Oh Autumn, Where Art Thou? Or Living In The Moment

Finally, the training seminars are over and like pretty much everything in my life I over compensated for a whole lot of nothing. I was the only one with props and by the end of my spick and spiel everyone was getting fidgety. Why did they have to schedule such a bulky speech right before lunch? I’ve never hated public speaking but I’ve never embarrassed it as well. I did win an award once. Second place in grade school. They spelled my name wrong on the award. After three days of long commutes, I kicked back on the futon for two days listening to old Bruce Springsteen concerts, drinking cold coffee and wondering when the leaves were going to change. These were book days but I had no books, no library, no marred Bukowski hardcovers or dog-eared paperbacks. Just the coffee, the music and the dread of the impending return home. I try to close my mind off from such things until the bridge is under my feet but sometimes when the lights are out… Lots of time to think, shift and reorganize. Lots of time to dwell, question and scrutinize. But all that was driving me crazy so I decided to take another one of my temple trips. I’ve been saving two of them in the area for autumn but it looked like autumn didn’t want to come to the party this year. The leaves here are still as green as green can be and the weather is akin to a spring day back home.

If you go East on the train line from my main station you start entering into small mountain country and the wilderness starts to sprout out around the small Japanese homes and farms. You are far from any large city and though the sounds of the trains and passing traffic can remove you from your more naturalistic woodland surroundings it is still peaceful to commune with nature and today any escape from the apartment and my thoughts was welcome. Hase-dera is probably the largest temple time wise from my apartment. The train ride takes a little under twenty minutes and takes you through the country side. Today I watched the farmers hacking down the last of the rice crop. As the stalks of rice fell they would be bound into little rice teepees and placed out in the sun. As the train passed by a man in a straw hat looked up at me from his field. I nodded. If he saw me I’ll never know. We rode on to Hase-dera temple.

Unless you live in the surrounding area the only reason to make your way to Hase-dera is the temple. It is a big attraction during the spring Cherry Blossom season as well as in the fall for what I have read in the autumn the place is supposed to be blazing with crimson maples. If anybody wants to question the existence of climate change I point you towards photos of Hase-dera taken only four years ago showcasing this beautiful image. Today it was nothing but green and a few patches of yellow speckled with brown and inclinations of the red that should be. Global Warming strikes again, my friends, robbing me of the blazing crimson but without it the scene was still a beautiful one. Maybe in a few weeks the red will start to be painted into this scene but today I was enjoying it for what it was. Come on, fall, we’re all waiting for you!

The temple sits in the mountains above the Hatsuse-gawa River. The waters cut a scar through the valley winding along the road. Ducks had found a home there today as they swam along hoping for some handouts. You get to the temple walking down a narrow road of shops and restaurants. I didn’t know what I was smelling as I walked but it sure smelled good. I’d investigate further on the way back and purchase some strange jelly on a stick concoction that I was told was made out of potatoes and cut into a triangle. They sat being heated in a boiling pot of whatever. I was a bit leery as I thought it was octopus cuts but with only a few months left here I wanted to immerse myself more into Japanese culinary tastes and so I purchased, chomped down on the gummy whatever it was called and enjoyed. Here in Hase-dera you find the home of the Buzan School of Shingonshu Buddism. The temple dates back to the 17th century but the roots of the temple go as far back as the 9th when it was founded by Tokudo Shonin as a shrine for the Jyuichimen-kan’non (The Goddess of Mercy). You walk up about a thousand steps on your way to the temple. These steps are part of a wooden hall of sorts with dozens of pillars, Kanji carved into them, and large steel lanterns. On my way up a monk pointed towards a building just off to the side of the hall. I didn’t know what he was saying so I went and investigated to find a tea ceremony being performed. It was similar to the one I’d seen with the Geisha but without the makeup. Lots of tour groups were there and you had to weave in and out of the crowds as you made you way up the steps towards the temple. Hase-dera reminds me a bit of Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto as like that temple it sits on a hill and uses large wooden pillars built from ancient trees to hold it up. The main sanctuary was built in the 17th century and is now one of the largest wooden buildings in Nara. No where near the size of Todaiji but still pretty damn big. Near by is a five-story pagoda which had a bit of red leaves surrounding it. A little is better then none at all. As I was walking around the balcony two monks stood above me at the top of the bell tower. The first gong was deafening. One of them held a conch shell and started to blow it out over the valley. I purchased an iced tea from the vending machine up there on the hill and watched the noon ritual. When the final bell rang out I moved on. I spent hours walking around that morning well into the afternoon. There was much to discover away from the crowds. I found a small cemetery and many old statues along the path. The deeper into the woods of cypress, maple and bamboo I walked the more discoveries I found away from the temple. I sat looking over the valley by a bamboo grove as the sun turned to cloud. The weather was heading to rain, the crowds were leaving and soon I was too happy that I’d stepped out of the apartment for a few hours away from my thoughts of the future. For a few hours I just lived in the moment.