While it may be true that ‘everyday existence’ is a tirl of dull, repetitive activities that you infer, it’s just one layer of a many-layered cake; and if it seems an exercise in pointless mediocrity, maybe that’s only because most who live it are too narrowly focused to perceive its underlying kaleidoscopic density. - Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas- Tom Robbins

I spent the second year anniversary of my arrival in Japan, in the United States at my home in Wisconsin. I was able to go home for three weeks this summer and spend time with family and friends. This two year stint in Japan has been by far my longest time away from home and it felt so right to be back in Wisconsin during the summer, to be blown away by the natural beauty and rich abundance of the land there. Japan is deeply beautiful in so many ways, but I have the stars and lakes of the flat Midwest imprinted forever upon my heart and seeing them will always invoke a sense of profound appreciation for nature and ecology that no other scene could ever inspire. Cheese, beer, trucks, hunting and football are what most people from Wisconsin superficially bond over, but I know that there is a tie that runs much deeper from having grown up witness to such dynamic nature. I felt home again.

One of my first experiences being back in the United States was attending a wild west, early settler revival near my brother’s home in Kenosha. At least a hundred men, women and children were dressed in deer skins and sitting in canvas tents displaying furs and colonial tools. Just a couple minutes with the spinning wheel woman telling me about the “true” revolutionary war heroes, not the ones that are taught in the silly school text books nowadays, really transported my heart home. After one week of relaxing, playing guitar and singing as loud as my heart desired, slowly getting acquainted with my home town again, and a few crazy adventures on my own in Milwaukee with old friends, Chika flew in and we were able to spend two weeks exploring the United States together. My parents were fantastically proactive about planning lots of “American” experiences for Chika as this was her first time to the United States and the first time leaving Japan since she was a child. We were able to shoot guns at a shooting range (a little terrifying), eat too too much cheese, drive a tractor, go on a zip line, visit beautiful Door Country, see lots of relatives and eat s’mores over a bon fire. To top it all off we were able to fly to Connecticut and see my mother’s side of my family there. We were received with open arms by my aunt and her family and then by my friend Ezra’s family on a day trip to New York City. We packed just about as much as you could into a two week visit to one’s home and we have been digesting the trip ever since. It was so refreshing to be home and gave me a renewed joy to return to Japan and really commit both mind and body to my experience here. After a week of jet lagged sleep upon returning, I have resumed a busy schedule traveling, slowly composing my own songs, reading and catching up with the friends that have made my experience here so fulfilling. As a final word of my experience in America, thank you all, everyone that took time to hang out and make the trip so rewarding.

Since being back in Japan for about a month now I have already been two times to Nagano, which is a prefecture famous for its mountains, fruits and natural unspoiled beauty. The first was a bike trip I took with my two close friends here, Ben and Ezra. We splurged and took a bullet train to arrive comfortably in the mountains, hundreds of miles away from home, by nine in the morning. Our route ended up taking much longer than expected our first day which lead us to arriving at our planned hot spring end destination just in time for them to tell us it was too late for us to enter into the baths. The manager of the establishment gracefully hinted that we could sleep in the parking lot in tents as long as we were out by 7 the next morning, when workers would begin arriving to open up the hot spring. It was a cold night and a strong reminder of how different the temperatures in the mountains can vary from the coast of a country. Our next day opened with a grueling hour long uphill climb and an exhilarating switchback descent winding through mountain rice and lettuce farms. More ups and down and mountain views throughout the day lead us into Kofu in Yamanashi prefecture for the night, just in time for a unexpected, small city festival which featured a very bedazzled Japanese funk band. To our surprise, after hearing percussion in the distance and expecting a traditional Japanese portable shrine carrying event, we spent the night funking the dance floor with all the clout our sore knees and legs could muster. After an hour or so of Japanese afros, gold silk suits, bad teeth, sunglasses in the dark, and James Brown shrieks we were racing off to a long overdue soak in a hot spring and an eventual half illegal (maybe) tent pitch in a public park. We awoke to dozens of senior citizens walking their dogs near our tent at 5 in the morning and eventually joined them for the group early morning calisthenics. After the initial strange looks of seeing two groggy foreigners emerge from a tent in the middle of a public park, most were very receptive to talking with us and finding out what had brought us to sleep in such strange circumstances. The last day of the tour was spent searching out the region’s best wineries and breweries and indulging on a local noodle stew called “houtou” in an ancient home turned restaurant sporting one of more impressive gardens I have seen in my time here in Japan. A little tipsy, we wound our way between grape vine plantations up to our final train station, to gaze over the fertile valley below.

Less than one week later, and I was on an early morning bus heading back into the mountains of Nagano. I can’t remember who was the first to tell me about this place, Kamikochi, but it has popped up into conversation on many occasions since and everyone has always urged me to go and check it out. It didn’t really seem feasible or in my budget to be able to go, until one of my Japanese teachers mentioned a very low cost bus option which seemed too good to be true. A little investigation, and Chika and I were on a bus headed for the mountains. Kamikochi is inside of huge national park which encompasses Japan’s northern Alps. It is all protected and undeveloped, which attracts mountain climbers, adventure seekers, and tour buses of senior citizens (mountains can of course be admired just by looking at them). We arrived after a very easy bus ride and searched out our camp site, inquired about what mountains were not deadly to climb as beginners, got our first glimpse at the beautiful mountain range which opens itself up towards the village like a book and had our first dinner of wine, bread and cheese. Kamikochi is very touristic but only at the most easily accessible point, a famous bridge from which you can take fabulous self portraits with you iphone apparently, but on the trails and on certain paths, you have nature all to yourself and can really lose yourself in the stunning mountain views and ancient tree forests. We had a great hike up to a mountain hut and got a glimpse at the gear and things that “real” mountain climbers bring with them, which was educational. Our next day we visited a very beautiful outdoor hot spring, saw some wild monkeys and took another fabulous hike around the river basin before take our bus back to the bigger city where we would be spending a day. Our next city was another that I have wanted to visit for a long time, Matsumoto. Our first night we visited a little bar and talked with the 80 year old owner who sat chain smoking the entire time and telling us that she tries not to eat too much because it limits the amount of liquor that she can drink. A girl’s stomach is only so big. She was quite the character and her little husband, two years her junior, who she complained didn’t smoke or drink or have any fun, brought us a couple of complimentary dishes with a big smile before disappearing back into the kitchen. Very interesting, chatty, may I say a bit crazy, senior citizens would be a theme during our Matsumoto stay. Everything is Tokyo was built after WWII as American forces bombed the entire city and destroyed just about everything there was to destroy both residential and industrial, but in other parts of Japan there are wonderful historic and charming buildings which give them a very different feel than Japan’s newer cities. Matsumoto, being high up in the mountains, survived the war without a scratch and is home to an excess of interesting coffee shops, book stores, castles, old school and we visited as many as we could in our one day stay. There was even a craft beer festival going on at the oldest castle in Japan which sweetened the deal even more. All in all, a wonderful way to spend four days.

And now I am here a few days shy of October, beginning what will be my third year here in Japan. One more month and I will be an uncle. Three and I will be back again in the US to see my family for Christmas. Japan is beautiful during fall and I hope to be able to get out enjoying the weather and the scenery as much as possible. I believe that this will be my last year here in Japan, so beginning now every season is the last that I will be experience here in Japan, at least for the foreseeable future. I still have some of the best friends of my life here in Japan to experience all of this alongside and my list of acquaintances and people I have little conversations with grows just about every week. I am looking forward to the new adventures, everyday pleasures and opportunities to grow that one more year in a foreign country provide. Thank you all for your support and love.

On a sunny fall morning,

-james