Japanese Days - Meetings in Tokyo


15/12/2007

Day before yesterday went to Shinjuka after meeting with Ulia, a relative of one of Natasha's students. Shinshuka is about ten stops up from us on the Maronouchi Line. She took us there and showed us where there was a good book shop for foreigners. There we bought several books for studying Japanese and I bought some books about Basho. Just looking at the characters and learning about them is fascinating. One thing I noticed, the character for madness or lunacy is a combination of the character for a king and a dog. This is to imply the the king is a mad dog. It reminded me of the mad king in Shakespeare's Lear and led me to wonder if there is some common archetype at work as it seems that Shakespeare was unlikely to know Japanese. I am struck by how pictorial these characters are. I knew this already but when you actually start to study them there are all kinds of echos and resonances which require a great deal of thought.
 
Yesterday met with an other woman, Tatiana who is a friend of Estelle Winters in Moscow. Sat for few hours in the hotel opposite us and talked for a while. She is married to Japanese man whom she met in Malta. Now she lives with him in Tokyo. She is a modest and friendly young woman who seems to be happy with her life in Tokyo and doesn't miss Moscow.
 
Sent Akira san an e-mail. I would like it if he would come with us to the gallery of his friend Mr Suzuki.

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