Day 6 - A Rainy Day, And Thoughts About The Power Of Our Emotions - Hot Springs Walking Tour Of Northern Japan

 

 

Day 6 - A Rainy Day, And Thoughts About The Power Of Our Emotions - Hot Springs Walking Tour Of Northern Japan  

The weather forecast today called for a very rainy day, with a thunderstorm advisory, and the rain scheduled to start by noon.

We are still located on a train line that offers very few trains at very inconvenient times.

The early morning train was at 6:50 AM, which was too early for us, because we only had about 12 kilometers to walk today from the last station we walked to yesterday, to our Onsen hotel in the forest of Juniko.

So after we checked out of our business hotel in Noshiro, we took the 11:00 AM train and then walked to Awone Shirakami Juniko lodge.

The rain started almost immediately after we got off the train to begin our walk.

At first it was just a drizzle, and because it was so hot, we just continued walking with our umbrellas.

We walked along the coast, but we rarely saw the beautiful rocky coastline, despite being just a few hundred meters from the shore.  

It seems to us that there’s a fear of the power of the ocean that prevents most Japanese towns from embracing its beauty.  

They erect safety barriers and concrete barrier walls to prevent sea spray or flooding or other storm damage almost everywhere.  

We found a bench inside a bus stop where we stopped to eat our lunch and take a bit of a break.  

We still had with us some bananas and onigiri rice balls that we had bought yesterday at a convenience store in Noshiro.

Today we passed by absolutely nothing to eat, nor shops to visit along our route, except for fishermen’s houses and car repair shops.  

There were only three people that we saw outside today; one was gardening, another was riding a bicycle and the third was working in his workshop.

Otherwise, our route was deserted of people or shops.

I was happy that we were eating the bananas we had brought with us, because bananas are bear magnets.

If you carry bananas in an area heavily populated by Asiatic black bears, you run a risk of meeting a hungry bear on your path.

I still remember how at home in Colorado, the bears would come running every time someone left bananas outdoors. 

By the time we finished our lunch and hot tea and left the bus stop, it had started raining hard enough that we had to quickly hide under a big tree and put on our raincoats, too.

An hour later, I felt that if I continued to walk with my raincoat, I would faint from the heat.

I’d rather get wet from the rain than to overheat and be sweaty.

I stopped to take off my rain coat and walked only with my umbrella.

We reached the Juniko area and went to the gift store and rest stop to check what they had to sell.

Jules told me not to buy any snacks, because we are trying to diet and we are already carrying too much in our backpacks, but I couldn’t resist getting dried persimmons and dried apple chips.

They make a delicious snack and are healthier than other options that we have to eat.

Besides, we can eat them for tomorrow’s lunch, just in case nothing is open.

This area is a small valley, between the Shirakami mountains on one side and the ocean on the other.  

Our hotel is located on the lower slopes of Mount Shirakami, a steep climb up of about two kilometers.

Our hotel is a mountain lodge, tucked into the forest with a beautiful garden and about a dozen spacious log cabins that are two story family cabins. 

We chose to stay in one of their very attractive and spacious Japanese style rooms, with thick, comfortable futon beddings and tatami rice mats on the floor.

The public bath is spacious and clean, and I did our laundry in the coin laundry room, at the same time as I soaked in the hot bath.

I had a lot of time to think, as I soaked by myself with no other women around.

I thought of the great need to understand the importance and power of our emotions.

Our emotions are the forces that keep us bound to this world.

E-motions - is the Energy that sets us in Motion.

Our emotional body is a collection of past emotions, attitudes, and electrochemical patterns, that make up the brain's neuronet and define the personality of an individual. 

The physical plane could also be called the plane of demonstration. 

It is the plane where a person has the opportunity to demonstrate his or her creative powers, to create things in matter, and witness consciousness as it manifests in the material world.

We do this in order to expand and grow.

It is so important to become emotionally mature,

to be a wholesome being with a Sattvic constitution. 

A "sattvic constitution" means that a person embodies the qualities of purity, clarity, balance, inner power, peacefulness and truthfulness, in Hinduism and Ayurveda. 

Individuals with a sattvic constitution experience inner peace, wisdom, and contentment, fostering spiritual growth and a strong connection to their true selves. 

This state is cultivated through intention, and sattvic living, which involves a simple diet of fresh, natural foods, virtuous actions, mindful practices, and a harmonious lifestyle that prioritizes purity and balance over more disruptive qualities.

The great spiritual Truth is that we are all living in a world of our own dreaming and imagining.

We are so powerful as gods, that we are unaware of how we create our realities, and experience exactly what it is we are expecting to experience.

But God, or Source, created only Heaven or Paradise, where there is no suffering, no pain, no sickness, no old age and no death.

There is no need or lack, and every wish is immediately manifested. 

Anyway, those are the thoughts I had while waiting for our laundry to dry.

Dinner was an 11 course kaiseki meal, excellently prepared with lots of fresh local ingredients that are in season now.

But it was also a bit too much food for us, and as with most Japanese cuisine, featured too much seafood.

Still, an elegant Kaiseki meal, a fabulous Japanese room with tatami mats and hot healing Onsens, are three of the greatest gifts of Japanese culture that you cannot get in other parts of the world, and we feel very fortunate to be able to enjoy them.  

Sending you love and light,

Tali 

Today’s walk-12 km.

Total walked to date - 96 km.