Day 3...Temple 12

It is apropos that today is the 12th of September and we completed the trek to temple 12. I “fliped” (took videos with the Flip camera) the walk, but I don't think the video shows how difficult the climb is and the it doesn't make you feel the sweat that poured out of our pores. It was a challenge and both Emi and I feel slightly better now that it's behind us although we know that there will be other difficulties ahead.

Just some unrelated thoughts:

The innkeeper at our last ryokan made riceballs for all the henros residing there without any charge. She runs her inn on the honor system. You put money in the basket if you use the washer and dryer, and you have to remind her if you had beer or soft drinks. She'd never make it a go at home.

At one rest stop along the trail I thought I saw a Japanese killer bee. These bees are large, bigger than a bumble bee but with the same yellow and black stripes. Unlike African killer bees, these bees can actually kill you even if you're not allergic to the venom. I saw a dead one some years ago and took a picture of it, but this one was flying and it scared the ---- out of me. Maybe I was seeing things that weren't there but I wasn't taking any chances. I told Emi to run and run we did.

I was thrilled to see a slew of mushrooms on the trail.
I use to study them, and they still hold my attention. I took a lot of pictures of them. I could identify several aminita species, a bolete, and yesterday I saw a puffball just slightly smaller than a vollyball. Like other crazy science type people I was as happy as a drunk in a bar. I took pictures of them all.

The furo at tonight's ryokan, Nabeiwa-so, is a large wooden jacuzzi style tub. Even though we are drained by the high temperatures each day the hot water is wonderful. It soothed our aching muscles and joints and cleaned the dirt and sweat off our bodies.

Day 2...9/11

9/11/08 5:20pm

Another walking ordeal, or fun event depending on your perspective, is over and now we are in our inn waiting for dinner. We are staying at Yoshino Ryokan. We stayed here the last time when we were in the area some years back. It is a stone's throw away from temple 11 and the start of the trail that takes you straight up the mountain to temple 12. The mere thought makes me want to reconsider this fool of a trip but it's too late; I think.

Today was another day walking in the heat. Fortunately there were a few clouds in the sky to block the sun's mean rays, and a whimsical breeze that visited us now and then but never stayed.

I would be inaccurate and remiss if I did not tell you of the little things that makes this trip so wonderful; it really isn't all suffering. First, I'm with Emi, and though we complain about each other, we are only joking, for we do indeed appreciate each others company. Next, the people that we meet along the trail is so nice, shinsetsu nee? The majority will bow (even drivers), say something like ohiyo, konnichiwa, atsui desu nee. Emi and I always respond. It's a good thing that I don't have to say more than a word or two. Otherwise, I'd be in trouble. It reminds me of my youth, growing up in Chinatown without the ability to speak or understand Chinese. My tactic when spoken to in Chinese was to say yes or no in random order. I'm doing just about the same here, once in a while actually throwing in a word or two of Japanese. I'll also resort to muttering chotto matte kudasai and loudly call for Emi to come save me. But back to the nice people...One lady gave us two drinks and a handmade coin purse, just because. And today, while walking to temple 10, a lady came out of a shop and told us that we could leave our bags while we went up to the temple; we did have to come back the same way. Now in the USA and many other places, you'd be a fool to do so, but this is Japan. When we got back, not only were our bags still there, she had cold tea and sweets for us. And then at a coffee shop, the owner gave us extra sweets and two cans of drinks. These random acts of kindness is common and so appreciated. All we have to do is put one foot in front of the other.

Day 1...yikes it's hot!

The first day is over and it could have been worse, but I thank god it wasn't because it was bad enough as it was. We only walked 10 miles by the map, although Emi's pedometer indicated 13 miles. But hey, who's counting.

The outstanding theme for the day was...HOT. It was about about 85 degrees and slightly humid. Emi and I died. just withered away. “Where's the fog? Where's the fog?" we mumbled as we stumbled our way from one temple to another. It was tough. We drank as much as we could, but we couldn't eat. After a wonderful breakfast at 7am, we didn't eat again until 2pm. There wasn't any food around to buy, beg, or steal. By 2pm we weren't even hungry, for we had gone past the hunger stage and were close to passing out from the lack of food and fluids.

Through it all we survived and made it to temple 7, Jurakuji (Temple of 10 pleasures...your choice.). We are staying for the night. We stayed here 7 years ago, but now they have a new building. Everything is so fancy compared to the last time. At that time we slept on tatami and bathed in the community furo. We even have a private bath in our room, the toilet being western with a built in ass washer. Kakkoii. The meal was vegetarian and good. We ate until we were stuffed, but it's not going to equal the calories that we spent during the day.

Because my camera battery died, I had to use the flip video camera to take pictures of the temples. It's a good thing that we have back-ups. We will be psyching ourselves up for tomorrow. It's going to be 14 miles. I'm tired just walking 10 miles. Hope it's not so hot!

At last...

9/9/08
Well we made it. It was a long haul, dealing with air travel, sending our bag to Tokyo, and taking a bus from Osaka, but here we are in Tokushima on the island of Shikoku at the Tokushima Sunroute Hotel. It was 11 hours in the air and 3 hours on the bus with 2 hours in between for little stuff like sending our bag, getting money, buying our bus tickets and going to the bathroom. We are tired, but happy to be here. Watching the flight progress on the small screen in front of my seat was like watching grass grow, time passing at a dull day at work, or waiting for a bad date to end. It seemed like the plane would never reach its destination and then like a miracle, it did. Being in Japan my mind has turned partly Japanese and I thrill myself with my limited ability to read kanji, hiragana and katakana. I am so in tuned to reading Japanese that I read a highway sign as "tow" but it turned out to be merely the icon indicating merging traffic. Sorry that you have to know the character "tow" to get the joke.

Prologue III

It is the last night in this United States of America. The next time I write Emi and I will be in Japan. We are packed and are more than ready to depart. I found the articles stuffed into our modest size bags very revealing. Regarding clothing, it is at the minimum. I am only taking two fast drying underwear and socks, one aloha shirt, three fast drying t-shirts, a pair of gloves, shorts, and a wool cap. All that for 50 days. More revealing was the meds that I needed that marked the trip a geriatric one… let me be more accurate, a GERIATRIC one. In my bag there is a cornucopia of drugs: starting with common fruit flavored antacids, two high blood pressure medications-atenolol and terazosin, soothing valium, pain killing vicodin, pain killer # 2 naprosyn, anusol for you know what and if you don’t know I ain’t going to tell you, a large bottle of Benadryl, Eucerin lotion, Triamcinolone acetonide ointment for rashes and whatevah, and anti-foot fungal ointment for my chronic athletics feet. The only thing I’m not bringing is awa, soma, and Johnny Walker Red. Further, Emi is bringing her own supply of meds. Is this not pathetic or what? The sad thing is that I need every one pill, ointment, and salve and even then I may be home sooner than scheduled.

Oh, and by the way, I am bringing a ukulele.

Prologue II

This is the second prologue before the trip to Japan starts. If it wasn’t enough stress just to go on this ordeal, I had the additional worry about my MRI results regarding my back. I wasn’t too bothered when the first MRI demanded a follow-up, but I became a bit concerned when the second showed a “lesion” on my spine, and then I became more concerned after the third MRI that was done this last Saturday. My attitude drifted from “I don’t want to think about it. I’m too healthy to be sick.” to “It’s a good thing that I have a will.” When I was feeling down, waves of stress swept over me as if I was the Titanic taking the plunge and I waited for the attack that I am so familiar. Yes, there have been times in the past that I thought, through the lens of anxiety; death was dragging me out the door. I can’t tell you how many nights I lay in bed convinced that I wasn’t going to see the sun rise. When I had my first stress attack, I was so sure that I was dying I drove myself to emergency room only to be saved by a massive dose of tranquilizer, so much for a fatal case of whatever. And then there was the time when the lymph nodes under my jaw and armpits grew large for no reason that I or the doctor could figure out. His only comment was yes they are enlarged and the reason is unknown. That condition lasted for some eight months. Of course, I was positive that it was the big C, and death was just outside the door. I only had to let him in.

Well, after many calls to Kaiser (Just today I had to call radiology to get them to read the MRI before the day was over, and I called my NP …again and again and again… to find out his not in, but his back-up, Dr. Alaric Akashi, fellow Konko church member, would talk to me. Wow, I finally got to talk to a real doctor in person. And he read me the results. Are you ready for this? The lesion turned out to be, in his words, “a blip…background noise.” Can you believe that? I have been stressing over a blip. My life came to a crawl over a blip.

I must say that I have been doing some serious thinking these past weeks, and I haven’t reached any deep conclusion, no wise words regarding life. The possibility of my life ending made me feel very uncomfortable, as it did in the past. You know that Kaiser tv commercial where the young female cancer patient goes in to a store to buy a guitar and the last words thrown out is “I have cancer; cancer doesn’t have me.” She is a better person than me, Gunga Din. I have to say that it is hard to motivate yourself with the thought of death around the corner. I understand that we should live in the moment, but it’s so hard. I wonder if it’s even practical. For example, Emi and I went to Rick’s Restaurant for their last luau meal and listening to Ka’ala and the group play the sweet, melodic songs of Hawai’i was so moving, I couldn’t help but form a tear of two. And it’s not just that. Everything becomes too emotional with the thought that it’s for the last time. But living in the moment, doesn’t have to mean it’s for the last time, does it? (Just thinking aloud here.) My life is so wonderful that it is hard to say good-by to it. I went to see my minister, Kawahatsu Sensei, and he gave me words of wisdom that I will ponder over; I’m going to have a lot of time to think. If I don’t get an epiphany and if nothing else, I will, as he instructs, repeat “thank you, thank you, thank you over and over. There is so much to be thankful for….such as blips in your life.

Attached to this is a video of our walk in Bolinas to see the elks. This email is a test of our ability to send video and text from Japan.

Happy Birthday!

I’m beginning to think that my father was right when he said, "Don’t ever let the doctors near you." You see my father had this notion that if you ever went into the hospital you’d never get out alive. With that introduction, the result of my second MRI is in and they have identified the mystery spot as a lesion on my spine. Now don’t get excited…yet. As my PT explained to me, the term is a very general one; a lesion could mean anything, a collection of blood vessels to a malignant tumor. They want to look at it again to be sure it's nothing, so a third MRI is in my future. I just don’t know when. Now remember, I went through all of this in preparation just for the trip, and the MRI was an excuse for a pain killer to be shot into my spine, and look what happened. This is like going into the doctor’s office for an itch and walking out needing a hemorrhoid operation.

For the time being, I’m learning how to dance in the rain, because I don’t think this storm is ever going to pass. And I don’t care what this lesion is; I’m still going to do the walk. The trip will just have more significance.