untitled on Flickr.
Everybody gets their shot in front of Glico Man.
Osaka, a few weeks ago.
Goma Fire Ritual Kongo-in Bishamon-ten Ekoin Mt. Koya (by Jason Protass)
Koyasan. On the agenda for this year.
Osaka, 2013.
Discovered on Monday:
colombo is a small used bookstore & espresso bar along the lines of Solder and Sons back in Vancouver (Hi Robert!). Highly recommended if you’re wandering around in Minami-Semba in Osaka and in need of a shot.
I’m spoiled after living in East Vancouver for a decade and doing the barista thing on The Drive for half of that, so it’s a pleasant surprise to find a good shot with the appropriate amount of hang-time on the crema and ll that jazz here. For all of the insistence on having the right gear, technique, and the fetishistic attention to detail, it’s genuinely amazing how very few places there are that do espresso right around here. At least in my experience so far. I’m looking forward to finding more.
Anyways. Just around the corner from Marimekko and Nanba Shrine.
You learn something new every day. Thanks, Yakuza! ^_^
Yakuza don’t dump bodies, they burn them | The Tokyo Reporter
“Digging a hole and covering a body with concrete is amateur stuff,” the gangster says. “Gas from the decomposing body will crack the concrete and it’ll be obvious what’s underneath.”
Today’s gangsters toss bodies into a mix of coal tar and gravel heated to 3,000 degrees centigrade. The gangster says that once the asphalt is spread out, for use in road pavement work, any sign of human life, including DNA, disappears entirely: “The high temperature incinerates the bones and flesh entirely.”
Send in the Clowns | Throw Out Your Books
Absurdity and Japanese Radicalism: A history of protest culture in Japan.
Here’s your good read for the week.
The construction of Narita Airport, one of the crowning achievements of the economic growth of post-war Japan, was also marred by the long and drawn-out protests against it by local farmers and student radicals, who battled police for years in a futile effort to stop the relentless destruction of Japanese rural communities in the name of “progress”. Now long-haul international flights are coming into Haneda again and it is tempting to conclude that the new airport was never even needed in the first place.
Radicalism and revolt are not novel to Japan by any means. Even during the feudal era, like any civilization, the oppressed rose up in local and larger scale rebellions. There were some 3,000 peasant uprisings in the Tokugawa period and around 500 urban disturbances. Major outbreaks include the Shimabara Rebellion in Kyushu in 1637-1638, which centered around a messianic young boy leader. Likewise Anpo was an unusually large mass movement but it was not isolated even in the post-war years; in many ways it was the culmination of nearly 1,000 other much smaller but nonetheless incendiary incidents between 1952 and 1960.
#nara #japon #japan #いいね #pictoftheday
Busy with the New Year’s cleaning over here. Quick coffee break after hosing down the balcony and washing the outside windows before we move on to the interior. Yesterday and the day before was cleaning the school and family business from top to bottom. Spring cleaning back home has nothing on New Year’s O-soji . Thorough.
Also: bought my first shimenawa (like the one pictured above) and hung it on our door. Domestic life!
Here’s a good bit from the Japan Times on celebrating New Year’s.
(via chikuri)
From matsuri/festival a couple of weeks ago.
Solid read for those in the neighbourhood or wondering where the current state of national malaise/listlessness is at.
Thorough, consistent, amusing: why I still love Néojaponisme.
Visiting the ancestors before New Year’s.
Annual visit to Shoryakuji Temple to see the Fall colours. Brrr! And lovely.
8..6.12. bon odori
solarflares — nara soundscape
solarflares: recording fields
Bon Odori at Gokoku Shrine. August 6, 2012.
Recorded on a humid August night at what I learned later to be a “Defend Japan” shrine in Nara. The snaky guitar lines give it an uncanny African feel, love the clipping on the PA system.
Recorded using iRig app on my phone. Pic by me as well.
Busy days.
FRIDAY: Showed Colin Marshall around town. We did the full circuit: Day-long walk around Nara: JR Nara, Sanjo-dori, Sarusawa Pond, Nanendo, Kofukuji pagoda, Nara Park, National museum was off limits due to crazy long line-ups for the last day of the annual Shoso-in treasure exhibition, then off to Todaiji/the Big Buddha, up to Nigatsu-do overlooking Nara city, back down and through Nara-machi including Gangoji, then shotengai maze-guiding and finishing off with okonomiyaki and beer.
Two realizations:
a) I still marvel at the beauty of my new hometown,
and
b) I could start charging, doing the tour guide thing. A little extra yen on the side….
Oh yeah, I got interviewed for his podcast. Stay tuned.
SATURDAY: Up early for work, and then friends’ going-away party in Osaka. Glad we had to catch the last train back, as everyone was smoking in this cozy little basement bar and 6 months in on my quit, that kind of party atmosphere is still too tempting. One drink and then split, feeling old. Review copies for the Liminal showed up in my inbox. Start listening/scribbling. Up late.
SUNDAY: Up early, off to Kyoto for Chagall exhibition and to order New Years osechi. YMO vinyl and got a new watch at my favourite shop, United Arrows: Happy birthday to me! Back to Nara for dinner with the in-laws. Mmmmmm, yakiniku.
MONDAY: My birthday, Japan time. Long walk to Kasuga Shrine to set official wedding date, long lunch, then off to hire a photographer, set date for kimono fittings, then dinner again with the in-laws.
TUESDAY (today): Good morning! I have two birthdays, as it is now November 12, N. America time. My phone lighting up every few minutes with fb push notifications of b-day well-wishes; I love my pals back home. Just spent my Amazon gift card (thanks mom!), much needed books coming my way in the mail. First issue of my WIRE magazine gift subscription showed up today!
And now, finish this coffee and back to teaching all week. Phew!
I am still astounded that this is within walking distance from my home.
Autumn
