Once there was a Rooster in Barcelos in Portugal. A sleek fine cock as ever there was. This fine rooster was destined for only one of two ends, as all roosters are, to crow and sire or to be eaten. … Continue reading The Rooster of Barcelos
Reality, when it happens, can seem quite real. I had been pondering the nature of memory and life and what is remembered of a childhood. What is real and what is not. Today we visited the D.T.Suzuki memorial. First, though, … Continue reading Life in a shallow pool
Does a thoughtful mind illuminate the way? When I was young, in my early twenties, I was entranced with the notion of Zen! My brother and I had stumbled on some of my father’s books. As a child of perhaps … Continue reading Walking in the dark
The traveller needs be aware that trouble may strike but should never be daunted, until it does! Today it did and we weren’t. We moved from Takayama in the central alps to Kanazawa by the sea. Takayama was small. Small … Continue reading An arrow flew from the sun
Adventure is not limited by scale. A small trip on a big map can be fun indeed. And that was our day. It was wet. All the post-typhoon rain still has to fall somewhere. What to do? We reached for … Continue reading Going up the Line
The traveller may be in a foreign land but not of the foreign land. The last two days have been like that for us. We left Kyoto for Takayama before the approaching typhoon shut down the railways. We enjoyed a … Continue reading The Eye of the Storm
Our last day in Kyoto. Tomorrow it’s pack up our bags and back on the train for Takayama in central Japan. What to do on our last day? We decide to visit yet another Buddhist Temple. This time Kinkakuji, the … Continue reading What would The Buddha think?
We were sitting on the Maibara Station by Lake Biwa waiting for our 15:19 Shinkansen Bullet train to poddle in. You only get one minute to board so we usually carry a fair bit of anxiety to the platform with … Continue reading There is, of course, over-confidence!
We left our hotel without checking. We are tourists. The Imperial palace is there for tourists! All will be well. But not today. It was raining as we strode to the subway, confident in our new found commuter prowess. Our … Continue reading A 400 Yen Umbrella
With change comes anxiety but also fresh hope. We moved yesterday from Osaka to Kyoto. Only twenty seven minutes on the Hakuta fast train but it feels like a different country. Different food. Different pace. Different size. Osaka was vast, … Continue reading That wild rush of pure delight
Osaka Station no longer holds any fears for us. Yesterday we were but two more commuters among thousands. True we were imperceptibly skewing the median age upwards but we fitted into the crowd as well as any other tourists would. … Continue reading The Temples! The Tourists! The Rain!
The textures are palpable. The contrasts, extreme. The more we see of Japan the more we love it. The populace punctiliously polite. As we sat in our comfortable lounge chairs in the train the other day, we realised the conductor … Continue reading Arigato
Today was a day of random decisions! It would never happen at home. At home we never plan to go to Sydney but over a cup of coffee decide to go to Cairns, and certainly not in a split second. … Continue reading Sumimasen
The plane trip was better than we expected! Seats, food, music and movies were all good! I managed to nap, that’s no surprise, my wife didn’t, and that’s no surprise either! Shattered drooping eyes, we disembarked and whizzed through customs … Continue reading A warm seat
At the End of the Day 