Monthly Archives: November 2007

Hugh, Drew, and the RomCom Crew

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In the opening scene of Music and Lyrics, we are treated to a masterful parody of an 80′s music video, featuring Hugh Grant as one of the lead singers. I laughed the whole time because it captured British New Wave music perfectly with the boppy synthesizers, the Flock of Seagulls haircuts, the Duran Duran cheesy story and acting, the Haircut 100 picture book world, the ABC lounge lizard vocals, and even a little Wham homoeroticism sprinkled throughout. It brought me back to junior high school dances, and high school angst. Although by high school, I was well into edgier stuff like punk and ska. Continue reading →

A Fukushima Funeral

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This past Tuesday, T’s grandfather passed away. He was 92 and led a very rich life, which I will write about in part 2 of this story. In this post I want to write about the funeral rites and rituals.

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Gathering at the Village

Kunio Kasai lived and died in Fukushima, an agricultural prefecture five hours north of Tokyo by car. We set off on the drive with T’s dad on Thursday morning at 7am. Her mother was already there. Several other relatives from around the Tokyo area and some from Niigata also were on their way there by car.

Kunio had four daughters and they were all there. The second eldest, Kyoko, strangely enough, was already in the area attending another funeral, so she even had appropriate clothes. What a coincidence. Continue reading →

Koishikawa Korakuen: Meditating Wind no. 37

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Koishikawa Korakuen is one of my favorite Tokyo parks. Located near the Tokyo Dome, it’s one of 7 specially designated parks in Japan that are protected because of their historical significance. Korakuen’s construction began in 1629 by a high ranking lord. There are many Chinese influences all around the park, according to the official description. But back then, everything was heavily influenced by China.

The park is organized around a series of lakes and ponds. Around these are various orchards and gardens. I visited near the end of the iris bloom and even the dying flowers were a sight to behold. At the end of September, when I visited, there were few people. The most deserted and peaceful area was the most beautiful, a pond in the southeast corner of the park. There you can admire the reflections of the surrounding skyscrapers broken up by the ambling carp rippling beneath the lotus leaves. Click here to see more pictures from my flickr account.

Water Poetry 4: The Free Verse

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In this fourth installment of the Water Poetry Series, I present an open form or free verse poem about the San Francisco Bay. In contrast to the previous poetry forms which have strict rules on meter, rhyme, stanza structure, and even the content of the poem, the open form poem has no such rules. Therefore, it is the most difficult to describe. I haven’t been able to find a good set of guidelines on how to write one. In fact, there have been contentious schools of thought on what a true open form is. Continue reading →

The Joys of Imperial Plunder

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I rag on England quite a bit, it’s true. It’s cliche to criticize their food and weather. In truth, the weather is no worse than the US Pacific Northwest. In fact, during my first year living in England there was a great heat wave that killed hundreds in continental Europe, but made the British Isles warm and sunny. The food is deplorably greasy and tasteless. But I found that a combination of Indian food (it’s everywhere like Mexican food in the US), potlucks with fellow international students, and Sunday roasts and English breakfasts at good pubs, made it bearable. Continue reading →