Vending Machines and Cicadas
Alan
Summers
Bristol, UK
Basho
Journey/WHF2002 (Photo by Yumi; courtesy of Naked Haijin Productions,
Bristol, UK) L-R standing: Matsuko
Teraoka, Deborah
Russell, Alan
Summers, Daniel
Gallimore, Susumu
Takiguchi, Debi
Bender, Matsuo
Basho (statue), Judit
Vihar, Bruce
Ross. L-R seated: Brian
Selby, David Barsky, Visnja
McMaster (not pictured, Makiko Taraoka).
(Photo and digital art by Alan Summers)
Click
image to send as a WHCe-Card
Despite the title, my first and
strongest memories are of the Bullet Trains (Shinkansen), of which I found
myself catching several during my stay, much to my delight.
But back to the beginning...
I landed at Kansai
Airport, Osaka,
in early September, to be met by my friend, colleague and fellow writer/haiku
poet, Maki Nishida. From then on, my jetlag never stood a chance!
We both went into a thorough tour of Osaka
and Kobe over
the next two days, spending 18 hours a day on each city! We had
traditional food of all sorts, from restaurants to Maki's parents' house. As
good as the restaurants were, they could not get near to the excellence of mood,
atmosphere, and culinary experience that Maki's mother, Akiko Nishida, provided.
During the few waking hours of those two days, so much was packed in, from
buying a new Canon Sureshot camera, called an 'Autoboy',
to playing a game of hyakunin-isshu
(usually played around the New Year) to playing aeroplanes with Maki's nephews,
Hiroto and Sakumi. I can't imagine many families being so relaxed when their
boys get picked up, swung round and then thrown at huge cushions! I had intended
to do this only a couple of times for each young lad, but they insisted on more.
So nearly an hour later, after working off my fine meal, I set out with Maki,
leaving behind her parents and sister Kayo Aoyama, mother of the aforesaid
nephews, while we walked and walked and walked. All this on a badly sprained
ankle that originated in England; but if I waited for a perfect time for a
perfect experience I would still be twiddling my thumbs at home, with my leg up
resting.
samurai legends
tsukutsukubőshi cicadas
of sumadera
Maki was explaining about a
samurai legend at Suma
Temple when cicadas broke out with their semi-no-koe (chorus), a
rasping call that initially made me think of a single, large bird rather than
small insects. This particular call in September is often associated with
the 'official' end to summer. So, when the tsukutsukubőshi
(cicada species, meimuna opalifera, nick-named after their sound) give
cry it is the end of summer, rather than the beginning, as is the case
with all other cicadas; also signifying, 'not yet autumn',
so says another legend. This is the country of legends, and you never know
whether they will remain dormant or not.
Cicada sounds:
http://homepage2.nifty.com/saisho/song-e.html
(offers MP3 or WAV including meimuna opalifera species)
http://homepage2.nifty.com/saisho/songmp3-e.html
http://www.nat-museum.sanda.hyogo.jp/wave/wav_korogi.html
The two days with Maki and her
family set me up beautifully for the rest of my Japan experience. There are far
too many images of Japan to put down here, though a few would be Bullet
Trains, onsen,
cicadas
and...
(Photo and digital art by Alan Summers)
Click
image to send as a WHCe-Card
vending machines
the hot choice always out -
Narrow Road to the North
So, on to the Bullet Train to Kamakura
to meet up with other haiku poets for a haiku
experience organised through the World Haiku Club by the indefatigable
energies of its Chairman, Susumu
Takiguchi, and watched over in Japan by WHC Development Advisor, Debi
Bender. Susumu and Debi were working 24/7, and I believe that Debi might
have managed to fit in an extra twelve hours a day on top of that just to make
double-sure everyone was looked after, and everything was covered!
Shin-Kobe
a dog balloon shifts
to look at me
I was greatly excited about
joining a major expedition that would retrace some of Basho's steps, and with
the aid of the magical onsen,
I was able to do just that. Thanks to Susumu's perseverance that I
regularly try the communal onsen 'hot springs' at various ryokan
(Japanese-style hotels), my ankle quickly became less swollen and I was able to
undertake walks up and down hills and mountains that I would otherwise have been
able to view only from ground level!
(photo and digital art by Alan Summers)
Click
image to send as a WHCe-Card
I was seriously looking for Basho.
On our Far North Journey, I felt I saw little glimpses here and there...
Toshogu shrine pines
I try to stay still as well
mist and dew
The
Toshogu Shrine:
http://www.pref.tochigi.jp/kankou/english/nikko/nikko1.html
Kamakura
was the start of my Basho adventure and the meeting of many of my numerous
companions. I was very honoured to meet James
Hackett, the famous haiku poet and friend of
RH Blyth, with his wife Patricia, who is a very fine haiku poet too, as I
found out at various kukai that were organised. They were the best companions to
have on this journey, and we got on like a house on fire. I still pinch myself,
having met one of my heroes of haiku, and spending so much time in his company,
and Patricia's.
Another major highlight was meeting friend and haijinx
e-magazine colleague, Carmen
Sterba in person at Kamakura. We temporarily left the WHC crew behind for
one night as I stayed at Kris
Kondo's house, who drove us both back to her fantastic Aladdin's cave of a
place.
The next day I said farewell to Kris (thank you Kris for being such a fine
hostess), all too, too brief a stay, and left with Carmen on our trip to Tokyo.
We had the best of the day together, just two poets strolling around part of
Tokyo, and then on to the Basho
Memorial Museum before the other poets caught up with us. It is so
refreshing to be able to meet up with people you want to meet, but have only
ever known via email. I certainly made an effort to make the most of the actual
time before it once again became only 'virtual'.
Meeting Dorothy
Britton (Lady Bouchier) at Kamakura was amazing, as she is both a heroine
and another legend; she had only just arrived from the U.S.A. and was
immediately involved with the WHC Kamakura event, giving simultaneous
translation to a talk by James W. Hackett. She looked so fresh and elegant while
I was so bedraggled with fatigue.
I was extremely fortunate to spend time in the company of Visnja
McMaster of Zabreb, Croatia, the inventor of the 'Haiku
Cards' teaching game. Visnja has unselfishly done so much with Croatian
children, proving what a powerful tool haiku can be to lift children away from
certain everyday harsh circumstances, and to bring them to another actual
occurrence: the simple goings about of life itself, in which we are only a small
part. It was a major highlight for me, playing the 'Haiku
Cards' game with Visnja and local Japanese schoolchildren in Akita,
a time that I shall never forget.
Other poets I met, who are also groundbreaking, were Ikuyo
Yoshimura and Eiko
Yachimoto, great ambassadors, each respectively of haiku and renku -- which
brings me to an observation: I have mostly named women!
Other than the exceptions of James Hackett and Susumu Takiguchi, this has been a
catalogue of the female persuasion, and so I must make amends. I mustn't even
mention Deborah
Russell who was great fun, great company and who took so many interesting
digital photographs -- including one of me, mid-way into the great British
tradition of "gurneying".
So, in this spirit, I must tell of a fellow traveler harking from Oxford, who
impinged indirectly onto me some of the spirit of Basho that I was so
desperately seeking. This traveler was Brian Selby, who I have shamelessly not
kept in touch with. Of all the people present, he seemed to have that intriguing
mixture of downright honesty, gentleness, generosity, sabi and other haikai
characteristics about him, that makes me feel that Basho would have liked him
very much for a traveling companion. I certainly did.
I met many flowers, insects, trees, hills and mountains while looking for Basho,
almost catching but ultimately losing him in a playful manner, but always
learning something.
WHC's Japan experience held many adventures and treats including a trip down the
Mogami
River...
in-between season
i follow the Mogami river
by riceboat
...and visiting hills, shrines and
their flower gardens, and mountains:
Alan
Summers
(photo compliments of
Maki Nakamura
and her cellphone)
moon mountain -
i climb up through gorse
into Northern Honshu
Gassan
(Moon
Mountain), Yamagata
As my time is sharply taken up with family caring, I had to go back to England.
Alas, I was able to catch only one day of the WHF2002 Conference. But I had two
more treats in store before I left for the Bullet Train station.
First treat was that Visnja McMaster had left a copy of her book, 100
Hrvatskih Haiku, 'Anthologija za igru Haiku karte' (100 Croatian Haiku,
an anthology for the Haiku Cards game) at hotel reception for me, along with
kind words and autograph inscribed. Secondly, sharing a taxi with Janine
Beichman (author, translator, historian) to the Bullet Train station to
catch a train for Tokyo. Before Janine and I left, we did stop off at the Rogetsu
Museum for half an hour where we greatly enjoyed the displays of original
scrolls. I was able to again thank one of the translators who works at the
Museum for her fine assistance during the filming of Visnja's 'Haiku Cards'
event with local Akita
schoolchildren at WHF2002.
As my jetlag was never given a chance to leave me, I am further and enjoyably
indebted to Janine for her assistance both before boarding the Akita Shinkansen,
and after, helping me work out the onboard telephone system!
Tokyo Bullet train -
only three corners
to my bento box
Janine and I parted at Tokyo where
I caught another train for Osaka. Then, home to England. Armed with many
memories I reclined into my seat.
Shinkansen
another bento box
gets on with me
"Food, glorious food..."
Bento
boxes are the most practical of travel food. Each of the stations had fine
selections of bento boxes. The balance of rice and food, rather than the slabs
of bread (that make me tired and bloated) offered in the West, made me a very
contented traveler.
Also pleasant was the regular up
and down travel of beverage sellers who lullabied me with softest urgings for
coffee. These soft cries, these light trillings, were a softer version of those
in Lionel Bart's 'Oliver!'
musical.
I feel so fortunate to have traveled aboard the famed Bullet trains; not once,
but several times I traveled them over both short and long distances. They are
worth the ticket money, I assure you. For someone of my height, over six foot,
they are a luxury. The interior of each cabin is long, wide and clean, and the
movement of the train from side to side is almost unnoticed. The sheer luxury of
writing without the pen skidding off the page.
But ah, the Bullet Train, and the stations. Shinkansen! It is an experience unto
itself.
