I have been asked to tell the story of how this journey came
about:
As far as I know, it all began in the spring of ’57, atop
one of those San Diego mesas overlooking the blue Pacific. Dad was a jet jock, a Naval Aviator flying
F9F-8 Cougars with the VA-56 Squadron out of NAS Miramar; Mom would soon be conferred a master’s in geography. Nine months later I find myself in Kingsville, Texas of all places....
Fast forward a quarter century and I’m finally finishing a
degree in English Literature at Indiana University. The previous spring I had taken an elective
course in the East Asian Languages and Culture department and was fascinated by
everything Dr. West presented about both China and Japan. I read The
Spirit of Zen while sitting on the banks of the Jordan River, and felt my course in life subtly shifting. I took first-year Chinese during my senior year; then took a summer intensive course in second-year Chinese at UCLA immediately after graduating. I’m sure I could have become fluent had I been immersed in the language right then, but I was also intrigued by software development, and my career simply took a different path. Besides, Tiananman Square was still years
away, and it just wasn’t the right time to go to mainland China.
Fast forward another quarter century or so and I’m taking a
course in Authentic Leadership at Naropa University, having recently left the
college where I’d been employed as a teacher and administrator for the past
nine years. I received an offer to teach
English in the Foreign Languages Department at Xi’an Jiaotong University City
College just prior to our second onsite session in Boulder, and I assumed I
would travel in China before starting work in the fall. Wrong!
I was soon informed by the International Affairs Office that no travel
would be permitted in the P.R.C. until I’d received a work visa, a month after
arriving in Xi’an. Bummer.
Disappointment turned to anticipation, however, when I
realized I could make my way toward China via Japan. Naturally, my first step was to look into
flights out of Denver, but that only led to renewed dismay. I love to fly, but I prefer to sit in the
left front seat. The prospect of 17
hours sardined into the back of a 747 just made me want to scream—along with
all of the other kids in coach. I
thought, okay, I’ll make my way up the Inland Passage by ferry to Anchorage,
where I had once spent a summer watching flights landing enroute to Japan. Unfortunately, those flights now go via Sea-Tac
or LAX, and reservations on the auto ferries have to be made months in advance.
Having contemplated ocean travel, the leap to considering a
freighter voyage was not that great. It
costs more than flying, but if you look at it as meals and lodging for two
weeks, in addition to transportation, it’s not expensive at all. Plus it’s not a cruise—there’s no casino, no
entertainment—just nice accommodations in a single cabin, with access to a
fitness room, indoor swimming pool, and a lounge. Unfortunately, there is no disembarking in
Japan, so that means getting off the ship in South Korea, where I’ll just have
to explore the mountain temples around Busan before crossing the Korea Strait. So it goes.
My dad suggested looking into Japan Rail Pass, which opens
up whole vistas of opportunity for exploring the length of Japan for three
weeks. A friend had recently recommended
Memoirs of a Geisha, and I really
enjoyed Arthur Golden’s description of the teahouses in Gion, so that became a
must-see destination. It’s close to
Nara, the seat of Zen Buddhism, which is where my interest in Japan really
lies, and there are a number of ryokan,
or traditional Japanese inns, in Kyoto.
Before you know it, An Itinerary
had emerged.
Now we’ll just have to see how it plays out…. Any suggestions?
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