Spoiler alert
Being confined to my bed with a stomach virus, I took a break from Embracing Defeat to enjoy Gail Tsukiyama's The Samurai's Garden. This is a coming-of-age story of 20-year-old Stephen, a Chinese boy whose grandfather's summer home is in Tarumi. Stephen's family has him recuperate from tuberculosis in 1937 there with longtime family servant, Matsu.
Through Matsu, a longtime servant to Stephen's family who first came to Stephen's grandfather's beach home in his youth, Stephen is introduced to Sachi, a beautiful Japanese woman who lives in a leper community in Yamaguchi. Stephen learns of the pain that these people have been through. Matsu's younger sister Tomoko, also contracted leprosy but she committed suicide as a young girl a long time ago. Even though this happened long, long ago Matsu is still suffering from her loss. Sachi's family wanted her to kill herself for the honor of the family, but she could not. At one point Matsu told her: "It takes greater courage to live."
The theme of this book is beauty -- the understanding that true beauty is not what appears on the surface, but what lies beneath -- in a person's heart. Sachi and Tomoko are physical beauties -- thin, young, gorgeous pale skin and faces -- popular in their village with the young men. Then leprosy takes their physical beauty away. To Tomoko this loss of physical beauty means she cannot bare to exist. Her brother comes to her and offers to help, but she won't listen. He refuses to procure her father's fishing knife, as she request him to do for her. The disease propels her to take her father's fishing knife, which she is forbidden to touch, let alone hold or use. She walks into the ocean with this knife and never returns from the sea. Meanwhile, Sachi, as a young girl, is in a similar place. She is a silly girl who equates people's worth with their physical beauty. She admits to Stephen that she did not allow herself to know Matsu in their youth. It's only after he comes to her rescue again and again that she realizes what a beautiful human being he is.
Piece by piece Stephen learns about Matsu's, Sachi's, and Tomoko's past -- along with Kenzo, Matsu's friend who owns a tea house in the village of Tarumi. He sees how nature feeds the souls of both Sachi and Matsu and he learns the valuable lesson from Sachi that true beauty is the beauty that lives within.
Meanwhile, Stephen is learning his own life is not all that idyllic. He meets Keiko, a beautiful Japanese girl his own age, but she can no longer see him because of her father's hatred of the Chinese -- especially after her older brother is killed fighting for the Imperial Army. He learns from his mother that his father is living in Kobe with another woman. When he approaches his father about this letter, his father admits that he has been with this woman for 12 years. Stephen longs for the simple existence of his youth.
The end of the novel in late October 1938 sends him back to his life in Hong Kong -- it's a life that's filled with uncertainty with his parents' marriage unraveling and the Japanese continuing their crushing defeat of China. I'm eager to read Tsukiyama's "Women of the Silk."
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Haiku
National Geographic article on 1600 haiku poet http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/bashos-trail/howard-norman-text/1 -- see if you can borrow books from UVM or another source.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Jiro dreams of sushi
A glimpse into life in Japan through a famous chef and his sons. Jiro is a famous sushi maker. He is 85 at the time of the film. I am wondering if he is still living. In the film, he no longer goes to the fish market -- relegating that task to his oldest son, who will take over the restaurant when his father retires.
It's interesting the attention to detail paid at the restaurant. At one point Jiro is joking with his customers about being left handed and how he tries to take notice when a customer is left handed and make the dining experience easier. He speaks about how he gives men larger pieces and women smaller pieces so they will finish the course at about the same time.
At least one of Jiro's workers mentioned how nervous he was about eating in Jiro's restaurant and the journalist who is conducting the interview mentions the same thing.
Interestingly, the younger son has his own restaurant and is thriving. The journalist mentions how difficult it will be for Jiro's son when he takes over the restaurant.
Clearly, this is a tight-knit family with high expectations for father and sons. I wondered, too, about the boys' mother. One of the sons mentioned that he told his mother that a stranger was sleeping in their house -- one rare occasion that Jiro was at home while the child was awake. Other than that there was no mention of Jiro's wife.
I loved seeing father and son visit the graves of the ancestors and watering the flowers on the graves. I also loved hearing the stories about Jiro's youth when he was a bit of a prankster and troublemaker. I understood his quandary in whether he should share that information with youngsters when he visits schools.
This film is 50 minutes or so. Preview to make sure it's appropriate for your students. Available on Netflicks.
It's interesting the attention to detail paid at the restaurant. At one point Jiro is joking with his customers about being left handed and how he tries to take notice when a customer is left handed and make the dining experience easier. He speaks about how he gives men larger pieces and women smaller pieces so they will finish the course at about the same time.
At least one of Jiro's workers mentioned how nervous he was about eating in Jiro's restaurant and the journalist who is conducting the interview mentions the same thing.
Interestingly, the younger son has his own restaurant and is thriving. The journalist mentions how difficult it will be for Jiro's son when he takes over the restaurant.
Clearly, this is a tight-knit family with high expectations for father and sons. I wondered, too, about the boys' mother. One of the sons mentioned that he told his mother that a stranger was sleeping in their house -- one rare occasion that Jiro was at home while the child was awake. Other than that there was no mention of Jiro's wife.
I loved seeing father and son visit the graves of the ancestors and watering the flowers on the graves. I also loved hearing the stories about Jiro's youth when he was a bit of a prankster and troublemaker. I understood his quandary in whether he should share that information with youngsters when he visits schools.
This film is 50 minutes or so. Preview to make sure it's appropriate for your students. Available on Netflicks.
Pray for Japan
I just watched an amazing documentary titled "Pray for Japan," which interviews folks who lost family members and their homes in the 2011 tsunami. More than 20,000 lives were lost in the earthquake and tsunami. The volunteer effort in the aftermath was nothing short of epic.
The film does a wonderful job showing people of all walks of life who traveled to the devastated parts of Japan to help in the cleanup. Several parts of the film focus on two Pakistani men who make food for the victims of the tsunami. Another focus is a school that wrapped up for the year merely hours before the tsunami hit. Amazingly, every one of the children of the school were accounted for. The principal and the art teacher speak about sifting through the wreckage in hopes of finding anything to salvage. The art teacher finds several pieces of rock used for etching that she hopes her students will use to make art which will in turn survive the next tsunami.
Clips at the beginning of the movie highlight the devastating waves that hit the shoreline and swept away boats, cars and unsuspecting people. One young man who plays in a band spoke of losing his mother, both grandparents and his little brother, who was five years old. His home was utter destruction. His family had piled into their car hoping to escape the storm when they were caught in a traffic jam and then swept out to sea.
Certainly there is heartbreak in this film; however, what resonated most with me was the hopefulness of this people and of the people who traveled from across the globe to help. People in one shelter existed for three days without a drop of water. One gentleman explained how he waited to distribute food until fair portions could be given to everyone. Despite these conditions, people survived.
The film does a wonderful job showing people of all walks of life who traveled to the devastated parts of Japan to help in the cleanup. Several parts of the film focus on two Pakistani men who make food for the victims of the tsunami. Another focus is a school that wrapped up for the year merely hours before the tsunami hit. Amazingly, every one of the children of the school were accounted for. The principal and the art teacher speak about sifting through the wreckage in hopes of finding anything to salvage. The art teacher finds several pieces of rock used for etching that she hopes her students will use to make art which will in turn survive the next tsunami.
Clips at the beginning of the movie highlight the devastating waves that hit the shoreline and swept away boats, cars and unsuspecting people. One young man who plays in a band spoke of losing his mother, both grandparents and his little brother, who was five years old. His home was utter destruction. His family had piled into their car hoping to escape the storm when they were caught in a traffic jam and then swept out to sea.
Certainly there is heartbreak in this film; however, what resonated most with me was the hopefulness of this people and of the people who traveled from across the globe to help. People in one shelter existed for three days without a drop of water. One gentleman explained how he waited to distribute food until fair portions could be given to everyone. Despite these conditions, people survived.
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