The flight was booked.
Accommodations had been
arranged. In Tokyo, I was to
stay in the New Otani, an
absolutely spectacular-look-
ing hotel in the middle of the
city.

Eagerly, I looked forward
to my first chance to be

_ crushed half to death in a
Tokyo subway. Should we
pick the Ginza Line or the

. Tobu-Tojo Line?

From there, my wife and I
were to travel to Nagoya, not
too far from where the main
Zen temples are to be found.

Now, the truth is I have
been fascinated by Japan
since I was very young.
When I first moved out from
home and got my own room,

A2-Sunday News, September 28, 1980

4 Strictly personal —

by Bob Hunter

Karma and a TV set

By strange coincidence, I was supposed to be in
Japan just as Shogun was showing here on TV.

I promptly tacked up a map
of Japan on the wall over my
bed. (Of course this was
partially in the hope that
visiting femmes fatale would
think me exotic.)

ORIENTAL WISDOM

In those days, Jack
Kerouac’s book, The
Dharma Bums, was popular.
Oriental wisdom was
becoming fashionable, aided
and abetted by philosophers
like Alan W. Watts.

So it wasn’t all that sur-
prising, given the influences
of the time, that I should
become familiar while quite
young with the concept of
“karma.”

It wasn’t her party

A West Vancouver
resident who lives in the
same Marine Drive building
that police attended Friday,
September 19, as the result
of a party at which 24 youths
were arrested, states that the
party was confined to one
half of the duplex, adjacent
to her home, and not the
entire upper floor as in-

dicated by a police.
spokesman.
The woman says the

duplex is in fact a side-by-

side arrangement and that
the party, which was
responsible for two police
officers being injured, was
confined to 2305 Marine

Drive, beside her home
which occupies the same
floor levels at 2303.

Since publicity over the
party, the woman says she
has been embarrassed by

people stopping to look at —

the damage to the home
where the party was held and
which did not extend into
her half of the building.

WS. HE BLOCK PARENT

FIR

?

The MAOUNHAIN-@pn 6b

Between Victoria Dr.
and Knight Road

Karma? Well, at one level
it’s a variation on the Golden
Rule: What you do unto
others es done unto you,
sooner or later, if not in this
lifetime, in the next. But it's
more than just a philosophy
of cosmic justice.

It’s an all-purpose way of
explaining the strange ac-
cidents that befall us, good
accidents of fate as well as
bad.

I tend to believe in karma,
anyway.

A GOOD RESULT

So when things happen to
me that seem unfair or cruel,
I generally wait to see if
there might be some
unexpected good result. And
of course there almost

always is.
Case in point:
When the chance came
last spring to arrange for a
trip to Japan, I naturally
leaped for it. Ah so! This
would be the journey of a
lifetime. Who knew what
mysteries would be revealed
before it was over?
It seemed...uh, karmic.
But

then, to my
astonishment, just about
everything that could go

wrong, went wrong. My boat
got trashed, both cars broke
down, the washer died, it
turned out my daughter's
braces weren't covered by
the dental plan I was on, and
about 15. other financial
disasters occurred within the
space of two months.

The day finally came when
wife and I had to face facts.
The unexpected additional
expenses were mounting up
like heavy seas around the
Good Ship Hunter, and
something would have to be
jettisoned. Guess what?

OUT IT WENT

Out the window went the
trip to Japan.
I think it was about three

Were you lucky?

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)

6
7
days after cancélling the But after last week, snug-
tickets that eard the first gling in bed, sipping Sake,

ad for the upcoming Shogun
series. Sure enough, Shogun
would be playing the very
week we would otherwise
have been in Nagoya,
looking at Zen temples.
Come on, you say. Staying

watching all 12 hours of.
Shogun, the wife and I were
both of the opinion that
maybe this was the best way
to travel.

Had a wonderful time.
Couldn't have wished to be

at home and watching at TV anywhere else.

show about Japan couldn't And, boy, did we save a
possibly be anywhere near as __ lot of money.

great as actually going there. Karma? Definitely.

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