Friday, December 25, 2009

Live

Kimi o toku kara
nagameteru dake....
kimi ni mo
futari mo...
nan de..boku no mawari dake...
Dustin Hoffman ni narenakatta yo

Two men in black suits have just taken the stage.
A third steps up, takes off his black jacket and is down to a white shirt and tie.
He sits at an electric keyboard, while the lead who has taken possession of the restaurant owner/singer's guitar
is leading the room

one two
san shi,
he strums. there are music pages strewn all over the table where the three men who we have learned are bankers, had been sitting.
When did the plates and beers become notes?
This is a parallel reality I like.
Lately it's not unusual
for scenes to change before my eyes to fit a reality that I prefer---like this one,
music pages spread out on tables
ya-hoo

The 60-ish women seated at a table in the back cheer,
it's almost
New Year.

The restaurant owner is a former member of a famous Japanese band from the 1970's called Kaguya Hime.

minna san ni ii toshi oo...


The banker in the black suit has the pick tucked in the strings
and is breaking into laughter
like no banker
I've seen
1...2...
3...4

The restaurant owner has taken a back seat and is relaxed, listening to this
banker-turned-singing group that has taken over
the bar.

Ok CAR with a red circle around it, an ad for Kirin
Free.

Less alcohol,
more Joy

(a statuette of Santa is holding up a boquet of orchids.
These are my notes from today.
My husband is laughing.
He thanked me for suggesting coming here tonite)

For Santa




Ready! (the child is nestled all snug in her bed...)




JGY Aikawarazu Life in Japan

Visions of Gingerbread...







If you haven't seen me for a while, it's that we've been on a gingerbread baking marathon.
A few days of everything we know, put into gingerbread dough.
Some yoga breaks, and to share the cookies, and to view the illumination and the half moon.

Wishing you a merry, joyous Christmas.
May Santa bring you what you wish for.

To listen to a popular Christmas Eve Song in Japan:
http://スマイブ
We listened to it tonight played live on an acoustic guitar in the spirit of
Christmas Eve. Enjoy!

JGY

Friday, December 18, 2009

B/day Post 1--for Rilke

i


Happy Birthday Rainer Maria Rilke, fellow Sag (born December 4, 1875), I carry your book with me today and read:

The Poet Speaks of Praising

Oh speak, poet, what do you do?
--I praise.
But the monstrosities and the murderous days,
how do you endure them, how do you take them?
--I praise.
But the anonymous, the nameless grays,
how poet, do you still evoke them?
--I praise.
What right have you, in all displays,
in very mask, to be genuine?
--I praise.
And that stillness and the turbulent sprays
how you like star and storm?
:--since I praise.

December, 1921
from Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties

b-day post 2--for PK

I can't remember exactly when I began this tradition, but it must have been sometime when I lived in NY.
Probably around 15 or more years ago (time goes so quickly, I've already lived in Japan a whole decade)
The tradition I started on my birthday was to visit Paul Klee, a fellow Sag,
who shares the same birthday as me--
and I wish him a Happy Birthday.

It was easy to do when I lived in NY, especially when I rented a room on the top floor
of a phychologist's apartment on E. 84th Street.
I just walked out my door and two blocks west to the Met, and spent an hour or so in the room with Paul Klee's paintings. I'd quietly sing to him in the gallery---
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Paul Klee,
Happy Birthday to you.

and I'd look into his paintings.

When I moved downtown, I began going to the MOMA and celebrating with the Klees there.

When I moved to Japan, the first three years I managed to find PK in amazing ways--one year an exhibit of paintings came from a Harvard University collection to our small city museum on the hill, and a PK work was included int he show; it was as though it travelled all the way here to greet me; and I he.

The next year about a week before 'our' birthday, I saw a poster for a new museum that was opening about an hur train ride from here. It listed some of my very favorite artists, among them PK, and I took a a day trip by myself to this magical place, where seeing works by PK, David Hockney, Picasso, and Kandinsky in this somewhat remote location on a hill in the South of Japan was like a visit with old friends.

The following year I found myself with my Japanese family in a shopping mall, and I had almost forgotten about PK, until I was wandering in a bookstore and a book 'popped' out at me from the shelves (as books do sometimes),of PK pics with accompanying text by a Japanese poet.
I purchased the book and in the years since when I haven't found the 'real' Paul, I peruse the pages.

This year PK has come to me from Switzerland, several months ago, in a rubber stamp from April, who I dreamof visiting one year this time of year to go together to see the PK Museum (next year, in Switzerland??!)

Thank you, April, for letting me find the spirit of Paul Klee unexpectedly this year.
I will go now and take out the stamp and read your words...

B/day post 3-for me!






(sharing a cake with PK, and my small family of 3)
Thanks for reading these birthday posts, and visiting;
please have some of this colorful cake too!
Sharing these few moments with you feels like a gift as well.


JGY

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Corner View--Books, Yomi-Kikase







At my
daughter's school, Tuesday morning is "Yomi-ki-ka-se" time,
where mothers volunteer to read books to the children.
Once a year the school asks me to read a book in English to the class at Christmas time.
So, since Y. has been in elementary school I have been choosing a book to read to the two classes in her grade---this year she is in fourth grade. Always something with a wintry or Christmas theme.
I go to one of our two local libraries to find a book that is also available in a Japanese version, and I read the English version while another mother in the class reads in Japanese.
This year I did the reading with H.san (Mrs. H.), the mother of one of Y's good friends.
The book we selected was "The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg, who also made the gorgeous illustrations.
In Japanese the title is:
急行“北極号”
Translator: 村上春樹
It is translated beautifully by the writer Haruki Murakami (Murakami Haruki as he is known is Japanese).
We read a few lines at a time alternately, as the Japanese translation beautifully followed the English lines about a little boy's adventure on a train to the North Pole where he meets Santa and receives the first gift of Christmas.

H. san and I arranged to meet a few days before to 'practice' and to decide how we would read --one page at a time, or line by line.
When we met in her apartment it was evening and the night was still. Y. and T.kun (H. san's son; 'kun' is the suffix used after boys names in Japan) were in another room playing.

The two of us alternated reading the lines, and we became transported into the world of the Polar Express, as if we were really looking out the window for Santa's sleigh. As the train headed faster and faster North, our voices speeded up and the lines in Japanese and English blended into a wonderful feast of wintry words.
We forgot our roles as mothers who were to read to our childrens' class and became two children waiting for the first gift of Christmas.
H. san was crying at the end of the story, and she told me that as a child she believed she really saw one of Santa's reindeers, though she never saw Santa himself.

After we read to the fourth grade class yesterday morning, H. san and I were giddy and thanked each other for the pleasure of reading this book together. We hugged each other in the halls of the elementary school, and confessed that for both of us it was like we already experienced Christmas, as we both believed we heard the silver bell of Santa's sleigh when we read together the other evening at her house.
The school principal saw us giggling and we must have surprised him---two grown-ups caught in a moment of being kids again.







Merry Reading to to All and to All a Good Book....

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

identical post with borrowed lines




















jonchant les marches
les pétales par millier
montent vers le ciel








I borrowed these lines,
written by a French poet/philosopher we all know...
and made identical the post,
except to see how the words change it...



JGY

Monday, December 14, 2009

sentence fragments among ginko leaves






from the station she followed a carpet of
shining yellow ginko leaves
glistening with a layer of trodden rain.

A few of the scallop shaped leaves
remained on the tree.
Like small and medium sized
yellow bells on the boughs ringing in the blue sky.

wisps of bamboo
even in the city.

And she longed to take a nap.

Thursday, December 10, 2009






Y. happened to make a ball that happens to look like the earth
It dropped on the the tatami mat.
Next, we throw to you...
and...
catch!

happy evenings around the world, starting with
jane at corner view:)

JGY

PS Tomare Rainbow, an official thank you


PS An official (delayed )thank you....
Merci, Otli for the Fun Tomare Posts and continuing my "Corner View" dream,
and to Christina for joining in,
and Arigatoo, to
Natsumi for 'iro-iro' and your inspiration along these lines, and
to all, thank you for visiting and,
A vonderful evening to ya....
Catch! (sorry I'm late to the next c.v.)

Sunday, December 6, 2009


a grand rainbow arched over Beppu Bay,
how could I possibly stay away.
beautiful the way thoughts
connect from here to there...

happy today or tonight all
around the world


JGY

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