Nikko for once

Sunday marks the 1-year anniverary of the big quake that shook us up last year. After teaching juku and some private lessons tonight, then burgers at Kaori's, my plans for the weekend are to try to head out late tonight or tomorrow to Nikko, which is a world heritage sight in the mountains in Tochigi prefecture, maybe a 5 hour drive east.

I really should stay in Tokamachi because of the things that are happening this weekend. My base school has their culture festival on Sunday and have asked me to come, plus a work enkai that night. On the same night, I want to get together with friends who I went through the quake with last year for a little bonding. There are a couple other less important obligations I should stay in town for as well.

But I have to go to Nikko. Last year, all autumn, I told myself I would go to this tourist mecca known for its natural beauty and unrivaled temples and architecture. It seems a place in Japan that would suit me well, and is a mecca for the kouyou (autumn colors) viewing. Last year on the weekend of the earthquake I had planned to go, but I think the typhoon hit a couple days earlier and I called it off. I stayed in town and got rumbled up by the quake, and since then I have always itched to get to Nikko just because I felt I should have gone last year and I hate feeling like something I want to do may go unfinished before I leave. The fact that it's on the quake anniversary date just makes it more poignant to be there now. But I really want to try to be with everyone this weekend in town and support my students, please my teachers, and be with my friends.

But there comes a time where you just gotta listen to yourself and stop putting things off. The fact is that if something inside of you is screaming at you to finally do what you really want to do, you have to fulfill that desire. And it's not like Nikko is all that special, it's just the principle of listening to yourself and scratching that itch to do something that had been delayed or ignored over time, whether it's big or small or means anything at all. I will be intirely annoyed with myself if I put off another attempt to get to Nikko in the fall. And even though it's just the idea of taking the trip that is superceding the trip itself, I'm going! It's progressed from a trip that I want to take, to one that I need to take - and I think that continuing to ignore the things that you feel you need to do is what eventually leads people to be unhappy and unsettled in their lives.