Take Off

Finally, I am leaving to Japan. I still cannot believe that I am going there. I have been so busy past couple month, time really flied.
I am at the Detroit airport waiting for my flight to Osaka. It was very funny that I heard “Usui” on the announcement as one of the person who needed to report to the counter at the terminal. I wonder is she is the ancestor of Master Usui.

I have added few things to my itinerary since I posted.

Kurama Onsen3/29
Kurama Onsen:
This is a sort of B&B with hot spring near Mt. Kurama. They will serve you a delicious dinner and breakfast. According to the website, they even have an outdoor hot spring. I will be staying there after a Mt. Kurama field trip. So far, I have a pretty good experience with them. The receptionist was kind enough to answer all my questions. You may think it's easy for me to get by in Japan because I am Japanese and speak Japanese. Well, it’s not true all the time. Since I speak the language and look Japanese, they expect me to know “Japanese common sense.” Things that they know to explain to the foreigner, they expect me to know them. Since I was only 17 when I left the country, I don’t know too many grown up agreements. I have been studying Japanese manners and etiquette past couple months.

Mt. Hizen 3/30
According to the Reiki Source Book, Mt. Hizen may be the place where Master Usui has done some studying with Tendai temple. Mt. Hizen also is a place where people visit as one of the holy mountain in Japan. Since it is not too far away from Mt. Kurama, if the weather is nice, I would live to go visit Mt. Hizen and experience it.

Usui Memorial Stone 4/1
I have been doing a lot of research on Kyoto and Mt. Kurama and waited till the last minutes to check out about Tokyo and Master Usui’s Memorial stone. I knew I wanted to go visit and take pictures there, but did not think much more when I decided to go there. As I started the research I was amazed how many people wrote about visiting this place in their blog. There were about 3 pages worth of google result when you enter Usui memorial stone in Japanese. It was very interesting to read about people’s experience of visiting the place and the ritual it took place. Some of them go there to pay respect to Master Usui, some goes over there to connect or talk to Master Usui, some of them goes there to read Master Usui’s accomplishment on the engravement. I found out there also is a whole ritual of visiting graves at the temples in Japan. Apparently, you clean the gravesite and the stone before lighting incense and leaving a flower. Some people even go around pulling out the weed and swipe the dirt with bloom around the gravesite. I am going to need to find out exact ritual from my Grandma before I go visit Master Usui’s Memorial stone. Now I read the entire posting from others, I feeling much more sincere about going to this place. I would like to pay respect and show gratitude for what Master Usui has brought to us. I feel really blessed that I have an opportunity to go there.

Harajyuku, Nakano, Shibuya, Shinanocho, 4/2
These are the location of Usui Reiki Ryouhou Clinics and Gakkai in the early days, Dr. Hayashi’s Reiki Clinic. According to the Tokyo subway map these cities are not too far away from each other and only few stations away from Usui Memorial Stone. I may not be able to go to each of them, but it will be nice to see what these places are like today. I am sure it is completely different from when master Usui and Dr. Hayashi were around.

I have not mentioned in itinerary, but I got hold of quite few of my friends that I have not seen in 9-16 years. Since I lost in touch with everyone in Japan for past 7-8 years, I thought I would be lucky if I see couple of them. Well, they all really want to see me and talk all night! I am very happy, but little concerned about my more than full schedule and jet lag. Please send me some Reiki energy (or whatever you do in other modality) to my health and time management for my trip! Thanks!

P.S.Here I am finally in Japan! I am still struggling to figure out the way to post my updates. Verizon promised me an internet acccess in Japan and failed, so I am looking for an alternative way to get internet access. Right now, I am at this very funcy internet cafe that is 30min walking distance. I don’t think I will be coming here too often. I also cannot send email to my reader who has signed up for my mailing list since I am not using my own computer. I am sorry for the inconvinience, but please check this site every few day for the update.