168 posts tagged “japan”
--Julian
I read somewhere that author Dan Brown has an hourglass in which the sand flows for one hour. He uses it when writing to tell him when it’s time to take a break.
Every morning I sit at my desk and get lost in the pleasure of exploring kanji Chinese characters. I knew immediately that a 60-minute hourglass was exactly what I needed as well. I ordered one at the hobby store Tokyu Hands (¥13,500/$150/100 euros/£.90). It arrived recently and has quickly become a fetishised object.
This precision instrument is a thing of simple beauty and perfect utility. When I look up and see that the contents have trickled to the bottom, I know it’s about time to stand up and do something physical before sitting down once again, inverting the glass, and diving back into the Japanese language.
--Julian
In an old part of Tokyo in the late afternoon, I passed a narrow alley. The houses faced each other, almost touching, and pots of flowers and plants filled the available space. The sky behind had turned red, and I felt a sudden and unexpected rush of love for the density of human existence; so many lives being led so closely together.
Tokyo at sunset
chaos of humanity
ache of affection
--Julian
We go to the movies a lot here in rural Chigasaki, and usually stumble out from our aisle seats when the end credits begin to roll. We do it with no thought other than that the film's over, and there always seem to be others making a quick exit.
Yesterday we went to metropolitan Tokyo to catch a film that hadn’t made it to local screens. What astounded me was that everyone stayed in their seats during the end credits. As the names were slowly presented for minutes on end, I looked around at my fellow audience with growing incredulity. I noted that a few were quietly checking their phones, but otherwise no one spoke or moved until the lights went up.
I can only guess this was etiquette: a show of respect toward the film, any film. The one we’d watched had been a crime against cinema; Dave White deftly and accurately describes it as “a swirling suckpool of incoherence.” But no one moved anyway. I suspect this is uniquely Japanese behavior and, now that I've thought about it... I like it.
What's your end-credit behavior?
--Julian
And in this season when the last of the rice, harvested and hung to dry, is threshed in the paddies under brilliant sunshine
when great banks of purple, red, and white cosmos daisies bloom
the last suzumushi bell crickets trill in the dark of the October evening
before the silence of winter
--Julian
At the foot of Mount Kintokiyama in Hakone near Tokyo, hidden deep in the forest behind Kintoki Shrine is a boulder near the hiking trail topped by a smaller shrine and an enormous ax, weapon of the legendary boy warrior Kintaro who supposedly grew up with his animal friends on and around this mountain that is now named for him.
--Julian
Tonight is the night of the autumn moon. Here in Japan, we gaze on it with custom-made sweets.
--Julian
a hunting mantis
reflected on tatami
--Julian
