Gone Fishing

Hello again! On Sunday five Thais, two Americans, and a Japanese guide (Masa, the lead trumpet player from Aimachi) ventured on a magical journey to a beach town on the Pacific coast of Japan.

The journey was an unplanned and unexpected one. Well…someone expected and planned it…it just wasn’t any of the seven foreigners. In fact, said foreigners stayed up very late the night before because they were under the impression they’d be sleeping well after noon (the all-day Sunday rehearsal was cancelled).

I’m having some fantastic dream about kingdoms and castles and Gary Coleman (the previous statement was slightly fabricated) when all of a sudden Michi walks into the room at 8:25 AM because every 22nd of the month, the members of Ikeo had to the cemetery in the morning to visit Coz’ father’s (the man who founded Ikeo) grave.

Michi: “Hey…guys…we thought you’d like to go to the cemetery with us”

Chris and Matt: *Look at clock…telepathically communicate displeasure to eachother*

Michi: It’s ok…you don’t have to go…we just thought we’d ask.

Matt: Ummmmmuhhhh…ahhhhh…uhhhhh *stalling as Chris and I continued to telepathically debate what we were going to do*

Michi: OK OK, you guys won’t go.

Chris: AHHHH WE’LL GO!

Matt: How much time do we have to get ready?

Michi: Uhhh…not much.

Chris: 20 minutes not much…or 5 minutes not much.

Michi: Ok…five minutes not much.

*Editors Note: This is typically how we are informed of things here at Ikeo*

On our way to the bus, we ran into the Thai guys, who seemed as confused and caught off guard as we were.

We did the typical Tenri prayer sequence at Coz’ father’s grave…and then proceeded to make our way through the cemetery bowing at each grave that belonged to a deceased member of Ikeo. In America, it’s nearly impossible (pretty much my fault) to get my family of five to my Grandpa’s grave at the same time. Here, a group of twenty to thirty people drop everything to visit and everyone’s so casual about it.
That’s by far the biggest difference here...and please understand that by “here” I mean on Ikeo…I’m not making a generalization for all of Japan, because I’m certainly not experienced enough as far the whole country goes. In America…we work late hours because we have deadlines…we have deadlines because we have jobs…we have jobs because we need money…we need money because we have bills to pay.

On Ikeo, the church pays for all of their living expenses. They do some sort of job at the complex…whether it be cooking, or sewing, or gardening…and in return, they are provided food, housing, etc etc. In several cases, the men will go out to work, but his wife and older children remain to work on Ikeo to earn their stay. It’s all just so relaxed…I never really see anyone in a rush. When they work, they are always laughing…you can tell they are sincerely having a great time with eachother. It’s probably much easier for the community to be motivated for work when the task you are doing is having a direct effect on your standard of living.

The Tenri way of life is based around the mantra “The Joyous Life.” As far as I can tell, the biggest sin that exists here is “selfish thoughts.” If you have lived your life with the purpose of making others happy…you have lived a great life. Work on Ikeo, watch after the smaller children, make a snack for your fellow workers, go to prayer…you have lived a great day as part of a great life.

This is soooooooo different from what I have always pictured a “great life” would look like. Spreading joy is easy…I want to change lives! I want to travel the world, I want to experience the most passionate, overwhelming kind of love imaginable…I want to be remembered forever!! That’s so selfish!

It’s still what I want, though. Sometimes I feel like if I’m not doing something extraordinary, I’m restless. I’m no longer enjoying the moment, I’m missing it…too busy looking around for the next BIG moment. But it’s still what I want…sort of.

I can see why this lifestyle would make them so happy. Nobody’s trying to make the incredible happen…they’re just being happy making each other happy. There’s got to be some sort of balance.

This is what I was looking for…another way of looking at life. Three and a half months full of brand new experiences...minus excreting over one of those holes in the ground.

So ANYWAY…that is a huge digression. So we got back from the cemetery and Hatsumi asked us where we wanted to go. I was kind of pumped for the zoo…but in the end, I lost. She pulled out a shoe box filled to the brim with pamphlets and maps and she laid them on the grass. The consensus was the beach town…and we were off.

Masa, from Aimachi, drove the seven of us there. His English was fantastic, which made the trek a little easier. There must have been some sort of “Incredibly Little Car” convention, because we saw a whole lot of vehicles that looks like this one.

We found an area of beach to hang out for a bit. There was a natural “dock” made of rocks that a bunch a few fishermen were using, so we decided to check it out



As we walked further down the dock, one man had a net half sitting in a very shallow part of the water. I looked in and via the use of gestures asked him what was in it. Reciprocating my use of gestures, he told me they were eels (maybe I’m not really learning Japanese…just some caveman version of sign language). He then handed me the fishing pole and waved his arm signaling me to try it out. We set out on a very dangerous boating expedition around the southern tip of Africa. That’s when I got the bite of my life. A three ton killer eel known to most in the region as Doby Mick, took the bait. It was a four hour battle and, at one point, I was pulled overboard by the beast. Luckily I was wearing rubber-soled sneakers and wasn’t affected by the electric pulses Doby attempted to send through my body. I bit the creature in the jugular and, then hung on for dear life as it fought until its untimely demise. I pulled the eel back on the boat where, it shrunk down to the size you see in the picture below.

Or maybe this is how it happened:

There were so many eels in the area, you really couldn’t screw it up (though my fishing skills are world renowned). In fact, you didn’t even have to cast out the line…you just plop it in the water by the rocks and within seconds, an eel is attached to your hook. The camera adds twenty pounds to eels as well as humans…so the eel you see below was actually negative weight…and quite pathetic.



Next Masa (guide) took us to a Japanese fish market where we ate about a million free samples of fish (cooked and uncooked) and different types of fishy tasting crackers. The place was a mad house and all of the employees were yelling in Japanese for us to buy (I think).





After that, we went to this Chinese restaurant back in Honda City and ate a whole lot of very spicy Chinese food. Chris and the Thais got in a battle of who could eat the spiciest food…anyone who has ever tried Thai food can guess that they beat him. He put up a valiant fight…and everyone was sweating by the end…except for the Thais…who seemed unphased.



Ok, I’ve got to run to rehearsal! I’m going away for a day and a half (not exactly sure where) but I’ll try to get in one more post before I go! I also owe a few people some emails…I’m sorry…I’ll write back tonight, I promise I promise I promise!!!