A year after I held a Senses from Japan gathering, I was back in Whidbey Island. This time, to kickoff a series of Ikebana workshop – we named this series Whidbey Friends and Flowers. “We,” because two of my good friends who now live in the island worked closely with me to make this event …
Different from the normal practice, there were five empty vases in the alcove, four lined up on the floor, and one hanging on the pillar on the left side. There was no insence container in the alcove. Five of us all sat in a circle, and each picked a small rectangular wooden chip. On the …
After the woodworking workshop, we moved to cafeteria, where each instructor took seat on one table. The potential applicants and his/her parents had a chance to ask specific questions about TASK one-on-one basis. The person I wanted to talk to was not any instructor but the person in charge of PR, Furutani-san. He also had …
In addition to planning how to be, there is another thing I do when I write my journal every morning: I count how many days left for me. How many days left from when? The day I die. I arbiturarily chose that day to be my 100th birthday, because I want to live well until …
Kudo-sensei’s presentation included a video clip from a TV documentary that was recently broadcast in Japan, which featured two foreign students studying at TASK. Ryan came from the UK to study woodwork. Asked why he became interested in Japan, he said his first encounter to Japan’s culture was the Legend of Zelda, a Nintendo video …
Can you guess what this plant is? Yes, cabbage. What a big deal. To me, however, this cabbage was a surprise. Having grown up in a city, I always bought vegetables from a shop. I did see tomatoes and cucumbers growing in my grand parents’ farm, but I also saw the produce being laid out …
A Sunday morning in late March, 2019. I was waiting for a train bound for Sonobe at Platform 33 in Kyoto Station. I was the first or second on the line but soon the line got quite long with people mainly with hiking boots and a backpack. I had no idea this local line would …
All the way at the back of the 3rd floor, Nagasu-san was sitting cross-legged. Her Samue jacket looked comfortable. On the right side of her laps were several wood carving knives with different shapes of tips. On her left side laid photos of wooden statues. She was working on something, but when I approached her, …