Visiting Japan this year was not in the wish list for 2014. However, Cebu Pacific Airway’s P1 seat sale was too irresistible not to grab. So we did, and the chosen dates were perfect as we would have the chance to savor the colorful autumn in November.
Our resident scientist, Dino, was the one who prepared the most for our expedition. He collated our documents for visa issuance. He almost gave up when the elders’ commitments proved to be quite tight and we could not comply with the deadline. He not only studied the places to visit and the routes to the shrines and temples but also devoted time each day to learn conversational Nippongo.
He took care of our train and admission tickets, a tough one especially to us not used to the train system and alien to the language. His painstaking efforts immensely contributed in making the first trip to Japan a most meaningful and colorful one for us.
It was indeed the perfect time to be captivated by Nagoya and Kyoto’s picturesque red and yellow dotted landscapes. The vibrant leaves carpeted the ground, adding to the quaint contrast to the stones and the revered ancient wooded shrines and temples within the forest. We noticed many temples under renovation, an illustration of how deeply Japanese value their religion and culture.
The Japanese’ special affinity to tradition, religion, and nature is immediately manifest. This can perhaps explain the people’s reverence for respect, courtesy, order and simplicity. One can’t help but be struck by their seemingly inherent sense of self, dignity, responsibility, discipline and distinct pride of their culture.
I never saw materials thrown carelessly in the streets, public transportation, platforms, stations and public places. Segregation is a way of life. No wonder the students from Toyo University who visited Cebu City two years ago asked me as a resource speaker why Cebuanos were not segregating used materials. The practice illustrates a strong sense of responsibility in dealing with one’s “discards”. Why can’t we elevate our standards until now, 13 years after RA 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Law, became part of our legal system and should have been, part of our lifestyle?
The practice of removing slippers when entering houses and places of worships is another practice worthy of emulation.
The mass transit system which is pervasive almost everywhere explains why no monstrous traffic jams are occurring, unlike what our country’s highly urbanized cities and metropolis are experiencing. In Kyoto, the buses’ engine are automatically turned off when idling.
Bikers, young and seniors, abound in both Nagoya and Kyoto. No wonder, they are called livable cities. Their leaders had the foresight of envisioning sustainability as integral part of development decades back. It is certainly a positive and long overdue step that DENR has now required the integration of bike lanes and pedestrian walkways in road development projects.
The short but meaningful visit to Japan offered lessons, excitement and lasting appreciation of Nature’s wonders. Despite the shivers as it was already the latter phase of fall, we had a glorious time capturing the scene with our cameras. Almost always, we just tried to remember the scenery, bit by bit, color by color, in deep solitude and imagining how they were in the past.
The sheer beauty of the autumnal blooms had inspired so many to write about it, among which was an English poet, satirist, lawyer and priest, John Donne, whose words captured what we then felt, that “No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.”
In autumn, the trees and the burst of colors of leaves never fail to titillate the senses, make spirits soar and leave one spiritually enriched and evolved.
Realizations force us to accept that we are not different from those trees, with some still harboring thick foliage and others, already in a withered-looking state, bereft of any sign of life but preparing for rebirth and the next stage.
Like them, we go through phases of life. Trees remind us that we have our peaks and our dips. We have our moments of triumphs and defeats. But we are not destined for permanence, as no one or nothing is or can claim to be.
At one of those moments of reverie, thoughts raced back to our country and Cebu, which once more, faced the wrath of typhoon Queenie and the devastating loss of lives and destruction, and in particular, the penchant of the authorities to cut trees mercilessly.
It makes one wonder, if they had also experienced the beauty and splendor of autumn, will it make the public officials think twice or more before destroying them mercilessly?
Just asking.
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