Coltrane is on at home
by rebecca ~ November 23rd, 2004. Filed under: Whirling Dervish.We are home.
Took a trip to the main island, to Osaka and Kyoto for four nights, and I felt overwhelmed with the sudden onrush of city life–crowds, cars, taxis, buses, airplanes, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, mopeds, shoes, and faces that didn’t smile as much or hands that didn’t hold doors open as much, and the simple exhaustion of travelers who have nowhere to rest wholly, intermittent stops in cafes and on park benches. The biggest and realest smile I remember receiving was from a sunkissed woman in her forties who was living under the Marutamachi bridge. She was washing her clothes in a red plastic bucket.
The trade off was the beauty of old wooden buildings, the smell of cedar walls baking in autumn’s sun, the Kyoto fragrance of senko (incense), the narrow dark stone streets with their long narrow alleys leading to mysterious lives.
Last night in our own beds, we all slept happily, cozily, and we didn’t get up until it felt right. A fitting end to any trip. Happy Workers Day! November 23, 2004.