The Melting World

I am here at work early, earlier than most folks, and when the sun rose at 3:30am, I did, too. I am wondering if I have entered that stage I’ve heard the elderly often do, of waking early without the need of alarm clocks. Normally, I am not so eager to rise up in the […]

“If you zoom in too close, a spiral appears to be a line…” I’ve said this before, and now I realize it’s my life. The ties you think should have been broken or at least disintegrated after so long an absence hold firm. The prodigal daughter takes a road that ends up where she began. […]

Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain and more Rain for the past three days. Hokkaido is not supposed to get a rainy season like the rest of Japan, but it seems to me as if we get it, too, but without the uncomfortable high temperatures found on the main island. I don’t mind rain, however, because […]

On our veranda, my son bathes in the sun in that quiet beauty before dusk.

As Dickinson wrote, some moments we see “a certain slant of of light.” Here my family witnessed the gold glow of the setting sun. Such moments make a life worthwhile.

If only the world and my mind could be as peaceful as my son looks right before he wakes up in the morning.

In a few minutes I will be that person who walks around the classroom actively waving her arms and speaking at a volume unnatural. This is teaching, or rather trying to get others motivated to teach themselves. But now in a spare moment of solitude and window light, I am as quiet as the books […]

An inescapable event for anyone attending schools in Japan, the annual Sports Day, which was held this Sunday. Here my son shows off an example of the sports day fashions. I, of course, got an extra added gift of sunburn. All in all, it was a surreal, and completely humorous event. Sorry I couldn’t film […]

How did we end up in these elf outfits exactly? Well, the race entailed putting on costumes stuffed in a colorcoded bag and then we had to run about 50 meters to unstack some plastic cones and then race back to tag the next group of lucky nursery school parents/child. I think my husband is […]

A and T chilling during the long-winded sports day opening ceremony.

My son content after bubble blowing by the river side. Maybe the bitter soapy taste made his lips a bit puckered though, or else he wants a kiss.

Last week Arashiyama was the setting for the Chi-nomi-Shiri-Kamuy-nomi, an Ainu ceremony of prayer to the gods and blessing of prayer sticks. The ceremony was led by the local Chikabumi Ainu.

Here are the foods prepared for the gods.

Here I am with my son and the inimitable Fusa-san and some of the ladies.

Here Ota-sensei (L) blesses the new prayer sticks with Kawamura Kenichi (R), the leader of the Chikabumi. The sticks are called Inaw. The inaw are carved into birds who will then fly the prayers to the chosen gods (lIwasaki-Goodman & Nomoto, 1999, p. 223, in Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People, Dubrueil & Fitzhugh, eds.).

Here are the opening prayers conducted inside the chise. The male elders and other respected male leaders said prayers, while the leader’s wife poured the sake. I didn’t see the entire ceremony because my son decided to shout his own prayers out loud and so I thought it best he do that outside.

Here is a picture of the smaller chise (traditional Ainu house) on the grounds of the park at Arashiyama (Storm mountain).

The shaded awnings of the chise is where some people, including my son, elected to stand during the outside portion of the Chi-nomi-Shiri-Kamuy-nomi Ainu prayer festival held May 27.