When the Going Gets Tough, the Weak Get Going…to Singapore and Thailand

So I guess the truth is, I am not tough. Along with much of the rest of the expat community, I am leaving (fleeing?), ostensibly just early spring break, as school is now closed this week as power and train service is unclear. I shrug and tell myself next week was spring break anyway, but still I feel guilty to be going. There has been so much panic mongering (I don’t think I will ever be able to trust CNN again after watching their coverage), and I don’t want to join that train, but nonetheless, I can’t seem to keep myself off it. Unfortunately, my husband is staying behind to work. The constantly difficult piece of my expat life is being so often separated from him, but as soon as I find myself getting lachrymose, I just think of the suffering being endured by so many here in Japan and I get my perspective back. We are so lucky to be headed out to vacation!

I’ll be blogging on the road (the Mac seems to have come back to life after drying out), bringing you art and antiques from Singapore and Thailand. I need something to get my mind off the situation at home! I have also been featured on an Ocean Grove blog called Blogfinger. The writer of the blog, Paul Goldfinger contacted me for more information about our experience here in Japan and wrote an article about us. Check it out here if you are interested.

I just wanted to remind everyone of options for donations towards relief and rebuilding. Here’s a great link with information on multiple agencies working to help.

Thank you all again for your wishes, comments and prayers on our behalf. And to make you smile, here is a photo of the Japanese Self Defense Force rescuing a 4 month old baby!

Mar 15, 2011 By tokyojinja in Earthquake, Expat Life, Textiles Tags: antiques, earthquake, Japan, Japan earthquake

Shattered Glass…A Small Tribute to the Work of Kimiake and Shin-ichi Higuchi

“Because of the great earthquake, his house, studio, and storage house were devastated:

the pillars of the house were snapped, all window panes were smashed.

on the floor in the studio, all colors of frits were scattered.

the heavy kilns moved unbelievably away.

To my sorrow, it seemed like all of their glass works in the storage house were damaged.”

-Keiko, friend of Kimiake and Shin-ichi Higuchi

This is just one small story of many in the aftermath of the great Japan earthquake of March 11, 2011. Kimiake and Shin-ichi Higuchi are masters of the art glass technique known as Pâte de Verre, in which glass powder is packed into a mold and then fired in the kiln. Glass Art Magazine has said “many see Kimiake and Shin-ichi Higuchi as the King and Queen of Pâte de Verre. Their work in this medium possesses luster, translucency and shine that seems unfathomable.” Both artists are fine after the quake, but their studio, home and much of their work has been destroyed.

The Higuchis are both inspired by items from nature. Kimiake often works with flowers or vegetables she grows herself in her extraordinary gardens and creates works of such startling clarity and color one can almost believe they are real. “I pick each bloom or leaf in the moment of its prime, and in my hands the plants become glass.”

Shin-ichi uses insects as a common theme in his work to express his concern for the environment and the loss of so many small creatures. “In our civilization, human ego is destroying so much of nature,” he explains, “Some of the most victimized are the smallest creatures. My pieces convey a warning about the insects and also my feelings about their loss.” I love how modern and yet quintessentially Japanese the honeycomb pattern is on his mosaic Bees Casket in the collection of the Corning Museum of Glass, where they had planned to do their annual workshop this summer. Unfortunately, it looks as if this will have to be cancelled.

Photo credits: 1. via GlassFacts.info, 2 & 3. via Corning Museum of Glass

Mar 15, 2011 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight, Earthquake, Glass Tags: earthquake, glass, Japan, Japan earthquake, Kimiake Higuchi, Pate de Verre, Shin-Ichi Higuchi

The Porcelain is Alright (Kids Too)…My Tale of the Big Japan Earthquake

Humour might not be appropriate right now, but sometimes it is all you’ve got. As I type this, another aftershock reverberates through the house, smaller that the 30 or so full-sized earthquake ones that continued yesterday afternoon and evening in the wake of the 8.9 epic earthquake off the coast of Sendai. I feel like I am in limbo. All here in Tokyo is well with my family and friends, but not so up along the north coast of Japan.

My personal experience was terrifying. When you have lived here as long as I have (almost 7 years now), you have experienced many earthquakes. They are always scary, but this one was different. All of my family was scattered, fairly far and wide. I had made a spur of the moment decision, about 40 minutes before the quake, to drive to the mall at Odaiba, an American style mall with a Toy “R” Us built on a small landfill island in Tokyo Bay. My cellphone battery was low so I didn’t call to tell anyone where I was going. I parked up on the 5th floor of the parking structure and went inside. Just as I got there, people began streaming out of the store, clutching their children. At first I thought something crazy was happening inside, but then quickly realized my mistake. We all fled from the building out to the roadway along the small beach while the quake finished. The ground shook so I could barely stand up or keep my balance. I felt that the sidewalk beneath my feet was made of shifting sand. As the daughter of a water/ground systems/structural engineer and I know that man-made land can basically liquefy in an earthquake. During the great Kobe earthquake of 1995, the landfill islands around Kobe sunk. And the noise! Everything even sightly unsecured joined in the cacaphony…

After the first earthquake, waves of others began coming. And then the tsunami alarms went off, advising people to seek higher ground. Well, there simply is no higher ground in Obaiba – it is about a mile square – surrounded by water on all sides. I did not know yet that the epicenter was in Sendai, I just knew that I was on the flattest, most vulnerable piece of land in all of Tokyo and that nobody knew I was there! I don’t know why dying alone seems so much scarier than dying with the people you love around you, but it does. Odaiba is linked by a giant suspension bridge (think Verrazano or Golden Gate) to the mainland and I could see that cars were still moving briskly across it. I couldn’t bear to stay where I was. They were not prohibiting people from re-entering the building, simply from using the elevators, so I ran up the five flights of stairs and tore down the ramp of the garage. I had met a Canadian man and his Japanese girlfriend while waiting and they wanted to go with me, so they jumped in the car and we drove across the bridge. Once we were on the other side, it was not even 10 minutes to home and I could have walked if necessary. I think if I had not left so quickly, I would have been stuck there all night!

Gathering my chicks was the next step, although I had been sustained through my ordeal by knowing they were in safer places than I. While cell phones were not working at all, the land lines at home were and I was finally able to speak with my husband, safe on the still swaying 25th floor of the brand new Marunouchi Trust Building. All new construction in Tokyo is built on rollers so that the buildings can move with an earthquake. My husband said looking out the window he could see all the buildings swaying, like trees in the wind. My younger daughter was on a playdate with a friend in the park when it happened and they quickly went home. But my older daughter was out at school, normally a 45 minute ride on the school bus. The quake had hit about 15 minutes before dismissal, and the school’s excellent emergency procedures clicked quickly into place. Around 4:30 they sent the buses out, driving on local roads, as the highways were all closed. The traffic was basically at a standstill and she did not get home until after 12:30, exhausted, but in good spirits.

Our damage at home was minimal. The fish tank overflowed everywhere, trashing my new Mac laptop, but worse (in the eyes of the children at least), sweeping our newest family member, the rainbow guppie named WW by our guests last week, to an early demise. Things were thrown around the house and quite a few regular dishes and glasses broke in the cupboards, but not a single piece of antique porcelain was broken. My beloved blanc de chine was toppled and tossed about, but is all intact.

Blue and white porcelain rattled to the edge, but did not go over…

For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, you know it is a blog about stuff, and while it may seem silly to write about material goods which are not intrinsically important, they do bind us to our own histories and lives. I would have been crushed had the porcelain all been broken instead of the computer, although that having been said, a computer can contain an irreplaceable history of photographs and correspondence. In my case, it was new and relatively unused. For those most affected by the quake and tsunami, the loss of their belongings and connections must be devastating, even while they are grateful for their lives, as not all were so lucky. In that spirit, I encourage everyone to make a donation towards rebuilding. An easy way is to go online to the Red Cross and donate directly to the International Disaster Relief Fund. Personally, I am so thankful for the wishes and prayers that have poured in from friends, family and readers all over.

Ironically, devastation is not limited to big events like these. While we are fine here, the very same day there was a huge fire up the street from us in our beloved beach town Ocean Grove, where we have been renovating and furnishing an 1880s Victorian that I have been chronicling on the blog. Our dearest friends there have lost their home, as have numerous others.

So my rebuilding efforts and my heart are split in two directions…

Photo of fire in Ocean Grove from Asbury Park Press, photo credit: James J. Connolly.

Mar 12, 2011 By tokyojinja in Earthquake, Expat Life, Kids, Porcelain and Pottery Tags: antiques, earthquake, Japan, Japan earthquake

Nogizaka…A Good Place to Start

Although it has dwindled in size over the last few years, you will usually still find me at the Nogi shrine sale on the second Sunday of the month. Started in 1976 (more or less) and considered to be the oldest shrine sale in the Kanto region, it still has some excellent dealers, although nowhere near the 40 that guidebooks list. I imagine they get a lot of gaijin (foreigners) as it is one of the most conveniently located sales. I know I often bump into friends. And it was the first sale I ever attended when I moved here 6 years ago.

Today there were 11 dealers – the usual suspects – plus an obi/textile dealer I had not seen there before. The merchandise all felt high end, as it generally does there, or perhaps it was just fresh to my eye as I have been gone all summer. Here are some photos of the goodies…

There was a dealer there this morning whom I had seen before but never really stopped to examine her wares. She specializes in ephemera and has the usual prints and postcards, which tend to be romanticized images of old Japan and copies of ukiyo-e. Today she had an extraordinary collection of matchbook covers from the 1920s and 30s, all carefully mounted in album pages by the original collector. I was smitten by them all, but limited myself to just a few sheets, which I plan on framing. Each matchbook cover is in itself an individual work of art, complete in just 2″x1″, but grouped together they were something more. The Taisho era between the World Wars was a time in which the trappings of modernity were truly embraced, much in the way they were in the West. Advertising of the era shows the changes in society – cafe culture, women’s liberation and female buying power, rise of the middle class, etc.

Isetan Department Store (the 2 on bottom right) is like the Saks Fifth Avenue of Japan.

These were grouped by design – one page all momiji (maple leaves) and the other gourds.

The stylized figures and art deco colors of the Nozawaya Department store cover overlayed with a traditional style Japanese seal is a great example of advertising art from the era (upper right corner).