$25,000 TO BUY A VACANT HOME (AKIYA) JUST 45 MINUTES FROM TOKYO

  Click HERE for the full article: 2,700 SQUARE FEET

Jaya Thursfield (Australian), his Japanese wife, Chihiro, and twin boys live now in a traditional Japanese home, once abandoned. Built by a temple architect in 1989 at a cost of $450,000. They wanted a home with a big yard for the kids.  He documented (on video) the renovation from it's first days through its current status, showing us the surprises and other things that are important to know before starting your own renovation project in Japan.

 

Photo credit: Andrew Faulk

AKIYA #1: Jaya's videos can be found on his YouTube Channel under the name Tokyo llama. This second video, showing the renovation process is twice as interesting because Jaya teaches us useful Japanese terms so that we build a vocabulary while learning what it takes to renovate an abandoned home. For example: genkan, traditional entry, and fusuma, sliding panels used to separate rooms.

Gaining the blessings of the Shinto Kami (spirits) for your home restoration.

AKIYA #2: Move in for $300 per year.

JAPAN'S HOT SPRING RESORTS & GEOTHERMAL POWER

 ♨ or the kanji 湯 yu, 

More than 13,000 hot spring resorts (onsens) welcome guests in forested mountains and along the coastlines of Japan which sits upon the third-largest geothermal reserve of any country on earth.

Click HERE for Geothermal Power Could Help Run Japan.

But Japan continues a long history of Hot Spring Culture dating back hundreds if not thousands of years. 

HOW SAMURAI FAMILIES ADAPTED TO A CHANGING WORLD

七転び八起き

Fall seven times get up eight -- Japanese proverb  

Japanese culture and ways of thinking can not be adequately addressed in a short space, but this Japanese proverb reflects an important and shared ideal: "Nana korobi ya oki" (literally: seven falls, eight getting up) means fall down seven times and get up eight. This speaks to the Japanese concept of resilience.

Yataro Iwasaki 岩崎 弥太郎

1834-1855

Yataro's family came from a long line of samurai, but as he came of age, that heritage was in transition. Instead he pivoted to Japan's industrial future becoming the founder of Mitsubishi which began as a shipping firm to later evolve 3 branches: Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Heavy Ind-ustries and Mitsubishi Bank. 

After World War II the Mitsubishi companies contributed to Japan's unprecedented growth to become the world's 3rd largest economies.

The Kobayakawa Families

AMAZING VEGAN CHOICES IN TOKYO AND KYOTO

 26 VEGAN CHOICES IN TOKYO, AND 23 MORE IN KYOTO

 

So many choices creates another problem... you may not want to go back home.

Patricia and I are checking these lists for our Tokyo and Kyoto Fall Trip (either 2023 or 2024 contingent on travel restrictions).

 

Click HERE for Kyoto Machiya: traditional wooden townhouses.

 

 

1. Click HERE for the best Tokyo Vegan choices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Click HERE for the best Kyoto Vegan Restaurants and Cafes

HIROSHIMA

Before

 

After

 

 Today

It was 9:30 am Friday, November 25, 2005, 3rd Floor Tokyo Prince Hotel.  We were attending the Peace Education Seminar arranged by the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund.   Guest Speaker: Mr. Koji Ideda, Hiroshima Survivor, Keynote Speaker. We chatted after his session and I asked to be moved to the JFMF group going to Hiroshima, but that would have created too many complications. Our entourage of 200 American Educators would form 10 groups each destined to the far reaches of Japan. My group was headed to Ohda, Shimane,  hope of visiting Hiroshima would have to wait for another time. 

 

                                       Mr. Koji Ikeda

At 8:16:02 am August 6, 1945  

Koji Ikeda, must have been around 20 years old, had just picked up his crying and "always hungry" baby. His wife had just gone into the city, on her morning walk for groceries, she’d be back soon. It was August 6th, that moment a blast wave shattered his Hiroshima home.  When he regained consciousness... “Where’s my baby?” “What happened to the house?” and “How long was I out?” and  All that remained was piles of splinters and chards of wood where once stood his home.  “Where is my baby?” Searching through the broken timber, Koji finally found his baby, but the hillside was now neighborhood of rubble.

 

10:40 am. Since I was seated in the first row and since tears were streaming down my cheeks, I turned around to see if I was the only one crying.  With 200 American educators in the room,  not a dry eye in the house.  

 

 

It would take me 10 years to finally arrive in Hiroshima but it all started with Koji Ikeda’s presentation on Peace Education.

In 2015, I finally returned to Japan, this time making sure include Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park.  The short documentary below opens with my visit to Hiroshima Peace Park, and is followed by my visit to the home of one of Japan's most recognized swordmakers. Gassan family has been making swords for 800 years.

When I posted my Hiroshima video to YouTube I said: “Every politician in the world must visit Hiroshima Peace Park before taking office.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For 77 years it has been believed that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war with Japan. But today, I've seen a different way of framing the surrender of Japan.

Click HERE for the full article.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ONE DOZEN JAPANESE CONCEPTS THAT WILL IMPROVE YOUR LIFE

Unfamiliar Japanese concepts that will improve your life.  (Sent to us by Patricia Vining)

#1: Ikigai.   Know your reason for being.

Define the reason you get up in the morning.

Make it something you are good at, passionate about, and that the world needs.

THIS has great meaning.

#2  Wabi Sabi: Find beauty in imperfection.

Embrace your own flaws and those of others.

 

Nothing lasts forever.

 

Embrace imperfection.

 

#3 Shabui: the aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty.

Though simple, objects include subtle details.

Balance of simplicity and complexity that leads to something new, like the tea ceremony.

 

Leads viewer to draw beauty out meanings from within. 

#4: Kintsugi:  Coming back after being broken.  Repair cracks with gold.

  

Imperfections are a thing of beauty.

The journeys we all take are golden.

Our flaws are embellishments that make us more beautiful.

#5 Ryote to ryome de: "With both hands

and both eyes."

.

Attend to people and tasks with full attention.  

 

This brings nearly instant inner peace.  credit: Colleen Kieton

#6 Mottainai:  Don't be wasteful.

Everything deserves respect and gratitude.

Recognize the value in what's around you and don't waste it.

#7: Gaman:  Have dignity during duress.

Hard times need to be met with emotional maturity and self-control.

We need patience, perseverance, and tolerance.

#8: Yuugen:  Appreciate mysterious beauty.

Often we FEEL the beauty in an object without it being stunning to look at.

Discover subtle beauty beyond aesthetics.

Experience something words cannot describe.

#9: Oubaitori:  Never compare yourself.

Everyone blossoms in their own time, and in different ways.

Don't judge yourself by someone else's path.

#10: Shikita ga nai:  Accept and let go.

Some things simply aren't within our control.

Accept what you cannot change, and move on.

#11: Omoiyari:  Show consideration for others.

Life is better when we care for others.

Be thoughtful. Build compassion.

Credit: Tessa Davis for the original list,  which I have edited in a kind way.

#12: Shu-Ha-Ri. "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready... the teacher will Disappear."  --Tao Te Ching

Experiment, learn from masters.

Integrate learnings into practice.  

Imitate, then innovate, adapt to different situations.  

Follow, breakaway, transcend.

 

Here is another interesting List

https://betterhumans.pub/10-japanese-concepts-for-self-improvement-and-a-balanced-life-42cf0be2da1a?gi=72b5ab8b9c1b

AN ANCIENT TRADITION FOR THE MODERN WORLD

 My first trip to Japan was as a Japan/Fulbright scholar.  I think it was one of my former students, Matthew Mori, who first alerted me to a common blunder made by fist time travelers in Japan.  

He said: "Don't get in the tub to soap down or wash your hair." The bath is not for washing, but for soaking in fresh clean hot water. Washing and scrubbing belong outside the tub. Traditional Japanese bathing is a ritual handed down over many centuries; the perfect moment of tranquility.

WHAT I LEARNED:  1. When staying in a traditional Japanese home, in the bathroom, you will find an stool, hand shower wand on a flex hose and an extra drain outside the tub.  See photo left.  Japanese people, sit on the stool, scrub down, wash their hair and rinse down outside the tub. Hence the extra drain outside the tub. Any splashed water in the bathroom drains away. Once clean, then it is appropriate to soak in the tub.

 Photo credit:  https://resources.realestate.co.jp/living/japanese-apartment-bathrooms-explained/

2. I've come to admire the Japanese in many ways, but at the top of the list is just how good they are as a nation in reducing carbon emissions. 

 

Source credit:  https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/japan

 

Take a look at this graph comparing the United States with Japan.  In country two of the many ways this is visible:  1. when you're in a traditional Japanese home, you'll notice that the whole house is not heated. Instead of wasting heat, it is common to find the family enjoying meals under a heated Kotatsu table (see below). I found it so charming to see families eating together in such a cozy manner, I was inspired to do the same when I came home.      2. the frequency air drying laundry is seen on the balconies of apartment buildings and in the drying racks inside Japanese homes. They consume less energy by air drying their laundry. There are many other examples, but perhaps for another time.

 

 

Photo credit: https://japanobjects.com/features/kotatsu