Categories
Various

30 things I've learned in 30 years

Last February I celebrated my 30th birthday. In Japan when you are 30 years old you are entering the 三十路 (MISOJI) “The thirties way”. During these 30 years I have learned, unlearned and relearned many things like just everybody else.

Below, 30 things that I think I have learned during my way to the thirties, lessons that I learned during 22 years in Spain, 8 years in Japan and traveling around the world. Many of these lessons were taught by my family, my teachers, my work, my friends and all those wonderful women that conquered my hearth at some point in my life, thanks to all of you!

1.- Don’t criticize anybody, it is useless. Instead of criticizing weak point of somebody, focus on the strong points.

2.- Don’t be afraid of change, it is unavoidable. Learn how to surf the waves of your life, and enjoy every moment of it.

3.- Experience gives you perspective, calm and helps you prioritize the things that really matter. However, sometimes it is good to ignore your “experience” and hear your intuition.

4.- We usually overestimate what we can achieve in 1 year but we underestimate what we can achieve in 10.

5.- You don’t have to understand, learn or unlearn love, you just have to feel it.

6.- Don’t rush yourself but take a step every day, even if it is a small step. Enjoy it as it was your last one.

7.- When you feel like doing “the right thing” is not the best… break the rules!

8.- TIME is much more important than MONEY

9.- Make mistakes! It’s the best way to learn. But try not to make the same mistakes more than once.

10.- When you make a mistake assume your responsibility, apologize, say you are sorry.

11.- Don’t make promises to many people at the same time. Learn how to say NO.

12.- Don’t force other people to do something, inspire them and wait.

13.- When you fall, stand back up, the faster the better.

14.- The most difficult “problems” in life are not going to be solved no matter how much you think about them.

15.- Choosing between different options, between different paths, is one of the most difficult things in life. Sometimes there’s not a good option and a bad option, or a better option or worse, but sooner or later YOU HAVE TO DECIDE.

16.- It is better to love and lose, that never have loved and wonder how could it have been.

17.- Things that now seem very stressing-important for you, will look like silly things in the future.

18.- Be flexible, adaptable and able to recover with even more strength, like bamboo.

19.- The most important thing is not the place where you live but the people around you that you share your life with. Take care of them as much as you can.

20.- Do you live to work or do you work to live? Work is an important part of life, I enjoy it and makes me happy.

21.- Be patient, honest, humble (you are just one of more than 7,000 million people), curious, sincere, kind, careful, respectful.

22.- Perseverance is one of the things that has given me better results in life, be patient and enjoy the process more than the results, which will take some years to arrive.

23.- To regret something you did in the past is useless, at some point in your life that’s what you wanted. If you sometimes regret something, it should be for something that you didn’t do, but not for something that you did. Do it before it’s too late!

24.- Giving is MUCH more important than receiving.

25.- Don’t be afraid.

26.- Start now! Don’t procrastinate. Usually the first step is the most difficult one.

27.- At the end everything will be memories. Create good memories!

28.- Practice some sport. Exercise!

29.- Travel!

30.- You still don’t know what to do with your life? It’s ok, I also don’t. Don’t worry be happy, and remember wear sunscreen

What have you learned until now?

Categories
JapanGuide Travel

Nokogiriyama – 鋸山

A couple of weeks ago, on Saturday, a group of “adventurers” decided to visit the largest Buddha statue in Japan. We set out at 7:00am from Shinagawa station on our way to Kurihama.

Nokogiriyama
On our way to Kurihama.

Nokogiriyama - B&w period

From Kurihama station we walked towards the port and around 9:30am we boarded the “Kanaya Maru”, the boat that took us to the other side of the bay in half an hour.

Nokogiriyama
Leaving the coast of Yokohama on our way to the coast of Chiba.

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama - B&w period
One of the masts of Kanaya Maru.

Nokogiriyama - B&w period
At that time in the morning the bay was full of boats.

Nokogiriyama - B&w period
Group photo on board of the Kanaya Maru.

Around 10:00am we arrived to the port of a small village called Kanaya (金谷: money valley). Our instinct took us to a Chinese restaurant near the port where we recharged our energies. With a full belly we set out to go to Nokogiriyama mountain. We walked along the shoulder of the road that followed the coastline. The houses in Kanaya are cluttered in the little space that is left between the sea and the Nokogiriyama forests.

Nokogiriyama - B&w period

It’s not a very popular place for tourists, so there are not many signs. It took us a long time to find the head of the trail that had to take us to the summit.

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

The hike was quite easy, the trails were clear and there were even stairs in some areas.

Nokogiriyama - Hasselblad period

Nokogiriyama

山登り、hiking

We crossed the forest until we bumped into some mysterious rock walls.

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama
Great picture taken by Ikusuki from a cliff. We are those pixels down there that don’t match with the landscape.

The walls, which looked artificial and natural at the same time; the huge trees in the forest and the continuous drizzle and some traces of human activity reminded us of the TV Show Lost.

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

It turns out that it was a quarry that was active during the Edo era (until just 150 years ago); that’s the explanation for the mysterious shape of the walls. We tried to advance a little bit more but we arrived to an area without an exit, we were surrounded by rock walls and forest. We couldn’t advance any more towards Nokogoriyama’s summit.

Nokogiriyama

We traced back our steps until the last bifurcation we had passed by. We started walking the other trail which brought us through a narrow crack in the mountain. Crossing that crack we found a Buddha image engraved in one of the walls.

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama - B&w period

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama

After resting some minutes in front of the Buddha we marched on towards the summit, which was only 5 minutes away.

Nokogiriyama
This cliff is called Jigoku-nozoki (Peering into hell) and is 380 meters above sea level.

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama - B&w period

Nokogiriyama

If you are lucky and the weather conditions are good, you can see Mount Fuji on the horizon; in our case it was cloudy so we couldn’t spot it. However we enjoyed amazing views of Tokyo bay and the fabulous forests we just had crossed.

Now we just had to enter Nihonji temple, which is on the other side of the mountain, where you can find the biggest Buddha in Japan. Todai-ji is not the biggest one, and neither the one in Kamakura. This Buddha inside Nokogiri-yama is the biggest one. It is a representation of Yakushi Nyorai and it is 31 meters tall, more than double the size of Todai-ji in Nara.

Nokogiriyama - Hasselblad period
We could enjoy the visit with almost no tourists.

According to a leaflet we were given, it was built in 1783, after 3 years of hard work of 28 Buddhist monks. The Buddha statue represents “The universe inside the lotus flower world” and was built as a symbol of world peace and tranquility. I don’t know if it was how tired we were or the tranquility that Buddha transmitted us, but most of our group decided to take a small nap in front of him.

Nokogiriyama

Nokogiriyama - Hasselblad period

Nokogiriyama - Hasselblad period

We regained our forces and headed back home. We came back using another trail that allowed us to see 1500 “Tokai Arhats” (Buddha disciples) statues, each one of them has a unique face, and although a little bit scary, they are supposed to represent a “benevolence spirit”. They were sculpted by the same 28 monks that created the great statue of Buddha.

Nokogiriyama - Hasselblad period

Nokogiriyama - Hasselblad period

Nokogiriyama - Hasselblad period

Nokogiriyama - Hasselblad period

A marvelous place, an unforgettable day. I can’t believe we didn’t know about this place if it is so close to Tokyo! It was my friend CaDs who suggested the day trip, he learned about the existence of Nokogiriyama because he had been using a parser library for Ruby called Nokogiri. I have the feeling that this will not be my last time climbing Nokogiriyama.

Categories
Photography

Insomnia – 不眠症

This is a series of photographs I took around the alleys in my neighborhood one day I couldn’t sleep. I tried to play a little bit with the night lights and the reflections of the rain. I used a Nikon D90 with Sigma 30mm, almost always at F1.4 and ISOs above 1000.

不眠症

不眠症

不眠症

不眠症

不眠症

不眠症

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不眠症

不眠症

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不眠症

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不眠症

不眠症

不眠症

不眠症

不眠症

不眠症

不眠症

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