Three weeks after my return to Canada the question is tucked into the middle of an email. Anything you find yourself particularly missing about Japan?
Oh yes, yes and yes. I choose a bullet format and fire back a list. Eventually I stop with a final bullet which reads: And more….
Much of the list is about school. Oh how I miss Sogetsu School. Even when the branches wouldn’t stay fixed and design problems left me vexed, school was (is) always joy. I don’t have words to match the great constriction in my heart when I stop to think about it (which is likely why I don’t let myself do it).
For that reason, today I’ll let the pictures talk. Here are a few of the particulars:
- Multiple weekly classes– I could choose between one and seven sessions each week
- Rooms filled with flowers, equipment and resources waiting for me to create
- Ramping up my creative juices and choosing materials at the start of each lesson
- My creations
- Company of women and men who are incredible artists
- Multiple demonstrations by master teachers daily
- Numerous students’ creations which stimulate my mind to fresh ideas
- Quiet industry and creative energy in that environment
- Huddling with others from all over the world around the translator
- Golden light of the setting sun reflected in the windows along Aoyama-dori on my way home from school
- Flowers crammed into every container sitting on my non-existent counter top (Yup! That’s the entire surface, a few inches on either side of the sink.)
And more.
So much more.
More that is now less.
Alas.