It's been a while since I wrote on this thing and I mean a long while. Well what has changed? For starters I'm no longer in Japan. Maybe you as a reader know this or maybe you didn't know. I am back in Colorado. I've been back in Colorado since 2013 in actuality and it's been a journey since then as well. The culture shock has definitely worn off to a big degree. It was with me for a while though. I lived in Japan for four years. Those years flew by, but they do count and they did count and they will count.
It's really a unique experience returning to a place after you've been in another place for a long time. For me it seemed as if I had just woken from a four year long nap as everything around me was different and I felt I had to start at square one. I've started at square one before. This has happened many times in my life and yet it feels weird to do it a big contrasting way. Japan had been a giant adventure and yet it was behind me. It existed suddenly like a lingering dream that creeps into the conscious mind when wiggling the toes in the morning. Even now as I write this I can close my eyes and see the beautiful painted pink flowers on a side walk by my house in Naraha or maybe I can feel the cold glass of a train window as my head rests against it or I can smell the rain in downtown Tokyo as I had walked so many times in a light rain that really had seemed to be part of the city itself. I can still hear the music of the morning bell for the schools that I'd always walk and hear in the distance. Yet, all these things are memories and very much like dreams. To be honest my life has been transitions for this period of time. From a very early age I've been searching for myself and for my identity and naturally this lead me to a strict path of spirituality.
I think spirituality started in my karate class with meditation. I can still remember the fresh cold feeling of the white mat that I'd step onto to start the class. It needed to be respected and I would bow to it before stepping on. We'd do meditation upon starting the class. Everybody would sit in formation and we'd sit cross legged and I'd try to calm my mind or try to make my breathing sound like the others around me. How were they doing that. Karate was my introduction to meditation and that was the extent of the practice until I reached college and then I learned that the rabbit hole would get deeper.
It's really a unique experience returning to a place after you've been in another place for a long time. For me it seemed as if I had just woken from a four year long nap as everything around me was different and I felt I had to start at square one. I've started at square one before. This has happened many times in my life and yet it feels weird to do it a big contrasting way. Japan had been a giant adventure and yet it was behind me. It existed suddenly like a lingering dream that creeps into the conscious mind when wiggling the toes in the morning. Even now as I write this I can close my eyes and see the beautiful painted pink flowers on a side walk by my house in Naraha or maybe I can feel the cold glass of a train window as my head rests against it or I can smell the rain in downtown Tokyo as I had walked so many times in a light rain that really had seemed to be part of the city itself. I can still hear the music of the morning bell for the schools that I'd always walk and hear in the distance. Yet, all these things are memories and very much like dreams. To be honest my life has been transitions for this period of time. From a very early age I've been searching for myself and for my identity and naturally this lead me to a strict path of spirituality.
I think spirituality started in my karate class with meditation. I can still remember the fresh cold feeling of the white mat that I'd step onto to start the class. It needed to be respected and I would bow to it before stepping on. We'd do meditation upon starting the class. Everybody would sit in formation and we'd sit cross legged and I'd try to calm my mind or try to make my breathing sound like the others around me. How were they doing that. Karate was my introduction to meditation and that was the extent of the practice until I reached college and then I learned that the rabbit hole would get deeper.
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