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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2016 1:16:19 GMT -5
The Tokyo National Museum right now has some excellent displays of Ainu and Asuka/Nara artifacts.
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Post by Please Delete on Oct 14, 2016 5:17:40 GMT -5
Today, I learned how to make tate eboshi from crinkled paper. Crinkling the paper is harder than you think, but it adds enough thickness that there are only four coats of lacquer for stiffness. That makes so much sense. I'll have to remember that. I'd always wondered why they went with that crinkled look. I look forward to seeing more. -Ii
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2016 5:31:34 GMT -5
I look forward to seeing more. There are, Yokaiji tells me, 30 steps in making each tate eboshi. These steps involve old books, rice paste, strips of Cedar, inked paper, rice paste, hot irons, fermented persimmon juice (!), leather, cashew lacquer, and braided cord. It's going to take me some time to write all this up, and I hope I got enough pictures and video. We spent two days at Yotsutani's home/workshop.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2016 5:35:51 GMT -5
Is it silly to consider getting exactly the Choju Giga toy I wanted on the first try from the capsule machine an emotional highlight of the day? Too bad.
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Saionji Shonagon
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One dreamed of becoming somebody. Another remained awake and became. (Found in a fortune cookie.)
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Post by Saionji Shonagon on Oct 14, 2016 10:12:52 GMT -5
Is it silly to consider getting exactly the Choju Giga toy I wanted on the first try from the capsule machine an emotional highlight of the day? Too bad. Nope! Love me some Choju Giga - enough to buy the sets on eBay.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2016 19:13:10 GMT -5
Nope! Love me some Choju Giga - enough to buy the sets on eBay. This one, a phone charm, is apparently part of series 5! I bought series 1 and 2 online, but it seems I am behind the times. The TNM gift shop still has a large amount of Choju Giga merchandise for sale. I only spent about 15000¥ there, and part of that was a book on Sesshu. I am now regretting not getting the CG necktie, but it was very expensive.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 9:02:43 GMT -5
I and my kidneys have returned safely home after a tremendous and unforgettable trip to Japan. It's going to take a while to write up long and short form summaries. A lot can happen in a week if you let it. I am grateful to the Nippon Ikitai show for bringing me to Japan. They are frantically editing days of video down to a half hour of TV right now. I'll let everybody know when it airs as soon as I find out.
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Saionji Shonagon
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One dreamed of becoming somebody. Another remained awake and became. (Found in a fortune cookie.)
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Post by Saionji Shonagon on Oct 19, 2016 10:06:35 GMT -5
I was reminded by Facebook that it was two years ago today that I woke up in a Kyoto machiya. I WANNA GO BACK!
Sounds like you had an amazing time.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2016 14:27:16 GMT -5
Sounds like you had an amazing time. I did, and it was almost entirely unlike the experience I think I would have had if I had gone there as a tourist. For instance, on Thursday morning of last week, they took me to Yushima-tenmangu Shrine in Tokyo and the priests performed a prayer for the safety of my family during which I was seated in the middle of the shrine and participated in the ceremony (!). There was almost nobody else there and the place and experience were beautiful. In Kyoto that evening, we stopped by another temple. It was milling with Japanese and foreign tourists. Lots of electric lights etc., and compared to the morning experience it was like visiting Disneyland. I realized at that moment how spoiled I had gotten. In the final interview of the trip, they asked me what was the favorite thing I ate during the trip. I've had plenty of sashimi in my life, but never before have I had sashimi prepared by somebody's mom in her own kitchen. Hands down, my favorite meal there. So yes, I had to agree to appear on a reality TV show, but I feel it was totally worth it. Feel free to ask me again after the segment airs.
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Post by solveig on Oct 22, 2016 22:43:14 GMT -5
It is so very sad that the Society has become so risk adverse that Chad told you not to mention the Society. The show was pretty positive in general and about your segment in particular. Chad you blew it!
By comparison. Around 1970, the king and queen (I believe they were from the West Kingdom) appeared as contestants on "To Tell The Truth" a game show where four celebrity panelists tried to guess which of three contestants was the real contestant. The panelists asked such things as "how did you become king" and stuff like that. One set of contestants had been outfitted quite regally by the costume department. The society members of course wore their home made clothing.
As everybody who watched the video from the US segment knows, this was very much a missed opportunity. And, the Society "leadership" wonders why membership hasn't been growing!
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Post by solveig on Oct 22, 2016 22:45:49 GMT -5
The Tokyo National Museum right now has some excellent displays of Ainu and Asuka/Nara artifacts. Did you make it to the mingei museum near Ueno as well? I have a rather fat guidebook for Tokyo museums. It is old enough that it does not have the Studio Gibli museum in it.
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Post by solveig on Oct 22, 2016 22:58:32 GMT -5
Noble Cousin! Greetings from Sólveig! So yes, I had to agree to appear on a reality TV show, but I feel it was totally worth it. Feel free to ask me again after the segment airs. Actually, you appeared in a show which is part of a genre which pretty much does not exist on US television. It has been around for decades. Basically, you were on a culture exchange program. These programs have a number of variants. They can even take place completely inside Japan such as one program which explored the variety of pachinko parlors in Japan. They found one pachinko parlor with two machines and a kerosene stove. It was so quaint that I wanted to go there even though I never took up pachinko parlors. They did another one where they found a remote Pacific island where the islanders preserve fish through a complicated process. Toward the end of the show, the cast and crew showed up with a classic round tub of Japanese sushi to share with the islanders. In the late 1980s, JTB and Japan Rail started up an "exotic Japan" campaign to promote domestic tourism.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 23, 2016 12:25:36 GMT -5
Did you make it to the mingei museum near Ueno as well? If you're thinking of the Shitamachi Museum ("old town" museum) in the Southeast corner of the park, then yes. My guide for the day, assistant director Masahiro (who took pity on me and came into the city on his day off, possibly (correctly) fearing I would get completely lost if left to my own devices on my second full day in Japan) recommended it. It's a cool little place with some "displays" that are actual old shops, reconstructed inside the building. Totally worth the 3 bucks to get in.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 23, 2016 12:32:17 GMT -5
It is so very sad that the Society has become so risk adverse that Chad told you not to mention the Society. The show was pretty positive in general and about your segment in particular. The risk was me being seen as some kind of spokesperson for the society (which I am not) and my words being viewed as the official views of the society. It's not just the SCA that feels having members present themselves as spokespeople is risky, and it's something I was glad to avoid.
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Post by solveig on Oct 23, 2016 16:03:14 GMT -5
It is so very sad that the Society has become so risk adverse that Chad told you not to mention the Society. The show was pretty positive in general and about your segment in particular. The risk was me being seen as some kind of spokesperson for the society (which I am not) and my words being viewed as the official views of the society. It's not just the SCA that feels having members present themselves as spokespeople is risky, and it's something I was glad to avoid. It is awfully unusual for an organization to get panicky about people simply saying that they are members. I can not imagine any of: The American Mathematical Society, The Institute for Combinatorics and Its Applications, the Association for Computing Machinery, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, or the Association for Asian Studies getting themselves all in a knot about my merely mentioning my membership in their organization in the context of something or other relating to their respective fields. For some unfathomable reason, the Society inculcates this idea that we should treat our membership as secret. The Masons (which actually claim to have secrets) don't do that, and to the best of my knowledge never ditched their titles of office for titles that sound like they are trying to be General Motors. Baron Charles O'Connor claims that we should be sponsoring sessions at the annual Kalamazoo conference instead of hiding under a rock. I agree with him.
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