Corner View--White (なつみへ)

白
shiro=white

White Bear
Joyful Dog, and White Tai-yaki!!!

Can you guess which is which?
Here's a hint: a "tai"'s a fish


PS Have you ever seen a pigeon smile?
They do, you know, they do.
(There's white around a pigeon's eyes:)

corner vieThank you for visiting. Happy Wednesday, hope it's spacious!

What's white in your world?

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,

caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, skymring, elizabeth, allison, lise, cate, crescent moon, erin, otli, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, april, b, kyndale samantha, karen, kristina, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, aimee, sunnymama, jenell, britta, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, susi, jodi, lily, gillian,

athena, pienduzz, latisha, clairette, kelleyn, iris, demara, mus, ninja, guusje, di, sammi, theresa, cherry b, victoria, kathryn , lisa, liza, juliette, braja, mulot, anne, lucy, leonor, elizabeth, helene, dominique, shokoofeh
happy wednesday, thank you for visiting

Net (for Otli and Cabrizette)

At play.

You say this post's not here nor there? I say it's both,
it's here and there.
Would you like to add a pomme de terre,
just for the play and rhyme?

Post edited and returned to Found in Japan, JGY

Happy finding to all and to all a good find.
Stay tuned for Corner View Wednesday, the theme this week is White.

Goldfish Love

I buried one of our goldfish today.
Please don't be sad for me, I feel she is going off to somewhere bright and beautiful, to carry out her karma and fulfill something larger than she could have done with us here in her tank.
But I do feel sad for the big red father goldfish. Today all day he and the 2 children and the 2 'cousins' are coming up to the top of the tank for food.
They're hungry. Maybe to fill the loss of the mother goldfish.
I wish there was something I could do for him besides just drop in more pellets of food (they usually eat only once/day); for I know that might satisfy him in the moment but is not necessarily the medicine he needs for his heart.

*kin (gold金) + gyo (fish魚) = kingyo, which means "goldfish"
金魚
金と魚：
kin and gyo...

Namako Ka-be & Yorokobi no Tane

Happy Sunday. JGY



















*sea-cucumber wall & seed of joy

here

I sat down this afternoon in an attempt to do some writing, which I am making more and more space for in my life. But I couldn't write. I had this feeling pulling at me that there was something I was supposed to be doing, somewhere else I should be. Probably not unusual when one sits down to write! I flipped through some correspondence and was led here
here.
It's a letter from Camille Maurine to woman around the world.
It's about meditation.

I just ordered Camille's book, Meditation Secrets for Women. I am thinking about 'teaching' meditation. Lately whenever I am with someone I find myself wanting to go into a meditation with them. It's a living kind of meditation, like yesterday when I threw off my clogs and started running barefoot around an elementary school dirt track. Every time I got on the side that faced with a row of cypress trees I yelled "Aaaahhhhhhhhhhh" to the sky,
and got invigorated for the next lap...

Corner View Wednesday--Say Cheese!

To tell you the truth, I don't particularly like cars. But this weekend, I was able to discover another great way to experience this week's C.V. theme, "the view from a car".
Our friends Miki and Aki called in the morning and asked if Y & I would like to take a ride to Yufuin, a town in the countryside about an hour away, on the "To-ro-k-ko" Train, an old-fashioned open-car train that runs only on spring and fall holidays, and summer vacation.
Ah, this is the kind of car I like!
We could enjoy the passing rice fields and mountain view while savoring a fall breeze.

はい，チーズ！

実は，車は好きじゃありません。でも今日、窓から見る素敵な景色を体験しました。
友達のみきさんとあきが湯布院にトロッコ列車で行きませんかと誘ってくれたのですが、この列車は窓ガラスが入ってないので、秋の風をじかに感じることができました。
田んぼと山の緑を見ながらたのしました。



PS In Yufuin, another popular way of getting around in open-air cars is called a jin-riki-sha
(man-powered rickshaw):

Toot-a-loo, choo, choo, on the way to see your views..

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,

caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, crescent moon, erin, otli, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, april, b, kyndale samantha, karen, kristina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, desiree, travelingmama, aimee, sunnymama, amanda, ali, jenell, britta, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, susi, jodi, lily, gillian,

athena, pienduzz, latisha, clairette, kelleyn, iris, demara, mus, ninja, guusje, di, sammi, theresa, cherry b, victoria, kathryn , lisa, liza, juliette, braja, mulot, anne
thanks for visiting, Happy Wednesday!

How to blow a gum bubble, in Japanese

よくかむ
そしたら，ガムをうすく舌を
”オオウ”なんか。。。
wrap it
で　　”ふーーーー”　と息をかける。

Yoku kamu
So shitara gamu o "Ooou" nan ka...
"wrap it" de "Fu------" to iki o kakeru.

There is a (? interval, state, I'm looking for the right word) where one thing becomes another.
I try to keep my eyes open in the lecture.
My head falls onto your shoulder
as the blur of the speakers words drone on.
Not realizing it I fall into a peaceful doze.
You shake me up with your voice, saying something about wanting to sit tall,
but implying that you too have slumped down closer to me.
It turns out this too was a dream and I wake in a blissful reverie
to realize that we had been sharing the space of my sleeping state.
The outside lights are still on from the night and a breeze calls me out
to watch the dawn.

Hiroshima and Miyajima

I've had typed pages out on my desk from my Japan diary since I posted an entry for the last Corner View. In honor of International Peace Day today, I thought to continue with this entry... & may just post a few more here and there from our travels in Japan many moons ago before I lived in Japan.

9-4

Yoshi and I are the only two people on a boat to Miyajima. Maybe it's off season. Anyway it's the last boat of the day, and good timing on our parts. Leaving the mainland on a boat is always such a...(word search??)experience while in Japan.

It's difficult to imagine that the horrors of Hiroshima could happen so near to such a magical place. Tonight the full moon moves the water coming up to the wood piles which are the supports for the Utsukushima shrine. When we came the ground was dry and the orange posts created rhythms of openings towards the sea and sky.

Tonight as we walk in our yukatta at high tide, water passes through the orange mouth of the torii and the shrine appears to be floating. (I read the Inland Sea before the summer and remember where Donald Richie connected this shrine with the red lacquer undersea palace of the mythical boy, Urashimataro, and the turtle that he travelled on in the underwater legend.) Deer walk along the dry ground, eating onigiri. They emanate a peace and grace, never would they think to fabricate atomic bombs with the potential to destroy their species and their planet. They're lucky to live on this island.



Happy International Peace Day♡JGY

how close I got to a heron today

Now I'm where the heron sat
a half a beach away from Mark
who told his tales of armored trees*
recorded for posterity
on pages
propped like easels
in the sand.


*reference to 7000 year old cedar tree and famous huge cedars in Yakushima island, in Southern Japan, that I just learned about and would love to see one day
Smiling mountains too...

Happy today

JGY


Joanne Yoshida, Aikawarazu Life in Japan

PS to Corner View

In honor of Jane and a return to Corner View, I'm posting September's special at our local Starbucks--creme brulee macciata!
September, a time for something new, a time to reminisce, a time to reflect that as always, nothing stays the same.

Aikawarazu,

JGY

Corner View is a wonderful chance to be reminded that where it is Fall in one corner, it's Spring in another. For inspiring reflections on September, click on to the sites around the world which are listed in the post below (which by the way says 'in progress' but remains as is:))
♡

C.V. post in progress, journal entry from the first September I visited Japan...

9/7/90

I remember my first trip on this train, from Oita to Tsukumi. That was after: a 13-hour plane ride to a new country, Japan; another plane from Tokyo to Oita; a hovercraft to meet those waiting for us; shopping in Oita, talk of the katsura I would be wearing; looking in the mirror as my hair was being cut at S's suggestion; wondering what the rest of Yoshi's family would be like, how they would react to me; between wonder and feeling too tired to even think about it; wearing my new clothes; just wanting sleep and a shower; not being able to get seats on this train.
I remember sweating, looking out the window, but being aware mostly of wanting to sit. Still a boat ride awaited us.
Now, a little under one month later, I see the green of the rice fields, tiled roofs of the houses. Approaching Usuki, a town already familiar; we had our wedding here. Next stop, Tsukumi. I look out the window this time for the familiar scenery, knowing the way to S's, along the canal or the opposite direction--the boat station for Hotojima. Marchen lies a little farther on the same route. Maybe I'll take a bicycle ride there later. And I look forward to getting to Hotojima, the warmth of Yosh's family,"gohan-o -taberu?"
How must he have felt on this train, knowing they were waiting, after he'd been in America for four years? We've been away four days, and it's such a nice feeling to be back...


happy september!!

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,

caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, crescent moon, erin, otli, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, april, b, kyndale samantha, karen, kristina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, desiree, travelingmama, aimee, sunnymama, amanda, ali, jenell, britta, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, susi, jodi, lily, gillian,

athena, pienduzz, latisha, clairette, kelleyn, iris, demara, mus, ninja, guusje, di, sammi, theresa, cherry b, victoria

morning metronome

(counting the number of syllables in each line of a cricket's poem)

28
pause

36
pause

23
short pause

58
pause

36
pause

13
pause

34
pause

16
short pause

30
pause

52
p
45

pause
64pause
53pause
37 shortpause
42pause 50 pause
3caws of a crow

Then I began putting the words of my morning meditation into the lengths of the lines of the crickets.
The sounds that began as background suddenly appeared in front of me.
How high the moon rised when I opened
my eyes.

Mt. Fuji & the enlightened child

A fun recent post on Cabri ole's blog --- an image of a child with a sheet over his head-turned-elephant-- inspired me to post this photo I took this summer of Y, with a sheet over her head-turned-Mt. Fuji.

Can't you tell she's disguised as the mountain?!

It's from the one series of photos I took this summer at Kripalu. Y & I had a wonderul mother-daughter weekend. I participated in a 'grown up' workshop and she did a kids Yoga Arts workshop. We met for lunch and swims in the lake. I attended a meditation workshop run by an amazing couple from California, Lorin Roche and Camille Maurine. I'm still on a buzz from it, reading the text, the Radiance Sutras, daily and finding the world a little more radiant each time.

On the last day of the weekend, as I was trying to get Y to pack, she started doing her thing under the white sheets, squirming around and screaming
"I reached it!
I reached it!..."

I could only surmise, since this was Kripalau and she had just been immersed in her first taste of the magic there, that she was referring to enlightenment. We went on to play our own after-enlightenment game, where-in I threw (soft) pillows at the enlightened child, who at this point was in child's pose under the sheets.
I was writing this down, and told her it's been recorded for posterity.

"Posterity" (?) (!)
She screams,
and throws another
pillow.

♡

この夏，なつみに会いました。私が，『日本語で書けるようになればいいな〜』となつみに話しました。
ちょとずつ頑張ろうと思います＾０＾
今の記事はアメリカのマサチュセツ州にあるクリパロと言うヨガの所についてです。
娘と一緒に三日間行きました。
とても楽しかったです。
この写真は安が富士山になりました。

Aikawarazu bookshelf---for young readers

Do you know the story of Hachiko?
I posted a mini review on Bionic Bong--a pop culture site that has interesting tid bits about Japan--about Hachiko Waits, written by Leslea Newman.
You can take a look here, bionicbong.hachiko-fever/
My daughter only reads manga, I would love to get her to start reading young reader novels like this!

white morning moon against a blue sky

Can you see, how it's poised?
As if someone were pointing it out.
Really it was like a magician
pulled open a curtain, without using props,
and there it was.
Then, the same magician let loose 3 black birds from stage right,
without letting me see
if they came out of a hat.
In a blink of my eyes,
they flew right towards that moon,
and disappeared
into thin air.


♡have a happy magic today
JGY

backstage pass

Do we need to discover the radiance in the ones we love
before we can find the divine sparkle in ourselves?
Or, do we need to know the radiance in ourselves in order to see
the divine sparkle in the ones we love?

ai♡ kawarazu
愛♡かわらず
♡
JGY

Hear only a smile

Did you ever want to kiss
the breeze?
Sure that it was a living
breathing form in front of you.
Did you ever want to bite
into a cold steel rail
around a fenced-in tree
just to know
what your teeth
can do?

When I opened my notebook
to write this down
a gold circle fell from the pages
into my hand.
On it was your sign,
and a recycle mark.
I close my eyes tight
ready to re-live
my birth.

Oh, this
is meditation.
Stopped on the way home
straddling the bar of my bicycle,
my feet firmly on the ruddy gravel road.
My guitar in it's black frumpy case
leaning on a moss-topped
concrete wall.
Clutching my notebook
turned up to the sky,
reflecting the blue
and not asking
why.

Widdershins and a sketch from today

Widdershins, I title this sketch, By JGY

I thought April would like this word! It arrived via dictionary.com*.
I'll confess that I receive a word a day to help keep my English vocabulary from
withering away!

But when would I have a chance to even whisper this word?
Could it weave into this drawing I did today with my friend Steve.
We whiled away the late afternoon in a weekly drawing time we set aside beginning today.


Oh, but you're waiting to hear what it means...

*Pronunciation: ['wid-êr-shinz]

Definition: Moving in a direction opposite the usual; moving counterclockwise or in the contrary direction (of the sun, especially).

Usage: Today's word is basically an adverb but may be used as an adjective without the final [s]. As a predicate adjective, however, the [s] is usually left on. D. H. Lawrence wrote in 'Plumed Serpent' (1926) "She made up her mind, to be alone, and to cut herself off from all the mechanical widdershin contacts. He, too, was widdershins, unwinding the sensations of disintegration and anti-life."

Etymology: Middle Low German weddersinnes based on wider "back," whence German wider "against" and wieder "again." The English adverb wither "wrong, perverse" is rarely used any more. The "shins" is from earlier "sinnes" and is related to Latin sentire "sense, feel" since both go back to an original root *sent- "go in or choose a direction." We borrowed "sense" from the noun of this verb. The same root also turns up in English send "to cause someone to go in a direction."



Joanne Yoshida, Aikawarazu Life in Japan

moon-inspired poem
When you invited me to swim
deep into your heart
in breast stroke I
did go.