Teaming up with Peponi's Mountain Travels to explore the hidden vast slabs in the secluded areas of Niigata! This remote spot, accessible only by boat, is in full autumn color. And, I do mountain-coffee-roast the unbelievable coffee—Geisha from Panama's Esmeralda Estate, roasted mountain. This isn’t just any coffee; it’s from another dimension! Plus, at the summit, we encountered the incredibly lively crew from Early Bird Adventures for even more fun!
Kayak tour around Nihonbashi Bridge. Started on the Sumida River in Asakusa, visited Yanagibashi, entered the Nihonbashi River, paddled under Nihonbashi Bridge, paddled along the outer moat of the Imperial Palace, passed under Tokiwa Bridge, a 147-year-old stone structure, entered the Kanda River, paddled through Ochanomizu Canyon, and finished around Suidobashi.
The removal work on Gofukubashi and Edobashi Interchanges on the urban expressway has already been finished, and we could see the sky through the gaps in the bridge structures.
The deep worldviews held by 8 billion souls are woven with equal threads, none bearing the mark of truth over another. My own view, too, is just one phenomenon in this vast ocean of perception, no more right, no more wrong. Each of us, a painter, expressing the colors of our inner skies, as we journey through life, reflecting the world as we see it.
The typhoon brought a flood to the river, creating this natural artwork. Each separated concrete box contains a sheet of silt, and differences in the thickness of the silt formed these distinct canvases – the thicker the sheet, the larger the blocks. This artwork resembles the structure of old Tokyo during the Edo period.
Humans are life forms that embody cognition of cognition itself, meaning our cognitive processes are more complex than we might realize. Therefore, we have rich potential to discover unknown aspects as we develop our neural connections—cognition—from the perspectives of brain science and logical thinking.
We will come to understand more deeply that we are part of the universe’s time progression, a process of self-organization that reduces entropy. We are realizing, as part of our destiny, that we must abandon half of the land to nature.
In the world, each stone, each human, each life, each emotion, each thought, each material, and each phenomenon has a deep and vast world that I don’t have enough time to fully understand, and which I still have not seen. The new landscapes of the world exist everywhere around me infinitely.
In the Koto Ward of Tokyo, canals crisscross the area. Among them, the Oyokogawa and Sendaihorikawa canals are lined with cherry blossoms of the Somei Yoshino variety on both banks. We launched our kayaks and enjoyed viewing the cherry blossoms from the water.
This time, not only did we enjoy the cherry blossoms, but we also discovered a pair of stingrays. Even as our kayaks approached, the stingrays didn't seem to mind at all and continued to swim gracefully overlapped with each other, allowing us to observe them swimming right in front of our noses. It was the first time I had observed stingrays up close.
Additionally, because we set out kayaking during high tide, the water level had risen close to the bridge girders, making the already low Shigemori Bridge seem like it was about to submerge under the water. Passing under the bridge in a kayak was just possible, but it would have been impossible for a boat.
Furthermore, we extended our trip to the Sumida River, crossing it amid the tour boats and taking a look at the Nihonbashi River on the opposite shore.
I’ve successfully completed what someone might call Herculean challenge: taking 5-minute cold showers for roughly 300 straight days, all the way until mid-February. And I’m not stopping there. I highly suggest you give it a try too — it might be your express elevator to heaven — or at least, I believe it can help train your prefrontal cortex.
① 運河沿いに咲き誇る桜。頭上の河岸から川面に向かって水を求めるように垂れ下がる桜の枝を潜り抜け、水面に浮かぶ桜の花びらをかき分けながらカヤックを漕ぎます。これまでの花見では味わうことのなかった、幻想的な桜のトンネルを堪能できるでしょう。
② 東京都心にこんな場所があるとは、ご存じでしたか？都民にすらほとんど知られていない都心の秘境です。江戸時代に物流の要として開削されたこの運河は、江戸の面影を残す歴史的な風景と、見上げる大都会の摩訶不思議なコントラストを見せてくれます。かつて東京湾に広がっていた広大な湿地から、大都市江戸へ、そして現代の世界有数の都市へと、生き物のように変貌を続けている東京の隠された側面を見ることができます。
③ 江東区はオランダを思わせるような海抜ゼロメートル以下の地域です。このため、荒川・隅田川に繋がる運河と江東区内の運河間で水位調整と船舶の航行を可能にする二つの閘門が設けられています。これらは「ミニ・パナマ運河」とも称される大規模な構造物です。驚くべきことに、これらの閘門はカヤックで通過することが可能です。その際の迫力は、まさに圧巻の一言に尽きます。
