A Visit With My Interest in Japanese

A very old friend wandered into my campsite this weekend as I sat, reading. 

It was my interest in Japanese.

"How is it going?" he said as his flipped out the legs of his hakama,  making crane wings as he sat down on the dead grass.

"Well" I said as I put down The Art of Japanese Sword Polishing.  "It has been a long time since I have seen you around."

He nodded.  "It has been a little...constricted for a number of years.  I was finally able to get out for a walk as you attended seminar. I faked out a number of other individuals and just moved on through.

We sat for a moment in the wind which, although seeming warm, bore with it the hint of cooling down before the evening was through.

"What brings you out?"  I asked, breaking a silence in which my interest just sat and breathed in the air.

"You, actually"  came the response.  "The  seminar has giving me a reason to think on things.  This other thinking you have also been doing in your life also has me thinking.  Have you thought about giving us another chance?"

I raised my eyebrows and looked at him.  My words stumbled in my mouth for a minute.  "I do not know.  It has been so long.  What has it been since we initially started - close to thirty years?"  At his half shrug, I continued. "That is a long time and a lot of water has gone under the bridge.  I am in a different place now."

"But you have toyed with the idea for years, have you not?" prodded my interest.  "It continues to linger at the edges of your mind.  You have never  truly given up on it as an interest.  And what do you read more often than not?  Japanese related books.  You have undertaken iaijutsu, which constantly deals in Japanese language and concepts."

"I am too old"  I said brusquely.  "Too old to begin this sort of thing."

My interest snorted.  "Too old?  Nonsense. Perhaps lacking the will, but hardly too old."

I sat and thought about it as he continued to stare off into the distance.  "You have a plan?"  I finally asked.

He nodded affirmatively.  "Of course.  We can start with actually dedicating some time to do it.  Every day.  You know what your studying weaknesses are.  Overcome them.  There are opportunities which surround you to use Japanese.  Use them."

"And then?"  I asked?

"Well, there is a text for your school of iaijutsu which has never been translated, you know. The sort of thing that someone with an interest in iaijustu, maturity, and a skill in Japanese might be able to do something with..."

I laughed.  "You think big."

He smiled in response as he got up and dusted off his knees.  "I always have.  We just have not communicated the way we ought."  He bowed once then turned and wandered back through the campground, his black-clad form cutting a path through the playing children and people with their bags of laundry until he disappeared around cedar tree lined fence leaving only the dust swirling in his wake, dust which formed characters which I thought I could almost recognize.