Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
As per the song lyrics quoted in the title, I guess I should have included photos of the Chao Phraya River. Maybe next time!Bangkok, Oriental settingAnd the city don’t know that the city is gettingOne night in Bangkok and the world’s your oysterThe bars are temples but the pearls ain’t freeYou’ll find a god in…
I am fascinated almost to the point of obsession with fall. Cool weather, sweaters, and—the crowning glory—fiery, changing leaf colors!! Amazing! Observing the passing of the seasons seems so novel to one who has lived the majority of her life in Lands of Few Seasons. One thing I like about tea ceremony and ikebana is…
It was the quietest parade I’ve ever seen, but that’s fitting for a recreation of a funeral procession, I suppose. The Hyakumono-Zoroe Sennin Gyoretsu, or Parade of 1,000 Samurai, departs from the Futarasan-jinja Shrine, proceeds down a sloping hillside to Otabisho, then returns. A year after the 1616 death of Iyeyasu Tokugawa, the first shogun…
Long ago, in the year 766, procession of monks was journeying north of Edo. When they came upon the river Daiya, they were unable to continue, for the river cut a gorge through the mountains. Suddenly, from out of the water appeared Jinja-Daio—the terrifying 10-foot-tall god of the river. But instead of trouble, he brought…
A beautiful fall day dawned warm and bright. My Ikebana-sensei, Ms. Suzuki-san, picked me up from Sakuragaoka Station and we headed off to the outskirts of Yokohama City for the Soba Noodle Festival. I didn’t know soba flowers were so pretty! We briefly admired the field and the skill of the noodle-choppers, but Suzuki-san had…
…chado (tea ceremony) lessons continue with the introduction of my new fall tea bowl, which features two orange and one green Japanese maple leaves floating on an autumn breeze. It could also be a river, which is perfect for here and now, for enjoying tea as the seasons change in our little Japanese house along…
First stop in Bangkok: Wat Traimit. Wat means temple. This temple in the Samphanthawong District near Chinatown houses the largest solid gold Buddha in the world. It weighs in at 11,000 pounds!! Apparently Laos, Burma and Thailand used to invade each other a lot and steal each other’s Buddhas, so someone along the way got…
