A Sensitivity to Things

Each note, each word must be savored, weighed, calculated, and then put again into context; the context and never the word alone creating the image

With their outrageous cuteness, Japanese doughnuts will fill the hole in your stomach and your heart. From Floresta Nature Doughnuts, Kyoto, Japan. Related Posts:I’ve Got Nothing

Canadian musician and meditation-rocker Pavaka Ritchot recently toured Japan as a part of the Songs of the Soul concerts, performing in Tokyo, Kamakura and Kyoto. Pavaka, a student of meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy, performs music composed by the late Indian spiritual master, and has released two albums of these melodies. Learn more about Pavaka and [...]

Photos from the recent Songs of the Soul concert in Tokyo, Japan. Related Posts:I’ve Got Nothing

Article first published as Book Review: The Japan Journals: 1947-2004 by Donald Richie on Blogcritics. This is what every memoir should be. Unhindered by any attempt to be self-serving, Donald Richie’s The Japan Journals: 1947-2004 is about the most unflinchingly honest opening of the tightly turned lid of self you’ll ever read. You can’t help but [...]

Article first published as Bullet-Train TV Commercial Lifts Spirits in Japan on Blogcritics. Initially withdrawn because of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, a television commercial for a new bullet-train line helps a grieving nation dare to smile once more. mundaneusername: tearing up. Thank you. koy1: why did i cry when i saw this? [...]

In the face of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, words fail me. And fail me they should, for it is good to be speechless at the indescribable and the inconsolable, to be silent in the face of the inconceivable made real. Any words one could offer would mean little, be sounds empty [...]

A visit to a Zen monastery in Japan, meeting with a monk, more similarities than meet the eye. Hotel Mets, Ofuna, Japan. On the outskirts of Tokyo, a city that begins and then never seems to end. I am here on a whirlwind, week long visit with Sri Chinmoy and students, sharing a room with [...]

Out of the corner of my eye someone is waving to me. Out of corner of hearing, headphones on and music playing, someone is speaking to me. “Excuse me…” Seat 23A, right next to the window, United Airlines flight 870 from Sydney to San Francisco, several hours in and several thousand kilometres into journey, I’m [...]

My stories often have their origin in something that actually happened – an incident, a memory, something heard. (In this case it was the leap out of a plane at 12000 feet – one of the scariest things I’ve ever done). It’s then a case of finding a voice, letting characters take shape, coalesce round [...]