This Week's Bucket List Additions 7

Last week I had an interview in New York for a job teaching English in Japan.  I won't find out if I got the job until early April, so I'll be doing a lot of wishing and waiting this month.  My future in Japan has been running through my mind a lot lately, so I thought I'd add some things I want to do while living in Japan to my bucket list this week.


Take a Pilgrimage.  Difficulty Rating 8 out of 10:
There are many pilgrimages in Japan.  It is a country full of mountaintop temples and ancient journeys through nature.  But the most famous of all Japanese Pilgrimages is the '88 sacred temples of Shikoku'.  Along the edge of Shikoku, Japan's fourth largest island, 88 temples are scattered, each reputed to have been built or connected to a famous Buddhist monk, Kukai.  Kukai was a monk who believed, unlike others of his day, that we could achieve enlightenment during our time here on earth.  For thousands of years people have taken the pilgrimage searching for a piece of that enlightenment.  The temples form a great circle and it is truly a journey with no destination.

One of my short journeys along our beach.

Copyright Jeff Howick 2011

I've taken many journeys for many reasons in my life: for fun, for education, for love and for jobs.  But I have never taken a journey for the soul.  These days, most people take the journey by bus, stopping at each temple for only a few minutes and completing the journey  in a matter of days.  My wife and I would love to walk the entire path, like the original pilgrims from ancient times. But it takes about 40 days to take the pilgrimage by foot, and it will be very difficult to find a month and a half to dedicate to this journey.  It may take us years before we can do this pilgrimage, but I can't wait to see what I'll discover on the way.

Become Fluent in Japanese.  Difficulty Rating 7 out of 10:
I don't know why Japanese calls to me, but it has for a long while now.  In college I minored in Japanese.  I've continued to study it since then and I speak once a week with a language partner via Skype.  Learning any language is difficult, but having a chance to practice it daily makes it easier.  I can't wait to live in a place surrounded by people who speak a language that sounds like poetry to me, and I can't wait to be able to speak it back.

Swim with Monkeys.  Difficulty Rating 4 out of 10:
One of my earliest memories of Japan is watching the winter Olympics in Nagano.  They did a special on the snow monkey who swam in the hot springs during winter, and that has always stayed with me.  I've always wanted to visit those springs, soak up their warmth and play with the monkeys.



I'll probably do a lot more photographing than swimming around the monkeys when I get there, but it will be just as much fun.  I don't know why certain things inspire us to dream, but visiting these snow monkeys will be a fulfillment of a dream I have long held in my heart.

Japan is full of adventures and journeys I have long dreamed of and planned for, and I could never hope to put them all down in just one blog.  I'm sure I'll have plenty more additions to my bucket list that include Japan or Japanese culture.  In some ways, waiting to go to Japan is an almost painful ordeal.  But at the same time, this period of anticipation and excitement is intoxicating and wonderful.  Isn't that half the point of making a bucket list, to taste the excitement and anticipation that you get as you begin a great journey and dream of the future?

Life's simple pleasures

Every so often I find a new reason to fall in love with my wife. Recently she has been filling the house with sounds of pure joy. Her new found source of laughter and joy? Videos of other people's cats. Yes, apparently thousands of people record their cats doing crazy, silly, cute activities for millions of people to marvel, laugh, and thrill to on Youtube.
She seems to have been captivated in particular by the adventures of a Japanese cat named Maru. My wife's love of life's most simple pleasures, like the silliness of cats, assures me that our life will never be boring. I adore my wife's childlike joy as she watches other people's cats. The world is FULL of beauty if we just look around us, especially at cats. I've attached a link to a video of Maru in case you want to join my wife in her fun.

Learning Japanese

Japanese is a ridiculously difficult language to learn. According to a survey of its diplomats, the British government reports Japanese as the second hardest language to learn, behind Hungarian. Although I read this on Wikipedia and didn't fact check it, so take it with a grain of salt. One thing is sure, learning Japanese is no cake walk.Why do I love learning Japanese so much? Is it because I love a challenge? Maybe. Perhaps I like encountering something foreign and exotic. It's certainly not because I've seen any immediate usefulness from being able to speak Japanese. I'll probably never fully understand why I love Japanese. So much of what we love is fundamentally unexplainable. Why is a sunset beautiful?
Beauty, love, and fascination are ultimately beyond logic and understanding. That doesn't mean we shouldn't examine our loves and fascinations. But more important than examining your loves, is pursuing your loves. Despite causing me many headaches and being virtually useless, I have pursued Japanese for several years and I'm now sharing that passion with my wife. That is why most of our house is now labeled in Japanese. There is nothing greater than pursuing your love, and it will pay off. In my case, I'll be living in Japan in a few years and speaking the language will make many things much easier. But even if I were never to go to Japan, the pursuit alone has brought me enough joy.

Free Comic Book Day!

I went searching for a Japanese keychain today. It was an unsuccessful quest, but not an unproductive one. Besides discovering that there are no Japanese keychains in the town of Madison I was lucky enough to stumble across this glorious flyer.Those have to be the three best words in the whole English language: Free Comic Book. Every year, for an entire day, every comic book store in this great nation of ours gives away free comic books! It's always the first Saturday in May, which means this year it's May 2nd. Find your local comic book store this Saturday and partake in this glorious event that should be a national holiday.

Comics aren't just for kids, and I don't mean the way Harry Potter's not just for kids. I mean the way that sports aren't just for kids or movies aren't just for kids. There are comics for every taste: horror, politics, super heroes, even religion. Go out, get a free comic book, reap some free bliss, and maybe expand your mind this Saturday. I bet you'll thank me for it.

A New Chain for my Keys

Last month I lost something that has served me by my side for more than a decade. My trusted Scooby Doo keychain finally broke free from his chain, never to guard my keys from the pocket monsters again. I lamented this loss online and one of my dear friends decieded to help me.
I received a new keychain from a far away land, South Canada, also known as Minnesota. It was a wonderful gesture and truely apperciated. Unfortunately this almost Canadian keychain which sports a moose and some Canadian geese is too large to fit into many of my pants. Which is too bad because it also happens to be a miniature lunch box, and I love to carry food with me everywhere.I guess I will have to use it only for special occasions. I'll keep it around as my fancy keychain used only for trips to Canada or when I really need to smuggle food into a movie theather or ball game. I've put a lot of thought into what my next "everyday" keychain should be, and I've decieded that it should be something that serves as a daily reminder of my dreams and goals. So I've decieded to find a Japanese themed keychain. My wife and I will be moving to Japan in two years when she graduates from seminary. I've got a lot to do in the next two years, get certified and gain teaching experience in ESL, teach my wife Japanese, find a job in Japan, and get a visa. I can't wait to get started, and hopefully a new keychain will be a small, daily reminder to keep myself focused on that goal.