one grateful, golden week after another

i just want to start this post out by saying how very grateful i am to the universe and every piece of it and person in it and ounce of energy that has gotten me to my wonderful place on this island.  every day here is a gift that is larger than life and each day i just try to chip away at it's awesomeness.  breathing salty ocean air infused with the richest damp forest smell is a gift in and of itself.  i continue to find reasons why i love life and the hidden beauty that lies within its quiet places.  life here is surreal and it keeps me living in the moment.  right now is soo good.

and now i want to reflect on some very good moments in the recent past.  it was golden week here last week and it marks the second biggest holiday season of the year for folks in japan.  loads of people traveling all over this amazing country and everyone is genki genki genki!!!!  (happy)  i had the great privilege of traveling with some japanese and american teacher friends from the mainland and hanging with them on a road trip across our main island of kyushu.  we met up with many other people along the way from loads of different countries and doing loads of different things in japan.  so nice to touch base with the rest of the world and get a glimpse at what life is like in so many other places.

our main traveling was done in and around oita prefecture.  it is beautiful, green, mountainous land that is (of course) surrounded by the sea.  we stayed one night at a gorgeous mountainside campsite on the mainland with a bunch of college mates of one of my japanese friends with whom we were traveling.  it was fun to drop in on their reunion of sorts.  just like the ones back home, only maybe a few differences...  we did take time to tour the famous tunnel that was just down the way from us too.  a buddhist monk dug it by hand for 30 years to help folks traveling through the area to have a safe route for travel.  there is a road that flanks the tunnel which is quite famous as well and is dug into the side of the cliff.  like driving through a cave above ground.  fantastic fun.

after we hiked around down in the gorge here we came back up to camp for a great bbq and loads of classy fun with new friends!

after an evening of fun we packed back into the car for a three hour haul to the edge of the prefecture and unloaded our camping gear onto a little motor boat and hopped a 10 minute ferry to a very remote island for a music festival there.  this festival really blew my mind and gave me the warm feeling of being back home with my people there.  nothing like music to break the barriers of language and culture.  it was the most home that i have felt since i touched down in nippon over nine months ago.  i will let you enjoy the sights that i captured now.  pictures do speak a thousand words...

and so with some dancing, tunes jammed live, loads of laughing, tugging of ropes and intoxicating sparkling seas under my belt i take the world on again as the soul gaijin on this little island in the middle of nowhere and everywhere.

namaste friends