Tip #1 to begin preparations for a journey where the signposts are unfamiliar, where the new worlds you see reveal elements in yourself that you never knew existed.
Sunday, June 9, 2019
5 Unforgettable Trains Trips
Patricia’s Latest Find...
Most people believe that a guided tour is the best way to travel to a new country. Epiphany, I just realized that using the following article, one can explore Japan without a guided tour or any prior experience.
Saturday, June 8, 2019
“This is the land of your ancestors...”
“This is the land of your ancestors. Your family lived here.” Yuji Ishihara
Growing up in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado, I walked the land of my Manzanares ancestors, cast my eyes up to see the same migrating Canadian Geese flying in long breath taking V-formations.
Yet long had I the dream of walking in the footsteps of my Ishihara/Kobayakawa ancestors, until in the year 2015, I boarded a flight to Niimi, Okayama, Japan, where I met Sohji and his father Yuji Ishihara. To make short the story of a long adventure with Yuji, the genius of Niimi, we skip forward to the place where Yuji tells me of a very old Buddhist monk who carried in his memory the long history of the families of what was once the tiny village of Niimi.
After meeting the old Buddhist priest who knew of my family, Yuji took me to the Nichinan Shiaksho (city hall) near Niimi to research the Kobayakawa family records and examine the books of maps. In those historical records we found “the land of my ancestors.”
Yuji then drove to the map location, parked and walked to the edge of a rice field. With a different set of ears I heard Yuji say: “Your family lived here.” I could see them, Jotaro and Taka Kobayakawa, and their ancestors quietly walking along the mountain margin of the cedar forest above rippling fields of rice.
Growing up in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado, I walked the land of my Manzanares ancestors, cast my eyes up to see the same migrating Canadian Geese flying in long breath taking V-formations.
Yet long had I the dream of walking in the footsteps of my Ishihara/Kobayakawa ancestors, until in the year 2015, I boarded a flight to Niimi, Okayama, Japan, where I met Sohji and his father Yuji Ishihara. To make short the story of a long adventure with Yuji, the genius of Niimi, we skip forward to the place where Yuji tells me of a very old Buddhist monk who carried in his memory the long history of the families of what was once the tiny village of Niimi.
Yuji then drove to the map location, parked and walked to the edge of a rice field. With a different set of ears I heard Yuji say: “Your family lived here.” I could see them, Jotaro and Taka Kobayakawa, and their ancestors quietly walking along the mountain margin of the cedar forest above rippling fields of rice.
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