non-doing

This is my new book, Shinaikoto, or Non-Doing for Slow Life.

Wishing 2010 be a good year for all.

Sotdae for the new year

May 2010 be a slow, joyful and peaceful year for all.

A few years ago while walking around the Insadong area of Seoul, I found the the poem below on a T-shirt.
3 weeks ago my friends Yoshioka, owner of Cafe Slow, and Kim Namhee, travel writer, found a real Sotdae in an antique store in Seoul brought it back to Japan. It will be placed at Cafe Slow on the first day of operation in the new year.


SKY-BIRD

I am a bird. When I fold my tired wings and rest with my fest on the branch, the cosmic tree rooted in the earth gets solace from my messages. My messages are not always full of hope, only because words from heaven are fair and strict. However bad the news might be, however, they cannot be worse than the torturing darkness, unavoidable fate of those without wings. I am the prophet who delivers the sounds of the heaven, the earth, and under. I am the heavenly bird, SOTDAE.


(also on the same T-shirt)
SOTDAE is a bird image mounted high on top of a long stick. It is an artifact made of wood. This simple and clear image, however, manifests the deep understanding of the universe of Korean people. SOTDAE symbolizes the faith in heaven by combining the cosmic tree and the sky bird. It is an excellent art that drove the human imagination to its maximum while removing all redundant explanations.

Partying with Mika's spirit

What a party!
100 friends gathered at Cafe Slow to celebrate Mika’s exhbition, “Hana-tachi no Natsukashii Ashita (The Flowers and their Nostalgic Tomorrow)”

Musicians dedicating their music were internationally well-known classical musicians Seppo Kimanen and Yoshiko Arai, jazz pianist Ritsuco Endo, and vocalist Fuyuta Matsuya. We showed a video message and song by singer Shigeko Suzuki, as well as parts of the recently completed film Kotsunagi, about the history of the dispute over traditional common lands in Iwate Prefecture. My friend Misago Chizuru, writer and Tsuda Juku University professor of public health, also spoke. My elder brother, the architect Goichi Oiwa, co-hosted the party with me.
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Mika's Art Show

This Sunday evening will be the opening of my mother’s art, at Cafe Slow in Kokubunji, Tokyo. The show will be up from July 3-12, so please stop by.

From Finland to the rice fields

The Japan-Finland Slow Life Seminar, “Time, Technology, and Well-Being” finished on a great note. The last day at Meiji Gakuin Shirokane Campus featured keynote speeches by Timo Airlaksinen and Heta Gyulling from the Philosophy department of the University of Helsinki. In the evening session, between the two wrap-up sessions we were lucky to have a mini-concert by internationally renowned musicians Seppo Kimanen and Yoshiko Arai, founders of the Siberius Quartet.

I was pretty tired after all these events. Still, this morning I joined my students at Maioka Nature Park in Totsuka. We transplanted rice seedlings into the tambo, or rice fields. Now, I am refreshed.