Noticing the moss all around －辺り一面の苔に気づくこと－

“In the end, you won’t remember the time you spent in the office or mowing your lawn.  Climb that goddam mountain!”

Jack Kerouac

“Travel and society polish [a person], but a rolling stone gathers no moss, and a little moss is good on a man.”
John Burroughs

I never could have believed that the loss of a doughnut shop and a coffee shop could leave me so disturbed.

I went to a branch of Doutor – a well known chain of coffee shops in Japan – and tried to settle down for my regular Friday morning coffee.  Then one of the staff members said, “Thanks for your regular custom.  By the way, this is the last month we will be open.  This branch will close in November.”

“Oh,” I said.  “That’s too bad.  I’ll have to find another coffee shop.”

This happened just a few days after I learned that the local branch of Mister Donut would close.  I used to go there once every two months or so, when I needed a little sweet treat and free coffee refills to pick me up.

I have become as predictable in my habits as an old man.  I remember my grandfather eating regularly in the same cafe, ordering the same bacon roll, and drinking the same brand of gin.  “Ah, that’s old age,” I thought.  Now I too drink coffee in the same place, cook the same meals for dinner, and drink the same brand of sho-chu.  Well, my grandfather lived into his nineties and remained mentally sharp until the end, so maybe having regular habits is not a bad thing.  But it is very different from the ideal life I imagined when I was younger.

I never used to stay in the same place for very long.  I lived in Glasgow, then Edinburgh, then Osaka, then Kobe, then Kyoto, then Shanghai, then Saitama... and so on.  My idea was that a new environment would always refresh the mind and soul.  I dreamed of one day taking the Trans-Siberian Railroad from the edge of the Pacific Ocean to Europe.  I wanted to hike the pilgrim’s route of 88 temples in Shikoku.  I wanted to see the Golden Horn of Istanbul.  Instead, I somehow found myself drinking coffee in the same coffee shop every Friday and trying to refresh my soul with an occasional doughnut.  Let me tell you that this does not stir the soul quite as much as taking a night train from Shanghai to Wuhan, and eating spiced duck necks with some random local passengers you meet along the way.

I felt a little disturbed by the closure of two chain restaurants in my area not because I loved their products so much, but because it made me realise how predictable my habits have become.  It made me aware of the slowing down of my life, and the bit by bit replacement of adventure with mundane regularity.  Perhaps I ought not to worry so much about repeating the same actions over and over again.  Whether it is drunk in Istanbul, or Shanghai, or Vladivostok, or Tokyo, a coffee is still enjoyable to drink.  And who doesn’t like doughnuts or sho-chu?  Man began life as a nomadic hunter-gatherer, and eventually learned to settle down in the same place and grow his own food.  Settleing down in the same place is more successful and satisfying in the long term.  Isn’t it?

Vocabulary:

to mow one’s lawn – to cut the grass in one’s garden

to polish something – to make something smooth and shiny by wiping it clean; to improve something

disturbed – not right or out of place

to settle down – to rest or stop in one place with the intention of staying there for a long time

a pilgrim – someone making a journey for religious or spiritual reasons

to stir something – to move or inspire something

mundane – commonplace and uninteresting

nomadic – of a person or people, living life without a permanent home and often moving around