This is a post from Dec. I never posted, since I think I wanted to find a picture. But I totally forgot about it, so here it is before I forget about it again.
So we finally were able to go out to pay back our friends for babysitting earlier for us. They live in Takao, which is at the far western edge of the Kanto basin, up against some smaller mountains. Anyway, they have three boys, 4, 7, and 9. They can be pretty wild, but they are good kids and were good for us. I took them hiking yesterday up to Jinba san, which is the tallest mountain nearby.
Although we didn't end up hiking as much as I'd liked, since we got kind lost at the beginning, it was very cool just to drive around the mountains. I really love these little houses and farms nestled in the valleys. There were lots of older, traditionally built houses, even a few with thatched roofs. Also, rock walls, stone stairs, terraced gardens. The persimmon trees were all loaded with fruit, but no leaves.
I think what I like about these valleys is similar to how I feel about islands. The natural constraints on space create a more intimate scale of interaction. Walking or bike rather than driving. Wendell Berry talks about how smaller scale, local farming and communities are essential because there is a natural limit to how much we can really care for, truly understand, work for, etc. Valleys and islands are nice because they force you to interact with the land on a more intimate scale. Driving around Oahu is obviously much more pointless than in California, or even Japan. You run out of places to go. But when you get out and walk you realize there is way more than you could ever experience on that scale. Even very close by.
It's like Laie falls. It isn't a spectacular hike, but I've been there so many times I realize how different it can be each time. I've been there before 7 in the morning, at 10, at 3, 5, right before it gets dark. I've even slept there. On bright clear days, drizzly, pouring rain, on cloudy still days when there was mist in the valley and over the pool. And it's always different. And so you realize that every place you've only been to once, to check off your list, you don't really know at all. But if you didn't know one place really well, you might never realize that.
Not that long ago, almost everyone had this kind of close relationship to a place. Now, many people don't and don't even realize what they've lost.
2 comments:
i really like this, jesse. maybe because i'm home a lot, i feel like i've "discovered" the places around me by taking the kids on walks. and they're not especially spectacular places, but i feel attached to them because of their relation to our lives. like our covered bridge walk in corvallis, our little area by the lighthouse in newport, even the residential neighborhood in salem. i didn't really think much of it until now, but i agree that you could really miss out by not developing a relationship to your close environment.
on a different note, i just wish i had more motivation/knowledge/confidence to keep a garden or feel like i'm making the most of our yard here in samoa. i need some land grant help.
Whenever we've moved to a new place (which is more often than we should admit), Jesse has taken us on walking tours of the neighborhood. It's one of the first thing we do. These walks help orient me and we always find cool parks and interesting houses. They also help a new place feel like home.
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