COROMIND ISSUE 18 JUN24 ONLINEVERSION - Flipbook - Page 10
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Ross Ramblings
Japan Revisited - Part 2
I have just returned from Japan after visiting my partner’s
family. On arrival at Narita Airport at 9pm, we were met
by Hiroshi, my partner’s brother, who said “We go to onsen
(Japanese hot baths).” After 昀氀ying for 12 hours, this was
indeed a welcome treat and we basked in 40 degree pools
of di昀昀erent depths, some shallow with stone pillows to
gaze up at the planes taking o昀昀 every few minutes from the
airport a kilometre away, and some with pummelling jets
of water that massaged away the aches from 12 cramped
hours on Fiji Airlines. No clothing is worn and the pools
are separated for men and women. I don’t have any tattoos,
which was fortunate, as there was a sign displaying body
pro昀椀les with imaginary tattooed areas which said only
tats that could be covered with the palm of one hand were
allowed at that onsen. Many don’t allow any moko (tattoos)
at all, but I think that with the increasing numbers of foreign
visitors and young Japanese who return from overseas
sporting some ink, attitudes could be slowly changing. I
often wonder how the All Blacks manage when they visit
onsens. Perhaps the ultra-polite and accommodating
Japanese make exceptions for our national heroes, or
maybe it’s just that the players have extra big hands.
It’s a land of public signs which elicit a chuckle like, ‘No
leaning here’ or ‘No littering, I’ll tell the police’, or ‘Please
chew well and eat slowly. Be careful not to su昀昀ocate’, while
some shop names like a supermarket called ‘Foods and
Drug’ and a girls’ fashion brand ‘Titty and Co’ also bring
a smile.
It’s a land of temples and shrines, hundreds of years old,
evidence of the Buddhist and Shinto religions which
昀氀ourished in times gone by. The Kiyomizu-Dera temple
that we visited in Kyoto was founded in the year 778 and
rebuilt in 1633 from 400-year-old zelkova trees which
will remain in good condition for twice the age of the
wood used, i.e. 800 years, until the year 2433. It really
makes the 50-year life span of our radiata pine houses
seem a bit lame. More forests of zelkova were planted 25
years ago to be used in hundreds of years’ time to replace
any decaying wood in the temple. The structure is held
together with interlocking woodcuts and not one nail was
used in the construction of its 15-metre-high foundations
and sprawling temple complex.
There are similar temples all over Japan, most with
exquisite wooden and bronze sculptures and painted
frescos. Given the much lower population in times gone by,
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it makes us realise how important the words and practices
of the Buddha must have been, and one wonders how a land
with such a rich cultural and religious legacy can now have
such a small fraction of the population that would label
themselves as religious. Most Japanese observe the rituals
of Buddhism and Shinto at temples and shrines and many
houses contain a butsudan, a small shrine where deceased
relatives are remembered and honoured, but few know of
the four noble truths of Buddhism – the truths of su昀昀ering,
the cause of su昀昀ering, the end of su昀昀ering and the path to
the end of su昀昀ering. To them the antiquity of their culture
and the accompanying rituals are what is important.
It’s also a land of speaking baths which tell you when the
water is hot enough, and of wonderfully warm heated toilet
seats with sensors which open the lid and squirt water
into the bowl as a non-stick measure
as you come through the door
and which include a bidet,
to wash and dry you know
where.
Unfortunately,
all instructions are in
unintelligible (for me)
Japanese
script
so
fortunately there is also
the toilet paper option.
Other
technological
wonders in the form
of robots scour the
department
store
aisles
spurting