my profile pic

I couldn't find a decent recent photo of myself and I refuse to 'photoshop' pics so instead I found this shot I took in Kyoto about four years ago. We were on a daytrip to our favourite Japanese city, mainly to see our friend Miwa, but also just to hang out generally. There was a special summer parade which included a float of genuine geisha through Kawaramachi, so I took some photos with my new camera, then ran around the corner to get some more. I remember standing in the middle of busy Kawaramachi dori to get a few close ups. It was a rare opportunity.

By some great fluke a took a couple that were absolute gems, including the one that is my profile picture. I don't know how it happened. Maybe just a good camera. What do you think the geisha is saying in her discreet aside? I have often wondered.

forty years ago

It's probably rare in a lifetime for really big events to occur, outside of the periodic warfare that humanity routinely indulges in. I am not talking about the death of eminent or popular figures either. I am talking about seminal, groundbreaking or extraordinary events that change perceptions at the moment they occur and resonate into the future.

One such event occured 40 years ago. I was huddled with my peers in a primary school classroom in Killarney Heights. The teacher had wheeled the cumbersome black and white TV into our room, and we all sat and waited for Neil Armstrong to emerge from the lunar module, descend the ladder and set foot on the moon. The images were grainy, shadowy and hard to make out. Armstrong's words were slightly slurred from the static interference and the delay. But the effect was magical. Something happened that changed the way we thought about our place in the universe. Boundaries were crossed.

For me and many of my friends, the astronauts were heroes. Not just on Apollo 11, but on all the space missions. They caught and fired the imagination. How small-minded, insular and foolish those people then who claim the landing was an elaborate hoax, who produce false science and logic to argue their case. I use the word 'case' advisedly, as even this might confer a modicum of respect on their pathetic delusions.

So to Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins. Congratulations. Then, and now.

js 40 fumiko

A few posts ago I mentioned that I went upcountry on Fridays to teach morning classes at the ICU (International Centre of Understanding) in Nishiki. At one stage I had three classes, all of (purportedly) different levels of English language proficiency. Fumiko was in the intermediate class, even though she was clearly good enough for the advanced group. She was a funny, helpful, chatty woman who had a spark in her eye and a real zest for living.

She occasionally ran a shop for Vietnamese clothing and wares in Sasayama in a cute gallery (see picture). She would take a flight to Hanoi, carrying suitcases full of beer(Asahi,from memory), and return with bags of crafty things. Then she would run a shop for a couple of weekends until 'stock' ran out. All for the love of it.

I remember her telling me when we first met that she had two children. One day sometime later in class she mentioned a third child, to which I said. "Fumiko, didn't you say you has two children?" "Yes, I do," she replied "the third one is my husband." The entire class (all women) broke into gails of laughter. They had all understood perfectly.

js 39 biking

Nadia and I inherited a number of old bikes when we first went to Japan. Where they came from is still a matter of conjecture, though the old teachers intimated that they may have been 'found' locally. It's quite likely that they had just been dumped, for they were in poor repair. Nevertheless, with the help of our biking enthusiast and boss Stephanie, we got a couple of them sufficiently up to scratch to risk the roads and pathways of Sanda and adjacent villages.

We had a couple of favourite rides - especially one out to Dojo, one stop downline from Sanda. Another was along the paths lining the Muko river through the old rice paddies. They were dead flat and while the river was of the usual concretised variety, the cherry trees on the perimeter made it a joy in early spring. You can see Nadia in the shot digging into inari on one such ride in late spring. The days were already heating up and the chances to ride in the middle of the day were growing fewer.