Very warm, very humid. Flat and grey. I woke at 7:00 and felt I couldn’t sleep any more at the moment, so I started scrubbing the linoleum in the common area of the floor, which hasn’t been cleaned since we moved in. Tanawat heard me and emerged with a scrub brush of his own to help me finish the job. Periodically I’d duck back into my apartment to get clean water. Stepping into the air conditioning always felt like magic. Read the rest of this entry »
This afternoon we had a practice chaji, a formal tea gathering sans kaiseki meal like the one we had about a month ago with Tanja as host. Today’s was an especially big deal for me, not just because I was the “first guest,” shōkyaku, with extra things to say and do; but because the host was my senpai, Anita, whose responsibility it’s been to teach me just about everything but what the senseis focus on during practice. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been here exactly a month now, and my bowing reflex has gotten extremely well developed. Read the rest of this entry »
LUNCH: A bag of corn puffs (like crunchy Cheetos) with weirdly semi-convincing chicken karaage flavoring.
DINNER: Bibindon, a Korean-inspired bowl of rice with shaved pork, kimchee, and a barely-poached egg, from the gyūdon place by Imperial Palace we ate at last Sunday.
WEATHER: Fine, lusty spring. Read the rest of this entry »
Having eaten up my stash of school-provided breakfast food, I started the day with a roll from the 99-yen store: cellophane-wrapped, nearly imperishable, stacked with egg, cheese, and a slice of bacon. Then it was off to prepare for our first monthly meeting with Okusama, who in addition to being Oiemoto’s wife is vice-principle of the school. Read the rest of this entry »