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

One night in Canberra

It's the April school holidays and we are too busy to have a break but need one because of that. And because it's the Easter weekend the options are limited, so we just drive down to Canberra for the night. No, this isn't our first trip for 2023. I wrote about Japan on another site .  I refuse to wake up early so we depart after 8.30 AM. There is not much to say about the drive except that the clouds seem so low and Lake George is very full. We stop at a rest area and at the lookout up the hill to take it all in. Everyone is hungry so we first stop in Dickson and then can't think of anything to eat, so I drive us to Civic, where we can't decide and end up eating at the Singaporean Killiney Kopitiam branch.  The Canberra Centre has nice shops. I dream of getting an iPad from the Apple Store, we buy a blanket and toothbrushes from Muji and wish that Lego wasn't so expensive. Nothing we can't get in Sydney, but then we rarely go out shopping in the city. It'

A selection of jams

We're home now. The last two days of our Brisbane trip involved a lot of driving but not always much movement. On Wednesday we arranged to met Sis and her family at Robina Town Centre, a massive shopping mall. That meant a drive down towards the Gold Coast along the same motorway we'd driven up along. What should have taken an hour took twice that due to the holiday traffic along the 3 and 4 lane road. Lots of people taking the turn-offs to three of the "Worlds" (Wet'n'Wild, Movie World and Dreamworld).  The Town Centre hosts Artvo , a trick photography gallery where you use perspectives to make subjects look like they are part of the artwork. It was surprisingly fun, despite the aversion of we males to being the subjects of photos. Afterwards we had a long chat over lunch, which was sourced from a variety of eateries. I had roti and chicken curry from Roti and Buns . Passable, though the curry was more laksa like. We later took Sis to Daiso and she and her h