temples and alley ways
Yesterday Bev Curran took us to this lovely little fertility temple complex in Nagoya, for people who want children or have lost children. There was a wish tree, a snake god, a kwan yin, a phallus shrine, a giant buddha, a shrine for lost pets and a pet cemetary. Beautiful Japanese maples turning brilliant colours…
nagoya
Just back Aiichi Shukutoku Daigaku where Roy and I visited an amalgamation of three classes to talk about our work. Lots of stuff on the table– mythology, the future, cloning, biotechnology, growing old, family, language, the JC internment, being Japanese, being Asian, flowing, travelling, limping. Hope it was productive for the students. The group was…
participating in the local economy
I have photos of our Friday night rampage through Taipei, which I’ll post when I have access to a computer with English Windows. I’m on one for public use right now, in the basement of the Meiji-Gakuin guest house. Everything is in Japanese, which I can’t read. I feel like I’m caught caught in a…
in-your-face
On Friday evening, Roy, Wayde and I did a panel discussion with three Taiwanese writers– Hao Yu-Hsiang, Lin Wenchi and Feng Pin-Chia, moderated by Liao Hsien-Hao, the Commissioner for the Taipei City Government Deparment of Cultural Affairs. The Canadian writers were to talk about our impressions of Taiwan; the Taiwanese writers were to talk about…
an extraordinary moment of connection
I’m in Tokyo right now at the guest house of Meiji-Gakuin University. It’s just me and Roy now. Everyone else has gone back to Canada. On Friday， I went to a meeting of Taiwanese Aboriginal peoples at the alumni building of National Taiwan University with Garry Gottfriedson. They were gathering to discuss the pros, cons…