by Excogitate Jack 'Travel is a state of mind. And wallet. And shoe.' Issue 1
Okayama-Ken, Japan
Does this really need a caption?
This is one of ExJack's favorite places on this little, lonely planet. The dojo is so simple, yet so striking that hundreds of strangers have begged me to know how to get there. It's nearly impossible to find for even experienced travelers (you'd have to know exactly where it is or know my sensei), so I suppose I'll just describe it here as best I can. Gokurakuji is a building of solid wood atop the endlessly shifting water. It is a place of windowed walls, smooth wood, and the smells of an over-matched heater trying to stave off the winter chill. If you're looking for a place where the turmoil the world vanishes at the same moment that the violence of combat picks up, then you're here for this wonderful bit of Zen dichotomy.
Like the postal service: no matter the weather, this view delivers.
How to get there
This, as the bard would say, is the rub. Although locals will know better, all Jack can advise you on is this way: catch a train to Okayama-shi, then catch another train northbound to Tsuyama-shi, then you'll need to find someone who is heading out towards the dojo and knows where it is. There doesn't seem to be any buses out that way with any regularity. It's well off the beaten path and hidden quite nicely up a small cove in a bamboo-covered valley.
Photo Shop
Wander around the inside of the dojo and take some photos of the natural light against the hardwood floors, with the lake waters in the background. The best pictures of the building and lake will be if you head back along the road and hug the gentle bend. Turn around and snap away.
The season you visit in will greatly affect your photos, but roll with it. Up close on frozen statues, far shots on changing leaves, etc.
This, as the bard would say, is the rub. Although locals will know better, all Jack can advise you on is this way: catch a train to Okayama-shi, then catch another train northbound to Tsuyama-shi, then you'll need to find someone who is heading out towards the dojo and knows where it is. There doesn't seem to be any buses out that way with any regularity. It's well off the beaten path and hidden quite nicely up a small cove in a bamboo-covered valley.
Photo Shop
Wander around the inside of the dojo and take some photos of the natural light against the hardwood floors, with the lake waters in the background. The best pictures of the building and lake will be if you head back along the road and hug the gentle bend. Turn around and snap away.
The season you visit in will greatly affect your photos, but roll with it. Up close on frozen statues, far shots on changing leaves, etc.
Go for a short, free hike!
Wallet Roll
The temple itself is free to visit, like most Buddhist temples in the world. If you'd like to practice your Kendo or Iaido then you'll need to bring some yen to donate in return for using the dojo.
If you're driving from a home base, remember that it is a little out in the boonies.
Also, remember that you'll need to budget time to sweep the floors and clean up. Japan is a clean and polite place, so you need to fit in!
Party Time?
Though if you're doing martial arts you will be getting a little bit disrobed around other people, the temple is not the place for any canoodling. There is a path up through the forest that runs above the temple and this is probably a good place to take your significant other for some hugging and kissing, though.
If the caretakers are cool with it, it is a nice place for a picnic either at the dojo or the park benches near the dam.
The temple itself is free to visit, like most Buddhist temples in the world. If you'd like to practice your Kendo or Iaido then you'll need to bring some yen to donate in return for using the dojo.
If you're driving from a home base, remember that it is a little out in the boonies.
Also, remember that you'll need to budget time to sweep the floors and clean up. Japan is a clean and polite place, so you need to fit in!
Party Time?
Though if you're doing martial arts you will be getting a little bit disrobed around other people, the temple is not the place for any canoodling. There is a path up through the forest that runs above the temple and this is probably a good place to take your significant other for some hugging and kissing, though.
If the caretakers are cool with it, it is a nice place for a picnic either at the dojo or the park benches near the dam.
Kote!
What to do
Bring your gear and a change of clothes to do some kendo or iaido. If it's raining, sit an listen to the patter of raindrops on the lake. If it's sunny, sit out on the wrap around porch and enjoy the sun reflecting off the water.
Take a walk around the small temple and check out some of the old, weathered statues. You can chat up the family of monks if they're not too busy. Take a nap on the soft grasses on the banks of the dam lake. Go for a hike up the trail and be one with nature.
There is a small pseudo park at the end of the lake/dam that consists of a few picnic tables and benches so you could spend a pleasant afternoon there although I don't know why you wouldn't just go to the temple instead. Weirdo.
If you are headed for the Okayama-ken area near Tsuyama and you ask very nicely I can perhaps put you in contact with the martial arts club there and maybe you can go watch a practice!
Bring your gear and a change of clothes to do some kendo or iaido. If it's raining, sit an listen to the patter of raindrops on the lake. If it's sunny, sit out on the wrap around porch and enjoy the sun reflecting off the water.
Take a walk around the small temple and check out some of the old, weathered statues. You can chat up the family of monks if they're not too busy. Take a nap on the soft grasses on the banks of the dam lake. Go for a hike up the trail and be one with nature.
There is a small pseudo park at the end of the lake/dam that consists of a few picnic tables and benches so you could spend a pleasant afternoon there although I don't know why you wouldn't just go to the temple instead. Weirdo.
If you are headed for the Okayama-ken area near Tsuyama and you ask very nicely I can perhaps put you in contact with the martial arts club there and maybe you can go watch a practice!
Jack's Misadventures
The first time you try and go to the bathroom while wearing your traditional hakumi, gi, and armor is an experience. Let's just say that it involves flaps, ties, pulling up pant legs, squatting over, lifting off on one foot, and eventually hanging from the ceiling like a bat.
ExJack spent plenty of time here doing martial arts and just enjoying the serenity of the temple. One time he and his sensei couldn't keep doing Iaido because the wood floor was so cold (the lake underneath was frozen) so we just sat near a kerosene heater talking about movies for an hour instead.
Ah, Japan. Where you can get 100 TV channels on your phone, but no building has insulation.
The first time you try and go to the bathroom while wearing your traditional hakumi, gi, and armor is an experience. Let's just say that it involves flaps, ties, pulling up pant legs, squatting over, lifting off on one foot, and eventually hanging from the ceiling like a bat.
ExJack spent plenty of time here doing martial arts and just enjoying the serenity of the temple. One time he and his sensei couldn't keep doing Iaido because the wood floor was so cold (the lake underneath was frozen) so we just sat near a kerosene heater talking about movies for an hour instead.
Ah, Japan. Where you can get 100 TV channels on your phone, but no building has insulation.
Dojo No Nos
The etiquette inside a dojo certainly differs, but there are some general expectations to remember:
1) Take your shoes off before you step on the hard wood.
2) Bow to the painting of the founder on the wall as a sign of respect.
3) Whatever you move or use, put away.
4) Sweep the floors before and after you use the room.
The etiquette inside a dojo certainly differs, but there are some general expectations to remember:
1) Take your shoes off before you step on the hard wood.
2) Bow to the painting of the founder on the wall as a sign of respect.
3) Whatever you move or use, put away.
4) Sweep the floors before and after you use the room.
The Seal Club
Since this is Jack's favorite place in the world, of course it gets the Official Seal of Approval and is one of TWT's Top Twenty Places In The World (caps intended). The trick is to find a way to get to Japan, then get to Okayama prefecture, then get to Gokurakuji (in other words you better know someone who has a car, knows where it is, and is willing to take you).
Since this is Jack's favorite place in the world, of course it gets the Official Seal of Approval and is one of TWT's Top Twenty Places In The World (caps intended). The trick is to find a way to get to Japan, then get to Okayama prefecture, then get to Gokurakuji (in other words you better know someone who has a car, knows where it is, and is willing to take you).
Travel Tip #1: Keep exploring. Don't be satisfied with what you've already learned or experienced.
Travel Well Traveled 学科試験
My bathroom window at one apartment.
Remembering Your Memory
Photos help me remember things. As you can see by this website, I take quite a few pictures. I know it's become a popular backlash in modern culture to say 'put down the phone and camera, take a picture with your mind, experience it' and I mostly agree. Sure, you shouldn't be so consumed with recording something that you don't truly see it. However, think about how faulty our memories are. How easily do experiences fade?
We can say, 'Oh, I'm never going to forget this moment, the spray of this waterfall, the smile of this person, the smell of this ocean' but we always do. Our minds need something to help reawaken those buried sensations. For some people, it may be a sound or a song. When you hear the dulcide melodies of Ramstein perhaps you remember feeding the ducks in Berlin? The very distinctive bells used in different country's schools might bring a flood of memories about teaching.
Other people like their souvenirs. They can tell you exact details about the little side of the road store where they picked up that license plate art or what the women looked like who sold them that necklace on the beach.
For me, it's always been photos. Candid photos of friends, smiling group shots, and especially pictures of landscape all help bring my buried recollections to shallow ground. I can see a picture of a mountain range from a decade ago and remember not just the name and location of the mountains, but where I was standing when I saw that view. Show me a picture I took of a little half-ruin in The Grand Canyon and I can tell you how the sun was beating down on me that day. I remember a drenched hiker coming up as I was going down, advising me that I was starting out too late to beat the heat. The trail was a dusty orange, the canyon walls felt crumbling, not eternal. The little ruin sitting un-aloof atop Horseshoe Mesa was a prize of perseverance against the heat. Then came getting a little lost on the return trip. A minor rock slide. All these threads start coming loose as the picture helps me reestablish those fizzled connections.
My living quarters tend to be rather plastered with pictures. Various apartments have entire walls devoted to different collages. These tend to either impress or make guests feel worried, but they are really for me. Whenever I am stationary for any length of time, I like to be surrounded by some memories. The desktop backgrounds on my computers rotate through a new set of places every week.
Just working on Travel Well Traveled spurs all sorts of remembrances (not surprising, I know). It brings back all the walking through dusty ruins, eating lunch in the corner of a bustling, foreign, city square, sharing drinks with people I didn't even know existed a few hours ago.
Although memories certainly do fade, I believe that it is like a trail being covered with snow or blowing desert sands. It's all still there, just waiting to be discovered when a photo helps thaw out that gorgeous cliff side castle or a collage sweeps the dust away from a random, joyful night out with travel friends many years ago.
In this day and age when we have effectively unlimited photo space it can be overwhelming, to be sure. No on wants seven hundred drunk selfie photos of last night's sorority party. Seven hundred pictures from backpacking around Europe, though, or a collection of shots at different times in the deep Asian jungle, a candid photo of your best friend staring wistfully across the horizon as your boat winds through tiny islands off the cost of New Brunswick: all those things would be lost, in time, like a deactivating cyborg in the rain, if not for the keepsakes we have to reignite those memories.
Photos help me remember things. As you can see by this website, I take quite a few pictures. I know it's become a popular backlash in modern culture to say 'put down the phone and camera, take a picture with your mind, experience it' and I mostly agree. Sure, you shouldn't be so consumed with recording something that you don't truly see it. However, think about how faulty our memories are. How easily do experiences fade?
We can say, 'Oh, I'm never going to forget this moment, the spray of this waterfall, the smile of this person, the smell of this ocean' but we always do. Our minds need something to help reawaken those buried sensations. For some people, it may be a sound or a song. When you hear the dulcide melodies of Ramstein perhaps you remember feeding the ducks in Berlin? The very distinctive bells used in different country's schools might bring a flood of memories about teaching.
Other people like their souvenirs. They can tell you exact details about the little side of the road store where they picked up that license plate art or what the women looked like who sold them that necklace on the beach.
For me, it's always been photos. Candid photos of friends, smiling group shots, and especially pictures of landscape all help bring my buried recollections to shallow ground. I can see a picture of a mountain range from a decade ago and remember not just the name and location of the mountains, but where I was standing when I saw that view. Show me a picture I took of a little half-ruin in The Grand Canyon and I can tell you how the sun was beating down on me that day. I remember a drenched hiker coming up as I was going down, advising me that I was starting out too late to beat the heat. The trail was a dusty orange, the canyon walls felt crumbling, not eternal. The little ruin sitting un-aloof atop Horseshoe Mesa was a prize of perseverance against the heat. Then came getting a little lost on the return trip. A minor rock slide. All these threads start coming loose as the picture helps me reestablish those fizzled connections.
My living quarters tend to be rather plastered with pictures. Various apartments have entire walls devoted to different collages. These tend to either impress or make guests feel worried, but they are really for me. Whenever I am stationary for any length of time, I like to be surrounded by some memories. The desktop backgrounds on my computers rotate through a new set of places every week.
Just working on Travel Well Traveled spurs all sorts of remembrances (not surprising, I know). It brings back all the walking through dusty ruins, eating lunch in the corner of a bustling, foreign, city square, sharing drinks with people I didn't even know existed a few hours ago.
Although memories certainly do fade, I believe that it is like a trail being covered with snow or blowing desert sands. It's all still there, just waiting to be discovered when a photo helps thaw out that gorgeous cliff side castle or a collage sweeps the dust away from a random, joyful night out with travel friends many years ago.
In this day and age when we have effectively unlimited photo space it can be overwhelming, to be sure. No on wants seven hundred drunk selfie photos of last night's sorority party. Seven hundred pictures from backpacking around Europe, though, or a collection of shots at different times in the deep Asian jungle, a candid photo of your best friend staring wistfully across the horizon as your boat winds through tiny islands off the cost of New Brunswick: all those things would be lost, in time, like a deactivating cyborg in the rain, if not for the keepsakes we have to reignite those memories.
Travel Tip #53: If a local wants to practice their English on you, let them. Also, use this as a chance to make a new friend or get some good advice!
Seasons of the Temple
The temple is very easy to spot in Spring and Winter. During Sakura (cherry blossom) time in the Spring, the surrounding trees come alive in vibrant, pink and purple blossoms. The winter dumps plenty of snow on this part of Japan, so the white blanket makes it just as pretty as you'd imagine (though I couldn't get out there during the big snowstorms since the roads were so bad. alas). Summer and Fall tend to kind of blend together, though, as the bamboo forests surrounding the temple and lake seem rather unfazed by the Fall. So, the extra bright pictures are from the summer time while the sort of bright ones are probably from the Fall.
In any case, I'm going to reuse my line about Gokurakuji being like the mailman: Because, no matter the season, this place delivers.
In any case, I'm going to reuse my line about Gokurakuji being like the mailman: Because, no matter the season, this place delivers.
Do you Kendo?
Out of the two martial arts we studied at the dojo, Kendo is certainly more well-known, though still there are plenty of folks in the West who don't know much about it except seeing the armor or practice swords pop up on movies and TV shows (usually used not at all the way they are supposed to be used).
I'll do a whole other TWT Issue in the future just on Kendo since I practiced and saw it in more than a few places, both in Japan and elsewhere. So, here are just a few fun shots of the dojo and us raggamuffins (and our put-upon sensei trying to teach us). Enjoy.
I'll do a whole other TWT Issue in the future just on Kendo since I practiced and saw it in more than a few places, both in Japan and elsewhere. So, here are just a few fun shots of the dojo and us raggamuffins (and our put-upon sensei trying to teach us). Enjoy.
Iaido? I dunno
You've probably seen Iaido, you just didn't realize it. The part in the samurai movie where the characters are gearing up for the big battle and one guy or gal is drawing their sword, slicing around quickly then sheathing it in that cool, katana way? That's Iaido. Basically. Again, I'll talk way more about Iaido in the future, not because I'm good at it or an expert, but because I really enjoy it. So here are a few pictures because I first learned it in the dojo.
Gokurakuji video with music
Remember, for uncut videos go here. For more 30 Seconds of Zen, head here. And for more time lapse photography, check out this right here.
Dojo Time Lapse
30 Seconds of Zen
All the Fine Memories
If my words, pictures, and video haven't convinced you that this is a special place, you must have a heart made of stone and insulated twice. Please give some insulation to the dojo for the floor because that stuff is COLD in the winter time. Poor bare feet. But getting chilly little piggies is just one treasured memory that I have of my time at the dojo.
I started out there training with one group of people and, as travelers are wont to do, people came and went over the seasons. The rise and fall of the unofficial membership of our unofficial little martial arts club perhaps is a reflection of a place founded on the philosophy of impermanence. Arriving in the morning, taking off our shoes and preparing for the workout was a way of waking up on our days/mornings off. We would sweep the floors, open a few sliding doors if the weather was nice, and maybe get some sun on the wraparound deck, listening to the gentle lapping of the lake water.
We'd work hard (for us), make tons of mistakes, laugh when someone's head wrap fell into their eyes or their glasses fogged up under their helmet. We'd spar, try and work on our form, and do plenty of sweating.
When it was all done and we changed to go back to our lives, there was a feeling of accomplishment, of intense relaxation of having worked hard in such a laid back location. I still love the dichotomy of the place, with the utter peace of the atmosphere with the practiced violence of us flailing around inside. I enjoy this quintessentially Japanese place being home to a bunch of foreigners once a week. I like the idea that this is a hidden place, but also the most open place you can imagine. It's the man-made and solid over water, the modern and the ancient. It's a super cool place. Go visit it you can. You must, however, find your own.
I started out there training with one group of people and, as travelers are wont to do, people came and went over the seasons. The rise and fall of the unofficial membership of our unofficial little martial arts club perhaps is a reflection of a place founded on the philosophy of impermanence. Arriving in the morning, taking off our shoes and preparing for the workout was a way of waking up on our days/mornings off. We would sweep the floors, open a few sliding doors if the weather was nice, and maybe get some sun on the wraparound deck, listening to the gentle lapping of the lake water.
We'd work hard (for us), make tons of mistakes, laugh when someone's head wrap fell into their eyes or their glasses fogged up under their helmet. We'd spar, try and work on our form, and do plenty of sweating.
When it was all done and we changed to go back to our lives, there was a feeling of accomplishment, of intense relaxation of having worked hard in such a laid back location. I still love the dichotomy of the place, with the utter peace of the atmosphere with the practiced violence of us flailing around inside. I enjoy this quintessentially Japanese place being home to a bunch of foreigners once a week. I like the idea that this is a hidden place, but also the most open place you can imagine. It's the man-made and solid over water, the modern and the ancient. It's a super cool place. Go visit it you can. You must, however, find your own.
