Last night we had some powerful thunderstorms. I was up from about 4-6 in the morning, listening to the thunder and sheets of rain, and watching flash after flash of lightning(and feeling it shake my bed). The lightning came very close to my home. It struck down what looked to be less than a half mile away.

When the sun came up around 5:30, I sat facing my small garden, watching the downpour continue for another half hour.

At 7, I was awakened by the phone, and a teacher reported to me that school was cancelled today due to flooding. Ten minutes later, he called back and said that teachers were to come to school, but no students would be there. The logic of that, I have to say, evaded me, but that doesn't really matter. Most teachers, like me, left school early. So I'm at home today, making up for lost sleep and cleaning house.

I've heard the storms will continue all week.

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I'm really looking forward to my upcoming trip home, Aikido camp, visiting friends, family, etc. Recently, although I feel generally content, I've also felt in need of some stimulation. However, it is quite nice to be in anticipation of something too, so I guess all is well.

Having been said, I'm open to topics related to Japan or Japanese culture. If anyone has a suggestion for a topic or question, etc., please let me know.

Generosity

I noticed this article on the news today, which almost brought me to tears:

Warren Buffett donates $37 billion to Bill Gates Foundation

My dream is not to be as rich as this man, but as generous.

Awesome

"The US Episcopal Church has chosen a woman as its next leader - making it the first church anywhere in the Anglican denomination to do so..." : a change for Anglicans

and as long as we're on the subject of religion, the following is an interactive site created by zen monks in Kyoto : do-not-zzz

and as long as we're on that subject, now for something completely different...
The 2003 National Rock Paper Scissors Competition!

What is solid and charged with energy?

(insert your cleverest answer:___________)


Something I note recently about Aikido practice--while practicing tenkan(the changing-direction exercise), it 'works' with a variety of training partners.

I've been working on maintaining a solidness through the exercise from the arm, through the shoulder, and through the turn. Not a rigidness with force, but a solidness in the curve of my arm to my pinky. And, well, maintaining it through my wrist being grabbed.
And sort of charging my body with energy while doing this. I discovered that by extending my arms during rowing practice, I could up my energy with the extension. People always told me to 'extend, extend,' but I think I've been extending and sort of giving away whatever energy came from that extension. But now I want to work to understand what's happening and to build that energy and cultivate it.

I got a couple of 'mmm...'s from my partner at practice last night, instead of the usual 'no, do it this way,' and such. Similar thing happened with someone else.

I want to go into this deeper...

I have to say, it sucks for me when I have to teach classes by myself. Today, two of the teachers I team-teach with got called out of school for meetings, so they asked me to cover for them. It's not that I don't like teaching; I like that. But if I can't explain things clearly to the students, if I can't answer their questions clearly, and if sometimes I just can't find the words at all to convey what I need, it's very tough.

Ideally, I could conduct these classes mostly in English. However, most of the students come from a background without much skill in English listening comprehension, so mostly I just get blank stares, and the time blobs by as if we're living in a lava lamp.

Most of the students have no clue how difficult it is for me when they won't say if they understand or not. I have no idea what to do in that case. I don't know if they understand, but won't say, don't understand the assignment, or just don't understand my Japanese.

Sigh... for the first time in, well, maybe the first time this year, I almost lost it today--wanted to explode or just sit down and give up. And so it goes...

A Night at the Opera!

I went to see a performance of 'The Magic Flute' by Mozart tonight.
The performance was in Japanese (with a Japanese cast), so I brought a little libretto so I could follow what they were saying in English.

I know the tendency to become sleepy at long performances, so my expectation for myself was that I might get sleepy for the first half, and then have patience through the second, but I found instead that I was totally drawn in from the beginning. I found that Mozart's story was so creative. It began with a giant serpent chasing a prince. The prince almost gets killed, but then 3 ladies appear with silver spears and slay the serpent.
A guy dressed in feathers(Papageno) appears and finds the prince almost dead. When the prince wakes up Papageno lies and tells the prince that he was the one who killed the serpent. The 3 ladies overhear and get angry and put a magical lock on Papageno's mouth so that he cannot speak, and therefore cannot lie.
But soon, the ladies come back again and remove the lock, saying that their master, the Queen of the Night, has told them to have mercy on him.
Papageno and the ladies sing back and forth to each other:

Papageno: "I will never lie again!"

Ladies: "Let the lock be a warning to you!"

Papageno: "Let the lock be a warning to me!"

All: "If only every liar had a lock like this upon hir mouth: then would hate, calumny(slander), and rancour(ill will) be replaced by love and brotherhood!"

Again and again, I found similarly simple stories with equally universal messages.

I was profoundly affected by the symbolism of the magic flute itself, which I saw as the power of music to bring joy to life. I thought the Queen of the Night's struggle for power over Sarastro(the lord of the temple of the sun?), showed how disharmony in one's self throws the entire world off balance.

My favorite part is when the prince, Tamino, and Pamino, the daughter of the Queen of the Night, finally get to be together.
How did Mozart present this beautiful moment? He had them enter 'the gates of fear' together, and walk through fire and floods. Tamino holds the flute out in front of them both; he leads the way through the fire, and she leads through the flood. I believe this symbolized the trials of marriage, and how each must protect and support the other at different times through life. The flute was the power of joy, and especially the joy of music, which was always leading them safely through fear.

Actually, it's not too much my interpretation. Just as they begin to walk, they sing together, "We walk, by the power of music, in joy through death's dark night." Afterwards, they are allowed to enter the temple of the sun, which I think might be the heavens.

Anyway, I'm amazed, enlighted, surprised, changed and maybe most importantly, totally convinced of the power of music to bring joy and illumination to life. For the first time in my life, I feel that I witnessed Mozart's true genius personally.

I should say that the person I went with did fall asleep and certainly wasn't crying during the second act(like me) to my knowledge. So the musical training I've had to this point probably made it easier for me to have this kind of experience with this opera. Just shows the benefit that may be possible from training oneself in any way.

I don't know how I expect anyone to respond to this post, but I really, really wanted to write about my experience and my thoughts on tonight's performance.

The one that got away

Last night, at about 3:45am, something hit me on the head and woke me up. I thought it was a beetle that fell off the ceiling, because it kind of bounced. But inside, I remembered my neighbor telling me to watch out--lo and behold, when I searched to find whatever it was, I was confronted with a squirming body with hundreds of legs, and my own great big fear--a mukade!!!! On my pillow!!!!!!!

I was freaked out, it's body was thin, but it was very long. I don't know that it was one of the killer centipedes, but I've heard that's the only kind of giant centipede you see around here. I went to get a container to catch it in. Unfortunately, when I started moving it into the container, it made a dart for my clothes drawer, which I had conveniently left cracked open. I panicked, shooed it the other direction, and it fell under my bed. After that I couldn't find it at all. And I couldn't sleep. At all.

I wish I hadn't panicked, because I think I would have safely caught it otherwise, plus, I'm in training(not my dojo, but you get the point) not to panic in the face of my fear. Because of that, it's surely still somewhere in my house. What am I gonna do??!!

The Kindness of Countryfolk

People give me vegetables all the time. I've heard that receiving vegetables on a weekly basis in Japan is a tell-tale sign that you live in the countryside. The other sign is needing to drive less than 1 minute outside your house to find the closest rice field.

It's quiet out here a lot of the time, so it's really nice having fresh, homegrown vegetables around. They make me feel like cooking, which gives me something to do.

Sometimes, I don't even know the name of what I've been given. In that case, I now take it along to my cooking lesson, and ask my instructor to explain what the vegetable is and how to use it.
Today I received a bag of potatos from the girl who I tutor's uncle, who grew them in his garden. He's never even met me! Such is the kindness of countryfolk, I suppose : )

Some of the things I've received in the past six months: homegrown cucumbers, squash, eggplant, lettuce, asparagus, leeks, tomatos, persimmons, mandarin oranges, pearl oranges, asian pears, fresh eggs, freshly harvested rice--and the list goes on.

Things I've received in the past two weeks: onions, green onions, garlic, peas, cabbage, carrots, daikon radishes, honeydew, watermelon, and some pickled plums(those were also given to me today, by the girl's grandmother, who pickled them herself).

I consider myself fortunate--it's a wonder I ever have to buy food!

The Great Trash ...Solution??

Trash piles up in landfills every day. It piles up and just sits there, doing nothing, just sort of hidden from human sight. As if somewhere along the way, we humans took a strange turn and ended up with all this useless or used-up stuff that we have to 'throw away.' Of course, I contribute to this growing pile. Like probably everyone, I haven't known any other possibilities, aside from recycling and such. I don't know what got me thinking, but for a couple of weeks now, I've been thinking about how not to make trash.

But after all, I think it's not possible. Trash is a byproduct of living as a human today. Well, where is my trash coming from and why do I make it?

All this trash is coming from companies which produce it. Wrappers for candy, bags for vegetables, packages for TV dinners, packages for basketballs, packages for everything!! These companies could take responsibility for the waste that they are actually creating. But how?

I think it can be done in this way: trash could be returned the companies.
Customers return the waste to the store (or people) from which they purchased the original product. The company would be responsible for picking up it's own created trash whenever it deliver goods to the store (or people).

To use an example, if someone buys a bag of potato chips, it comes in, of all things, a bag. And after the chips are gone, we have the bag. This is what would become landfill material, but instead it is returned to the store from which it was bought to be picked up. If all trash could be sent back to the source which created it, and the source then had to deal with it, I imagine companies or individuals might be faced with alternatives to creating their particular waste products, and might start to think up easier to deal with, less troublesome waste. Or just plain less waste.

If this is a good idea, I think it might catch on if it was made in to a movie, 'Super Size Me' style. The person in the movie would collect trash from their life, or 100 people could do this, and after a month, send it all back to the companies where they bought it, to show the companies the impact of it's waste on the world.

Anyway, it's good to finally get it all down on paper, I mean... on a screen, or you know. Feedback, opinions, additions, sponsorship, or bidding for the movie rights welcome. (Just kidding, it's just an idea!!)

The Annual Tamana Iris Festival is this coming Sunday. I was in Yamazaki Convenience Store(the 'Y' shop) today buying lunch and the owner told me that the first 100 women who show up to the festival in a yukata(summer kimono) will get some sort of prize. I'm lucky, because I got a yukata as a gift from my landlord's wife as a welcome present when I moved to Tamana. So, looks like I may be all dressed up with someplace to go this weekend.

Wow. I just did a Google search to try to find a pic of the iris festival, and my own blog entry from last year's other festival in Tamana ('Tawara') came up first. Weird, I've never had that happen before, my own blog coming up first in a Google search.

I'm off again. More later