Skip to main content

Neon pilgrim dreams

I've thought more about Dempster's experiences in Neon Pilgrim and I realise that I've often imagined many of them in detail myself. As a youth up in Queensland each evening I used to fantasise about walking down the hill from the family residence (Not my home. It was not my home) and trekking all the way by foot south to Melbourne, the home of my heart.

As I step off the bus at night and walk towards home I picture myself in Japan, walking the dark and quiet streets to a bland hotel on the outskirts of town. Everything is closed, but the run down pachinko parlour with its flashing neon lights and clatter of balls, a petrol station, maybe a diner and the ubiquitous convenience store, a source of packaged sustenance and supplies for the hungry traveller, of pot noodles and meat buns kept warm by the counter.


And sometimes as I sit out in the cold air late on a Winter's night I dream not of the hotel room, but of seeking shelter from the rain under the awning of a small hut, warmed by a sleeping bag, shirking from the wind. Or of a night in a Japanese train station waiting room, waiting for the first local service of the next morning.

These are unromantic dreams. It feels wrong to think them while there are so many homeless who would dream of the bed I am in now, though they do mirror some of the experiences of the dedicated henro walking around Shikoku. And yes I have experienced it myself, though only briefly and with the full knowledge that better lay ahead.

It also speaks of the ability to find beauty in the dreary, an important skill in appreciating Japan. And it has to be Japan, for in so many other places, including Australia, to be in such a situation is to invite danger from others. The night so often doesn't feel safe here.

But I have learned in travel that it is a certain degree of hardship and exhaustion that makes one appreciate the journey so much more.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Kamioka mines: from silver to supernovas

Part of the Kamioka zinc mining and smelter complex Just after posting about the Kamioka Railway another photo from that 2006 set piqued my interest. Up there in the mountains the landscape looked blasted not just by winter but by something more. It was the kind of lonely place where you would not expect to find major industry, so this sight was quite surprising. Even more surprising is the history associated with this photo. According to some sources mining and refining of ores in Kamioka dates back to 710 AD  and only closed in 2001. Undoubtedly the mine was a major reason for the existence of the Kamioka Railway. Refining of zinc still continues to this day under the parent Mitsui Kenzoku zaibatsu . Gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead were all dug out of the rock here. Unfortunately, the process released cadmium into the river, which, when taken up by the rice that was grown in the river, caused the terrible itai-itai disease  - meaning "It hurts! It hurts". Cadm...

Asagaya and heading home

How can I be happy? I am about to return to a country where the toilets have at most two buttons and no seat warmers. But the tickets are booked and there are no cyclones, typhoons or other disasters standing in our way. It's almost time to go back to my first home. First B wants to do some "local shopping". So we catch the Chuo Line up a few stations to Asagaya, a residential area with a number of Shotengai, covered and uncovered arcades leading away from the station and narrow alleys lined with bars. It is an interesting area for a wander around. We are mainly looking, do some shopping for toothbrushes and sweets from Seiyu, a Wal-Mart owned supermarket/minor department store. We skipped breakfast and lunch is ramen and gyoza at a small restaurant near the entrance to the Pearl Centre shotengai. With the help of a staff member, I manage to purchase tickets at a branch of Lawson to the Ghibli Museum for a friend travelling to Japan in May. There are some...

To Melbourne on the XPT sleeper

Excited by the prospect of reliving the experience of seeing my very first movie and hearing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform it I bought tickets to The Empire Strikes Back in Concert in Melbourne back in February. Then I did nothing about actually getting there. Much as I love Melbourne, due to family commitments I didn't want to spend more than the Sunday away. Flights there and back made sense, but  my flight down to Melbourne in late October reiterated the fact that I usually don't enjoy descending into the city. And the concert was in December, a season of summer storms. I really didn't feel like driving the whole route alone and in a hurry, so that left one choice. The train. My very first trip up to Sydney from Melbourne was aboard the luxury Southern Aurora. Or it was supposed to be luxury. I wouldn't know because I spent the whole ride up very sick with the flu lying in the top bunk, unable to stay awake for my whole of night vigil. Now only...