Life in progress

Tag Archives: Sakurai Atsushi


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Tokyo, Japan – My Final Day

Though after eleven days I’d had plenty of time to miss my family, it was with a deep sense of sadness that I packed up all of my belongings and set out from my hotel room on the morning of December 17th, 2014. Since my flight wasn’t scheduled until 5pm, I was pleased that the hotel agreed to hang on to my luggage, so I was able to wander about for a while before I made my way to the airport.

I figured, why not go on a little adventure? I’ve been on the London Eye, so I figured I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to go on the Giant Wheel in Palette Town. Among many pictures were these:

From Daiba Park:

Here’s what I wrote in my notebook:

Palette Town, ODaiba, Tokyo – Tanto Tanto Restaurant, Venus Fort

Spent the first part of the morning packing and checking out of the hotel. They kept my bags so I’m out wandering. Went on the Giant Wheel where it was VERY windy. I think I may have prayed a little not to die. Walked a lot after that – to Daiba Park and then back here for lunch. The solitude in Daiba Park was almost overwhelming. I felt like I was alone at the ends of the earth.

The restaurant and the Venus Fort mall were pretty amazing. Here are some pictures – the first two were taken from my table in the restaurant:

It wasn’t until I got back outside that I found out I could have had the “dog.”

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For Jason

 

And finally, Haneda Airport.

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I had an incredible time in my eleven days of wandering, getting lost, meeting some wonderful new friends in person – Jay Dee, Susie, and Shigeyoshi – (please click on their names for links!) sightseeing and taking pictures and really just re-discovering who I am and what I’m capable of. And of course, the spectacular concert which was the reason I went.

I was there!!

I was there!!

Japan is a truly amazing country. Its people, its culture, its natural beauty… all of it. Rather than try to write something new, I’ll leave you with a journal entry I wrote the first time I left there. For me, nothing has changed and as I said at the end of this, “Japan, I will return.”

October 31, 2005 4:58pm, Kansai Airport, Japan

Well, this will be my last entry here in Japan. I’m sitting at the gate with my Starbucks tall mocha looking at the plane I’ll be spending the next 10 hours in.

What am I going to miss about this place? The fact that you can smile at anyone and they’ll smile back. The bowing. (There’s nothing quite like having a gorgeous young man bow to you, particularly when he’s a tough looking goth type.) Eating with chopsticks. The endless *different* scenery, both natural and manmade – for the natural scenery, you can’t look in any direction without seeing mountains. And of course the faces. Amazing how many Japanese people there are here!

I really do feel home here. I feel like I belong. Is there time in my life to find this place as I should, and everything that belongs to me here? If it is within my power I will return

Nihon ni kaerimasu.

 

 

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A Day in History

It may not be an historical event for anyone but me, but we all have times like these, don’t we? There are things that mean the world to just “me and me alone.” Today I had one of those events. And whether anyone else cares or not, I am recording it here for my own sake.

Today, I made eye-contact with this man:

Carnival

The one on the right

I’m one drop closer to the end of my bucket list.

 


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Nano Poblano – Day 10: One of THOSE Days

3DThere are mornings when I float in a sea of imagination, of blessed inspiration, where the shadows are in 3D and I even take a picture of them in hopes that the lens will pick up on that which my feeble, caffeine-deprived brain sees as magical.

 

 

There are nights–normally attached to those same mornings–when music presents itself in the muddle of my sleep-deprived brain as truly the most penetrating thing on the planet. Those are the nights when the guitar solo at the end of Comfortably Numb can move me to tears.

And my muse can move me to sing.

Do you ever have one of those days?

 

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One-Liner Wednesday – Can any of us?

…I can’t really help who I am and what I create. ~Sakurai Atsushi, April, 2010

(nopperabou.net – interview translation by Lola)


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An open letter to the woman who lives behind me (a rant)

Now normally I’m not the vindictive type. I usually just let things go. But before my backdoor neighbour has a chance to move out (which she will any day) I’d love to be able to give her a little present in the form of a song.

Here is my letter:

Dear Natasha,

When I met you and became friends with you we had in common the fact that we both have children. You have six of them, which you repeatedly pointed out were little angels, I have a normal teenager who tends to swear (what teen doesn’t?) an autistic teenager who has tantrums, and a Deaf child who wants to be friends with your kids.

I didn’t really notice there was anything wrong with you until you commented on the fact that you’d traveled all over the world but would never go to a country like Japan because they weren’t Christian there. o_O

After a few weeks of summer break that year, and after having lent you all my DVD’s that teach kids how to speak American Sign Language in a fun way, you gave them back to me, saying that your children weren’t interested in playing with my son (they showed no indications that they felt this way) because of the way he showed his enthusiasm for actually having friends his own age by looking into your back yard and screaming with delight when he saw your kids doing something fun. You then went on to explain to me that I needed to teach him how to behave himself… after all, you didn’t have any problems making your kids behave.

So, Natasha, I leave you with this song. The heathen I am. And a big nakayubi to you.

No love,

Linda

To my readers:  Please note, when (and if) you listen to this wonderful gem, the chanting at around 2:19. Apart from the fact that I can imagine myself singing along at the top of my lungs exactly the way Sakurai Atsushi belts it out from on top of the table on my deck, my teenaged son and a few of his friends (if I have my way) would be trudging slowly around a bonfire in my back yard, fully cloaked in robes with pointy hoods. Please also note that the lyrics don’t matter. It’s the thought that counts.