three little maids...
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
my teapot collection
the new one
so this is the new teapot from Skye for my birthday - 3 of my six teapots are from her actually. I like this one, I like all of them. This one feels like a fall teapot for some reason. The first one my mom bought for me at Shuuji's shop in Fujimi - its the biggest one, the best one to use for black tea and if more than one person is drinking. The second one Skye gave me for my birthday last year - its wooden and in the Matsumoto style I think. The third one I bought myself at a second hand shop - but I have since decided that its actually a sake teapot. Its also iron like the first one. The 4th one skye gave me for easter - it has the best pour of any of them. a curve of liquid comes out that I cannot easily describe. are need more math words or something to explain the angle and grace of a curve that gives you a delicious shiver... the 5th I also bought myself at a different second hand shop - for some reason I think its a chinese style but I might be mistaken. it has matching cups. and the new one is so low to the table, its sort of graceful like a cossack dancer. and that flower looks like camellia but I might be wrong. One day I will go to Russia and collect some Russian tea ceremony pots. Skye has told me she is going to give me a teapot every year now for my birthday. Im lucky because she travels a lot and hopefully over the years I will get pots from India, France, England and as yet undreamed up places. Do they have teapots in Egypt? Easter Island? Madagascar? Iceland? Hopefully I will make it to those places one day. Or Skye will at least.
Tea ceremony doesnt use teapots though. I am enjoying Saado ( tea ceremony) more and more. There is a word in Japanese that mean ' the sound of the wind through the pine trees' - Shoufu - in tea ceremony they say that ideally the sound of the water gently boiling in the sunken kettle should resemble that sound.
When I go home I will hold a tea ceremony in which I will probably do everything quite wrong, but luckily noone will notice any mistaken details. Maybe we will have an english tea as well and drink orange pekoe from the china cups from mom's collection. Home for Christmas soon. soon.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
day before 28
So I guess Im almost 28 now. Thats what the calendar seems to suggest. In fact today is the last day of 27. At least over here. back in Canada I have two days to go. Hm mmm years all have their own character I think. 28 is sort of a modest year I feel. I always thought that 27 was the year to get famous - and if you hadn't made it by then it wasnt going to happen. So maybe I never will be. Not that being famous is my big desire - but still as the years tick by you cant help feeling like it would be great to do something that influenced people in a meaningful way. But I can't say I'm too devastated by the approach of 28. 27 has a charmed ring about it its true - and, my 27 was charmed for sure. Probably on my list of best years. I think the best years so far are probably - 4, 11, 17, 23, and now 27. But I am not really so sad its over - lately quietly intense things seem a lot more interesting than they used to. And as for fame, I think 27 and famous is such a tired old cliche. In fact, it would be so much more stylish to be totally unknown your whole life, but then to suddenly get wildly famous at 72 ... I think thats going to be my new aim. That way maybe I might have time to get to the point where I actually deserve to be famous....
Thursday, November 04, 2004
autumn day off and halloween
so wednesday was a national holiday and I drove up to yatsugatake ( the mountain about half an hour from my house ) and took a bunch of photos. The weather has been amazing this past week - ideal fall weather - warm in the day, chilly at night, crystal clear, and the leaves glowing fantastically in the crisp air. sure, its cliched, but how fantastic is that... also halloween photos - today was the last of my halloween events - the party at Chino high. I had fun, but Im glad Halloween is over. Here in Japan its more work than fun to be honest... still the photos from Shiojiri on saturday came out pretty well. Im starting to get a little nostalgic now - that was the last Halloween party at Japanese high school... the year is flying by. I want it to go faster, but at the same time I know Im really going to miss life here.
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