Finally found my path: Kayak guiding around Izu Peninsula

THIS IS JAPAN

Alone. Or not. I'm with Masashisan and every now and then his friends. It's japanese and japanese only. Japanese food, language, manners, traditions, dedication and whatever kind of artifacts that's easy to point out. Masashisan is kind enough to help me engage with the new environment. He build his english skills from a year in Canada in his early twenties. Back then he ventured out to explore the world class freeriding in the rocky mountains on skies. Now, he gives back to the west what he received back then; hospitality and openness. I'm representing the west - he's representing the east.

Learning some katana-skills

The Jedi Master-Padawan relationship

In a country far, far away I now dedicate my powers faithfully to the allegiance of Team Surface and Friends. My loyalty will be with the japanese people and I will do my best to learn your language, culture and kayaking skills.

I was reborn. Imagine yourself back in school in your early years learning the alphabet. Writing lines of the same letters over and over again. Exactly this was what I did now. With only body language available among my skills, even Masashisan's three year old daughter would defeat me in any communication. I had around one month to evolve and develop some sort of language before summer would come with a million japanese guests in the kayaking business. Gan batte! (Do your best in japanese)

My first presentation of the first line in the Hiragana alphabet (A, Ka, Sa, Ta,.....)

I got it slowly. But it was really dificult. Still is.. After paddling the whole day I was tired. Everyday was getting hotter and hotter. More and more mosquitoes were comming in the night making it difficult to catch good sleep. My brain capacity was challenged on things to remember. Everything was new and different, and to keep up the spirit to study in the evening was hard. Especially after some social beers. Often I found myself most motivated in the morning or just after a kayak tour. I needed to find the balance between work and fun. Can't do everything on the same time!

Day by day the temperature rose. At first, in late april when I arrived on the peninsula the nights were cold and the air dry. Perfect climate for me. Just like a danish summer. Something that I was familiar with. Big difference was the amount of sunshine though. Througout may to july the spring got hotter and hotter as we were approaching summer. I remember watching a documentary by bbc about Japan that went through all the seasons, and now I got to see the rice fields grow myself. To me it's somehow romanticizing the experience of my stay when I see old traditional ways of farming done by old people in their traditional clothing and tools. It's like rewinding back in time. Reminds me of seeing old school winefarms in southern Europe.

The spring had been long and beautiful. Apparently that's how it works here. All the seasons are long being three or four months. Slowly developing and changing. Masashisan kept saying "summer is comming" - and in my ears that ecchoes to "winter is comming" from Game of Thrones. When Masashisan said it, it would be in the same sort of "disatrous" mood. I translated it into "prepare for the worst".

Magical moment of peace. All guests are sleeping during lunch break.

My new walls in Masashisan's office

Japanese countryside lifestyle is slowstyle

Life wasn't just revovling around learning japanese and paddling. Prior to the summer season's advent Masashisan brought me all the opportunities to have the fun I needed. He would invite me to parties, to go work on Takusan's farm, to come fishing on Nabesan's boat, go fishing with his kids etc.. And I wouldn't miss out on any opportunities. It wasn't till summer came that I would begin to pass on offers weighing my own need for relaxation and rest heavier than having fun and interacting with the community.

Rice was delicous, sashimi was delicous, kabocha was delicious, all kinds of japanese sake was delicious, ocean was beautiful, sundried squit was delicious (didn't enjoy the squit raw that much). I could go on for a long time about beautiful small pieces of this new way of life. Where to start and begin seems difficult. So many impressions! At first it's easy to point all the differences from Denmark to Japan. But to what benefit? I've been thinking about this approach, and I don't think it's very beneficial in terms of understanding or integrating. Of course the fact of doing so is to some extend inevitable. Often, I try to turn it around somehow - I would ask: What does this have in common with any tradition, value, figure of speach or likewise that I know? How can this similarity or difference enhance my understanding or be to any use to whom I'm speaking with? How can I reduce the distance from what I know of life to what they know of life? In the end we are all people driven by the same motives: Exploration, anger, hunger, sex, jealousy, fear, pride, growth, greed, development, happiness, indepency, familiarity, security, sharing and so on. To seek out the the similarities has helped me reduce depriviation of familiar surroundings such as values, manners and of course family and friends.
The more nihongo I learn, the better I understand the behaviour - or think I understand. A lot of what is said is part of a bahvioural culturally expected pattern, and this you have to live up to. Like we would say: "good luck", to one another, it's in Japan turned around and the responsibility put on one's own shoulders by a "ganbatte" - which translates into "do your best".

It's too easy to say, that the japanese people are just very strict, eats rice and fish, have very little crime and shows great respect among one another. It's true, but there's a lot more to it than just this surface. This is just the tip of the iceberg: It's what everybody can see. What we can't see is more interesting. But what we can't see relies on further intepretation to understand, and that makes it a lot harder to put my impressions of the culture into actual words, since I'm still not sure of what exactly I see here and do not see :-) Complicated, but true. Japanese culture has many layers. Like an onion, there is a long way to the core. To respect this, be patient and see that in time I will understand is a very big part of my jedi training.

Indoor grill in a big beautiful pot - traditional japanese style

"Planting" the yamaimo root (mountain potato)

Part of Takusan's farm

Local surf workshop

Ika himono - Sundried Squit

Majestic Mt Fuji (3776 m) seen from about 60 km distance

Random yuyake (evening burn = sunset)

A wave of passion for kayak touring rose

The main japanese summer holiday was soon to begin. The notorious Obon Yasumi where the dead souls one-day-trip to earth is celebrated and half of Tokyo runs out of Tokyo to breathe some beach air. The kayak business was prepared; staffing was set. Just one more thing; Masashisan asked me if I wanted to go with him on short kayak tour on the Shakotan peninsula on Hokkaido. He had planned to go there with a friend from south of Japan. The apprentiance of his friend would be comming along as well. Masashisan ensured me that it's important for a kayak guide to know about touring. Since I've always been keen to go camping and really would like to see Hokkaido I was quick to accept the offer. I spent the last of my saved up money from skiing in Shiga Kogen on this trip, and I'm so happy I did that. This totally changed my perspective on the Kayak.

I rented a kayak while Masashisan and the others used folding kayaks. What a genious invention. You can bring this anywhere. Bring it along on flights and you have a "vehicle" for travelling on rivers/coastline. Too, I was introduced to the sail on kayaks during this trip. I was stunned by this feature. When I was a kid my brother and I had a soapbox car on which we installed a sail with our father's help. A mental picture of this came to my head at first when I heard Masashi describe his sail. Anyhow, we all set off for a few days along the coastline in the north of Japan in a cooler climate.

In heinsight I see how this trip worked out as a rite of passage for me. The kayak grew on me. The passion was established. I love the feeling of getting forward with the use of my own power. By kayak I can bring every peace of equipment I need to live of the grid for a while. You can fish. You can have a sail attached. You can travel many, many kilometers without overstraining your body. And too, with a folding kayak you are able to bring your vehicle anywhere by aeroplane quite easily as it's just the size of a suitcase!

Masashisan "rolding out" his feathercraft folding kayak

Matsomotosan leading the way through the mist

Masashisan preparing fish for filetting

Camp life is good life

SUMMER HAS COME - WITH SHARKS AND TURTLES

All right, so sumer finally came with 80% humidity and 30+ degress. The peninsula is pumping of life. Tourists everywhere! We had kayak tours everyday and I was sharing the accomodation with several other guides. This was a busy, busy time. But also the time where we in the business got to eat together every night. Masashinsan asked his girlfriend to cook for us during the most busy time, and this brought us all together every night to share the meal and a cold bear. A very nice and cosy way to finish tough days. Definitely gave the team some roots and spirit.

Slowly I got some confidence in my japanese. Everyday I would put it into use and learn something new. As I was part of this japanese dream team of kayakers, I had an outstanding chance to speak everyday in a "safe environment" - but practicing on "real life" guests in the business was a bit more difficult. First of all, many japanese people are at first very shy. Secondly, very often me and the japanese guest would have same interest in practicing in a foreign language. Anyhow, everything in life is part of a give-and-take relationship, and I was happy to be an opportunity to speak english.

Me pulling a tired guest. The person to the right was one of the few international guests we had.

This guest on the picture above had given up to paddle. She got tired very fast and a little sea sick too. She seemed frightened and devastated. Not the best situation, so I choose to pull her. When I looked back at her, I saw a shark approximately 10 meters from her swimming directly in her direction. Seconds later it it swam under her kayak. I even saw the back fin hit her kayak! To keep her attention occupied by something else, I kept pointing at the beach telling her look for the fishing men. Luckily enough she didn't notice the shark and a few moments later the shark left. No worries!

Camera team spotting the areas they want to visit

Guests with noodles hanging out their mouth (the japanese way of eating)

Watarigani is funny looking swimming crab which we found for a couple of days when they came to lay their eggs

Around the coastline of Izu Peninsula we visit many caves

CAVE CRACKING!

One day we were unfurtunate to witness a very brief moment of erosion while we were inside the cave shown in the picture above. A stone fell from the "sealing" and a big "contraction sound" filled and ecchoed the cave with fear. Nobody knew exactly what was going on, but everybody knew instinctly to get out a quick as possible. The stone hit a boys kayak but he got away with just the fear well established in his mind for the rest of the day. Lucky!

Family tour with Hashisan

Takusan tour leader!

Hierchy is progress. Challenges too.

It's easy to point out the hierchy among a group of people in Japan. The langauge is very well developed with many levels of politeness that indicates where you belong. Thus it's culturally expressed and expected very clearly how one behave. This paradigm doesn't really apply to me since I'm a foreigner. The people condone my "disability" of not being japanese by showing their awareness of their own very unique culture in this aspect. Many have explicitly said to me "japanese culture is sooo dificult, right?" - the same about the language. Anyhow, my point about the hierchy is that as it is very clearly expressed it somehow becomes the background for a need of politeness levels. Understanding this part of the culture takes out the fun of "san" behind my name: Rune(san) in Japanese. Instead it brings openness and simplicity into the interpretation and shows just a simple gesture of respect - or the opposite. So, who is now the stupid goat laughing of someone's culture? It has made me feel stupid and embarrassed. Now I see how I haven't approached this culture with sincere openness. This is just a very simple example of how something very general in any confrontation between different cultures.

My Jedi Master is a true aspiration to me. He even used to be a wellknown telemark skier in the japanese skiing community. How can I not look up to this hard working, playful, happy, sharing and caring source of inspiration? Now, he's even supporting me to go on an adventure. Two months alone along the coastline of Kyushu! He helps equipping me with encouragement, safetyline and high quality moral fiber. What more can I ask? I'm living a priveleged life with a huge amount of new impressions to stimulate my mind. I'm not hallucinating, the nature of this world is just beautiful. And I want to see more! Next challenge is up for me in the name of life experience. Kyushu, I'm getting ready for you!