High Density Living

Paradoxically, thats what I'm doing. Out here in this sleepy mountain town.


My days here are just so full to bursting with good stuff its sometimes hard to keep a lid on. :D Take today, for example. I'm not going near yesterday, when I rode my bike into Tokyo... Tomorrow, ill tell you about Yesterday

As an experiment, im going to put the photos in reverse order, ending at the beginning and beginning at the end...


Today. Slept in (Tokyo yesterday required sleepin today...) Got up. showered. Tried to figure out what proportion of baking powder to flour was needed (no SR flour here) to make fluffy pancakes. Every meal an adventure here. Lots of pancakes.



Glorious day outside.

















So its onto the bike and away...

I had a vague plan. Revisit Hossho-ji, my favourite local temple. this involves winding my way up and over the pass - hard going in parts, especially on the way back - and down into the next valley, then out along another fold to Temple Number 32. Hossho-ji.

I can tell you that it is almost exactly 15km.

Exactly because the Love Bike has a cycle computer now. Almost because I had the inevitable 'unexpected exploration' and had to backtrack a little.



I had a bit of a moment today, while sitting high up looking down and out over a heavily forested valley. I'm studying a favourite piece at the moment, called San Ya (Mountain Valley). It has a quality thats hard to describe - restrained? careful? subdued? but yet... something


What I realised was that the only way - the only real way - to understand this piece was to go and sit in the late afternoon stillness on a clifftop, overlooking a valley dense and rich with trees, and play it. And theres that instant thunderbolt of understanding. This - this here, now, sounds echoing down the valley, careful! dont disturb the stillness, yet still filled with the warmth and love of that afternoon sun wanting to burst out. but quietly, gently. part of the stillness. not apart.


Obvious, really. but not till you've done it.



Daha was similar, but its understanding came slower (though somehow still a surprise) - a piece about the ocean and waves. I practiced that most days back in Sydney in the mornings after dropping Patchie off at work. Crazy traffic - no point joining in. So I did an hour or so practice, sitting by the sea. Playing while looking at the water and the waves. watching the ripples and flows. patterns in the reflections. sounds of the surf.

I stayed up top till sunset, and completely unintentionally (really! - im not kidding here!) played the last note of Sanya just as the last of the sun winked out behind the mountains. Good Stuff. Getting to the heart of things.

And like i said at the start - rich. dense. full of life and love.









Which, of course, is how I ended up in the bath :)