This past weekend, Jim and I took a break from the on-going tumult that has been our lives and went to Aki Matsuri, the Fall Festival hosted by the New Mexico Japanese-American Citizens League.
In the course of our several hour visit we walked around a lot, and visited various displays. We talked with the bonsai growers, and chatted with a young man who does both digital art and traditional ink brush painting. We sampled matcha (a frothed green tea), served after eating a citrus candy (sort of like a fruit gummi) “because matcha is bitter.” We admired the ikebana, and got into a discussion of how combining roses and chrysanthemums gives a very New Mexico twist to an autumn arrangement.
In one of the display areas, a potter paused in spinning clay to encourage me to give yet one more try to folding an origami crane, assuring me that the person doing the demonstration was very good. I knelt down on the floor and did my best with a square of purple paper. It’s certainly not the best crane ever, but what will stay with me is the memory of the kindness of my sensei, as well as of how the potter, and the woman demonstrating tea ceremony, cheered us through fold after fold.
We also sat down and watched first a display of taiko drumming, then four Okinawan dances, then, finally, a cosplay exhibition. These three demonstrations, so different from each other, were not only fascinating in themselves, but a vivid reminder of how much there is not only to Japanese culture, but to any culture.
I also did something very important for me as a writer. By going to the festival and doing things I don’t usually do (including trying to fold that darn crane), I kept my creative brain from stiffening up. It felt good to mentally stretch. Almost without my willing it, I could feel new ways of looking at things taking shape.
Some of these will show up on the page almost immediately. Others may shift around and take months, even years, to find their way into print.
And, y’know, I even feel encouraged to try folding another crane.
Jane Lindskold: Wednesday Wanderings 
September 28, 2022 at 7:25 am |
This sounds so relaxing. I wish I could take a trip like this one day. This is my kind of thing, different from usual parties where loud music is being played, and people are screaming madly, while I struggle to process everything like a computer which has just ran out of memory.
September 28, 2022 at 7:59 am |
It was very nice. Just local.
September 30, 2022 at 11:20 pm |
it sounds to me that you and Jim really needed some time away to regain your sense of “self”. Okinawan dancing is very interesting, and it is somewhat different from Japanese or Chinese. I lived on Okinawa for a couple of years, but that was over 50 years ago, so my memories of those days are somewhat vague.
October 4, 2022 at 9:22 am |
Not too far away… Just across town, but it’s terrific what one can find. Very neat that you lived in Okinawa!
November 2, 2022 at 9:47 pm |
We weren’t able to go due to prior commitments, but a friend was manning a boot there that we would’ve liked to help at. Glad it went well for you.