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Here's my blog. Yes here it is. It's when I lived in Japan

Rolling With It

I'm on a roll! It's the second day in a row that I'm posting. What a break through! If I told you what was on the agenda today it would mean that I actually knew what was going to happen and I really don't. I have no clue what will happen today. Does anybody really? I'm pretty sure of what I won't do today though.  I don't think I will board a plane for anywhere. It would be hugely surprising if I did get on a plane today. If that happened it would be gigantically unexpected. Today is Monday. Monday to me has always felt like the first day of the week. It's the first workday. It's where car horns and car engines sound different. They have that more rushed presence. People are usually up and about and moving on this day. I can sense the feeling in the air and yet I'm writing this right now in an empty house with the sound of a refrigerator buzz and a clock ticking. Other then that it's completely silent.

I'm excited to hold my meditation event that will be coming this Wednesday. I feel more so everyday everyone waking up to a new reality and it's an inside reality. We're starting to understand more about each other and I feel this will be a powerful year. It's not to say that everything will be smooth sailing from this point on. I'm not saying that at all. It wouldn't be fitting, but yet we as humans are starting to recognize more and more our connection to the world. I feel it settling like silent wings on an early morning pond. The voice is not shouting out over a loudspeaker, but rather warming slowly like a gradual rising sun on a beach. In this way we are awakening and I feel this to be quite natural as it is coming at a very convenient time.

So I don't know what I'm going to do today. I have some plans later on and I believe they will materialize, but I think it would be good to start with some tea or something

Back From Japan

It's been a while since I wrote on this thing and I mean a long while. Well what has changed? For starters I'm no longer in Japan. Maybe you as a reader know this or maybe you didn't know. I am back in Colorado. I've been back in Colorado since 2013 in actuality and it's been a journey since then as well. The culture shock has definitely worn off to a big degree. It was with me for a while though. I lived in Japan for four years. Those years flew by, but they do count and they did count and they will count.


It's really a unique experience returning to a place after you've been in another place for a long time. For me it seemed as if I had just woken from a four year long nap as everything around me was different and I felt I had to start at square one. I've started at square one before. This has happened many times in my life and yet it feels weird to do it a big contrasting way. Japan had been a giant adventure and yet it was behind me. It existed suddenly like a lingering dream that creeps into the conscious mind when wiggling the toes in the morning. Even now as I write this I can close my eyes and see the beautiful painted pink flowers on a side walk by my house in Naraha or maybe I can feel the cold glass of a train window as my head rests against it or I can smell the rain in downtown Tokyo as I had walked so many times in a light rain that really had seemed to be part of the city itself. I can still hear the music of the morning bell for the schools that I'd always walk and hear in the distance. Yet, all these things are memories and very much like dreams. To be honest my life has been transitions for this period of time. From a very early age I've been searching for myself and for my identity and naturally this lead me to a strict path of spirituality.

I think spirituality started in my karate class with meditation. I can still remember the fresh cold feeling of the white mat that I'd step onto to start the class. It needed to be respected and I would bow to it before stepping on. We'd do meditation upon starting the class. Everybody would sit in formation and we'd sit cross legged and I'd try to calm my mind or try to make my breathing sound like the others around me. How were they doing that. Karate was my introduction to meditation and that was the extent of the practice until I reached college and then I learned that the rabbit hole would get deeper.

fall food

I love the fall because the leaves in Aspen are delicious. They paint the valley with many different colors and this also paints the mind with many colors. So many animals in nature give us a feeling of what should be done. Squirrels gather nuts in preparation for winter and bears roam the valley getting ready to hibernate. It is a time of preparation. It is a time that we gather together all that we have grown over the last months in preparation to be warm for winter. The vegetables seem to say this as well. Root vegetables of oranges and yellows seem to dot the landscape and match the leaves. They come from the ground and in this way it seems to be a very grounding time. Spaghetti Squash is a favorite of mine at this time of year as it makes delicious noodles. I'll describe the plan below

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 Spaghetti Squash

Method:

Cut the Squash in half and then scape out all the seeds to bake later

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and then set the timer to 45 minutes

Put a little water in a baking dish (For cookies) and then lay down each half of the Squash in the pan upside down (green shell facing up)

Bake for 45 minutes or until soft

Take a fork and then scrape insides onto a plate to make noodles

Eat with your favorite marinara sauce or sprinkle with cinnamon and serve with cooked basmati rice

自分は秋が好きだから私の故郷のアスペン町の紅葉は美味しいそうじゃなくてすごくきれいです。谷を描くしていろいろなの色くわえて私の頭も色があるです。多いの自然の動物秋の感謝われわれにおくれている。   

夏変わると秋野は楽しみ！

今日ねブラグ日本語で始まりと思います、日本語が好きだから。最近一杯できましたね！マッサージ療法師勉強ところです。もたまにバンド一生に練習もできました。一杯ライブもできました。本当に楽しかったでも疲れたすぎたかな。私は日本語が大好きでも文を作して序次確かいいかな。いつも分からない。ま。。いか。昨日の夜自分友達に会った。アスペンでは夏いつも万人います。込んでるですね。でも９月変わると、翻って人がないです。そして。公民さん毎年キヤンピングに行きます。楽しいでしょう。アスペンでアパト料金は高いそしたら私の多い親友キヤンピングで暮らしいって。上手の方法と思います。アパと料金がないとか自然の所で住んでるです。最高だ！毎日も火ある皆周りで楽器とか料理を作って。楽の人。昨日キャンピング行きました。

What If

I woke up this morning with new desire. To wonder if the reason we walk on the other light is simply to defy the gravity that makes us

You should do what you love to do

That's what makes your heart tick

昨日は子供の気奥おもうだした

今日は同じのような日

それは感度失った

いつも新しいたいけん
これはだいじのこと

と思います

私のギター
書きのひとです
いろいろな空にかきて
雲はいつも交わる
それはあたりまえですしょう

心に付けます
真実がでるでしょう　　か

早起きてきれいな川を泳いで続きる
石までの流れることを　ban ban 池にあたす

でも when you see the water
so sparkly clean
you look inside

おととおい自分はおここのこども
土に座てるよ
自然が急に見えた考えた
なんたなくそだるう

when your watching the candle burn
While sitting under the tree
In the last of the fire light
of the day

Calling

The man sat on a porch and let the rays of the sun wash down on his back
He could see the ocean stretch for miles
Miles at a distance were just time taking time
He knew he could get there and he knew he had been there
He'd traveled the world and he'd lost himself in the sea
the sea of knowledge
the sea of perspective
sea of wanting
and now the sea that he saw
Cool waves lapped up on the shore and showed him the way
The way to giving
The way to recieving
The way to loving
the way to breathing
It was all there inside
Breathing in his only soul
and so he took a deep breathe and let it go
He let it go
He let it go

And a bird stretched over the horizon
riding the zipline of the sweaty salt breeze
Dancing on the feeling of thought and desire
Riding on the air's thin feeling fire
Blue feelings
The free Blue
He took his flight right on cue
And music played on the shore
The water crashed to a beat
The sand grains answered the call
It was a musical note
The man realized life was a song
Life was a melody

hello

Mark Tanely sat in an office tapping his pen against the table. Alright what's going on here. Interpol had given him a headache for the last 24 hours. One day earlier he had been speeding down the road in his new Porsche getting ready to see his daughter in Chamonix and then he had gotten the call. The green waving hillsides and and bright sunlight of yesterday now contrasted with the now dismal rain that was falling outside his office window. It seemed to match the situation. "So what's the deal" Cameran Zetti walked out of the conference room alongside all the colleagues and staff. She looked at Mark with an expression that seemed to hint that she didn't want to talk about it. He had gotten this expression before as it was his wife. He had checked the reports when had arrived at the office yesterday and

真実が欲しいです
木の周りで一杯種が落ちた
川の中で魚が泳いで
たまには遠いで政界が見たら感動になった
皆の夢は地球に含むえた
皆の人生は政界に生きていた
誰も信じられない
毎日早起きてでも
でも信じられないよっかた

アメリカですごくいい道があるよ
道とゆうはきれいの川
かのん石の壁空までに伸びって
壁は空のような壁です
すごくきれい
全然信じられない
何回もの自然の景色見たら気が出いた。
政界が小さくても心が強いです
人間と政界の心が同じだから
これは人生
これの人生

Music Moves The Soul
The Earth moves music
政界では多い問題があるでも
もし音楽聞きたら一瞬で問題が止まってしまう
しまうとゆうは音楽に交換
仕事のは仕事じなくて芸実です
もし仕事こなようなで見えた
働くのこと世の刷毛になている

So Yesterday

Yesterday I woke up at 3 am! Sleep was not working and I was sweating and I thought it was better to do my Tai Chi practice and and Yoga and I knew that afterwards I would feel like I had gotten amazing sleep. I was right. After the practice I was feeling good and after my shot of Apple Cider Vinegar after the whole process I was in the zone. I proceeded to try to write a good possible essay that I would have to write for the days interview ahead of me. Soon the time proceeded to 9am and I felt it was time to get on the move. I did some re-arranging of my apartment and then greeted the day outside with the thought of my upcoming interview in my thoughts. At first I had decided to go to Yamagata earlier and study at a coffee shop to prepare, but I saw that my pants were not the interview tip top shape that I wanted and so I decided to curtail my plans and instead study outside the Uniqlo Store in front of Sendai. Sometimes time helps that way. The store opened at 10 am and so I was able to do some studying in front of the store. I found some good pants at 10am on dot and wore them right out of the store. I like doing that that. It makes me feel like the purchase was good and needed and it was. I boarded the train to Yamagata and arrived about 1 hour early and did some preparations. The interview consisted of a hard test and then an interview. It turned out that 6 others had decided to apply for the same position and one of the applicants was a girl who had flown in from New Zealand! Can you believe that? Everyone was very impressive and I was able to see my good friend Dave. I had not seen him in a while and it was good to catch up. The truth is I like interviewing. It's like a performance for me and it was a great experience being able to use the Japanese to apply it to an interview. There were 6 panelists and a white room and it was quite official looking, but I liked that. I think if you want to get good at interviewing a great way to get good at this ability is to pick up a guitar and learn how to perform on stage. We have lots of different personalities and our stage personality is one version of ourselves that it is good to develop. In conclusion everybody should pick up a guitar and start playing. After the interview I met Asari and we had dinner. I grew a little sad afterwards, but there was this guy playing music in the train station as I was getting ready to head back home and the chords struck my heart and it felt really good. He was very nice and knew good English too. It was a good bond. The train home that night felt like it never ended. I drifted in and out of reality as the station names were droned over the train intercom as the train slithered back to Sendai. When I finally arrived rain was dusting the road like spray bottle water and I had this surreal spray mist following me home as I walked back to my apartment. It's really a kind of rain that I have only been able to find here. It's this very light rain that is more like a mist. The night ended on that note and in that way.

昨日は三時ぐらいに起きた。あたゆまに寝むらなかったも汗かっただから睡眠がしょうがないか。。と思うた。毎早朝太ちとヨガ必ずことになったのでその訓練決まったもでききったその後気に出った。いつもその訓練できたら

Hey

What if I could tell you that In a months time things would be different. The moon will shine differently, the sun will play differently and you will think different things then you do now and you will eat different ways then you do now. In a months time you my friend will be a different person. What if I told you that in a months time millions more will have been added to this Earth and millions will have left and millions of problems will have been solved and millions of problems will come. It makes no sense to fret now as everything will be so unpredictably different in a months time so smile in the mirror tomorrow when you first wake up and get adjusted to the new day ahead of you as it is for you and full of your possibility and know that you are a small part of something very large and therefore you are very large. It brings comfort to think like that. Go outside and say hello to an old person and tell them your dreams. They might smile back at you.

Sky Shooting

The serenity of the moment catches its breath and sends the sparks of infinity shooting in directions different than one would expect. That is how I found my motivations on this day. They were not altogether random, but more like a million puzzle pieces vying for position among the cloudless stratosphere. When the pieces fit together they blocked the true intention and so I had move them in such a way that they would not block the view, but instead reveal a pattern and would in summation make the view accented that would strengthen the overall purpose and make the view dance with the puzzle rather than hide behind it. What I noticed though at this point in time is that there was a candle staring me straight in the face. It's light was flickering as it too moved to a motion flicking it's shadows on the wall. The flame was a million different colors and spit out these frame by frame changing the the scenery surrounding into that color for a moment and so I was able to realize the transition of change as this candle poured forth its energy and made we witness such a spectacle. While this random pace of events was occurring I could help but notice the clock out of the right corner of my eye. The hands were twitching between 6 and 5 as if too say time hadn't completely stopped, but was refusing to move forward as well and yet all this time my feet stood grounded. I desired to move and yet was unable to somehow. My desires were thwarted by some unknown force, which I imagined also gave the clock it's  motions. I then saw a button on the table in front of me and noticed that I was able to move my hands. Somehow the movement of my hands were allowed and they changed color as the candle caused this transition to reflect on the room around me. I was able to touch the button and I pushed it and everything stopped. I could've heard a pin drop at that moment and I was in the room and the candle was out and it was a regular room with a table and and piano in the corner and a door leading outside and I could walk and so I did walk and I did go outside.

Balance

What we find that lies at the depth of relaxation is the simple concept of self. Here I am and this is what I am. It comes naturally as that is what is. Yet by very nature the self is playful and to be in this moment forever would be counterproductive. We bounce around and then find something new again. It can be hard to make decisions as everything is playful and so by creating a line of desire we can focus the playfulness into a random yet pleasant outcome. Everything is in the balance.

Ha for planning

As I was sitting for yoga today I couldn't figure out what I was going to do first. I didn't know where I was going to do my yoga as the place where I currently do yoga is quite small and I felt in confusion. Upon contemplating my situation I ended up doing my Tai Chi practice and then the quote that found me a couple of days previously found me once again.... "we plan... god laughs" How many times in life do we need to be reminded of this and yet I always hear him laughing. Everyday I try to plan out the details for my life and yet I always hear the laughing in the background and in the end I can't help but laugh as well. Everyday seems to work on a different beat and a new beat and I think the Earth is learning for the first time as well and that make sense as astronomers have dutifully noted how the Universe is expanding. As another favorite quote eloquently reads "expectation should be replaced with playfulness".... and the world is very playful indeed. We get caught in the planning and that is what can make decision making so difficult because we have this preconceived notion on how things will fall together. In reality even if we take the simplest processes everything happens with being playful. The seed and plant knows this as the fruit tree drops its fruit in the soil knowing that somehow a new fruit tree will grow or maybe it won't. I constantly have to be reminded by this, and yet it is always an amusing realization. However, this doesn't mean we shouldn't plan I believe. To the contrary.. we should plan... it's just important to laugh when we end up surprised

今日ヨガ座ってみながら全然一番最初のこと決まってできません。私の部屋の幅は狭くてだからどこやって悩んだも頭は混雑。あたゆまに状態考えと（対置）決まった始めった。

Effort

Everyone of us in life tries to improve themselves in the way that they see fit. Some do so by eating the right foods or by getting exercise. There are a myriad range of possibilities on how to go about this. I personally have focused on the ways of meditation, yoga and lately Tai Chi to improve and best reach my potential. What I have found lies at the basis of these practices is that they all require discipline and dedication. We all need something that tells us at the end of the day that we have done something worthy with the day that was given to us. Each day is a gift and although that is sometimes hard to realize... it is. By doing and completing the task 100% to completion we are doing more then simply checking off another activity. We are in essence practicing gratefulness, which lies at the center of human happiness and is a stepping stone to each one of us reaching our full potential. Effort is the reward in the end because it proves that we loved being here today so much that we we're willing to do something that was hard to do. We are showing compassion for life. I believe there are many ways to show compassion. We can show kind acts to people or simply and exercise it with the types of food we choose to consume. Each one of us strives for purpose and looks to try to be the most productive with the day that is given to us. That is the reason that coffee is a huge selling product. The immediate effect is 30 minutes of an undivided attention feeling and yet this state is easy to obtain and thus in the long run is rarely rewarding. What we find the most rewarding is effort. Many are starting to become aware of the huge benefits of fasting and it is a practice which has been used for thousands of years and this practice requires effort and is a challenge and yet when we finish the race we feel good and that feel good feeling spreads throughout us and manifests into physical accomplishments. We are able to have good creativity.. we are able to focus. Effort is the non-physical mental feeling that translates to physical realities. It is interesting that the most beneficial parts of the practices that I practice are the non-physical elements that are contained within them. For Meditation everything is non-physical as through the breath I just try to relax more and more with every breath. For Yoga it is the non-physical feeling of the dance of life as movement becomes effortless and yet full of effort and for Tai Chi there is the whole concept of imagining a sphere and through imagination the physical sphere manifests... or does it. These days we are connecting more and more with the non-physical in order to put meaning to our everyday lives and we find that these non-physical processes require lots of effort and yet reveal the most reward. Coffee then turns to a mere taste and food turns to mere taste. The true power is held within. As John Denver likes to say as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vw92nkIXXA 

I find my self In a Place

Soup Bowl

Fighting everyday because you've seen all around the world

Soup Bowl's steam and the sound of silence hits your soul

See that everyone is living onto another day

See that the cause of satisfaction is a moments grace

Sliding door open, waiting on the call of the sound

Breeze coming in slowly covering the town

Gee what's your place you never will really know

All you see growing around you is the constant growth

A drum beat comes so close to the heart

Picking up the pieces you see the fire start

Blink once more and it's the sparkle hitting the tide

Pale blue water hits as the waves collide

What you find, what you want to see

And you know while sitting the middle of a round room

That the sound that startles in the sea

Is the scenery calling in the Steinway Piano

And the keys that shatter across the dark

And the sweetness that swoons around the foray of the room

Making little sound

Except the whispers of the dark piano calling across the night

Calling in the night, Calling in the night

In the soup bowls reflection I see my face

Perfectly aligned in this ring of space

Filling in all the candles across the world

See the the horizon line stretch the coast

Hazy fields wash in the dark

swishing back and forth like paper following the stars

And the first star comes at the blink of the night

Comes right in makes the feeling right

What you find what you want to see

And you know while sitting in the middle of a round room

That the sound that startles in the sea

Is the scenery calling in the Steinway Piano

And the keys that shatter across the dark

The sweetness that swoons around the foray of the room

Making little sound

Except the whispers of the dark piano calling across the night

Today is Monday

Snow Yuki Good!

The Coast is freezing now. I rise in the morning and my breathe hovers in the air for some moments. Today the sun shines brightly. My thoughts have become gentle lately. Classes are over for this year. I taught my last elementary class yesterday, singing Christmas Carols and playing guitar. I look forward to Christmas and the holidays, making rendezvous with good friends and celebrating a holiday centered on the concept of giving and being together and of course the color red with white. My English teacher taught me something new about Christmas the other day. I will ask you if it's true. Is Santa Claus Red and White because of the Coca Cola Company? I can't imagine a green Santa, but pre 1940's that was supposedly the color.
We decorated the English room with Christmas decorations. I tried to draw a picture of the inside of my house at Christmas as well, which went over quite well . There are 2 songs that seem to stick out as favorites among the Japanese. Everyone seems to request Mariah Carey's Christmas Carol and Jingle Bells. I know Jingle Bells really well. I'm excited to head home for the holidays and ski. The snow here is just starting to fall and that means that powder is in recipe books. Pow Pow Pow Pow. I ask you this what is snow??!!! We can say what rain is. You go outside and water sprinkles on you, but snow is different. When you walk outside and hear snow falling it is a gentle sound almost like silence.

There is a pace when snow falls
And many people feel it should be a bell
A soft bell with a kind sound, high-pitched, happy, yet quiet as well.
And when you focus on the sound the snow does really make
And do not take a rustling step
You witness this soft ,almost silence
Especially if your smokey breath you retract as well.
It's just you and the soft chimes singing of the times.

Here's a new one for ya

Picking the Vegetarian food style has it's challenges when living in Japan or where I am. I also feel secrets are revealed. Lately the navigation setting on my phone has pointed my life in a confident direction literally. I love looking at my little blip on my screen as I navigate around Earth now I'm here..... and now I'm here... and now I'm on a train.... and now I'm in my car... and now I just hickup'd.... and now I just Far..... we'll let that one rest. While in Tokyo my new found love of exploration has recently been Vegetarian Restaurants. After checking into a Hostel in Asakusa, which is close to Ueno and called the Asakusa Annex, I asked the friendly staff where I might stab some local vegetarian delectable s. Luckily one of staff members was vegetarian herself and recommended a place called Pei Pe Saitan. The dining establishment was supposedly located in Kinshicho, a close distance away "a new adventure says I" with my new map finding tools at the ready I struck off for the location. Kinshicho station was estimated to be about a 30 minute walk from where I was and I was in the mood for a walk. The night was cool and narrow streets crisscrossed this way and that. Traffic lights blinked from red to green to yellow as there were few cars and few people on the streets. I reached the train tracks and turned left and found myself on a lively street. Kinshicho station was full of people. I watched a really good robot dancer in front of the station for 2 minutes before continuing my search for Pei Pei Saitan. Pei Pei Saitan was seemingly a dream as it was not showing any signs of being present in the actual world according to my Google sources on my hand held apparatus. Feeling a bit deflated I did a search to see if there were any veg like establishments in the area and inflated again when I found there was a "famous place" called "It's Vegetables" Yes that was the name and interestingly enough it was in the same vicinity of where my Pei Pei Saitan place was supposedly-- a change of name says he...... a slip of the mind says I..... and so I found myself on a Saturday at about a little before 7 entering a little food place excited about the prospect of vegetables. The place was cheery and intimate and I sat down at a little table and a friendly older man gave me a menu. At first glance it looked as if it was just a regular restaurant as I saw many different selections, but upon further inspection all the dishes were made using vegetable products and suited both the vegan and vegetarian fan. The food was delish could have fooled me. Maybe I was fooled it is possible that everything was real meat in which case all cows and pigs of world I apologize, but It was tasty and the plan is to venture again. I had not been seated more then 5 or 10 minutes when someone joined my table and we were introduced. The restaurant required that kind of open perspective as there were few tables available in the cozy space. We hit it off. She was a vegetarian too and had been so for 12 years. It was great practice for my Japanese test that next day. She had a daughter living in Canada that played the Violin and she herself was a piano teacher. What followed was a pleasurable te to te and a sharing of ideas and thoughts over cuisine. I eventually joined another table as I was invited and listened about how one of men at the the table was a shipper of goods and had worked in Indonesia for the last 20 years of his life. His family had traveled with him and they had thus navigated the greater part of the world. It was a great story and I felt humbled by his experiences. My Japanese test was that next day so I retired to bed early, found my way home first of course! and wondered what JLPT would be like the next day.

Frost on My Window

I woke up this morning to frost on my window. Just 17 hours ago I was sitting at the a table eating Cheese Nan and sipping beautiful tasty Chai. About 24 hours before that I was pumping my legs down the side walk by my house next to the street that leads to the local grocery store. At the store I hung a left and dashed through the parking lot. I have recently made a running loop that I do frequently that is short. When I do it I imagine myself as an Indy car or a fast bike taking sharp corners and then accelerating up the hills, weaving through the streets. I usually complete this loop twice and end back in my parking lot. When I finish it is unusually dark and the world plunges into a evening darkness. 10 minutes later I'm in the shower, water running, drain making gurgling sounds as water drops into the dark depths below, sometimes I think about where it goes, but not too regularly. About 15 minutes later I'm in my car idling at a stop light heading to Iwaki and that is usually how evenings start off.