It’s been a while since I blogged. And it’s not because I’ve got the blues or anything like that. I’m in a big transition phase right now. It’s time to pack my bags and get ready to go. And no, it’s not a holiday this time. It’s a move. Whenever I move from one period of my life to the next, I find myself thinking about where I was when it started, and where I am now. And boy have I come a long long way.
At over two metres tall – the bow is heavier and more imposing than I thought it would be. It isn’t the first time I’ve held a weapon in my hand, but there’s something about the kyudo experience that scares some primal part me. I’m wearing a three fingered glove on my right hand. The yugake is a glove with a hardened thumb and a pre-made groove that’s designed to pull the string.
In 1904, my great-grandfather moved to Kobe. He had three kids. My paternal grandmother was one of them. She grew up in Hyogo Prefecture. She wasn’t Japanese – but the Kansai dialect of Japan was her first language. It’s rare to find born-and-bred ‘gaijins’ in Japan now. It was even rarer then. Since coming to Japan, I’ve been curious about grandma’s life here.
Don’t you dare put anything on my plate that my mum won’t approve of. Food that is heavily catered to the Japanese palate is not for me. I’m also not a fan of the greasy takeout type restaurant. I want soul food. You know what I’m talking about. I want a meal that takes me back to my thousands of years of heritage with that first bite.
The cherry blossoms are nature’s gift to us for surviving the winter. The sakura are too beautiful to last more than three weeks. They remind us that things come into this world to die. That does not mean that we can’t enjoy their exquisite beauty while they last.
I was 20 the first time I had a tarot card reading. It was odd. Awkward. WEIRD. If you had told me that I was going to be a tarot card reader 9 years later, my reaction would have been to laugh hysterically and unfriend you on Facebook. The 2017 Chinese New Year changed everything.
Unlike the Owl Cafe in Akihabara – Kamakura’s Owl Forest is not a cafe. So no sipping on a drink while you stare at the owls. It’s a ‘forest’ – so the owls (and people) have heaps more space to move around. THANK GOD. The ‘forest’ is only a two minute walk away from Kamakura Station. Located on the extremely crowded (and overrated) Komachi Dori, it costs 600 yen to get in and there’s no time limit so you can hangout for as long as you like.
