Small Adventures

My Uncle Dan died a few weeks ago.

We used to go bear hunting, or "Bar Huntin'" as he would say, with BB guns in the Smokies when I was a little kid. He knew all the secret swimming holes in the East Tennessee mountains, and he seemed to plunge headlong into life the way he did those clear waters.

One of the last times I really spent with Uncle Dan was right before I went to India. He and I went up to the rock that’s up the park road in Greenbrier one June afternoon. We stripped down to our birthday suits, and while I stood on the bank thinking about whether or not I really wanted to jump naked into that icy water, Uncle Dan was already in mid-leap. He surfaced and stood in the water naked as the day he was born, held out both arms, and gave a rebel yell that must have sent every jackrabbit, deer, and bear within two miles running. That is the image of Uncle Dan that I will always remember--living a raw experience to the fullest: feeling it, being it, with arms outstretched and a yell to shake the rafters.

So with Uncle Dan on my mind and my new buddy Rob in tow, I went on a trip to Nanzenji Temple. We hopped on the bikes and headed across town to find the place swarming with Japanese school groups. You can see some of the kids up on the top of this temple structure:




Hoping to escape the crowds, we headed up the hill, past the aqueduct,




and beyond another temple.




Suddenly we found ourselves alone on a dirt road that led to a graveyard on the edge of a cedar forest.




The road became a path through the woods, where we found this disturbing version of Smokey the Bear:




We climbed a stone staircase, with small shrines to the left and right. We had left the Buddhist Temple grounds to discover a sacred Shinto spot that was surely there long before Buddhism came to the islands.





Shinto is Japan's indigenous religion. As best I understand it, Shinto is a mixture of shamanism and animism. Shinto's kami ("gods") inhabit natural objects and spaces. The shrine we found at the top of the stairs was built on several outcrops around a waterfall.






Practicioners remove their clothes in the little room above. Then they climb the ladder to make an offering to the kami, before going past the wooden door to sit or stand beneath the waterfall.




We stayed for awhile, soaking in the power of the place before climbing back down the mountain.

Before heading back into the city, we ducked into one of the gardens on the temple grounds, meandering quietly through the bamboo groves and ponds. Here are some shots of that lovely little spot:













Sometimes I find it all too easy to slip into the routine of my life. It's good to remember that adventures great and small are right at my doorstep, here and now, wherever that happens to be. I'm thankful that Uncle Dan was one of the first ones to teach me that lesson.

So here's to Uncle Dan, who went on the last great adventure just a little too soon!