Okinawa

is always hot.

Ten

When I agreed to become a pilgrim and start the temple walk I also agreed to abide by ten commandments. I had an abundance of time on my hands walking from one temple to the next and I wanted to write down some of my thoughts on the laws that I governed myself by for that month.

The first commandment is, "I will not harm life," (fusesho), the second is "I will not steal," (fuchuto), "I will not commit adultery" (fujain), "I will not tell a lie," (fumogo), "I will not exaggerate," fukigo, "I will not speak abusively," (fuakuku), "I will not equivocate," (furyozetsu), "I will not be greedy," (fukendon), "I will not be hateful," (fushin-ni), and last, "I will not lose sight of the truth," (fujaken). The reason I listed these commandments, and their japanese equivalents, is because I want to open a discussion about what they mean to you and to me.

1. I will not harm life.
I tried hard not to harm life, and even went so far as to help life wherever I could. In the above statement, how does one define life? Are mosquitos alive? I killed a few dozen of them walking around shikoku. Are plants life? Again I broke a few branches and hacked my way through a better part of Kochi prefecture. The lives of the baby bird, kitten, and countless insects I saved may ensure that the mosquitos lives I took cancel each other out, but I don't know. I highly doubt even Kobo Daishi, the omnipotent miracle worker and founder of the temple walk, didn't kill his fair share of insects by accident or on purpose, so I'm going to say I was pretty successful on this one in terms of not harming physical life. This far we have defined the first commandment as, "I will not kill," or, "thou shalt not kill," but harm does not necessarily mean kill. It can also mean harm in an emotional sense. I did not harm anyone emotionally, as far as I know, but I wanted to be clear on the definition of the first commandment for going on to the second. I will not harm life means be kind to everyone and everything, if you cannot be kind then be thoughtful, if you cannot be thoughtful then kill it.

Ill continue later...

Finished

I finished my walk the other week, but haven't got around to writing until today. I walked to the 44th temple, took a photo of myself smiling big, and headed for a bus stop to rest my aching feet. I took the bus into Matsuyama city and holed up in a youth hostel for days meeting new friends and talking to old ones. After a few days of exploring Matsuyama, its a nice city but nothing Id go back to, I got down to partying. After befriending a world traveling Japanese, a hitchhiking French man, and a crazy German we all set out into the night to paint the town. We got into loads of trouble and the highlight of the evening was talking to hosts and hostess after their work hours, if you are familiar with host clubs than you know, but if you're not I will explain.

In Japan they have host and hostess clubs that you pay to get into so men, who are usually adorned in some kind of fantasy rock star clothing and big hair, will talk to you all night feeding you drinks and pretending they like you. Same goes for the women expect they are usually wearing hot pants and fur. Talking to these people was like seeing the inside of a host club without having to pay.

After Matsuyama city I wanted to surprise Yifei, so I took the train all day to arrive at Nagoya at around 9pm. My heart pounding and my palms sweaty I rang the elevator to bring me to the 7th floor of her apartment complex. I talked to a nice girl in the elevator and stepped out, walked down the long hallway and gently knocked on her door. My knock reverberated through the empty apartment, alas, she was not there. I tried again, but there was only silence. The girl who I talked to in the elevator just happened to live right next door, and seeing my face she invited me in to use her computer so I could find a hotel. I quickly found one and departed with well wishes and an invitation to hang out that night. I went to the first hotel only to discover that it was booked solid, so I went to another and the same thing. I went to nine different hotels and they were all booked out because of some massive concert in Nagoya. I had nowhere to stay, but I did have something to do, so I called up my new friend Lynn and met her and her friends in front of Nagoya station. We went out to a small club where you had to take off your shoes and got to drinking. Met some cool people, danced all night to the wee hours of the morning, had McDonalds, fell asleep in a manga cafe, got up and felt horrible, almost died, felt a little better, walked to a youth hostel, got a hold of Yifei, went to the youth hostel and took a nap and a shower, finally got to see Yifei and it put a giant perma-smile on my face.

Now I am in Tokyo relaxing and just sleeping as late as I want without any worry about waking up and walking another 25km. I relish every second of doing nothing. Love and miss all of you. I'll be writing more in the next couple days, but this is just where I am now.