Mt. Fuji from afar

I had a small break between classes and caught this rare moment on camera thanks to a co-worker. Its hard to see, but if you look closely in the far distance you can see Mt. Fuji. It's a rare occasion to see it from where I'm at (Ibaraki Prefecture). Tonight it was clear and crisp allowing for such a rare sight. It really is a beautiful mountain. No wonder so much poetry has been written about it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Japanese Spirituality

Image
B efore diving into spiritualism, I need to discuss the foundation with which spiritualism is build upon in the West and in Japan. And before I get too far it would be appropriate to define what I mean by "the West". For the sake of convenience, when I talk about the "West" I am talking about cultures who embrace and have a rich tradition in or relation to Greek philosophy as a frame work for rationalizing nearly everything (Americas, Europe, parts of Eurasia and the middle east). Okay, so lets get into it. In the West when we try to rationalize the world around us, we often do so through the lens of Dualism. Dualism is the idea that there are always two opposing or contrasting concepts for nearly everything. For example, good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, man vs. nature, etc. It also explains why westerners, and very much the English language, is geared for discussion and debate. Conversely, pluralism is very dominate in the Japanese world view. Pluralism is th
Read more

The Healthcare Debate And What We Can Learn From Japan

Image
Aside from all things Japan and Apple products, reading about and discussing politics are a few of my favorite pastime activities. I am passionate about politics but I am not the type to turn an ear away simply because you affiliate yourself with a specific party. I have my opinions of course, but generally speaking, I am very open-minded when it comes to political discussions. So with that, think of this as an open-minded discussion as you are welcome to comment on the issue as well, but please, be respectful. Healthcare is one of the hot topics in U.S. politics these days. Is it constitutional? This is the number question being asked right now. While I agree this is an important question, I think an equally important question that is not being asked is: How will a universal healthcare system fit into a country that takes pride in its individuality? The healthcare debate in the U.S. is much more about social issues than it is political, for the foundational arguments on both
Read more

Reading List for Japanese Culture!

Image
All of the books below I have read in part or whole (some I have written about) and highly recommend if you are studying Japanese literature or even the language, after all, language is culture. Joe's Top Ten Must Reads : Ki no Tsurayuki's Tosa Nikki (土佐日記) 935 Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji Translated by Royall Tyler (源氏物語) 11th century Mori Ogai's The Dancing Girl (舞姫 ) 1890 Natsume Soseki's Kokoro (心) 1914 Tanizaki Junichiro's Naomi (痴人の愛) 1924-1947 Kawabata Yasunari's Snow County (雪国) 1935-1937 Mishima Yukio's Confessions of a Mask (仮面の告白) 1948 Dazai Osamu's No Longer Human (人間失格) 1948 Oe Kenzaburo's The Catch (飼育) 1957 Murakami Haruki's A Wild Sheep Chase (羊をめぐる冒険) 1982 Supplementary Material Donald Keene: Donald Keene the godfather of Japanese literary criticism. Arguably, there is no one who has contributed more to the interpretation of Japanese literature than this man. Modern
Read more