Spring feels

Spring is here. The cherry blossoms have reached their peak and are now about to say goodbye. I wonder if I will experience the beauty of sakura somewhere again next year? Meanwhile, here's to new beginnings, rebirths, regeneration, new buds, new friends, flowers that bloom in their time, hearts that hope and love. Here's to spring. :)

Train

Last December, I went around Kyushu alone. I bought a one-way ticket to Nagasaki, then I figured I would work my way from Nagasaki back to Kobe on train using the seishun juhachi kippu. But I also know that I am uber lazy and that more than a day on the train may not be such a good idea. So I revised my plans. I'll be flying to Nagasaki, then I would be going to Kumamoto on a train using the juhachi kippu and to visit a high school friend.

Of course, when I made these plans, I did not factor in inclement weather, which caused my afternoon flight to Nagasaki to be delayed for one and a half hour. In Nagasaki, I revised my plans again and thought of going to Kumamoto by ferry via Shimabara Port. I really enjoyed the hour-long trip from Isahaya to Shimabara. The train I was on was very cute. I enjoyed the scenery and started writing on my journal, feeling like I am a legitimate traveler who does these things all the time. When I arrived in Shimabara, I found that they cancelled all ferry trips that day because it started snowing that morning. So I have to revise my plans again. I did not want to go to Kumamoto in the evening, because that would have defeated my purpose for using the juhachi kippu - which is to see the sights of Japanese countryside.

The next day, I went to the train station early, and braced myself for a five-hour train ride on local trains from Nagasaki to Kumamoto. It was still dark when we left Nagasaki station. I settled in my seat, comforted by the fact that there are toilets on the train and that I have some food and water and readings and I am with the person I love most in the world - me.

Truth be told, I kinda fell in love with myself again that day. I used to like long train rides when I was younger. I used to love talking with myself, writing my thoughts and emotions down, processing things, but at some point in my life, I abandoned these things in favor of sleeping, or mindlessly watching TV or taking care of other people too much that I forgot that I am my own person. During that train ride, all of my senses were alert. I do not know how to speak in Japanese, and internet signal was intermittent so I had to always check whether I am in the right direction, or whether the train is stopping for what seems like a very long time in various train stations just because it was supposed to do that. I had to rely on myself entirely. I know I may be playing this train ride up too much, but it felt that way for me -- like I was being reborn. I watched the sun rise and I was so moved by the beauty I wanted to cry. When I looked out the window, fields and trees and sprawling mountains filled my eyes and I cannot help but think that I will probably never pass this way again, but I am glad that I did. I was struggling to stay awake because I wanted to drink it all in, but at some point I slept on the train, and when I woke up, I was still there, I still have time to look out the window and think of nothing or of everything. I wanted the train ride to last.

At some point, I took out my notebook and pen and started scribbling things that have been lodged in my chest, causing all kinds of stress. I wrote and wrote and thought about how I have let myself become a writer who doesn't write, a photographer who doesn't take pictures, a dreamer who stopped dreaming because it was easier to indulge in a dreamless sleep. For many years, I enjoyed the "freedom" of not wanting anything, and not working to achieve anything, because I thought I already have what I want. But then I looked inside myself and realized it was me who stopped fanning the flames inside me. I am there, but not there. I stopped dreaming. I stopped learning. I stopped pushing myself because I was so scared of failing. I was scared of conquering fear and overcoming failure because that would mean returning to the person I really am, a person who wants many things. When I was younger people would say, you have your whole life ahead of you. Now that I am a bit older, does that mean that I skipped a chunk of that life ahead of me and that only a little is left?

Crazy, crazy beautiful train ride. I want to do it again. ###

Night Illumination at Eikando Zenrin-Ji

My last year's night illumination experience was much sober than this year's action-packed Kiyomizudera adventure. On the 26th of November 2013 - it was a weekday - we went to Kyoto to view autumn leaves. We visited Nanzen-in Temple in the afternoon and lined up at around 5pm for the night illumination at Eikando Zenrin-Ji. I love how the leaves are so low that you can take pictures of them up close.

P.S. It was starting that time that I got hooked on taking selfies. :)

Arashiyama

I have been living in Japan for more than a year now and I feel guilty that I don't travel as much as I wanted to. I spend most of my days fretting about the next presentation, or simply whiling time away. I keep telling my self there will be time to visit places I want to see later on, after I have read my readings, finished conducting my research for the thesis, and so on. And I realized, the thesis will be done by July next year, and by then I would be busy preparing for graduation. In no time, I would be busy packing up my stuff as I would be leaving Japan in October. When I think about leaving this country, it pains me to think that I would not be able to walk down the street anytime I want and eat at Ramen Tarou hahaha.

But I digress. The point of this entry is that there are places that I got to visit for this first time this November, when some of my friends from the office visited. I particularly loved visiting Arashiyama which looked spectacular in Autumn.

Buwis-buhay Night Illumination at Kiyomizudera Temple

In my last post, I said that I would be starting a project here in my blog that probably no one reads haha. So far, I haven't decided on the details of the project because of so many things. Time flies so fast. Real life gets in the way.

This month has been a crazy month - two groups of friends visited me in succession. I am very glad that I got to visit places I have never been to before.

I have been to Kiyomizudera a few times, and I really love the uphill climb in Higashiyama District which is lined with quaint stores offering Japanese omiyage or small gifts. This time was different because we wanted to see the night illumination in Kiyomizudera, said to offer one of the best autumn views in Japan. We went there at around five in the afternoon, and there was already a long queue towards Kiyomizudera. The temple closes at around 4:30 in the afternoon and the night illumination starts at 6:00. There was a store near the entrance of the temple which offers free samples of mochi and other delicacies, as well as free tea so we just stayed there and treated ourselves to what we called the "free buffet".

At around 6 in the evening, people started to enter the temple and we thought that in an hour or so, the line will start to get shorter. It didn't. So we went to the foot of the hill where line ended, only to find out that a lot of people are simply cutting in line and it is "attack mode-unahan" when we buy the tickets. When it was our turn to buy our tickets, we had to push and shove, we were pushed and shoved. Inside the temple, and as we made our way towards the bridge which offers the best view, we had to box other people out, otherwise, we won't be able to get decent pictures at all. It was cold but we were sweating, we couldn't breathe. Siksikan, wagas! But we managed to get some pictures and we had a lot of fun!

Challenge

I was talking to my best friend Gladys yesterday and she was telling me to make full use of my stay here in Japan, to go out whenever I can and shoot some pictures. Admittedly, I have been holed up lately either in my room or in the students's room in the university preparing for my first presentation in the seminar and the field work in Tokyo.

So I am posing a challenge to myself. I said in Instagram that I would be posting at least one picture a day. But here in my blog (that probably no one reads), I want to do some kind of project, similar to what Julie from "Julie and Julia" did. I would post the details soon, and I hope my plans and my resolve won't fizzle out. :)

Old books

I love the smell of books. I sometimes go to bookstores just to browse the titles of the books, and pick up a book in random and smell its pages. I love the smell of old ones, too, although they can smell like dust or some other. Old books with their frayed and dog-eared pages feel like old friends. They hold secrets, they have evoked laughter or sadness or even boredom at one time or another.

New books are quite expensive, and I haven't really warmed up to the idea of buying and reading ebooks, which can be cheaper. I was looking for a second-hand bookstore in my area so I just googled "second-hand bookstore Kansai" and I found Wantage Books Kobe. It sits just across Shin-Kobe Station. I had to rely on the map provided here. They are open only on Saturdays and Sundays, so I set off one Saturday to look for the shop. And what I found was love! You can buy books for as low as ¥100.

I am surely going back there again one of these days.