Shodo or Calligraphy

 Shodo, or calligraphy is now growing  in popularity among not only the elder but also younger generation. Some calligraphers in their 30's are prominent and perform their artistic strokes of the brush on TV shows. Groups of high school girls, who learn shodo our of class, in shodo club, compete in performance in once-a-year contest called Shodo Koshien. Koshien actually means a national baseball competition in summer for high school boys. In Shodo Koshien ten or more girls in a group holding a brush and a small ink bucket, dance to pop music to draw unique and colorful shodo on a large sheet of paper. That sort of trendy shodo,which is very different from the shodo I learned for years when a child, revitalized the tradition.
 But many people still learn it the traditional way, following ancient calligraphers' works. Some do it to have peace of mind; a kind of meditation. My neighbor started to write Buddhist Scripture because she is slightly melancholic after her husband's death. So which is my goal? I've started it and simply enjoy it.

shodo koshien http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLkWcez4lM4&NR=1

Let's start!

 





fumoto: the foot of the mountain

A new vending machine in JR Shinagawa Station

It never forget smiking and thanks after you buying one

Touch a bottle and it appear bigger

It attracts women, um... cute!

A fireworks festival in Itabashi on August 7th

I joined, for the first time, in a group which enjoys this event every year. Its members make an effort to hold a place for viewing the fireworks which takes place near the Arakawa river because a half million of people descend on the area on the day.

We waited for the sunset for two hours while drinking, eating and chatting. It was a perfect day for fireworks. We could see an orange summer summer sunset. At seven pm (the sunset at 6:45pm) the fireworks started to be let off and 11,000 ones lit up in the sky for two hours. The dynamism is the sounds of their explosions but I'm bit sad because you can't feel it from my photos.

I'm going to see another fireworks festival in a ballpark of a center Tokyo from parking lots of my friend's apartment next week. If you live in Tokyo you can enjoy this kind of festival a few times in  the summer.

A summer Bon dance festival

A summer Bon dance festival took place in an elementary school yard near my house on July 31.

I was a spectator, not a dancer the last night anyway. The similar scenes are seen around this country in this period.

People including kids and elders have a good chance to wear summer kimono made of cotton called yukata. In the yard neighbours were selling shaved ice, other food and cheep toys for kids.

On this day, about twenty thousands of fireworks lit up the skies near the Sumida river and attracted about 95,000 people to the site. I enjoyed the beautiful flames on TV in my cool room. Bon dance and fireworks are very seasonal tradition here.

Hokoku-ji Temple：a bamboo temple in Kamakura

I went on an excursion to Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture with TFG (Tokyo Free Guide) mates on July 3. We started at Kita-kamakura Station and visited shrines and temples in the area. The most impressive one was Hokoku-ji , a Zen temple and the last one we saw.

When arrived I was very tired because we had walked for five hours on a very hot and humid day. But the bamboo garden refreshed me up immediately. The bamboo plants were so vigorous　that they seemed to shoot up to the cloudy skies.

Like most people in the country I love bamboo as well as cherry trees. Many Japanese garden have bamboo plants. I think they give off a certain spirit that enables you to straight up your spine --- especially in the dismal weather of the rainy season.

Hokokuji:
http://www.mustlovejapan.com/subject/hokokuji/

Lotus pond in Ueno Park

It was a hot and humid day, typical of the rainy season in early July .

It was the third time to show my guests to the pond recently. I was very happy that all of them loved it. And now lotus flowers started to come into bloom in Ueno Park's Shinobazuno-ike.

Lotus is very popular in Buddhist countries like Japan because the Buddha is said to have sat and meditated on a lotus leaf. The water under the plants is full of dirty mud; a symbolic human world. Shinobazuno-ike is a peaceful and relaxing place in a busy and crowded Tokyo.

Some lotus lovers, or university students who drink through out the night in the Ueno area, go to the pond very early morning (maybe around 5 am) to listen to the gentle sounds the flowers make when bloom. You can enjoy lotus until the middle of August. I would like to listen to the sounds one day.