some themes from the year so far

i would say more about these if I was in the presence of mind to write anything beyond the list...but writing the list is itself important

portals vs. monsters
TIME
-past, present, future
-the clock and the calendar
-series of events in a causal chain
-moments and memories
PLACE
-the scope of a city
-riding a bike vs. taking the train
-how scenery changes
time+place
-weather
-seasons
-trees
-photographs
The Island
-sitting on rocks and under trees
-mountains emerging from water
-continents are islands, too
Having hobbies and being skillful
Many Lives
tangling and untangling
Bumbling
Bodies
-faces
-hands
-feet
-eyes
-ears
-mouths
-stomachs
-Open up your throat!

Everything Is
-crazy
-the same
-different
-layers
-patterns
-rhythms
-flowers
-the ocean

South Korea's got Seoul, South Korea likes to rock n roll

I just got back from a lovely little jaunt to South Korea. Korea Sparkling! I went to Seoul and stayed with my cousin Michael, who has been teaching English there for about three years. I didn't do too much sightseeing, mostly I wandered all around Seoul and ate incredibly delicious and cheap things. The best (and wildest, perhaps) was live octopus.

(just watch it squirm for a little bit)

We also ate raw beef, a few different kinds of Korean bbq, a delicious fried meat thing in a huge rectangle, lots and lots of kimchi, and a ton of really good street food. The best street food came in a tent with lots of old Korean people (who started a fight with each other).

Michael and me and a crazy Korean man. I'll let you figure out who is who.

Aside from eating, I was mostly just in shock the whole time at how Korea is totally not Japan. Compared to Japan, Koreans are real people! They are not robots or ants like Kyoto residents, they look around on the subway and talk on their cell phones on the bus and are loud and gregarious and SO friendly. Also I was in a pretty big shock at the sprawl and magnitude of the city of Seoul.

The north-west expanse of the city from the top of the 63 Building


Seoul is really the city from Blade Runner, the city of the future

One friend asked me, what will I expect from Japan after being in Korea? I realized a few important things. One is, my thoughts are almost completely in Japanese, which I hadn't really realized until being in a place where both the language's sounds and written alphabet are utterly unlike either of the two languages I can speak. Yeah, languages are SO crazy. I also realized, it is really nice to be with your family. I also realized, for the next month, I need to enjoy Japan as much as possible. Spring has pretty much arrived, and springtime is the season! The good things don't last, and there is no use complaining when I have it so easy.

spring field trip

Well, the spring field trip turned out to be more fun than I thought it would. I knew the things we would be doing would be fun, such as:
-a castle
-a cool old shrine
-a great forest
-the Ocean
-some onsen
-a river boat ride
-an amazing waterfall
-a cooler but more anticlimactic old shrine
-some rocks

But the missing thread was the bus. My friends and I (Jason, Jason, Richard, Hannah, Kendall, and Ben) discovered that the back of the bus we were on could turn from normal back of the bus into a really sweet limousine-like circle. So there were 6 of us (Kendall would come and go) in a circle of 12 seats. We had tons of room, we spread out, we allowed each other naps and music listening time, but it was mostly a lot of good conversation and a lot of alcohol. We wanted curtains to really make it a room, even though we referred to it as a room. We spent an obscene amount of time on the bus throughout the three days, so being in such a comfortable arrangement was highly satisfying.

Here are some photos.

it's the same ocean....


I built a rock pile.


These rocks are married.










The next big adventure: Korea.

recently I was asking, What does the rest of February have in store? And the 28th turned out to be one of my favorite days of the month. The weather was sunny and beautiful after a week of rain and depression. I biked to Kyoto, met my friend Danielle for lunch, ate delicious thai food, met our friend Machiko, went to the river, took off my shoes and socks, sat in the sun for a bit, met our friend Jason, formed a bike gang, went to Daimonji, climbed the mountain, talked about meaningful and meaningless things, looked at the view, got our shoes muddy, came down the mountain. Then the dynamic totally shifted.

I rode my bike to the middle of the city and met my friend Allie, a great friend from high school who is studying abroad about 30 minutes away from Kyoto. She and I met up with Seanacey, Kojiro, and Mamu, my friends from tea ceremony. The 5 of us went to a concert at a curry udon restaurant. The restuarant is owned by a guy who goes by Master and the concert was 3 Australians playing "experimental music" that I had met the week before with Seanacey and Kojiro. This story is really tangled and I don't really want to get into it right now. But the show was amazing. Before the Australians played, two Japanese guys played. The second one also played "experimental music" but the first one was ridiculous. he was playing a Swiss instrument called a hang. It is sort of like a cross between a steel drum and a tabla, but sounds like water. Watching this guy play his hang was one of the most beautiful things I had seen in a while. After the show, we chatted with the musicians and with Master for a while, and then I biked home.

Yesterday, Sunday March 1 was a high school day. Today was Monday, tomorrow is Tuesday, Wednesday is Taiko, and Thursday is the start of the three day all AKP spring field trip. We are going to Wakayma and to Ise. I am pretty excited to do everything we are doing, and I am excited to observe all AKP interacting together, but I am not excited to participate with all AKP interacting together.