will be multi-purpose arts and crafts (washi, kintsugi, shodo etc) and music making hangout space – stays relatively cool in summer. plus also storage for Ryoko’s tea ceremony items, emergency/picnic/travel supplies and my fantastically massive and impeccably organized file cabinet – took out the files, put it up on casters/pallet and put back files+ repaired floor and wall. spare dishes and kitchen accessories also now have a home, some oversized reference books and odds-ends records will go here too. have further evidence if curious
Recapping my intentions and annotations for Reiwa 3/2021 with my darlings. Oversharing and whatnot but we’re all sorta friends, right? Lots of honestly and bits of laughter. Big dreams, tiny schemes, life admin to ukulele and most points in between.
Huge / busy week since my birthday good times on 16th which means am behind on correspondence as usual esp thank yous & catch ups to come after but but busy doing lots setting up the new/old house. #sortganizing (Also feels little rough sending joyful news with world collapsing :))
But hey look! Repaired a couple electric cords to a lamp and a paper shredder that the pet rabbit (who now lives comfortably in a luxurious cage) chewed through. With dodgy eyesight and clumsy fine motor skills, not my best job but you know, decent.
And hit CBD-Green Store (after seitai) for some various tonics and CBN vaporizers (Plus tested new made in Japan vaporizer for wax and Setouchi made CBD oil) yup, right here in Okayama.
Plus their gourmet vegan food is frankly shockingly amazing.
And huge move (despite lousy photo) of turnin what was once a kitchen into an extendable, manageable, versatile closet for 4 seasons plus various hobbies, jobs, and costumes.
Even a surface for folding laundry and ironing. Such a luxury!
Segued into spontaneous Ella Fitzgerald live in Berlin dance party in the kura ~ comfort courtesy of new air conditioner and dehumidifier. Yeah, luxury. Appropriately, Ella was singing “it’s too darn hot”. Some rearranging getting ready for new art making in fall and winter.
This week hopefully a bit more time in the kura studio to organize ephemera and records and hang up some interesting lights to make a standing working area.
Plus beginning the rock work approach to the house… thats on wife & tough ole Oka-san to do.
Plus cleaning up the wreckage of my once a wonderful inflatable pool and tent oasis which has not fared well between Typhoon, falling tall bamboo & big rainstorms followed by periods of massive humidity which has made things well, rather biological. Was nice for a minute. No more.
Oh I should mention that the flat rocks will fill in the area around the big rectangular stones & concrete pad and over towards the trees and what not. I’m not asking a lot of questions because they’re arborist & landscape designers so I’m just gonna stay out of their way…
As for me, besides catching up on correspondence (as always) and a few “life administration complicated international transactions” #ugh but next “big creative project” is a story pack (#podcast, video riff, photo essay) from the Jack Kerouac in Kobe exhibit. Craft it cleverly.
But… In closing: A very special dispatch loaded with b&w #lomography photos from Gandhi Beach in Kerala India, Jack Kerouac in Kobe, collage of fake IDs, oil pastels of sherbet-colored houses, & snaps from Suez Canal required two circumnavigations to reach Montreal due to an errant “8” not “3”.
PS we picked up 30 kg of rice from this wonderful gent in nearby Akaiwa. Thanks!
Regarding Tsuchida cottage / house: as mentioned in previous “Japan cottage musings” videos (Tsuchida Yard & Garden & Generational Home), from the 1990s up until a few years ago, the “big house” was vacant and had fallen into disrepair as evidenced by this screenshot from Google Street view.
You can notice Ryoko’s tool shed with its charcoaled yakisugi walls in the foreground, as well as directional traffic mirrors and way-finding/ distance signs to no place in particular.
The Garden too looks rather forlorn.
Ryoko and Father with Shinto priest performing ceremony on the land before house renovation
The house was completely renovated keeping original character, “bones” and many details but upgrading well… everything else / work by our family friend Morioka-san and his company AC studios (more about this in the “kura introduction” dossier).
A shaky and candid stroll from Ceningan Resort with a buncha cute cabins and huge diving training pool under construction to also under construction Alas Manis (Sweet Jungle) Villa – all on Nusa Ceningan island, Bali, Indonesia.
Douglas Coupland, the author of “Generation X,” Microserfs” and the upcoming novel “Generation A,” renovated a midcentury house in Vancouver, British Columbia, that could technically be called a…
