Hanniのブログ

We underwent a spaceflight training program on Fuji-Q Highland's devices touching our limit of the physically bearable:
Fujiyama: 79 m height, 130 km/h maximum speed
Dodonpa: Acceleration to 172 km/h in 1.8 s
Eejanaika: 4th dimension coaster

In the curious World Kaikan next to Nakano Broadway Building one can discover a little spiritual harbor - Vow's Bar. According to the buddhist priest who runs the bar and acts as its bartender the place itself could be regarded as a temple since it fullfills three certain requirements to become so. The priest was so friendly to have a long talk about his own history and buddhist priest bars as well as criticism on the current state of buddhism in Japan. The original cocktails at Vow's Bar carry names relating to buddhist teachings or fancy names such as "Ero Priest".

General website of buddhist priest bars
Vow's Bar official website

I'm so blunt as to copy an article on Vow's Bar from The Asahi Shimbun as reproduced here below.

( Read article... )

According to legend Goutokuji is the birthplace of the Manekineko. It is told that a 17th-century Daimyou was saved from thunderstorm when a cat waved him inside the temple gate. There he was able to listen to the teachings of a priest which filled him with so much joy that he determined Goutokuji to be his family's temple. Thanks to Satsuki-chan for telling me about Goutokuji.

"TERPSICHORE:
In greek mythology, Terpsichore was a goddess and one of the nine muses born between Zeus and Mnemosyne ("memory"). It is told that she ruled over dramatic chorus and dance. Famous is the piece "Sacrifice to Terpsichore" [Remark by translator: The correctness of this title could not be certified.] by dancer Isadora Duncan who had first danced with bare feet according to legend. Founded in 1981, this studio has received its name TERPSICHORE (French reading) by the late Butoh critic Ichikawa Masatoshi." [Free translation of the self-introduction taken from the TERPSICHORE blog]

TERPSICHORE is a hidden gem in Nakano staging outstanding Butoh performances. According to the lady who provided me with a performance schedule no one less than Ono Kazuo himself had formerly produced performances at TERPSICHORE.

I had the chance to attend a mesmerizing duet piece by Tayama Meico and Nuibe Kenji which I interpret to have expressed the prevalence of procreation in life and its indifference towards its actors. In the first half of the performance the stage exclusively belonged to the male dancer. Against a propulsive, chaotic, bleak soundscape of industrial noises with sporadically melodic tints he erratically wandered around convulsing and twitching. His daily void struggle underwent an intermission when the female dancer entered the stage. At this point a vague notion of bliss could be felt when the two dancers briefly seemed to move in harmony only to break apart into discord and quarrel again. The seed had been planted into the women symbolized by a cloth sprout attached to her costume and thus the man had become futile and vanished from the stage. During the second half of the piece the female part danced in firm motion making powerful gestures which assumably expressed the inextinguishable power of procreation. As the breeding ground of life she was all-mighty. Then she began displaying faces of madness - broken under the undeliberate and ultimately senseless cycle of existence and in decay.

Never had I been so electrified and moved to tears by a dance performance before!


TERPSICHORE schedule and map.

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"Yushukan is a museum to inherit sincerity and records of enshrined divinities of Yasukuni Shrine by displaying their historically important wills and relics.
This museum established in Meiji 15 (1882) stores 100,000 articles including many pieces of paintings, works of art, armors and weapons. "Yushu", the name of this museum means to associate with and to learn from high-principled people.
Each article displayed in this museum is filled with wish of predecessors who named this museum Yushukan and sincerity of enshrined divinities who devoted themselves to build "a peaceful nation." By touching directly the sincerity of enshrined divinities who dedicated their precious lives for their loving motherland, hometowns and families, you may find something precious."
(www.yasukuni.or.jp/~yusyukan/, March 2011)

I'd like to refer to a detailed description of the exhibition at Yushukan and a short history of military historical museums in Japan.

Always an uplifting reading are the last messages of the month.