Have you ever arrived in a location and exclaimed, “This is like nothing I’ve ever seen before?” It’s a magical feeling, isn’t it? It happened to me at Pagan, Myanmar. At the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. At Durbar Square in Kathmandu, Nepal. Time again, I was unmoored from the familiar, transported to a place beyond my powers of imagining.
Although I relish these “wow,” pinch-me moments, they aren’t all that common. More often than not, you arrive somewhere and say, “Hey, this place reminds me of so-and-so.” And that’s okay too. Part of the reason I enjoy travel so much is for the discovery of commonalities.
Such was my experience at Sounkyo, a beautiful gorge in central Hokkaido that is the spitting image of Yosemite National Park in central California.
The gorge, itself, is 12 miles long. A part of Daisetsuzan National Park, the gorge is known for its towering cliffs, beautiful waterfalls and autumn colors. It’s a place to hike, to take a dip in a hot spring (onsen), to get away from it all.
And my gosh, it looks SO much like Yosemite! Here you find majestic, granite cliffs with not one but TWO wonderful waterfalls tumbling and rumbling down from on high: Ginga (Milky Way) Falls and Ryusei (Shooting Star) Falls. Lush, green trees and bushes abound, while an idyllic, wandering river captures the spray and beckons for a summer swim.
In my opinion, the Sounkyo Gorge is one of the most beautiful spots in all of Hokkaido, Japan’s main land mass. And remarkably, not that many people seem to know about it.
Ninety percent of travelers to Japan head for the “Golden Route” on the island of Honshu: Tokyo, Mt. Fuji, Kyoto and Osaka. I say, leave the crowds behind and come on up to Hokkaido! In an unfamiliar place like this, you might just find something wonderfully familiar.
(I once had a friend who tended to view everything from her own perspective. In other words, when I’d say, “I went to the library today,” she wouldn’t ask, “Oh, what book did you pick up?” She’d reply, “I’m going to the library tomorrow.” She wasn’t trying to outdo me; she just processed things from her own experience. To some extent, I think we all do this. While many of us try to take an interest in other peoples’ opinions and viewpoints, most of are primarily interested in how WE experience something. “How is this similar or relevant to my life?”
I observe this a lot when traveling with friends. “Oh, this shop is just like one we have in my hometown. That statue is exactly like the one in our local museum. This soup tastes just like the one my mom used to make!” It used to bother me. “Stop comparing!!!” But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to respect the drive to find commonalities. Sure, this shop, this statue, that food are different and unique. But it’s also important to notice and appreciate that all cultures are part of the human race. As much as we’re all different in a variety of ways, we’re also bonded by our similarities—our suffering, our impermanence, our humanity.)