Pact

I promise, this is my last pre-Japan entry.  After this it will be all Japan, at least for two weeks.  Thursday 2 June is a busy pretravel day and I will be traveling all day Friday and Saturday.  So Sunday will be my first chance to blog again.  Sunday, Japan time, that is.  Clocks are over there on the right side of this blog.

My single, smallish suitcase is ready.  I'm only taking the shoes I'm wearing.  It's not nearly as much a matter of room as the fact that my other shoes all have laces, and I want to be able to slip off whatever shoes I have with a minimum of, you know, time and attention.   In fact, there's a little extra room in my suitcase;  I guess I'll put in another shirt or pair of pants or something.


Two weeks.  Car free, except for the rare taxi.  Gluten free, completely, I hope.  Sugar free, with limited exception.  I hope to bring back a yukata or two and a lot of tea.  This is why I packed a fold-out second Bag for Bringing Stuff Home.  I have a friend who wants me to bring her a sticker to go on a guitar case.  My intent is to find something with some serious Japanglish: "Let's happy and meaningful life with thoughtful and enthusiasm!"

Maiko tend to be younger and a bit flashier.

Japan.  I may see geiko or maiko (geiko is the Kyoto word for geisha, which are not what most people think they are; maiko are apprentice geiko, only in Kyoto), I probably won't see Fuji-san, [Fuji-yama, a different reading of the same kanji 山 (see the mountain?), would mean the same thing if it were a real word, but it isn't] except to fly over it, going and coming.

I will be bringing a friend, it turns out.  Leigh Ann, my friend who helps me understand and practice yoga, introduced me to Ganesh when I started at her studio two years ago.  My reason for going, and my goal then, was to learn to sit on the floor in Japan.  As it turns out, sitting on the floor in Japan is not quite what it was a generation or two ago.  But I really like yoga and I really enjoyed meeting Leigh Ann and her friend, Ganesh, who is always with me when I practice yoga.

Since I will be practicing yoga on the plane and often in Japan, Leigh Ann was kind enough to send Ganesh along with me.  Ganesh is one who, it is said, helps us overcome obstacles.  And although I haven't seen much of this preparation as anything like an obstacle, I do enjoy Ganesh's company, and I'm glad to have him or her along with me.  Ganesh doesn't need a ticket, it seems, on the airplane and we can go with just a single room.  So, we've already overcome those obstacles.  I don't know if Ganesh has ever been to Japan, being Indian by origin.

Ganesh is an elephant, in this case about an inch and a half tall, who often travels with a companion of his or her own, a mouse, whose name I don't know.  Anyway, so it is here.  So there will be, I guess, three of us.

That's all.  See you in Japan.