Stocked up / ready for anything (mostly, as long as *anything* only requires shiitake mushrooms).
Really, this delightful gift arrived by courier yesterday from one of the wife’s fans/friends and I am so happy about it – Taguchi-san cultivates these beauties in logs, as well as all sorts of other fruits and mountain vegetables. Yum! 
Some years ago (1996 maybe), poet Gary Snyder was doing a reading at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington. Folks are lined up with stacks of books for him to sign, including, books not by him but my other “associated“ writers. Thought this was very cheesy.
Anyhow, I only took a ragged copy of “Passage through India”. He gave a big chuckle and says “I don’t see many of these anymore” as he signed. Told him how i’d rambled with his books tucked in my rucksack through and arriving in Japan and reading Backcountry in Kyoto waiting for a bus to make me to Mochigase and start work on a mushroom farm.
Also, I had mailed him a documentary film I made (Hempenroad), and he recognized me from that and talked for a while about hemp and ecology while others waited impatiently to have him sign some Burroughs book or something. Felt so incredibly proud that he was aware of my existence.
Continue reading Items: Gary Snyder signed “Passage Through India”
If you’re curious, I put together a category in my web archive for “Japan life/travel” to round up all the various riffs, transport videos, train rolls, diaries and museum galleries i gleefully assemble. It’s an ongoing process but hey, I’m not going anywhere.
Still have a lot more museums and train stuff to share (not surprisingly) but really limit my screen time too short sessions of productivity.
So much to share with you though! Especially some sorta olden stuff about:
Oh, I’ve also been tidying up an archive of Vancouver Olympic “meta coverage” meaning coverage about the coverage and media about media if you know what I mean… More to say about this in True North Media and Olympics category including a live twitter coverage of an interesting CBC panel #NoteToSelf
Also tuned up a section called Transit Chronicles which consists mostly of twitter riffs while rolling around Vancouver 2008-2012 ish.
In the meantime, here’s stuff about Japan so I have somewhere to point people to want to ask me about “where I am” “what to see” “how to do stuff” etc. etc. – keep in mind, I am a “inaka/country boy” – well really I live near a sort of forgotten provincial capital city which is just perfect in my mind, and don’t really know anything about Tokyo or Osaka and very little about Kyoto… but there are loads of resources about those places.
I know more about small cities, rural/farm experiences, scenic trains, remote hot springs, fermented foods, and post offices #theusual
Japanese Culture Through Rare Books
Explore the important roles that books have played in the cultural history of Japan.
I’ve started an interesting (and free) course from notable Keio University called “Japanese Culture Through Rare Books” in which i shall learn about bookbinding styles and their influence on Japanese literature.
Perfect for me right? (After all, you’ve likely seen my Japanese-influenced scrapjournals after all (maybe you’ve received one…).
Even better if you join in the class too – about 3 hrs a week for 3 weeks, like no big deal and… if you pay some Yen at the end, you get a certificate or something or other.
Official Blurb follow:
Why join the course?
A book is a tool for preserving words and images. Through books, an abundance of information, including the knowledge and experiences of the people of the past, has been handed down to the present. But books are more than records of words and images. Their form, appearance, and even the scripts and styles used tell us about the fashions and technologies of the times that produced them. By studying old books, we can learn a great deal about the geographical areas in which they were made, the historical background, and the individuals and groups involved in their making.
While displaying remarkable similarities with books produced in other areas of the Sinitic cultural sphere, Japanese books also possess some unique features, starting with their sheer diversity of form and appearance. Using a wealth of multimedia content, we will take a journey through the wonderful world of traditional Japanese books.
Somehow sometimes the communication comes in waves and today was a day when I heard from so many people – some recently acquainted and others long known via and various media and channels…
Anyway, for a guy who loves to love, and loves to be loved, and loves to communicate and correspond, this is really nice.
That’s all. Peace to you and your kin. Let me know if you need a hug, virtual or otherwise.
Step thru, to another side. Not saying better, worse or whatever, but times change and time changes, thus making forward momentum mostly mandatory.
Museums and galleries in Japan, as well as various temples/shrines and assorted other places of note, often offer inky stamps to collect and stamp in one’s own notebook – or if forgotten, on slips of provided paper. These are usually rather large and sometimes the ink pads are a bit worn out. Nevertheless, i seek these out and stamp in my ever-present scrapjournals.
This collection is collected on a ramble around Matsue, Shimane-ken at the Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakomo) museum and later, at various galleries around Kurashiki, Okayama-ken.
Continue reading Notebook snippets: various ink stamps in Japan (featuring Lafcadio Hearn)
Explaining the obvious: I fill notebooks/journals of poetry, notes and musings (as well as scrapjournals which contain paper ephemera) and then transcribe (which no editing), then stash them into old-timey suitcase, which usually live in a storage locker faraway from where i physically exist.
I snap lil snaps of the covers before their hibernation to remind myself of these tomes which in turn remind me of where i was when the words were scribbled.
To prevent the snaps from vanishing into a folder (digital shoebox as it were), compilations ensue -placed into the this archive for my reference, and for you to peek at if you have a notion.
Explaining the obvious: I fill notebooks of poetry, notes and musings (as well as scrapjournals which contain paper ephemera) and then transcribe, then send them into old-timey suitcase which live in a storage locker faraway from where i physically exist.
I snap snaps of the cover before hibernation to remind myself of these lil tomes which remind me so much of where i was when the words were scribbled. To prevent the snaps from vanishing into a folder (digital shoebox as it were), compilations ensue, placed into the this archive for my reference and for you to peek at if you have a notion.
Explaining the obvious: I fill notebooks of poetry, notes and musings (as well as scrapjournals which contain paper ephemera) and then transcribe, then send them into old-timey suitcase which live in a storage locker faraway from where i physically exist. I snap snaps of the cover before hibernation to remind myself of these lil tomes which remind me so much of where i was when the words were scribbled.
To prevent the snaps from vanishing into a folder (digital shoebox as it were), compilations ensue, placed into the this archive for my reference and for you to peek at if you have a notion.
