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Tohoku iku
Today we're off to Tohoku. I woke up at 7, unable to sleep anymore. We're taking the 1:42 pm Shinkansen, but I'm ready to go now! It's nice to wake up early. The air is fresh and the morning still. The weather in Kaminoyama Onsen is welcoming : sunny and cool.
Booked our pension in Nikko too, yesterday. Yos, Jamie and I will be staying in a little wooden house just a ten minute walk from Toshogu shrine. It was surprisingly hassle-free to book one week ahead in the busiest season of the year, Obon. Incidently Obon is the "festival of the dead", a time when ancestors are meant to return to earth for a holiday. My name when said in Japanese is eerily similar to this festival name. Add to this the fact that I was born during Obon, have an interest in Buddhism, and live in Japan, I think you'll agree this is one fine coincidence. Can you imagine that Dad knew I would come to Japan, so he chose the name Auban? Or better still, he didn't know I was going to Japan, but once I'd been named after the Japanese festival, I started, unbeknowest to me, upon a path to Japan. At school I knew a Japanese girl. Near my house is a Nichiren Temple. Then at university, I met Naomi. I suppose if you look for coincidences, you find them, but I'm not looking. They're all there...
Right, 3 hours and half till I meet Naomi...hmmm. I got up too damn early.
posted by PA on Monday, August 09, 2004
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