It's Golden Week in Japan--a spring break studded with national holidays.
This weblog will be continued after Golden Week.
2009年4月28日火曜日
2009年4月18日土曜日
Little Shop Around the Corner
Sanshin shop, that is, and around the corner means just off the famous Kokusai Dori, the Fifth Avenue of Naha in Okinawa.
Here you can hear the owner and chief craftsman of Chindami, one of my favorite sanshin shops, in a duet. The song is called Tohshin Doi, and is a happy song that celebrates a ship's homecoming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4scZsVHyxNE
Here you can hear the owner and chief craftsman of Chindami, one of my favorite sanshin shops, in a duet. The song is called Tohshin Doi, and is a happy song that celebrates a ship's homecoming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4scZsVHyxNE
Hurray for Ichiro!
The born-in-Japan Seattle Mariners' sensation Ichiro Suzuki just set a Japanese baseball record: 3,086 career hits.
What makes Ichiro different? It's not really his name that sets him apart. The name "Ichiro Suzuki" is the "Jim Smith" of Japan. Well, going by his first name instead of his family name is just a teensy bit different, and it probably wasn't his idea. He is not a man who goes for publicity gimmicks.
What really sets him apart is his ability to focus, to concentrate and be in the moment. In Japanese, the word is "shu-chu-ryoku". Ichiro has it.
What makes Ichiro different? It's not really his name that sets him apart. The name "Ichiro Suzuki" is the "Jim Smith" of Japan. Well, going by his first name instead of his family name is just a teensy bit different, and it probably wasn't his idea. He is not a man who goes for publicity gimmicks.
What really sets him apart is his ability to focus, to concentrate and be in the moment. In Japanese, the word is "shu-chu-ryoku". Ichiro has it.
2009年4月9日木曜日
The Grandfather Tree
Japan's recorded history goes back some three thousand years, and for two thousand of those years, a single cherry tree has been blooming its heart out in Yamanashi Prefecture. Two thousand years!
It's huge. It would take something like 18 grown men all holding hands to make a circle around it.
It looks every bit its age--wrinkled, knotted and bent low to the ground--and it still blooms in a spectacular way.
Nothing is more amazing than the tenacity of life.
It's huge. It would take something like 18 grown men all holding hands to make a circle around it.
It looks every bit its age--wrinkled, knotted and bent low to the ground--and it still blooms in a spectacular way.
Nothing is more amazing than the tenacity of life.
登録:
投稿 (Atom)
