Just as Rod Stewart’s
awesometasical line ‘the rhythm of my heart is beating like a drum with the
words I love you rolling off my tongue, no never will I roam for I know my
place is home; where the ocean meets the sky I’ll be sailing’ seems to sum up
love for me, a cherry tree growing out of a rock strikes a similar truthful
chord. Quite what note it is I am not sure, but there is something
magnificently profound about seeing such a sight.
See I visited the big smoke
of Morioka this weekend and found myself beyond happy to be amongst the hustle
and bustle of a more normal world than my home dreamland. To be in a crowd. To
shop. To eat a burger! Oh the bliss of the city life! Perhaps it was my hyper
fuelled appreciation for the world that just bubbled over when I met with
friends that caused me to find poignant things everywhere I turned, but I’m not
kidding you, Morioka is the city where the meaning of life is hidden.
So there I am just
ambling down the street one fine day, talking with friends, blissfully unaware of
the revelation before me. We see the crowd. Cross the street. And there it is
before me.
A tree.
In a rock.
I got one of those
stabby emotions in my belly where you know you’re feeling something special you
just don’t know which category it comes under, love, hate, bad curry…it takes a
second or two to work it out. But this I couldn’t. It was beyond my
comprehension. I kept looking but it made me uncomfortable so I walked away. I
mean I understand how it is possible, but actually seeing this beautiful old
tree dripping with blossom and propped up on crutches originating from a crack
in a giant rock…it’s sort of baffling. I guess in a way it symbolises how Japan
has felt for me so far; the normal, arranged in an abnormal way. The familiar,
de-familiarised. As if that wasn’t enough to chuck Jess Dowse off the
thinking-too-much cliff, I only go and see a snow covered volcano at the end of
a busy road of traffic! Right about this time my friends are laughing at me
trying to get over the surreal they are now accustomed to. I consider taking a
photo but it seems a ridiculous idea to try and frame insanity, so I just walk
on having one of those movie moments when you have a birds-eye view of your situation and realise the true hilarity of it all. I have this sensation a
lot here.
Really, I know I’m
sounding like a bit of a hippy now, but seeing trees in rocks, volcanoes on
streets, bulls in a field without any fence, rope bridges between houses and
red lights for no cars and no people…. Maybe I was just high on life because I
was let loose for a few hours… but I don’t know, it seems to me that Morioka is
the holy grail of what life’s all about…Well it’s certainly what my life’s
about right now given there’s no crap TV to watch and I like have to be all
intellectual and stuff coz they aint got celeb mags so I can read about Jordan
and Peter and that. Sucks.….
