Well, there is no way that I can include everything thathas happened recently, so I'll just mention a few things.
Like dinner with Toko Sensei, Ikuta Sensei, Ruby, Greg, and A-Taro last night. Sugei! And we went to Grease afterwards and danced the night away at the 50's and 60's club that just might be an entrance to the twilight zone. It caters to a crowd of all ages, and I must say I love dancing with those folks. The twists, etc, and other 50's and 60's dances.
I realized I've been way too majime, serious, recently and need to become a little bit more of a bakka, dork, which is a good idea.
Today I believe I tried Kudzu mochi, it is meant to represent the summer and I guess they brought them out down by the trainstation because it is getting so hot here. Its like gelatinous mochi with anko inside.
The tsutsushi flowers are all over teh roads and highways, bright pink and white, I go to the ultimate ballgame tonight- Tokyo Giants vs Hanshin Tigers! Thats like Oakland Raiders vs New York Yankeess, if only that was possible, praise the kamisama.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Hajimaru!
Today was the first day of normal Kansai Gaidai. The start of normal classes. It makes me feel almost like a student. I went to the minzokugaku class with the normal students this morning. It is an anthropology class conducted entirely in Japanese (being for Japanese students and not foriegnors). Its hard to read of course, but I came out feeling way more capable of understanding Japanese. And came out shuddering with excitement of actually having to see/speak/communicate in Japanese and not this half assed english we use in the foriegnor's classes.
The professor seemed to want to wake students up to the fact that there is folklore all around them. That anything can be seen from various perspectives at any time. He used the symbolism of baseball as an example. There are certain things we expect from a pitch, that we recognize as baseball. However, only someone familiar with baseball would be able to read a sports newspaper and understand what they are talking about. He analyzed how the sentence "I have a dog" in english can actually be interpreted differently and in different language to people of different ages although they all are speaking Japanese. He expects his students to do fieldwork and interview people.
I had the realization that sadly, for Japanese students, Japan is entirely normal. It is easy for them to think they understand it all. For me however, I am reminded 24 hours a day that I dont know hardly anything. Which is really a good thing. Its like sakura constantly lighting up the landscape, always something to look for on the hillsides, of experience.
And the blossoms, falling. Hanazuku (?) blowing flowers. They blow through a grove sandwiched between apartment blocks with fields beyond. It is early evening as I bycycle back to the homestay.
The professor seemed to want to wake students up to the fact that there is folklore all around them. That anything can be seen from various perspectives at any time. He used the symbolism of baseball as an example. There are certain things we expect from a pitch, that we recognize as baseball. However, only someone familiar with baseball would be able to read a sports newspaper and understand what they are talking about. He analyzed how the sentence "I have a dog" in english can actually be interpreted differently and in different language to people of different ages although they all are speaking Japanese. He expects his students to do fieldwork and interview people.
I had the realization that sadly, for Japanese students, Japan is entirely normal. It is easy for them to think they understand it all. For me however, I am reminded 24 hours a day that I dont know hardly anything. Which is really a good thing. Its like sakura constantly lighting up the landscape, always something to look for on the hillsides, of experience.
And the blossoms, falling. Hanazuku (?) blowing flowers. They blow through a grove sandwiched between apartment blocks with fields beyond. It is early evening as I bycycle back to the homestay.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Mada chiranai
The sakura are at their peak, mankai. full, globes almost. They will fall, maybe before tomorrow, if it rains. Its like a picture. Treasure each moment.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Sakura!
I sit under pink clouds of sakura. Ive gone sakura crazy.
The Sakura (cherry blossoms) are indescribably beautiful,
what if everything had such potential beauty inside
waiting to saku (bloom).
Thats a wonderful feeling
The Sakura (cherry blossoms) are indescribably beautiful,
what if everything had such potential beauty inside
waiting to saku (bloom).
Thats a wonderful feeling
Matt, Here!
Matt arrived and it was a new beginning.
We went to tea at Yabe Sensei's. A kind of fantastic experience for the first night I think. The wagashi- Yomogi blossoms half open with yellow strands inside. Like kiiro no hana by the river (mustard fields) where I eat a different kind of anpan (bread with sweet bean inside) each morning or so. Big sweet beans insde. Matt was struck by the tea, made me real happy.
Matt (my brother)'s coming was exactly what I needed. It is easy to get wrapped up in your own head here. With social rules and distances, real family is a like a kick in the pants, which is exactly what I needed.
Fushimi Inari once again, what is space? What can money buy? what is time? Thousand of gates, they make a tunnel, like walking through the frames of experience that come together to make animation- the gates animate the world, as you enter sacred space and leave sacred space.
Dappled evening light, orange gates, stone steps. A bright white cat gazes out on kyoto right there before us. Its like the fox. You have to be kind continuously to a cat, and a fox even more, they are elusive beings. Like shinto. Like business. Gotta keep feeding it and loving it, or it might as well just wander off down the street. O kamisama.
Sumiya, the best preserved Edo period pleasure house. Warm sunlight, tea cottages. Miniature landscapes. I suppose that the journey from the group room to the tea house, futari de, (in a couple) would take just as long as a journey from the city to the mountains, hence the miniature garden takes on real space proportions. Click click of something blown against the shoji.
A screen of sakura ki (cherry trees) with just a few blossoms, or maybe the last, now perhaps, then.
The first sakura blossoms
a few flakes of snow
arashiyama
Kiyomizu dera at night, me and Matt follow paths and crowds through the old streets of gion lit by lanterns. Then up to the temple all lit up in anticipation of the blossoms to come.
Katsukura is prolly my favorite restaurant. Me and matt ate a lot of cabbage and rice and miso there, oh it was nice.
The kinkakuji (golden temple) is a vision of paradise. But to me it was simply a redereing of an alpine environment. But maybe the Wallowas in Oregon or the Sierras in California are actually a kind of paradise on earth.
Off to Matsumoto in Nagano once again. Glimpes of Nagoya, missing the bullet train. The trains on the way- through mountains, craggy pines, peaks, forests waiting to saku (bloom). Emerald rivers slip between giant white boulders. The kindness of Taka's family once again is wonderful. Wasabi fields, the castle, and lots of talking with the family. I already want to go back.
To Takayama through the Japan Alps. Pines with clumps of snow, translucent swaths of maple, white mountains, elegant and majestic. We stay at the youth hostel in a monastery.
Bought a demon mask, luckily it is a kind demon so I dont die of the stomach virus that I contract eating raw egg the next morning.
We go off to Nagoya and my fever goes up, but I dont worry about it.
Meet Yosef. This was a fantastic experience. I am looking forward to meeting him again, as soon as possible. I learned more about shape changing and a lot more about what it is like to a morman missionary in this country. Although I imagine it is different for everyone. We talked in Toyota city where there is a clown, a lone singer practicing his karaoke, and a man with angel wings trying to explain a phrase as a ticket to heaven. What a place.
Meanwhile I was quite sick, and matt was pretty culture shocked and sick too.
We travel back to Osaka to meet Nick, we wander about the station in Nagoya, Matt in a rather amuzing culture shocked state at this point. Me, just darn stomach virused.
Meet Nick and we all take in the homestay. The next day we get a nice tour of the healthcare system as I try to negotiate my insurance, thanks to the nice nurse I do get some medicine. Then off to Kobe to meet Chika, Greg, and Risa. Kobe and then Karaoke. I am quite feeble at this point the medicine kicks in and we all have a lot of fun.
The next day Electric Town and Namba in Osaka then we all ate at the homestay family and everyone loved the adorable kids.
The next day we all went to Mizuki (homestay sister)'s preschool graduation. Which was a very moving experience. With a backdrop of the cherry blossoms, the children are not so much finishing preschool as they are beginning their school experience.
Matt leaves, and my perspective could not be more different. I feel a foot taller actually, surrounded by a beautiful world, I stop a bakery in the train station and sketch for at least an hour the people. Its fantastic.
One songbird fills
this little corner
of Nagaomura (the village by the homestay) with
its music.
nagaomura
semaimichini
itorinokoe
utaukoto
ipai
chyotto e o kaita
e no yo o omota
ii o tenki ya na-
kimochi ga ii na-
We went to tea at Yabe Sensei's. A kind of fantastic experience for the first night I think. The wagashi- Yomogi blossoms half open with yellow strands inside. Like kiiro no hana by the river (mustard fields) where I eat a different kind of anpan (bread with sweet bean inside) each morning or so. Big sweet beans insde. Matt was struck by the tea, made me real happy.
Matt (my brother)'s coming was exactly what I needed. It is easy to get wrapped up in your own head here. With social rules and distances, real family is a like a kick in the pants, which is exactly what I needed.
Fushimi Inari once again, what is space? What can money buy? what is time? Thousand of gates, they make a tunnel, like walking through the frames of experience that come together to make animation- the gates animate the world, as you enter sacred space and leave sacred space.
Dappled evening light, orange gates, stone steps. A bright white cat gazes out on kyoto right there before us. Its like the fox. You have to be kind continuously to a cat, and a fox even more, they are elusive beings. Like shinto. Like business. Gotta keep feeding it and loving it, or it might as well just wander off down the street. O kamisama.
Sumiya, the best preserved Edo period pleasure house. Warm sunlight, tea cottages. Miniature landscapes. I suppose that the journey from the group room to the tea house, futari de, (in a couple) would take just as long as a journey from the city to the mountains, hence the miniature garden takes on real space proportions. Click click of something blown against the shoji.
A screen of sakura ki (cherry trees) with just a few blossoms, or maybe the last, now perhaps, then.
The first sakura blossoms
a few flakes of snow
arashiyama
Kiyomizu dera at night, me and Matt follow paths and crowds through the old streets of gion lit by lanterns. Then up to the temple all lit up in anticipation of the blossoms to come.
Katsukura is prolly my favorite restaurant. Me and matt ate a lot of cabbage and rice and miso there, oh it was nice.
The kinkakuji (golden temple) is a vision of paradise. But to me it was simply a redereing of an alpine environment. But maybe the Wallowas in Oregon or the Sierras in California are actually a kind of paradise on earth.
Off to Matsumoto in Nagano once again. Glimpes of Nagoya, missing the bullet train. The trains on the way- through mountains, craggy pines, peaks, forests waiting to saku (bloom). Emerald rivers slip between giant white boulders. The kindness of Taka's family once again is wonderful. Wasabi fields, the castle, and lots of talking with the family. I already want to go back.
To Takayama through the Japan Alps. Pines with clumps of snow, translucent swaths of maple, white mountains, elegant and majestic. We stay at the youth hostel in a monastery.
Bought a demon mask, luckily it is a kind demon so I dont die of the stomach virus that I contract eating raw egg the next morning.
We go off to Nagoya and my fever goes up, but I dont worry about it.
Meet Yosef. This was a fantastic experience. I am looking forward to meeting him again, as soon as possible. I learned more about shape changing and a lot more about what it is like to a morman missionary in this country. Although I imagine it is different for everyone. We talked in Toyota city where there is a clown, a lone singer practicing his karaoke, and a man with angel wings trying to explain a phrase as a ticket to heaven. What a place.
Meanwhile I was quite sick, and matt was pretty culture shocked and sick too.
We travel back to Osaka to meet Nick, we wander about the station in Nagoya, Matt in a rather amuzing culture shocked state at this point. Me, just darn stomach virused.
Meet Nick and we all take in the homestay. The next day we get a nice tour of the healthcare system as I try to negotiate my insurance, thanks to the nice nurse I do get some medicine. Then off to Kobe to meet Chika, Greg, and Risa. Kobe and then Karaoke. I am quite feeble at this point the medicine kicks in and we all have a lot of fun.
The next day Electric Town and Namba in Osaka then we all ate at the homestay family and everyone loved the adorable kids.
The next day we all went to Mizuki (homestay sister)'s preschool graduation. Which was a very moving experience. With a backdrop of the cherry blossoms, the children are not so much finishing preschool as they are beginning their school experience.
Matt leaves, and my perspective could not be more different. I feel a foot taller actually, surrounded by a beautiful world, I stop a bakery in the train station and sketch for at least an hour the people. Its fantastic.
One songbird fills
this little corner
of Nagaomura (the village by the homestay) with
its music.
nagaomura
semaimichini
itorinokoe
utaukoto
ipai
chyotto e o kaita
e no yo o omota
ii o tenki ya na-
kimochi ga ii na-
Hiroshima and what followed until Matt came
Well, what can I say, so much has happened since the last time I managed to post. I'll be brief and succint.... although in reality I've filled a couple of notebooks.
Hiroshima:
First I read an american book recounting the events, sickening, but not quite the same. When I get there the professor leading the tour tells me and Greg. If you were here at the station, you would be on fire. After you hear her, the survivor, you'll want to get the hell out of here. We walked the long way to the monument. Saw the many islands and canals of the beautiful city. The air was fresh. Saw the rebuilt Hiroshima castle. Heard the speech.
Water droplets fall from grey sky, manikens of shredded and dying children, shredded clothes on display. Lumpy juniper trees line the monument. To world peace perhaps, the price paid.
Life is a living hell for the survivor. Gotta make a better world. Peace.
Later at the youth hostel had quite a discussion about the atomic bomb with a couple of guys in the bath, even they had a diversity of opinions. Its clear it was a disaster and war is bad.
Trip to Miyajima, the sacred island in the clouds with a coupl of sprites. Chased, and was chased around by, deer. My fortune read only the best at the shrine. Magical.
The slow train back through steep mountain valleys with red roofed houses and the occasional thatched roof. Onomichi with its boddhisatvas carved into the rockfaces above the old town of crooked streets and wooden houses. Fukuyama, with a castle and some not so tasty fish cakes.
Okayama: with the black crow castle looming over the river in the sunset. And koruakuen one of the three most famous gardens in Japan, a vast and miniature world at the same time. Definitly in winter however. Hidden in a grove deep in the park me and Greg chow down on some kibi dango (soft brown simple mochi that the peach child himself, Momotaro used to make friends with the fox and wolf in order to subdue the demon) to the sound of birdsongs and bamboo trunks clinking together in the wind.
Wara wara. Laugh laugh. Its the name of a bar, it sounds like Walla Walla. So its funny. But who is laughing at or with who?
Later, after return days past...
Hitori de, (alone)
Cold cold spring. Wrote some bad haikus in Japanese as I sit beside and old style building with singed wooden paneling. Swaying lanterns. Tanuki,. Withered trees and blossoms. Mayou. Getting lost. Getting rained on, getting obsessive.
Saw Tanuki Ponpoko Heisei. Its about shapechanging little beasts called Tanuki. They are incredible. And the fact that things can shape change is incredible.
Hiroshima:
First I read an american book recounting the events, sickening, but not quite the same. When I get there the professor leading the tour tells me and Greg. If you were here at the station, you would be on fire. After you hear her, the survivor, you'll want to get the hell out of here. We walked the long way to the monument. Saw the many islands and canals of the beautiful city. The air was fresh. Saw the rebuilt Hiroshima castle. Heard the speech.
Water droplets fall from grey sky, manikens of shredded and dying children, shredded clothes on display. Lumpy juniper trees line the monument. To world peace perhaps, the price paid.
Life is a living hell for the survivor. Gotta make a better world. Peace.
Later at the youth hostel had quite a discussion about the atomic bomb with a couple of guys in the bath, even they had a diversity of opinions. Its clear it was a disaster and war is bad.
Trip to Miyajima, the sacred island in the clouds with a coupl of sprites. Chased, and was chased around by, deer. My fortune read only the best at the shrine. Magical.
The slow train back through steep mountain valleys with red roofed houses and the occasional thatched roof. Onomichi with its boddhisatvas carved into the rockfaces above the old town of crooked streets and wooden houses. Fukuyama, with a castle and some not so tasty fish cakes.
Okayama: with the black crow castle looming over the river in the sunset. And koruakuen one of the three most famous gardens in Japan, a vast and miniature world at the same time. Definitly in winter however. Hidden in a grove deep in the park me and Greg chow down on some kibi dango (soft brown simple mochi that the peach child himself, Momotaro used to make friends with the fox and wolf in order to subdue the demon) to the sound of birdsongs and bamboo trunks clinking together in the wind.
Wara wara. Laugh laugh. Its the name of a bar, it sounds like Walla Walla. So its funny. But who is laughing at or with who?
Later, after return days past...
Hitori de, (alone)
Cold cold spring. Wrote some bad haikus in Japanese as I sit beside and old style building with singed wooden paneling. Swaying lanterns. Tanuki,. Withered trees and blossoms. Mayou. Getting lost. Getting rained on, getting obsessive.
Saw Tanuki Ponpoko Heisei. Its about shapechanging little beasts called Tanuki. They are incredible. And the fact that things can shape change is incredible.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Nara, Kobe, and Takatsuki
Todaiji, A huge temple, a huge Buddha. From when Japan was quite a cosmopolitan country back there in the 8th century or so. You walk around the giant buddha. And the giant lotus leaves depict the infinite world and infinite buddhas on the infinite worlds. This is all symbolically represented by one huge giant Buddha, in the center. Its symbolic. Its Nara.
circles, circles. Circles animate things. Like a daibutsu, or like Studio Ghibli's animation. Or like pottery on a potters wheel.
tsuki, suki? (Do you like the moon?)
At this point I had eaten far too much mochi and started to have something of an allergic reaction to all the sugar- darn, hatsugashii.
Kobe is a beautiful city, Chinese dancing is also quite interesting.
Daikon mochi, luke warm and limpid, maybe even cold is not so delicious. Goma dango, hot with sesemi seeds wrapped in a little ball is quite delicious. Especially to the sound of Chinese music and acrobats.
From the "sweets harbour" kobe is an interesting array of colored lights.
Takatsuki is probably a place that not very many tourists go. Which is sad, because it is great fun. Tenjin was a guy who was exiled and then he made natural disasters so today he is honored at a large shrine ontop of a hill. The whole distance from the station to the shrine is lined with yatai shop stalls selling all kinds of luscious "fair food" worthy of someplace in middle america I suppose. asitgot dark the whole place filled up with "yankiis" or hoodlums, which was also very interesting, and everyone listening to Okinawa style music, Taiko drumming, and a really weird Enka singer who nobody could decide was a man or a woman. Oh Takatsuki, I love your style. I ate a full squid on a stick, about foot long and dripping in teriyaki style sauce. it was such a warm evening too. I'll miss the "french dogs" and spicy chicken hawked at me by very jovial and aggressive vendors...
The next day as I walked through a field drinking tomato juice I was stopped by a furooshya (a homeless man) on a bycycle who wanted to practice english. Quite a guy, he wanted me to go only to the less known sights of Kyoto and really love Japan!
circles, circles. Circles animate things. Like a daibutsu, or like Studio Ghibli's animation. Or like pottery on a potters wheel.
tsuki, suki? (Do you like the moon?)
At this point I had eaten far too much mochi and started to have something of an allergic reaction to all the sugar- darn, hatsugashii.
Kobe is a beautiful city, Chinese dancing is also quite interesting.
Daikon mochi, luke warm and limpid, maybe even cold is not so delicious. Goma dango, hot with sesemi seeds wrapped in a little ball is quite delicious. Especially to the sound of Chinese music and acrobats.
From the "sweets harbour" kobe is an interesting array of colored lights.
Takatsuki is probably a place that not very many tourists go. Which is sad, because it is great fun. Tenjin was a guy who was exiled and then he made natural disasters so today he is honored at a large shrine ontop of a hill. The whole distance from the station to the shrine is lined with yatai shop stalls selling all kinds of luscious "fair food" worthy of someplace in middle america I suppose. asitgot dark the whole place filled up with "yankiis" or hoodlums, which was also very interesting, and everyone listening to Okinawa style music, Taiko drumming, and a really weird Enka singer who nobody could decide was a man or a woman. Oh Takatsuki, I love your style. I ate a full squid on a stick, about foot long and dripping in teriyaki style sauce. it was such a warm evening too. I'll miss the "french dogs" and spicy chicken hawked at me by very jovial and aggressive vendors...
The next day as I walked through a field drinking tomato juice I was stopped by a furooshya (a homeless man) on a bycycle who wanted to practice english. Quite a guy, he wanted me to go only to the less known sights of Kyoto and really love Japan!
Make up time
Well, it has been a while since I posted last so I'll add snippets of things here and there. My mind has been all over the place and I havent been able to pin it down real well.
Shitsumon: means question. The kanji is made up first, places on top of a shell, like valuable places perhaps. The second kanji is a gate with a mouth underneath it. With voice, with question you create a gate, a gate to a new place, a valuable place. So we pass through gates with every question. Like the thousands of torii gates at Fushimi Inari, or the great Mon gates at temples.
On Shinto. It appears that actually we take a lot of things "on faith" every day. But that is just an expression. The world works in thousands of ways and works nearly seamlessly. We only see a disaster or a bad luck when the seam comes apart. Perhaps shinto is just keeping the seams all tide up, keeping the fabric of kami together. People go to shrines, ring bells, and they walk through torii, but actually anything that they do to maintain the system is actually respecting the kami as they are, alive. Paying money to the shrine in great quantity may have some effect, maybe. Like paying taxes because we make money. Jinja's (shrines) and Kaishas (companies) are made up of people after all. Or else the buildings just wouldnt matter.
The religion professor dosnt seem to notice these things, just focusing on what she calls, "religion."
She likes to focus on Sokka Gakkai, which seems to be loosely endorsed by Kansai Gaidai university. Where people dress up and talk, and try to learn languages in the process. Doshisha University had quite a different feel...
Anyway, with Sokka Gakkai you repeat this one line over and over and always get what you want. Scary, because sometimes that is not so good. This is what the prof tells us.
Gion, at night, famous for a reason, lamps, Geisha real or not walking down paths. Tourists (I like the sight of them, it is strangely heart warming, like I am in the right place), I walked down a little alley with brown walls and was right about to take a picture when a Maiko (Geisha in training) walked right there in front of me. She was beautiful, and I just couldnt take the picture. I just kindof bowed and let her pass, then got the crummy picture afterwards...
Shitsumon: means question. The kanji is made up first, places on top of a shell, like valuable places perhaps. The second kanji is a gate with a mouth underneath it. With voice, with question you create a gate, a gate to a new place, a valuable place. So we pass through gates with every question. Like the thousands of torii gates at Fushimi Inari, or the great Mon gates at temples.
On Shinto. It appears that actually we take a lot of things "on faith" every day. But that is just an expression. The world works in thousands of ways and works nearly seamlessly. We only see a disaster or a bad luck when the seam comes apart. Perhaps shinto is just keeping the seams all tide up, keeping the fabric of kami together. People go to shrines, ring bells, and they walk through torii, but actually anything that they do to maintain the system is actually respecting the kami as they are, alive. Paying money to the shrine in great quantity may have some effect, maybe. Like paying taxes because we make money. Jinja's (shrines) and Kaishas (companies) are made up of people after all. Or else the buildings just wouldnt matter.
The religion professor dosnt seem to notice these things, just focusing on what she calls, "religion."
She likes to focus on Sokka Gakkai, which seems to be loosely endorsed by Kansai Gaidai university. Where people dress up and talk, and try to learn languages in the process. Doshisha University had quite a different feel...
Anyway, with Sokka Gakkai you repeat this one line over and over and always get what you want. Scary, because sometimes that is not so good. This is what the prof tells us.
Gion, at night, famous for a reason, lamps, Geisha real or not walking down paths. Tourists (I like the sight of them, it is strangely heart warming, like I am in the right place), I walked down a little alley with brown walls and was right about to take a picture when a Maiko (Geisha in training) walked right there in front of me. She was beautiful, and I just couldnt take the picture. I just kindof bowed and let her pass, then got the crummy picture afterwards...
Monday, February 19, 2007
Ah Blossoms!
Osaka Castle- the Umehana are out, That means plum blossoms! (just imagine that if these haiku were translated then they would actually be haiku)
Twittering of birds
First Umehana
Moves the spirit.
Sweet smells in the air
hana glow with silver skys!
Living art
Takoyaki (octopus balls), 3 man stand up comedy at the castle, then getting lost as I wander to the south in search of window shopping.
At Tennoji:
Furuimachi is apparently the term for the homeless encampment at Tennoji.
And by the way, these Ronin of today, are ordinary people who scrape together and existence quite well here in Japan, not just crazies as some might imagine. I only saw one obviously crazy guy in Japan, and that was at Hirakata station and I doubt he was homeless... I actually did not see many homeless at Tennoji, nothing compared with the Bay Area , yeah!
Tennoji park is a complex of walls and gates it seems. Many are see through, but always there is someplace impossible to get to, that is not necessarily very interesting anyway. I realized that I had been trying to get somewhere all day long... walking fast around streets trying to find something, and not knowing what it is. I had nowhere to go, in fact, everything seems to close exactly when I arrive...
finally I realized that this is where I was going, in fact, that I was there, just a little spot in the park, a road really, nobody stopped there. So I did, and I pulled out my hamtaro (a little girls cartoon theme, really it is all I could find) sketchbook, and decided that this was it, this section of road, gate and wall. It might be all I ever get to, the path itself, so I better see that it is golden and filled with evening light.
Then I wandered away and saw a 560 dollar jacket at Mio "early spring," an ultra-chic department store.
Twittering of birds
First Umehana
Moves the spirit.
Sweet smells in the air
hana glow with silver skys!
Living art
Takoyaki (octopus balls), 3 man stand up comedy at the castle, then getting lost as I wander to the south in search of window shopping.
At Tennoji:
Furuimachi is apparently the term for the homeless encampment at Tennoji.
And by the way, these Ronin of today, are ordinary people who scrape together and existence quite well here in Japan, not just crazies as some might imagine. I only saw one obviously crazy guy in Japan, and that was at Hirakata station and I doubt he was homeless... I actually did not see many homeless at Tennoji, nothing compared with the Bay Area , yeah!
Tennoji park is a complex of walls and gates it seems. Many are see through, but always there is someplace impossible to get to, that is not necessarily very interesting anyway. I realized that I had been trying to get somewhere all day long... walking fast around streets trying to find something, and not knowing what it is. I had nowhere to go, in fact, everything seems to close exactly when I arrive...
finally I realized that this is where I was going, in fact, that I was there, just a little spot in the park, a road really, nobody stopped there. So I did, and I pulled out my hamtaro (a little girls cartoon theme, really it is all I could find) sketchbook, and decided that this was it, this section of road, gate and wall. It might be all I ever get to, the path itself, so I better see that it is golden and filled with evening light.
Then I wandered away and saw a 560 dollar jacket at Mio "early spring," an ultra-chic department store.
A saturday of sightseeing
So, I went to Fushimi Inari shrine at 10:08 just intime I thought to meet my class for the field trip. Unfortunatley I think they must have been at the other trainstation at that time. I never met them, so I headed up the mountain on my own. I called Kazu, sick unfortunatley. So I kept heading up the mountain, ah so many torii. Torii mark a sacred space, so thousands lined up to make a tunnel is a little like showing The Way I suppose, it is pretty, but it leads a little to much I think. The jinjas are nice though. I've got to say, praying at jinjas and temples is just not the same without sensei's educating lectures every 25 minutes making sure I am tip top shape on spiritual guidence. I cant help feeling not necessarily wanted as I enter a shrine or temple, but that dosnt stop me on the res either. Gotta pay respects to the mountain gods you know. I never pay money either. I think that I dont have to to be honest. I dont make any money in Japan so I dont need to pay spiritual taxes. Just respect. Usually, after going to a jinja I do find something interesting immidiately. Maybe it is just the time taken to rest. After I went to the top of the mountain I walked around back and followed an old couple into the woods. Although this sounds stupid, really I had read about this hiking trail before hand (
At the stop on Keihan right before Demachiyanagi there is the famous Heian Jingu which is like the Japanese version of the arch de triumph I think. It is triumphant, although intended to be an exact replica of the Heian period palace from a thousand years ago. I then wandered into the Kyoto art gallery fair. Full of nice booths and nice artwork. I felt like saying, "do you know Ikuta Atsuo Sensei?" and then chuckling when I say, "I do, hahahahhah!"
I then made it back to the homestay to talk about seasonal food and different kinds of snow over a delicious pot of homegrown vegetables in the host grandparents house.
At the stop on Keihan right before Demachiyanagi there is the famous Heian Jingu which is like the Japanese version of the arch de triumph I think. It is triumphant, although intended to be an exact replica of the Heian period palace from a thousand years ago. I then wandered into the Kyoto art gallery fair. Full of nice booths and nice artwork. I felt like saying, "do you know Ikuta Atsuo Sensei?" and then chuckling when I say, "I do, hahahahhah!"
I then made it back to the homestay to talk about seasonal food and different kinds of snow over a delicious pot of homegrown vegetables in the host grandparents house.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Last Trains
Catching a series of last trains back from Kyoto after getting of at the wrong stop, it is kindof scary.
I changed trains 3 times, each time waiting anxiously for the last one amongst a staggering crowd of drunken salarimen...
the last local train stopped in the tracks as it approached Makino. The guy said it was a stoplight, but my 5 second gap in comprehension lead me to believe that this train was in fact that last train, the one TO HELL. The one reserved for especially drunk and mentally dead salarimen. I scrambled to open the door... to get to a car with a platform, no platform, oh god...
Ah, but I did make it to Makino station after all, still with its twittering electric swallows.
I changed trains 3 times, each time waiting anxiously for the last one amongst a staggering crowd of drunken salarimen...
the last local train stopped in the tracks as it approached Makino. The guy said it was a stoplight, but my 5 second gap in comprehension lead me to believe that this train was in fact that last train, the one TO HELL. The one reserved for especially drunk and mentally dead salarimen. I scrambled to open the door... to get to a car with a platform, no platform, oh god...
Ah, but I did make it to Makino station after all, still with its twittering electric swallows.
2nd night of Tea in Shimabara
A beautiful but rather easy trip there. However, coming an hour early I thought it might be nice to go on a little sanpo (walk). After reaching the convini(ence store) and buying an onigiri, I wandered back in the direction of the house, or so I thought. Then cornered in an unfamiliar web of streets I quickly became lost. After racing around in circles for half an hour, I did find Kinse again.
We had an extra thick tea late at night, passed around from Hashiguchi Sensei to the hosts counterclockwise.
Tea is such a physical art, I think, yet at the same time, so playful and social- great! I've been mixed up like azuki but clear warabi is like soft sunlight and first ume blossoms.
Apparently, said a fellow student, and business man I presume, I need to see manzai, standup comedy. But 3 months is such a short time in Japan. Yes it is.
Warabi mochi is clear,
dry powder on top,
moist azuki inside, hints of small rain,
puddles on the sidewalk two nights ago?
Perhaps the clarity is only a fleeting mirage,
conjured by sunrays on cold winter days.
As the blossoms begin to appear
powder will only become more muddled beans.
We had an extra thick tea late at night, passed around from Hashiguchi Sensei to the hosts counterclockwise.
Tea is such a physical art, I think, yet at the same time, so playful and social- great! I've been mixed up like azuki but clear warabi is like soft sunlight and first ume blossoms.
Apparently, said a fellow student, and business man I presume, I need to see manzai, standup comedy. But 3 months is such a short time in Japan. Yes it is.
Warabi mochi is clear,
dry powder on top,
moist azuki inside, hints of small rain,
puddles on the sidewalk two nights ago?
Perhaps the clarity is only a fleeting mirage,
conjured by sunrays on cold winter days.
As the blossoms begin to appear
powder will only become more muddled beans.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Matsumoto, Inaka kaerimashita
2/12/7
monkeys, sansai, koshi mado, Narai, delicious water, Suve a place to wash horses, Hirasawa laquerware, Kobayashi Taketo- a nice little kid/ international embassador at the soba shop eating the ice, Jomon Kamisama, wasabi farm, a warm room, a beaming grandmother, A blindgrandfather, lets not forget Taka, rumi, and the most relaxed parents around, who happen to be in charge of the community meeting hall right now, so much food, so much generosity,
They cooked me the most succulent salmon, possibly ever, and spinach fresh with fish flakes, and daikon, and gyoza, and hot miso shiro- I remember the ogisan had asked if I liked miso shiro, like the Japanese version of my own grandfather, he then went on about history. I was on the bus leaving Matsumoto, writing this down, not looking up, when Taka, my friend from Nagano Daigaku hands me a bottle of tea. He had run onto the bus at the last minute, just to be extra generous. That pretty much typifies my stay. Then he ran off, its funny it is so nice.
2 weeks in Nagano is like a year any where else and 3 days, well thats like a long time in terms of humanity and generosity demonstrated.
As we drove to the station the yama (mountains) were pink, the new snow glowed. Such a beautiful place. Taka had explained that this region's mochi is so simple (just a bun with vegetables) because in the mountains they often did not have enough food. Maybe that is why they are so giving.
We, all the passengers of the bus, all have the same look on our faces, going back to Osaka. A look of contentment. We have been well cared for.
The mountain environment is very beautiful: delicate trees, stones, a natural garden. The people here have taken that like beautiful wood, its grain and warp intact, and built a strong and delicate bridge over the rapid and fresh mountain river.
Kazu, in Kyoto, said that is very hard to speak really good Japanese, be both very polite and very welcoming and warm. They do that here I think.
The dialect of this region has basically become the standard for the whole nation, and Naganoken is a very high standard to meet. Matsumoto lies in a valley and perhaps teh people here aspire for the sky and the moon... after coming here, I do to.
karakuni, shortened to "rakuni." Maybe it is just a Nagano word, but it is what you need to be when you are "very very tired."
Thursday, February 8, 2007
In the House of Yabe Sensei I had Tea
Sensei says that Tea is, of course, more about the context than just about the tea. I had a lot of context this time.
I spent just a little bit too long talking at Kansai Gaidai trying to make friends, then a little too slow of a walk to Makino station. Starting to feel a little irrachi. Get to station, and think to myself that I might not have dinner tonight so I think I will buy some mochi( of course). I see a sign at the shop saying 60 en. Oo cheap! I ask for one, and the woman gives me a whole box for 600 en, oh well too late to change now. I now have a pack of kinako mochi, really powdery brown kinako mochi. In the station I try to eat one inconspicuously and choke it down, powder all over myself. Local train to Kuzuha. There I try to eat a couple more, brown powder all over myself. Quite innapropriate I am sure. Train to Tambabashi. At Tambabashi, starting to get worried, it is getting dark. Cant find Kintetsu line, ask a highschool kid, he says oh that way. I jog to Kintetsu line. Train to Kyoto station. Now I am afraid I dont have enough money to make it back, very worried. Give up on finding the Sonenin line or whatever it is called. Luckily I drew a exact copy of the map Kojiro sent me on google! Just in case. I want to find a bank, Asking the guards they gruffly laugh and say, "Famous banks in the tower, TAW-WA." In the tower I find no bank, I do find a small bathroom.
Very small and covered in pee, I need to change my clothes. Holding the straps of my backpack, and various articles of clothing in my mouth I manage to stand on my shoes and change my pants. Okay, god so small. Racing outside now it is real dark.
Snot starts pouring from my nose, the really gooy kind, once it starts it just keeps stretching, yeah,I have hardly any tissues. I try not to make too much of scene on the street.
I find my way through the dark streets to something that I think is Tayuuchou. There is a guard there. Luckily right? I dont see Kinse, thats the house. I ask the guard. He tells me, "Kinse, kinse, hmmm, no Sanki, you want sanki. So I go into Sanki. Which appears to be a ryookan. Just like Kojiro described right? There is a nice woman, "hi hi hi hi hi." "You are from France she says," and "you want to study with Yabe sensei, hihiiihi".... I know something is wrong when she takes me to ofuro. I say, I want to do okeiko, tonight... then she really laughs, as do I of course, and I go to kinse, across the street. I am there way early, as a matter of fact. And so Yabe Sensei lets me in, and we attempt to chat, and I sit. And sit. I dont want to wear out my legs in sazai yet, you know, but I go ahead.
The guests started to arrive, and I'll just say that it was all very magical.
It seems I met all of kyoto last night, all at tea, Hashiguchi, and Yabe Sensei, and so many others, many of whom had been to Whitman, and so many different styles, and I was even instructed a little too.
And my legs died, several times over, and I shocked them as much as I could, trying to be inconspicous of course.
It seems Kyoto dialect is not so far from Osaka, hens and all that, but I dont really know what was going on, lots of talk about family members, and ghosts and mice, and shiomizu, or something like that, very nice tea bowls.
Wagashi was Suetomisan's green powdered with azuki inside, very delicious. And chocoleto. And the tea. And the sitting, and it was all so warm and inviting.
It is so nice to be in a place, and do a thing, it seems, so welcoming.
The contexts, the wrappings,
I did make it back, with money to spare, by 1 oclock! So ahahhah!
Fushimi Inari
2/5/7
All the food on the platform, vegetables and a hoard of sake. Chanting to the crowd inside the jinja. No pictures please. Women move about with headresses of gold and green in a room, on display it seems, all blessed by the emperial chrysanthemum.
Booths and booths. Toriis and Toriis. Fortune tellers.
Waffle fish with angko inside. Sweet potatos hot roasted with sugar crust.
And hot fresh baked mochi with purple flakes on top.
Fluffy and crunchy- kari kari.
Hot nuts and so many daikons. Omiyage anyone?
Irrachi
Legend has it that a group of Minoan settlers came to Osaka 3 thousand years ago, after the destruction of Thera. Or maybe it was the other way around- Osakans became Dorians and invaded the southern Balkans...
Anyway, I am here, in the Greece of Japan and I think nothing says it better than "Irrachi" (I mis-spelled it before)
Irrachi is that feeling deep inside, that fire so to speak, when one must live life, and one must MUST dart across the street on a red light! To stay, to be yukuri, or take it easy, would be to go against this fundamental part of life. Stress would then build up. No, hurry, hurry!
And this of course explains the little kenka (fight) that may have occured with the homestay argument- In Hirakata, the southern Peloponessus of Osaka- I was put it seems with the most Greek-like of the Osakans, or shall I say, the most Osakans of the Osakans, and so we live life passionately at the homestay!
Anyway, I am here, in the Greece of Japan and I think nothing says it better than "Irrachi" (I mis-spelled it before)
Irrachi is that feeling deep inside, that fire so to speak, when one must live life, and one must MUST dart across the street on a red light! To stay, to be yukuri, or take it easy, would be to go against this fundamental part of life. Stress would then build up. No, hurry, hurry!
And this of course explains the little kenka (fight) that may have occured with the homestay argument- In Hirakata, the southern Peloponessus of Osaka- I was put it seems with the most Greek-like of the Osakans, or shall I say, the most Osakans of the Osakans, and so we live life passionately at the homestay!
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Yuzu mochi
Yuzu (I think) with hot cocao to drink,
Quite a debate with Kazu about where it could be properly eaten. In train no, outside, no. Walking, no. In a restaurant, definitely and laughably no. In a house yes. Or maybe on a park bench.
Having to go someplace to eat, adds to the flavour and moment a lot. It also means going, and stopping.
So light and soft, so dense and thick. Awake citrus.
Waking up with Keiko running in and opening the mado. Cold Cold.
Soft light of Kyoto, ceramics and touching clay, hard but gentle.
This mochi is a good contrast of experiences that range from tactless and pushy, to soft and luminescent.
Setsubun and Kyoto
Kyoto,
Amazing rice cracker mochi, 840 en, takai ne. Dango and brown soy bean smeared mochi omiyage at shijo. Hoping to win back a little confidence after our small kenka at the homestay- dust becomes mountains.
Hon San Yo Ho Ji, the perfect place to eat a little rice cracker (although probably not allowed.) I could here chanting from inside.
Burning sticks and things at Taishogu Jinja.
Setsubun is out with the demon and in with the good fortune. After a good maki to the northwest, the men literally became demons, me included and growled from outside the house, grasping at the children as the women and children threw peanuts at us.
We then ate our age in soy beans.
1/27
The first day with the homestay family hit me like the "nesobesu?" of seeing stars after a very hot bath.
Bed in a tatami mat room, that is house isogashi they are, "chizurika?" something like that is the word I later learned describes Osaka people. Always in a hurry. The Uncle died today, so Keiko is off to the funeral later. Gochishyosama deshita. Mizuki is so nice. Ko rough and tumble cute. Kazu is a very chill husband. Little Makochan is very cute, although she is a little fox. One month old cute, 2 months and she grew horns, said Keiko. "Kids" Kazu likes to say, and then laughs. At the neigborhood park the kids liked to steal my stuff, especially Nishikese, although there was a slightly older kid who took it all very seriously.
Guest the first time over, family the second time. Only plain form. When Kazu called it was "Kimura! Kimura!"
Mickey and her mother and two kids came over for the Gyoza party. They brought momiji manju.
cuteness vs sterness.
A show about animated water droplet people.
The first day with the homestay family hit me like the "nesobesu?" of seeing stars after a very hot bath.
Bed in a tatami mat room, that is house isogashi they are, "chizurika?" something like that is the word I later learned describes Osaka people. Always in a hurry. The Uncle died today, so Keiko is off to the funeral later. Gochishyosama deshita. Mizuki is so nice. Ko rough and tumble cute. Kazu is a very chill husband. Little Makochan is very cute, although she is a little fox. One month old cute, 2 months and she grew horns, said Keiko. "Kids" Kazu likes to say, and then laughs. At the neigborhood park the kids liked to steal my stuff, especially Nishikese, although there was a slightly older kid who took it all very seriously.
Guest the first time over, family the second time. Only plain form. When Kazu called it was "Kimura! Kimura!"
Mickey and her mother and two kids came over for the Gyoza party. They brought momiji manju.
cuteness vs sterness.
A show about animated water droplet people.
Deep Fried
1/27
Deep fried mochi.
Hidden in a veil of brown batter soft sweet mochi.
Like Brown walls, Brown jackets.
Biting in, a clear day, bright white sky.
Biting dry air.
Available at Fresco!
Deep fried mochi.
Hidden in a veil of brown batter soft sweet mochi.
Like Brown walls, Brown jackets.
Biting in, a clear day, bright white sky.
Biting dry air.
Available at Fresco!
Monday, February 5, 2007
Such a long walk
January 23?
Mochi of a long walk in the wrong direction, dango, looking for Hirakata station, getting stuck on a Japanese freeway a little refreshment at the 7/11 and stadning outside. Maybe a little too much talk about appearances of the customers as we peered in the window, kind of makes me sick. I want the innocence of Nagano Daigaku. Thighs burn from the cold. Japanese always mention the weather, every day a different season. A look at winter tambohs. Yung-hun says they think he is Japanese and then he says, "hi!"
Mochi of a long walk in the wrong direction, dango, looking for Hirakata station, getting stuck on a Japanese freeway a little refreshment at the 7/11 and stadning outside. Maybe a little too much talk about appearances of the customers as we peered in the window, kind of makes me sick. I want the innocence of Nagano Daigaku. Thighs burn from the cold. Japanese always mention the weather, every day a different season. A look at winter tambohs. Yung-hun says they think he is Japanese and then he says, "hi!"
Mon, January 22, mochi
Goma yes, soft purple inside yes, very very needed. yes. Scrunched up in my pocket after feverish food deprived run to "kyu kyu" for food, but enlightening, Chinese wonton soup hitting the spot. Warm inside, listening to Italians talk, watching the owner and his friend play majong it looks like, though I cant really see it, in the corner of the room. Fish posters of dead fish, and sapporo posters of living women...- mochi. Stange coldness and friendliness of people mochi, Glad I have friends, out there, mochi. Warm goma definitely needed, soft needed, I'm twitching tired, exhausted, yeah, thats good mochi.
Squished and crinkled in a bag. Yeah thats about right.
But the night air is nice.
Goma yes, soft purple inside yes, very very needed. yes. Scrunched up in my pocket after feverish food deprived run to "kyu kyu" for food, but enlightening, Chinese wonton soup hitting the spot. Warm inside, listening to Italians talk, watching the owner and his friend play majong it looks like, though I cant really see it, in the corner of the room. Fish posters of dead fish, and sapporo posters of living women...- mochi. Stange coldness and friendliness of people mochi, Glad I have friends, out there, mochi. Warm goma definitely needed, soft needed, I'm twitching tired, exhausted, yeah, thats good mochi.
Squished and crinkled in a bag. Yeah thats about right.
But the night air is nice.
Travel Mochi
6 pieces of mochi
soft and powdered on the outside
succelent sweet on the inside
2 left to share before I left
because life is better in pairs
2 while waiting for a delayed flight
wishing I was still in Her car
3 shared with family
They thought it was some of the best
1 left uneaten but not forgotten.
I'll have to search the world to find mochi
to match this one
made with love and care.
soft and powdered on the outside
succelent sweet on the inside
2 left to share before I left
because life is better in pairs
2 while waiting for a delayed flight
wishing I was still in Her car
3 shared with family
They thought it was some of the best
1 left uneaten but not forgotten.
I'll have to search the world to find mochi
to match this one
made with love and care.
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