Setouchi Spiritual

Ichigo Ichie (一期一会)

Setouchi is the region where the Seto Inland Sea is faced at. It's located between Honshu and Shikoku in Japan.
Foreign tourists visit the Setouchi Region of Japan for many kinds of purposes. Many of them are attracted by its spiritual side, as well as tangible things.
As an English speaking Japanese woman, I have many opportunities to talk to them as a volunteer interpreting guide. Although they visit my place just for a while and leave me forever, the meeting experiences are very precious for me.
That's partly because I've been suffering from clinical depression for some time and in need of mental healing.
I was diagnosed with clinical depression in October 2017. But the symptoms started annoying me much earlier. In 2006 I was diagnosed with autonomic imbalance when I consulted an otolaryngologist because of tinnitus. I was relying on Chinese herbal medicines to control my health condition. So I could manage to keep working quite hard. But my health condition got worse when my relationship with my father, the boss of the company I was working for, went very wrong. So I decided to quit working for the company and look for my new path.
I had many causes of stress. Pressure of difficult tasks, heavy duties as a mother and wife, and eternal departure from my most invaluable friend debilitated me.
So visiting sightseeing spots near my home with foreign tourists turned out to be one of my best remedies, along with reading, writing, playing the ukulele, and singing. I can escape from my hardship temporarily when I was talking about nature, art, history, and food of my homeland.
I was brought up in a small town called Tadotsu in Kagawa Prefecture, which is located in Setouchi. In Tadotsu there is the headquarter of Shorinji Kempo, a Japanese martial art considered to be a modified version of Shaolin Kung Fu. Sonny Chiba, the Japanese actor whom Keanu Reeves worships, once visited there for film shooting. I practiced Japanese martial arts when I was young a little bit. I was fond of watching Chinese movies about Shaolin Kung Fu then. I was a fan of Jackie Chan, too.
When I was a university student, I restarted practicing Japanese martial arts such as karate, judo and jodo. Jodo is a martial art using a short staff called jo. The art is strongly focused upon defense against the Japanese sword.
Talking of Keanu Reeves, he also privately visited Setouchi with his business partner Alexandra Grant in September 2019. It is said that they visited three islands in Setouchi; Naoshima island, Teshima island, and Inujima island. There are most outstanding museums in these islands, so I admire their refined choice.
I've been to Naoshima several times, but I've never been to Inujima or Teshima. So I'd like to visit these places in the future.
I'm capricious. I can hardly concentrate on one task. I have so many interests I want to pursue for and it's extremely difficult for me to choose one of them. I like reading books, writing, listening to music, fortune-telling, playing the ukulele, singing, drawing, and even playing video games. There are so many things I want to do in my life. I wonder how other people can choose what to do at every moment of their lives. Life requires me to choose one of them, but it's always a big problem for me. Now I can write what I'm thinking of somehow. Eventually I could break one of my hard mind blocks and my hands are following my command. I should say I'm finding some happiness in my current condition while writing.