Journeys of Body and Mind
Women’s Group volunteer Takako Ueda on how yoga and travel have opened her mind.
Yoga and meditation are as natural to Takako Ueda as dental care. “If I’m going to clean my body, then I should also clean my mind,” she says while explaining how her daily, 40-minute yoga sessions combine both.
Twenty years ago, Ueda’s sister-in-law invited her along to a yoga class. There, she met Isamu Mochizuki, the man who would go on to become her yoga teacher and inspiration.
Mochizuki’s yoga emphasizes prana, a concept of life force similar to Japanese ki. The relaxed classes blend more demanding poses with the shivansana corpse pose and gentle qigong movements.
“The yoga is slow and easy, which is good for my age,” says the 58-year-old.
Ueda, however, hesitates to call herself a keen practitioner of either yoga or meditation. “I just do it,” she says with a tilt of her head. Yoga and meditation, she explains, not only engage her physically, but introduce her to new experiences and outlooks on life.
“I feel very content and calm, and I find many happy coincidences in my daily life now. I am more peaceful than before I started yoga,” she says. “I used to be very nervous and feel a lot of stress, but gradually those things disappeared. For example, when I went to a shrine to pray, I always asked for something. Now, when I go, I give thanks for my life and health.”
Meditation, she says, reminds her of scuba diving, another pursuit in which she immersed herself. Her hobby took her to the waters of Australia, the Philippines, Fiji and the Maldives. “You enjoy a deeper world,” she says. “You dive inside and see something completely different.”
Ueda pairs her love of yoga with a passion for travel. Most recently, she visited India, Tibet and Nepal with her teacher and fellow practitioners. “Each place we meditated was different. Maybe it’s noisy and hard to concentrate or maybe it’s very quiet and easy,” she says. “I just enjoy the difference.”
While Ueda has explored the world beyond Japan, her own country remains something of a mystery. “I haven’t been to so many places in Japan,” she says with a chuckle. Volunteering with the Women’s Group’s tours committee, then, has proven to be another learning experience.
“I usually aim for abroad, but the other members of the committee have traveled so much in Japan,” she says. “They know so much.”
Ueda works closely with her fellow committee members to organize and lead trips each year. She says the work can be challenging, but an upcoming tour to Gifu Prefecture to take in Mino ceramics, cormorant fishing and Inuyama Castle, one of only 12 original fortresses in Japan, should be a little easier.
“I was born in Gifu,” Ueda says. “It’s still a lot of work for me, but I like it. I’m always learning something new.”
Members interested in volunteering with the Women’s Group should contact the Women’s Group Office.
Words: Joan Bailey
Image: Kaze Travel
