More Eisa in Shinjuku

To perform this role, you don't need to beat a drum or play a sanshin. However, you must be able to whistle very loudly through your teeth.

Performing Eisa on the main street of Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Eisa Time in Shinjuku

Eisa! Nothing is more exciting than this "ghost dancing" parade that takes place in midsummer. The eisa festivities are one of the many Japanese ways to keep family members and friends who have passed away alive in the heart. The drums, the music, and the dancing are a welcome back rite for the loved ones we have lost--and a vigorous "get out of here" warning to whatever evil spirits might be lurking.

Okinawa culture is riding an unprecedented wave of popularity, especially among people who were not born there but visited the island and fell in love with it. It is even popular among those who have never, ever been there.

Culture is said to be the crystallization of human wisdom, knowledge of the secret workings of the heart made visible. That may explain Okinawan culture's power of attraction.

Hokkaido Summit: The Right Message

I heard a complaint that, by serving delicious food, the Hokkaido Summit was sending the wrong message about the environment and the food crisis. I beg to differ. It was exactly the right message, and here it is, spelled out:

The Earth is bountiful when treated right.

Mother Nature's gifts--fruit and vegetables, grain, meat and fish, milk and butter--plus human ingenuity in preparing them for consumption are what was on display in Hokkaido.

Do the critics want the land to stop producing potatoes? Should people stop thinking of the endless variations in how to serve potatoes? I don't think so.

What is wrong is political ineptness that keeps food from getting to where it can be appreciated.

Mother Nature does not set the price of fuel. Governments do. Mother Nature does not create import and export rules. Legislatures do. The Earth was not created with distribution networks in place. People did that, too.

The food served in Hokkaido did not come out of a bottle or a can. It came from the land and sea and was prepared by human beings who care about what we eat. Take Hokkaido as a model.

If we take care of the land and sea and put the Earth's bounty into the hands of the people, everyone can eat as well as they did at the summit.

Faster than a Speeding Bullet Train

Here it comes, the fastest land transportation there is---Japan's linear motor car. No wheels, no engine, no exhaust. Electro-magnetic power makes the train float a few inches above the rails and also propels it forward.

If you can lay your hands on two magnets, you can use one to push the other across a table. That same principle--North pole opposing South pole or vice versa--when magnified to vastly superior heights of sophistication runs this train.

As the old joke goes, it takes three people to see it: one to yell, "Here it comes" while the second one yells, "Here it is" and the third person screams, "There it goes."

Day for Romance

The seventh day of the seventh month is the most romantic night of the year, at least in Japanese mythology. For one whole year, the weaver star and the cow-herder star have been waiting for their chance to meet each other on the same side of the Milky Way. July 7 is the night.

This is the festival called "Tanabata". It's the night when wishes are supposed to come true.

People celebrate by decorating a huge sprig of bamboo. Is sprig the right word for something that might be nine feet tall? Bamboo grows fast, but that's beside the point.

The bamboo branch/sprig/whatever is decorated with bright paper decorations--lace cutouts, interlocking rings, and tanzaku. Tanzaku are wishes, written out on strips of colored paper. Anything goes, from "I hope it doesn't rain on the fireworks" to "Let there be world peace."

Today I saw one: "I wish we could afford steak for supper."

The rest of the celebration consists of dressing up in light summer kimono and playing with sparklers and other fireworks that you can do at home.

It will be fun. If it doesn't rain. When the weather is bad, those two stars have to wait another full year for another chance to make their dreams come true.

Bugs and Bougainvillea

Here they are, the Ladies of the South Pacific, also known as Tree Nymph butterflies.

They are the largest butterfly native to Japan, found only where the temperature can be counted on not to drop below 15 degrees C. That means Okinawa.