Dialogue between raven and whale

OOh mama, life has been rocking in all corners and I'm pretty beat, but in a good way.
My mate Fiona has been staying this week and we have been out day and night exploring and adventuring. As a duo we work well as a team, so it has been terrific, and we are getting to do some things I have been too shy to try on my own. Wow, life is just about experiencing all there is to it.
One day we went to Asakusa, then walked to Ryoguku, finding delights along the way. The most incredible garden with all the small paths and bridges, and I got to cross my first red lacquered bridge, which made my heart SOAR, I am not kidding. I just want to don a kimono and BE Japanese. It is such an evolved culture, in so many ways. The perfectionism that is strived for is pursued with such vigour and enthusiasm and rigorous dedication...I cannot believe this culture.
Mind got blown in the evening when we had a beer and got on the last water bus up the river. It was only a half hour cruise, but we were the only people on board, I can't tell you how weird it is to have so many people servicing you, but anyway, it was a blast, the lights at night and going under these bridges, one of which we had walked over that day. It's underneath was a huge lattice of red steel and I can't describe the beauty but it made me scream with joy.
When we got back to Ryoguku we continued our search for Sumo wrestlers and didn't see one. I was lucky to have gone there just as the tournaments ended for the year and the boys were all out and around I guess. But anyway, we went to the museum which was small but excellent. The corpulence of the men, and the way they are heroes just turns me on. There were amazing, fascinating drawings in there.
We found a really nice sushi restaurant, and sat on the mats and ordered one of the best meals in my life. Drinking sake and beer, and just loving every second of it. We were the only women in there, and it was packed. The fish was the best I have had ever, and felt so revitalising, ingesting the tuna and all the other sublime sea creatures, it's so elemental eating that food. It is my favourite food in the world and I am willing to forgo all other food if I could just have this!Then on Friday we started the day in an On-sen, oh yeah baby! So funny, so so hilarious all the complicated business and to do about it, but like everything it is taken very seriously and there are rules. I think we should have asked them to show us around 'cos we could only find one pool and these very strange glass beds that heated up and you lay on them. But the showers were fantastic and they must've vacated the premises when they heard a couple of white chicks coming because we didn't see a soul except for upstairs, where women were sleeping, during the day, on little mats, like in kindy! Cool, I like it! We washed and scrubbed for a couple of hours, and let me say that the sensation of slipping into that hot hot ultra clean water was madly good. My entire body was transformed...OMG. All day I flet so clean and my skin felt magic.
We needed to go to Yokohama, a city about 40 minutes from where we were, for an opening of a big video show called CREAM, so we jumped on a train and then another and eventually found the place and saw an array of art works. Some very profound stuff, and so much we would need a month to view. I found one or two exceptional and stayed around them, really devouring the beauty and excellence. It was housed in a few buildings around the town, and so we walked what seems like 20 kms, doing it hard. Interestingly different to Tokyo, and right on the bay, so I got to touch my first bit of ocean. The place was vast, and pretty empty of humans, just enormous and felt frozen in a moment of time, I can't describe it. A bit soulless, but we were only there a few hours.
That night we were supposed to go to Rebecca Horn's opening but we were far too buggered. We went for some people watching at Shibuya (or Shibby as I now call it), and that was great. On a Friday night even more people gather there, and it';s intensity goes up even higher than you believed possible. I am dumbstruck by it, the force of humans, like a huge dance, negotiating eachother on the pedestrian crossing...all the minds moving past eachother...I can't believe it!
I had invited the dance group for dinner on Saturday night and spent the day shopping and cooking. Made a few dishes, then went and picked them up in the afternoon. We had a great meal, and they met Fiona and we got quite riotous in agreement! What a fantastic night, they brought beautiful foods, and Yazumi is a tea master, so she did the tea ceremony with us at the end. Such an honour to have them here, and to get given tea and a sweet is always nice, but this was so special. She had brought a miniature tea set withe her, and I fully dug it. We partied till midnight then walked them back to the station. On the way home we dropped into a little bar that we had gone to on the first night. Had a shot of Tequila, then they said it was some one's birthday and would we like to go to Karaoke. So we did, and drank till 4am, singing with a group of beautiful strangers very passionately. Just seeing one of them do Nirvana's Smells like Teen spirit will stand out as a highlight in my life. They were so sweet and sincere, it was quite amazing. Plied with beer, by this stage I could hardly walk. It was too funny, I laughed for 4 hours straight!
Woke up today a wee worse for the wear. Couldn't face cleaning up so we went down the road and had a spot of brunch. For about $8 you get a tray of foods, with a bowl of rice and a soup. The array was incredibly delicious bits of meat, fish, tofu, vegetables, egg, potato cake and other yummy deliciousness. All beautifully presented on a lovely plate on a lovely tray. Gosh, Sydney has a long way to go.
We took the train to Harajuku so that Fi could enjoy the freaks, and it was a hot day so there were many about. The amazing rockers doing their non-stop dancing and other bands, then we stumbled on a festival with karate displays and miles of acts and stalls and action. Very friendly and positive atmosphere.
Then we walked down the shopping strip and I took Fi to see the crazy Lolita Goth girls and shops. So full on. We were decidedly knackered by then so we just did 6 floors of Kiddyland toy store then came home. Fi is in bed already and I should be as well.
But I have had a great few days and my heart feels full of love and joy and community and sincere worship of the good things, and people we are very lucky to know.

Attention to detail

TIME, a plastic word I made for the Yanaka performers, with Hiharu
I feel like this has been something I have been aware of since before coming, and every day the passion for those minute details is renewed. All the most minute things are thought through and considered. There is an importance to all things, and as I watched a fellow sweeping leaves near Meiji shrine today, I saw the broom was made of branches tied together with string, and his adept handling was as fluid as the wind itself, with no energy wasted, each sweep doing exactly what he wanted it to do. In the center of the path, a line of red leaves lay...above us, millions and millions due to fall. His path was beautiful, his actions reigned in and poetic. His fight never ceases.
A blur of noodles and sake and drinks has occurred. Yesterday it rained very hard and the cooler weather seems upon us now. I went to my friend's house for dinner, and I was served a feast of perfect octopus with tomato and basil, greens with mushrooms and garlic, Korean chicken with homemade kimchi and cabbage, natto, the crazy fermented soybean, then a soup made from the broth of all the vegetables and enoki mushrooms. Can I tell you I am in heaven here? Tasty things, textures and lightness and goodness. We talked about art and philosophy and listened to jazz, drinking tea and sake with the rain beating down on the bamboo outside and freshening the pond full of greedy carp in the courtyard.
I met up with the wonderful Jenny and Phil, from Oz today, which was so exciting, to see old friends and be with them for more exploring. We went to Shimokitazawa and just walked the streets, passing interesting things, and soaking up the atmosphere. I had seen these waffle like things in the shape of fish, but have sweet pastes in them, that are cooked on the spot, and bought them each one. The magic of smelling them cooking was enough for me, but watching the women hand trimming the edges with scissors really amazed me. They see more than 100 an hour, that's a lot of trimming!
No wonder there was a queue.
I see a lot of queues here. Very silently waiting for some door to open, what do I know? It could be a popular restaurant or a book signing...I am tempted to join the queue, just to wait.
The passion for fashion seems endless here, people dressed to the nnes, and I rarely see anyone adjusting their clothing, they look perfect all the time. Hair done just so, makeup, all their accessories placed in perfect symmetry. Only once or twice have I seen someone in sweats and thongs. Looking so immaculate, what is that? Is it because in a big city more people see you, so you want to appear up to date and perfect? It confounds me, the things I read about Japan and people not wanting to stand out, yet there are a whole swad of people who are definitely exhibitionists. Boys in skirts was on the front page of the newspaper the other day, and I have seen many in all sorts of skirts, not just kilts, and they look great. Mohan told me that a new 'whats hot in fashion' bible gets published every fortnight. Now there's a turn around! The clothes are so cool, I look in the windows and think I should get my sewing machine out.
Did I mention the sweet potato cake I was given last week that was wrapped in a couple of sheets of thin waxed paper printed with bamboo, them wrapped in beautifully printed stiffer paper, into a precise square immaculately with a sticker on it that had been stamped centrally with the time and date and a pretty picture, right there, perfectly and exactly. The wrapper was more expensive than the contents, and I was much pleased!
And I think the charms on the phones have to do with the old nasuke(sp) decorations that people would hang from their kimono belts.