As we close in on my 1.8 billion seconds on this planet, we have just passed my 56th rotation around the sun. This may seem like a strange way to describe my time here, but maybe I need to have an excuse to justify being something different after now.
I hope you won’t mind or block my desire to change.
Returned to the living
welcome to the reboot of this blog after much time regrowing. I hope you will find expression of energy here worthy of you visit.
This is a test post aimed at a site I own
It begins here and goes all the way down the rabbit hole.
A New Direction
Life continues to evolve in a steady and predictable rate. Every day I can only attend to and adjust a small number of events, practices and patterns. I am constrained by time and energy from doing more. The recognition of meaningful change is really reflective pattern analysis. It is only through this process that I notice that I am say … less stressed, healthier or more emotional (to name just a few of dozens of quick disparate possible observations).
I therefore, today, notice that I am making a choice to be simpler, more are of my patterns and ready to start consistent changes BASED of reflection.
Here goes something …
Folkian Tour
I took a trip an hour west of Sendai yesterday to a beautiful city called Yamagata. Yamagata is known for it’s great skiing and mountain spas… and a cool little bar called J’s Bar.
With the invitation of Jason, an English teacher, I met the owner Johnny and partook of an amazing musical experience. There is a bunch of guys from a town in the South that have completely embraced Ghanain drumming. They are called Folkian and they put on a great show. Here are a couple of pics and a link to a youtube video. What a great time. I also had the good fortune to meet a local resident, named Snowman, who is a ski nut. He has invited me back to Yamagata for some serious powder skiing once the snow flies. Yes!
Yamadera Buddhist Temple
Today I traveled about an hour from Sendai to visit an ancient Buddhist temple called Yamadera. It was built about 1200 yrs ago and is a tourist and devout mecca in this area.
Here are some of the things I experienced.
I also have a little video of what I experienced.
It is said that for every step you climb the mountain you are one step closer to enlightenment. Judging from my aching feet I am feeling pretty “Enlightened” tonight :>P
TIS Wordle Word Cloud
Shrine
We went for a bit of a drive to a Buddhist shrine
and caught a view of the Tohoku school from a distance.
Looking-northeast-to-sendai-center 
Tohoku School There was an access point to a set of wilderness trails just before the temple entrance.
- Trail Map
Signatures = Hanko
In Japan, signatures that are used on official documents are made with small stamps with a unique set of Japanese characters representing your name. Officials spent a great deal of time and trouble getting the phonics of my name just right – “Jee” + “Ry” + “Ko”.
Video of where I live
Here is a little tour of where I live and work in Japan.
The Uncarved Block 