Sunday is for exploring

I spend far too much time thinking, “Flippin heck I live on a mountain in the middle of nowhere,” and not enough time thinking “Flippin heck, I live on a mountain in the middle of nowhere.” I woke up after midday after an epic night out, I hate waking up late but sacrifices must be made and it was an amazing party, leading to a 5am return.

 I was moping a bit thinking that now it was too late to go exploring, the next bus wouldn’t arrive till 3pm and that would give me 4 scant hours to travel to somewhere. Not enough time. That's a rubbish attitude to have though. Not sure what got me thinking it but think back to being 5. Every time you step out the door it’s an adventure, the smallest trip becomes epic.

I need to get that back to that or I’ll go mad up here. Now the weather is turning nicer I have no real excuses to keep me indoors. To that end I hopped on my bike, zipped up my swanky gortek coat (cheers Dad) and set out on the mountain roads to explore and take some piccies.

When the idea sprung up in my mind I was a little apprehensive at first. I’ve still got a few hang ups and sometimes I second-guess myself when I plan on going cycling, it's ridiculous really. There are a lot of bad memories tied into those 2 wheels that I’d rather put behind me. Recently though I think I’ve just been seeing it as another mode of transport and I’m starting to remember how much I love cycling.

I didn’t realize till I did this how little of my local area I’ve really seen, and surprisingly how much it’s been touched by human hands. There are dams all over the mountain and extensive tunnels piercing the landscape. Looking at some of the bypasses around here I have nothing but great respect for Japanese engineering.

That being said though there is still a lot of exciting natural landscapes, whether artificially arranged or naturally occurring I’m not sure. One thing that is almost ubiquitous around here is the Cedar tree. They were planted in great numbers during the 20’s and have since become a corner stone of the wood industry.

An interesting byproduct is that many, many Japanese are allergic to them. Hay fever, known locally as 花粉症、is a huge problem come the spring with many a Japanese person donning a face mask to fend off the invasive pollen. I’m thankfully completely immune, in fact I’m not bothered by hay fever at all over here which makes a nice change.

Another reason I need to get out and do this more is that it’s great inspiration for my writing.  Some of the stuff I snapped with my phone just screams, to me at least, to be written about. The small brook and rickety wooden house being encroached on by cedar trees in particular spring to mind. Whilst I am a city boy at heart I do love being outdoors. Sitting back and watching a stork fly off into the sunset was another great moment. I actually dove for my note book when I got back to the apartment to scribble down a load of ideas.

There is a whole world out there I never see, as per an earlier post. Taking the time to really experience it was a great thing and got me to thinking what is the real nature of exploration. It’s about the journey right? Not what you find at the end really.

So I think as much as I can I’ll set aside Sundays for exploring. This doesn’t need to necessarily be physically travelling. Sometimes it might be an inward exploration, or maybe going for a new experience. Perhaps the exploration will be of a virtual world of someone else’s creating in a game or a book. I’m not sure of the logistics really but I’ll have a lot of fun trying for sure.

On another note Venus and Jupiter looked incredible on Monday night. Gotta love those clear night sky views up here. Anyway hopefully I’ve inspired you to go and explore your own world just a little. 

Mata neeeee.