Comments on: Glacial Creep

By: butuki

butuki — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:35:02 +0000

Hi Everyone, I’m now back in Zürich, with one more day to go. My plane leaves for Japan tomorrow.

Lot’s of strange feelings. A sadness mixed with relief about going home. But at the same time a complete aversion to going back to the place I’m living in in Japan and the job I’m working at. I guess I have to be positive about it all; after all that same job gave me the opportunity to take this trip. If the working environment was a little more supportive…

Kevin, I’ve been thinking about your words ever since I read them a few days ago. We both seem to seek the same things when we get out there and see the world. I have only touched a computer those times when I needed to communicate. At other times I never missed it. I haven’t watched any TV, only started reading a book three days ago (it was hard to resist a huge English bookstore here in Zürich… just don’t have something like that in Japan. I’m reading Harry Potter now (^J^)/” ), and was happy all along with the set of clothing I’ve been wearing (and washing each night in the shower). Living simply and close to the elements makes me feel alive and I suspect, as Kevin was getting at, that there really is no need to “look for meaning in life”, the meaning is right there all along. You learn to appreciate it when it only comes in small bites.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:38:00 +0000

I have long wished to experience what it must feel like to be a traveller in the old day – a merchant making a ten day trek from Edo back to his own small town. I imagine walking all day into the night and finally, at some point coming across a small inn with a warm fire filled with other people who had been walking all day as well. The atmosphere is festive, but not a wasteful festivness – not the festivness you find in a Roppongi bar after the investment banks close and people are gathering in a feble attemt to find meaning in their lives, rather, the kind of festivness of people grateful for a warm fire and a hot meal with strangers, and a cold cup of ale. We all sit down and any thought of our tired legs fades into the laugher and the glow of the fire.

We enjoy this for a short time – an hour, maybe two – before we head to our straw sleeping pad in the corner and fall instantly asleep knowing that tomorrow will be another full day of real work – the kind that makes you tired and makes you enjoy simple pleasures like this. There is no need or desire to “party hard” until 3am.

I thought that such an experience was impossible in todays world with cars and trains making travel far from tiring (annoying yes, but not tireing). I never stopped to think that such an experience might be found in the mountains huts around the world. I think back on the times when I have stayed in huts or camps together with strangers, sharing a fire and a hot meal with strangers, and I realise that my dream has already come true.

Thanks for pointing this out to me.

By: Marlis

Marlis — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:23:25 +0000

Hi, wish I could have been there and shared the wonderful experience.
Marlis

By: M

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:13:26 +0000

I wish I could have been there among the mountains, the wonderful people you met, tasted the bread, the cheese. what special memories these are!
M

By: beth

beth — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:29:17 +0000

Butuki, I’m so happy for you that this trip has fulfilled and exceeded your expectations, that your health has been good, that all the challenges were met. Thank you for writing about it so beautifully and honestly, and letting us come along with you. Your travels have brought back a lot of memories of that place for me – I hope someday I’ll see Mont Blanc and Chamonix again. Best wishes for the remainder of your trip.

By: Pica

Pica — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:14:41 +0000

(o)

By: Pascale Soleil

Pascale Soleil — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:37:28 +0000

Wonderful!

Long ago, I loved visiting Zermatt. The Matterhorn is one of those things that lives up to its iconic status. Took my breath away.