Category: Nature and Life

Time to Apologize to My Camellia Tree

I almost killed it years ago.

Camellia buds: Photo by Author

Seattle is known for gloomy, rainy days in the winter.  Today is such a typical Seattle weather, although just about for a second I saw bright sunshine. 

Even on such a day, I found a bud with a hint of vivid pink/red dot on the camellia tree in my tiny yard.  Maybe it’s only a day or two away from blossoming! 

For about two or three months, this camellia is practically the only flower I can enjoy for my Ikebana from the yard.  Not only the striking flowers, the thick, shiny, vivid green of its leaves are so attractive, aren’t they? 

Sofu Teshigahara (勅使河原蒼風, 1900 – 1979), the founder of Sogetsu School of Ikebana, loved camellia so much and he created many Ikebana arrangements using only with camellias.  Looking at his photo books, I’m always amazed how versatile his depictions are about this lovely flower. 

I have a confession to make…

It must be over 25 years ago.  We just moved in this house and I was a new student of Sogetsu Ikebana.  Inspired by one of the works of our Grand Master Sofu Teshigahara, I decided to plant a camellia tree in the yard, hoping to use it for my Ikebana someday. 

I got a small sapling at the local arboretum and planted it. 

I didn’t realize how long it takes to grow it.  After 3 or four years I planted the tree, it was still tiny.  I gave up the idea of using this tree for my arrangement and started planting perennials next to it.  Those perennials were already in bloom. 

I lost my balance when trying to dig a hole, and inadvertently I stepped on the still tiny camellia sapling.  It was bend and also heavily damaged.  I almost gave it up, thinking it won’t last another year.

The trunk of the camellia tree: Photo by Author

You can see how crooked the trunk is at the bottom of this tree.  That’s my doing.  But the tree is still alive, and each winter it gives me so much joy with the abundant flowers. 

I’m sorry, Camellia.  It must have been painful when I stepped on you.  Thank you so much for thriving now regardless.  You look so beautiful!

How to Prepare Yourself to Welcome the New Year

It starts with deep cleaning.

Photo by ochimax studio on Unsplash

Year 2022 is coming to an end. Twenty-six days left, to be exact. How would you like to spend these remaining days?

There may be a lot of holiday parties you are invited to.  There is nothing wrong with saying farewell to the passing year with your friends. 

If you want to welcome and head start a fresh year 2023 come in January, however, why not spending a few days in December to prepare yourself for that head start?

In Japan, Christmas is not even a national holiday.  I used to go to work on Christmas Day.  The largest holiday is the New Year’s, and in order to welcome the New Year, people spend extra time to deep clean everything at the end of December.  They call the deep cleaning “Oo Soji” (大掃除).  It’s been 28 years since I moved to Seattle from Japan, but I still continue this deep cleaning custom to mentally prepare myself to welcome the New Year.

My focus on this deep cleaning is to take a closer look at each space and get rid of things I don’t need.  In the drawers, in the closet, on the bookshelf… I go each space one by one.  I find things I had thought I might need later, but I ended up not using anyway.  Do I really need it in the future?  Not quite. Then toss it!

This simple process of tossing things methodically, is quite meditative.  Not only getting rid of things physically, I feel I’m emptying my mind.  Clearing out my mental clutter. 

Once I toss out things I don’t need, I now find enough empty space in each drawer, closet, and shelf.  When the new year comes, I’m prepared to fill in such empty space with brand new items. 

Just like I emptied the physical space, I feel as if I have created empty space in my mind, ready to welcome whatever comes the next year. 

Maybe you need only a few extra hours.  Or a coupe days.  How about spending some time in December to prepare yourself? Make empty space physically and mentally to welcome the brand new year?

No, Time doesn’t Fly Any Faster in December

Let’s face it.  It’s all in our heads only.

Photo by Lucian Alexe on Unsplash

Thanksgiving is behind us.  It’s already December.  Soon year 2022 will be over. Time flies scaringly fast, doesn’t it?

Really?

We all know that time passes at an equal pace.  There is no short one minute nor long minute.  Then why do we use such an irrational expression as “time flies fast”?

If you look back the past three years since the world experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, do you feel that each year, 2020, 2021, and 2022, has passed at the same rate?  Maybe not.

Depending upon what you accomplished or didn’t accomplish, what happened or didn’t happen, the length of each year seems to be so different. 

As for me, year 2021 seems to have been as short as only a couple of months.  I can’t quite recall what I did that year, that’s mainly because I didn’t travel by plane at all. 

I had to go back the calendar, tracing all the online classes, meetings, and events that hosted or attended, in order to convince me that 2021 was actually the whole year.

My inclination is to blindly follow my perception where time is elastic like a rubber band. Hence words like “time flies fast” slips.  But let’s not.  Let’s acknowledge that elasticity is happening only in our heads.  Let’s face the existential reality.

The nature has been marking the passage of time on a constant pace. (I’m not a physicist and General Relativity is beyond my comprehension.) A day in December is no different than a day in January or a sunny day in August in terms of length. 

There are still 27 days left this December.  We can get a lot of things done in 27 days.  Let’s not give our mind an excuse to let the time slip by.         

The Magic of Christmas Market in Vienna

It was the best place to catch up with our old friend

Photo by Author

In the flights from Seattle to Vienna (via Amsterdam), we seldom slept.  Two o’clock in the afternoon in Vienna time was five in the morning in Seattle.  We lost almost a day of sleep and we were pretty much exhausted. 

“Would you like to rest in bed for a while?”  Asked our friend.  If we sleep now, we won’t be able to sleep at night.  In order to get rid of jet lag as soon as possible, it’s best we keep awake until the night comes. 

Fortunately, the weather on that day was accommodating for an afternoon walk.  We didn’t see the sun, but it was not raining, snowing, nor windy. It was not too cold, either.

After unpacking and enjoying a cup of coffee and the apple pie our friend baked, we put on our shoes again and went out into the town. 

A large campus of Vienna University was within a walking distance.  The building used to be a hospital.  At a first glance, the building looked so huge that it encircled the whole block.  Without our friend’s lead, we would never have crawled the entry way inside. 

Inside the walls of intimidatingly long building was a nice courtyard-turned-to Christmas market and a little amusement park.  It was Sunday and there were many local families with little children.    

Sorry, the market folks.  We didn’t do any Christmas shopping.  All we bought was a cup of warm liquor and a small bag of roasted chestnuts.  Over this drink and snack, and by strolling around the pathway under the twinkling illumination, we (especially my husband and my friend) were able to fill in the gap of over 10 years quickly. 

The magic of Christmas market in Vienna.

5 Wishes I Wrote for a Retiring Pilot

Delta Flight 81 from CDG to SEA on 11/28/2022

Photo by Author

When I saw the flight attendant on the other isle handing out a piece of paper to each passenger, I felt strange.  There is no more immigration paper or custom document to fill out.  Everything is digital these days. What’s that paper for?

The flight attendant came on our isle and handed me that paper.  It was a message card.  She was asking us passengers to fill out and write wishes to the retiring pilot. This flight was his last as a captain.

What a nice gesture!  I picked up the card and took out my pen. 

The card was half-blank.

Retirement Wishes

Always ________________________________________________________________          

Never __________________________________________________________________                       

Remember _____________________________________________________________                 

Enjoy ___________________________________________________________________            

Visit ____________________________________________________________________              

Ideas for your next adventure

__________________________________________________________________________

Best wishes.

I filled out the blank as below:

Retirement Wishes

Always be happy.

Never regret.

Remember to breathe.

Enjoy daily walk.

Visit neighborhood cafes.

Ideas for your next adventure

You have flown to many places in the world. Now you might want to explore within 10 miles radius from your home by walking.

The landing was impressively smooth.  A proof of 40 years of his dedication to his career.  After landing, two fire engines splashed water from right and left. Those fire engines were merely 250 ft apart, and the captain’s last task was to bus the A339 (wingspan: 210 ft) in between.  Another high skill he develop in the course of his career.  

Thank you so much, Captain, and best wishes on your life version 2.0!

Why Every Duty-free Shop in the Airport Sells the Same Stuff

Maybe we are brainwashed

Photo by James Foreman on Unsplash

When you travel abroad, one of the highlights is shopping, right? 

You look up in the travel book where to find the famous this or that. You want to bring home something that is hard to get anywhere else. 

The last chance for your shopping is at the duty-free shop in the airport.  You show your boarding-pass and you don’t have to pay tax.  That’s an extra incentive.

But have you noticed? You may be in Mumbai, Tokyo, Vienna, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Munich, Taipei, Hong Kong, or in Singapore (those are the airports I have been).  No matter which airport in the world you are, what are sold are almost the same.

Scotch whiskey, French scarves and perfume, Italian bags and shoes, Swiss watches, German pens, etc.  You are familiar with most of the brands because you have seen their ads on magazines and TV.

Let’s say you are a European and this is your first, or maybe the only trip to Japan.  You have less than one hour left before boarding.  Would you want to try on a scarf with a big logo of a well-known European logo but maybe made somewhere else? 

Or would you like to look at the finest silk scarf meticulously hand-painted or hand-woven by a skilled craftsperson in Kyoto, even if you have never heard of that brand?  Chances are that craftsperson is now one of the only handful people who are trained that particular technique.

I don’t see such high-end shops focused on Japanese products in Narita Airport.  Instead, all the high-end shops are those famous brands that you would see everywhere. 

Why?  Why are we so used to see these globally well-known brands at the airport?  Somehow we are brainwashed, aren’t we? 

The only exception I’ve seen so far is Reykjavik.  There, at least 80% of the duty-free shops were selling local Icelandic products.  I wonder why other airports don’t follow Raykjavik.

Please share your experience in other international airports.

What Happens When You Visit Museum the Second Time

Another reason why we travel

Photo by Author

Do you plan ahead thoroughly before you travel?  Or do you explore things without researching much?

I haven’t decided which is a better way to travel, but today I would like share with you how I enjoy unexpected encounters.

The First Visit

My first trip to Europe was a 5-week backpack journey 33 years ago.  I got an open jaw ticket (landing Madrid and leaving London) and a Eurail pass. No plan in between.

After getting lost in Florence for three days, I chose Vienna as my next destination.  Why?  Because that was the east most city I could visit without much hustle.  The Iron Curtain was still hanging heavy. 

I followed the crowd.  There was a line forming in front of a beautiful palace, I didn’t even know the name.  I asked the person at the last in the que.  “What is in there?”  “Kiss,” was the only word I could comprehend from that person.

I lined up behind him, got a ticket and walked in.  I saw that painting and almost cried because the woman looked so happy being kissed by a man.  I was still heartbroken from a breakup.

Later I learned about the paint and the artist: The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

Yesterday I visited the same museum with my husband.  The painting was just as beautiful as before, but I didn’t cry this time. 

What will find me this time?  I walked around, paying equal attention to everything in front of me.

Bouquet of Flowers by Unknown Woman Artist… It was not even a painting.  A framed decoration, made by hair, maybe by her own?

Among all the famous artists, this unknown woman artist spoke to me.  And that satisfied my second visit to The Belvedere. 

What was your experience of visiting a museum the second time?

How to Nurture Friendship across the Ocean

Another reason why we travel

She and my husband met each other two years before I met him.

Thirty years on, she and my husband (and I) are enjoying spending time together.

My husband was traveling Austria by train with his best friend.  They happened to share the compartment with a local couple.  And a day later my husband and his friend ended up joining the surprise birthday party that the woman arranged for her boyfriend in their house, instead of visiting Insbruck.

The next summer the couple visited my husband in Florida.

A year later my husband moved to Seattle.  I happened to move to Seattle from Tokyo that summer.  We met each other, started dating, and started living together.

We decided to get married.  Where should we go for a honeymoon?  My husband’s decision was already made – Austria.

The couple welcomed us newlyweds by coordinating a village brass band.  In the snow they were waiting outside to play music as soon our car arrived. 

It became an annual event for my husband and I to visit new places in Europe.  The exception was a visit to Austria.  We would visit the couple once in several years.  The couple visited us in Seattle a couple of times.

Then the pandemic hit.

The first place for my husband and I to fly together after 3 years of interval… Austria!

Over the years things change.  The couple is now split.  But here in Vienna she, my husband, and I are now celebrating our reunion.

Why do we travel?  Of course, we are drawn to the excitement of visiting, learning, and experiencing things new.  But nurturing friendship with someone dear is just as important for me.  Austria, India, and Japan… We all grew up in different countries, but together we are assuring ourselves our common ground as people.

Another Alternative to Setting Goals You Want to Try

The beauty of focusing on process

Photo by Author

In my previous article I introduced to you a “telescope method” as an alternative to setting goals.

By “letting opportunity find me,” I ended up taking up on the very two things I had avoided before as the core of my life version. 2.0.

Today I will share with you another alternative: to focus on process.

Ikebana (Japanese art of flower arranging) and tea ceremony have something in common.  

The finishing point is nothing climactic.

For Ikebana, it’s a completed arrangement.  The flowers and branches wilt in a week or so.  However beautiful you arranged, soon it disappears.

For tea ceremony, it’s simply a bowl of warm matcha green tea.  One the guest finishes sipping, it disappears.

The practice has no end.

You continue to practice again and again.  You continue to practice until you die, still you will never reach the goal, if the goal is the perfect mastery. 

The whole purpose is to focus on the process.

Then why do you practice? You may ask.

For Ikebana, you start with an empty container.  One by one you add flowers and branches, paying maximum attention to every stem and every leaf.  You keep on adding until you call it good. 

For tea ceremony, you start with cleaning the tearoom.  One by one you bring in tea utensils, make tea, and you take down.  You pay maximum attention to every movement.  When the tearoom looks as empty as when you started, it’s over.     

By repeating this practice, you come to understand two simple facts of life.

1. All you can control is your action.

 All you can control is your action,series of actions, in other words, the process.  By paying maximum attention to what you do every second, you enjoy the most profound experience while timepasses. 

2. Every moment passes equally.

While you pay maximum attention every moment, you realize that each moment passes equally.  It’s impossible to skip one moment and jump to the other.  You realize that prioritizing one moment over the other is an illusion.    

By practicing Ikebana and tea ceremony, I have realized the importance of focusing on the process.  And focusing on the process has freed myself from worrying about the goals, which are merely the results of my series of action or the process. 

An Alternative to Setting Goals You Want to Try

So far it has worked for me

Photo by Stefan Widua on Unsplash

Yesterday we listed up cons of setting goals.  I hope now you understand why setting goals are no longer a holy grail for me. 

When I stopped setting a goal, what did I do instead?

Let me share my story with you.

After I sold my company, I had no plans about I would do next.  Nothing.  In life version.1.0, I would have scrambled to find a new and challenging goal.  But I consciously refused that urge.  Instead, I said to myself, “Let opportunities find me.”

I imagined myself placing a large telescope on top of my head.  Like the one trying to catch any sign of life from the outer universe, my imagined telescope would move 360 degrees so that it catches any sign that says it needs me.  No criteria.  No presumption.  No bias.  

I read through billboards on the wall of a neighborhood coffee shop to see if there is any interesting group or meeting happening.  I called up friends or not so close people and had coffee or lunch, with no razor focus.  I said yes to every introduction by those whom I met to new people. My calendar was almost blank, so I had no problem filling new schedules. 

My former company’s banker called me up one day and she said, “why don’t you come to this seminar?” 

She was involved in a local volunteer organization.  The seminar was to train volunteers to help school children learn Japanese language.  That’s easy.  Japanese is my mother tongue.  If kids learning Japanese want to have conversations with native speakers, I can help them.

The organization was called Japan-American Society of State of Washington (JASSW).  A non-profit organization that promotes friendship between people in Japan and in Washington state.  I had hardly any contact with other Japanese people in Seattle before, let alone involved in a non-profit.  Intrigued, I began attending some of their events.

One day the executive director of JASSW asked me to speak at a lunch meeting.  No reason to say no.  What should I talk about?  Why not wearing my old kimono, instead of a business suit? 

People who come to hear my talk must be interested in my business career, like how I sold my company to a large semiconductor company.  They might be surprised to see me in kimono, such a feminine look.  They might not remember what I talked, but they might remember how I looked.

To add some Japanese flair, I also arranged flowers by my podium. Anotehr surprise, right?  To listen to a business talk while looking at beautiful flowers, arranged by the speaker.

One of the audiences was interested in my flower arrangement.  She asked me if I teach Ikebana.  Teach?  I never thought about it.  But I do have a teacher’s certificate.  Now that my company is gone, why not teaching Ikebana myself?

My former colleague invited me for lunch and introduced me to his tea ceremony teacher.  He said, “I heard that you do Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement).  Then I bet you will be interested in tea ceremony, too.”  I thought why not, and I started practicing tea ceremony, too.

The irony is I had never done Ikebana nor tea ceremony when I was in Japan.  For the longest time I had particularly avoided those two things. 

In my youth in Japan, Ikebana and tea ceremony were two major things a young woman was supposed to learn before getting married, to become a good housewife.  I was an ambitious rebellion who was pursuing a modern career.  Why would I want to learn such outdated, sissy things?

Had I been searching for a new goal in the same old way, without that imaginary telescope on my head, I would have never dreamed of taking up on both Ikebana and tea ceremony.

Now these very two things take up 80% of my life.  And I’m quite happy now. 

You don’t have to agree with me.  I just wanted to present some alternatives to setting goals.  So far, they are working for me.  They might for you, too.  Whether you are open to try it or not is totally up to you.