Lately, people have been asking me what I am going to do this summer.
"I'm going to Japan," I answer, "for a month."
"Wow!" they respond. "How exciting! What are you going to do there?"
"I don't know yet," I answer.
"Who are you going with?" they ask.
"I'm just going by myself," I answer
That's usually when their eyes get big. They also often ask, "Do you speak any Japanese?"
To which I answer, "Nope, not a word."
"Whuh.....oh!" they reply and then they say something to the effect of "You are really brave!" or "That's more adventure than I could handle!"
And then I don't know what to do.
Because when they say that, I realize, that I, am going to Japan, for thirty days. I have no accommodations, no plans for where I am going, and I don't speak a word of the language of the country in which I will need to navigate my way around for an entire month. All I know is that I have a flight, to Tokyo, which arrives on June 2nd and leaves on July 2nd, that's all.
This should be concerning, this should be cause for alarm (or at least cause for a visit to a tourist bureau or a good read through a guide book), I should be doing something so that when I get to Japan, I won't be totally lost and dependent upon the people there to help me.
But everytime I think about going to Japan, all I see is people being friendly and trying to help me. I picture a train station, with lots of trains and figure that one of them will get me to where I am going. I picture hotels, with lots of rooms, and a front desk person. I picture guest houses, with really happy owners, anxious to know if my stay at their home was nice. I picture mountains with trails on them that I can walk on, temples with gardens that I can visit, and a really busy city, with noodle bars and maybe some sake. Hmmm, I wonder what I'll drink when I'm in Japan- I wonder if they have juice. Oh...tea...I guess I'll learn to like tea.
Honestly, I don't know if it's because I'm being ignorant or delusional. I don't know if it's because of my experience in Myanmar last summer in which I didn't know the language but was ferried from person to person with loving kindness. I don't know if it's stupidity and poor planning. All I know is that everytime I sit down to plan what I'm doing, it seems so foreign, so removed, so far from the reality of being there, it seems like a waste of time.
I have tried to make plans. My original plan was to hike, from hut to hut, in the Japanese alps. But as soon as I got the "Hiking in Japan" guidebook, I discovered that the huts don't open until after I leave the country, in July. I had also planned to visit Ei-Hei-Ji (Dogen's temple) for a three night, four day "practice" program. I applied for this, via fax, way back in March. But, as of yet, I haven't heard back from the temple whether or not I can come visit.
So maybe that's it. The plans I've tried to make, didn't really help: there's still snow on the alps so I can't hike them, and, for whatever reason, the temple hasn't responded. So now it seems silly to plan for my visit. It feels like I won't really know what I'm going to do until I get there.
Mostly though, it feels, like a country full of people. I'll arrive, I'll get on train, I'll go somewhere. I'll find a place to stay. see the surroundings, and then get on another train, to somewhere else.
When I really think about it, it feels kind of risky, and might be really expensive. But when I don't think about it, it feels like there will be a place to stay each night, food to eat each day, and a way to get from one place to another.
I think I'm going to look in to a train pass, and accommodations for the day that I arrive and for the night before I leave- that seems like a wise thing to do.
The funny thing is, in mentioning to people that I'm going to Japan, with no plans, I've had people telling me about their adventures in Japan or the friends that they know of or places they've heard of. In having no plans, I'm actually getting all kinds of plans for my visit- ones that I never would have thought of on my own and probably wouldn't have found in a guide book.
So for now, I'm going to Japan, with no plan, and am open to suggestions...
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