A dark smudge of light warms the still black Coast Mountains at six. Half an hour later an intensely orange sunrise spreads slowly skyward and across the waters. Mt. Baker looks on from the northwest as the east shoots its glow laterally through the clouds and onto its once white slopes. Brilliance illuminates the room and kisses my cheeks as I write. Continue reading
I’m a bit behind on posts. Complicate that with a change in the schedule of a vacation to this week rather than month’s end and the difficulty is compounded. I’m currently away from my PC and restricted to the use of a sometimes cranky tablet. However, sweet luck (like the upgrade to a water view room and other serendipitous surprises along the way), my (wonderful, smart, and in every way delightful) nephew sent along this video which is too sassy not to share.
Ordinarily I’d embed it; however, I don’t want to distress the cranky tablet. Sometimes one has to mollify the tools which are supposed to do our bidding. It is what it is. Please, ignore the nit-picking in the comments feed, and relish the humour and cheek.
Ordinarily, in the insane clang, roar, jangle and bustle that pervades urban Japan I might not notice. I’d be too absorbed looking for signs, checking my direction and verifying platform numbers. Or I’d be gob-smacked by some splendid design or compelling display, and it wouldn’t register. However, this day I’m worn out by an extra-long walk. As it’s sunny and warm I choose to rest on the station platform while waiting for my train. There I enjoy cooling breezes. Much nicer than resting in a subterranean station coffee shop.
That’s when I hear the escalator earworm: an endless loop of dulcet warnings. Continue reading
Tokyo Sogetsu Headquarters: By Wiiii (Own Work) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
On a sunny, late-September morning I enter the teaching room of the Tokyo Sogetsu Headquarters. After registration for the International Ikebana Class given every Monday morning except on holidays, I am introduced to Master Instructor, Suikei Sakaguch. Then we are directed to the bank of flowers and branches from which we are to choose our materials. Continue reading
I had time to kill before clearing security and boarding an Air Canada Rouge flight from Osaka Kansai (KIX) to Vancouver. Marketed as Air Canada’s “stylishly affordable service,” what that really means is fewer perks and comforts. When you pay less you get less. I get that. Never mind. If you can put up with it, you get there. Continue reading
After moving to Kanazawa my friend Kanako mentioned that she often couldn’t understand the regional accent and found it a challenge to communicate sometimes.
Fortunately, I remembered that when I couldn’t make myself understood in Japanese. Continue reading
If you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Or at least that’s the ages-old advice. Continue reading
He is a refugee. He is 37 years old. His Police Administration Report labels him as stateless. His occupation reads farm laborer. He has a wife and two sons. One is five, the other nearly four months old. Should he be one of the 25,000 (among the millions in limbo with nowhere to go) to be granted entrance into Canada? Continue reading
For the past while Japanese media has addressed topics related to the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Once in awhile I see an article discussing what might be improved prior to foreign visitors’ arrival. Even after numerous visits and familiarity with the way things are done in Japan, during my travels I often experience things that hordes of Olympic athletes, dignitaries, staff and fans might find frustrating. Continue reading
This post is a modified version of a letter to the editor in The Abbotsford News on Friday, November 20, 2015.
Wednesday evening an altercation in a home in Abbotsford led to a stabbing. I had a view of the first responders—two fire trucks, two ambulances and three marked police cars—which arrived to deal with the aftermath and prepare the victim for air transport to hospital. Oh yes. And the press which arrived to get the story.
I watched as highly-trained and competent personnel worked to save a man in the cold pelting rain in a front yard littered with dog excrement. Continue reading