May
23
Adventure
Having an adventure is… goint out and allowing things to happen in a strange and amazing new environment – not so much a physical challenge as a psychic one.
-Rolf Potts
This resonates with why I came to Japan: for adventure. I could have found a job in the states, but I was afraid of the predictability of a house, car, and big-screen TV, and a long climb up the corporate ladder. So I decided to move to Japan – knowing only that my Japanese would have to get really good, really fast (I’d only studied for a year up til then), and that even going to the grocery store would be something of an adventure.
I have been most happy when I am in tune with the fresh possibilities that each day presents – opportunities open up: chatting up the booth girls at the semiconductor exhibition, being one of 1500 people at the annual ceremony at the Aikido temple, negotiating my friend’s way into a clinic for an examination 3 minutes after the cut-off time (he doesn’t speak Japanese). These are just a few things in the past month that have kept me fresh – and they are there because I keep an open mind toward experiences and possibilities.
When I have been out of sync with possibilities – things seemed routine, life seemed to go by without changes. But I know now that it was just my frame of mind.
My Aikido friend from New York embodied the mentality of daily adventure for me. One night, we were at a popular club with two other friends of his, where all the tables were taken, except a table that had a “reserved” sign on it. A tall black guy with a handsome square jaw, New Yorker was easily recognizable. A waiter came by to pick up empty glasses.
“Yo, J.” He said to me. “I need you to get me the name of this guy here.”
I struck up a conversation, got his name, and passed it on New Yorker. New Yorker then struck up a conversation with the guy in English, calling him by name, and putting on a smiling and energetic face. The next thing I know, the waiter picks up the “reserved” sign, and the table is ours.
“I don’t know how you do it, NY.”
“J, sometimes I don’t know how I do it, myself.” He laughed.
notice possibilities. and try them out.
Kids don’t need schooling in this – they see possibilities everywhere. It’s us as adults who learn to limit ourselves.
