The Wayfarer Blog

it’s no secret that Japan is earthquake country. Every day, in places all over the world, earthquakes strike with alarming regularity. Many of them are so small that people might not even feel them. That is definitely the case in Japan. We have many small earthquakes; they often seem to hit early in the morning. Sometimes they wake me up, and sometimes I sleep right through them. Occasionally, I first hear about earthquakes in Japan from friends and family back home–even earthquakes that happened near Tokyo! (If you don’t feel an earthquake, you probably survived it!)

A while back, I came across a good way to track earthquake activity around the world.

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I mentioned a few days ago (see “Learning to Fall“) that I had fallen down. After a couple days, the pain became progressively worse, to the point that I couldn’t sleep or sit down without it hurting. So on Friday, I went to a chiropractor that my friend recommended.

He is an Australian. He fixed my hip and showed me some isometric exercises using a medium sized exercise ball, which he has adapted from Chinese martial art training, to help me strengthen my body and help me heal. I recognized the postures, but had never done them in that way. We had a nice discussion. It turns out that he practices a relatively unknown Chinese martial art, (Liuhebafa 六合八法拳，”Six harmonies, 8 methods”) which I have heard of and seen a few videos (scroll to the bottom of the page) of, but have never actually seen demonstrated in person. (Click here to see an example of the form, or here to see actual applications of the form.)

At any rate, I am doing fine. Of course, I still have some stiffness in my back. I will have to go back and see him, but I feel much better. I took a few pictures today. I will post them in the next day or so. For now, I still need to catch up on my rest.

As I wrote here, last year’s Casino Royale was an incredible movie, and Daniel Craig made an outstanding debut as James Bond, but if things don’t work out, it is nice to know we have an Academy Award-Winning actor waiting in the wings to take over.

This isn’t a new video–I first saw it a few months ago–but I ran across it again today and I still think it is funny.

Just now, I saw a new video of an Aikido demonstration by Robert Mustard. I mentioned in my last post that I was careless at the end of class. Part of the reason was that I was getting ready to go up to Vancouver for a few days and train with him.

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Over the last few weeks, i’ve discovered that crutches are like bicycles. You never forget how to “ride” them.

A few years ago, in Seattle, I was in Aikido class. Towards the end of class, I took a bad ukemi (受け身）and suffered a partial tear of my right achilles tendon. Ukemi is the art of falling safely, practiced very heavily in many martial arts–especially Judo and Aikido. I should add that although I got hurt that time, I have used successfully ukemi in real life, to prevent serious injury when I have fallen. In fact, I actually slipped and fell the other day, taking out my trash as the typhoon was building. The ground was slick and I was favoring my left leg. I lost my footing and instantly did an ukemi. My technique wasn’t perfect, but I was unharmed. A couple years ago, I fell down a few stairs in front of my apartment, holding something in my right hand. I fell to my left side, slapping the ground with my left arm , distributing the fall evenly along the side of my body. I had a small cut on my hand, but I was fine otherwise. I stood up, still holding the stuff in my right hand!

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…is the train ride on the morning after! Man, it was packed! On the digital display on the train, it always shows which lines are delayed, and why. Today was the first day that I ever saw a train delayed because of overcrowding. After all, this is Tokyo!!!! Overcrowded trains are a daily fact of life!

At any rate, the cold rain and high winds we experienced for the past few days have come to an end. The typhoon past over Tokyo early this morning, around 2am or so. The weather forecast calls for a return to the hot, steamy summer we have (NOT) been enjoying….

BTW, that picture is not from today. That is just a typical evening at Shinjuku Station. This morning was way, way worse….

I ain’t scared of you, Baby!

“Life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans.” –John Lennon

Hard to believe. I came here (Tokyo, Japan) four years ago today, September 5th, 2003.

It seems like another lifetime since I boarded that plane from Seattle, bound for a future I could hardly imagine. I have had my share of joys and successes, as well as setbacks and failures. My life has not turned out the way I thought it would in many ways. That is both a source of relief and disappointment. But I am grateful for the lessons I have learned, and optimistic about the challenges and opportunities ahead.

From a broad enough perspective, even the most random events seem to fit a pattern–destiny, luck, or chaos–in the end, these are all just names we give it.

I’ve said before that I believe things happen for a reason. (But I don’t necessarily mean there is some grand design or that we are products of fate or some invisible hand that controls us. I guess it is hard to explain.) I’m not sure if it’s true. In the end, no one really knows, and it probably doesn’t matter anyway. We make the best choices we can, with the information and skills we have at the time. Somehow, we find a way to keep going, and both “positive” and “negative” results follow. It’s only later that we sort out the confusion and understand how our past has led us to this moment.

We usually think that what truly matters is the result. But that isn’t true. What truly matters is the journey. Living. Enjoying. Experiencing. Even suffering. It might sound corny, but is true: Mastery is a road; not a destination. I once had a great teacher who told me that. And the more I live, the more I realize it is true.

For my loyal readers, who have continued to check this site despite the fact that I have not updated it for weeks, I want to thank you for your patience. I am sorry the time got away from me. I had a couple issues this last month that kept me busy. I will write more about that later. And to be honest, I needed some time away. I wanted to write something, but every time I thought about it, I knew it would just come off forced and insincere. A few of my friends have quit blogging. I thought about hanging it up myself. I may in fact do that at some point in the future. But I realize that I have a little more that I want to say. I do think that it is time to change the focus of this blog a little. I will write more about that later, as well.