Daruma

Back in Rotterdam, I have to fast backward to remember who I was in Japan, for I am different now. Nothing special about that, nobody has the fixed nature that we attribute to everything....

Read More

Tangerines

This time of year tangerines are abundant in the Japanese province of Wakayama. Trees no taller than two meters turn into a closed universe of orbiting orange planets. In the coastal cities of Kii-Tanabe and Kii-Katsuura you buy them ...

Read More

Imagination

I told the zen master about the Playmobil figures, the feeling of being an empty puppet among other empty puppets. Clearly with his teaching about emptiness in mind....

Read More

Playmobil Figures

A long winding road to the top of one of the mountains surrounding this sleepy village in the west of Japan. Too long and too winding perhaps for my present condition, but I needed to test my legs and lungs for the long trail ahead...

Read More

Samurai

After a few days locked inside, I went into the woods behind the temple. On my way to a waterfall I would never reach, there was a small bridge that led to a narrow path at the foot of a mountain. ...

Read More

Dune

Last time I was at Schiphol Airport, I was shooting rebels that clung to private jets, preventing them from taking off. How many passengers fit in a private jet? Twenty, ten, four, two in special cases maybe?...

Read More

Dutch Mountains

This morning as I hiked across the Erasmus Bridge, preparing my legs for an impossible trail in the Japanese mountains, a string of cyclists appeared on the other side of the bridge, most of them in green jackets....

Read More