Nimotsu ni Naru

We were in the gift shop
of a place we didn't visit;
picking out remembrances of sights we hadn't seen.

Our arms were piled up with packets of unnecessary items.
To give to friends and family and to someone just in case.

Y brought over one more gift to give to X. I told her it would take up too much space and we would have to apologize to X for adding an extra burden to her load.

Just then a wise old owl perched in the corner piped in and agreed:

Nimotsu ni naru.
Nimotsu ni naru.*

*A Japanese expression that I was never taught from textbooks which means that it will become baggage.

From Tokyo to Odawara

On a bus. I turn to look out the window, casually notice out of the corner of my eye there is a person in the seat behind me. My eye catches the yellow of her sweater and moves up towards the chin, but I stop, afraid to make eye contact. It's not something you do, on a bus, to the person behind you.
And yet, I want to challenge that notion.

(J: me;
PBM: Person Behind Me)

J: Hey, it's reallly amazing, isn't it?

PBM: (looks up w/puzzled expression)..What is?

J: That our lives have brought us both here, to be on this bus, in this point in time, moving along on this very road.

PBM: (lowers her eyes to her book to give me the blatant hint that I'm an (oxy)moron)

J: (wanting to shake her)...Really, this moment. It exists so that we can be here, to have it...

PBM: We?
You really are an @#$**!!!(moron)

J: (Once again facing front, adressing the reader)
To tell you the truth, I didn't expect it to go too well.

Geneology or Semantics?

If necessity is the mother of invention,
and expression is born of necessity,
then expression and invention must be siblings.

Blogging begets blogging

One thing I like about a blog.
There's nothing here to buy.

MOMA Dream

In my dream Y and I were in what was supposed to be the Museum of Modern Art.
It had the feeling of being surrounded by a huge modern shopping arcade. We could see a hint of the original building from the glass and steel atrium where we sat.
I said to Y that I remember the days when museums were not attached to shopping plazas. And that when I was young we didn't have to walk through the gift shop to get to the museum.

Celebrating 100 Posts

I never liked to celebrate my birthday. Didn't want to have a party, and still prefer to celebrate quietly looking at Paul Klee Pictures and reading Rilke (2 favorite fellow-Sagittarians).
So it strikes me as out of character to want to celebrate my 100th post.
My daughter suggested doing a 100th-post party on my blog.
I'll settle for a toast. Or better yet, some waffles. To Aikawarazu-same-as-always-nothing-stays-the-same.
C a m p a ii.

Next---98?99?

Thinking "I need a picture to go with this entry", I turned a corner and there it was, in an old shop window, just the picture I needed.

Poetic License

You might say
I have too much free time.
But what else can time be?
In this world where
everything costs,
Time at last
to be free.

(omit photo; )

>>>>watching the river flow

>>>>

IF

When I stopped long enough to see,
I'd swear that tree stared back at me.

Really

This time when I stopped, a bell sounded from above
and then a voice beamed from a loudspeaker in the sky.
"(nani-nani)Kun...(nani-nani)Kun.
Ichiban no denwa desu."*

*Attention Mr.(so-and-so), there's a call for you on line one.

The chair

>

This chair spoke next.
When it said "SIT",
I sat.
I looked in the direction that it was facing and I saw
more trees, and a path,
Cherry blossoms falling ever so silently
I heard birds and
felt a gentle breeze
The ground was soft beneath my feet.
I got up and thanked the chair;
couldn't help noticing its frayed edges.
Is that why someone left it there?

Photo out of season

(to go in some way with the WPLJ entry which follows. Get it? The back of a girl, looking towards children playing. She is from another time and place, with her sword. Maybe like the character in that movie, "Enchanted", who falls thru a deep well and pops out of a manhole into NYC.
Here in Japan, where everything is to do with the season, she dares to carry a pumpkin in April.
Some days I want to be understood)

WPLJ English

(insert picture of a Dunkin Donuts mug here)

Once in a while, I get homesick for real English.
The way it was spoken when I grew up, and where I grew up.
You never know where you will find the satisfaction of a craving.
In a small shop in Kagoshima Station, I heard these lines broadcast live from Long Island:

...Eagles 2CD set for $11.98, Long Road out of Eden...Avaivable now only at Walmarts.
Save money. Live better.

The Pumpkin Muffin is back at Dunkin Donuts. Making the world a better place...makes you a better person.
Stop down at Dunkin Donuts today for a delicious new Pumpkin Latte.

America runs on Dunkin.

Life changes like the weather..hey hey...I know where I've been (don't know where I'm going).
Hey hey. Say goodbye to yesterday. There aint no brakes on this lost highway.

trailing off with some words about Totonos---only God makes better pizza
Manhattan, Coney Island, and....

ME

Last night I had an original dream. In it the copy machine was broken.

Tokyo Shells

In a hair salon in Mitakata called Puka Shell I read this line on the wall:
"Have you ever thought seriously about interaction?"

In the Matsu Basho museum in Koto-ku, I saw a hanging scroll with a picture of seashells.
I don't know what it said.

for today

Is there a way to create art w/o materials?
An art that is made of energy and thought.

Hana Yori, Hon

There is an expression used this time of year,
"Hana yori dango."
It is used to describe those cherry blossom viewers who view the flowers as an excuse (an ephemerally gorgeous one) for a good picnic.
In translation, "Heck with the flowers, I'm really here for the food"; or more succinctly "Food over flowers".

Today, Y and I found a spot at the newly renovated library coffee shop. We sat at a table by the window on 2 pale pink leatherette couches overlooking a cherry tree in full blossom. It felt like we were floating above the street. We watched some petals gently blowing in the breeze.

I took out one of the books I borrowed from the library and savored the words.
I'll admit it, I'm a nerd at heart. I was one of those cherry blossom viewers who view the flowers as an excuse (albeit an ephemerally gorgeous one) for a good read.
Or, more succinctly, "Books over Flowers."

Mt. Fuji from my bedroom window

3 true sentences:

I once sat next to a girl on an airplane who told me she could see Mt. Fuji from her bedroom window.

She said the wallpaper in that room was white with a bicycle pattern.

She lived in N.Y.

Sai-sho-wa-gu...(Pineapple, Chocolate, Gu-ri-ko)

One player appears in front of me, mid-game.
The other player has already passed out of my immediate view.

Sai-sho-wa-gu
Jan-ken-pon.

Outcome: PA (paper) wins.
PA-I-NA-TSU-PU-RU
Winner takes 6 steps.

Sai-sho-wa-gu
Jan-ken-pon.

Outcome: CHOKKI (scissors) wins.
CHI-YO-KO-RE-I-TO
Winner takes 6 steps.

Sai-sho-wa-gu
Jan-ken-pon.

Outcome: GU (rock) wins.
GU-RI-KO
Winner takes 3 steps.

The two players recede into the distance.

Ashi-yu (the foot bath)

Our wet feet
greet
meet
met
new feet

How to...

How to warm your feet

After taking the wrong bus

on a cool misty day

in Hakone.

Ehh...toh

If I lived anywhere else in the world, I'd miss the words made of sounds. Or are they sounds made of words? They



reach my ears like notes from an instrument that I can hear but not play. Words in short syllables that mean what they are.