JASSW was established in 1923 to promote mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples of Japan and Washington State by providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information.
New Year’s party was held yesterday and many members old and new got together and enjoyed Ms. Chiyo Sanada’s powerful calligraphy art.
When talking about the relationship between the US and Japan in the last 100 years, it’s impossible to ignore World War II. Only after I moved to Seattle did I learn about the experiences that the Japanese Americans endured during the war.
Nations, after all, consist of people. How can we learn from history so that we won’t make the same mistake again? How can we expand mutual understanding and friendship beyond many borders in the world? I believe this community-level effort is vital to influence national-level relations.
The joy of cooking vegetables to serve our friends
Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
I belong to, not a book club, but a TED talk club.
Instead of reading a book, a host for the month picks one TED talk video and shares it with the rest of the group. Everybody watches the video, and we discuss what we learned at the meeting.
The group members take turns hosting the meeting, and it was my turn this month.
I’m the only Japanese in the group, so I try to add some Japanese flare to whatever I serve. It may be the ingredient I cook, the type of serving plates I use, or the table runner repurposed from an old Obi. Something new to the group to give a hint to start an interesting conversation before we dive into the main discussion.
When I was wondering what to prepare for the upcoming meeting, I found out about Dr. Preeti Singh’s writing prompt for this week. Vegetables! Why don’t I serve only vegetables, focusing on the cutting method into different shapes? Visual presentation is an important element of Japanese cooking!
The bright red in the center box (see the photo above) is beets, roasted and cut into cubes. I placed white goat cheese on top of the cubes and added a drip of aged balsamic vinegar. The sweetness of the beets and the vinegar, plus a hint of sourness of the goat cheese is my favorite combination.
I added steamed broccoli and cauliflower diagonally to add color variation.
Can you guess the two vegetables in the photo above?
The whitish ones are satoimo in Japanese. Taros, they are called in an Indian store. I didn’t know this kind of potato is used in Indian cooking. The color of satoimo, cooked with mirin and soy sauce, is rather dull. Cut into hexagon pieces, however, they add some charm to the dish.
The other ones are kabocha squash pieces. The vivid green outside and the rich orange color inside are great for adding accents. I cut them like a cone shape so that they stand upright.
I carved Shiitake mushrooms so that they look like flowers. Not only are they pleasing to the eyes, but the mushrooms also absorb the sauce better, resulting in a shorter cooking time. I cut carrots to look like flowers also, but I need some more training. The lotus roots with so many holes are always fun to play with. This time I cut out the outer rim alongside the holes. The crunchiness of the lotus is a nice addition to the biting experience.
My TED talk group enjoyed the food as well as the discussion. These vegetables nourished us, entertained us, and helped us grow our friendship. Thank you, vegetables!
In the last several days I had special events back-to-back.
A private Ikebana workshop for employees of a major IT company, Ikebana International New Year party, Hatsugama (初釜), the first formal tea gathering this year. Each event requires preparation from the night before till late and early morning on the day of the event.
Normally I never set an alarm. I wake up at about the same time every morning, no matter how late I go to sleep the night before.
The last several days, however, I had to get up about an hour earlier than usual. Just in case I set an alarm so that I won’t oversleep.
While I was setting up the alarm, I consciously told myself to wake up at the set time. The next morning, without exception I woke up about an hour before the time I was supposed to get up. I lingered a little before I got out of bed, but I could turn off the alarm before it made an annoying sound.
Then I thought, maybe I can rely on my internal clock a little more.
A dog or a cat, your pet begs for food same time every day. Without an alarm clock, they seem to have a daily routine set up for doing when to do what.
Time, after all, is not created by human beings. Maybe we creatures were created because there is a cycle in the universe.
I’m not advocating discarding your alarm clock at all. Our social structure requires us to be super punctual. But you may be surprised by the ability of your body to tell you time. Because, you know, we human beings are part of nature.
Whenever I hear discussions about AI and how afraid we humans are to be replaced with AI someday, I feel something off the point.
Those discussions seem to assume that human beings merely consist of their brain.
AI might surpass human beings in its memory capacity and computing capability. But without power can AI function?
A bug, on the other hand, is born, eats, reproduces, and dies someday. The body returns to earth. So does a human. We are living creatures. AI is not… Will it ever gain life? More importantly, should we ever allow that?
Because she can calculate with a soroban in this age of AI
Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
The photo above is my soroban that I got over half a century ago. In those days in Japan, every student was required to get one in the first grade at school. I remember learning how to use it a couple of times in math class. I never bothered to learn privately to further practice using it.
My mother, on the other hand, learned how to use soroban more proficiently when she was young. At the age of 84, she doesn’t even know how to start a calculator app on the phone, but she can add, subtract, multiply, and divide several digits of numbers quickly, much quicker than I can, using this simple tool.
Who is smarter, me or my mother?
I can perform simulations that my mother wouldn’t even comprehend using Excel.
I can search hundreds more recipes for cooking rice than my mother knows by heart using my smartphone.
But can I say I’m any smarter than my mother?
I think not. The very fact that I call it a “smart” phone implies that now the gadget is smarter than me. I’m not the smart one.
I’m simply outsourcing my brain power to external gadgets like computers and “smartphones,” aren’t I?
Without such gadgets, I’m useless. Even if these gadgets are around me, if electric power is out, all these gadgets become useless.
In this age of AI, I’m thinking of resisting this trend of “outsourcing our brain power.” Writing manually like this is one example. I’m seriously thinking of practicing soroban next. Then calligraphy…
Recently more and more people are testing to generate articles using ChatGPT here on Medium. Many of them are flawless and some of them are even funny. If machines can write better than I can, what’s the reason for my writing? This question has led me to write today’s article.
It’s shivering cold outside. The sky is gray with not even a slit of blue. The drizzle continues. All the deciduous trees and bushes in my tiny yard have lost leaves and look dead…
No, they are not dead!
A closer look at Spirea: Photo by Author
When I look closer, I see tiny, hard, young buds and shoots on each branch. The plants are constantly carrying nutrients from their roots to each branch.
Well before we come to admire the vivid green leaves and bright color flowers in the spring, they are preparing for that moment. Nonstop.
I’m no different from these plants. I’m part of nature. So I ask myself.
Am I preparing for my flowers to bloom? Even when there is hardly any sign of the spring shown? Am I striving for my growth today?
These 5 plants are my teachers!
Hydrangea: Pho by AuthorHydrangea: Photo by AuthorDwarf Lilac: Photo by AuthorDwarf Lilac: Photo by AuthorForsythia: Photo by AuthorForsythia: Photo by AuthorWisteria:Photo by AuthorWisteria: Photo by Author
When I visited Koyasan several years ago, I was amazed to see so many foreign tourists, especially from Europe. I asked a backpacker from England why he decided to visit Koyasan. He said, “didn’t you know Koyasan is the second most popular place to visit in Japan, after Kyoto?” Whatever the travel guidebook he read, I agreed with it.
When I finally went back to Japan after three years of separation in May 2022, two places were my must to visit: Kyoto and Koyasan.
In May 2022, Japan still restricted visitors from abroad. A foreign citizen couldn’t get a visa without an invitation from a Japanese organization or proof that their Japanese parents or children are living in Japan.
Since I had renounced my Japanese citizenship when I was naturalized in the US (because Japan doesn’t recognize dual citizenship), I had to get a visa to enter Japan to see my mother. At least in May I no longer had to prove that my mother was seriously ill.
Because of the travel restriction, there were hardly any foreign tourists in Japan. Both Kyoto and Koyasan were quiet as ever.
As usual, I stayed one night at one of the shukubos (宿坊) in Koyasan. Shukubo is a temple that allows people to stay overnight.
In addition to lodging, it provides meals (dinner and breakfast) and often lets visitors experience some of the Buddhist rituals such as meditation or shakyo, a practice of transcribing sutra text by hand. In Koyasan there are so many shukubos, each of which has a unique history.
For no reason, I felt like trying something different this time: a 24-hour digital detox.
Kondo in Koyasan: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
In one and a half hours, the train took me from the middle of the busy Osaka-city to a quiet mountainous area of Koyasan. From 10:30 am to noon, I walked around and took pictures: Daimon 大門 and Kondo 金堂. Come noon, I switched off my phone and kept it off until noon the next day.
I kept walking along the winding road,
checked in at Jimyoin 持明院, the shukubo I had made a reservation,
unpacked in one of the rooms upstairs,
took a walk in their vast Japanese garden,
strolled a long corridor in the temple,
sat down and looked at each fusumae 襖絵, pictures painted on the sliding panels (Jimyoin had so many of them!),
read a manga book depicting a life of Kobo Daishi (弘法大師 774-835), the founder of Koyasan,
slept in the futon,
participated in the Goma 護摩, a Buddhist ritual conducted in Jimyoin at 6:30 the next morning,
enjoyed a simple breakfast,
checked out Jimyoin and walked further to Okunoin 奥之院,
and got to the station to take the cable car and train back to Osaka, at noon.
View from the Koyasan Station: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
No cell phone. No TV. No Internet. Minimum conversation. Not thinking much, but just seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting what is there…
In 24 hours, I felt like part of my impurity was replaced with the freshness of Koyasan’s pure air.
Koyasan was the right place to experience the digital detox for me. How about you? Which place would you choose? Or where did you go for your digital detox? I would love to hear your story!
Only after I moved to Seattle did I learn another meaning of the English word sound. Puget Sound, which I can see from my house every day (except for very foggy days), is so calm that the ferries that run between the shores don’t have doors to close the parking space.
My mother used to take me from Osaka to Tokushima to visit her hometown via ferry. The Seto Inland Sea in Japan is known to be calm, but I’ve never seen a ferry as open as the one in Puget Sound. When my mother first came to Seattle, she thought this vast water was a lake.
Bellingham Boardwalk: Photo by Author Akemi SagawaElliott Bay and Mt. Rainier: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
Having lived here in Seattle for almost 30 years, I now associate the word “sea” with this calm, quiet, serene impression. When I walk along the shores on Boardwalk in Bellingham or a pathway along Elliott Bay in Seattle, I feel like a baby floating in a mother’s womb.
The first life form came from the sea, didn’t it? There must be a reason why I feel that way!
