Had I used up Japan? Or, at least, that part that I am playing in Japan. More photos of my shakuhachi, kyudo or hiking trails?
Yes, there would be the photos of the Japanese autumn, but, what new, unexpected?
So,here I am, four weeks later and I have managed to include a few photos with my many words. I hope you enjoy my ramblings.
This image is explained at the end of this posting.
The Rest of California
My last few weeks in California, I stayed with my sister Mary in Chico. Fifteen minutes drive from Chico and you're in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was the end of summer and the foothills were very brown. The first few days the sky over Chico was clouded with the smoke of forest fires. The canyons have some interesting rock formations, but, I didn't have my camera with me when we made that drive.
A beautiful park goes right through the centre of Chico. A creek and walking/biking trails. Mary and I went for relaxed walks quite a few mornings there. Mary moved to Chico from San Luis Obispo just the last year and has already settled in with good friends and her local quilting guild. That's her passion. It's wonderful to behold some of her compositions.
Lilly meets Uncle Kundan
I actually went to LA a few days before the flight to Japan. I wanted to spend more than an overnight with my nephew Paul, his wife Libby and seven year old daughter Lilly. Last time I stayed there, when they were leaving for school and work the morning of my leaving and the day after my arrival, Lilly asked, "Why is he staying here?" This time I had time to play with her and become a great uncle. When Libby was taking Lilly to her soccer practice on my last day with them, she asked her mom, "Is Uncle Kundan coming?" Yes!!
Lilly's soccer practice would have had a few nice action shots if I had remembered my camera. Perhaps, one day, I will succumb is the world of the mobile phone. If so, I will be sure to buy one with the camera included. That way I will not miss those moments; for, as we all know, a mobile phone is not just a phone, it is an appendage.
Returning to Chichibu
My plane from LA was two hours late. In the US, this is not even noticed. However, it meant that I was too late arriving at Narita Airport and I missed the connection for my train to Chichibu. I stayed at a hotel near the airport and at the buffet breakfast the next morning, I met a Japanese student who had just returned from one-month in Russia. We rode the same train him into Tokyo and I got to see the photos from her trip to Moscow and St Petersburg.
Here we are on the train. I should have made at peace sign like all the Japanese kids do.
Interruption
I want to tell you about my latest toy. While in California, I purchased a copy of iListen. This is a voice recognition software. I am able to speak into my computer and have it write what I say. I had to train it. The training of the software consists of reading several stories, letters, or groups of quotes. (It took about three hours.) At one point, I thought that I had read in all the training scripts. Actually, I had only read half to have them. There was a scroll bar that I had not noticed. So, when I tried to use the software I got very strange as responses. I could say something like, "I am going to the store" and the machine would type, "I am walking through the door". The software learns phrases, not just words. [I have completed reading all of the scripts. The last one was an edited version of the first part of RAM us do Oaks track Villa.] The preceding bracketed sentences are what came of the software when I a spoke just now. It didn't do very well on "Bram Stokes 'Dracula'". However, the rest was good and it usually does do well enough for a first draft. I'd do have to keep an eye on the typing. Sometimes, it creates words that would totally confuse me if I read the sentences later.
There are some interesting sides to this software. The first is that you speak all of the punctuation. Even the grammatically challenged, such as myself, use punctuation occasionally. So when I say " question mark", it types "?" and "comma", it types ",". Now I know we usually you don't use words like "question Mark" or "comma" very often as words, however, we sometimes do use the word "period" to mean something other than punctuation. I have to be aware when I use words such as "period" or "point" (which is a period after an abreviation). Of course, there are the times when it types "too" instead of "two". I won't tell you what it typed for the word "succumb"!
Writing like this is a pleasure. Taking the mechanical part of typing out of the process is a very enjoyable thing for me. I can just sit here, relaxed, and speaking as if I am talking to a friend. Just telling a story.
Back to the story:
14 October-
Today is my sister Mary's birthday. The story goes. When I was born, I was brought home from the hospital on her birthday. I was her birthday present. That is why she is so nice to me........ Wait a minute! Why she is so nice to my brother? He was born in March!
Cabin fever again. I went out on my bike at about five o'clock in the afternoon. It was already getting dark. Heading over to the closest hills when I noticed the lanterns of a Temple up a side street. This was a new discovery for me. In to addition to being often beautiful places, the shrines are very peaceful places. My little trailer is very close to two busy streets, so, I enjoy the discovering places quiet nearby.This one is a particularly lovely small temple up against the hill.
Returning home, I stopped at a little bottle shop that I had not seen before. When I came here last Northern spring, I brought a bottle of duty-free Bombay Sapphire Gin. When the weather warmed up, I went to looking for some tonic water. There was none to be found! I tried some soda water. No Good! I found a pre-mixed gin and tonic. I bought that and added my own gin. It was pretty bad. Being an ever optimistic person, I went in to the Little shop. The woman said, "yes"! So, I am sitting here celebrating my sister's birthday with a delicious gin and tonic. Cheers!!!
Learning English in Japan.
I was chatting with my teacher and his wife when I use the phrase, "my sister was pleased." Megumi asked Kaoru a question which included in my phrase. Then, she said, "please give me."
I understood the confusion and explained that the old way of saying "please give me..." was actually something like "it will please me if you'd give me...." Thinking about this exchange, it was easy to understand her classification of the word "please" as only a word that creates the polite form of a request. Besides being an interesting example of the evolution of a language. Also, there is the reflection of Japanese culture in this linquistic confusion.
In the Japanese language, forms of respect are very important. As in English, there are differnt levels of politeness. However, it is carried a bit further in Japanese culture/language, such as, there being different verbs that one that uses when speaking to an elder or one of superior position. One who wishes to really learn the language, has much more to learn than just the literal translation of phrases.
Which brings me to-
The State of the Japanese Language in Kundan's Brain-
When I came to Japan seven months ago, I jumped right into expanding my aptitude in relation to understanding and speaking the Japanese language. I was very devout for the first two months. Then..I burnt out. Upon reflection, I now know that I will not be spending an extended period of time in Japan. Therefore, the guilt which I felt at the time of burnout has almost vanished. In the four weeks since my return, I have not cracked a single Japanese language text or even a dictionary. I expect that this will change at some time soon. My survival level, plus a little, is adequate for most areas of my life here. The one exception would be at the Kyudo dojo. Playing Kyudo it is the only part of my a present life in which I would need to use Japanese conversational skills to a greater extent. I have not returned to the dojo as yet. I enjoyed the the social aspect of Kyudo very much. However, the demands on my Japanese language skills made me uncomfortable. Constantly pulling out my dictionary tended to interfere with the flow of conversation. I was very happy to just sit and shoot and listen to others conversation. My exercise requirements are easily met with my Tai Chi, Pilates and long walks. However, I am drawn to return to the dojo. I really enjoyed my collegues there. Also, the space that I would enter sometimes during the form is very special. There are many ways to enter that space. Kyudo has its own flavor and it beckons me. So, I will get out the text book again, slip back to the dojo, and, see what happens.
Kundan's New Digs-
When I first arranged to come here, the trailer was already reserved for the month of December. Today, I moved into an apartment that has been used by other students of Kaoru. Here are some photos of the apartment.
I have two six mat rooms. A tatami mat is approximately three feet by six.
My bed/sitting room.
Notice the bright light flooding the room. Very important in cold climate!
The little table is a kotatsu. It has a wire cage underneath with large red globes inside that heat up the space. The table has two tops. In between the two tops you place a large duvet that hangs onto the floor. In cold times, you rug up and sit with your legs under the kotatsu. When I first lived in Japan nearly thirty years ago, this was our only source of warmth in a house that had three inch thick walls. On cold nights, we would sleep with our feet under the kotatsu. It worked well except that my fingers would get cold when I wrote anything. This why I believe that the Japanese slurp hot liquids. Slurping makes it possible to drink hot liquids before they cool in such circumstances. Eventually, we got a kerosene stove. However, it meant that I would have to open the window frequently to vent the room. It was not a very satisfying solution. In the old days, the kotatsu had a hole in the floor under the low table with a charcoal brazier in it.
The second tatami room is my exercise/ guest room.
And...
Here is my music room.
A nice view out the window to the mountains. I think that I already play better because of it.
The kitchen/dinning room is a good size as well. However, the great thing is that the apartment also has an o-furo. A Japanese style bath tub that is deep rather than long. You soap and rinse outside the bath. Then, you sit in it like a hot tub. The trick is that they have them so hot that you can barely step into one. When you do, though, it melts your bones. A great way to end the day.
The Museum is Open!
Yesterday, I took a walk up to the park at the top of a hill nearby. There is a private art museum there that has been closed during my other visits. It was open and has a permenant display of one of Japan's most famous artists of the twentieth century. His name is Shiko Munakata. He lived at the north tip of the main island. He is best known for his block prints. If you follow the links below, you can see some of his more famous works. There is a series that is on display in the museum that I wasn't able to find online. Each print is about four feet tall. It's called "The Ten Disciples of Buddha". Each one is a monk in a different posture expressing various emotions. Most of them seem to be feeling extreme pain or suffering and are squeezed into the square shape of the block print. But, one of them is standing with plenty of space around him, a serene buddha.
http://www.munakatashiko.com/
http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=jump;dtype=i;startat=1
http://www.lantecweb.net/shikokan/
http://spectacle.berkeley.edu/~fiorillo/texts/sosakutexts/sosaku_pages/munakata3.html
One last thing!
I was going to let you go but I had to tell you about my shakuhachi lessons. Last week, Kaoru gave me a piece to learn that is definitely what I would call the 'real thing'. I have learned it more quickly and easily than previous pieces. In fact, today, he was surprised that I could play farther through than he had assigned last lesson. Also- We begin the lesson blowing 'ro'. That's the lowest note. My tone and length of breath has been improving alot since my return. Today, Kaoru said, "Most times when a student plays ro, I think, 'that is good for a student'. Today, when you played, there was a time when I thought, 'He is play like a colleague!'"
Well kids, that's it for now. Must get my beauty sleep. Nighty night.
