Category Archives: Japan, Travel & Culture

Happiness is BEIGE

According to Definitions from Oxford Languages the word beige is French. First appearing in English usage in the mid-19th century, it denotes the colour of unbleached and undyed woolen fabric. Surveys indicate that it is the single colour of paint … Continue reading

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5.3 Arrangements on a Table

The object of this lesson is to create arrangements suitable for those occasions when people gather around a table, often a dinner table but not always. Normally the arrangement is placed in the center and should suit the size of … Continue reading

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Loss & Change

Part way through my quarantine my friend A and I chat via Skype. I tell her I know that returning a month ahead of schedule without achieving any of the goals I’d set for my Tokyo sojourn was necessary and … Continue reading

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Departure Bound

After their brief moment of glory, once the leaves burst green among the pale sakura blossoms, the combined colours often appear dusty and unremarkable against late winter’s brown hillsides.  The magical phenomenon so long awaited is all but past. The … Continue reading

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Happiness and a Sign

Some years ago I worked through the “Proust Questionnaire.” I keep the questionnaire on my desktop and revisit it sometimes to see what might have changed. I did so tonight because the computer threw the draft of this post on … Continue reading

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Letting Go. Returning to Canada.

The potential of a Tokyo lock down increases as the numbers of C-19 cases escalate. On my arrival 4 weeks ago Japan was an outlier compared to the rest of the world. Or that was the party line while the … Continue reading

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Spring. Sakura. Snow.

Yesterday my website dashboard went rogue and inexplicably shut down before I was able to publish the previous post. Instead of fuming I decided to enjoy an evening walk under the sakura next door in Aoyama Cemetery. A light mist, … Continue reading

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Distancing & Preparing for Lockdown

An opinion column in the Japan Times described Japan as a corona virus-outlier. That was a week ago. Things change fast. Last weekend many residents of Tokyo ignored the government’s requests not to hold parties this year and took to … Continue reading

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An Afternoon in Meguro

It’s been six days since my last post and much has changed in that interval. Last Friday following the first day of spring in Kamakura, I received an email informing me that my 27 April flight to Vancouver had been … Continue reading

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Hokokuji, Kamakura Bamboo Garden

Accompanied by a lovely wind speaking from the canopy, late in the afternoon on the first day of spring I wandered through Hokokuji. A Zen Buddhist Temple in Kamakura renowned for its small garden of moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis). Established … Continue reading

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