Took Kairi and the gang to Kelly & Yuka's Wedding.
Kairi and I spent most of the time wandering around, walking down stairs and up escalators, and doodling pictures. Ah, to by four again.
kelly & yuka's wedding
just sittin'
So I spent a few days in Tokeiin, a temple in the foothills of Shizuoka Prefecture, at a zen retreat. It was lead by Brad Warner, author of Hardcore Zen and Soto Buddhist Priest. And it was, surprisingly, a most beneficial experience. The food was awesome, too. Turns out the cook was a retired professional chef, so instead of the boring pious monk meals, we had some great stuff including tempura and veggie curry.
I was worried I'd be surrounded by crystal-hugging new age hippies, but was pleased to discover an international crowd (Spain, Canada, USA, France, Lithuania, Argentina, Ireland) of folks generally sincere and pleasant.
Typical day went something like this: 4:30 am wake up. Sit. Eat. Clean. Sit. Discuss. Sit. Eat. Sit. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.
I am not entirely convinced that the religion of Buddhism is necessary, though it certainly seems a better alternative than any other religion (a quote I heard and a challenge I make to fundamentalist Christians, Muslims, and Jews: "The principles of Zen Buddhism will not oppose reality, the realm of science.") The zen however, is another thing altogether. I thought swinging a sword for two hours every day was hard. Try this: Sit with your legs crossed reasonably uncomfortably (I recommend full lotus). Relax. Now stare at the wall. And don't move. For 10 minutes. 20 minutes. 30 minutes. 45 minutes.
Hard, isn't it? Not exactly inspirational, but the idea is that if you can sit and deal with your own random thoughts for half an hour, then all the other crap in life won't bug you as much. That's an extremely abridged version of an incredibly limited understanding, but you get the idea.
Oh yeah, I also did 20 minutes of yoga. It was incredibly grueling. I will never make fun of yoga hippies again.
So I am attempting some discipline and continue to wake up at 5:30 every morning and sit for half an hour. Does it help?
how to ruin a japanese garden
Ah, the architectural and artistic travesty that is Roppongi Hills. We grabbed some fine rotator sushi for lunch and checked out the newly opened Banana Republic (small, overpriced) before questing for icecream. Instead of icecream we found, right in the middle of the pond of the traditional garden, these massive Murakami sculptures...sigh...talking 'biggest strength is biggest weakness'; the great and terrible thing about Japan is the juxtaposition (car crash?) of old and new, modern and traditional. Sometimes it works: modern Danish furniture and traditional home architecture, modern retro kimono prints, shamisen mixed with rock. And other times, it fails miserably. Case in point. Then again, it wouldn't be Roppongi Hills unless it was gaudy, expensive, tasteless, overdone, and basically ineffective.
talk
First things first: googleTalk is La Bomba. Download and use. Right now it's only for folks with a gMail account, but that will change soon. BTW, if you want a gMail account, lemme know. I have tons.
Secondly, jetlag sucks bigtime. Still trying to reel my soul back in from NYC. I figure it's somewhere over Hokkaido, and will be with me shortly.
Secondly, jetlag sucks bigtime. Still trying to reel my soul back in from NYC. I figure it's somewhere over Hokkaido, and will be with me shortly.
NYC
Photos from post North Carolina.
Many days of shopping in CT and NYC, hanging out in Gramercy Park with the Guzilla Crew, aristrocratic blasphemy in the University Club, party with Lily, Rolands, and more, the new Moma, plus grandma chowing down on waffles with fruit and extra whipped cream at The Bucaneer!
the south will rise again
3 hour delay in Narita, 2 hour delay in Chicago. Finally got to the hotel in Raleigh at 1am. Up at 8am for traditional biscuits and gravy, grits and bacon breakfast. The whole gang was there: Jeff and Ericka with Lily, Will and Arisa with Big Riki, Lee and Charity, Jenn and Devon, Tony...
After Lily had a quick pee in the pool, we checked out the local farmer's market, tasted some peaches and honey and lemonade (lemons, sugar, water, cherries), picked up some vegan (?) cake, and got back for an afternoon nap before the wedding.
Hiroko was in fine form in her kimono, as were Lee and Charity in matching seersucker and of course Lee and Zareen in matching Traditional Native Dress (her native as in India, not his native as in overalls and a Nascar hat.) The food: samosas, curry, biscuits with country ham. The music: Kevin W. Beck's Worst Hits of the '80s.
The bar back at the Sheraton: devastated.
Finally made it to bed around 2am, up by 7am for breakfast, then Packy drove us to the airport for a puddle jump to LaGuardia.
After Lily had a quick pee in the pool, we checked out the local farmer's market, tasted some peaches and honey and lemonade (lemons, sugar, water, cherries), picked up some vegan (?) cake, and got back for an afternoon nap before the wedding.
Hiroko was in fine form in her kimono, as were Lee and Charity in matching seersucker and of course Lee and Zareen in matching Traditional Native Dress (her native as in India, not his native as in overalls and a Nascar hat.) The food: samosas, curry, biscuits with country ham. The music: Kevin W. Beck's Worst Hits of the '80s.
The bar back at the Sheraton: devastated.
Finally made it to bed around 2am, up by 7am for breakfast, then Packy drove us to the airport for a puddle jump to LaGuardia.
not like it's brain surgery or anything...
Hiroko's dad is doing fine so far. Had some basic, all day brain surgery to relieve the pressure of an aneurysm behind his left eye, in the part of the brain that makes him think Nomo has a shot at returning to the majors. Should have a cool head scar, too, which as we all know is key for impressin' the ladies.
elvis & ballerina
A wee Starbucks break with the kids before a huge cutting session at Honbu. Over 10 people, so we cut mats and made a whole buncha trash. Great session; I wasn't totally lame, but lame enough. Gotta work on my left kesa, and I didn't quite manage to get through the second roll on a double yoki-ichi
-- if I spiked the targets I would have had it, but since spiking is for sissies, I failed wonderfully. So much more to learn!
brunch @ cravings
Was supposed to meet up with The Buena Vista so that I could try and hook him up with Miri (full disclosure: it's her mom that's desparate, not Miri herself!) but he pulled an all-nighter partying. So, I swing'd by the Plant to get some pre-brunch fixins and headed over to Miri's.
Miri herself was having a bit of a late start, so I drank some iced coffee and waited for the air conditioner to kick into high gear. Did the standard sit/chat/stare at the grill until it was obvious that the Buena Vista was a no-show, and then Hiroko called and said she'd be along shortly, so I waited patiently before digging into my SuperSize scrambled eggs with all the trimmings.
Risa, her husband, and her dogs, kicked it at the outside tables, and then SkyCorp Penthouser drives by on his motorcycle, so I wave him in and he gives in to a brunch feast as well.
Managed to spend several hours talking smack and drinking coffee and harassing Miri about hooking up a wireless internet connection, so that I could really REALLY spend all day hanging out and being productive.
yakisoba & okonomiyaki
Popped across the street to check out the local Shinohashi Summer Festival. It is small, local, and basically lame. The kids seemed to enjoy it, but after walking up and down the few blocks looking for inspiration, we decided to just head into Komugi for some quality eats.
amy on the train
Met Todd and Amy at Akihabara station around noon and proceeded with the mission: backup solution for his digital photos, laptop replacement for Hiroko, and introduce Amy to the joys of Akiba. We nailed one, getting Todd a sweet external 120 gig HD, failed on the next, as Hiroko's old Thinkpad had secondary cache errors on the CPU and I had to beg them to trash it for me, let alone get any trade-in money for it.
And did Amy enjoy her afternoon out with the guys? She alternated between dead silence and giggling hysterics, she ate a bunch of sandwhiches and blueberry pie, and she was generally adorable and almost-three-ish.
meat @ barbacoa
Just basically too much meat. Garlic steack + grilled pineapple is the Food Of The Gods. After dinner I was so stuffed I walked home from Aoyama in a feeble attempt to burn it off. Needless to say it didn't help much.
stick this
Showed up at honbu and immediately realized it's the first Tuesday of the month: jo day.
A ridiculous number of people (12 at one point) jammed into the dojo to practice.
Admittedly, jo is not my thing, for several reasons:
I admit it's a damn good way to learn some fundamentals that we can all stand to work on; distance, timing, generating power from the hips.
A ridiculous number of people (12 at one point) jammed into the dojo to practice.
Admittedly, jo is not my thing, for several reasons:
- it's really, REALLY hard
- it's not a sword
I admit it's a damn good way to learn some fundamentals that we can all stand to work on; distance, timing, generating power from the hips.
license plate
Papa is the Prison Warden for the state of New Jersey. OK, that's a lie. He's actually in charge of re-engineering the Department of Motor Vehicles for the whole state. I think the idea is to use modern change management and leading technology to streamline the process of buying fake IDs online, or something like that.
He went to the prison where they make license plates and was given a gift. The joke is, his real CT license plate is exactly the same.
Reminds me of that old joke: What's the Secret Service codename for Al Gore?
Al Gore.
birthday summary
After work Hiroko and I had dinner at Lucky. It was typically dead and the mama-san who runs it was happy to see us, so we got free stuff (garlic potato salad!) and ate most leisurely.
Cruised home and took stock of my 33rd haul:
Cruised home and took stock of my 33rd haul:
- two equally silly electronic Hallmark greeting cards from my favorite mom and my favorite her twin sister.
- Five volume set (softcover) of Harry Potter. Yes, I know, so shutup already. I WANT to read them. Been a while since I read something fun in English. Loan Securitization documents don't count.
- Teku-teku Angel, in blue.
- Cool black Nike t-shirt from Masa declaring "The Legend Continues"
- Summer kimono and matching geta
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)