September 26, 2010

Onta Pottery Village 小鹿田焼

母の実家の近く、小鹿田の里に行ってきました。
子供の頃から何度か訪れてはいましたが、大人になるまで良さが分からなかった。前回20代後半にも訪れたのに何も買わなかった気がする。小鹿田焼自体も、この20年くらいでマーケットのニーズに合わせ、少し軽くシンプルになったのではないかな。
ここ数年、Lucy Leeの焼き物に出会ったり色々なところで焼き物を目にしたり、実際自分で陶芸をやってみたりという中で、やっぱり好きだなあと思うようになったところ。Lucyの作品にも、Bernard Leach 経由でその影響が色濃くでています。

There is a famous pottery village called "Onta" in my mother's home town.  My family visited there many times since my childhood, but I had never really understood the beauty of their products until these past few years, I used to think the style is too rustic.  It seems their style has also been adjusted to the market trend, less rustic, lighter and simpler.
I love Lucy Lee's potteries, and her work had also been largely influenced by Onta pottery, through her teacher Bernard Leach.





Taste of Autumn

















秋の味。
昨日の夜、九州から帰ってきました。
近所の町で新米を買って2kgほど貰ってきたので、今日はそれを炊いてみました。
いつものように電子レンジで炊いたものだけど、それでも十分。
まだ稲刈りをしている途中の、しかも地元でもその地区が特に美味しいと言われている、採れたてほやほやの新米。
炊いてぱらりと振りかけをかけるだけでご馳走です。
親戚の庭から、かぼすも貰ってきました。

I came back from Kyushu, the western-most island of Japan.  My mom's hometown is in northern part of it.  While I was there, I bought some just freshly cropped rice from  a nearby village.  They say that rice from that village is especially a local favorite (although you see rice fields everywhere around), and indeed, it was good.
Even with my non-fancy micro-wave rice cooker, the shine and the bounciness is different from old rice we can buy at supermarkets.  If you live in outside of Japan and if you have never tasted fresh rice, I hope one day you will!
My relatives also gave us some veggies from their fields so I brought some home.

This fruit is called Kabosu, used as lemon, but milder than lemon.



September 22, 2010

Jazz

I met 4 cool musicians at Shinagawa station taxi stand yesterday, on my way home from the airport. They invited me to ride with them (to where !? ... I politely decline because I had 4 pieces of luggage and was stinking after 14 hours of flight), then invited me to their shows this week.

Alain Brunet Quartet will be playing with Charito at Body & Soul in Aoyama this Thursday and Friday. Details are in below site (Sept 23 & 24):

  http://www.bodyandsoul.co.jp/schedule/index_e.html

This is going to be a great show, I know it! Wish I can go! But I will be in my mom's hometown on those 2 days... Uggggh!

Squam


I am back from the camp.  It was magical... It requires time to digest and write about my experience there.
More later, for I am off to Nagasaki from tomorrow.


September 11, 2010

Heaven (buried in wool...)

Ever since childhood, I have found it extremely curious that Chinese image of paradise or "afterlife place" is called 桃源郷, a place where peach flowers bloom everywhere, pink, green and red.  As you might already know, Japanese image of afterlife (in a bit ghostly way) is where cherry blossoms bloom in a faint light of the night.

Anyway, at this very moment, my personal "heaven" involves comfy couch, cool air conditioning, and knitting.  Nothing feels more heavenly than knitting with wool for autumn when it is still 35 degrees C outside.
These days I try not to knit in public, for it is really crazy just to talk about "wool" in this deadly heat.  It is the hottest summer ever, according to 85 year-old lady who was interviewed by a TV news reporter.

My recent FO (looks better and make-sense when worn by human body):

Forest and Frills
Design: tiny owl knitsOwlknits
Yarn: Mirasol Yarn Sulka  in Lime, 7 skeins
Needles: US 13 (9mm) / Hook 6mm
Started: January 2010, Finished: September 1, 2010

I know, this is exactly what I mean "crazy"... knitting this bulky yarn in summer.
These days, I am working hard to finish up all my past project, clear up my stash, so that I can move on to the new ones.

For example another work in progress is:

This is going to be a bulky simple sweater.   Knitted with tweed yarn and kid mohair.
To be very honest, I have about 7 more projects going on...



Guerre des boutons

ボタン戦争、という名前で子供たちにお裁縫を教えるグループがフランスに出現!らしいです。先日ブログにも書いた通り、フランスでは若い人がお裁縫を「独学している」状態らしい。

Somehow related to my previous posts - In France, a group called Guerre des Boutons (Buttons War - how cute!) teaches little children how to sew.  During the lessons, parents are not allowed.  As my friend told me, French youngsters are re-learning how to sew their clothes sort of on their own.


http://www.atelierguerredesboutons.fr

読書

最近、なかなか本を読み終わらないのが気になります。読み始めますが、興味が持続しません。脳の老化でしょうか?
今読んでいる本を挙げてみると。。。

華氏451 レイ・ブラッドベリ
どろぼうの神さま コーネリア・フンケ
これから正義の話をしよう マイケル・サンデス (まだ読んでる)
What the dog saw   Malcolm Gladwell  (まだ読んでる)
JavaScript  Michael Morrison
Good Enough System (上司に勧められたが進まない)

他にも読むのを諦めた本も。。。

でもついにKindle!を買ったので、Kindle版があればもう一度買ってみよう。

そう、Kindle買いました。iPadとも迷ったけど、結局既にKindle for iPhoneで読んでいるというのが決め手。iPadは高いし、Kindleは値下げされたし!これからもっと原書で読む機会が増えそうです。

Kindleが届いたら読もうと思ってセーブしているのは、
Outlier  by Malcolm Gladwell
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

David Mitchellの本は、以前装丁の素敵さに本屋さんで一目惚れして、いつか読もうと思っているもの。日本に住んでいたこともあるイギリス人の若手作家らしいです。小説の舞台は日本が多い。でも面白いのかはまだ不明。(その素敵な表紙のバージョンはもうOut of printらしい。。。)

September 10, 2010

Please Remember...

That there are more (and perhaps better?) articles in my older blog.

http://sparkles.jugem.jp/

More than 80 movies reviewed, some books reviews too.

FYI-古いブログにも記事があります。映画のレビューや、かつてはもっとビジネス書を読んでいたので、そんな話題も。 

September 03, 2010

Organize

Dear readers,
I am trying to get my blog more organized around proper labeling, and I am working on re-label all my past posts right now.  Please bare with me, for "Contents" menu on the right hand side may not properly work for a while.
Thank you for your patience!
Meri

DONE NOW!  Please navigate past contents through the "Contents" menu.

September 02, 2010

Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh

Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem









(日本語は下に)
I have seen this book mentioned here and there for quite a while, and finally picked it up from piles of books on the floor (in my room). Knew this book is great, and it truly is.

I have to confess, I did not even finish all the required math courses that were necessary to get into 4-year public universities.  (I had to be specific, because some private universities in Japan do not require math exams.)

To be honest with you, my grades in other subjects (English, Japanese, History, etc) were good enough to compensate the extremely low math scores (due to I did not even take Statistics and advanced courses).  At young an age of 17, I knew my limitations.  My best friend was (and still is) a math (and physics and chemistry) genius, who helped me realize my lack of talent.

I always need to know exactly how things work, in order to understand and make use of it.  My friends were all saying "you just have to memorize the theorem, you don't need to think or know why".  My nature is all against it... I always want to know "why".

This does not mean I had no interest in math or science, especially when it is related to history and when it helps us to see new aspects of this world.  This book, Fermat's Last Theorem, is exactly that.
I am only into 1/3 of the book, but I already feel that I should tell the world how great it is.  Please read!

P.S. After posting, I just realized that I had written nothing about the content itself.  This book is about how a great mystery of Fermat's Last Theorem attracted so many mathematicians, and how Andrew Wilds came across the mystery at the age of 10, for which he spent 30 years to solve.

色々なところで以前から見かけてきたこの本、自宅の床に積んである本の山からついに手に取りました。そもそも面白そうだから買ってあったのですが、本当に面白い!

数学の本なんか読んでいてなんですが、実は最後に数学を勉強したのは高校のとき。しかも、大学受験に必要な科目ですら履修せず(統計とか)、数学の点数の低さに友人に「志望校大丈夫?」と言われたほど。他の教科の点数がそこそこ良かったのと、「受かりさえすれば良いのだから満点を目指す必要はない!」という開き直りのもと、数学はほとんど捨てていたのでした。(でも国立大学なので受験科目。。。)*
親友が数学の天才だったのをみて、いかに自分に才能がないかを思い知っていたのも理由のひとつ。皆には「公式を覚えて組み合わせるだけなんだから、深く考える必要はない」と言われたものの、性格的に「なんでそうなるのか」が納得できないと使いこなせないのです。やっぱり向いていない。

でもだからといって、数学とか科学に全く興味がないかというと、そんなことはない!特に歴史に関係していたり、世の中に新しい光を当ててくれる、人間をより理解する助けになる、そんなものは大好き。というわけで、この本は素晴らしい。まだ1/3しか読んでいないのですが、とにかくレビューしたくなって書いてみました。
フェルマーの最終定理を証明するために、数学者たちが3世紀かけた軌跡。アンドリュー・ワイルズという数学者が10歳ときにこの問題に出会い、30年かけてついにその証明方法を世に公表した瞬間までがドキュメンタリータッチで書かれています。
是非読んでみてください!


*P.S. 国立の2次試験では事実、数学の問題のうち半分しか解きませんでした(しかも点数の低い導入部分のみ)。これが上手く行ったせいで、その後「最低点で受かる努力」が身についてしまった私。社会人になって初めて、そんなやり方が通用しないことが分かったのでした。。。やっぱり全力投球が基本です。(と、改めて自分に言い聞かせる。。。)