Daily Yamabushi

You’re out trying to get the perfect shot. Calculating angles, adjusting aperture, long exposure short exposure, it’s all part of the experience. The experience of the photographer that is. While you’re out there trying to capture what’s going on, you’re not experiencing what’s going on.

So to truly experience something and capture it at the same time, well, I think it’s impossible. That’s the dilemma you are faced with as a photographer. Do you put your experience first, or your photography?

At the same time, you could also argue that photographing something brings a different perspective on the same experience. The experience through the lens. But if you’re trying to capture something to describe to people, it helps to experience it first, right? To truly be able to do both, well that takes skill, and compromise.

I think I’m still trying to find the right balance between the two, and probably the best way to do that is to go alone or just go with very patient people 🙂

Don’t compare yourself to the people who put in ten thousand hours, put in ten thousand hours yourself. It’s useless to compare yourself to anyone since we’re all wired differently and more importantly since we’ve all been through such different experiences. So when you see someone you want to emulate, that’s good, but make sure you emulate them in a way that is unique to you.

They’ve put in their ten thousand hours, let that be a motivator for you to do the exact same. Part of your ten thousand hours could be emulating them, but you have to make sure you put your unique spin on it or else you’ll never achieve anything revolutionary innovative, or game-changing, however you want to put it.

Mountains are different every single day you go up them. It’s probably why even climbing them repeatedly can still be fun. Today we got to explore a new side of Kinbo that I had never experienced, but it was still familiar.

Today we climbed Mt. Kinbo from a different route and in entirely different conditions. In February when we climbed, there was about 50cm of snow, and it took us about 5 hours all up. Today though, there was only little patches of snow left, and it took us 2 and a half hours all up. The path we took was the back way up Yutagawa, and I quite enjoyed it.

When you go up the main route from Shoryuji temple, you go straight into the forest. In the forest and along the path there are a number of relics and statues. Today from Yutagawa, we walked about 30 minutes up the mountain street, through tiny hamlets full of olden style Japanese farming houses complete with Kura storehouses, before we reached the Torii that mark the entrance to the mountain.

There was a bit of bush to climb up, including the Kinbo bridge which was like 1m long, and a cedar forest that opened out to a mountain path. This path carries on up to the taller Yorogamine and Hokariyama mountains that I hope to get to sometime soon. This path connects to the main road to the shrine.

After we got back, we spent some time in the foot spa of Yutagawa, and got coffee at Tsukasaya Ryokan, that I’ve mentioned on here before.

If you’re quick, you can probably get up that path in about 90 minutes return. I recommend it for people who still want a bit of a challenge, but maybe can’t go that far yet. The climb was tough at times, but only for a little bit, and there were a few spots to stop for great views.

I added an ‘about Yamabushi’ section to the front page of my website. I realise that I haven’t done a good job of explaining what a Yamabushi is, even though I’ve written at least 20 articles about it. Seeing as it’s a point about myself that I want to push, I should probably make it a bit more noticeable.

The problem with me is, I have too many interests. There’s too many things I’m into and with that there are many jobs that I am doing as well. It’s hard to explain it all in simple terms, but I tried to with the homepage.

From now though, I think I’ll try and push the Yamabushi part a bit more. It’s unique, and it’s a big part of my life, but more importantly, it’s something I think everyone in the world would be able to benefit from. I’ve tried to explain this in my blog, but really there is no better teacher than nature.

Just some ideas for blog posts or videos to work on:

• What is a Yamabushi?
• What can people do to incorporate Yamabushi into their lifestyles?
• What are the advantages of being a Yamabushi?
• What are the disadvantages?
• Can anyone become a Yamabushi?
• What are the main philosophies of Yamabushi?
• How prominent are Yamabushi?

Etc. anything else I think of I’ll be sure to post 🙂

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No one can master nature. The Yamabushi knew this millennia ago.

The term ‘teaching’ is a loaded one because it assumes the teacher has achieved some form of mastery over a subject. Like students, teachers need to also see themselves as being on a journey of learning.

The job of the teacher is to set up the ultimate environment for learners to learn. In this regard, teachers have the same job as a Yamabushi. Yamabushi are not the teacher. They are not the fountain of knowledge some have been led to believe.

Nature is the ultimate environment for learning. Nature is the teacher. Yamabushi simply guide people into nature, and simply give people the opportunity to learn from her.

Think about it the other way. To be able to teach something means you have some form of mastery over the subject. No one can master nature.

One opinion of mine that has changed since coming to Japan is the use of helmets when biking.

I fell off a bridge riding my bike when I was about 11 or 12 and the helmet saved my life. I think we should definitely be encouraged to wear helmets, but I don’t think they should be compulsory. In NZ, whenever you ride a bike, you have to wear a helmet as it is deemed safer, but I actually think overall it isn’t safer.

The reason for this is, compulsory helmets is a turn off for people to ride bikes in the first place. Less people riding bikes means more cars on the road, more cars on the road means cars are prioritized, and it becomes more dangerous for those who choose to ride a bike. So, by making it not compulsory to wear a helmet, you increase the number of bike riders, which increases investment in bike infrastructure, which increases the overall safety.

Serious bike riders who ride on the road would be stupid not to wear a helmet when going fast, and they understand the danger so should wear a helmet anyway. On the other hand, any person traveling a very short distance at a slow pace, they shouldn’t have to wear a helmet if they don’t want to. Of course they should, but it shouldn’t be compulsory.

If you wanna build a habit or even to just sustain one, it helps to have a default exercise. One that you do if you can’t think of anything better to do. This takes away the added burden of deciding what to do that just leads to decision paralysis.

For example, I want more flexibility. My hips are as stiff as a rock. This is a real problem when you have to sit on the floor for hours on end during Yamabushi training, so I want to improve my flexibility as much as possible. There’s a 21 day hip opening challenge that I’ve been doing on repeat since August (I think it’s working, but every time I stop I lose the gains). Every once in a while I get the urge to try something else, and I allow myself to, but I know that if it doesn’t work out, I can go back to my default exercise.

Likewise, when I start up swimming again after a long break (I’ve stopped due to the risk of either catching or passing on COVID-19 to all the old people at the pool), I swim based on percentages of effort rather than time, so I can build back my fitness. I can already tell you how I will swim when I can finally get back in the pool.

So if you can, start thinking of or practicing default exercises. It will help you build and maintain your habit, which will help you build and maintain your life.

A couple of years back I was in an interview for a scholarship to Japan. I didn’t get it, I’m pretty sure I failed on the Japanese test as my Japanese wasn’t that good at the time (even now I’m still suspect), but we also had an interview in Japanese and one of the questions I still remember clear as day because it stumped me: “What’s the biggest difference between Japan and New Zealand?”

Loaded in this question is “how much knowledge of each culture do you have?” and at the time I had only been to Japan maybe once, and had limited experience with Japanese people as well. I have no idea what I answered, but after time I realised what my answer to this question would be, and if you want to know, it’s the role of women.

I’m not here to talk about that, but this question that stumped me was a good litmus test for similar interviews in the future. If you have a good answer for something like that, then you can be confident that you could pass such an interview. Otherwise, I guess you just need a bit more experience!

You have your long-term goal, or even if you don’t, you have a general direction you’re heading towards. Project within a project is the idea that you take your long term goal or direction and split it into workable chunks on the mid-term, say two years, but my idea is that this is separate from your main gig.

For example, I spent the first two years of my stint as an ALT studying for N1 on the JLPT. I did that. And my next challenge was my MA. I did that. Both of these things were for my long term stay in Japan, and I am drawing benefits from both daily.

It’s important though that you remember that even if you fail, you still gain. This is taken straight from Tim Ferriss, but you make your mid-term and long term goals have a sort of contingency in which doing the activity will result in gaining a skill or build value in some way.

For me, there’s a sort of theme about building the image of the Dewa Sanzan or Yamabushi and that’s what I’m working on at the moment. Even if I fail, the region gains, and I can learn skills along the way, such as some that I already have like building a website, or some that I intend to like publishing a book.

What projects could you see yourself doing? Or what are you currently working on?

Independence: able to support yourself. Able to do get things done. Independence with leadership means you aren’t independent entirely, but that you can lead an independent group too.

Resilience: able to deal with the difficult. Able to move on when things are tough, and able to push forward. Resilience without independence isn’t true resilience. Resilience without leadership isn’t useful.

Leadership: able to lead. Able to find the right mission and the right people to do the right job. Leadership with independence is courage. Leadership without resilience is weakness.

Independence, resilience, leadership. Three important traits for getting things done.

We all have our fair share of bad days. Things don’t go your way, things don’t go as expected, or you simply weren’t feeling it. How fast can you get over it when it’s not your day? How fast can you hit back? That’s what matters. The further you’re down, the more you have to grow, but to do so you’re going to have to hit back stronger than ever before.

What’s important is not to focus on what happened, but to focus on the current moment and how you can make that current moment the best moment it can be. This usually means making sure your mindset is positive, focusing on what you can do not what you can’t, and focusing on what you can do right now to hit back hard.

I was recently asked a few questions about Yamabushi, and I thought I would write out my answers.

1. Approximately how many Yamabushi are there? Do they all live in the Dewa Sanzan area?

At a guess, about 6,000. This is a hard question to answer that depends on the definition of Yamabushi, but official statistics say there are around 5,500 people who are ‘religious practitioners of Shugendo affiliated organisations’ (source). However, this number doesn’t include more casual Yamabushi, i.e. those who practice with us, but don’t belong to a specific group or organisation. 

The second part of the question is easy to answer; no, they do not all live in the Dewa Sanzan area.

Historically, Yamabushi were on all the taller mountains in Japan, but these days they mainly practice in Kumano and Omine in Nara and Wakayama Prefectures, and here on the Dewa Sanzan. Among these there are many different kinds of Yamabushi, but one thing they all have in common is that they practice Shugendo, mainly through Tendai or Shingon Buddhist temples (I made a video about it that might be helpful). 

The Dewa Sanzan has two schools of Yamabushi, those of the Hagurosan Shugen Honshu Buddhist sect who practice from Shozen’in Koganedo Temple on Mt. Haguro, and those of Dewa Sanzan Shrine, the only officially Shinto Yamabushi in existence, of which I am. Both of these groups run a weeklong Akinomine Autumn Peak Ritual annually. Shozen’in Koganedo Temple’s Akinomine begins on August 25th, and Dewa Sanzan Shrine’s begins on August 26th each year.

Besides the priests that work in the shrines and temples on the Dewa Sanzan, there are about 30 Shukubo pilgrim lodges (down from about 360 in the 1600s and 1700s). Pilgrim lodges must be run by Yamabushi. These Yamabushi are known as ‘Yamabushi allowed to have wives’, as opposed to the Yamabushi that lived on Mt. Haguro until the Meiji Restoration that were not allowed to have wives. Of these Yamabushi, including family of the Yamabushi who run the Shukubo who would also be yamabushi, there are probably about 2-300 (my guess).

Then we have Satoyama Yamabushi, Yamabushi who live elsewhere but practice on the Dewa Sanzan, mainly during the weeklong Akinomine Autumn Peak Ritual, or the Miko Shugyo run from Dewa Sanzan Shrine for females (for clarity, Shozen’in Koganedo Temple’s Akinomine has both sexes, Dewa Sanzan Shrine’s only allows males, but has Miko Shugyo training for females). These Yamabushi come from all over the world, including The Netherlands and Brazil.

2. Can anyone who completes the Yamabushido Masters Training call themselves a Yamabushi?

Technically, yes. Officially, no. Anyone who prays to and practices in nature in the way of Shugendo can call themselves a Yamabushi (this is only my opinion). But to become an official Yamabushi certified by either Shozen’in Koganedo Temple or Dewa Sanzan Shrine you have to complete the weeklong Akinomine Autumn Peak Ritual. If you do so, you also receive a Yamabushi name. In Kumano and Omine I believe they would have similar requirements for officially becoming a Yamabushi, but I’m afraid I’m not very knowledgeable about that.

3. How long/ often do Yamabushi walk/stay in the mountains?

This is entirely dependent on the Yamabushi. Most Dewa Sanzan Yamabushi at the very least would do the weeklong Akinomine Autumn Peak Ritual each year. If not, they would do Master Hoshino’s training, which is generally 2 or 3 days, or some other training by themselves. For me, I do the Akinomine Autumn Peak at least once a year, and Master Hoshino’s training or a training run through Daishobo pilgrim lodge maybe 5 or 6 times in a year.

For the Yamabushi that live on Mt. Haguro, there is the 100-day Fuyunomine Winter Peak Ritual that finishes with the Shoreisai festival on New Year’s Eve. The Fuyunomine is done by two Yamabushi each year and is the longest Yamabushi training that still exists on the Dewa Sanzan. You have to be male, and you have to be living in Toge (the region Mt. Haguro is in) to be chosen to do this, however. About 40 of the people who have done the Fuyunomine are still alive, one of them is of course Master Hoshino.

The Akinomine Autumn Peak Ritual used to be much longer (from what I can recall, it was about 75 days, will have to find my sources). That has slowly whittled down to the weeklong training it is now.

Any other questions? Get in touch!

I love this article by Ryan Holiday. And I needed it too. I read Essentialism by Greg McKeown. I felt it took too long to say what it needed to say, but the lessons were good all the same. Ryan asks ‘is it necessary?’ and quotes Marcus Aurelius and Greg McKeown, and it actually sunk in.

The past few days have been hectic for me. I’ve been trying to catch up on a number of projects. I’ve been in the back seat, kind of letting them get ahead of me. It’s my own fault though. I said I would do these things, and now I have to; a common pattern in my life.

But now is the time to change. Now is the time to ask, is it necessary? Because you know what, a lot of it isn’t. A lot of it is getting in the way. And I think I’m going to stop it. Time to focus on the important. Time to remove the superfluous. Time to do the necessary. What’s important? What’s necessary? The answer is what you’re going to do.

Now all I need to do is remind myself of this day after day. When I’m about to make a decision over how to use my time, I have to remember, is it necessary? Is it necessary?

Yesterday a friend told me about the term ‘slasher’ that he had heard from Audrey Tang. Tang was asked what profession she thinks children would want to be in the future, and ‘slasher’ was her answer. Reason being, it will become less and less common to have only one specialty in the future, and people are becoming more and more likely to have a / in their title.

This fits me perfectly. There’s just too many things that I have an interest in, and I have gained aptitude at a few of them that I can officially call myself Tim the Slasher. University Lecturer / Yamabushi. Translator / Blogger. Interpreter / YouTuber.

Becoming a slasher was a natural progression though, I feel. It’s not as if I decided I want to do all these things at once. But I do have a bit of a mindset where if I could make a living doing some of the things that I like, as opposed to my ‘real’ job as an English lecturer, I would. What that means is that I have actively looked for ways in which I can make money and eventually a living from some if not all of these extra activities, and I think that is the right way to go about any hobby or anything you feel an inclination towards, just don’t make it a prerequisite.

I’m trying to decide which of the other 99 mountains on the 100 mountains of Yamagata to climb next and I think I’ll go for Mt. Arakurayama and Mt. Takadate on the coast of Tsuruoka. Reason being, they’re close. Maybe even closer than Mt. Kinbo. Plus, it seems possible to do both in one day. I would have seen those mountains at least a few hundred times, so it would be cool to go and see what it’s like up there.

It’s fun just to do research on the mountains too. Arakurayama in particular was a Shugen mountain from the 8th century onwards, and it starts from Yura as well, one of the coolest little villages that exists along that coast. Picture a bay with a tiny island and a stark red bridge to that tiny island. Then, put a 2000m high mountain in the background. That’s Yura.

I’ve also been to a local fishers’ market there, and it’s crazy. They have their own language for auctions! They don’t want people from outside to know the prices fish sell for, so people don’t know how much profit the supermarkets etc. make 🙂

Plus, the name Yura comes from a place in northern Kyoto prefecture. That was where Prince Hachiko escaped from and set sail for the Dewa Sanzan way back in 592.

I tried making hot cross buns for the second time today, making my second and third ever buns. I’ve never made them before, not even helping someone else, at least as far as I can remember. Third time’s the charm I guess.

The second one I put in our smaller oven that is actually for fish (every house in Japan has one just beneath the stove). However, I didn’t take into consideration the height, and they burnt! So I had to cut off the top to be able to eat them. Still tasted nice 🙂

First you have to think to do something. Then you have to convince yourself not to give up until it’s done. That means that when you decide to do something, you decide to give yourself more time than expected if necessary.

Last year I completely failed trying to make sourdough bread. In the end it turns out I had just started too early in the year, it was too cold for the starter to grow. In the end, I was left with a lot of leftover starter that I used in all manner of recipes, mostly to good and delicious results. I’m beginning to really like this baking thing 🙂 but I need to try again with the sourdough now.

Google Doc for reference

We can’t do anything with the dark, but we can turn on the light.

I realise this may contradict the title of this blog, and I’m not sure who said this, but it’s true. It’s an eternal battle, but by labeling it and understanding it exists, and accepting it for what it is, just like anything else that exists, we can choose how we react to it.

Knowledge of its existence means that we also have a responsibility to do everything we can to prevent it. This means looking after yourself physically and mentally.

Turn on the light. And keep it on.

‘I’m thinking of doing this’ and ‘Here, I did this’

Don’t tell me you’re going to do something, do it and tell me you’ve done it. The difference between the two is stark. If you want to impress people, if you want to prove something to yourself, get your A into G and do it. Only then should you tell us about it.

I’m not sure how many people put two and two together, it took me a while to realise, but the blooming of Sakura coincides with the start of the rice planting season.

Why does this matter? Well, the ancient Japanese felt the presence of Kami deities in all manner of objects, and Sakura were felt to be the deities of the rice fields, since whenever they bloomed, it was time to plant rice.

Rice is obviously extremely important because it is food. Food is basically the object of every matsuri festival, that’s why so many of them happen around the time of the autumn harvest, and the ancient Japanese celebrated this coming of the gods by making offerings and sharing sake beneath the Sakura.

Master Hoshino, my Yamabushi master, always says that the word Sakura is made up of two words, Sa meaning the god of the rice field, and Kura from Iwakura, where the gods reside.

Starting from the Nara period (710-794), and originally with Ume plum blossoms, in the Heian period (794-1185), Emperor Saga held flower viewing parties with sake and a huge feast, and a tradition was set in stone.

By the time Emperor Saga had gotten round to it, the Sakura cherry blossoms had become more of the centre of attention. The short nature and fragility of these blossoms since became representative of the fleeting nature of life, symbolizes by the petals scattering down in a slight breeze.

So for centuries the Japanese have been celebrating the arrival of the gods of the rice fields, and that has morphed into the modern-day Hanami ritual, which is basically a good excuse to get drunk 🙂

When it comes to translation and interpretation, domain knowledge is the deal maker, not language skill. While of course you need some level of language skill to be able to get to the stage where you can do translation and interpretation, where it really matters is your knowledge of the domain.

If you’re just a general translator or interpreter, that’s fine. You can just do general translation and interpretation. But where we really want you is with specific domain knowledge.

I’ve watched inexperienced people try to translate things that I have specific knowledge in, for example the Dewa Sanzan or local performing arts. Without the proper domain knowledge, and the vocabulary needed to explain these things, you really are in over your head. That’s where language knowledge can only help you so much, but domain knowledge makes a world of difference.

By the way, those inexperienced people were me, and I’m talking about translations I’ve done in the past. Now that out of my personal interest I have built my domain knowledge, I can clearly see areas where I was wrong, where the information was not translated properly. At the time, I had language experience, but lacked domain knowledge. Now I have both, and can be a good asset, depending on the domain of course.

It really is how you think about it. I had a stressful day, but looking back on it, there was nothing really major to trigger the stresses, it was more a gradual thing and my thoughts compounding to make it feel so.

The real power lies in being able to take a step back and analyze the situation for what it really is. A situation. And there will be more situations. And you have to not let things like your emotions get in the way of how you experience that situation.

I think that’s why things like meditation and simple exercise are so powerful. They give you perspective on your day, and ground you, they put you in check. That’s why it’s so important to ritualize them, and why you really need to make sure you’re doing it. The alternative is that we live our lives in our heads, and the thoughts compound to stress you out when all they really are, are simple thoughts. Get out of your head and make the function of your thoughts you being in the situation.

Do it at least for a little while everyday until you master it. Well, almost everyday.

For the past year and a half I’ve been waking up and doing Wim Hof breathing. I do three rounds of normal breathing and then a fourth round with push-ups, and from about August I tried combining yoga for hip mobility. My aim is the full lotus, and I’m not going to stop until I get there.

Likewise, for a bit of fun and something to look forward to after that exercise, we recently bought an espresso machine, and I’ve been trying to perfect my milk steaming skills (the espresso is automatic).

Some days you really don’t feel like getting up and doing the exercise. But there are zero days when you don’t feel like getting up and having a latte. So, if you’ve told yourself you’re going to do the exercise, in my case I gave myself the rule of at least five times a week, it does make it easier to force yourself to go to the same spot, sit down, and just start. With the added benefit of a freshly made latte as an incentive, it’s been working kind of well.

There are two important points I think to take from this. The first is that you should be realistic and not beat yourself up when you can’t or don’t do the exercise every day. Of course every day is better, but if that’s too much pressure that means you give up, everyday is not better.

The second point is, combining the habit with some form of incentive I think is a great way to continue. Only allow yourself the incentive if you’ve done the work. Just my two cents on the daily ritual/ habit.

I read my grandfather’s memoirs a while back, and it felt like he was in the room right there with me. He hasn’t been on this planet in more than 17 years. There are a few other people not on this earth anymore whose writing I would really appreciate right about now, or whenever really.

To write is to think. Writing is a powerful tool because we can use it to mould our thoughts into persuasive arguments. But more than that I like reading writing because it gives us some insight into the thought patterns of the writer.

Whether you think your writing or thoughts are worthy or not is really irrelevant. Being able to produce prose is what it’s about, and I encourage you to also pick up a pen and get your thoughts out on to paper. You never know who could appreciate your writing.

*p.s. I’m talking about any form of expression here, but I think writing is probably the best way to get across what you feel in a lot of cases, at least it is for me.

For the past few years, I’ve been trying to get myself into a position where I ‘pick myself’ so to speak. I don’t want to have to go out and look for a job interview, I want to set myself up so that people find me because they want me, not the other way around. However, I understand that this can be a bit naive at times.

So, even if you’re not going for a job, common job interview questions are a great thing to practice. This evening a student of mine was applying for a special program, and we were practicing the types of questions they might be asked during the interview stage. Here are some good ones:

• What can you offer that someone else cannot?
• Tell us about a time you felt proud of yourself or your work.
• Tell us about a time you made a mistake.
• What advice would you give your (insert younger age here) self? (Unashamedly taken straight from Tim Ferriss)
• What motivates you?

Ultimately I don’t want to ever have to use these, but you never know what opportunities are on your horizon, and what sort of questions you may need to answer to take them, so it’s handy to have a few answers ready.