Today, I go to Tokyo and I will complete all my socialising for the month in about a week. I enjoy my time alone, but I am happy to have company soon. As I ride the Shinkansen further north, I begin to relax. Navigating the train systems in a new country can sometimes be stressful, especially a station as big as Kyoto. In Japan, the central stations have so many train lines criss-crossing over each other, they form little cities on their own. I managed to get on the right train with relative ease, and luckily I am seated near a window. I watch as the mountains and rivers, bright green and full of life, pass by. Houses from small villages, city buildings standing tall… all like little matchboxes in the distance. But the thing that I’ve always been curious about in Japan is that there seem to be so many canals everywhere. In every big city, and even in my small neighbourhood, I often hear the sound of flowing water.
Yesterday, I met a Japanese student who explained this phenomenon beautifully to me. He lives in Australia at the moment, and he misses the cuisine in Japan – especially the sashimi. When I told him that I also love raw fish, he told me why the quality is so good in Japan. It’s a mountainous country he told me and when the rain pours on top of the mountains, it flows down and causes little canals and rivers to creep out to the sea. This water contains many minerals which feed the aquatic life within and around Japan. Okay, maybe I embellished his words a little, but when he spoke I saw this particular image in my mind. It refreshed me. I now appreciated the rainy season a lot more, and the grey cloudy days took on a greater meaning. The weather, sunny or otherwise, is what allows me to appreciate good food.
It also helped me to appreciate all the consequences that come with living in a mountainous country. Everywhere you go in Japan, you always seem to see the faded, rough edges of a mountain range in the background. The island itself is small, but I wonder if all the mountains were pressed flat, just how big Japan would be. Mountains are concentrated space, moving up instead of out. It’s powerful. No matter how strong human technology is, I can’t help but feel that mountains always make their presence known. They move the ground underneath you, and they loom high above you, yet they appear still and silent the whole time while nourishing the life around them. I begin to understand why so many spiritual pilgrimages and sites are often located near mountains. Their power seems all encompassing, especially to me – someone who comes from a city where there are no mountains in sight.
We tend to corner ourselves into a bubble often times, maybe because there is way too much world around us to comprehend at once. Within the four walls of our apartments or houses, we have a feeling of safety and this is something that’s important. It’s something that I’ve been craving. Stability, security, giving yourself the time to build something of your own. But I don’t think that I’ll ever get sick of the feeling I get when I look at nature and know that beyond the reach of my eyes, there is so much going on that I don’t know about. The truth is, that I have enjoyed my period of travel because I like being dipped into the unknown. I like learning about different ways of life, and I like it when things surprise me. It helps me to think less, and experience more. A feeling of nostalgia hit me as I looked out the window of the bullet train. I think I will miss Japan. It’s contradictions and it’s peculiarities. But I’m not gone yet, I’m about to make even more memories that I can lock in my heart and take with me.
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