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Tell me some good news; Go west old man!
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estebanana
Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
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 Tell me some good news; Go west old man!
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Things have been difficult on the Foro, how about some positive updates? Anyone have any uplifting things to share?
Since Ron passed it made me reevaluate a lot of things, and I changed direction in life because of it. No I did not get religious so don't worry, there will be no sermons.  I left a relationship earlier this year not knowing where I was going to go or what I would do, I'm 49 and not a spring chicken any longer. It's difficult when you get older to leave secure surroundings for the unknown. Spent a lot of time just keeping to myself, reflecting on what happened, being angry about it, being tired, kind of lost really. During that time I bumped into a woman who I have been dating since. I kept that quiet as well.
Life between my lovely partner and I has been great. We have both been very happy for the first time in a long while. We also came to a crossroad at the same time; She will be moving back to her home country of Japan and I will accompany her to live together in her small hometown. She has lived here for twenty years and left Japan in her twenties, there are many things she has yet to explore in Japan even though she is a native. This gives us the opportunity to travel in Japan to see many things together for the first time. We are both elated about this. I will be making a new workshop in the little town in Southern Kyushu where we will live. Her dad is helping to scout a location as I write this. It is quiet, on the coast of the East China Sea and for me and us hopefully a tranquil change from the fragmented city life we have had the last several years. Starting this spring I'll be posting from a small town in Japan.
I hope others will have good travels and we'll move on to better things. You never know.
_____________________________
https://www.stephenfaulkguitars.com
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Date Oct. 17 2012 21:58:04
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: Tell me some good news; Go west ... (in reply to estebanana)
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Estabanana-san, Estaban-san, Stephen-san (They all sound appropriate),
Congratulations on your great good fortune in meeting someone to share a new adventure in a new, exotic land and culture. You no doubt were planning this as we quaffed a few Amber ales in the Edinburgh Pub in September. Good thing you kept it from me or we would have had a few more to celebrate.
Cheers,
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
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Date Oct. 17 2012 22:52:29
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Ruphus
Posts: 3782
Joined: Nov. 18 2010
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RE: Tell me some good news; Go west ... (in reply to estebanana)
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On Thursday there was a report about Chinese warships spotted in waters of Japanese islands.
But these guys aren´t going to be lighting fires in holes for resources; not in these times ( yet), are they.
I should try contribute some optimistic stuff, and I´ll try; yet can´t withstand to raise a pondering point.
Cultures of stressed standards of ritual and courtesy developed these for certain reason, which commonly is the inability to argue. The ceremonies are meant as prophylaxis against escalation. ( In the way like the Thai´s steady smile and bow are not coincidentally countered by the toughest boxing named Muay Thai.)
Do you, my friend, as an outspoken character that you are, expect to become firm in extreme formal obligations and restrains?
Not that it couldn´t ever be done, but I wonder whether you can imagine living under such condition.
Shut up and smile, Stephen san?
Or are you ready to gamble away your foreigner´s credit by revealing to the people that traditions are brutish, slaughtering of delphines and wales retarded, and the nation-wide prohibition of tree felling useless as long as supply for the world´s greatest squanderers of wood is being stringed from rain forests abroad?
I can´t see you standing by and cherishing obligations.
On the positive side, first thing I like to remark is that I have always been wondering about the factual reservoire and experience that you have, as the pictures I had seen of you showed a good-looking fellow, appearing to be around half of your actual age.
Until I moved over to here to finally age in no time, no stranger would be believing my age either, yet you ought to be the best conserved individual I have ever seen. Congrats! :O)
Secondly, last night there was a contribution on Japan on Travel Channel. It was the first one that ever made me consider the eventuality of an interresting place where I used to fancy not much more than extremely crowded cities with employed pushers shoving folks into metros, and mental youngsters trying to flee traditional constriction through eccentricity, before.
The film rather concentrated on food. The crew among other things would be halting westerners in the streets and ask them about their food experience. It was funny to look at, as the interviewed would obviously produce saliva while just talking about the cuisine.
Quintessence: Very interesting / never boring.
I am glad to hear that you found your mate like in Simon´s wonderful quote above!
Ruphus
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Date Oct. 18 2012 8:48:28
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: Tell me some good news; Go west ... (in reply to z6)
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quote:
So, how about the book? Zen and the art of luthery anyone?
Hey, Stephen, I think Z6 is on to something. I realize I am showing my age here, but back in 1974, Robert M. Pirsig published a book entitled "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." I still have the book and cherish its insights. Basically, it is about the metaphysics of quality. I think you would be interested in it. You probably could pick up a copy at a used book store. The metaphysics of quality would be just as applicable to a luthier as to a motorcycle buff. Highly recommended.
Cheers,
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
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Date Oct. 19 2012 14:06:02
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: Tell me some good news; Go west ... (in reply to estebanana)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: estebanana
Are you suggesting a second career? Teaching the Engrish would be easier, I would not have to get as fat so fast.
When Larisa and I spent a few weeks in Japan in 2008 we only spoke to one expat at any length. He was an Englishman teaching English in Tokyo. He loved it and said he would stay as long as he could. We met him at dinner as we stayed at an onsen near Nagano. It's the one you see in National Geographic where the monkeys have their own hot spring.
Thing was, the English teacher was from Lancashire. His accent was so thick I could just barely understand him at all. Throughout the conversation I kept drifting off onto a mental picture. A half dozen Japanese engineers and managers show up for a meeting in Silicon Valley and break out speaking in pure Japanese-accented Lanky....
We made Kyoto our home base. It's a human scale city with a rich cultural heritage. We stayed at country inns a fair amount after we left Kyoto. We only spent three or four days in Tokyo, and enjoyed kabuki, the Imperial Museum and shopping. In Tokyo I spent money on taxis, since I was too lazy to decode the complex but comprehensive mass transit system.
For several years while I lived half the time in Palo Alto, and later full time in Santa Barbara, my girlfriend was a young woman who grew up in Tokyo until she was 14, then moved to the Bay Area with her famiy. She lived in San Francisco, and complained humorously that it was a hick town, because they rolled up the sidewalks at midnight. When people asked her how it was in Japan, her usual response was, "It's like here, only more modern."
She was the sharpest person I have ever known as an observer of human behavior, and at figuring out just what was going on in any situation. I was particularly impressed, because that skill was an important part of my job.
In fact, it took three or four years of frequent and ernest conversation to sort out some cultural understandings, though she had lived in the Bay Area for six years when we met.
As one small example, she asked, "Richard, why don't you drive a Mercedes?"
"I don't need a Mercedes."
"Why don't you buy your clothes at Wilkes Bashford?"
"If I did, it would annoy the aerospace engineers I work with as a consultant. Only their bosses know how much I get paid."
In the end, she told me I should pay more attention to my "face".
"I don't need to show off," I replied. "It would annoy the people I work with if I did."
"Face is not 'showing off'."
"What is it then?"
"It's behaving according to your position in society, and showing that you accept the responsibility that goes with it."
"But I'm not a leader with a number of younger people depending upon my guidance, and depending upon me for power if they need it. I'm a lone wolf. I'm a consultant, not a boss."
We arrived more or less at an accommodation. I had my work clothes, and I had my taking her out to dinner clothes.
In another episode, we were at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. She was wearing Guess denim jeans and jacket, leather boots. I had on a leather jacket and Levis. A Japanese shop caught my eye. I went in without discussion. I approached an old Japanese lady who appeared to be the proprietor and asked about a particular 19th century Japanese wood block print. She shuffled through a bin, and announced that she didn't have a copy. Her coldness and disinterest amounted to extreme rudeness on a Japanese scale. After we left, my girlfriend was uncharacteristically silent for several minutes.
A couple of weeks later, I mentioned the print in passing.
"Do you really want one?"
"Yes."
"You know the price range?" She had several, by a variety of artists. She said they were a lot cheaper in Japan when she was a girl and received them as presents.
"Yes."
"Okay. You have to do what I say."
We went back. She wore discreet heels from the Ferragamo custom shop, a pleated skirt and a silk blouse under a nice sweater. I had on a cashmere blazer, white shirt and tie, flannel slacks and hand made penny loafers.
With hunched shoulders, hands clasped, head slightly bowed, she preceded me, approached the old lady and spoke tentatively in Japanese--but in her upper class drawl. The old lady relaxed a little and began to converse. I heard my girlfriend mention her mother's name. At last the old lady glanced my way, assessed my clothes, and finally made the briefest eye contact.
We moved on to business in English. The old lady said she didn't have a copy of the print, but knew where one might be available. She asked how much I would offer. As schooled, I asked her advice. Long story short, over a period of a couple of weeks, offers went back and forth, and at last I got the print.
I asked my girlfriend, "Was there really an anonymous owner, or did she have the print all along?"
"Of course she had it. Why do you ask?"
She was from a high status family, went to the same school as the Empress, had the same flower arranging and tennis instructors....
It was four years before she felt I was ready for her to take me to Japan. Your progress has been much quicker!
She said she first became interested in me because she had never known anyone who was so purely Euro-American as I, but showed some flexibility and interest in other cultures.
Her previous boyfriend was born and raised in San Francisco Chinatown. She laughed and said, "A lot of those Chinatown guys are more 'white-bread' than you are."
I'm sure you'll love Japan. It's a tremendously beautiful country with a wonderfully rich culture. The people were friendly and helpful when Larisa and I visited. We loved it.
RNJ
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Date Oct. 19 2012 17:57:23
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estebanana
Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
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RE: Tell me some good news; Go west ... (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
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quote:
She lived in San Francisco, and complained humorously that it was a hick town, because they rolled up the sidewalks at midnight.
Having lived on the East Coast I agree. San Francisco is a back water by comparison to many other cities. It is also not as culturally sophisticated as it purports to be. It has a world class orchestra, but that is about it.
Richard,
There is a difference between being educated as a high born Japanese woman and being from a middle class Japanese family, like my girl. There is another several layers of "face" one would have to learn, construct or jettison in order to survive in an upper strata Japanese family. And as an outsider you would never, ever be accepted as equal even though you would be teated with dignity. I could see where your former girlfriend would have concern. Not because you were not capable, but it is a very Byzantine world of face and feints to learn.
As I was going to tell Rufus, this ain't my first rodeo. In a sense I've been unknowingly preparing for this for a long time. There was a very beautiful and smart girl in college named Haru who was studying design, we had an eye for one other. She told me she was going to London to study...and I knew from how she told me she was saying I could like you, but I'm from one of those elite families that will require complete filial piety from me after college. Yoko Ono was from the same kind of family, but she evidently busted out.
I studied Japanese art history in college and went to China for a summer semester to study Chinese art history. I've always been interested in Japan and Asian art, have read about the history, however I don't have the romantic associations that many have. I have spent a little time in Japan, in 1993 a had a few days layover on my trip to China. From that little hit of Japan I gleaned that this upcoming move will not be like walking onto the set of a Kurasawa film; all green tea leaves and zen. But I will have a leg up on the museum going because I love the forms of art in Japan.
Eugen Herrigal wrote the original book 'Zen and the Art of Archery' from which all the zen and this and that tomes sprang. I did find it slightly dry, but as opposed to most opinions I like it better than the later zen books. I think this comes from my aversion to motor cycles. I had a motorcycle as a teen ager. When I turned nineteen I swore them off forever out of self preservation. I am simply too crazy to have any business on a high powered motor cycle. Arrows are dangerous enough even when you are not pointing them at yourself.
I dated a Japanese woman, several years ago, but there was a halting moment in the relationship. She was rather large for a Japanese woman, tall, strong and when she got out of control she could wreck the house. She of only got out of control if she saw me sneaking a peek at another woman. And being male, even though the intent to act on it may be nonexistent, a peek at another woman now and then is inevitable. The morning she cornered me in the kitchen against my will and tried to force me to commit seppiku with a wide bladed butter knife I fled with my life, and like high powered motorcycles, swore off Japanese women forever.
Sometimes I think I'm not too smart because I'll learn a really valuable lesson and then forget I learned it, turn around and do that same thing again a few months later. Or days later. Like getting really drunk with some ingeniously polite and interesting US State Dept. personnel at a bar in the hick town of San Francisco and saying to myself the next day "Oh my head hurts. I am a big pussy. Oh jeeze I hate beer. I will never touch it again." and then two days later wake up with all my clothes and shoes on wondering who kindly deposited my intoxicated carcass on the couch after that flamenco show. I'm not too smart because I'll bump into the occasional Japanese woman and occasionally ask her out. Once in awhile I'll sit across a table from her and eat a tapa while thinking to myself "Just keep talking baby, I'm already sold on you, but I just want to hear more because you are so intoxicating."
So like a fool who's drunk off his ass on her beauty and wit, I have gotten back on that fast, sleek Japanese motor bike; zen and the art of spinning questionable metaphors.
_____________________________
https://www.stephenfaulkguitars.com
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Date Oct. 19 2012 18:18:56
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: Tell me some good news; Go west ... (in reply to estebanana)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: estebanana
Sometimes I think I'm not too smart because I'll learn a really valuable lesson and then forget I learned it, turn around and do that same thing again a few months later.
I may have a slight inkling where you're coming from. I have advanced from the "explanation" that got me in serious trouble with my father more than once, "It seemed like a good idea at the time." With greater self-knowledge as an adult, more than once I have explained that, "I have a firm policy. Every once in a while I do something really stupid."
Your tale of feminine violence reminds me. At age 18 my girl was engaged to one of the Aliotos. Drunk, he tried to hit her. She attacked him with a tennis racket, causing him to fall down stairs and break a leg. End of engagement.
Some of the family still liked her, though. One Sunday morning during our early acquaintance, she said, "Let's go to Caffe Trieste."--a very popular North Beach Italian coffee shop.
"Um...how long a wait do you think we'll have, to get a table?"
"Not long."
When we showed up there was a line out the door. She went in the door with me in tow, smiled at the hostess, and made a beeline for a big table. Someone pulled up a couple of chairs. Turns out the black sheep of the Alioto family held court there every Sunday morning, gray pony tail, bulky sweater, sandals and all. He admired her for beating the crap out of his cousin.
She and I only ever had one shouting match. The verbal violence escalated so rapidly on both sides that we ended up laughing our asses off.
RNJ
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Date Oct. 19 2012 19:52:09
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: Tell me some good news; Go west ... (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
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quote:
One snooty bitch from Iowa, who had escaped the corn belt to become a San Francisco sophisticate, and who had a couple of glasses of wine too many at a cocktail party, asked me, "Why don't you do something about your accent?"
"Because, unlike you, I'm not ashamed of where I'm from.*"
Reminds me of the famous riposte by Winston Churchill to a comment by Lady Astor at a dinner party at which Churchill, as usual, had drunk more than his share.
Lady Astor: "Mr. Churchill, You're drunk!"
Churchill: "Madam, I may be drunk, but you're ugly...and tomorrow I'll be sober."
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
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Date Oct. 19 2012 20:06:41
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Ruphus
Posts: 3782
Joined: Nov. 18 2010
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RE: Tell me some good news; Go west ... (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Richard Jernigan
quote:
ORIGINAL: estebanana
Sometimes I think I'm not too smart because I'll learn a really valuable lesson and then forget I learned it, turn around and do that same thing again a few months later.
I may have a slight inkling where you're coming from. I have advanced from the "explanation" that got me in serious trouble with my father more than once, "It seemed like a good idea at the time." With greater self-knowledge as an adult, more than once I have explained that, "I have a firm policy. Every once in a while I do something really stupid."
Your tale of feminine violence reminds me. At age 18 my girl was engaged to one of the Aliotos. Drunk, he tried to hit her. She attacked him with a tennis racket, causing him to fall down stairs and break a leg. End of engagement.
Some of the family still liked her, though. One Sunday morning during our early acquaintance, she said, "Let's go to Caffe Trieste."--a very popular North Beach Italian coffee shop.
"Um...how long a wait do you think we'll have, to get a table?"
"Not long."
When we showed up there was a line out the door. She went in the door with me in tow, smiled at the hostess, and made a beeline for a big table. Someone pulled up a couple of chairs. Turns out the black sheep of the Alioto family held court there every Sunday morning, gray pony tail, bulky sweater, sandals and all. He admired her for beating the crap out of his cousin.
She and I only ever had one shouting match. The verbal violence escalated so rapidly on both sides that we ended up laughing our asses off.
RNJ
I had just written a long post concerning the very same quote, and deleted it.
In a short: Unbelievable how one stands beside himself watching open-eyed blindness.
Funny how I deemed myself somehow smart when around 20! ( Laughing while typing this. )
-
My shiny Honda VFR 750 went for 1/3 it´s value. 
Had I managed to take it with me and to even obtain special permission to actually drive it over here, I would be dead by now.
What used to be constant hairy line and a number of crashes in Europe would have equalled death toll here at not yet a fraction of that speed.
The international championship in local traffic deads tells of common driving routine and road conditions already.
Ruphus
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Date Oct. 19 2012 20:35:01
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: Tell me some good news; Go west ... (in reply to estebanana)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: estebanana
Yoko Ono was from the same kind of family, but she evidently busted out.
My girl had a head start on being a non-conformist. Her mother's father was a well-known physicist who studied in America before returning to work in Japan. He made the mistake, a couple of years before Pearl Harbor, of saying publicly that if Japan attacked America, they would lose the war.
Of course the Japanese militarists could not conceive that isolationist and factional America. wracked by the social unrest of the Great Depression, could if attacked become a buzz saw of destruction overnight. Admiral Yamamoto may have been the only one of the ruling upper crust who had a premonition.
The U.S. Navy in Honolulu cracked the Japanese highest level codes. Knowing where Yamamoto would be, in 1943 the U.S. dispatched a daring raid of sixteen P-38 Lightnings to shoot down his plane. Yamamoto himself took two .50 caliber bullets, one of which killed him. At least he had the satisfaction of knowing his prediction seemed likely to come true.
My girl's grandfather did not. The militarists imprisoned him. He died in jail before it became obvious that he had prophesied correctly.
My girl's mother was the first woman to earn a PhD from Tokyo University, after the war. My girl's father was almost 20 years older than her mother. He was retired when they moved to San Francisco for her mother to follow her career as simultaneous translator. Her languages were Japanese, English, German and French. She could simultaneously translate between any two. When the President of Sumitomo Bank came to the U.S. she went to New York with him. She earned more money as a translator than I did as a consultant in the defense business.
Her mother once said to me, "I was a member of a generation that was disillusioned with Japan." All the same, my girl was raised as a proper young lady: the same school as the Empress, flower arranging, tea ceremony, calligraphy, piano and the modern addition of tennis, since the present Emperor and Empress met on the tennis court. Her mother lived through WW II and the fire bombing of Tokyo as a teenager. She nearly starved to death in the ruins.
My girl asked me before I met her mother, "Your father commanded bombers that flew out of the Marianas. Did he have anything to do with the fire bombing of Tokyo?"
"Planning and execution."
"I want you to promise me something."
"OK?"
"If my mother asks you what your father did, I want you to promise me that you will lie."
I did.
My girl spoke note perfect American English, at a great rate. She spoke good Spanish and French. As a girl she had language tutors in Japan, another non-conformity at the time. She got a masters in English literature from Berkeley. Her father died before going back to Japan. Her mother stayed in the USA.
My girl and I split up, remaining good friends, when the Cold War was over and I went to the Marshall Islands to work. She has done well in business and San Francisco real estate. She has never married.
In a phone conversation while I was at Kwajalein, she asked me if I wanted to invest in a real estate deal. They were buying an apartment building, to be sexily rehabbed and sold as condos. She said she would FAX me the prospectus and a copy of the contract.
I looked it over and called her back a week later. "Chinatown real estate?"
"Yeah."
"I thought you had to be 'one of the guys' to do Chinatown real estate?"
"Well...."
"Well what?"
"....you might say I know one of the guys."
I explained the possible implication to my security clearances to be involved with "one of the guys". I passed up the deal. She made out like a bandit, and went on from there with a variety of partners, mostly not quite so shady. She made me some money on a few other deals.
I see her every few years. She no longer needs to work, but she runs a business because she enjoys it, always challenged to figure out exactly what's going on, having to decide how to play her cards.
She once said, "Men are just boys until they're 45. Then when they're 50, they're too old." I was lucky enough to fit into the window of opportunity.
At age 50 she is still a smooth skinned Asian beauty. Last time I saw her she smiled and said, "My mother used to say I was too particular, too hard to get along with. She said I would end up a crazy old lady with a dozen cats. She was wrong. I only have two."
RNJ
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Date Oct. 20 2012 8:53:05
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