Resting in Ashidani

I look at the town office workers. It's long past their regular hours. The sterile glow of computer screens and overhead lights bathe them in depressing joy. This is the countryside but they continue to find reasons to work late hours. They might be very happy individuals but I don't sense any of that every time I look at them through the windows. I take the hint. I never want to come close to anything similar. It's true that my responsibility pales in comparison to probably everyone else around here but it comes with frustration. I'm happy to replace that with many things. I"m glad it's not Japanese TV.





Japanese TV rots my mind, soul, and physical body. It's probably doing the same thing to everyone else. I tend to watch some programs via the internet of American shows but I'm left considering how worthwhile it is. It's a time filler. A time filler that should be put to better use. Many things should be put to better use.





I put my body to good use after I went into a valley at the wrong place. I used my arms and my brain. I used the path of animals to help guide me along some steep slopes. I was making good use of everything. So there is a multiplying factor of goodness in it.





Every branch I grab, every clump of sasa I steady myself on, and every narrow pass I cross is a renewed chance to succeed. Such simple success is sweet. Navigating rocks too. It's all the same. This is what fun should be you know. Grabbing loose roots before you know it and almost toppling over backward, only to be saved by your sure fire wit for grabbing another more secure point. Throw the bag up a rock and wedge the body up. Repeat in reverse if necessary but sometimes another path comes out.





Just how far from the expectation of life could I go from?  For now it's only as far as the forest allows me.





Someone really had the foresight to establish this shrine. I guess the gods are full though. They hadn't opened the can of alcohol sitting on the next step down. It was covered in thick pollen grime. The only offerings were pine needles and leaves today. I wanted to throw open the doors but alas they were cemented shut. What is more important here, the shrine commemorating the spirits of nature or the fact it's an ugly dais of concrete in a place it shouldn't be?





Nobody comes here anyway. Nobody cares anymore.





I think the benefit is all ours. I often wonder if the people fixing the roads to these remote areas like the nature very much. It seems they are desensitized to it. They can't wait to get back home, eat sashimi, and fall into seizures caused by the impossibly gaudy TV shows. Well it's good for me then. More for me to love.





Then the question of how to make the best use of time comes back again. Maybe it's more about being simply happy. Yes, simple in happiness. If you wish for it you aren't going to get it. You have to go find it. I'm still wondering what that will be...