A New Form of Incompetence

Well, I took my first real class on tea ceremony today.  There were two students and one teacher.  The other student was a very nice young Indonesian woman who is here in Japan with her husband who is at the University in these parts.  One reason I liked her so much is that she was almost as uncoordinated as I am, as far as the tea ceremony goes, and that`s something I don`t think I`ve ever run into before, really.

Anyway, I was taking this class, one hour, on the making of tea in the tea ceremony.  Check that link out.  The person performing the ceremony is kind of back-lit but especially keep your eye on that little napkin thing she`s working with because every finger has a place it has to be at every moment, not to mention that every little implement and every little tool has a place and a direction it has to be.  I won`t bore you with every bit of it any more than  I already have, but suffice it to say I considered it a masterstroke of Japanese patience that this poor teacher didn`t pull out a gun from somewhere and shoot me.  All the baseball I ever tried and failed to play in my life never prepared me for the uncoordinated feeling I had here.  I ket looking at the way the guy was holding the little napkin and wondering why, you know, my god it`s just holding a napkin, why can he do it and I can`t?

Well, ok, that`s tea ceremony and now I understand a lot of things about it.  If you`ve read or will read the Teahouse Fire, a book I`ve kind of pushed earlier on this show, you know that every little school of tea ceremony is a little different, but I asked this fellow　どれぐらえこちらを弁雇用していますか, how long have you been studying this procedure, and he said 三十年, thirty years, and apologized that he wasn`t very good but he knows some people who are pretty good and can answer any questions I might have. 

Oh well, you know, I didn`t take this class in order to become a master of tea ceremony, just to find out what in the world was going on.  So, I have some kind of idea at an insanely basic level what sorts of things these people are doing when they do tea ceremony. 

Most of their customers are Japanese

I had an iced cafe au lait for brekkie today.  Sometimes I just feel the need to go all western and everything although of course I was the only westerner in the place.  Incidentally, in the Station, where I spend some of my time (this cultural center where I am now is within the station building) there is a Cafe Du Monde Japanese style.  I keep walking by it -- it`s next to a Mr. Donut, which I think they ought to call Donut-san.  I am proud to say I haven`t been to either one.  The Japanese people seem to live on donuts and the like and yet they all have waists about the size of my wrist. 

I think part of the reason is that most of them drive very little.  I walked from my Ryokan to the station today.  I can`t reall tell how far it is but it`s certainly more than a mile and probably not as far as two, although it could be that far.  Anyway, I walked that on the way here this morning and more or less kept up with a young woman in her early 20s walking the whole way.  Incidentally there`s a subway station at each end of that walk (and one in between).  This was relatively early, maybe 8:30, which is early for Japanese people, on a Sunday morning.  So, I guess, people are routinely walking this much they can stand to have a donut from time to time.

But I really wasn`t expecting to see a lot of bakeries and boy was I wrong about that.  They are everywhere here.  They`re all over the place, there are at least a dozen, maybe two dozen, of various kinds, in this train station.  They sell all kinds of things -- one of the most interesting has a sort of hot dog sitting in the middle of it.  OK.  See, that`s not what I think of when I think of bakeries and less what I would expect to see in a Japanese bakery. 

Enough about bread, which I came here vowing to try not to eat much of.  So, yay, it`s  been almost 8 days and I haven`t had a single donut YET and I hope I can wait it out because once I have one I`m going to want about three dozen and then all that beautiful walking will be down the tube.

Himeji Castle

This center will be closed on Tuesday -- closed second and fourth Tuesday of the month, go figure, so I will not be making an entry on that day.  I think I will take that as a sign to go visit Himeiji Castle that day which I almost did earlier in the week but didn`t, I had a tea ceremony, lunch and bath instead.  So this time for sure, assuming it`s open.  I keep hearing that they`re restoring it and some people say that means it`s closed to tourists and some people say it isn`t.

From here, now, I think I`m going up to Ippo Do where I haven`t been since what, Wednesday I think.  I`m having a tea class there tomorrow, the last one here, apparently.

Face Masks

Everyone has a foolproof plan for making 81,000,000 yen, right?  It`s a little kind of joke, that`s about a million dollars as of the day I left for Japan.  Here`s my plan, the longish version:

About one Japanese person on the street out of maybe 15 or 20 wears a face mask.  The surgical kind, like on M*A*S*H.  At first I thought their primary purpose was to keep out the germs but I think I learned that, right along with the Japanese team spirit, the purpose ostensibly is not to pass on one`s own germs to everyone else.  It`s amazing.  Needless to say, deep down in their heart of Japanese hearts these people many of them probably have some additional motives for wearing them.  You might be able to imagine some of your own.

Anyway, I was in the 7-11 the other day and I saw several types of them, sorted by I don`t know what.  Size?  It`s all I can imagine. 

Well, here`s my big-money idea.  Fashion.  Mask fashion.  Japaneeeeeeeeeze mask fashion.  Nobody in the world that I`ve seen is as fashion conscious as Japanese women, particularly young Japanese women, and I`ve been to Paris in the last year.  In fact one year ago at this very instant (not adjusting for time zone differences) I was battling traffic on Paris`s version of the LA Freeway.  Anyway, nobody I`ve seen is as fashion conscious as these people, not in Paris, not in Rome, goodness knows not in London.

So, are you ahead of me here?  Fashion masks?  I think there is a huge amount of money to be made.  Really huge.  That`s just me, but I don`t get these ideas very often.  I think they would sell like Donut-sans.

OK, my time is almost through on this version of Computer B.  I will probably be on some time tomorrow but not on Tuesday (see above) because the Center is closed.

So, dewa mata ne, see you soon.