Perpetual Change

Amazing day of Coincidences

(from my travel notes on Asia, January 2010)

My first day in Tokyo was one of great coincidences. I hope it sounds as great in written word as it felt. Shawn was a wonderful host; he let me sleep in and gave me a key. When I got going, I realized that everything I wanted to see happened to be in the area where I was supposed to meet him for dinner (home to the square from “Lost in Translation”, perhaps the world’s largest intersection). I had picked a shrine, architectural walking tour and small museum from my tour book; they were all right there, along with the Yoyogi National Gymnasium by Kenzo Tange which was the one thing in Tokyo from my favorite architecture book at home. Basically, it turned out that everything that I knew about Tokyo was located in one quarter...amazing... so off I went.

I got into the smaller of the two gymnasia (or http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Olympic_Arena.html), because they were having the finals for the Miss Japan Drill Dance Team. I watched a few acts while admiring the building from the inside. They were quite good. Then, I headed to the park across the street with on of the most famous Shinto Shrines. I got to see a wedding (though I am not sure how unusual this is on a weekend); the priest leading the procession was the same one from the picture in my Lonely Planet book. Next, as I followed along the architectural tour, I got a bit overwhelmed by all the consumerism of Japan, and searching for the closest exit in a hipster mall, I came right out in front of the museum that I wanted to see. I thought it was on another street, and I would have ended up backtracking without this little coincidence.

The museum was lovely, compact and you had to trade shoes for slippers inside. It was of Ukiyo-e which is the traditional Japanese woodcut art, like “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” (also a tattoo on my brother’s leg). After that, I continued on my walking tour and as I neared the end, I got crapped on by a bird. This hasn’t happened to me in my adult memory. Ukrainians say that it is good luck, but I tend to think that they say that just to make something good out of the experience. What WAS good luck is that I had my baseball cap on, and it fell squarely on the bill, so I took it off, to deal neatly with later, and had avoided getting it right in the face!

Finally, deciding that I had had enough walking, I checked the book to make sure that I hadn’t missed anything in the area before heading to meet Shawn, and in fact, just around the corner was the ikebana (flower arranging) school that I had wanted to see about observing. That was where my luck changed a bit though: they didn’t have any classes going on until after I left town. After that, I had trouble finding Shawn, but a nice young man lent me his cell phone. He did not speak much English (he thought for abotu 15 seconds on how to answer "Do you speak English?" To which his answer was "a little." Needless to say, I am sure it was a comical conversation to watch, as I tried to convince him that I was no scam artist.)

Next we went for dinner and they were out of eel, a Tokyo specialty, at Shawn's favorite sushi spot. However, then our luck changed again, and I was still riding high through all this, We went for a drink after dinner, and were just about to leave after one round, when a nice group of 3 young ladies, bought us another round! I think that was the first time that it had ever happened to me. They were pleasant to chat with along with their friend, the Brazilian bartender (I think he had set up the deal). We had to go after another couple of rounds though, because we had an early morning planned at the world’s largest fish market (I was going to put my photo of them bandsawing frozen tuna, but the photo on wikipedia is clearer!)

Labels: asia

posted by jjs @ 6:27 AM 1 comments

Church

I apologize for the disjointed-ness of this post. I failed in editing to bring out the continuity that existed in my head between these thoughts.

This is the first spring that I have been in the USA since 2004, and it has come with many interesting revelations. One being that I indeed love the weather down here, but indeed miss the seasons. I am not sure that I will ever be able to fully reconcile these facts. I did start some tomato and pepper plants if anyone is looking for one.

In my discussions with an older friend the other day, we were commenting on how long it takes to build up a good thing... and how quickly it can be erased and eradicated. This was in regards to some projects with the church that we did while I was in high school.

Then I came to find that in 2000, the previous pope beatified a Saint Maria whose visions asked the church to declare a day to remember God's infinite Mercy - the Sunday after Easter. I had not heard of this day before this year, but it may be celebrated in a different way in the East, particularly because the Eastern churches tend to have a much greater focus on God's mysteries... one of the greatest being Mercy. But how can you extend mercy and offer reconcillation to someone that is not sorry for their deeds? And what happens when this is a leader? I have also learned in detail about some of the great transgressions of church leaders in the area recently.

I took my parents to a Ruthenian Catholic service for Easter. It was great, with all the traditions that I knew from Ukraine, complete with the blessing of Easter baskets. Easter has been a trying time for me in Ukraine the last few years, but always a time that makes me stronger. This year seemed a bit different, but this Easter service seemed to set off a chain of events that I am struggling through now. I believe the church is a very human construct. I think that is the great benefit of organized religion - that it gives us a shared community of support. I don't believe any one is better at this than another, though I do believe some are better at inspiring goodness in the practioners than others. Usually the better the religion at this, the more it demands of its 'layity' and 'priesthood'. I recently came upon notes I had made on a letter from Brother Alois; he was a modern reformer of organized religion and had given great inspiration to people all over the world. My notes commented on how organized religion is the community of communities. It is where all generations gather and where people do not choose one another. The church is Gods' family; its communion draws us out of the isloation that we are building into our modern existence.

In the letter Brother Alois says, "the 'fear of stranger' [in our modern world] still needs to be turned into friendship and reconciliation and trust." He goes on to explain that in many aboriginal languages the word stranger and enemy are the same. Two years ago, the amount of people living in urban areas, worldwide, became the majority; that is the first time in human history. The anonimity of urban life is a peculiar anomaly of the modern world; you often don't know the people that you see and interact with every day. Store keepers and fellow highway drivers. People running or dog walking. The man in front of you at the post office, the woman behind you at the grocery store. I think this has much greater impact on society than we realize. Though, I would also think that it would make us crueler to one another, and with the exception of the horrible habits people call 'driving' in south Florida, it seems the world has generally become a more fair and ethical place.

Now how do we get these qualities into our leaders.

posted by jjs @ 2:20 PM 0 comments