Relaxing in Saluda

Last week I went to Saluda, North Carolina to visit with family again, and I had the distinct pleasure of meeting the newest member of my family. The beautiful baby above was the center of everyone’s attention the whole time we spent in the mountains. The rolling blue peaks of the Appalachian mountains were a dramatic backdrop against which to relax and catch up with family & friends.

PS. On second thought, basically my entire family voted for the Athena dress and as my ‘first love’ among wedding dresses I must say I kinda agree.

Enjoying Simple Pleasures

These days have been treating me well, perhaps to make up for the Nine Week Silence. I went with friends to a beautiful organic Japanese restaurant in Koide a few days ago. It was located in a gorgeous old fashioned Japanese building, complete with a pond and traditional garden. Inside, the ambiance was amazing in every detail, and they offered things like sakura scones and imported pastas and soya. The menu sounded so delicious cover to cover that deciding was an extremely painful experience. I ended up with a Tempeh Burger, and was not a mite disappointed.

Today, my cycling buddy messaged me shortly after class and we met with our bikes to face the ‘chance of rain’ forecast. It was perfect cycling weather, except for the unusually strong winds which actually pushed us around a lot! We went to the park and explored every corner. I bought some veggies at my favorite veggie vendor, after which the two of us sat out by the pond taking in the view. Luckily, she was up for fuwa-fuwa dome after a while, and we spent half an hour or so enjoying the bizarre trampoline and laughing like children. It was very refreshing. Check out the quality of this cell phone shot from the park!

After riding around the park for a bit, we caught a bite to eat for lunch at Budou no Hana and then headed back to campus. We took a totally new route neither of us had explored before, and found an enormous and beautiful old sakura tree, as well as a whole huge line of younger trees planted not 15 minutes from campus. They were all in bloom, and looked amazing against the still snow-capped mountains.

I think after today we have a pact to go to the park at least once a week. I’m looking forward to next time already.

Art of Living @ IUJ

Thanks to the efforts of Stas, an Art of Living volunteer named Babeeta  came to IUJ from Minakami and gave a two hour workshop. It was such a treat. She was a bright light on a grey snowy day. She led us through some stretching, some massage, a few light hearted loosening up exercises, as well as some sun salutations and breathing exercises.

We counted through half a dozen sun salutations in as many languages. We did yoga, we danced like children, breathed deeply, and enjoyed a solid ten minutes of laughing on the floor. We were reminded of some important things to bear in mind, such as the value of remembering to live in the moment rather than allowing your mind to always dwell in the regrets of the past and the concerns of the future. This can provide great support for your level of happiness, and do wonders to widen your smile.

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop, but unfortunately had to leave a bit early in order to go for some library training. I’m so glad we’ve been having such great events on campus lately.

A huge thank you to Stas and to Babeeta, for making Sunday a wonderful day!

Eating out on a weeknight

Today after my class finished some friends invited me out to Koide to try an Italian restaurant. Eating out on a weeknight, what a treat! The restaurant was lovely, charming, and almost painfully japanese. They did have an Italian menu, but they also had Naan-pi (pizza on naan), curry (japanese and ‘indian’), japanese オムライス (omelette rice), and pastas with seaweed and other japanese vegetables. We ordered so many nice things, and then topped if off with desert in the form of very nice varieties of soft serve ice cream (no one tried the creamed corn ice cream though!  haha, maybe next time).