Tokonoma 床の間

There is in the typical Japanese home, and in that I include the typical ryokan room, including the one I stayed in, a little alcove (littler than a room, I mean, which in Japan can mean pretty small) called a tokonoma, 床の間 in kanji.  It means, literally, "alcove."  It is for contemplation, display of heirlooms or a small piece of pottery, and typically perhaps a plant, maybe a flower.

My own takonoma!

When I came back from my first (and only, so far) trip to Japan I brought that beautiful culture with me, in a small way.  I brought back tea with me in a large way, and I drink tea almost every day at work.  

Anyway, over time a friend and I made this little credenza in my office into something of a combination tokonoma and tea service.  It is not, strictly speaking, an alcove, because it's just on a credenza, as I said, that sticks out from the wall.  And, to tell the truth, it shares space with a fax machine.  I don't know how many businesses in Japan have tokonoma that contain fax machines, but my guess is not many, and my further guess is that most of those are situated in the rooms of gaijin, foreigners.   Which of course I am, as I have plainly admitted many times.

Since writing the previous paragraph, I've done what I could to make this a better tokonoma.  Ganbatte, as they say -- do your best.  To the right is a photo of my little alcove as it appears in the middle of March 2013:


Still, though my desk gets messy easily, I do my best to keep my tokonoma-like area more tokonoma-like. 

The one at my ryokan.  Ganesha in foreground.