The Times They Are A-Changin'
The day of the move has finally arrived. I’m heading due north from Kyoto, passing through the beautiful rustic village of Miyama and then on to a little coastal town in Fukui prefecture called Takahama. A move away from city life had been on my mind for many years but circumstances and some indecision on my part seemed to thwart my rural ambitions.
The call to the countryside remained in the background of my daily life for many a month and year as a kind of hazy dream. Until one day, a moment of serendipity would open a doorway.
“Everything happens when it is meant to,” said a wise sage long ago (probably Gandalf). I am a follower of fate but also, and rather paradoxically, I believe that people create their own lives through directed thought and action. Don’t ask me at this moment how I attempt to reconcile these two contradictory notions. Anyway, I believe that waiting around for the perfect moment to magically fall at your feet before you take action is an unreliable, if not tragic way to live your life. I know, I have dabbled in the art of procrastination and have the burn marks to prove it. As I would prefer my life not be a tragedy, as so far as that is possible, it made logical sense to open that door of opportunity (actually I think it’s a window but….) and see where it led.
And here is where it led me too….well not quite. Half way to Takahama, I stopped at a scenic vantage point of the Yura river in the village of Miyama. My trusty steed (a Hunter Cub aka CT125) is living up to its reputation as a serious pack mule.
Many people have asked me why the hell did you want to move from Kyoto, with its bustling streets, its plethora of ancient temples, shrines (and droves of tourists and culture of thinking it is superior to everywhere else) to a largely unknown rural town of just 10,000 people. Well, that’s a good question and I will probably answer that in an upcoming post because I am too busy enjoying the….
….glorious view of my new stomping grounds. Greeted by seagulls and a gentle ocean breeze, arriving at the Japan Sea makes me feel like I have opened a door to an untrammeled paradise. Just as I took this picture, I heard the sound of something hard falling on the ground behind me….
I looked up to see the culprit. It was a crow and it had dropped a kind of seed, like that of a small walnut. I decided to put it in the Buddhist alter of my home as a symbol to remind me of the day I arrived.
After parking the bike, I take a 5-minute stroll from my house to Meikyodo cave, one of the most famous landmarks in Takahama. More on that later.
From this April I am working for a government sponsored program that aims to support rural areas of Japan, particularly those that are under the threat from population decline. There isn’t much information available for this work in English, and for my department this is the first year for them to adopt this program. Perhaps my blog will serve as a reference (or a warning!) for my potential successors. But also I just like to write and I very rarely share my writing with people…so with the magic of Squarespace I hope to break this bad habit and start to post so much that I eventually break the internet.
As evening drew in on my first day, I stopped by Takahama fishing port to catch the fading hues of the evening sky. Mt. Aoba (Aobasan) can be seen in the background sneakily photo-bombing my picture. This mountain has a long history and is an excellent hiking spot. lt will definitely be the subject of many future posts. Anyway, I’m looking forward to what the future brings after I unpack a shit load of cardboard boxes.
おやすみなさい - Good night :)