The Assumption

I had company at mass this evening. Rio arrived to stay with us on Sunday evening last: she is here for three weeks, studying at the University of Gloucestershire. Her father is a professional cyclist: it seems that betting on the outcome of cycle races is big business in Japan.

Rio is studying philosophy at a private university in Tokyo, founded by the Jesuits 100 years ago. Though a Buddhist, she expressed the wish to come along to church when I said I was going. Her English is better than most, I'd say, so she was able to follow the book pretty well, but after communion I must say I was fazed at first when she inquired about "the crisp".

"Stop the world"?

Littlechap's plea comes to mind. We are hosting this very sweet Japanese 15-year-old for a few days: she is part of a large school party over here - but all that way for the inside of a week only!

And at lunchtime, members of the Gloucestershire Churches Environmental Justice Network met (the first time in some while). Where? The Grange, Bishop's Cleeve, now part of the Zurich/Capita empire. On a mild Spring day, a gale of heat greeted us as we made our way into this gaunt temple of commerce, a handful of Daniels into the lions' den.

Strings attached!

Mini has given us yet another marvellous, hand-crafted New Year's card. "Beautiful sunshine and warm wind bring you Spring," it proclaims, in Japanese and English; and "generous mind brings you happiness." The man himself looks far from happy though! Why? Perhaps it's because strands of cotton are affixed to the his shoulders and taped to the back of the card. Is he a prisoner? A drone? A kite?

"A three-year Odyssey"

This is how sculptor, Rory Young described his journey leading from the important commission for statues of seven martyrs for the niches on the nave altar screen at St Albans. Rory was talking to supporters of the Gloucestershire Historic Churches Trust this evening - a crammed Chedworth Village Hall. He called his lecture, "Mediaeval form and colour inspiring new work at St Albans Cathedral".

Goodness knows how many images we were treated to! Some slides incorporated two or more, so it must have been in the hundreds. They illustrated a voyage round mainland Europe (Amiens, Verona, Padua, Rome), but particularly England: other cathedrals of course (Westminster, Durham, Exeter, Coventry, York, Wells...); abbeys such as Westminster, Tewkesbury and Downside; great parish churches (St John the Baptist, Cirencester, St Mary, Warwick, Holy Trinity, Coventry), and lesser ones (South Newington, Notgrove, Leigh Delamere). Then there were the trips to the V&A and the Mercers' Hall. All served to illustrate a quest for hints of original colour, and the best sculptural representation of flowing garments and off-guard expression.

Perhaps Helen Whitbread over-egged it when she paid tribute to "a present Michelangelo in our midst," but we were certainly wowed.

Alas, we couldn't stay for supper in the pub, as bidden: it was 19-year-old Misa Yamahoi's last evening with us. One of a group of students from Japan, she arrived to stay with us on the 10th, the day before the Pope resigned. It seems strange that all the hoo-hah surrounding this event in our media should so completely pass by someone in our midst but from quite another world.

Shrove Tuesday

This is a segue from yesterday's blogpost about papal shriving.

This evening, before going to the Film Society (unusually, a British film Treacle Jr. - gritty and compassionate), Leo tossed me an excellent pancake. I resolved to photograph him tossing the next one, but Splat! It landed on the floor.

We have an addition to our household for a three-week stay, Mesa, a 19-year-old Japanese student. Interesting, trying to explain to her the origins of Shrove Tuesday...

Fukuwarai

Our dear daughter-in-law tells us that her beautiful New Year card recalls a traditional Japanese game played on New Year's Day. Players take turns to be blindfolded, and then to arrange the features of a human face on a board. Very Cubist!

Mini has hand-drawn more than 40 of her cards this year, all different. (She was not wearing a blindfold during this exercise!)

Sunday evening, Japanese style

Yuka and Haruka (both 15) are staying with us (as lodgers) for a couple of weeks from Tokyo. By request, Caroline took them to Tesco's today and they returned laden with the ingredients for a (Japanese) meal they had offered to cook for us. It involved bacon, shrimps, eggs and cabbage - a cross between a pancake and a Spanish omelette.

"I have hard everyday to be soon," wrote Haruka in a note to introduce herself - explaining why she was always late for school. Yuka wrote, "I like painting. So I wanna go where beautiful scenery to draw the picture." Glorious Gloucestershire would seem to have been a good choice for her.

And she should have plenty of photographic memories: when we compared camera cards, her storage capacity totalled 38GB, mine 8!

Turnover day

Caroline has had an 18-year-old Spanish girl to teach for the past fortnight. Maria today returns to Valencia, glad to say goodbye to what she perceives as "normal" English Summer weather. In fact, it seems to be on the turn - from Thursday evening, we've had no rain and some little warmth. So I'm off to plant some more French beans, as urged by the gardening experts. And tomorrow we welcome a couple of more cheerful-looking Japanese High School girls, Yuka and Haruka.

Hat trio

We have had two of Mini's friends staying this week. Mikiki (on the left here), who came last year, is off again tomorrow, but Cheko (right) - or Shan, as she prefers to be known - stays till the middle of this month. Miki remembered my interest in Sudoku, bringing me no less than three books, which should keep me going for a while.

Cherry read

An email from Mini today, enjoying Japan in the Springtime, with lots of photographs of blossom! So, to keep my end up I append this one of the tree in our own front garden.

With my assistant (our youngest grandchild), we finished the digging today. Team work involved my inserting the spade, and Laurie pulling it towards him, landing flat on his back every time. We discussed the difference between a square and a cube, and he informed me it was not horns on that slug, but eyes ("Silly Grandpa!").

Between the showers, I earthed up the early potatoes ("Annabelle"), and filled the empty chimney pot with some very smelly manure and one tentative dahlia. We have been lucky to avoid late frosts in recent years, but who knows, with the weather as it's been?

"A grandchild's hand"

I thought the elegant package looked like the usual chopsticks, but no: it was a more unusual present that 19-year-old Chihiro Kono brought us when she arrived to stay, one of a party from Tokyo who are currently in Cheltenham for a three-week study tour. Her home in Shizuoka is overlooked by Mount Fuji; she plays the trombone, and likes Chopin - and shopping: she also dresses extremely well!

I asked Chihiro whether she'd read any Haruki Murakami. "Yes," she replied: "We studied Norwegian Wood - IN ENGLISH!"

Happy New Year!

For some years now, we have been presented with an original New Year's card by our lovely Japanese daughter-in-law. This year's is one of the best.

"Beautiful sunlight brightens an auspicious cloud," she writes: "auspicious cloud" being a symbol of happiness, and the crane, a symbol of long life and good luck.

A Real Madrid supporter

We have a 20-year-old Aoyama University student lodging with us for three weeks. "Have you been to England before?" I asked him. "No, but I've been to Madrid to watch my favourite football team play at the Bernabéu." Ah well.

Shohei is an intelligent and delightfully well-mannered young man from Sapporo, with a great appetite (which pleases Caroline): we haven't had anyone from that far North before. A former youth ski champion, he gave it up, preferring warmer-weather sports. He relaxes by performing heavy metal karaoke and reading manga online. When he leaves university next year, he hopes to join Barclays, to become an international banker. In six years time, he plans to marry his diminutive girlfriend, whom he met at school six years ago: she is over here also, staying with another host family.

Japerçu

Japan has been much in the minds of most of us this past three weeks. Our daughter-in-law has just flown back to be with her family in Osaka. Caroline's recent student, also from Osaka, returned the day before. It is perhaps not a time to be far away from one's homeland, even when the affected area is far to the North.

On our 2009 visit, we travelled mainly in the central area. I have now put together a picture album with some impressions of what we saw. It's available via the Blurb publishing site, where you can also preview it online.

2009: the end

We have just waved goodbye to our girls, who are off to welcome the New Year with friends in furthest Worcestershire. So, the house is once more empty, and we reflect on another year in which we have failed to move from too large a home.

But six bedrooms have their uses when there are family weddings to celebrate, as in May/June. Running from room to room through icy corridors - as we have been lately - causes us to remember the light, warm days of Spring, Summer and Autumn more appreciatively. Then, it's a beautiful place to be living - with the garden making several extra large rooms, where we often eat out breakfast, lunch, tea and supper - sometimes all four. Friends from London refer to coming to see us in the country, and indeed we can see the Cotswolds from our windows, barely a mile away.

Travelling for a fortnight through Liverpool, Manchester, Lancaster and Carlisle to Edinburgh in May, and back through Berwick, Durham, York, Nottingham and Northampton made me realise what a rich quality of life we have in Cheltenham. Spending time in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Yokahama in October reinforced that conviction.

Back to GMT

Before leaving for Japan, I repeated the feast/fast diet I had tried with success on my last long haul flight in 2003: it works well in overcoming jetlag (more of a problem going West to East than vice versa). Coming back yesterday, I had made no such preparations: I ate and drank normally and stayed awake throughout (watching one or two good TV programmes and 1, 2, 3 films - all more or less cheesy). So far, so good - but I shall soon be ready for bed.

Meanwhile, Agnes and Ida, alongside us on the plane, are today settling into Herefordshire. Agnes had a new bike, complete with seat, for her birthday and we shall take it over to her on Wednesday.

Japan? A great trip! I'm working on the photographs. Good to get back to English breakfasts though. And soap in the bath.

Sustainable Japan?

We are off to the airport in the morning, having come to the end of our trip, which has passed incredibly quickly - a good sign that we have all been enjoying ourselves. Here in Yokohama (today) we have been dazzled by the modern architecture of Minato Mirai, where I've been talking sustainability with RCE colleagues, Zinaida Fadeeva and Aurea Tanaka at the UN University Institute of Advanced Studies. Their team is funded by the Japanese Dept. of the Environment, for ten years - a sign of at least a degree of commitment to the subject.

Bicycles abound in the cities - more than at home - and public transport, particularly the train service, is excellent. Seeing the huddling of houses together, as the Shinkansen passes at vast speed through the suburbs, makes you think our town sprawl energy wasteful. But even up on the Buddhist monastic stronghold of Kôyasan - we spent the night before last in temple dwellings there (delicious vegetarian food, and a wonderful chanting ceremony at 6 a.m.) - to find a heated loo seat is a matter of course. And the shopping malls in the centre of Osaka and here seem endless.

Nara

Todai-ji in Nara contains this, the largest wooden structure in the world, and it houses the Great Buddha, which is one of the largest bronze figures in the world - originally cast nearly 1,300 years ago when Nara was Japan's capital city. Round the back of the statue is a column with a hole in its base the size of one of the Buddha's nostrils: to squeeze through it is a sign that you are ensured of enlightenment. I declined to try this afternoon. (Mini however made it without any trouble.)

We were commenting on the absence of beggars in the streets anywhere we had been so far. Today, we came across a Buddhist monk with his bowl outstretched: apparently he prays whilst begging; responding to which is I suppose no worse than paying for a mass for the dead.

The other beggars we saw in droves (or rather herds) were the sacred deer of Nara-koen, messengers of the Gods: never can there have been such tame animals! Charming at first, they become something of a trial at lunchtime. But Ida loved their attention of course!

Now, we are all exhausted.

Kyoto 2

We have had our first rain today, though not enough to dampen us or our spirits. After a short bus ride, we walked up a delightful pedestrian street, Sannen-Zaka to meet a former sudent of Caroline, her daughter and grand-daughter at the Morioka pottery: Caroline, Mini, Fujo and her daughter had lessons there. I talked to the charming and elegant widow of Kasho Morioka III (who doubled as a child-minder) and met her potter son. Fine teaware seems to be their speciality: it looks beautiful to my inexpert eye.

After lunch we jostled with all the other tourists, including hordes of neatly-uniformed schoolchildren, and walked up to Kiyomizu-dera, the most striking religious complex we've yet visited. There, we took off our shoes and walked down into the completely dark passage leading to an eerily lit carved stone wheel: we were "figuratively entering the womb of a female Bodhisattva, who has the power to grant any human wish," so the guidebook said. It was certainly the nearest I've come yet to getting the point of Buddhism - more potent than the rows of white prayer messages pegged to wire lines that you see in each of the sites.

News from Kyoto

Here's a photograph of Mini and Leo in their formal Japanese wedding garb, attended by the two "miko", sort of supercharged altar servers, at their Shinto ceremony on Friday last, performed in the romantic surroundings of a hotel on the outskirts of Kyoto, by a wide river, overlooked by mountains and set in beautiful gardens.

Suffice to say, the marriage celebration day went brilliantly, with Mini looking amazing in her kimono, and many of her friends having made a similar effort to dress traditionally, because of the English connection. (In the same way, Caroline will take all her foreign students to see round Gloucester Cathedral, though in the normal course of things we would never darken its doors.) Leo must have posed quite a problem to his team of dressers, but he looked very splendid in his long skirt made of much the same material as a pair of wedding trousers at home, and his white socks and flip-flops.

So, on the one hand we had the strangest ritual for the couple, with just family present, seated either side of a small chapel-like room in the hotel, the shrine at the end, the priest wearing a hat which was a cross between a bishop's mitre and a space helmet and shiny black plastic clogs on his feet; and on the other hand the largest barrage of digital cameras you have seen, flashing endlessly at the couple when they emerged in front of the other guests: Leo, not the easiest person to get to sit for his photograph, lapped it all up, and Mini looked completely unfazed too, though they must each have been in a state of exhaustion by the end of the day. I certainly was; but it was a sensationally happy one for us all, and it was warm and sunny!

For me, the most moving moment came when Leo and Mini had departed during the ceremonial lunch; and then returned into a darkened room, filled with the sound of Imogen Cooper's Mozart, dressed in their Painswick wedding outfits (almost) - before, a very Japanese couple, and now an English one!