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bleak winters day
Trees
talking to each other, waiting. |
Very
ominous wind swept trees overhead. |
Pattern
shifting bark on a tree. |
It
was a particularly harsh cold winters day today. As work was winding up
for Christmas I've been franticlly busy, so I went to a more secluded park at lunchtime for a
snooze. It had only felt like yesterday I went to the same park in the
balmy summer heat for a similar reason. (Not that I like to make a
habit of spending my lunch hours snoozing in public parks I hope you understand).Though with today's rest, I couldn't
sleep, it was far too cold, there were too many crows squabbling over
garbage and the park had an isolated, haunted feel about it. The trees
in this park have a fascinating bark texture and pattern; slivers,
grays, blacks and dark greens, just looking at the bark long enough and
you could see a million and one different shapes and patterns emerge. I
always think in colder weather everyday things gain mass, the trees
didn't look like wood but grizzled pieces of iron. The park has a small
土俵 (どひょう - Arena) and I pictured for a bit the trees were old men
muttering to each other waiting for wrestlers that would never turn up
in weather as cold as this.
That was an extended winter blues haiku I *think*
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| Posted by
sasqwach
at
December 22, 2005 10:59 PM
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地震 - jishin
There was what felt like a massive earthquake while I was at work a
few weeks ago, although it ranged only 4 or 5 on Japans earthquake
scale and the building I'm working in is very new and *should* be
earthquake proof, it didn't stop myself and a co-worker running down 11
flights of stairs...
"Has it stopped? I think it's over pant-pant"
"No! It's still going! Don't stop! Wheeze!"
"Wait for me! Agh my shoe!"
You're supposed to hide under your desk and wait for the shaking to stop, but no thanks, I will take my chances with the stairs.
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| Posted by
sasqwach
at
December 10, 2005 5:57 PM
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高潔な会社？
 This is a story I saw on TV a few weeks ago, it was disputed as an urban legend, though it turned out to be actually true.....
There was a salesman at a traditional Japanese company, Japanese man.
Click here to continue reading this entry... |
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| Posted by
sasqwach
at
October 9, 2005 4:12 PM
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水戸偕楽園 - Mito National Park
  Living in Chiba (the outskirts of Tokyo) you certainly get plenty chances to go to better parks than in the centralised Tokyo. This weekend my partner and I took the fickle decision to stay on the regular commute train back to our home, all the way to the end of the line, another prefecture and completely not Tokyo, another city entirely: Mito. It was quite a long journey and I was surprised that the train line went on for so long from the heart of Tokyo (well Ueno, which is semi central) all the way into another prefectural district.(the equivalent of crossing states in the US) By the time we arrived, it was beginning to get a little dark, it is Autumn after all. A few of the larger parks were closed so we couldn't enter, but the sheer size of the National Park was huge. We got round only a small section that was still remaining open, but the sunset and the purple half light of the dusk made for pleasurable viewing especially with all the leaves turning yellow, reds and golds. Definitely will need to visit here again some time. Website: http://www.koen.pref.ibaraki.jp/park/kairakuen01.html
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| Posted by
sasqwach
at
September 28, 2005 8:31 PM
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金沢 - Obon in Kanazawa
 Currently its the Japan Obon holiday.
Obon is basically a time following Buddhist tradition that the dead are honoured and families return to their homes to catch up with family. I would say the latter is more celebrated now than the Bhuddist tradition, though you do see lots of Bon-Dori dancing, parades and many people make offerings to dead relatives.
Incidentally this period is as close an equivalent Japan gets to Halloween. Not in the sense of "trick or treating" more in terms of the original "all hallows eve" - the dead are at their closest on October 31st, and with coming winter rise from the grave to warm themselves.
The same could be said of Obon, though is its in the heart of a very, very hot summer season, the dead are more likely to rise as the ground is too hot ! The likeness between Halloween and Obon continues with Obon being the favoured time for telling 怪談 （かいだん - kaidan - "Ghost Stories") As its believed that telling each other "chilling" stories can help reduce the body temprature. This certainly explains the "chiller" type ghost stories from Japan such as Ring, Ju-on, etc
During Obon almost all Japanese companies will have a 3 day holiday for employees to "respect the dead"
Obon is usually preceded by lots of hanabi firework parties and a general winding down period at work as business will be officially closed for 3 consecutive days. During this time you can feel a definite change in gear as the hard efforts of enduring the summer heat shift down, its almost a continental fiesta feeling.
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| Posted by
sasqwach
at
August 14, 2005 3:50 PM
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Excellent Tree (松)
 Pine trees grow just about everywhere. My own native country is covered with them, but your commoner garden pointy christmas tree type. I dont know what makes the pine trees grow in Japan the way they do, but I find them fascinating. Whether they are preened to grow this way or grow naturally or due to wind change, they certainly are beautiful to look at. Even trees I've seen out in remote hills and mountains seem to have the "preened" look. I must stress I'm no "tree hugger" by any means, but if I pass a 松 (matsu) I'm a sucker to stop and take it in for a bit. The kanji for pine tree is 松 made of two character radicals:
木 - tree
公 - public, official Therefore:松 - public offical tree !?  The traditional Japanese Pine is frequently used for bonsai trees,
equally just as beautiful, but I'm a bit of a philistine when it comes
to bonsai thinking more on terms of; "Well its very nice, but don't you have any in a bigger size ?"So when I do come across a "jumbo", out comes the camera. In Japan upon dying your ashes are usually interned in a grave but I think I'll have to have mine planted beneath a 松 and be evergreen. |
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| Posted by
sasqwach
at
August 3, 2005 3:01 PM
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下田 - Shimoda Beach
 Summer time has come and its off to the Beach ! My first summer in Japan was an almost historically cold and gloomy experience. I was informed Japan's summers were insufferably hot, but 2004 was a very mild affair which even led to rice crops failing due to lack of heat and sunshine ! This year however its a scorcher and my partner and I are off South to Shimoda,  famed for its beach resorts. We've been travelling quite a bit recently so this time to keep costs down we decided to take the bus rather than train and stay at the cheapest place possible. We took a night bus, so we arrived at dawn and the beach was deserted, as the day went by the beach soon filled up. The beach in Japan has its own unique experience; every country has its own "beach style" with the exception of Scotland - As Far as I got to going to the beach as a youngster was Nairn, which albeit is a beach town,though many holidays were spent sitting in the car waiting for the rain to stop drinking Bovril. Japan's Beach experience revolves around the beach house. |
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| Posted by
sasqwach
at
July 29, 2005 10:53 AM
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誕生日 Birthday Party
 Just got back from Golden Week holiday and got all the friends round for a mexican cook out and console tomfoolery. The menu was Salad, Quesedillas, Salsa, Beef Chilli, Guacamole, Chicken Fajitas and CAKE ! As you can see the NES emulator was providing much nostalgic entertainment.Known as Famicom in Japan I think every Japanese person in Japan has a "Famicon" favourite or memory. Everyone was exchanging "you do it that way !? that's stupid, you miss that block with the super mushroom !" I always was useless at original Mario Bros, I'm more a SNES Super Mario Land guy... <excuses-excuses> By 5 o clock I was exhausted from cooking and all the eating, beer and cake, I ended up falling asleep and waking at 10 where everybody was still in full flow! By that time the PS2 EyeToy was on the go and everyone was bustling about the room, avoiding virtual punches or dancing in time to some virtual disco diva.I joined in for an hour or so but was knackered and then back to bed...Must be getting old.... though the party theme had a mental age of about 14. =) |
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| Posted by
sasqwach
at
May 1, 2005 12:29 PM
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那須 - Nasu
 Was a long this weekend past so me and my partner drove up North to Nasu in Tochigi Prefecture.
The drive itself was pretty easy though the toll gates are quite expensive. You can choose not to use them and take "non express way" routes but your seriously adding time to your journey. In UK where paying for usage of highways is unheard of, though toll bridges are common, I began to wonder if there was much difference between train fare and highway charges ?
When we arrived I was surprised to see it was still snow bound so little far north from Tokyo !
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| Posted by
sasqwach
at
March 28, 2005 4:34 PM
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