a day - idioimagers

2 minute shower, head out the window, red leafs - blue skies – my lungs fill with life and I wanted to cry. 10 minutes to catch the train, no time to pack a map or any of that other stuff I don’t really need anyway. Besides my only goal for the day was to make 1000 beings smile.
I made it to the station with just enough time for 1 deep breath before boarding. The first thing I notice is a non Japanese (Asian) couple. An airline sticker on their bag reveled they were from Malaysia. I was a bit shy to talk to them but I figured if I’m really gonna make 1000 beings smile in 24 hours I had better start now. I introduced myself in English, a warm response. They were traveling cause it was a holiday in Malaysia. I knew it was el ei as I has just finished observing Ramadan. They were surprised and happy I knew about and even practiced parts of their religion. 30 minutes later our paths parted with sincere hope of meeting again somewhere on this big playground. My intuition had cut our talk short as I had decided to get off where I saw an enormous sparkling white buddha.

I unfolded my bike and headed for the buddha, but within a few minutes had changed course realizing the buddha was a marker on my path and not a destination. It didn’t take long before I saw my next marker, a sign for a mountain road closed to cars. I smiled at the gate keepers, who like most people mirror your level of kindness. Soon the pavement turned to gravel, my mind quieted and my smile grew. What could be better than this, I thought. I rode up, up, up, spotting hawks and deer. I stopped for water and noticed some bull thistle going to seed. I had spent weeks killing this plant in the C.C.C. ( California Conservation Corps) It was beautiful, like everything. I especially liked how you could see all the stages of life on a single plant. Bull thistle is non-native to the US and Japan. I decided to practice undiscriminating virtue. I picked a handful of seeds and blew them to the wind which graciously carried them toward the heavens.
I continued my enchanted journey up into the mountains uninterrupted for over an hour. Then a car came around the bend, slowed and stopped, and a man got out. First words, “can you speak Japanese” in Japanese. I said “sure” and smiled. He also mirrored my level of kindness.
“the road is closed”
why?
The road is washed out and there is construction ahead
How much of the road is gone?
About 40m
That’s short.
But the road is closed.
Humm, I car can’t go. But I bet I bike would be fine.
Well… the road IS closed…

Only 40 m?
Yea.
I bet a bike would be fine.
Maybe, but also there are bears up here.
I was OK so far
Pause…
OK, please be careful ahead and be sure the crew know.
Thank you very much
“Be safe” with a warm but slightly confused smile were his last words.

Polite but persistent has got me many places. The crew was eating lunch and I passed without complication. Soon I could see Daisetsusan, literally big snow mountain, the snow capped rooftop of Hokkaido. Which was why I chose his general direction over all the other possibilities this morning. And now it was all down hill yet still gravel and dirt and hard to control.
I became a little worried about getting a flat off road, which had happened every other time I went off road with this bike. Then I remembered something from my reki indoctrination “just for today I won’t worry, just for today I won’t anger” I like this because it tricks you. Almost no one thinks they can live a life or a year without being worried or angry. But one day… now at least that sounds possible. So if you say it everyday it can accomplish what otherwise seems impossible to most. So I said it and believed it and rode on carefree.
I rode my brakes down the mountain to prolong the sense of flying I was feeling.
Still before long I made it to pavement and jumped the gate that blocked the far end of the road. There was a car and a logging truck parked just on the other side of the gate, both drivers were sleeping. I stared at the logs for a while. I was sad for them and especially the forest they belonged to. I resisted any urge to get angry remembering both my reki indoctrination and a line from the song that I was singing to myself on that back road “we are only what we hate” just then the driver started to rustle and woke up. I smiled at him and rode off.
The road “t”'d right there, I went left thinking right lead to more cars as it when down to the valley with all its valley conveniences. I was surrounded by beautiful farms covering the rolling hills in every direction. The light was orangey but it was only 1:30.
I came across a field of sunflowers long pass their prime. Only a few showed even hints of being alive with bits of yellowish green stocks. I took some photos of the brown hardened sunflowers with the fall colors and the blue sky as backgrounds, and thought of the famous sunflower field in Hokkaido. I went there early in the season and took photos when they were nearly all green still. Then I returned 2 more times to observe and capture their maturing and prime. When I went back for the 4th time the whole field had been plowed. I guess they didn’t want to see the flowers fading and dying and assumed others didn’t want to as well. But for those who see the big picture all the parts of the whole, all the phases of the cycle are equally beautiful and important. I stayed in that field for a long time just embracing living and dying.
Then the sun started looking a little low so I took a few heads packed with delicious seeds, left a hair ( which I hear some native American tribes used to do when they took something) and headed on.
Another fork, I again decided to stay high, literally and figuratively. This road also was gated, this time to my surprise. i chose to just ride by the gate keeper this time as he had his back turned. He heard something and tried to turn around but his body was stiff from lack of use and so his neck wouldn’t turn very far. He never turned his body around and i rode again into the unknown. I was saving my appetite for a tasty buffet I knew of in asahikawa, but I couldn’t go anymore without some calories. So I rested, ate a handful of peanuts and organic raisins, breathed in the picturesque landscape and was on my way. After crossing the far gate the road had many rural unmarked intersections and forks. I slightly second guessed not bringing a map, a thought I neither held on to nor pushed away. My thinking quieted and my intuition took over. I took all lefts.
A car passed me, I think it was the 5th in 4 hours since i started on the high country roads. The car abruptly stopped and the door opened. What was this I wondered with excitement and a touch of nervousness. A Japanese woman in her 60’s got out, she was a student of mine a year ago. We were very happy and surprised to see each other. I always admired her for learning a new language in her 60’s. It was her first day out of the hospital in 2 weeks, she told me. She had had eye surgery and could still not see from her left eye. She was as optimistic and cheerful as I remembered her. We chatted; I met her husband and said I wanted to visit their farm and pulled a crumbled and dirty name card out of my pocket to give her. I asked her where was Asahikawa. She pointed far out pass all the rolling hills in a different direction than I had expected. We split paths with sincere hope of seeing each other again soon.
Soon I spotted a busy road with a big blue road sign. I was indeed not where I had thought, still further than expected to the buffet. I spotted a sign for another buffet. Or “Viking” as they are oddly called in Japan. I crossed the road to check out my prospects as I was approaching starvation at this point. I heard people talking very loudly in the parking lot, it was very noticeable as the Japanese are usually very quite. Ahh, it was a tour group from China. I was happy to see them. Growing up in California I’m very used to seeing many different kinds of people. Japan, as most people know, is the most homogenous country in the world. I walked into the gift shop packed with Chinese with no intention of buying anything ( I had just started a one month buying fast 2 days before) I unapologetically walked around starting at them not even noticing the things for sale. The younger ones stared back and we smiled at each other. I felt refreshed and went to check the “viking” it was between lunch and dinner. The cooks we busily cooking, But the food looked low quality and the price was high. It was for tour groups. So I swallowed my hunger and rode on. 20 min on a busy narrow road and I was in biei, a smallish town with a beautiful view of the “big snow mountains” and a stylish downtown. The road to Asahikawa from here would just get more and more traffic, so I decided to take the train the last 18km. I thanked the world for giving me this bike that rode great and folded up.
when I got off the train I was excited, even overwhelmed by all the people and lights and things. I saw a man with Down’s Syndrome starting a conversation with a beautiful young woman. He was very happy and she seemed to blush at the attention. I couldn’t hear their conversation but he probably said to her what every other man waiting for that light was thinking. “You’re beautiful” and if his mouth didn’t say it, his eyes sure did. It warmed my heart to see his sincerity and lack of fear. I admired him and thought if I was him I would have no problem making 1000 beings smile everyday. He gave her what appeared to be a receipt. She examined it carefully looking for some meaning. As he just stood there smiling, not caring much what he had given, just more satisfied with the feeling of giving. The light turned “blue” as they say in Japan. And I kind of followed them, curious what would become of the situation. Soon she said she would go a different direction and he said “me too”. Then she did it again and he again followed. I thought how he must get his beautiful pure heart broken, even smashed, a dozen or more times a day. But also probably recovered to be as cheerful as the Buddha.
I didn’t make it to Asahikawa in time for the lunch price at the viking I wanted to pardon. So I walked up and down the “shopping park” as it’s called. Looking for something to eat and also people watching, again barely even noticing the (non-edible) things for sale. Krishna’s Indian food? 300Y ramen? Finally something jumped out at me, the kanji for ½ price. I've never seen it at a place to eat before. It was a shrimp burger set for 250Y. I jumped at the price. I ate the fries first with what little ketchup I was given. Next the shrimp burger went down quickly, the drink I took my time with and watched the workers and customers. I became conscious of my power as a person and a consumer to shape the world. I was still hungry so I went to the same shop, but just one block away in the station. It was a smaller shop, the people were friendlier and I ordered the same meal again. One of the young girls gave me a big smile and stared deeply into my eyes, It was me that was blushing from attention this time and some of the workers noticed and giggled.
I sat down and ate more slowly this time and I noticed the food still in the bodies of the shrimp, a reminder of the abruptness of their lives ending; after all they were still all babies. I wondered if it wasn’t more ethical to eat a hamburger. You could make 1000 burgers by killing just one animal. But to make this one they had to kill what seemed like 1000 shrimp. The sound of me sucking up the last of the liquids in the cup reminded me of bulldozers at a landfill as I stared at all the trash on my plastic tray. Oh but they burn most everything in Japan, no space for landfills I thought. The thought process was cut before reaching any conclusions, it was time for my train home. As I was boarding the train I noticed an old woman who had forgotten how to smile. What caused that, and could it/would it happen to me, I wondered as a silently thought a prayer for her.
On the train i borrowed a piece of paper from a highschool boy sitting next to me and wrote down this story. It was the first i had written much in a long time and it felt really good.