Undeceivable - Moonraker Zen

A lovely memory

I love this picture:

It's exactly what I loved about Japanese scenery - rolling forested hills, rice fields, cherry blossom, and little temple style roofs. The last few times I went back to Japan, I didn't really go to the countryside, but maybe next time I will.

Sharnbrook camping

"You'll be staying in the meadow" said the kind lady who answered the phone. "Cracking", I said, imagining a beautiful meadow all to myself overlooking rolling hills.

Just an hour's drive from here, Sharnbrook is a lovely little village full of thatched roofs and massive houses that make you wish you worked as a director of a huge company making millions just so that you could come back here at weekends.

Anyway, I hadn't come here to buy a house, I'd come to taste the quiet country life. Unfortunately so had 2 couples in my exclusive meadow. And the local hotel had a live band playing Beatles and Bob Dylan covers until 11pm. It was OK though - they played some of my favourites!

Once I'd set up my tent I went for an amble in the surrounding countryside - past an old mill converted into a theatre, through a gravel pit, across the river Ouse, beside a nature reserve, and back to Sharnbrook. The walk was so nice, I did it twice!

After returning from my walk I did an hour's Zazen by my tent then played Tiger Woods on my DS. I had my pot noodle and tomato soup followed by a packet of crisps. I went into my tent after 30 minutes of Zazen and played my DS again whilst listening to the Beatles and Dylan!

In the morning, I awoke to another wonderful day and did my 30 minutes Zazen followed by a packet of crisps - I hadn't organised myself very well and I didn't want to spend too much money so that was all I had for breakfast. Nice though, rice cake crisps! Then I went back to the river Ouse and had a sit down watching the trees waving at me and the water flowing past me.

And that was it - Sharnbrook was good to me. And the camp site, although not what I was expecting, was looked after by a lovely guy who reminded me of someone but I don't know who. And it was nice and relaxed too.

Me and Andy on Mt.Fuji

I dug out this old video of me and Andy on the peak of Mt.Fuji in July, 2003. It always makes me laugh. The combination of me speaking like an Eastender and Andy's honest feelings about the climb brings tears to my eyes:

For those who can't work out what we're saying, here's the transcript:

Andy: It's got sound, so away you go!
Me: I started down there...and then er...7 hours...

Andy: Yeah, me too.

Me: And now I'm here.

Andy: Yeah. How'd you feel?

Me: Pretty good!

Andy: That's good, mate. I'm alright too now. (Me: I'm a bit blinded by the sun)

Andy: Ah...mate, it was bad.

Throssel and Haweswater pictures

Before making my way to Throssel, I made a stop at Sorenland. On the Saturday my brother and I went for a hike up the hills around Haweswater in Cumbria and did a wild camp overlooking the reservoir. It was incredibly beautiful and by the time night fell we were all alone, with a dog and a universe of stars and satelites for company. I want to go again and may well become a wild camper of the universe :

 

And then the Monday I headed off to Zenland and took these pictures just outside the monastery:

 

 

 

Yup, it's nice up North.

In other news, I have a little job to get some money working in a warehouse for JL. It starts in a couple of weeks so I might spend some time writing a few more tunes. And washing up and sweeping, of course!

Snowboarding in Naeba

Ah, what an adventure fraught with danger and surrounded by beauty!
We arrived at Naeba ski resort round 10 and by 12 we were on our first descent. Without a single cloud to cover the clear, blue sky it felt really good to be back on the board. There were lots of narrow winding pistes which are my favorite kind. It's great just to carve without a care in the world - it would be great that is, but it's impossible with the hundreds of little kids doing the plough down the centre of the slopes. But they gotta learn somewhere,eh! Anyway, carving my way around the little folks was kinda fun, and there were ample routes to keep us busy. Around 5 we went to our hotel, had a bath and then dinner. Then we headed back out for some night-snowboarding. Now that was cool. We found a great route that wasn't busy and went up and down practising getting air. Yoski nearly died trying a mighty jump and I watched him and laughed. We boarded till about 10 and then headed back to the hotel. As it wasn't very far we decided to walk. I led the way - I hadn't told Yoski I always get lost - and we got lost. We were walking down a narrow road with 2 metres of snow piled up on each side in the pitch black. We heard a car coming and rushed to the side to safety. I slid on a nasty bit of black ice and fell to the ground, twisting my leg into a very painful position. The car zoomed past missing me and my board by a foot. I got up and starting burping. At this point Yoski started laughing. I carried on burping and almost being sick...The walk back was wierd. I had immense pain in my knee but it felt nice. Dunno why.
Anyway, we had a nice hot bath that night and ate lots of junk food and watched TV.
The next day my knee/leg hadn't swollen up but I couldn't really walk on it without hobbling. I did one run at the bottom and felt it was too risky to carry on so I let Yoski go it alone. I wondered around, going up the cable cars, taking pics, listening to Grandaddy and having a smoke. We met up for lunch and I decided it was worth the risk. So we went right to the top of mountain. Yoski went off first and I stayed on the top carving a little face, doing a bit of Zazen and listening to Arcade Fire. It was nice up there, looking out over the world - the Japanese bit of it! I came down right from the top stopping every now and then to watch other boarders, and made it to the bottom without too much pain.
Yoski came back an hour or so later and we went to an onsen near our hotel. It was lush. It stank of sulphur and iron and was a deep yellow.
So that was it : A lovely adventure full of pain and joy and relief and awe and laughter (at each others misfortune). Here are the pics: Naeba snowboarding near death
On the way back, Yoski told me a nice story: When he was a kid he had a remote controlled airplane. One day he and his dad went out to play with it in the park. The plane went really well and soared through the air. He made it fly further away from him, but then when he tried to fly it back it didn't - it just kept going , getting smaller and smaller and eventually disappearing altogether. Yoski never saw his plane again...