Snow Storm in Cambridge, MA, Jan. 2005

The morning after a huge storm in Cambridge -- all the cars on Ware St.
were buried under white snow. I was living in the apartment on the right.


In January 2005,
we had a heavy
snow storm in
Boston. These
are old photos
from my
computer.






In the storm evening, three silly researchers decided to see a movie
at the Kendall Cinema. They were trying to get there on foot from
the T station. Someone on the way to the theatre kindly told them
that the theatre was shut down for the storm. They headed back
to the Square and went to the Border Cafe for drinks. It was a fun night!

Winter Colors

Although this is not exactly
the season for colorful flowers,
I found some on my way to
a grocery store. Here are
winter colors in our
neighoborhood.

Nandin (right)

Winter Camelia in our condo garden

Ornamental kale (Habotan)













Golden Daisy
Some exotic species in front of
the Kinokuniya Grocery Store

Bill Corbett Poetry Reading, Jan. 24

Bill Corbett, a poet from Boston, held a poetry reading session with us.
He is a big Red Sox fan -- especially Nomar Garciaparra. It was nice
listening to him talking about Nomar. I believe Nomar was one of
the most beautiful ball players when he was with the Red Sox. I cannot
forget about the excitements to have seen Nomar playing at Fenway --
He had that repeated ritual of saying a short prayer, touching his gloves
and hands to fix all the small eqipments around his body until he became
ready to hit physically and emotionally. We coudn't take our eyes off
from him all these moments. Although he was sent away to Chicago before
the team won the World Series in 2004, I think, his contribution to the
Red Sox was great having poured certain spirituality and discipline into
the team.

Bill's poetry reading session was wonderful introducing not only his
poems but others by Elizabeth Bishop, James Schuyler, Gary Snyder,
and Philip Whalen. His voice carried us from New England to New York,
to Europe, and to Asia in our imagination. Poets can take us into
different spaces and spheres instantly with their magical power of
languages.

Bill answering questions from some participants after the reading session.

Lunch at Aux Bacchanales, Kioicho

They are leaving grad school soon. We had a nice luncheon after the
last seminar at Aux Bacchanales.

First Snow in the Winter of 07-08

The photo probably looks more like rain than snow for
the Northerners, but we actually had the first flurry of this
winter today. Three students showed up late to my second
period class for the Tobu line had some delays. Other
than that there wasn't much happened for this snow.
The weather reminded me of a New England early spring day.

Tom's beautiful book from New England

A beautiful gift came from Maine. Tom's first book Wallace Nutting and
the Invention of Old America (Yale UP) arrived from the U.S. I am so
proud of my friend who wrote such a beautiful art-history book!

Komaba on Tuesday, Jan 22

I go to Komaba quite often these days. . . .
Komaba Faculty House

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd. . . .

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd
And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night,
I mourn'd, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
(Walt Whitman)

No lilacs but pink and white plum flowers are blooming now in Tokyo.
We bade goodbye to Prof. S at Shinanomachi Church on Monday, Jan. 21.
Hundreds people came to say goodbye to him.

The last time I saw him was in the summer of 2006 at a French restaurant
in Seijo where we celebrated the publication of our book, The Separation
of Church and State: Its English Origin and the American Develpment.
He was a magnetic center of our study group with his gentle and sincere smile.

Good-luck Shopping Day, January 2, 2008

January the second is the first day for shopping of a new year.
Many stores put their "good-luck" packages (Fukubukuro) for
special sales. So, we went to Ginza searching for our good luck
for the year 2008. To purchase these packages, you need to pay
in cash although recently increasing numerbs of business
transactions are processed with plastics here just like any other
industrialized parts of the world.
In spite of recent openings of European fashion houses such as
Armani, Burgari, Hermes and so on, Ginza still keeps certain
traditional flair of Japanese businesses since the Edo period.
That is the charm of this commercial area.
Ginza 4-chome attracts many shoppers.

Mom and Yukimi in front of the Mikimoto's New Year display.

From the second floor of Mitsukoshi: On the left, with small oval lights on
the front wall is the Armani building just made its debutante at Ginza in
the fall of 2007.