The Sage
Originally posted 2009-12-11 at https://inpixels09.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/the-sage/
One thing my mother says she loves about ryouhei are the cups and bowls he makes from clay. when i wake up in the morning, i eat a serving or two of rice out of a shallow, rough textured bowl he made earlier this year with swirls in the bottom. she said it was great that he had found something he liked to do and pursued it; he is a pretty quiet, shy kid at home, but spends his days at a high school with a track in art, specifically pottery. in the glass cabinet low above the kitchen cabinet, our mother has colorful mugs, bowls and a thin vase of his, as if they were on display. I told him how cool eating off of something handmade was, after school, the other day, and he pulled his puffy cheeks back and blushed. I have a statue of his, a dragon, in my room.
a week or two ago, we took a day trip to Ueda, in the south of the prefecture; there are more mountains and fewer rice paddies, but the atmosphere is much the same. we were going to the top of a mountain to meet a new age hermit, the owner of the kiln and the chef of a mountain cafe. when we were getting in the car, i asked him how it was, and he said he thought i might like it.
It was a beautiful day and the house, as i had it explained to me, was in a “center of chi,” relating in some way to feng shui, the shape of the mountains and arrangement of the trees. there was good energy all around, man.
we got to the top, and a 50-some guy with his hair pulled back, wearing sunglasses shuffled out onto the porch, greeting us warmly with a laid-back posture. name was Sasaki-san; this guy was a legitimate new age hermit. he had built his entire own house (on the top of a massive mountain) out of the wood planks that cut under old railroad track, built his own clay kiln and workshop looking out on the valley below, grew all of his own food and tea and was “interested in buddhism, lately.” we sat and talked on the front porch while his wife, running the ‘cafe,’ made some of the best cake ive had in a while. the house actually reminded me of a family friend’s old house in maine, beautiful and natural but cold like a bitch.
we talked about all range of things, specifically japanese technology and information overload, or the balance that he thought was missing. his daughter had been studying tai chi in rural china for the past 6 years, apparently. he had these tibetan flags hanging all over, as well as his own works of pottery. before we left, i asked him if he knew who john lennon was, and told him he could pass for an asian version of him. he laughed, the way john lennon probably laughed where he threw back his chin, and then slowly came back down.
here are some pictures from the day:
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Comments (1)
Bennett — 2009-12-12
Jay dude,
You ‘da man. After hours and hours of pleading, Leah finally passed on the address for your webbie. I have finally finished reading all of the posts and I think I have a pretty good grasp of what life in Japan. I have concluded that, despite some struggles (duh!), it is pretty incredible. I can’t believe you met John Lennon. I always knew Yoko didn’t kill him. I mean, The Beatles.
Well dude, thanks for all of the stories and updates. You’ve crushed my econ grade but it’s really okay because my time was better spent reading the posts.
I hope I’ll see you in a few weeks but until then,
rock on,
Bennett