Daily Yamabushi

It’s usually much easier to think of ideas when something is already pitched. Say you’re unsure which restaurant to go to or which book to read. If you already have something to compare to, it makes it easier to make a decision. If you like the first idea, that’s great too!

So when you’re in a situation where an idea is necessary, bring something, anything, to the table. Suggest a restaurant or two, and that way you’ll have something to work with from the offset.

As a beginner, you have so much more to learn, so much more to gain. As a beginner, you see things differently than a seasoned pro. Your attitude is one of sheer appreciation for the art, rather than perhaps a bit of ego, for doing things the way they have been done, in spite of the fact that every time you do it is different.

So, even for things like climbing mountains, cooking, teaching, swimming, or any experience whether new or old, try and come in with fresh eyes. Come in with as little expectation as possible, and experience things for what they are rather than constantly comparing things to expectations.

That way the experience is more real, and more the true essence of what it is meant to be.

I like to pride myself on taking action, rather than thinking about taking action. Action is the only way to know if your theories actually work. However, I’m nowhere near perfect, there are tons of ideas I have that I haven’t executed on, but I like to push myself to take action as much as possible.

One way I did so recently was when I bought my drone. I had only learned the basics by watching how to control the drone on YouTube before I took her out for her first flight in what was a rather risky move.

I had intended on test flying the drone over my local rice fields, however I simply didn’t have enough time. Instead, the first flight was over the Mogami river on the way to Mt. Yamuki. The Mogami is one of the three fastest flowing rivers in Japan, and if I had made a mistake, it’s quite likely it would have been the end of the drone.

I’m not sure if I’d always recommend taking action if it means there is a high risk that you won’t be able to take that action in the future. Either way, I managed to get some good footage, although of course there was a rookie mistake and I think I forgot to set the video to 4K.

Swimming is all about efficiently moving through the water. The idea is that you make your body streamline like a fish in the ocean or a plane in the sky. Your focus isn’t so much on how fast you are kicking or how fast your arms are moving, but rather reducing the amount of drag as these two motions you push forward.

Once you have forward motion, your focus turns to reducing the things that stop that forward motion. If you aren’t careful, your thoughts and emotions can get in the way of this forward motion. But if you keep focused on maintaining the streamline, if you keep focused on the motion going forward, you more easily manage to stay afloat.

Some people choose not to get angry. Some people choose not to be phased by things. Some people choose to let things slide.

Some things happen that are out of our control. But we always have a choice in how we react.

The wrong choice leads to unnecessary worry and stress. The right choice leads to less stress or anxiety.

I know what I’m choosing.

My friend’s son is a genius. He’s just started a new school where people are assigned roles and he went ahead and volunteered first.

Why is this a genius move?

If you’re the first, your mistakes are more forgivable. Make a mistake when you’ve had the chance to watch people do things rather than doing them yourself and it’s not the same.

If you’re eventually going to have to do something, do it, and do it first! Great lesson.

Michael Phelps once swam and won an Olympic race without goggles after they fell off at the start. As a swimmer and former waterpolo player, I’m familiar with the pain of opening your eyes underwater. It’s not nice at all. With waterpolo you can sort of get used to it, because you don’t have to do it too often, but swimming a whole race? No thanks.

You can do all the conditioning training you want. Swimming in clothes, swimming with a weighted belt, swimming without goggles. But the unpredictable does happen.

That’s why it’s called the unpredictable.

So when conditions become less than ideal, what do you do?

Easy.

Buck it up. Accept it. Go ahead in spite of the conditions. Show them what you’re made of. But more importantly, show yourself what you’re made of.

Less than ideal, a chance to prove yourself.

Chin up! It’s not all that bad! When you get unexpected news that is less than ideal, remember the basics.

First is your breath. Are you breathing erratically? Or is your breathing calm? If not the latter, take the time to make it so by taking in a few deep breaths.

Second is your posture. Are you slouching? Is your back straight? Is your neck straight? If not, stand in front of a mirror in a power pose for a few seconds, minutes if you can.

Lastly, well for now, chin up. Think forward, starting with your chin! You’ll be amazed at how your body follows suit!

If it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t exist.

Never has a truer statement been made.

There’s too much going on elsewhere for us to remember everything, so we rely on our calendars to be our proxy memories.

When you promise to meet someone, if you don’t set a time on your calendar, who knows when you’re going to meet them?

The same can be said for building new habits. If you don’t put a time on the calendar, does it really exist?

Take the choice out of it. As soon as you decide you want to pick up a new habit, the calendar is your first port of call. Making a space for it means that when it comes time, you’ve already decided that you’re going to do it. So do it.

(Whether you choose to abide by your calendar or not is the real problem, I guess, but at least now you’re thinking about it!).

– don’t tell people your plans, show them your results.

Someone on Twitter

Likewise if you’re clearly working on your plan but haven’t got the results yet, keep at it!

You’ll know when it’s truly ready, but don’t fall victim to the perfectionist plot. Just remember to ship your work regularly to get that all important feedback and reiterate, reiterate, reiterate until your plans become your results.

When I was a little kid, I used to wonder what it would be like to have two days that play out in the exact same way. Two days that you ate things at the same time, did things in the same order, and I guess got the same results. That was about the time Groundhog Day came out, so it’s possible that’s where I got the idea from, but I quickly realised that it wouldn’t be very much fun at all.

That and the fact it becomes practice for when things change without you wanting them to is why we should embrace new ways of doing things. If you have an idea to do something new or the same thing in a new way, try to do it and see what it actually feels like. Try getting to work using a different path, or try switching up the order you do certain exercises.

It’s not possible to have two days play out in the exact same way. Nor is it desirable. Keep things fresh, or you may find things keep you fresh. Either way, embrace and roll with it. You’ll be all the more better for it.

The only way to truly understand something is through living it yourself.

All of your experience to date, all of it, was your chance to understand what it’s all about. In which case, regrets are a sign you were trying to understand, not something to get worked up over.

Do you regret something? Did you learn something from the experience? Take that with you into your new experiences, take the chance to understand.

Watched a video about snowboarding? Go out and show me you can snowboard. Got a hot insight on investing? Show me the money. Read a book about how to cook a great roast? Get into the kitchen and show me how it’s done.

The only true answer comes about through experience.

Books, blogs, videos and the like are just about showing you how it can be done. It’s up to you to actually go out there and do it for yourself.

When you ‘have’ the answer and you start something, you find that you truly don’t have the answer, yet. But through experience you can find it. Not through reading a blog post.

If something clearly isn’t working the way it should, we shouldn’t really lambast the people trying to do things another way. People doing things in new ways understand that they have to take responsibility when things don’t exactly turn out as planned, but when has something ever gone exactly to plan?

For me it’s more exciting and perhaps only a little less likely to succeed to constantly try things in a new way. As long as you’ve got your bases covered, and take responsibility when things go south, what’s wrong with trying a new way of living?

They say that you should follow your heart, follow your interests, do what you love.

I wholeheartedly agree.

There is a driving force within us that pushes us onwards, a driving force that compels us to do something. This driving force comes from our souls, and to deny that would be tantamount to suicide.

However, I feel there is a disconnect between doing what you love and exclusively doing what you love.

While at the moment we may not be able to exclusively do what our souls are telling us, we can at least take steps so that we can, or we can at least make an effort to do it more often. Although ideal, we don’t have to exclusively do it.

That’s where the power lies, that’s the driving force, that’s what we should be doing.

Don’t ever get ahead of yourself. If you find yourself demanding more but not really deserving it, stop, take things in, and begin again. Work on making it so that you do indeed deserve the things you demand. So that it’s a no-brainer that those things are deserved.

How do you do that?

Work on building experience and building your value. If you keep at it, things will come in due time. But in the meantime, stay humble.

Some things are only learnt by having lived through experiences. The knowledge gained through these experiences accumulates, the more experiences you have, the more tools you have at your disposal. These tools can be very useful, they can be used to build even more tools, but only if and when you choose to make use of them.

Building up your arsenal is good and everything, but it’s pretty useless if you’re just sitting in your toolshed.

We purposely don’t explain much about Yamabushi training before we do it. This is because the more you know about something before actually doing it, the more your experience is affected by expectations.

On the surface this may seem a bit unnecessary, but you will find with new experiences that you start comparing the experience to your expectation, rather than simply enjoying the experience, or doing the experience for the sake of doing the experience.

So, for an experience like Yamabushi training or something where you don’t need to know much in advance, I try not to know too much in advance so I am not as affected by expectations.

Last year in May, I set about climbing Mt. Haguro from the lesser-known Haguro Kodo side in Shonai Town. It was a really unique way to experience one of the most sacred mountains there is, and I spent more than a few hours putting together a 20 minute video of the experience. However, while we were getting our lunch, I also filmed us talking to Hajime-san at one of the shops there selling the Horagai conchs, in which I enquired as to the price. In contrast to the many hours spent on the first video, this second video was basically just piecing together what I had filmed, and didn’t include much editing at all besides adding English subtitles.

Which video do you think did better?

The second video. It is performing much, much better on YouTube. So much so it is now in my top five watched videos! (which I realise isn’t saying much)

I love YouTube for its algorithm that recycles content, something that is non-existent with what Mr. Zuckerberg offers. But at the same time the algorithm can be extremely hard to predict.

Either way, one thing is true. Since you don’t know what will ‘take off’ so to speak, it’s best to just put things out there and see what catches on!

My life changed when last year I decided that at 6pm every single day my phone would go down to charge, and the only device I could use was the TV. I have since benefited from better sleep, more reading, and better being able to focus on things I do choose to watch.

The reason I made this rule is simple. I found myself getting worked up over very trivial things on the internet that had an adverse effect on my sleep, as well as my relationships.

However, one other thing is that has changed is that I now don’t feel compelled to have a device with me 24/7, and I now know I can survive without one (in Yamabushi training we don’t use phones so I know I can go without for a week, same with coffee, but besides that).

Devices feel like a wall that you’re putting up, like those perplex screens that have been all the rage during the pandemic, only this time they are opaque. No matter how much we try for it not to be the case, devices put you in your own little world that essentially blocks us from what’s going on and doesn’t make us fully present in the moment.

The next time you are interacting with someone and you find yourself reaching for your device, ask yourself whether there is a legitimate reason to use the device, or whether you’re just going to be doomscrolling. Even more important, ask yourself how much you value quality time with the other person. I guarantee you’ll change your ways.

(Also, try putting your device on to charge at least two hours before bed in a different room to your bedroom, tomorrow you will thank you)

I was just listening to a speech by a Buddhist monk in his little temple there. It turns out that recently one of the statues was stolen, an important statue needed to do his ceremonies. The monk had to hurriedly find a replacement for it so that he could do his job.

For someone to steal that particular statue, that had to have known of its importance. The monk said it was regrettable that it happened, but that he hoped the thief was treating the statue well.

The monk just accepted the situation as unfortunate, and even hoped for the best for someone who had done him wrong.

The next time someone does me wrong, I hope to remember this little anecdote so I can hope for the best for them.

I’ve started swimming again after a break of 6 weeks, thanks to everyone’s new best friend the pool was closed. When I start back, it takes at least two months to get back to a comfortable pace for me. Until that point, I keep telling myself that today’s practice is to make it easier for tomorrow’s.

But isn’t everything like that? I think that’s what it means to be on a do, a way or path. Constantly working towards making things easier for yourself. At least that’s how I see it.

Your subconscious is a powerful thing. If you’re not careful, your subconscious can cause anxiety and existential crises. But at the same time, your subconscious can also be used for good.

Overthinking should be a crime. We need to work more to get the most out of our subconscious, this is where the real solutions lie.

Here’s two ways you can harness the power of your subconscious:

When an idea strikes, or when you are given a new brief, collect your thoughts in an easy to let out format. Lists of bullet points where you just blurt out whatever it is you are thinking work well. Then you can take from this initial inspiration and develop your ideas further when you need to.

When you work on these ideas but feel stuck, take a break. Get lost. Go somewhere else. Do something to take your mind off things. The thoughts will fester in your head, and if you’re lucky your subconscious will let the solution appear.

Another trick to instigate this process is to change the medium you are using. Go from a desktop to a tablet or phone. Seeing things in a different light will trigger your subconscious to develop your thoughts differently.

There you have it. Harness the power of your subconscious and you will be all the more better for it.

As those who follow my Instagram stories would be able to attest to, I’ve been making pour over coffee every day for the better part of the past 7 years. Every day I pick out my favourite beans, weigh them to a tenth of a gram (!), grind away by hand, and ever so carefully hold the kettle over the server, as I craft my coffee drip by drip.

However, it was only recently that I realised one trick that has made that pouring so much easier. It’s so simple you can hardly call it a trick though.

The right amount of water.

For the longest time I’ve either put too much water in the kettle so that it flows down the side of the kettle and not into the server, or too little that I spend a whole lot of time trying to find the right balance so that only one drip comes out at a time.

It turns out all I needed to do was to fill my kettle to about 60%.

Knowing the right amount of experience comes through experience. Sometimes it takes a lot more experience than we expect, and we feel stupid for it taking so long, and sometimes we pick things up right away.

Either way, experience is the teacher, and again it’s a matter of doing things to learn. Experience is how you find the right amount of experience. There is no other way.

In Japanese, Chinese, and I assume many other Asian languages, big numbers can be hard to say.

The next big number after 1,000 is 10,000, so it’s a one ten thousand. Next is ten ten thousands for 100,000, one hundred ten thousands for 1,000,000, one thousand ten thousands for 10,000,000, and then they have a word for 100,000,000.

So, it can be very confusing to go between the two languages, especially when interpreting because you have to really think on your toes.

I thought I’d share a technique I use to help those who are struggling.

For each large number, I associate it with something personal I can remember. For example, I remember that New Zealand has a population of 5 million. All I do is remember that number in Japanese, and I can more easily go between the two languages. (hyaku man in Japanese).

Then, I remember the number of sheep in New Zealand (typical kiwi), which is about 25million, or ni sen go hyakuman in Japanese. So ten million is sen man.

For 100 million, thats easy. Japan’s population is 126 million (probably less now), so I can easily remember that number (ichi oku ni sen roppyaku man).

Then I also remember the price of a house, which is also in the 10s of millions of yen in Japan, or sen man. And oku yen (100,000,000 yen or about 1 million dollars) is easy to remember for when I do indeed become a millionaire.

That’s it! Try it if you struggle with big numbers like I did!

When I started out as a translator, if I wasn’t 100% certain about something I would blur the edges. I would use phrasing that made the reader have to read between the lines a bit because I was not sure I had understood things properly. Now that my understanding has increased, I feel I’m better able to express the source content in a more accurate way.

I’ve tried to bring this over to my writing too. Where possible I’ve purposely taken out things that can be left up to interpretation, for example your I thinks and I believes. This greater conviction leads to stronger writing, and better being able to convey your opinions.

Try it. Try stating things as facts and see how much you actually believe. I’ve found quite a few flaws in my thinking this way, and it’s helped me become more convinced when I do actually think I am correct. Not a bad way to go about things.

There’s no point crying over spilt milk, spilt milk spilt when uncertainty abounds even more so.

You have a decision to make, so make it with the best of your knowledge at the time. Don’t blame yourself if things don’t turn out as expected. You weren’t to know.

Tough decisions or any decision for that matter made during uncertain times cannot be blamed for. You’re making the most of a bad situation, when any outcome is possible. Just take as much time as you need (have) to make a decision. Once it’s made, stick with it.

Sure things would have turned out different if you made a different decision, but they didn’t. No point crying over spilt milk.

Swimming is a form of meditation. You can only do it by yourself, and you really do get into your own world. Plus it’s also great low-impact exercise and really good at keeping you fit. it’s why I love it so much and I’d recommend it to anyone.

But people seem really put off from swimming, and that’s a huge shame. I assume it’s because of bad childhood memories in the pool or ocean, or just ineptitude.

Every once in a while I have a sort of nightmare where I’m in a really really deep pool. Not the ones used for diving, a normal pool that just goes on forever. That freaks me out.

I also sometimes have an irrational fear when I swim in the ocean that a shark will come and get me. These are reasons to not want to go swimming, but at the same time they are reasons to go swimming, so that you know how to escape if something were to go wrong.

More than once I have been caught in a rip too. Once in Australia when I was a young teenager, and once here in Japan of all places. If I didn’t know to swim 45 degrees towards the shore, and if I didn’t have the confidence, strength, and stamina to get back, I don’t know how that would have turned out.

The trick with swimming is to use as little energy as possible while maintaining forward motion. I see people pushing themselves too hard, they flail their arms about expecting that the harder you push the faster you go. That’s the exact opposite of what you should be doing.

Running and cycling are about lots of shorter little bursts one after the other. Swimming is about long slow strokes full of power. It’s also about maintaining a streamlined shape in the water.

That’s why practicing just kicking with a flutter board, or trying to get through the water without your arms for example are good exercises. Catch up where you only stroke once one hand has touched the other is another great exercise to help maintain your body shape and long strokes.

Whenever I jump in the pool I love to do the same warm up to hit the ground running so to speak. I always start with a 400m IM, individual medley where I swim 100m of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and crawl in that order.

This not only means I maintain my ability in each stroke somewhat, it also means I start with a really powerful stroke that requires a lot of effort to perform well. This really wakes me up and gets me ready for a day in the pool.

It feels amazing to glide through the water, like you’re flying, and I would just love for more people to take part. Swimming is something I could do every single day, and I think you should to!

“A man is great not because he hasn’t failed; a man is great because failure hasn’t stopped him.”

Confucius

This couldn’t be truer. If we include things happening to the ‘man’ (read: human) that are out of their control as failure, then we’re onto a winner.

Your reality definitely isn’t what you imagined when you were growing up. What matters is that you kept on growing up, failure after failure. Embrace your reality and make something of it. Don’t let failure stop you.