Keiko: Solar Paneled Cat

The temperatures dropped in the night. It was quite chilly outside compared to most of September. The temperatures dipped down to about 54F outside, and 55F inside... The nice thing is that the humidity is down to a dry 60-80% so it isn't too bad at all. Unless you are sleeping under summer-weight towel-blankets.

This morning, because the temps dipped in the night, I awoke to both of my feet cramping, the arches cramping, the toes cramping. I was able to get the cramps out of one of them, but no sooner had I accomplished that "mean feet", than the other one decided to cause me consternation. So I got up, hobbled around until they were not looking so much like talons anymore, got dressed and went outside just to see if Keiko had come back.

Keiko was standing there looking at the genkan, shivering, wondering how to step up. I filled up a bowl of cat food and he gorged on that. Then I fed him 1/3 of an uncooked hamburger and he devoured that. When I came back, he was up sitting in his chair, shivering.

This cat is REALLY skinny.. his bones stick out all over the place, and instead of having strong shank and thigh muscles, they are concave (not a good sign).

We did our morning rituals here in the house as usual. I was just sitting here enjoying my coffee when I heard this thud! Crash! and I knew what was going on....

Keiko was in the midst of attempting another prison break!

So I went outside and saw that he had jumped over the low blockade, and had attempted to push the high one out of the way. But instead of being successful, I guess he knocked it down on top of himself and it had pinned him to the sidewalk. What a silly cat!

I decided to let him wander around out there, but he lay on the concrete for a while to get some warmth, perhaps. Then he got up and hobbled around, collapsing on the wet moss in the yard (no grass, just gravel). He tried to get up after possibly realizing his mistake, but couldn't. So I picked him up, carried him back to the walk, "knocked him down" again and left him there. A few minutes ago I went out to see if he had left and he was back in the genkan drinking water. Then I peeked out again and he was back up in his chair.

I just put the chair out in the sun to see if he likes that.... he seems to be staying there quite happily. (A double check and then a triple check reveals that he is still there... so I took the next photo.)

Maybe he will be here later, maybe not. Maybe he will return, maybe not. I just do worry because his body is far too concave for his own good, and he really can barely walk. Who know? Maybe a wild (hungry) monkey will get him for a snack in the middle of the night, though I must admit that the monkey would probably be rather disappointed at the lack of meat on Keiko's young bones. An emaciated cornish game hen might be a better catch...

Perhaps Keiko is a Solar Paneled Cat...

I'm going riding.

I love you!

Cam

This is Keiko 3: More Lives to Live

The adventure of Kimagure Keiko continues...

Little BroBrat has lost his Cat

NOTICE:  These two photos were taken on the 24th of September after coming back from the vet with "our cat", Kimagure Keiko. They are the most recent pictures in our posession.

If you have seen this cat, or know of his whereabouts, please contact us immediately at 555-1212@yahoo.com!

*******************

I have been barricading Keiko into our outer genkan just to keep him around and prevent him from wandering off in his weakened state. I really didn't want him hobbling off on weak rear legs, skinny from possible starvation, and getting a falling injury, being run over by an automobile, or carried off by some hungry hawk that is looking for struggling weak, feeble food... (or poisoned by an eternally angry dickheaded neighbour).

Yesterday Keiko pushed the gate open and left.

I had put him on the ground inside our outer genkan to eat and drink (he is eating a lot, and drinking a lot and has always had a very large appetite). Then I came back into the house for an hour or so, and spent time getting stuff ready for an 11am meeting. When I went outside again to go, Keiko was nowhere in sight.

I scoured the streets, the neighbourhood, and even drove up and down each street here, but alas I could not find him.

He did not come back last night.

It has been very windy, stormy and raining all day today as well, and Keiko is not back. It's too bad because he finally seemed like a cat that liked us; I could pick him up, carry him around, put him out for a pee (looong pees), watch him hobble back and want to get back up on his bed, pet him for a prolonged time like I was able to do with Stefnee's cats... No more hissing, no more running away, no more shying away when I tried to touch him.

But I don't see him anymore.

Maybe Keiko will show up when he's sick and needs more medical attention. I had better save my yennies.....

Have a nice evening.

I love you!

Cam

Showa Period Life (1926-1989)

Mayu sits waiting on a Showa Street

The Fukui Prefectural Museum has an art display showing a lot of goods from the Showa Period in Japan. We visited the other day and looked through the tiny museum. It was very interesting. I took a few photos of stuff that I thought you might find interesting to see, as it depicts MY life, as it was 20 years ago.

In fact, I arrived in Japan in 1989, the last year of Showa, when emperor Hirohito died.

If you would like to read more about what went on during this Showa Period (Emperor Hirohito, and the first emperor to lose his Godhood when the Americans occupied the country after the war), please visit this Showa Period link to Wikipedia. It has some good information.

I love you!

Cam

P.S. All photos were taken with my keitai (cell phone) as I didn't bring my camera, thinking that pictures would not be allowed (as is usually the case).

Something's Fishy about Fish Oils

Well, gang, it's time to "explode" your understanding of health issues again with a great newsletter from YES Supplements (my PEO guys and girls). Brian Peskin, my guru was asked to speak at a giant medical-related seminar... and it's about time! Things are finally starting to change big time as the truth that Brian has pieced together on health, carbohydrates, cancer, obesity, and the necessary essential fatty acids is catching on with doctors who are now seeing their own irrefutible results.

I'll let this newsletter tell you the entire story.

I love you!

Cam

P.S. I thought I'd also let you know that Brian and Ken, the CEO of YES Supplements will be here in October to talk about a company that wants to import the YES Supplement products and market them here. They will be meeting with that company in Osaka and I'll be heading over to meet them. I am sooo glad that they have finally found a (rich enough) company to want to bring them here.

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BoulderFest 08 Experience
August/September 2008

BoulderFest is a lecture/seminar event with nutritionally-related medical information presented by and for practitioners. It is hailed as "The Latest Findings in Nutritional Medicine, Featuring World-Renowned Speakers from Across the Globe." Taking place in Broomfield, Colorado, July 17th - 20th, the event proved to be quite exciting.

Professor Peskin was invited by Crayhon Research, Inc., the organizer of this renowned event, after a doctor familiar with Peskin's work insisted he be included as a speaker.

Professor Peskin's presentation challenged the conventional wisdom with respect to cancer and cardiovascular disease. In particular, his talk put to the test their incorrect "recommendations" for EFAs, which have allowed these leading killers to reach epidemic levels in the USA and around the world. Most importantly, his presentation provided a strategy to successfully avoid either of these diseases based on the meticulous research of Nobel Prize-winner Otto Warburg, MD, PhD.

Professor Peskin's lecture followed one of many "experts in the field" on the "benefits" of supplementing the diet with Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids extracted from fish oil. Brian deftly showed the errors in the preceding lecture but diplomatically kept the focus on state of the art scientific information instead of the all too common ad hominem attack.

Professor Peskin, as always, was in peak performance. The PowerPoint presentation used to complement his lecture was filled with rock-solid references from medical textbooks as well as the world's leading medical journals, followed by incredible real-life results and information supporting all of the points made from all angles. Nothing was left unanswered or incomplete.

BoulderFest 08 was a huge success and many practitioners and their patients will be greatly helped by Professor Peskin's presentation. Here is what the editor of UK's CAM Magazine had to say about his presentation:

"Thanks for a great presentation. Your talk was worth the price of the whole BoulderFest." -Simon Martin, Editor, CAM Magazine (UK) - For practitioners of complementary & alternative medicine.

The Problems with Fish Oil -- It Isn't EFAs!

WARNING: Popular health writers and nutritionists do NOT understand the difference between "parent" EFAs and "derivatives"! They do not take into consideration that most, if not all, foods contain substantial amounts of damaged omega 6 EFAs, which are NOT used by the body!

If you follow the nutritional news you will find that many nutritionists and doctors are still expounding the virtues of fish oil (and excessive amounts of flax oil) in order to supplement the essential fatty acids that our bodies require. The problem with this belief is that it is completely ineffective in improving one's health. In fact, our health as measured by virtually all credible groups has gotten worse while skin cancer rates in particular, have exploded. This should be your first "red flag" that gets you thinking that perhaps conventional wisdom is dead wrong.

We found a great number of practitioners at BoulderFest 08 who still believed in the benefits of fish oil, despite all of the information published to the contrary. Many were moved by the professor's presentation and ready to change their recommendations accordingly!

If you surf the net regularly for information on nutrition and how to become healthier, you will find that fish oil is constantly promoted as being an excellent source of "much needed omega 3 essential fatty acids". These scientists, doctors and nutritionists also try to tell you that we already get a huge amount of omega 6 essential fatty acids in our diet and that we only need to take omega 3. The problem with this thinking is the omega 6 fatty acids in foods are mostly damaged in the first place, and secondly that there are no omega 6 derivatives in frying oils at all!

Your body requires "parent" omega 6 and "parent" omega 3 essential fatty acids (hereafter known as PEOs, or parent essential oils), but fish oil contains almost NO "parent" oils. Fish oils have 10 times more derivatives that the body makes on an "as needed" basis from the parent oils. This means that by ingesting fish oils, contrary to what we are led to believe, we get a very harmful pharmacological overload of omega 3 series derivatives. Research shows that an incorrect balance of the critical parent omega 6:3 ratio or an overdose of derivatives can exacerbate health problems; therefore it is essential to find the right balance.

Your tissues require "parent" omega 6 and "parent" omega 3 (2.5:1 to 1:1 is ideal in a supplement range), but no fish oil supplement provides this ratio in adequate amounts.
There are numerous articles on "EFAs" to be found containing some good information, but nearly all of these articles lack a basic understanding of the difference between "parent" and "derivative" EFAs (Parent omega 3 = ALA & Parent omega 6 = LA - all others are derivatives).

Avoid standard off-the-shelf EFA supplements which primarily contain derivatives. They are not going to give your body what it needs.

It bears repeating. Most of the omega 6 consumed in our diet is processed and ruined so you require much more UNADULTERATED, UNPROCESSED parent omega 6 than the industry currently believes.

This incorrect recommendation will not provide sufficient unprocessed parent omega 6 and will give you an excess of omega 3 and omega 3 series derivatives. Science clearly states that too much omega 3 is immune system depressing, cancer- causing, and can lead to excess internal bleeding; the opposite of what we desire. Companies intending to help you may actually be causing you greater harm if they don't have this science upon which to base their product development.

Please read "The Scientific Basis of the Optimal Omega 6/3 Ratio" (a $49.95 value you can download for free) at http://professornutrition.com/efa-analysis.pdf. This will give you a much better understanding regarding the importance of the correct balance of these essential parent oils.

Were you aware that fish have no oil glands from which to extract their "goodness"? That's right. In order to get the oil out of the fish it must be "juiced", in a process that is not unlike turning wood into slurry. This pressing, boiling, mashing, and chemical extraction of many common (cheap) off the shelf omega 3 supplements produces harmful and biologically inactive fatty acids that become severely damaged from heat and chemical processes.

If this misunderstanding on the correct balances of the omega fatty acids in fish oil isn't enough to make you concerned, there is another problem that nutritionists and doctors rarely talk about, and that is the pollutants in the environment in which the fish live.

There are very few bodies of natural water left where pollutants and toxins do not exist. Therefore, it is likely that we could easily be consuming a large amount of toxic heavy metals, PCB's, and other harmful elements along with our fish oil supplements. All pollution-removing process, used to prepare fish oil supplements ruin the quality of the PEOs. Source: "Prop 65 Activists Target Fish Oil," Nutrition Science News, Boulder CO, Nov. 1997, Vol. 2 No. 11, Page 537.

DO YOU HAVE A GREAT LOW-CARB RECIPE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE?
Submit your recipe to orders@pinnacle-press.com for consideration to be included in the NEW Cook it Cool cookbook (coming soon). If your recipe gets chosen for inclusion in Cook it Cook, you will receive a FREE copy of the book when it's released.

This Month's Low-Carb Recipe: Rolled Broccoli Appetizer

INGREDIENTS
1 pound of thin-sliced lunch meat (turkey, ham, chicken, beef)
2 pounds broccoli spears
1/4 cup mayonnaise (not diet)
1/3 cup sour cream (not low-fat)
2 Tbl. orange juice concentrate (frozen, thawed)
1 Tbl. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. basil leaves (dried)

PREPARATION

1. Use a large microwaveable dish (we suggest no plastic ever in the microwave). Add 1 Tablespoon of water, cover and vent. Microwave oh high for 6-7 minutes or until the broccoli is crisp and tender. Be sure to rearrange the stems at about 4 minutes in then finish heating. Be careful removing the cover and drain broccoli.
2. Quickly put broccoli into cold water to halt cooking then drain water and pat well to dry.
3. Combine sour cream, juice concentrate, mayonnaise, mustard and basil in a small bowl.
4. Cut meat slices into 2-inch wide strips. Spread the sour cream mixture evenly on the meat strips. Place a single broccoli piece at the short end of the meat strip then starting at the shorter end roll broccoli into the meat tightly. Broccoli spar should stick neatly out of the top of the meat roll.
5. Place each rolled broccoli onto a serving platter, cover and refrigerate until serving time. You can also garnish before serving if you prefer.

Makes about 20 servings.

Enjoy! 

Pinnacle Press, PO Box 56507, Houston, TX 77256, USA

The Basket Case

I took Keiko to the vet this morning to have him examined and have some tests performed on him. We want to understand why I found him with no leg strength in his rear left leg, and motor skills that mimic my dying Tug to a "T" just languishing in the middle of the road about six or seven houses down the street..

I took him in our grocery basket; it was extremely easy to do and he put up no fight whatsoever. He was unusually quiet, and only got a bit "hissey" when I took a corner and the basket tipped over spewing him about. Keiko did try to climb out twice, but I just tapped his hind quarters and "knocked him down" as I used to do with Tug when I wanted him to sit still and then he was quiet.

At the vet in Katsuyama, we waited for about 10 minutes before heading into the examining room. The first thing that the vet noted is that Keiko is 500g SKINNIER than when Mayu first found him on his last legs, flea and lice-ridden back in June! How strange.... because we have been feeding him twice a day a LOT of food for three months... but it very well could explain his lack of muscling if he hasn't been getting any food for the two weeks we haven't seen him.

Please take a look at my video, This is Keiko: The Final Journey, if you have no idea of what I speak.

The vet noted that the inside of Keiko's mouth is very red (i.e. possibly infected). But his skin and fur looks as healthy as it has ever been!

Then they gently but firmly held him down, stuck a probe up his bum (he was rather loud at that time) and took some blood.

I put Keiko back in the basket and we waited outside the exam room for the comprehensive test results to come back. About 10-15 minutes later, as Keiko quietly, but attentively eyed the monster dogs that came and went, the vet came out and told us that aside from a fever, and that red mouth, as well as a high white blood count indicating a possible infection, Keiko is as healthy as an ox!

I had him tested today for feline aids, feline leukemia, liver illnesses, kidney illnesses, white blood cell and red blood cell counts, and some other tests. All came back negative, aside from the high wbc count.

We gave him an antibiotic injection, and are supposed to take him back again in two weeks (if he hangs around and lets us, right?)

I only paid $150 for all these tests (I'm pretty darn sure that back home it would have cost a LOT more) and then took Keiko banking, post officing, and then home. We ate some (he ate some) raw chicken, some dry cat food, drank some water, went for a long pee and stumbled around. I put him back up on his chair for the afternoon and got to work. I checked in every once in a while, then took him out and he peed again. He tottered back, ate some more raw chicken (as if it was his first meal in ... two weeks?) and cat food. Then I put him back up on his chair and (*checking*).. Keiko is still there, all curled up in a little ball.

So.. what can I say? How many lives does he have left? I have no idea.

I took some more video footage and will piece it together in a day or two when I have some time.

Weird... weird....

Well, at least we know if the supermarket foods continue to go through the roof, we'll have some healthy meat on hand!

Here is the shopping list:

• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Celery
• Tofu
• Stray Cat
• Dish Detergent
• Mayonnaise
• Coffee
• BBQ Sauce
• Potatoes
• Black Pepper
• Garbage Bags
• Milk
• Yogurt
• Eggs
• Nair Hair Remover
• Onions
• Aluminum Foil
• Jack Daniels

I love you!

Cam

P.S. When it was time to go there were about six or seven people in the waiting room. I picked up the basket that Keiko was in (see image above), looked at everyone, put on a big smile and said, "Well, it looks like it's time to continue my grocery shopping for today's dinner!" They all burst out laughing and waved at me as I left the premises.

This is Keiko 2: The Final Journey

In June, Keiko came to live with us. He was sick, lice-ridden and very weak. We took him to the vet and fed him daily. Once he got stronger he spent most of his time away, but would come back every morning and afternoon for food. The past few weeks he has been away... He is a stray cat after all... Then today, I found Keiko lounging in the middle of the road...

I love you!

Cam

The Chinese Will Kill Your Babies

You may recall the dog food fiasco that reared its ugly head last year when it was discovered that for the past few years, the Chinese have been putting melamine, a plastic powder that mimics amino acids (found only in protein) into dog food base, in order to make it appear to have a higher protein content than it really did (they could sell it for more profit). When the factories that were doing it were caught and executives questioned, their reasoning went something like this:

"Well pets don't need to grow as quickly as food dogs therefore it is OK to have less protein in the dog food for pets."

They killed my dog, Tug, with this mentality. They killed a lot of other beloved pets as well.

Well, guess what? Those fucking chinese are at it again! Only this time they aren't doing it to our pets.... they are doing to our BABIES!

Are you worried about who is going to be running the USA next? You may not have to worry too much longer if we keep on importing as much as we do from China, a country that seems to have no understanding of morals and ethics. Hmmm... that sounds a lot like big business in North America where the bottom line rules, and to be successful, you destroy your industry at home, and outsource it all to... you guessed it: China!

Welcome to REAL Globalization!

*****

Behind bad baby milk, an ethical gap in China's business

Inspectors found that 13 percent of dairy firms inspected since last week had produced melamine-tainted formula, state TV reported Tuesday. Critics say state regulation alone won’t prevent more food scandals.
By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the September 17, 2008 edition

Beijing - As Chinese officials warned Tuesday that contaminated milk powder may have sickened more than the 1,200 babies already identified, the scandal revealed more than a recurrent regulatory problem, Chinese and foreign experts suggested.

Rather, they said, it pointed to a deeper malaise in Chinese society where private profit often trumps the public good as the country races to create a market economy that has outstripped government regulators.

"China has the problems of any transitional economy," says Yanzhong Huang, a global health expert at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. "But the deeper and more fundamental challenge China faces is a systematic lack of business ethics."

"You cannot fully police the whole food chain," adds Dali Yang, a politics professor at the University of Chicago. "A lot depends on changes in social norms. People have to recognize that integrity does matter."

A leading Chinese dairy company, Sanlu, admitted last week that its baby formula manufactured earlier this year was tainted by the chemical melamine. Doctors in several Chinese provinces have found more than 1,200 babies who drank the formula suffering from kidney stones and renal failure. Two babies have died as a result since May, officials say, warning that the number of cases could rise sharply.

State television reported Tuesday that 22 of 175 dairy producers inspected since last week were found to have produced melamine-tainted milk. They included major brands such as the Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, a supplier for the Beijing Olympics.

Investigators say it appears that milk merchants, selling to Sanlu the raw milk they had bought from farmers, had added the chemical – normally used in plastics and fertilizers – to boost the milk's apparent protein content.

Two brothers who owned a milk collection center in Shijiazhuang, Sanlu's home base, were arrested Monday on charges of adulterating the milk they had sold to the company, the state news agency Xinhua reported. Two additional milk suppliers were also arrested later that day. Seventeen others have been detained, including one man suspected of illegally selling melamine.

The case is especially embarrassing to Sanlu – a majority state-owned joint venture with a New Zealand dairy cooperative – because it was allegedly such a paragon of virtue it has been exempted from government food safety inspections since December 2005.

The company's infant formula had been certified as an "inspection-exempt product" for three years by the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine (AQSIQ), according to the administration's website.

Such certification means that "the products are exempted from quality monitoring and inspection conducted by the government," the website explains. In return, it adds, "internal inspection should be reinforced."

Forty-seven Chinese dairy companies currently enjoy such an exemption, according to AQSIQ, after demonstrating that they have "a complete quality guarantee system," among other criteria.

Not only did Sanlu fail to detect the melamine in its milk powder, the company has also so far failed to explain why it did not publicly reveal the problem until Sept. 11, although it had received complaints from worried parents as early as last March, and identified the contamination on Aug. 6.

The incident became public only after Sanlu's New Zealand partner, Fonterra, which holds three seats on the company board, informed New Zealand diplomats who told Chinese government officials in Beijing of the problem.

Fonterra has "been trying for weeks to get official recall, and the local authorities in China would not do it," New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark told her country's state TV broadcaster on Monday. "At the local level ... I think the first inclination was to try to put a towel over it."

Last year, after a wave of food safety scandals involving pet food, toothpaste, and seafood, the Chinese government pledged stricter controls, especially of food destined for export.

A new food safety law was presented last December to the National People's Congress, the parliament, after three years of study, and last month the Chinese Food and Drug Administration was put under the wing of the Health Ministry.

Skeptics are not convinced by such moves. "Central regulatory reform is only part of the problem," argues Richard Suttmeier, a University of Oregon expert on Chinese product safety. "There is nothing you can snap your fingers at and solve."

With nearly half a million food producing and processing companies, according to official figures, "there are more individual producers than the government could ever regulate," Prof. Suttmeier adds.

The authorities "will be defeated constantly" unless "they begin to think how you make multiple producers responsible agents," he says.

A wide range of reforms is needed, he warns, from capital markets that would starve misbehaving companies of funds to a legal system that would allow aggrieved consumers to sue firms for damages.

"What is really needed is a cultural shift," Suttmeier argues. "That will occur if they make progress with institution building" as part of China's transition from a socialist to a capitalist economic system.

Prof. Yuang also attributes the Sanlu scandal, and others like it, to "the difficulty of transforming institutions from the micro-interference of a centrally planned economy to macro-regulation.

"There is a big question mark over how effective this is," he adds.

Some observers see a silver lining in the scandal. "One positive result is that people will become more aware of food safety," says Ren Fazheng, a professor at China Agriculture University in Beijing. "Government and society will pay more attention to this issue ... and more inspection agencies will use more methods, so the level of inspection will improve."

Yet public opinion, even outrage, has limited impact, as evidenced by the stunted efforts by angry parents who lost children in the Sichuan earthquake in May to demand government accountability. While officials are still investigating why so many schools in the quake area collapsed, protests have been curtailed and media coverage on the issue banned.

Still, with Sanlu closed by government decree and its future in doubt, two men charged with crimes that can carry the death penalty, and a government investigation widening, "this serves as an extremely strong cautionary tale for the whole industry," says Professor Yang.

"Lawsuits have not worked well in China, but the costs are escalating" for companies that cheat, he argues. "Producers realize now how precious their brand name is."

Yuang is less sanguine. "The problem is structural and systematic" he warns. "If it is not tackled we will see many, many more cases like this, and it will really hurt the Chinese economy, especially its export sector."

Brokeback Reunion

Start:	Sep 20, '08 08:00a
End:	Sep 21, '08
Location:	Himeji, Osaka, Japan

Heading on Saturday to meet Rob (Dunnster) in Himeji. Then Osaka on Sunday. Then home in the evening.

I need to charge up my camera. I feel a video coming on...

iOFT 2008

Start:	Sep 30, '08
End:	Oct 4, '08
Location:	Tokyo, Japan

I got a mini-job.

I convinced an Australian eyeglass designer coming to the Tokyo Optical Trade Fair in October that I had more value than a cute, female Japanese translator. It was a tough sell, but I managed it.

Now I just have to get there!

I'm heading to Matt's neck of the woods on 9/30 and I'll be home again 10/04. The fair runs 10/01-03. See you there???

Lost in Translation III: The Phase

My previous two blogs are getting really long (it's my fault!!) I am philosophizing on my own philosophy which can get dangerously wordy when my three brains start doing this simultaneously.

If you missed the first two blogs, you may want to catch up before you read this.

Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation II: The Takeaway

Oh, and you may want to read the comments because this is in direct response to a most wonderful discussion I am having with Alan now!

I have learned that a lot of real gems get lost in the comment section, jewels that others may want to hold onto for themselves because they turn out to be precious... But often we read the blog, then write a comment, and go... not realizing that a wonderfully thoughtful discussion is going on below...

And in this case it is.... You don't want to miss the extremely astute point that our wonderful friend Alan, has brought up. It concerns the term "phase"...

Here are my thoughts in reply to Alan's most excellent comment, eh.

Alan writes....

"Most of my life, since I was 12 or so, has been nothing but chaotic change... I have felt pushed by the forces of... nature, for lack of a better term, for my entire adult life... even when I fooled myself into thinking I was making decisions, I can look back and see that almost everything was reactionary....

I'd feel sometimes I am addicted to the chaos... I've talked at length with Steph about this... and I crave stability so much.... I want to have something that lasts... is that too much?

I don't want friends I have now to be just a phase in my growth cycle, I guess is what I'm trying to say."

Alan, I used to think exactly like you regarding the term "phase". It gets so ... misused (in my opinion) in the language that it has taken on an almost negative connotation. We use it like that, just like how you describe it! We all do! We use it like that when we see someone doing something we are uncomfortable with... we try to brush it off as a "passing phase", or a temporary discomfort... almost as if we hunker down, bite the bullet, eventually that person will stop doing whatever it is that bothers us and get back on track.

The teenage years are an excellent example of this. So are the shoe-chewing period most dogs go through... or the peeing in the house (how old is Toby, Stefnee? has he actually passed through that phase?) I am just as guilty as anyone else of using it in this way, because that is how I was raised to use it!

Language is totally a social phenomenon and we learn how to use the language based on our social situation. If you grow up with your parents saying FUCK FUCK FUCK all the time, it has absolutely no meaning to it. I didn't. We NEVER used that word in our house so whenever I hear it used aggressively (it's different in a sexual connotation of course, but more social imprinting there, too!), it still makes me cringe... My mom couldn't stand us using the word "piss" and it made her cringe... but to me... nothing.

Excuse me a moment while I go and take a piss....

And then once I started doing these meditations that I passed on to Stefnee this year that she has been doing as well.... something changed. Something BIG changed.

You could say that I transitioned from one important PHASE of my life to another very important PHASE.

Lots of stuff has occurred this year, far more than I've even made mention to on the blogs. But, one very BIG thing that happened is that I had a huge paradigm shift..... Over a teeny little thing.

I came to realize that we ALL look at the word "phase" in a negative way, as if it is something transitory, undesirable that soon will pass as long as we dig in, and hold the fort through the discomfort.

But you know what? I don't see it that way anymore. I have given the word PHASE a totally new, fresh look and I see it completely differently! And that has made a world of difference. That is why I LOVE to use the term "phase" now because I see it in such a positive, spiritually nurturing way.

Let me see if I can explain how I made this massive shift...

• We go through the childhood phase.
• We enter the hormonal growth phase of our teens.
• We become young adults and fresh adults in another phase.
• We enter into, and leave the dating phase because we need to learn about the opposite sex so that we can better interact with 50% of the population.
• We have a school, bookworm education phase to develop our intelligence.
• We have a hard knocks phase in life to get our wisdom.
• We enter the working world phase and take on responsibility, learning how to pay back society through developing our own personal value.
• We usually enter a serious partner phase when we want to settle into a "long term relationship" with them and hopefully grow with them.
• We have children and enter the parental phase where we learn how to stop being selfish and truly give ourselves to our dependents 100% selflessly.
• We have a phase where we outgrow our employer and we need to move on.
• We usually enter a phase in our lives that is very difficult economically, socially, spiritually and this critical phase helps us to grow and understand often the true values of simplicity, as well as a time to help us learn to rely upon our own inner strengths.
• We have a phase in which we really deeply solidify our values, and come to understand why we exist on this planet, in this multiverse.
• We have an aging phase where we need to learn to physically slow down, that we no longer have to do the same things we did when we were young.
• We enter an illness phase where we have to learn humility. Until this point, we have relied upon ourselves, upon our own strength... but we can no longer do that and we NEED others to care for us, just as our parents did when we were infants. This is a hard pill to swallow, but it is a phase that is extremely necessary to make us whole, complete human beings ready for the final phase of life...
• Our physical bodies collapse, and eventually we go through the final phase of death.

And the life cycle renews.

These aren't by any means ALL of the phases... they are just the ones I could think of at this time following a linear timeline fashion, the way my brain likes to work... nicely... neatly...

Do you see how if we miss any of these phases of life, we cannot grow to be better, more loving, caring humans? Do you see how vitally, how critically important PHASES are?

Yes, we could still say it is a "passing phase" and attach that negative, transitory connotation to it... but ... we don't... have to.... We have the ability to choose to see things differently. And we can choose to see the term phase differently so that it doesn't limit us to the negative aspects only.

Now in there.... something I didn't mention.... didn't add to that timeline...

We DO go through phases with people in our lives. They come, they go. We need to look to each and every relationship and find the takeaways from each and every one. Because THEY EXIST. They do. No matter how horrible a relationship we may be in, or may have just gotten out of, we GROW from them, we LEARN from them, we EXPAND spiritually from them. Do you remember my "toothpaste" blog? We never know what we really need or want unless we try.

Now... what often happens is that people don't realize that we MUST go through phases for growth. We cannot NOT grow. Only dead things are not growing. But even after death there are still phases, still transition stages. Everything changes. Everything. And... in the same respect, everything ENDS at some point or another. Everything. There is nothing that lasts forever (except maybe energy which just possibly keeps being recycled as new life forms if you want to believe that NewAge Wackhead Shit - some do, some don't, my beliefs here are inconsequential).

EVERYTHING ENDS. EVERYTHING.

Even wonderful relationships end. Sometimes they end in death. Sometimes they end in divorce, or separation. But they always end.

Your relationship as you have it now with your kids will end. It HAS to end. The current relationship WILL end. That phase will end. It will. There is no doubt about it. And then you will enter a NEW PHASE, a new relationship with them in a way that meets their needs, and yours. See, you simply cannot treat your 35 year old daughter the same way you did when she was 14. It's not possible. She would hate you for it, if you held onto that view of her. And where would that take you, right? It HAS TO CHANGE. IT HAS TO END. And then a new phase WILL begin.

The same is with relationships. We enter a loving marriage with the belief, "until death do us part". But that's nearly impossible because in most cases we have so many growth PHASES to go through that the chances of us still being  on the same path 10, 20, 30, 40 years down the road... really isn't all that realistic. This isn't to say it isn't... but during that time, the married couple WILL go through many phases: lovers, partners, parents, no-sex mother and father, couples again, fighters, separators, divorced... or any permutation and combination of those... it happens to everyone. To us all. To you. To me. To Mayu. To ... to everyone. Everything changes. Everything Ends. Everything.

Even relationships that seem wonderful may "have to end". Well, end as in that PHASE, or that particular "style" of the relationship. If it means that to move onto the next growth phase we need to part... or for one of us to grow we must part from the other... then that is the way it must be.

BECAUSE WE CANNOT STOP GROWING. TO STOP GROWTH MEANS TO DIE.

I don't want to die. Do you? Nobody does. Therefore sometimes we have to do what they do in the fishing industry: "catch and release" in order to keep the fishing stock alive and growing for others to catch the bigger fish, or different fish, or just to make sure we don't deplete the fish. We sometimes have to "catch and release". And that is very hard to do. Very hard.

But.... as I am learning this year... through meditation, through spiritual growth, and continual practice, study, learning, and above all CHOOSING TO SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY... oh, did I mention breathing? I have to fit that in here somewhere too, right?

As I am learning this year... that sometimes in order to keep growing, I need to let go that which I love. And sometimes to let those I love continue to grow, I need to let them g(r)o(w). It is not easy, not easy at all BECAUSE I LOVE THEM, but because I love them it is sometimes necessary.

These people were in my life for a phase. It may have been a year, a decade, a millennium... but there comes a time when we must let go. To grow. And the growth gives more stability. Because stability MUST COME FROM WITHIN, it cannot come from without.

This is why network marketing fails so poorly... they have those huge pep rallies that get everyone all pumped up to go out into the world, sell! Sell!! SELL!!!! and make a bazillion dollars.... But once the external pep talk fades away, once that external pillar is gone back to the high rise office... the inner flame fades, flickers, sputters and burns out. And then the stability collapses.

The only time stability can be sustainable, 100% guaranteed is when we build that stable foundation FROM WITHIN. When we learn to rely upon ourselves for our strength, for our inner love, for our respect, for our help to reach out and give to others... then NOTHING can knock us down. Nothing. Really. Nothing. Not even a Class 5 Hurricane. NOTHING can destroy us.

And this too is a critically important long-term PHASE we must enter for ourselves, for sustainability, to LIVE, to GROW, to LOVE, to LEAVE A LEGACY.

We NEED these phases of life. And sometimes we need to enter the phase of letting go, in order to move a little further into creating our lifelong goal of building that rock-solid foundation from which all of our true-north principles can then emerge, always stable, always focused in the right direction, unwavering.

To me a phase is something that I NEED to grow and to live my life giving my soul to the world to heal, to bring love, life, light and happiness to others. The phase of bringing loved ones close, and the phase of letting loved ones go... in order for everyone to grow... these are all essential phases to our own personal journey through life.

And you know what? I LIKE ... no.. I LOVE how I see this term as a vitally important aspect of my whole package. Without the phases in my life, without those long and short term phases... I cannot grow, I cannot love, I cannot leave a legacy.

So this is how I have come to understand the term "phase".

I love you, Alan!

Cam

Lost in Translation II: The Takeaway (for me)

Celeste just wrote a wonderful reply to my Lost in Translation blog that I wrote earlier this morning, explaining a similar experience she had with respect to her brain not being able to slap any labels on something she visually experienced. This was my reply to her....

 

I think that another takeaway for me in this "exercise" if you will, is that we really need to strive to become AWARE of our own thought processes. Because our brains DO label things naturally (it's how we learn), if we are fed the wrong labels, or inappropriate labels we can often come to wrong conclusions.

This can be seen quite readily in the political debates, and the battles that those who deem themselves "liberals" have with those who deem themselves "conservatives". Incorrect information, misleading information, partial information, if fed to us "correctly" can truly colour how we see the world. This will then affect our judgement and how we act and react to other things that we see. This is what we would call one of our "JBOPPs" or "Judgements, Beliefs, Opinions, Positions and Prejudices". We all have them. We can't NOT have them.

But.....

But....


if we become AWARE, and MINDFUL, and are able to be the OBSERVER of our thoughts, rather than controlled by them... if we are able to understand that our mind belongs to us, but we are not our mind, then when an incongruous belief system based upon the labels we have learned to place on things arises, we can say...

woah...

wait a minute....

something isn't right here...

the thoughts my brain is having don't match the real world results...

so something is amiss...

let's look further into this.

This will then allow us to make changes in how we see things, or to "Choose to see things differently" from how we always have.

This is how we can grow.

But if we are unable to do this, then we stick extremely stubbornly like flies to flypaper, unable to separate ourselves from our belief systems, unable to make changes to the way we think when it is blatantly obvious that change is imperative.

And that can be a very slippery slope because then our egos, our very powerful egos start to defend our JBOPPs even when it is clearly obvious that what we are thinking is simply not true. But the ego refuses to be wrong, as wrong = death. So it will fight to the bitter end defending that which we perceive is correct, even when the entire world around us is screaming, "LOOOOOK!!!!!!"

This is a very important thing I have learned this year: to become the observer of your mind, the observer of your thoughts FREES you to change the way you see things, thus changing the way the world is.

Lost in Translation

In the 1970s and 80s, North Korea quietly invaded the coastal towns and villages on the side of the country where I live. They then proceeded to kidnap between 10-20 people during those decades for the purpose of using them to teach North Korean spies how to assimilate into Japanese culture.

Japan has been pushing North Korea every chance it gets for years. In 2002 the U.N. terminated a probe based upon "insufficient information", shocking the country and the victims. North Korea has denied the allegations repeatedly, which has led to further blockading by the country, and very strained ties.

The families will not let the government stop, or give up, in spite of there being very little global support regarding this grave issue.

Some have died over the years (according to the North Koreans). A few years a go a family was liberated to Japan. These kidnappees are now in their mid to late 40s. They were forced to marry in Korea, have children, and take on a new life teaching Japanese, and culture to the government and spies. They have been there (unofficially) for over 30 years.

Their families have been without their children for over 30 years.

The families in Japan do not know if their own children are alive or dead.... they can have no closure... they can have no peace...

When I was at the gym last week two people came in to work out. One was a young guy all in black with the typical "Japanese beard" they like to sport these days (that little bit that runs along the jawline). I noted him, and went about my workout.

But it was the woman that was with him that caught my attention. For the entire time that I was there I could not stop finding instances to watch her, and look at her from different angles, to see her... to understand her...

I didn't find her particularly attractive, or unattractive. In fact, had she been just another ordinary person, gorgeous or not, my mind would have registered her presence, just like it did the guy she was with, or anyone else that came and went during the two hours I was there.

But this time... something was different...

I could not tell, in all honesty if this woman really was a woman... or an extremely feminine man.

And this is where my brain went haywire: it could not determine the sex of this person, it could not have the "closure" that we need when we see things, "box" them, "label" them man, woman, cat, dog, hamburger, bad coffee, rain, flying fish, transvestite, politician, whatever. We all label. It is impossible NOT to label because that is how our minds work. That is how we learn, and grow and educate ourselves in life. It's not a good thing, it's not a bad thing, it just is.

There were so many characteristics that this person affected that were both masculine and feminine. There were so many actions that she did that could have been that of a man, but again, so many other things that men just simply do not do, but women do naturally.

Her body shape was very slender like a woman, but there were many distinctly male shapes as well. She had an adam's apple which apparently women do not have, a definite masculine wrist-to-hand shape, completely smooth (hairless) arms and legs (which very few men can get even with shaving), extremely long legs, shaped very much like mine, devoid of any of the feminine curve.

She wore a pastel yellow sports bra tank-top under her pastel green t-shirt, but her breasts were extremely small, almost negligible (not unusual for Japanese women, actually, but very rare these days), yet could have been perhaps a man transitioning while taking female growth hormones. With very loose long basketball shorts I could not tell anything definite below the waist, either. She sported a very feminine chain with a bauble on the end of it, short "emo-style" hair (thanks for that explanation, Stefnee).

Her face looked exactly like all of the young TV talent boys these days: so feminine, yet so not. They are so feminine that if you put them in makeup, you could not tell that they were anything but a woman! (this is the look that is popular among young Japanese women these days - they want very feminine-looking boys it seems).

She could have been a "boyish" volleyball player for all I could tell. When her friend was working on the machines, she would crouch down in front of him to talk, definitely not something men do, and yet, since she did very little weights (very light weights that a man would never do), when she was walking around listening to her iPod the actions, the motions were so masculine....

Maybe she was a man in transition... maybe she was a very feminine young man... maybe she was a masculine woman.. I still don't know. My brain still cannot come to a conclusion. It cannot rest.

If a gay couple or a lesbian couple had walked in, my brain would have noted them, and then moved on. No big deal. Two guys? No problem. Two women? No problem. Singles? Easy. Couples? A snap. Someone in a wheelchair? I can deal with that. Really. My brain would have been able to deal with all of that, understand it and allow me to move on. But not this time...

This was one of those very interesting events, moments in my life that occurred at a time when, being more aware of what goes on inside me and around me than ever before, being able to now be the observer of my thoughts without being controlled by them, to see things differently, has allowed me to do more than just stare, more than just gawk... more than... I don't know how to explain it... I find it fascinating how my mind is working at trying to solve this mystery. Fascinating!

Here is another great example of a similar kind of event that occurred when my brain was baffled and confused: When Mayu and I saw our first "kamoshika" (Japanese serow) in the woods, staring back at us, our brains went haywire. We could not tell what it was. Was it a cow? No... Was it a goat? No... Was it a deer? No... Was it some mythical beast? No...

It just didn't look like anything we had ever seen before, it wouldn't fit into any kind of labeled box that our brains had developed over decades of experience. Until we found out what it was, we could not get "closure" on that animal.

My brain has been having trouble getting "closure" on the sex of the woman in the gym, as is obvious by the fact that I write this blog over a week after the event occurred.

It's absolutely no wonder that the parents of the kidnapped victims off the beaches near where I live now cannot stop, cannot rest... Their brains  cannot get closure on their own children's life or death. If they were to hear that their children were alive, married, had children in North Korea and were living there never to return, closure would come. They may not be happy, and they may believe that the government is holding them in N. Korea against their will, but the life/death mystery would be solved, and a huge weight would be lifted from their shoulders.

Missing children, missing parents... it must be the same thing. The brain simply cannot stop going haywire because it is not able to come to a conclusion... any conclusion. It is left "in the dark", left without all the pieces of the puzzle to put together. Family members never coming home after a natural disaster like the killer tsunami a few years ago, or bodies never being found after Katrina... unanswered questions... the mind unable to rest, to be silent...

This latest incident at the gym, coupled with my year of meditation, learning to be the observer of my mind's thoughts, rather than to be controlled by them... this long arduous, continuous study to improve.. has opened my eyes a bit more on how the brain functions in real life situations.

I find that fascinating, and love the fact that I have been able to learn a little bit more about my brain, and what happens when it gets "Lost in Translation".

I love you.

Cam

P.S. If you would like to learn more about the kidnappings of Japanese nationals on Japanese soil by the North Koreans, please read a few of these news articles from the Japan Times.

Spiritual Greetings

Looking down from the Lookout Point above Rokuroshi Heights, Fukui, Japan

*****

It is a long weekend. It is "Respect for the Aged" Day today.

Respect-for-the-Aged Day (Keiro no hi) is a Japanese holiday celebrated annually to honour elderly citizens. A national holiday since 1966, this used to be held on September 15. Beginning in 2003, Respect for the Aged Day is held on the third Monday of September.

This national holiday traces its origins to 1947, when Nomatanimura (now Yachiyocho), Hyōgo Prefecture proclaimed September 15 Old Folks' Day (Toshiyori no Hi). Its popularity spread nationwide, and in 1966 it took its present name and status. Annually, Japanese media take the opportunity to feature the elderly, reporting on the population and highlighting the oldest people in the country.

Mayu's best friend Yukiyo is here for the weekend. She arrived on Saturday and we have been running ever since. After she arrived, because it was raining, we took her shopping for a bit.

Then the weather cleared and I drove the two of them up into the mountains where we spread her father's ashes three years ago, after his painful death from cancer. It took some time to find the mountain road as I haven't been there for some time but we got there, and the weather was wonderful for us.

We spent some peaceful time up there chatting, and taking photos. I even made a little video, all in Japanese just of Yukiyo talking about telling whoever might watch it (her family I imagine), that she made it again to say hi to her father. Then I cut to the scenery, and Mayu describing it in her beautiful Japanese voice. There is no English explanations, and for some reason my camera wouldn't focus well on Yukiyo (hmmm... did her Dad have something to do with that?) but if you would like to watch, and if you have any "spiritual talent " (Paula...) and can see spirits, if you would like to look at this video and see if you "see" anything, I would love to know! It is called "Aisatsu" in Japanese (Greeting), and I called it "Hi Dad" in English. You may watch it on YouTube if you like, but I won't post it here.

Now you may be wondering, "Why on earth (on heaven?) would we spread the ashes of a Tokyo-jin (Tokyoite) out here high in the mountains?" Well, let me tell you the story...

Me being me, I've always been as friendly and as close to Mayu's relatives and friends as I can be. And Yukiyo's family ... well, they love me! And I love them. I have visited them a few times at their house in Tokyo and they have come out here several times on holidays. Yukiyo's dad is the only one who never made it out here. They would go back and tell him the stories of how wonderful it is out here, how beautiful the scenery is, how delicious the fish is, and the food, and the rice, and the beer, and the wine, and the.... Everything about this area is absolutely beautiful for sure, especially so for someone from Urban Metropolitan Sprawl Tokyo.

Her father always wanted to visit with them but because of work was unable to do so. Then he got sick and had to go in the hospital. When Mayu and I were in Tokyo one time we went and visited him there. We talked, laughed, I made him laugh and told him stories about Fukui and where we live. He said he longed to come and visit one day. I told him that I would promise to take him around and show him where we live as soon as his back had healed and he was able to come for a holiday.

Yukiyo and her mom watched Mayu and I make her dad a very happy guy that day.

We never knew he was dying of cancer until they called us a (very) short while later and said that he had died.

"What??? Of Back Pain???!?!?!" That was all we could say other than our sorrowful, genuine regrets. Then they told us the real story, and that he was dying of cancer and in terrible pain when we went to see him. But they couldn't bear to tell us. So we honestly did not know.

When I heard that her father had died, I immediately told Yukiyo that I want to keep my promise to her father and show him our beloved Fukui. I promised her that if she brought out some of her father's ashes after the cremation (cremation is the norm in Japan), that I would take the entire family up high into the mountains to a spot where they will be able to show her dad the beauty of where I live and all the outlying area.

I kept that promise.

About a year (I think), after his funeral, the family all came up (there were five or six of them). We went up to the top of the mountain above Rokuroshi Heights, enjoyed a perfect day, and spread his ashes to the wind.

Yukiyo has been back after that... once was to find her younger brother who got very depressed after their father had died, left his job, and just "disappeared". They heard from the police here in Fukui that they had found him sleeping in his car out here in a pachinko parking lot. I guess he was coming to find Dad, but couldn't find him (we hope that was all he was thinking). So they drove out to come and bring her brother home. We did not see them that time as it was a very private family thing.

There was another time I think... where she and Mayu tried to find that mountain road but couldn't so she had to give up on going for a visit.

Yukiyo says that she always has that memory of seeing Mayu and I make her father laugh in the hospital during his last days....

So this past Saturday we took Yukiyo up there again to visit her father, and tell him she still thinks of him, and still loves him.

There have been many other events going on during her visit of course: Sunday morning Mayu took Yukiyo to Kanazawa to visit the "massage therapist spiritual healing guy". He told her that in one of her former lives, she was a male, high level buddhist priest. Ooooh. Exciting. I guess.... Then in the early evening there was a live concert for the locals that was put on by Mayu's friend here in Fukui (the daughter of the Rebirth Shop Owner). After that there was dinner out at Zeniya (I've done video on that awesome restaurant). Today there was a noon visit to Eiheiji temple (which Yukiyo has always wanted to go to but had no chance yet). Tonight is the "singing crystal salad bowl spiritual healer guy" and then they want me to light up my chiminea and we can cook a bunch of meat on it that Osaka-san gave us from his restaurant. Osaka-san is not a "spiritual healer guy"; he heals the carnal senses, where carnal refers to carnitine, or meat, not sex.

Tomorrow Yukiyo will be leaving, and I am driving her early (about 6:20) to the expressway entrance where she will catch a bus to Komatsu airport and fly home. And that will be that. After that I have to kill some time before I have a business meeting in Fukui about a potential project with a company. It will last all day I guess. So it will be a busy day after dropping Yukiyo off, hugging her hard (she's Japanese, she's not into snogging her best friend's husband, unfortunately...) and then letting her go until the next time we have the good fortune to meet.

It was nice to go up into the mountains and say hi to Yukiyo's father again after these years have passed. It was very nice to get up deep into the mountains and look down upon the valley in which I live.

I love you!

Cam

 

I am relaxed and at peace with the processes in my life.
Everything is as it should be.
All is well in my world.

Dance Fever

I'm having big trouble with Multiply loading for me these days, so please bear with me if things go slowly... I don't know why but when I click a page, the entire browser freezes for 5-10 seconds and I never know if it is going to come back or not..... Enough of that...

Jenny posts great dance music that soothes the soul, makes us come alive with the desire to move our souls, to shake our souls... I love the stuff she posts because.. simply... I guess I never grew up with that kind of music. Mayu always teases me and says that in a former life I was probably black because the soul music has always "done something" to me. She has noted that every time I point out a song to her that really moves my soul, it's always that kind of music... so totally different from hers, so different from anything I have been exposed to here these past 20 years here in Japan and so absolutely nothing like the Country & Western that I grew up hearing all the time on Saturday mornings (thanks, Dad). So she wonders where I found my love for it, if not from a former life?

I liked Jen's latest music video she posted. The music didn't move me so much (the reggae style is not as powerful to me as soul stuff), but the story was cute, and I loved the watch the main character has! I want one of those!!! It's called Luv Me Luv Me and you can watch it at that link.

Stephanie posts fabulous Song of the Week music that I really enjoy (except her heavy metal and rock stuff which I never liked even from a young kid). She is always listening to music and has a big variety that she is fond of which never ceases to amaze me how different the stuff she loves can be. Her latest song is by that Jason Mraz guy who sings the "Geek in the Pink" song that her kids made into a dance tribute to me last summer (check that link if you never saw it last year). Her Song of the Week this week is called "I'm Yours" and it is a lot of fun. I tell you... I want to get as close to the edge as possible many times over... and then finally jump and enjoy the whole experience! Care to experience that with me? Hold my hand when we finally jump? You can scream all the way down if you like... but don't be surprised if my screams and laughter and whoops drown you out! (You'll see what I mean).

I really never was good at dancing or music, honestly I played the guitar and practiced it for about 10 years but quit because the music I wanted to play was only on radios and I could only play music I read off score. So, it went by the wayside, because my ear never picked it up well, and I didn't seem to have the rhythm to feel it either.

I remember that on more than one occasion I got seriously laughed at (scoffed at is more appropriately.. perhaps sneered at might even be better?) by one of my long-term girlfriends in my early 20s for looking like a fool on the dancefloor. I think it got hardwired into my brain (having learned about this concept recently, I do believe that is what has happened and why I have been so shy about dancing all these years).

I tried for a while to break that with another girlfriend who loved to go out drinking and dancing at clubs with me. Whew! memories of those wild times!!! That's when I ... I.... did the unthinkable and got my ear pierced *gasp*! Those were good times.

*smiling*

But after I came to Japan things changed and I never had a chance to dance in clubs and bars, at concerts, etc. (admission: I have never been to a real live big concert. ever!) Mayu goes to "lives" or concerts held by her "group" of musicians at live houses where about 100-150 (mostly women) are admitted to sit and listen, and enjoy. They clap their hands a lot, sing along, (make illegal recordings and post them on their fan blogs) but it's not a dance scene.

Then there is the Stardust Revue concert that I have been to with Mayu a few times when they came to Fukui over the years. Bunka Kaikan (Culture Hall) would fill up with a thousand people. Everyone would stand up and all "dance" but the dancing is entirely "choreographed" and everyone is doing the exact same moves with their arms at the exact same time... and I always felt a little weird in that environment because it was like everyone was in on the secret but me! Either that or they were all doing the same "speaking in hands" as some religious holy rolles do... It felt... unccomfortable for me.

Fukui doesn't really offer that kind of bar scene where you can go and dance. I know Tokyo does, but I don't live in Tokyo. The bars here are small, dark drinking and smoking establishments (for men) that have no music playing other than the music of the drunk businessman tossing his fish dinner up into the toilet and I don't really get so moved by that scene other than to move my ass out the door and home!

Soooo other than dancing with the wild boars... their legs are a little too short for me so it gives me a sore back, or the monkeys.. they keep trying to steal the thing they mistake for a banana (I don't understand why), or the bears... who just run when they see me...  I really haven't had an opportunity.

But I always wish I could, and I hope that when the next phase comes along I will be able to be in an environment with friends and loved ones who will love to be with me and drag me out on the dance floor and ENJOY the way I dance like a condor. I really really dooooo....

There is a group of dancers that I have loved all my life... ALL my life... ever since I was young; I think they are the coolest, the free-est, and the most happy go lucky dance troupe I know. I can only hope that one day i can dance like them... I really want to be them on the dancefloor... I think whenever I see them... "I want to be you...."

I wanted to share a dance video with you, but thanks to the big Music Moguls denying embedding, I wasn't able to put it in the videos for you to enjoy. Even going the "click youtube link" route, doesn't work for this one.

So, all I can do is share this link with you here, and hope that you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed it all my life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAI6UM4i3RU

I hope you enjoy it!

I love you!

Cam

Japanese Rice Cycle: Harvest

We took you on an adventure during the planting of the rice seedlings back during Golden Week in May. Now it is time for the harvest of this golden staple of Japan.

Follow us as we meander around the rice paddies ("tambo") enjoying the morning breeze, and smelling the fragrant aroma of freshly cut rice.

If you would like to review the planting in May, please watch, Japanese Rice Cycle: Golden Week Planting .

Fertilizing the Way

I have had absolutely nothing exciting happening to me over in this part of the world worth sharing at all: no new ideas, no breathtaking (or giving) inspirational newage wackhead ideas... nothing. Really, desertification has taken hold of my brain.

Let me show you how exciting life is these days over here....

A while back, after my shingles had begun to heal, we found that our composter was getting very difficult to manually rotate the blades and mix the food clippings into the peat in the container. In fact, it seemed that the blades would pop out of their slots more often than not.

A few weeks ago I dug the entire composter out and spread it under the bushes, the trees and places where maybe fertilizer might like to go. I even turned it under the localized soil so that it wouldn't just sit on top of the hard earth and burn the roots and leaves (compost that becomes fertilizer is apparently, pretty potent stuff, and I have found on more than one occasion that playing in it can lead to very itchy, rashy arms...)

That was exciting, don't you think?

Here is something else that I'm sure you will giggle with enthusiasm over...

Since I got sick with the shingles, the sunlight and the heat have bothered me. This has made it difficult for me to go out into the yard and weed. Mayu has been busy this year and didn't really get around to it either. The last time I did a "comprehensive weeding" was before I went to Texas and Kansas. But the weeds kept growing, even though I wasn't out there pulling them.

Finally several days ago I spent five hours on one section alone, just pulling up the weeds. Yaaay, exciting stuff. Then the day before yesterday I spent another two or more hours going around the rest of the yard on my hands and knees pulling up more weeds. And more weeds and more weeds.

I know, you are falling asleep... so am I, believe me. Gah! Talking about weeding and composting as exciting events in my life!

When I was out weeding around the composter I realized that something other than weeds were growing around the bushes which received the compost. I found that to be slightly more fascinating than the clumps of earth the deepset weed roots would take with them as I pulled them up. As I have absolutely no idea what is growing there, I decided to leave them and see what happens. More than likely it will turn into a genetically defective, late season flop of some vegetable that we eat and compost.

The interesting (but fleeting - weeding can be mind numbing even if you try to do it mindfully...) thought I had while I was out there, was that at times, we can inadvertently "seed the soil" with things that grow beyond our circle of influence into new ideas, new concepts, new ... stuff that can be a benefit or a detriment to the those who are affected by the growth.

All I did was take the compost and put it under the bushes, hoping they would benefit from the act. Little did I realize that this simple act would result in the growth of a totally new plant! In fact, not only is one plant growing there, but as you can see in this photo, there are two completely different ... things that decided to grace my soil!

The results I expected were quite different from those that I got.

Maybe it's a giant beanstalk!

I love you!

Cam

 

P.S. I went for a ride up "urayama" today, and the insects were swarming while I rode on the concrete. But once I got higher up, and into the gravel roads, there was so much summer overgrowth that I found myself in a jungle, a veritable sea of green weeds that eventually prevented me from continuing up the hill, due to their density. Those tiny little plants grew and grew until they were a wall that stood in my way.