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Latest stories from Notes from the Nog 


28 Feb 10 visit Dust I'm in Santa Fe, training for a month at Upaya Zen Center, and having a fine time, thank you. The hours of meditation, the long work periods, and all the snow are helping to ground me in this land of big skies.Yesterday, while sitting on my cushion and...
17 Feb 10 visit What Goes On The theme of the three day drive was snow. But unlike the subsequent storms going on back East, this snow behaved itself by staying on the desert and off the roads. On the far-off mountains it looked like punctuation. This enabled us a beautiful ride,...
09 Feb 10 visit Happy Nu-hu-hu-hu Year!
03 Dec 09 visit So Much Water So Close To Home My last day in Yonago, I went to see a Doctor of Chinese Medicine about my knee. He told me that my body has too much liquid, and gave me some herbs to remedy that. But how can I escape all this water?It is beside my train, in the form of a river along...
25 Nov 09 visit Silent, But Readily Deep Kyoto has published my write-up on the Vipassana course. What isn't stated in the article is that I didn't finish. Sitting more than 10 hours a day took its toll. I had a few moments the first day where I wondered if I'd make it, yet day two was...
17 Nov 09 visit Feet Up Off the road for a few days. We traced the distended belly of the Kinki Region, where it juts proudly into the Pacific, walking 300+ km along the Kii-ji, Nakahechi, and Ōhechi sections of the Kumano Kodo. Like the Japanese expression, "Har...
03 Sep 09 visit Steps from the Kyo And that road home is long and winding. I will leave Kyoto this morning, fifteen years to the day after arriving in Japan. Our plan at the moment is to walk into autumn, through Kumano, across Shikoku. Winter in Southeast Asia, India. Back to New...
31 Aug 09 visit The Road Home There's a subtemple in the grounds of Kenninji whose kanji could be liberally translated as "The Temple of Both Feet." Miki taught the odd workshop here and I played a kirtan in the main hall last May. The temple was holding a special exhibition of the...
28 Aug 09 visit Let Me Get Back to the Sea IV The train was the first of the day, and it led me west along the coast. One beach lined a crescent shaped cove, but the ends had been lopped off and concreted. A beautiful old wooden station had lost its view of rice fields and forest to a five meter...
28 Aug 09 visit Let Me Get Back to the Sea III It was raining the next morning, so we didn't set out until 9:30. I lingered out front, looking at at plaque stating that this school, which had opened in 1885, had graduated its last class back in the spring. I was struck by the far -reaching effects...
27 Aug 09 visit Let Me Get Back to the Sea II Breakfast was late and so was my departure. I hadn't slept well and my eyes showed it. I walked out of town, along a beautiful stream, with the occasional old man at random intervals, poles poised for bounty. The moving water and fishermen theme...
27 Aug 09 visit Let Me Get Back to the Sea It started with a photograph. It is captioned, "Just north of Kyoto, setting out to walk to the Japan Sea, late April 1961, " and shows Gary Snyder doing just that. For years I've had that photo in my mind, and thought that I wanted to do the exact...
25 Aug 09 visit Crossing It takes some time getting to Chikubujima. You first must take a train up to Biwa's narrow northern shoulder, eternally bullied by the brawny peaks of Hirasan above. A boat will then take you to the island. On approach it looks in decay, centuries of...
24 Aug 09 visit Sunday papers: Rory Maclean "I am just an old bhikku, or wayfarer, a leaver of home and family, striving for knowledge to help liberate other good citizens from suffering.-- Colonel Than in Under the DragonOn the turntable: Andrew Hill, "Dusk"
22 Aug 09 visit Deep Osaka 2 But it was during my final visit that I finally came across the heart of Osaka, tracing the roots of its oldest history to an area filled with people living a life without pretense. Thursday was my last day of work. Afterward, I met up with a handful...
22 Aug 09 visit Deep Osaka (With apologies to Mikey L.) During most of this year, I taught a lesson or two a week in Osaka. I'd always disliked that city, turned off by it's ugliness. Yet she finally won me with charm. My students were always open and fun, quick with jokes. ...
21 Aug 09 visit On the Night Table During these final six months in Japan, I revisited those books in which I found great inspiration, insight, and beauty. Limiting this list to narratives about the expat experience, here they are, in no particular order. In hindsight, there were three...
20 Aug 09 visit Tokai Shizen Hoedown Dance Steps There isn't much available out there on the Tōkai Shizen Hodō, and nothing that I can find in English. We mainly used this book:It isn't perfect by any means. It was written in 2000 and many of the routes have changed, especially where they've by overla...
20 Aug 09 visit Kyo Kaido Back in the late winter, I walked a small section of the Kyo Kaido, which used to be an extension of the Tokaido, as it passes through Kyoto toward Osaka. It is essentially the Keihan line now, but sections still remain. I start near the amusement park...
19 Aug 09 visit Ribbons around the Fumes In spite of all the fun I had walking the middle section of this trail last May, I was at it again, though split over two days. We started over in Ashiya, where the Kobe's Ribbon road begins. Miki had wanted to show me where she'd lived before the...
17 Aug 09 visit Western Front For some reason, I wanted to walk the west side of Like Biwa. I thought it would be nice to find small beaches and have a swim when it got hot. The day had a poor start, when I took a train on the wrong line and got off at a station with a similar name....
16 Aug 09 visit Below the Fox's Lair Friday afternoon, Deep Micheal and I explored south Kyoto, Fushimi in particular. We got off the train in Tamababashi and headed uphill into the sweltering suburbs. Where the green began was the site of Momoyama Castle. Originally built by Toyotomi...
13 Aug 09 visit Takeuchi Kaido The heat has come back. And with it, David Attenborough. When the simple act of making a decision causes me to break a sweat, I return to my tried and true method of beating the heat: watching the BBC documentary, 'Blue Planet.' The underwater...
11 Aug 09 visit DNR Here we are on the cusp of Obon. I thought I'd exhume a piece I wrote about the holiday back in 1998, which netted me first prize in a writing contest. It's a pdf link, so click and scroll down to page 10. Please forgive the cheesy photo and lousy...
31 Jul 09 visit Anatomical Musings of a Yoga Teacher Most Japanese women, built as slim as they are, don't have much in the hip department. But that doesn't prevent some of them from affecting a wiggle in their walk that would make Marilyn Monroe blush. Today, I saw one such woman, walking with such a...
26 Jul 09 visit Tokai Shizen Hoedown: Westbound V Everybody on the train looked exhausted. Granted it was a summertime Friday, but it wasn't yet nine in the morning. Even the school kids, off to some sports event, had their bodies slumped onto one another, a far cry from their frenzied ass-grabbing...
24 Jul 09 visit Tokai Shizen Hoedown XV (Pt 3) Nine merciful hours of sleep later, we were in front of the train station waiting for a bus. Behind us was the tall statue of Basho. For a man who specialized in the subtle, there was nothing subtle in the scale. It seemed less for the haiku poet and...
23 Jul 09 visit Tokai Shizen Hoedown XV (Pt 2) We moved quite slowly the next morning, downing canned coffee and showering with a hose. At six-thirty we started up the fire road where we'd spend most of the morning. Six km later we arrived at the campsite where we'd expected to stay, had yesterday's...
22 Jul 09 visit Tokai Shizen Hoedown XV (Pt 1) Miki and I wanted to escape Kyoto's Gion Matsuri like the plague. We still had to finish the Yama-no-be section of the TSH. For whatever reason, our guidebook neglected to cover this section, and the usual TSH bloggers had little to say either. One...
12 Jul 09 visit Sunday papers: Diana Ackerman "Etymologically speaking, a breath is not neutral or bland--it's cooked air; we live in a constant simmering. There is a furnace in our cells, and when we breathe we pass the world through our bodies, brew it lightly, and turn it loose again, gently...
11 Jul 09 visit Strays Here is something I wrote last winter. It started life out as part two of this post, yet I'd hoped it would grow up into something bigger. But life, and the mind, moves on. Come here and speak my dear foundling... ...so I walked. It's good to walk. ...
09 Jul 09 visit Mr. Mojo Raijin Bizarre weather today.It's July, I've got less than two months to go here in Kyoto. Lately, I've been peeling away my work and other obligations like sunburnt skin. Which frees up my Mondays. I decided to spend this one with JesusChris, meeting him for...
07 Jul 09 visit Tokai Shizen Hoedown XIII Ezaki Mitsuru was having another exhibition down at Gallery Mu-un. So it was that Miki and I, along with KJ John and Sage, spend a long morning making our way down to south Nara. There were a few of the usual Yoromi suspects around, including that...
01 Jul 09 visit Alms Sunday Waiting at the stoplight. Down the hill I see a figure with bushy straw colored hair, wearing a cape and walking deliberately in the rain. The light changes and I ride down, to notice that it's a monk on his begging rounds, merrily stomping through...
28 Jun 09 visit Sunday papers: Robert Twigger "The threat of extinction, be it to animals, languages, ways of life, human skills is a wake up call to cease believing someone else will solve the problem. The solution begins with rejecting the lack of diversity in one’s own life, of refusing to acce...
26 Jun 09 visit Give a Hoot, Don't Commute I just got home from Osaka, after a quick dinner at Cafe Absinthe, beneath the photos of some of the 100 famous Japanese peaks that Wes climbed during over a period of years. I was tired from teaching two physically challenging classes earlier in the...
23 Jun 09 visit Gained in Translation Adam sent me this interesting and thought-provoking article. Miki and I make a guest appearance at the end.On the turntable: "British Blues Heroes"
22 Jun 09 visit Kamogawa Duck Tails The duck raised its body out of the water, flapping its wings madly as if trying to life the river from its bed. Then it settled its body back into the water. A neighboring bird repeated this process, followed soon by another, as if collectively, they...
19 Jun 09 visit Native Indian Warai Hotoke smilesto hide tears.The view of the factorybillowing smoke beyond the ridge.On the turntable: Roy Ayers, "Coffy"
12 Jun 09 visit Tokai Shizen Hoedown XIV The day after the Katsuragi walk, I found myself on a train heading back down that way. Miki and I plan to do the next section of the TSH in a few weeks, and we'd start today from Murōji and cross the mountains into Mie-ken. From the station, we faced ...
09 Jun 09 visit Amongst Spiders and Wizards The weather report throughout the week had proved schizophrenic, but the clouds Saturday seemed encouraging.  So it was that I met up with Ojisan Jake and Aurelio for the long ride down south to Gojo where we'd start walking the Katsuragi Kaidō.   ...
03 Jun 09 visit Off the Rails in April The conductor was having a hard day.  During nearly every announcement, he's made a mistake, quickly followed up with "Shitsurei shimashita."  Forgive me, I've committed a rudeness.  It was funny at first, until I remembered last weekend.  On Sunda...
01 Jun 09 visit Tokai Shizen Hoedown: Westbound IV ...And it's even harder to concentrate on a hike when you are deep in conversation with three.  Marcin and Hideyo joined us for this next section of the TSH.  (He's been in country a mere 4 months, but they've already walked most of the Kyoto Loop Trail...
29 May 09 visit Tokai Shizen Hoedown XII I've mentioned before how difficult it is to focus fully on a hike when deep in conversation.  Miki has just returned from her month away a few days before, so much of this walk was spent in other places and times.  What I do remember is cedars.  A wh...
27 May 09 visit Book of Wind As I leave Yonago Station, I see Vanilla Man.  The Japanese call him Waito Ojisan, or White Uncle.  He is a man in his fifties, who wears all white and takes great delight in flirting with schoolgirls. He appears to be completely nuts, but has a brillia...
25 May 09 visit Meanwhile, Back in the 'Nog... Days that are multi-segmented tend to go on and on.  Today, I've already played drums for a set of Indian  devotional music, had lunch with a handful of yoginis, and met with Roger to discuss the next film that we hope to make.  Now I'm moving along ...
22 May 09 visit Danger on Peaks Just upon entering the forest, I pass an old wizard with long wispy white beard and a guitar case on his back.  A good omen, I think.  Today's hike will be a good one.  A few minutes later, I come across an large inoshishi that looks to be abou...
21 May 09 visit On Noto's Broad Shoulder I start way up in Fukui today, just out of view of the sea.  The last of this morning's multiple trains lets me out at Imajo, a small village above a river.  I make my way south from here along a highway that is heavily trafficked by huge bla...
20 May 09 visit Obscured by Clouds I seriously think I've been bewitched by a fox.  I've been stumbling around this pass engulfed by clouds, trying to find my way down.  There are supposed to be inspiring views of Osaka from up here, but I can't even find the trail.  As I search, I th...
19 May 09 visit Whinging in the Rain There is a three meter high fence below me, and beyond it is what I take to be a grove of young plum trees.   Looking closer, I notice that the trees are instead steel stakes affixing some undefinable green material to the hillside in order to keep it ...

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