Departure from Israel and the infamous Ben Gurion Airport - Finishing in Israel: The Monk Takahiro Ueda's Circumnavigation of the World - Israel ㉒
April 11.
Finally, today we say goodbye to Israel, where we spent 10 days.
Take one more walk on the beach before leaving.
It's a beautiful view no matter how many times you see it.
I am sorry to leave, but I must depart from here now.
Now, the plane departs at 16:10.
The airport we will be using is Ben Gurion Airport.
This airport is notorious for having the world's toughest passport control.
The first requirement is that you must arrive at the airport at least three hours before departure, whereas at most airports you only need to arrive about two hours before departure.
He said he would be extremely angry if he did not make it in time.
This is no wonder, as the inspection was so thorough, with multiple layers of checks and even opening bags to check the contents of all luggage.
And what were you doing in Israel? and who packed that luggage? and many other questions.
There was also the rather unsettling information that if they were even slightly suspicious, they would be sent to another room.
We are now on our way to Ben Gurion Airport.
It takes about 30 minutes from Tel Aviv city center by cab.
Once inside, the first thing to do is to go through the security check.
Before going to the airline counter, there is a first inspection.
Here, all they had to do was submit their passports and ask a few questions, but suddenly they had to wait.
The line does not go very fast.
The first thing to do here is to spend less than 20 minutes.
From there, the check-in counter. Again, there were few attendants and it took a long time for each person to get through, at least 30 minutes.
Well, but this is not an option.
After that, it's finally time for the security checkpoint.
Here, all carry-on baggage will be examined, zippers open and all.
If you are traveling with only carry-on luggage, like me, it is quite a task to get everything out.
Naturally, it takes a long time here as well; I wait about 50 minutes before it's finally my turn.
The staff member had a thin stick-like object, which he used to check every inch of the carry-on case. He was so thorough that he even inserted the stick into the space between the stacked items.
We made it through to the security check without incident. It took a little over two hours, including travel time.
That's why you have to arrive three hours in advance to make it in time.
I was already exhausted from getting this far.
Now, we have crossed the last hurdle in Israel.
All that remains is to catch a plane.
I saw many things in Israel.
And I was forced to think about so many things that my head was punctured.
If I had to sum up my 10 days in Israel, I would say.
This is really difficult.
But at least we can say this.
Jerusalem is too deep and there are too many things we don't know.
Time is too short.
That's what I mean.
The more I think about the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the less I understand it.
No, it would be better to say that it is a feeling of "being confronted with a huge contradiction and not being able to go anywhere" or something like that.
The more you know, the more you don't know.
I have always felt this way when reading books, even before I embarked on this journey.
If you know any one thing, you will know the myriad entities behind it.
To know one more, one must also know each of its myriad.
Then from that one, countless beings will spread out again.
I witnessed such a nightmarish endless loop (of course, that's why reading and learning is so interesting) as the real world here in Jerusalem.
The more you know, the more you can expand your background infinitely.
I don't know how this happened...
The more you try to know, the more you will be boggled by its complexity.
Israel is confronted with the fact that it doesn't really know what it's talking about, and that this is as good as it gets.
It seems to me that this was a country with that kind of strictness.
Of course, Israel is not the only country that confronts us with that.
It is true wherever you go, and it is true even if you live in Japan.
However, I think it was a very valuable experience for me to be able to feel it again here in Israel, mobilizing all of my mind and body.
Now, the next stop is Eastern Europe.
It is Poland, the country where Auschwitz is located.
be unbroken
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