After a 3+ weeks of digging out and laying foundation, connecting to various systems and preparing all the timbers with specific joints, as well as removing walls, clearing out eaves of giant beehives and adding insulation, on an auspicious day, a crew came and assembled the main structure (walls and roof) of the house addition.
Basically a new room where previous was a car park which now sorta connects the existing house with a carport and naya (tool shed). Overall, there will be a new genkon (formal entrance), a woodstove, handwash station, the piano and desks will move in here too along with a heavy big table. Skylight and windows including a “patio door” etc anyhow… T
here was a small ceremony involved (salt purification) and the architect Morioka-san chief builder Ishii-san and others were on site with a variety pack of workers. I (daveo) did a “coffee ceremony” with 3 types (both beans and preparation method) for the crew which was very pleasant.
We (the family) also went to tell Grandfather Ichiro and Grandmother Tomiko about the action at their ohaka (grave).
So…. during all this “Amish Barn Raising” event, i put an olden PhoneRobot on a tripod with extension cord – being careful to stay out of the way of workers and equipment – and ran a time lapse for various parts of 2 days.
The aim is/was to commemorate the happening and show the different construction tools and methods utilized. Nothing fancy… oh i’ll tack on a few still frames snaps at the end with minimal annotations. Possibly some of the lil trucks coming and going, i don’t know, i’m not at that part yet, we’ll see when we get there…
Perhaps more rare than Sasquatch, a Kei-truck that is *not* white {or every once in a while silver, or occasionally black…} Look at this earthen brown beauty! And with a little bit of an extended cab as well. Such luxury! Spotted in our front yard in front of the blossoming ume tree in the midst of construction. Want to buy one for Ryoko’s birthday #romantic
Another more standard work horse for comparison and amusement
Bonus: its just gorgeous > mossy green/brown, A little bit of a larger cab, obviously extended for a bit of a stash, oddly enough automatic transmission as well.
Note: of course you can find Ryoko’s Kei-truck documented in this archive as well as the one i drove at the mushroom farm in Tottori decades ago – haven’t changed much i thought until i saw this beauty…
Nostalgia for a Present Tense – Japan Cottage Musings
Amidst construction on Tsuchida Cottage, Dave runs-down recent events, both contemporary (seitai treatment, café poetry, CBD shop, family life) and coincidentally historic (regarding, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Kerouac, Edward Abbey, Neal Cassady, SxSW, Beez, Cmdr Bob) with usual digressions about postcards, pacifism, creations, inspiration, book collecting, San Francisco, and removing the meta rather than enshrining dinosaurs – also namechecks for Joe Strummer, plus riffs about meditation class, Japanese houselife, wonderful in-laws, adorable wife and baby and current catching-up (trying anyhow) on correspondence, with special regards and affection for pals who are in transition and friends who are flying high.
As it goes: “Over the Wall” > Headed by bus for some medical treatment (seitai) trying to stay ahead of the “Crash mode”… Head and heart are Genki, just trying to catch the body up… But as someone once sang “two out of three ain’t…” Staying positive, rolling slow, counting the goodness, always grateful.
yup, waiting on a splendid bus
Baby is with grandma, wife is working, yesterday sent more absurdly and unnecessarily complicated paperwork for various schemes and reasons. But hey the bus is on time, has great Wi-Fi and a power outlet at my seat. It’s the simple pleasures.
Oh and this hat – of course – is made by Mavili, the elder gentleman from Georgia (the country, not the state) from whom I used to purchase loads from at Lonsdale Quay market. Recently his son found a blog post from like 2008 and contacted me to say thanks, & his dad is still making hats from home. I am happy to say I have at least three creations of his here in Japan (& many others lost along the way and/or purchased as gifts for distinguished folks).
If you are curious, scarf from an Istanbul souk (was so surprised to see tartans on offer in markets in Istanbul – the Turkish cotton is absolutely wonderful), jacket Uniqlo, satchel from Thamel, Kathmandu.
Btw, the kanji on the bus stop 土田 is Tsuchida, our neighbourhood & means “dirt/soil-field” more or less.
Note: cute cause its me and intrepid elder ladies on the bus. The *secret power* of Japan are these invincible women. Strength, dignity, kindness & grace abounding.
Steeple-chased and sensory depravation / Poetry and Coffee is Everything. Pen functional if not exquisite.
Update: Finished my treatment (seitai, it’s kind of hard to explain but it’s not shiatsu, it’s not acupuncture, it’s not massage, it’s not reiki, it’s not chiropractic but a little bit like all of those things sort of but in a calm tatami room)… then in my post-fog, opened a vaguely random door to what turned out to be a blissful little café… Just me at the counter, jazz playing, skilled master made me curry… feeling so happy to find this place that I’m having another coffee and writing some poetry (lyrical even… as a gift for a musical friend).
i mean ¥900 for this magnificent plate in a chill calm place with a diligent proprietor is like some kind of wow (note notebook in bg)
For the record, this was the café… They have one kind of curry per week which makes ordering easy. Stay up to date via @Grillmori Instagram
Gri(l)mori Original Lunch / even the sign is evokes nostalgia #Okayama
And here is one of the street cars rolling down the tracks… There’s all kinds of different eras and designs represented from “slick modern” units to classic beauties like this one to the obligatory hello kitty themed one, also Chuggington. I rolled one for just 2 stops cause i love the feel (and really every step saved is a big help).
2 street car lines here in Okayama, ¥100 for most on/off rides – enter at the rear, pay, exit from front
Finally, after I got off the street car, right in front of me was a brand new CBD shop/café/lounge. Went in to say hello and all that and great variety of products and displays but wow, a little expensive. Had nice conversation with the young proprietor (30) told him about my activism at young age and how we eventually changed *everything* in Canada and US west coast. Had some samples (they also have CDB wax and vape device #want) but after treatment, i am bit foggy (like more than usual) so mumbled a bit before making my way back to the bus and back to the stop and home to rest.
Ready for action (as in riding a bus to do a thing)
While doing a photo shoot for Ichiro’s 100 days at Homare Photo Atelier here in Okayama, the photographer Yoshihiro Matsushita-san and i rocked a fun mise en scéne with:
typewriter
sea trunk
Lomo sardine camera (with yellow tiny flash)
books, various
rocking horse (just ‘cause)
my ever-present been-all-around-this-world suitcase
~ in front of a battered green paper (shade of van Gogh’s pool table) and a red rug… to go with Ryoko’s stellar Fluevog shoes & 1964 vintage lace party dress (such details!) and my bespoke-in-Chiang Mai secret agent suit, Stetson fedora & Florsheim Imperial shoes (bartered). Ichiro rocked a sweet blue Japanese onesie – gift from my dude Kitazawa Takaya-san.
Time Traveler Family, v. 2
Anyhow… (with my foggy self) we worked quickly – imaging ourselves sitting still for a bellows camera before setting sail to steam around a cape or horn – maybe Taisho-era, maybe just back from Venus & teleporter time gauge malfunctioned. There was probably a daguerreotype and/or dirigible involved, if not a phone box at least.
Time Traveler Family, v. 3
What is displayed here are 7 of the best iterations which were then made into some special cards, ergo: the digital snaps were printed on laid textured paper, then attached to handmade washi paper with rough edges with olden photo corners, annotated with a fountain pen as was custom poetry written on reverse in English and Japanese, various appropriately cancelled postal stamp glued, usual inky stamps for sure (urgent! confidential! air mail – or a suitcase) – some got seal stickers, often slightly more dangerous metallic sealing wax which caused minor fire damage #smouldering!
Then finally some received our family hanko stamp, and Ichiro’s inked finger print – truly collectible. Then… (very) delicately scanned (at this point forgotten how many digital to analog conversions overall in the project) – Just barely in time to get the “pick of the litter” posted to wish greetings on January 1 to you lovelies around this spinning globe.
Steady On Time Travelers – reverse of art card with poem in English and Japanese (plus Ichiro’s fingerprint, family hanko and other details)
Regardless, we are all the time travelers and must hold steady, be adaptable, be where we are, find the ways to blend in (or gracefully exit) when finding one’s self in an unpredicted situation, eat healthy rations (whether known or not) and ease into comfortable shelter as possible.
Time Traveler Family, v. 5
While the world spins fast, let’s breathe backwards to slow it down. {noting after I wrote this poem – alluding world is spinning fast *emotionally* and thus causing pandemonium in many ways/souls – i learned physicists also suggest the planetary orbit speed has physically increased. I do not understand their methods but seems agree with their results – albeit primarily aesthetically.}
Time Traveler Family, v. 6
Finally: the final handmade creations / all slightly different in photo & embellishments went to various thoughtful directions, ergo, 1 to seitai sensei, 1 to forestry sensei in Noto, 1 to tea ceremony teacher, 1 to ephemera master in VicBC, 1 to writing professor (ret’d, Torrey, UT), 1 to artist Noriko Miyake – 2 for archives (for the inevitable retrospective exhibit of cards, letters, visual poetry and invitations).
Riffs about home reform with new rooms, woodstove and tea ceremony area (thoughts of Ichiro and pals coming home from school) heat pump for humidity control for responsibly curating and collecting books for a legacy library.
And a rundown of recent new/used records including acknowledgement of Shred Kelly, Nice Horse, and (Buffalo Tom’s) Bill Janovitiz’s community building in times of tumult + musical memories in tangible form with David Bowie Let’s Dance picture disc, Hüsker Dü covers, Dead Kennedys, Sonic Youth’s Dirty (Europe 92), War on Drugs (comfort foods), literary keeners The Weakerthans from Winnipeg, and importantly pal Pat WOOD on Awesome Death’s “To Be Determined.”
Thanks to postcard club participants and folks mailing stuff my way and Casa Rosa for safe haven for library staging.
Fondly, dvo at Giggling Piglet Atelier and Consulate
Fujita family ohaka grave marker – our home is just beyond
Sometimes life’s circumstances create conundrums – a fork in the spoons, (he says, mixing metaphors). So when I need to sort the spork out, I come here, talk to the ancestors, do some walking meditation, light incense, wash graves and see if *the* path presents itself or, *a* path anyway, a *middle* path perhaps.
Note: I like to think about the stories behind the stones. And here in Japan, pour water on top of the graves, light incense – clap & bow. PS in this case, this is grandpa Ichiro (died at 49 yrs old many years ago) and grandma Tomiko who died just after our Ichiro was born. We’ve had a lot of wind storms recently so I like to tidy up their little area though I neglected to take some fresh flowers this time.
Our house is just behind the cemetery so you can kind of see the hills and green space behind us
Typed for the record and placed on the altar of importancy
Intentions (some, not all) and Annotations (various) for 2021 / Reiwa 3
Did a little live streamed hang out while banging out some big picture themes and a bunch of practical to-do tasks {as well as a note to self}.
Fiddled with Lettera 34 typewriter to get it operational and then talked my way through various big thoughts and practical plans for the year ahead including a “note to self“ that I won’t get all these things done but I’ve *come so far so fast – so, so “steady on davey, steady on.
Anyway, lovingly – if not perfectly – typed on hemp paper on my erstwhile custom letterhead / and now up on the altar for the kami to help.
{embed not possible due to background music it seems / incidental fair use?}
Summary: Evolutions, not Resolutions, slowly slowly > Your creativity is not going away anywhere, you have decades ahead, first build a foundation & then castle that’s above
The Results ^ note: please lend me a hand – whether it be practical or encouragement – I am wide open to advice and good vibes, truly.
We won’t quite make it till midnight so… as we cuddle in at Tsuchida Cottage (in always sunny Okayama, Japan), Ryoko, Ichiro & me wish you The Best Year Ever in 2021 / Reiwa 3.
Happy Merry Any Festive Every Joyful All of the Moments
Peace – Health – Happy to all of us, all of you
Ate nabe stew, warmed by woodstove, bath then slept
Fondly from Dave, Ryoko & Ichiro Stanley Thorvald of Tsuchida Cottage, Okayama, Japan on a usual Friday, Dec. 25, Reiwa 2 / 2020
Tradition is what you are doing in the present tense. Every moment a spectacular event. You are a miracle, truly, enjoy. (& If you ever forget, we’re here to remind you.)
