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2022 at 555
A month-by-month retrospective summary in photos and notes. January While waiting for Teramoto-san to finalise the drawings and hand over to Sasaki-san, Tod & I laid out a temporary boundary to see where the house should be placed. It was an interesting exercise. We made a lot of decisions that day which I used months…
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Compose 2023
My word for 2023 is Compose. Some years I struggle to find the right word. I spend time with the dictionary and thesaurus. I get close, but it takes some effort to narrow down to the right word. But this year, it just appeared in my head and here we are. Compose will guide me…
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Christmas 2022
Although I did a lot of baking with a new cookie press over the course of the month, the rest of Christmas season was pretty indifferent. On the day itself, after opening gifts from family in the morning, we took Christmas lunch over to our friends’ minka and had a feast of steak with sauteed…
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Yoga fitness test
Do you keep track of your physical status? Many of us track our steps with a smartwatch or use an app to log weight, heart rate, and other vitals. But do you also track your flexibility, balance, and endurance? They are just as important especially as we grow older. My yoga class is mainly middle-aged…
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Bankiya-san
The bankiya-san is our roofer. I have no idea what his name is and I will probably never learn it because I will refer to him by his job role. This is commonly done for tradesmen, and so a lot of the people who will work on 555 will be nameless. It is highly convenient…
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1000 days
Today marked 1000 days in a row of Satoyama Yoga’s online class. It has been a pleasure to lead this class every day. Without it, I certainly would not have a regular daily practice for myself. It’s hard to digest everything that’s happened in this time, but these statements are true: Personally, I taught through…
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NFI, a new project
I am sick and tired of NFTs on the blockchain: digital baseball cards, apes, and real-world objects that you “own” but don’t actually own. So let’s get real. I mean really REAL. Jump on my bandwagon and invest in an NFI – Non Fake Item. This is a grab bag selection of my art and…
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Roofline
555 has a hip-and gable roof. In Japanese the style is called irimoya 入母屋 and it’s mostly used for temples, castles, public buildings, and as one source says “rich peoples’ houses.” And now our house, too. Our irimoya has an extra special architectural twist: the gable ends are windows. It is a complex roof design…
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Jotoshiki, the ceremony
Not everyone has a jotoshiki ceremony when they build their house. However, I’m all for ritual and for blending Japanese tradition with my own creative take. I’ll grasp at any excuse to honor the gods and have a party, especially when it is personally significant and memorable. But this exceeded my expectations. In fact, it…
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Jotoshiki, the afternoon
After lunch it seemed like the work slowed down, but really the work got harder and fussier. Putting in all the rafters was risky in the height above the first floor. Everyone was on scaffolds made of ladders and planks balanced on boards placed across the gaps in the ceiling joists. They were wielding power…
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