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[whatthefunk]

Ah, Japan. The very name Japan stirs all sorts of images in the mind of a young white male, such as myself. Tenticle porn, salary men throwing up in the streets at 6 pm, beautiful women dressed like hookers, bright lights, late nights...tenticle porn. But I am positive that there is more to Japan then all this. There must be more. So I am going to find it. I have started a one month trip hitchhiking from Kagoshima, in the very south of Japan, to Hokkaido, the very north of it. I am going to post all of my findings here, for all your benifit and to relieve my bordom as I have no money and will be spending many nights sleeping in dirty internet cafes. Here we go.

[whatthefunk]

Day 1 - Kagoshima - Miyazaki

Jesus, could I have picked a worse time to start? Major typhoon on the way, pissed rain all day. Started in Kagoshima and took the ferry over to Sakurajima, a once island/volcano that has been attached to the east side of the bay by lava from an eruption about 100 years ago. From the town, I took a bus to a random stop and stuck my thumb out. It instantly started pouring, god hates hitchhikers, especially those with no umbrella and no religion too. Ducked under some trees, it stopped raining, began to walk to find a better place to hitch from, it started raining again, ducked under some trees, its stopped. God playing mind games, likes to piss on me for many reasons. Finally got picked up by a middle aged couple who only took me a short distance, to the road that i needed to get on. The man told me all about the mountain and how it had been steaming and rumbling for the last 50 years, dooms day on their door step. The woman offered me a towel from her purse to dry me off, and then offered me an umbrella which I painfully declined.

Stood on the side of the road with people passing me wondering what the hell I was doing on the side of the road in a rain storm with my thumb sticking out. Hitchhiking isnt a thing they do. Got picked up by a civil engineering student/soccer ref who didnt talk much, didnt really have anything to say other than that he liked living in the country because the people are nicer and the air is cleaner and that his dream in life was to be a professional soccer ref. There are 5 levels of refs. The top level is FIFA, the 2nd is professional J-league soccer, and the 3rd, which he was, was semi pro...he refs for the J-league teams in their training camps and in their off season matches. Told me all about the world of soccer refs. Wathced the World Cup not for the soccer, but for the reffing. Very Japanese, enerse yourself into something so deeply that nothing else matters. Thought he had changed his mind about the wet, possibly stinky foreigner in his car but then went way out of his way to drop me off at a spot which he thought would be good for getting a ride at.

It was a terrible place to get a ride at. There was a convenience store, yes, but it was on the wrong side of the road and there was no pull off or shoulder on the right side. Walked about 3 km until I found a decent spot and waited for about 10 minutes before a Japanese hick, the knee slapping, uneducated kind, picked me up in his manure truck. He apologized for the smell, thought I would be very offended by it, told me his boss would be very pissed off if he found out that I was in his truck. Apparently there is a rule that most trucker unions/companies have...cant have a passenger in your truck who isnt an employee. Had to duck down when we passed his office. Great guy though, lots of fun, told me all about the local soju.

Passed through some really nice country side. When I think Japan, when you think japan, you probably think of cities and bright lights, but as my hick driver told me, all of Japan is mountains so there is actually alot of land that hasnt been developed simply because it cant be. Hes right too, if you think about it, all major cities are on the flat parts...Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka are all on flat bits of land by the sea while the center of the country, where all the mountains are, is very sparsly inhabited. If any of you are thinking of doing a trip to Kyushu, take a day or two to go to Mount Aso, or Kirishima because its absolutly beautiful. Nicely forested, cloud covered mountains. Even just a drive through is very nice.
My hick, whoes name escapes me, dropped me off in a very very little town. I was raising my arm, extending my thumb, hadnt quite got it up there yet, when a high school techer/baseball coach stopped, reversed and let me in.

He spoke excellent English, had lived in Florida for a year teaching American highschool kids about Japanese culture, oragami, language and the like. Loved teaching. Also coached the schools baseball team, which had sadly just lost a game. Very athletic, loved all sports, but had a complex about his height. He was very small..

He dropped me off at a road side market place where I went to the bathroom and smoked a smoke. A guy with a shaved head passed me while I was smoking, went into the toilet. I went across the street and stuck out my thumb. Looked up and the bald guy was motioning to me from the market. Offered me a ride. Turned out he was a monk, driving a brand new Mini. He loved Minis, he said, they were his passion. Again with the emersing thing. I asked him how a monk can have a Mini and he said that in the old days, monks had carts and horses, so why shouldnt they have cars in a world that revolved around cars. Good point, I said. He has a girlfriend too, dont know how that works, didnt ask to much about that. I told him that I was heading to Miyazaki and he said that he was only going half way to Miyazaki, but if I would wait for 2 hours, he would take me all the way there. He had business to do. I asked him what kind of business monks do, and he said that they do many things, but mainly study.

So he took me back to his temple, by a small road, surrounded by finely trimmed plants, odd statues, and several small stone bowls containing smaller fish. He showed me in and disappeared. I sat alone in the room, huge, covered with tatami, small alter on my right, windows dripping with rian on my left. The temple attendant came in, a women about 35, with tea and some cinnamon flavored jelly stuff covered in unknown brown powder. She didnt say anything, just gave me the tray and left me to my devices. I sipped the tea, ate the jelly stuff, very good by the way. My monk came back, in full monk regalia, completely different from the jeans and t-shirt he was wearing in the car. His person had changed with his clothes. He said that he had an appointement in about 30 minutes. He sat at the other table in front of me and wrote on some rice pare while I pretended to be reading. Then he lit the candles in the alter and came to sit at my table. Had a good chat with him, but found the words he used very difficult to understand. Many of them are borrowed from Hindi he said. I asked him about eating meat. He said that he doesnt eat meat and that he cant kill anything unless it is for the benefit of others. I asked him if monks got vacation time. He said that because he had dedicated his life to serving the community, he got no vacation time and that it wouldnt make sense for someone who led the lifestyle of a monk to take a vacation. I sensed some regret in his voice, especially when I told him about my trip, but I think that he really, truely wanted to be a monk, to dedicate his life to something, to spend his time on earth studying his religion and helping others to find the pleasure in it that he had found. He said that he had wanted to be a monk from a very early age. He said that he had spent several months walking Japan, going from temple to temple. He did the 88 temples of Shikoku, a very holy set of temples. He gave me a good luck charm from his temple. Then his appointment arrived.

Three people, two of middle age, one old man. I didnt know then, but the two were brother and sister, and the old man was father. In Japan, after a person dies, the relatives must have a ceremony for that person after 3, 7, 10 (I think), 25, 50 years. Something like that. Anyway, they have to spend alot of time remembering people. THese people were doing the 25 year ceremony for the mother. They entered, the old man stared at me as if I had green horns on my head and *beep* on my chin. They sat with the monk at the other table and talked for a bit. After a while, he told them why I was there and they all turned and asked me a few questions. Then they went and sat down in front of the alter, while the monk went inside it and began chanting and banging various things together. His voice, which had been peaceful and light before, grew suddenly deep and bold, hitting lows and highs that most professional singers cant hit. he started chanting slowly, then built up to a very long, fast, monotonal monolouge before going back to a slower chant for the finsih. It was very beautiful, actually, and lasted all together about 30 minutes. Then the people thanked him, and left. He came to sit at my tabel with me once again, back to his old monkish self, before going into the other room to change clothes, emerging his former, not-so-monkish self. then he drove me 1 hour out of his way to Miyazaki before turning around to go back home. Very kind person. I could tell by the way he talked that he really really wanted to help people and his community. We need more monks in this world. I asked him about Bush and Koizumi and the wars of the world and he sais that while he didnt fuly understand why we had all the fighting, he did understand that the world we live in requires some forceful measures to kep peace for the most of us. Willing to accept the world at face value, actio though non-action.

And here I am, soaking wet, in a sleazy internet cafe, 10 hours for 1,900 yen. Lonely Planet Japan is the worst travel book ever written, dont buy it. It was published 1 year ago and NOTHING in it exsists anymore. One page for a city of 500,000. Written by fools, monkeys with *beep* on their chins. Tomorrow to Oita.

[endo]

Thanks for posting that was an excellent read. Keep 'em comming.

[Kwai_Chang_Kain]

Awesome, I too have aspirations of trekking through Japan this Sept and loved your first entry! Looking forward to the next...

[huffdaddy]

[endo]

Keep posting whatthefunk. I loved the fist post.

[bucheon bum]

yeah, very good post. thanks for the read.