A taste of the Orient

by Stewart Shinkins (Ireland)

A leap into the unknown Japan

A week experiencing Japan after a business trip in Yokohama was by far and away my most experiential holiday. I had been used to these little sightseeing trips since I qualified, at age fourteen, for the international pro tour of a card game I was number one in Ireland at. I must say I was prepared mentally and physically for a voyage of discovery-a leap into the unknown. Quite fortunately I had a friend in Tokyo-Kumiko Yokoi-a famous singer songwriter whose husband was editor of the Tokyo times. I stayed with this elderly couple for the week's vacation after the Pro Tour. Kumiko had a lot of respect for me as my father,RIP, was her landlord for the time she spent studying music at the University of Limerick. It was great to meet Kumiko in her homeland for the first time and first we went to Ginza-the shopping district of Tokyo. We had lunch..now eating in Japan is a fun affair. Plastic replicas of the dishes are on display in the window and you choose whichever looks best. I developed a taste for soba noodles which are made of buckwheat and are very healthy. Ginza is a very busy area and being six foot two I towered above others and felt like a bit of a freak. There aren't many foreigners or gaijin in Japan. I found it incredible the difference between New York and Tokyo. People are just so respectful in Tokyo and personal space rarely gets invaded. One of the hilights of my vacation was a trip by bus to Kamakura where there is a Buddhist temple and a giant statue of the Buddha sitting on a hilltop which attracts many sightseers, the daibuttsu. Climbing the steps to the statue I felt like each step was leading me closer to enlightenment and when I finally reached the statue I felt cleansed and purified. I felt enlightened just like the buddha. On the coach trip back to Tokyo we stopped at a traditional restaurant for dinner. It seemed very formal to me but I realised the people from the tour group were all very used to the ways of this restaurant and it was normal to them though not to me. We all knelt around a very low table and it was the most interesting experience I'd ever had and is one that will remain with me for the rest of my life. We all sat in silence as the food was being prepared almost like praying before the meal. Everybody said "Ita daki mas" before eating and the food was delicious. We had sushi and sashimi as well as miso soup and braised beef slices. Getting home to Kumiko and her husband's small house, I completely forgot about taking off my shoes and putting on slippers in the hallway. I felt embarrassed but her husband had a present for me of a book on Aikido-a japanese internal martial art. I had been practicing tai chi for five years at that time and the similarities between the chinese internal martial art and Aikido were very interesting to me. Every night of my stay I would bathe in their small bathtub to wash away the dirt of the day. This is a habit which I fostered and still have a bath each night at home in Ireland.. just picking up this tip alone made my trip to Japan worthwhile but it was to be on my flight from Osaka to Amsterdam a few years later when my true calling was finally catalysed by another awe inspiring trip to Japan where I met my younger brother, Shane, and his now wife, Yuko, at their home in Yamagata. I got to experience cherry blossom season and it was all so beautiful It was also on that trip that I experienced Japanese hot springs or "onsen" where one bathes in the natural high sulphur content waters. I hardly slept on my two night trip to see my baby bro and I realised he was all grown up. All that was left for me to do was let him go.. which became the title of my first poem which I wrote on the flight.