To the Far North

I would like to share this comment I received from my former English teacher, Mr. Don Skiles, who taught me the joy of travel literature:

"I am glad your journey was a safe one -- it's a long, long way you went. In some ways, what with your story of the great cranes, their voices, their magnificence, it was a journey not unlike Basho's To the Far North. Kushiro sounds like a difficult place to get to -- but isn't this often the case that the most difficult places to get to are the most rewarding, on arriving there?

They sound like such magical, powerful creatures. The story of them standing on one leg and ice freezing around that leg is a powerful image/metaphor. The poetry of Nature exceeds our powers, as in this image. So much is contained in that one powerful fact of their lives, much that we should pay attention to for our own living."