Day 9 – Take your mind off things

The days have not been passing by indifferently. At home two weeks would have been over a long time ago, but not here. Here, day after day, you are bombarded with a continuous stream of new impressions with which to cope. Today I got my share again.

We ate early and took the train to Noda. Today the stationary shop was open so we finally could buy some scrolls there. I trained with Dino, from Germany. So training was very good and fluid. Diana however got an injury from her partner because she was thrown badly and fell with her knee on her elbow. Her whole arm got bruised and according to Oguri sensei it was the bone.

Due to this we had to skip the second training with Oguri sensei, but we both needed the neccesary break: my knees were hurting. So instead of training physically, we deciphered a Japanese stone that said: “this is the end of the world and the beginning of another” (lit: this signpost marks the boundary between the land and the waterway) Well done! Two hours of brain training on the side of the road, in the mellow springtime sun.

Japanese language is really a puzzle. There are levels, keys, hidden meanings, combinations and treasures to be found. I’m surprized that there still hasn’t been made a 3D strategy game to learn the language. My understanding of it is nihil, but with the help of a small pocketbook and a palmtop dictionary (which is a dinosaur compared to the level of today’s pocket computing) you will get by pretty well.

After dinner (sushi again) we finally went to an onsen we were looking for since a few days. Diana had looked one up on the internet that was not too far off. On the way, we stopped by the Shibuya station. There stands the statue of Hachiko the dog. It’s very famous because it was erected in honnor of Hachiko, a dog who’s loyalty streched beyound the life of it’s master. Together they would walk up the station where Hachiko would linger and wait the whole day until his master returned from his job. Then he would pick him up and walk his master home. One day his master did not return. Even after his death, Hachiko would fatefully walk up to the station and wait for him even in the badest of all weather conditions. After Hachiko’s death, they laid him beside his master.

Every man has his breaking point, you and I have them. Well, I had reached mine. I cried and tears biggled down my cheeks as I thought about my own dog and how much I missed him and how much he must miss me. Every one leaves something behind, but to return home, we can only go forward. I can only hope that after the initial burst of happiness, I can explain my dog that I was not death, just on a long journey and still then: that he doesn’t remain wrathful too long for the feelings that he had to endure.

The onsen turned out to be a good choice; they had multiple baths, a jaccuzi and even a sauna. Outside there was a mixed bath, but there you would have to wear swimsuits. The Japanese handle explicit things like sex and erotica in a very strange way. The girls walk around in enticing and attracting mini-skirts, some even complete with jackboots (kaplaarzen). It’s very tempting, but don’t touch!

At the onsen, you would think it’s just like a mixed sauna, where no one is paying attention to the natural nakedness of the body, because your mind is not at the least bussy with these thoughts. But it’s not natural. Even here people can’t be themselves and they have to play along in the hyped up specialness of being naked, so you have to wear a bathing suit.

It’s like the Japanese are stuck in a victorian age. But hey,  no offence: I guess that’s their way of keeping a calm and a clear mind you know. Persides: my knowledge about those subjects is far from determinded. And since I’m not fatalistic or deterministic I doubt wether I will ever come to a ‘final’ or ‘complete’ understanding of things.