"You know the sound of two hands clapping. What is the sound of one hand?"… - The 1'st "Zen koan" from Alex Kerr's book "Lost Japan"…

Besides travel guides this was the only book I took with me to Japan… The idea was to read it during the trip, but I only started reading on my trip back… Today when I woke up at 5 am due to jet lag reading the rest of the book looked like the thing to do…

While reading I wondered if I should have better read the book before or after the trip as I did. In one hand Alex's personal vision of Japan differs from what's written in travel guides in a way I found by myself to be closer to my own vision. On the other hand if I had started before the trip I would not have enough context to enjoy the book as I did…

One idea from the book is that Japan is fascinated by secrets and the quest is always more important than knowing the final answer… This means that most of my inner questions about Japan probably won't be answered, but at the same time the quest will make me wish to go back there again and again.


Like any other country Japan is far from perfect… Although being a pleasant and safe place, the country is visibly destroying it's natural beauty in trade of progress and there's a clear disconnect between the present and the past as western influences taken to extremes seam to dominate the life of Japanese people…

Kyoto is a good example of a disconnected place as far as I see it… I did not read much about the city, and I just took for granted from the travel guides that Kyoto should be the number one travel destination in Japan. Don't get me wrong, Kyoto is nice, but it's also a place where past seams to be disappearing bellow thick layers of concrete. The temples in Kyoto may be between the most magnificent in Japan, but somehow the silent and calm spirit of being in Japan does not seam to be there.

The proud owner of the Yamatake-Shõten restaurant in Takayma told me that Kyoto was a copy of Takayama, at that point I though he was exaggerating, but after arriving in Kyoto, I found out that he was just wrong… Kyoto may have been similar to Takayama in the past, but not anymore… Being small and isolated, Takayama looks much more genuine and appealing to my senses… I hope Japan will understand this on time for protecting the roots of each place...

As usual, when finishing a trip that we ready to start it… We come back thinking about the next time, but most probably the next time wont exist in the near future as there are other places to discover...

My quest is yet to be unfolded… I came back with more images that ever from any other place, but at first they look as disconnected and superficial as Kyoto was to my eyes… I'll have to give them and myself time to settle and find the way… I'll probably have to go back over and over again, but most probably my images will just show small steps... Secrets and prcecise answers don't look urgent anymore...