Hiroko's Cute Red Shoes

I've been to a few English conversational groups so far, one in Osa and the other in the neighboring town of Katsuyama. The people who attend are local residents and they are quite intriguing. The first group I attended was in Osa. It was a very casual gathering and one of the participants brought a thick photo album of his yearlong stay in the United States in 1976. He is the oldest participant in this group as he was in his early twenty's when he took his trip. He had pictures and postcards of L.A., Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, San Francisco's Japan Town, etc. All snapshots of California stuck in a time warp. The other participants are in their mid-twenty's. What is special about this group is that they all grew up together in Osa, they are all very well traveled to the U.S. and other countries, and they all still have their connection to their hometowns and each other as grown adults. It's touching to witness. Many of the young people in Osa return home after their college education and travels and live with their parents.

One of the conversational group participants is Hiroko, and she has cute red shoes. Well, being Japanese she's cute everything. She studied English in college in Kobe, then studied in Cambridge, England for a year and then went to Australia for four months. She has a very keen ear and picks up the subtleties of English very well from accent to accent. She and her friends took Roslynn and me to dinner my second weekend in Japan, a delicious restaurant in the town of Kuse. Good times.

Hiroko attended the other conversational group in Katsuyama. This group was more mixed in age and more structured. Since Roslynn and I were two new guests, each participant each had a turn to ask us questions about ourselves. Then we got to ask questions of all of them. Roslynn asked where they wanted to travel to within Japan and internationally. In their answers I heard glimpses of rich stories. Many had traveled to the U.S. and Europe for their honeymoons. Many wanted to go to Finland, a trip inspired by a recent Japanese movie about Japanese women who own and run a coffee shop in Finland. Hiroko's turn to share was precious. She said she wanted to go to Tokyo. Tokyo. Because in Tokyo they have cute shoes. Good quality shoes.

There were no apologies from her about the object of her trip to Tokyo. No apologies for being a girly girl. No apologies for being cute. My kinda girl.

Herro, Goodbye

Roslynn and I will walk through Osa and the students from her school will pass us saying, "Herro, goodbye." It's very cute. One boy passed us from her school with a wave and, "Goodbye."

Roslynn's students love her. We passed a few of her students who were hanging out at a playground and all four stopped what they were doing and ran up to the car we were riding in to say herro. Her students always greet her with excitement.

I`m Mobile!

Last week Roslynn inquired to one of her co-workers about the possibility of purchasing a used bike in Niimi for me to use there. Roslynn has a bike and I don't, so whenever I'm in town with her, she walks her bike alongside me and we embark on a 40 minute walk to the train station.

Roslynn's coworker's answer to her bike inquiry was that there are no used bikes for sale in Niimi, but her daughter is away at college and I can use her bike. Arigatoo gozaimasu!! So now I have a bike and on Monday, Roslynn went to city hall to purchase a parking space for my bike at the Niimi train station. So now I am legally parked and mobile. It opens a whole new world for me in Niimi because it is big enough to be a time consuming hassle for travel by foot.

I biked to a vegetable stand yesterday in Osa on Roslynn's bike. My bike stays in Niimi because it's illegal to bring a bicycle on a train. Everything in the vegetable stand is ¥100, the approximate equivalent of a little less than $1 U.S. An elderly lady was running the stand and I greeted her with, "Konnichiwa" and bowed. She started talking to me in Japanese and I responded with, "Watashi wa Amerika-jin." I'm from America. "Nihongo," I gestured with my thumb and forefinger about an inch apart gradually coming together until there was no more space between them as I said, "Chotto, chotto, chotto." Japanese very, very, very, little. She confirmed her understanding with a nod and continued to speak to me in Japanese. I respectfully responded with, "Hai," yes, even though I didn't understand what she was saying. I would pick up a bag of vegetables and she would tell me what they were called in Japanese. I would repeat after her. I picked up a bag of fresh soy beans in their pods. "Edamame," I said. She confirmed delighted. I was delighted too.

I`ve Entered Miniature Cuteville

Everyone and everything in Japan is so damn cute - the people, the packaging, the cars - everything. No matter whether in Osaka or a small town in the country like Osa where I am staying, it's all too cute - and miniature. Not only have I been transported to Cuteville, I've entered Miniatureville as well. Cars, people, packaging, washing machines, apartments - they're all smaller in Japan. The cars are tiny; the bigger sized cars I see on the streets here are the size of economy cars back home. There are sedan sized cars that are the same size as in the U.S., but not many.

Everyone is fashionable, even out here in the country. School girls and boys have edgy, textured haircuts. Getting here by way of Osaka, I noticed that girls and women more or less have the same haircut: layered and thinned out at the ends so they can wear cute pig tails. I can't keep up with the cute. And with travel clothes, I'm a lost cause anyway, so I give up on trying to keep up.

Osa is beautiful. It is a valley of rice fields next to Japanese style houses. The surrounding mountains are covered with lush green trees. It reminds me a bit of the Skagit Valley back home except Osa is landlocked. Everyone here has a beautiful vegetable garden and some houses have fruit trees as well. Even in the neighboring town of Niimi proper, which has a population of 38,000 (including Osa`s population) compared to Osa's 4,000 houses have their vegetable gardens and fruit trees even though the sprawling rice fields are less.

Roslynn's apartment is right next to Osa Jr. High school, one of the schools where she works, the other being in Niimi. Students here work very hard. Every morning at 7:30 kids do their exercise drills until class begins at around a quarter past 8:00. They are in school until 4:00 after which the students who do sports suit up and practice until 7:30. In Japan they have cram schools, which are small schools separate from the junior high that offer small classes in different subjects to prepare students for their high school standard placement tests. After sports practice students may then go to cram school until about 10:00 at night. Then they're back at school again at 7:30 in the morning.

I've been in Osa a little over a week now and my body is starting to settle in from the flight and time change. I was inspired by a small recipe book Roslynn has that highlights foods commonly used in Japanese cooking and their health benefits. Many benefit the digestive system and prevent cancer. I decided the two months that I am here will be focused on balancing my health and diet. There isn't a better place than Osa with the fresh produce anyway. I ran about three miles yesterday and will continue to do so daily or every other day depending on my shin splints. My daily routine will also include abdominal crunches, meditation, and Hindi study. I had wanted my last month in Seattle to be my healthy month and got sidetracked with packing, the car accident, and selling my car. Now I have all the time in the world to prepare healthy food and get in shape. I'm excited.

Dreams do come true. Really.

San Francisco airport. I'm at an international gate waiting to board my flight to Osaka. After several years of dreaming, planning, saving, and most recently stressing, I am embarking on a journey of yearlong travel to India and Japan by way of dreamtime.

Eduardo Duran, author of Native American Post Colonial Psychology, says that what we understand as reality is created in dreamtime. This yearlong trip was born out of dreamtime and the dream that launched my journey is of a Kagyu monk, His Holiness XVII Karmapa. Karmapa is the supreme head of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Over the last few years I've had dreams with the Karmapa where he’s given me instructions for receiving an empowerment as well as other teachings with symbolic meaning that I don’t yet understand. Before this dream came the vision of a meditation retreat in Asia.

So now I am making my way to learn what it is I am supposed to learn and to embrace the journey of making my way to the Karmapa’s public teachings in India and to wherever I am led beyond. Many people helped me to get ready for this journey. The gift of a two healers has cleared and energetically reset my journey’s pathway. A community of life coaches has given me the gift of aligning my intentions, lovingly witnessing and holding the space for me to take the first steps of my travels. Tia Susana sent me off with the blessings of protection that will always keep me safe. My family has imparted me with well wishes and just enough worry to keep me cautious. My partner has blessed me with a journey that crosses mine, also karmicly linked with the Karmapa.

My Tita (aunt) Sony sent me off with the well wishes of finding my bliss. “You find your bliss,” she said. In preparing to leave, I learned that bliss is more easily found with intention. Prior to leaving it seemed as if I came upon an obstacle at every turn. A shady short man says he can’t pay me for work I’ve completed, someone hits my car (my primary travel funds) shortly before I get ready to sell it, my insurance company drags its heels in processing my claim. Stuck in the trenches of stress and worry, my energy was focused on Plan B, not what I wanted. Luckily for me the stars aligned and two life coaches shared their insights and questions. One asked me what ideal outcome I wanted. The other shared her insight of intention and the power of attraction. The energy of stress, she said, clouds the desired outcome that is entitled to us. If we stay stressed we attract stress. With that important insight, I was able to immediately present the ideal outcome I wanted with the certainty that it would happen – I would get my car back from the body shop tomorrow so I could list my car and sell it by Tuesday. Well, after aligning myself with that intention, it was like Moses parting the Red Sea. Stress and worry were moved aside to make a passageway for my desired outcome to rush in. My car did come back from the body shop the next day AND my car sold only a few hours after I listed it for sale, which was several days before Tuesday. I also got asking price for my car.

I put the intention out there that my bliss is found. After all, my bliss is in this journey and what I will learn. My bliss is the freedom I carry in this trip. I am free of any strings that hold me down and back. My bliss is in this dreamtime that willed this journey.