Catrien Ross on Blasting Mount Fuji to Bits – Does Live-Fire Artillery Count As a Spiritual Distraction?

Friday, March 5th, 2010 - 62 Comments

Dear Reader-Friends:

As I write this blog post, live-fire artillery is blasting Mount Fuji to bits.

Rocket bursts explode the calm of this early March morning.

Even at more than 30 kilometers distance, the earth here shudders.

Windows in my mountain minka rattle.

Blasts reverberate through its ancient beams.

The eyes of my dogs and cats reflect alarm, but they no longer express terror as they once did.

Like me, they have grown accustomed to this frequent disruption of country life rhythms.

For the fifteen years we have lived here, every year, several months a year, the cultural symbol of Japan, revered as Fuji-san, has been blasting to bits in our ears.

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Catrien Ross on How Judging Your Day Creates Your Experience – Tao Insights From Mount Fuji

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 - 16 Comments

Looking over Lake Kawaguchi towards Mount Fuji I recall the ancient Tao insight on how to experience life:

Only when you stop liking and disliking
Will all be clearly understood.

When I suspend judgement of good versus bad in whatever happens to me or around me, suddenly I perceive the world through fresh eyes.

Which is much easier said than done.

How many judgements have you made today since you got up?

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Catrien Ross on Joining the Blogosphere in Japan

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 - 2 Comments

In my last post I wrote about how being illiterate in Japanese helped me
develop communication through empathy.

Now that I have begun blogging in Japan I find myself navigating a medium the Japanese have uniquely interpreted.

The biggest and the most active blogging culture on Earth exists right here in Japan.

Worldwide, English speakers outnumber Japanese speakers by more than 5:1.

But a greater number of blog postings are now written in Japanese than in English.

The Japanese also read more blogs, more often, than anyone anywhere else.

Japanese has become the language of the global blogosphere.

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Catrien Ross on Developing Communication Through Empathy in Japan

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 - 8 Comments

Being illiterate in a foreign country works wonders for character building.

For one thing, you become very, very humble.

Any image of yourself as an articulate adult crumples under the fact that:

  • You don’t read the language.
  • You can’t follow a normal conversation.
  • You are unable even to speak at toddler level.
  • You are a lost ignoramus, and everyone you meet confirms it.

But if you survive your loss of identity and embrace your helplessness, intriguing aspects emerge:

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Catrien Ross on Planning a Halloween Press Launch in Japan

Saturday, October 31st, 2009 - No Comments

Books are on hand and our press launch is set for Halloween.

Actually, Halloween going on Christmas.

Alongside witches’ hats and plastic pumpkins, fake snow and Santa Claus giftwrapping festoon shop shelves.

Japanese stores don’t waste a moment’s opportunity.

The Halloween hodgepodge includes bats, broomsticks, spiders, Casper the Friendly Ghost, vampires, gravestones, and haunted houses.

Skeletons, too.

A spooky cultural mix that couples skull and crossbones with Day of the Dead trinkets.
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