Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
Rain sprinkled across my windshield as I pulled into the JMSDF building where we costume up. But thankfully by the time we boarded the buses to Higashi-Rinkan the cloud layer had risen and the evening was beautiful, if humid. Tonight was even more fun than yesterday. We knew the route; we knew the drill. We’re…
Our Awa Odori routine has slight variations: short and long; version A or B; with or without the important people’s interlude in the middle. The first time we got the passback for long version A today I tilted my head and did a dramatic Japanese, “EEEEEeeeeeehhhhhh?” The lead girl started to explain it again slower…
I love summer in Japan. I love mincing along in my yukata to the train station as the sun sinks behind the mountains, illuminating a dark silhouette of Fuji. I can smell the fish my neighbor is cooking for dinner and incense smouldering at a local shrine. A breeze picks up and the evening star…
I’ve been dreaming of Singapore lately because exactly a year ago Chris and I were shopping the markets of Little India and the Arab Quarter buying silk scarves, chopsticks, teapots and a duvet. In a cramped medicine shop near Chinatown’s Buddha Tooth Temple I found honeysuckle tea for my mom and me. That sounded like…
“The helicopter on deck on the very front of the carrier….that’s me with my rotors turning waiting to take off after just having landed for fuel.Love, Chris”
Wondering what Chris is up to? He can’t really tell me, but the international news can. A week ago the USS George Washington (aircraft carrier) sailed from Busan, South Korea to participate in operation Invincible Spirit with the South Korean military in the East Sea, or Sea of Japan. News agencies reported this as a…
A Kanagawa Shimbun (newspaper) reporter came to a Bon Odori dance practice a few weeks ago and was kind enough to ask me a few questions about Japanese dance. I figured this was the time to pull out all the stops and go overboard on the cheese, so when he asked what drew me to…
