memory & place

Thrangu Monastery Richmond BC

This year I attended Thrangu Rinpoche's teachings in Richmond BC and went on a tour of the monastery that the Vancouver Vajra Vidhya Assocation is building. This amazing complex is scheduled to be completed summer of 2010. Located on Temple Row it will be an example of Tibetan temple architecture and also the devotion of Thrangu Rinpoche's students here in North America.

The Monastery floor plan follows traditional Tibetan design. Arranged for large gatherings it will also provide housing for monks and retreat-ants. As the building is completed Lamas continue their work painting the hair and faces of hundreds of buddha statues while the sangha works on finishing the interior painting.

Very little of the imagery in a Buddhist temple is purely for decoration. The well defined iconography of Tibetan Buddhism art illustrate aspects of enlightenment. Artists employ symbols and visual aspects of the Buddha and other enlighten beings to create archetypal images which aid in contemplation and act as a support to stabilize one's meditation.

the tao of South Korean barbecue

Ted was invited to speak at the July 2009 PiFan - 13th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in Bucheon South Korea. He accepted their invite and we made the 16 hour journey.

We arrived in Bucheon, dropped our bags in the hotel room and walked across the street to a restaurant for our first taste of Korean food with Thomas one of the conference organizers.

Bucheon looks like an industrialized city and it was a humid 90 degree evening so I assumed AC would be everywhere. There was no AC in the restaurant but there was a barbecue grill sitting in the middle of a small table. I thought the place must be packed so they seated us at a table with a grill but we're not going to have barbecue, inside, in a heat wave? Silly western girl... don't assume anything.

Korean's love their barbecue. Rightfully so - Korean barbecue is very tasty. They love it so much that they barbecue inside even in a heat wave. A waiter cooked this wonderful piece of Korean beef on what felt like a blast furnace inches from our hands and arms. 

While it cooked we started on our side dishes. Kimchee, cold soup, green veggies; all very good and very, very, very spicy, washed down with Soju. This is what it must feel like dining on the sun yet enjoying every bite.

After dinner we went to opening night ceremonies for PiFan. We walked into a ballroom where this big party was going on. People were talking, drinking, eating, talking on cell phones, checking everyone else out.

A swirl of socializing continued as various people got up on a low stage to give opening remarks, which were barely audible over the sound of the crowd.

Fashion was eclectic; casual to office dressy. But there was one small clique of women in long black evening gowns, beautifully accessorized, strolling through the crowd.

Ted and I left for a walk around the neighborhood. The sides of office buildings seem to double as billboards. Vertical space gets rented for neon ads making the office districts insanely bright.

We found old arcade amusement park gaming machines scattered around the neighborhood. The stuffed bears looked sad trapped in their glass cases waiting for someone to drop a coin and rescue them.

Gundam one week ago in Tokyo

It was our last night in Tokyo and Ted wanted to see Gundam. So with the super power of the Tokyo public transport system a block from the hotel, we walked to the train and headed for Tokyo harbor. The ride there was enough for me. At dusk we changed trains to a 'private' line which means you pay a bit more but it's still a public line. It moved us across Tokyo harbor to Odaiba Island. Amazing.

We crossed the Rainbow bridge which holds car lanes as well as train tracks. The bridge has this ridiculously beautiful loop that turned us around over the water before continuing on to Odaiba. This wasn't an amusement park ride. It wasn't scary. It was wonderful. What this bridge symbolizes to me is the amazing Japanese can do it attitude that has given Japan possible the best public transportation system in the world. I'm bowing deeply here.

Imagine riding over I-5 in a train from Seattle to Tacoma heading to the Tacoma aquarium for an afternoon. You could take your car but why would you if you could get there without worries about sitting in traffic near the Tacoma dome, spending a fortune on gas, parking or a flat tire. You glide there and you glide back. If you like nap on the way.

America's deep attachment to the auto makes us dig in and say we can't do it when it comes to creating a local, state, and inter-state public transportation system that can compete with our beloved auto (sigh).

Back to Gundam. I've pulled a brief explanation of what and who Gundam is from its Wikipedia entry.

"Gundam (ガンダム, Gandamu^?) is a metaseries of Japanese anime created by Sunrise studios that features giant robots (or "mecha") called "Gundam." The meta series started in April 1979 as a serial TV show called Mobile Suit Gundam."

It's the 30th anniversary of the Gundam meta series. So what do you do to celebrate? Well if you are the Japanese you pick a great location and build a giant replica of Gundam.

There were workers in three cherry pickers giving Gundam a check up. The replica has no moving parts so we really had no idea what they were doing but it looked cool. With the heavy duty flood lights and lots of people at Gundam's feet (which were mighty big) it was another amazing night in Japan.

Reading Menu

I use to think going out to read was strange. Stay home and read. Escape to a
corner in your own home. Way more comfortable. I have tried it and I must
apologize for judging others before trying this myself. My only defense is being
human and growing up in New Jersey. Being human can mean being judgmental
and inflexible. Growing up in NJ meant there were no coffee shops that sold
books or played music. There were coffee shops and they were called dinners.
You did not go there to read, hang out, balance your check book, do homework
or write a novel. You would get thrown out.

So my NJ sensibilities were shocked when I first encountered Seattle public
displays of what was only done in private in NJ . My first job was for Aldus in
Pioneer Sq and we would go to Elliott Bay Books for lunch; great dining space,
lined with books, a place for author readings; totally amazing to just arrived
Jersey girl.

One day what do I see?  A woman balancing her check book, doing her bills right
out there for everyone to see. I with gaping mouth, furrowed brow, mind trying
so hard to figure out why do this in public? What the? How could she? Who
raised her? She might as well have been naked. Cultural confusion jumbled my
brain as if I had never been in a big city before where people do strange and
crazy things in public. Did I mention I'm from northern NJ. Hop and a skip to NYC.

Then my first visit to the Honey Bear Bakery sealed my status as a stranger
in a strange land. The placed was packed with people glued to there laptops,
doing homework, studying, reading, no one was balancing their check book.
Noisy? Yes. Strange? Yes. Good food and coffee. How does this place make
any money? Why do these people look like they want to live here?

Finally after 20 years in Seattle I went to a coffee shop to wait for the rush
hour traffic to thin and settled down with a book. The noise, the hubbub, faded
away and I got it. I can't get sidetracked, distracted, I can not answer the siren
call of that chore that beckons. Maybe when at home I should plug my ears with
wax or lash myself to a chair.

But I have to admit I still like reading and balancing my check book at home
because I am from NJ. Along with my accent which has softened a bit, my
insanely high standards for good Italian food (that's another post) friends
and family that tempered who I am, I will always be a Jersey girl.

The photo for this post was captured digitally in London at a bar whose owners
found interesting use for lots of over sized lampshades.


It was a busy night and except for this gentleman with his book everyone was
eating, drinking, talking, taking a turn at the dart board.
Maybe he was from Seattle.

Wabi-sabi

Everything in Japan seemed beautiful. These pieces of paper stuck to the entry gate of a temple could have been business cards. They were probably prayers but I was taken with the calligraphy, how some
were peeling and old, how each one was placed. These were placed on the entrance gate to a temple complex in Kyoto. Each unique, elegant to my western eye, impermanent.

"If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi." Andrew Juniper,  The Japanese Art of Impermanence

The constructions signs made me stop. I had to stare long enough to remember.

"It (wabi-sabi) nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect." Richard R. Powell Wabi Sabi Simple

Plan to be surprised

You can plan to see a lot of things before going to a new place; where to stay, to eat but sometimes you stumble upon a place that is a gift, a surprise. That's how I felt when by chance I decided to take the JR train from a local station in Kyoto to Nara. I came up onto the platform and was startled by the roof on this station. Of course I was the only one looking up, gaping at the structure, amazed by the form, its details and my luck.

trains

To an American, train travel in Japan seems a luxury, a dream come true. A train will take you to just about anywhere you need to go. Clean, on time, great service, and the country side rolls on and on, while I read, nap, or gaze out the window, camera sometimes ready.

Christmas 07

Going home for Christmas surrounded me with my past, present and future, with friends and family, cold weather and Christmas decorations which came in all shapes and sizes. I decided to travel with only one camera. I took my trusty Canon G3 which never disappoints. It always surprises me with its capabilities. Where ever I was if something caught my eye I went ahead and tried to capture what intrigued me. Whether it was a friend's Christmas decorations up close or a major Christmas production where I was sitting so far back and so high up that the G3's zoom amazed me. I tend to like low light, hand held images so this type of distortion is something that also intrigues me. In low light situations there is something collaborative that happens between me and the camera. You’re not sure exactly how things will come out or what you may do in PhotoShop later on but that uncertainty is part of the excitement that comes with shooting hand held in low light conditions.

Capital House

These images were taken in the Austin, Texas State Capital. The larger a state capital building the stranger it seems. Cloaked in history and symbolism these buildings contain strange spaces creating interesting moments to record.

Ema

Shinto is one of the oldest religious practiced in Japan. Many Japanese supposedly don't practice any particular religion but report to be animistic or agnostics. Yet an agnostic might say a short prayer before a meal. You can't help having a prayer, a deity, or supernatural force in mind because there is legend, myth, and religion in every Japanese neighborhood, village and field. Religion in what ever form it takes is an integral part of being Japanese.

One doesn't need to walk to far before encountering a Shinto shrine where people hurry in for daily prayers. Lining the path to the main shrine are large walls hung with ema, small wooden prayer tablets on which people write their prayers to the Shinto kami, spirits or gods. Ema means "horse picture" and traces its origins from past offerings of horses to Shinto shrines which evolved into signboards and paintings also donated to Shinto shrines during the Edo period.

The photos I take on my travels are presented out of context. This image possible shows the symbolic representation of someones prayers around small female children. I don't know what their prayers were for but I was continually amazed at the faith and beauty the Japanese distill into with what ever they set out to do.

Kitsune sighting in Tokyo

Jet lag was a blessing and curse but fortunately more a blessing. I can thank jet lag for getting us to the Tsukiji Fish Market and for morning strolls through the neighborhood around the Grand Palace Hotel in Tokyo where I had my first fox sighting. Far back in an alley way there was a small shrine guarded by foxes. I have yet to discover what the apron symbolizes but have discovered a great deal about Kitsune, Japanese for fox. Since ancient times kitsune are believed to be messengers for Inari the Shinto deity of rice. Japanese folklore depicted the fox as a magical being with the ability to transform into human form in order to trick others. But foxes are also believed to be faithful guardians as I discovered in Kyoto.

There to serve you

In a place full of amazing design and culture I was taken by the Japanese vending machines. The machines weren't draped in one name brand that had brought the rights to shout it's name out. Instead you see what's available all neatly lined up waiting for you to be interested in a drink or a smoke. I loved they way they looked when they glowed at night.

Takarazuka

While in Japan the strangest experience for me was seeing a Takarazuka Revue. The play and Las Vegas like extravagance were tops e turvy romanticized visions of women portraying men in a saccharine sweet over the top fantasy. Japanese do like fantasy and the Takarazuka Revue supplies Japanese woman with a rich fortified concoction of baroque proportions. I found equal parts amazing and freaky.

Japanese women are usually very quite and proper so to see a practically all female audience visibly excited in anticipated of the performance was strangely disconcerting.



 

Tsukiji

What do you do at 4am if you can't sleep and you happen to be in Tokyo? You head to the Tsukiji Wholesale Fish Market. The most amazing thing about the market is the market. It is beyond description. There is so much to see, hear, smell and take in. It is a vast domain unto itself that feeds all of Tokyo and then sells what's left to the rest of the world. It is possibly the best place to spend you first morning in Japan because you have jet lag and it will wow the socks off of you.

What better place to end your visit to Tsukiji.

The Ghibli

The Ghibli Museum located in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan is home to a small collection of artifacts from the imagination of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. GhibliWorld.com

The museum is reminiscent of Howls Moving Castle stuffed with amusing surprises inside and out. Photos are not allowed inside the museum so I had to keep a look out for what might be staring at me from inside.

The Ghibli  is occupied by some amazing creatures. So why should the roof be any different. There you will find the Robot Solider from 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky'.