensely interested in Japan for 25 years, have unintentionally sat zazen and listened to a load of Zen woffle with 3 Zen teachers and other boneheads; had Japanese girlfriend, studied the language – tho’ long since forgotten – and read all sorts of things. So cut yourself some slack! But it’s not real! Yes it is! No it isn’t! Oh shaddup, Hoyte).

ITINERARY:

21Sept: Fly to Tokyo
22/23 Tokyo – visit Basho’s house (site of)
24 shikansen (bullet train) due North to Sendai, straight on to Mitsushima, continue on to Oku-Mitsushima (the bay, the countless islands, perhaps Kinkasen Island)
27 Hiraizumi ( natsugasa ya/tsuwamono domo ga/yume no ato)(summer grasses/all that remains/of warriors’ dreams) (Hiraizuma is where Yoshitsune died)(more later on Yoshitsune)
28/29 Naruko-onsen (‘onsen’ means ‘thermal bath’)
30 Furukuchi (boat on Mogami River serenaded by boatmen. O sole mio!)
1/2/3/4 hiking in Dewa Sanzan, the three holy mountains. Haguro-san: past Goju-no-to, a 600-year old wooden pagoda, up 2446 stone steps shaded by hundreds of towering cedars, many over 300 years old…; Gas-san and Yudono-san (katararenu/Yudono ni nurasu/tamoto kana) (Yudono/which may not be spoken of/wets my sleeve with tears). Yudono-san is ‘so holy you may not speak or photograph or write about it.’
5 Tsuruoka, down to Uozo, Kurobe-kyo ‘Japan’s most dramatic Alpine railway scenic tour in open-topped carriages’
7/8/9/10 Takayama for the Hachiman Matsuri festival (if I can get a bed!)
11/12/13 Kanazawa
14 Fukui and Eihei-ji, 750 year old head Soto-Zen Temple (‘Rinzai-Zen’ descends from the more aggressive Samurai – Bushido: Way of the Warrior – tradition. ‘Rinzai encourages an active pursuit of enlightenment, through the intellectual shock of the Koans, or the strenuous efforts and high-discipline of martial arts. It can be contrasted to Sōtō Zen, which insists on "just-sitting" as the method of choice to reveal the innate Buddha nature in everyone.’ (well, that’s what Wikipedia says). ‘"Rinzai for the Shōgun, Sōtō for the peasants" (they say in Japan); ‘In pre-modern Japan, Rinzai was widely popular among the warrior aristocracy and samurai, in distinction from Sōtō Zen which was more associated with artists and poets.’ There you go.)(I just rang Eihei-ji up – imagine, you sit in Bristol overlooking St Andrew’s Park on the other side of the hill, pick up this grey blobby object with no discernible connection to anything and talk to monks in an ancient Japanese temple! Blimey! Got their tel. no. off the net! Blimey!)
15 on …. Perhaps Japanese Alps, perhaps Noto-Hanto Peninsula, perhaps Hida province; then Tokyo again, meet up with Eido Mike Luetchford (Dogen Sangha, Bristol)
24 October – fly back

Is there (still?) Zen in Japan or is there only golf? Has Japan lost its soul? Did it have one to lose in the first place? ‘Soul’ as distinct from (corruptible) ‘body’? Il n’existe pas. ‘Soul’ in the sense of ‘essence’? Can Japan retain its essence and still be a 21st century nation? How come young Japanese women won’t take no crap anymore and Japanese men don’t know what’s hit them? Jodan ja nai wa!

BASHO’S FROG
By Ralph Hoyte

It’s
us,
you see.
Nothing else knows or cares.
The wind doesn’t need us. It just blows.
Or not. Sometimes we can use it. Sometimes
it kills us. The ocean. The waves. Entangled
squids ten fathoms down. Do they know us?
“Who?” They’ll ask. “Humans? Never heard of them.
Up the road maybe? Got the right address?” It’s
us,
you see.
Trees grow with or without us. Cloud float by or not.
Who are we, to think we are so important? Go, ask!
They don’t know us, down among the bullrushes. A man
to them is just a shadow, or a quivering through the
earth: “Man in sight! Dive, brothers!” they yell as
we bludgeon past. “Blow the tanks! Hide in the slime!
Wait for the all-clear!”
It’s ….
us,
you see.
We are the patterners, our own gaolers …
Wait!
Did I hear a frog?

PLOP!

Well, of course, Basho himself put it much more succinctly:

furu-ike ya
kawazu tobi-komu
mizu no oto

Old pond
Frog jumps in
Sound of water

Retail Junkie’s and Equipment Freak’s section:

I took the £28 boots back and got a £45 quid Gortex pair instead as the travel guide said it could be very wet in the mountains of Japan. But they were reduced from £79, so that’s OK. The lightweight sleeping bag I got for £45 was reduced 3 days later to £27! Heidenai (German Swabian dialect)! To bumbaclaat (Jamaican swearword)! Considering trying to buy a miniDV camcorder in Tokyo when I get there. Banzai!