Arriving in Nagaoka

From Kyoto, the trip to Nagaoka took only 3-1/2 hours, not 5 ... something must have been lost in translation when I first inquired. The only downside: I was on the bottom level of a double-decker train, so much of my view was obscured by concrete walls. There weren't many views to be had anyway, because a lot of the trip was into the mountains ... literally, through tunnels. But the views I did glimpse (rather quickly) of these Japanese mountains were spectacular.

To get oriented: I'm on the west coast of Japan, almost due north of Tokyo.

About 10 minutes before reaching Nagaoka station, I finally let myself start believing I would be seeing Ryokan's calligraphy firsthand, as well as places he lived, and also the little house where he met and fell in love with Teishin, a nun 40 years his junior. Tears began welling in my eyes and I looked around the train to see if anyone had noticed. I know this sounds a little melodramatic, and some readers may be scratching their heads.

But I encountered Ryokan's poetry 5 or 6 years ago, and it was his tender heart and kind words that kept me going through a period of great personal despair. Since that time I've managed to get ahold of every English translation I could find of his poems, which are, by the way, not poems:

Who says my poems are poems?
My poems are not poems.
After you know my poems are not poems,
Then we can begin to discuss poetry.

His not poems were collected by Teishin after he died in her arms: she spent the remainder of her life collecting the little scraps of paper on which he had written them and given them to others. Thank you, Teishin. And they're bubbling up inside me now. I have to admit I'm happy to be in a place where people know Ryokan-san.

In fact, as I got off the train and descended the platform stairs, I rounded a corner and was greeted by the master himself, in the form of a statue. I couldn't make out the engraving, but I knew it was him. So I went inside a little tourist information booth where I was greeted by a couple of older (non-English-speaking) Japanese women. I pointed in the direction of the not-visible-from-there statue and said "Ryokan-san?" And one of the women nodded and said ... "Ryokan san".