Update from the countryside

It just started to pour outside as it has been doing the last few days during the first half of the day. But this comment does not convey the wonderful introduction I have had to living here in Ubuyama.

Aso-gun, the region of Kumamoto prefecture in which I reside is gorgeous. It reminds me of a mix between up-country Maui and Sardegna, but with a Japanese touch. There are 40+ year-old cedars (maybe even a hundred years old) that were replanted in rows all throughout the town of Ubuyama. They look perfect as their triangular tops collect that white light in a highly organized way. Bamboo groves compliment them as well as many little streams and the beautiful head springs which are just down the road.

I am just a short drive from Mt. Kuju and Mt. Aso, both of which have active volcanoes and multiple peaks that can be climbed.

I have been treated so very well by the very kind and open people here. They are humble and mostly Buddhist people here who have a great respect for the natural beauty around them. They have so much respect for nature here that they dedicate a park to a species of flower, the Higotai, and they make monuments for headsprings with excellent water quality and people from all around Japan come to them and gather water to bring home. There is one of the top 100 sites just about ten minutes down the road from my abode and workplace (which are only about 100 meters apart).

What else? The people here are delightfully healthy and the children are especially kind and cute. I have never seen such cute toddlers before.

This weekend I drove around and explored a bit which was enough to teach me that my particular town is extraordinarily beautiful. If you think you may want to visit Japan in your life and you are a friend of mine this would be a great time to do it! This experience will awaken your senses to the spectacle of life on earth and the strange and constant immediateness of being a sentient, conscious being here. That last sentence may not have made much sense... hmm... Well let's just say you might see the world a little differently after having visited here; but you might not. There are some, I am afraid, to which nothing will penetrate their cloudedoverness, their lack of attention to certain specificities of being human. This is not to say that these people have lesser experiences; maybe I just don't understand them, but I have come to learn that they exist and that there are many of them in the world. Then again, some would say the same thing about people like me, although I think there are few who would do so (please humble and correct me if I am wrong or arrogant in any of my comments here; I love to be corrected, humbled, so do so if you are kind/mean enough).

Until next time, Ted sensei