Anything Particularly Missing?

Three weeks after my return to Canada the question is tucked into the middle of an email. Anything you find yourself particularly missing about Japan?

Oh yes, yes and yes. I choose a bullet format and fire back a list. Eventually I stop with a final bullet which reads: And more….

Much of the list is about school. Oh how I miss Sogetsu School. Even when the branches wouldn’t stay fixed and design problems left me vexed, school was (is) always joy. I don’t have words to match the great constriction in my heart when I stop to think about it (which is likely why I don’t let myself do it).

For that reason, today I’ll let the pictures talk. Here are a few of the particulars:

  • Multiple weekly classes– I could choose between one and seven sessions each week

  • Rooms filled with flowers, equipment and resources waiting for me to create

  • Ramping up my creative juices and choosing materials at the start of each lesson
  • My creations

  • Company of women and men who are incredible artists
  • Multiple demonstrations by master teachers daily

  • Numerous students’ creations which stimulate my mind to fresh ideas
  • Quiet industry and creative energy in that environment
  • Huddling with others from all over the world around the translator

  • Golden light of the setting sun reflected in the windows along Aoyama-dori on my way home from school

  • Flowers crammed into every container sitting on my non-existent counter top (Yup! That’s the entire surface, a few inches on either side of the sink.)

And more.

So much more.

More that is now less.

Alas.

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