Of late, I received a notebook via a friend who is part of a project to fill pages for a student in Québec who expressed a hope the journal would find its way to Japan, because Pandas and such…
Despite breaking the news that the seemingly-friendly bears aren’t indigenous nor wild in Japan, i filled several pages of the classic Hilroy-brand lined-notebook with musings about:
- our home life, how i came to be in Japan
- various animals (wild boar, who swim and raid gardens, monkeys who love hot springs sometimes, our pet rabbit Maru-chan, and famous dogs of noteworthy status)
- meanderings about popular sports and culture tropes
- stamps of airport arrivals, train tickets, and place names
- plus a few postcards to keep or share including – family nengajyo, a classic autumnal hillside scene, and a piece by charming early 20th century bohemian artist Takahisa Yumeji with Okayama roots who painted mostly cats and ladies – both fine art and commercial graphics – before being caught up in the encroaching sea change of eras
My next task is to mail it forward – despite my concerns about time constraints to make it back to the school by April something something
Next stop: poet Emde in Gifu (who attended a French immersion school in BC, a great program i shoulda done) and then maybe Agent Byzantium in Virginia Beach, perhaps not exotic but both are top shelf postal makers
Finally: because i’m as cheesy as a good poutine, i include snaps of maple syrup, me standing guard at the Plains d’Abraham, and suitcase resplendent with regional stickers
J’aime toi after all
{intro/outro music riff is me on electric ukulele, yeah}
PS the teacher replied to the video comment!
Thank you for that wonderful video ! I’m the teacher of the student who sent the Notebook and we took the time to listen and translate the video with the class. We were all amazed by the distance traveled by the journal and your involvement in our project ! We can’t wait to receive it at school and go take a look at some more photos on the website you gave us. Thanks again from Québec !
& Byzantium Bill also chimed in about his dispatch
I was the last to receive this travelling Notebook, and have added my input and sent it off to the school today. If it crosses the border US to Canada it should arrive in days to spare! It’s been great fun to participate!
