Happy New Year 2009

A young Japanese kite flier playing in a park in Fuji City on New Year’s Day.

Coming Attractions:
            Vicki L. Beyer             

           25 January 2009

Vicki L. Beyer will answer the question “Why stop at the Great Buddha?” during her  talk about the sights of Kamakura. To attend her talk, please buy a copy of 10 Temples on 2 Wheels from Good Day Books.

Robert Moreau dropped in to play a short piece on his mandolin.

BOOKCLUBS

On 18 January, our BookClub members will discuss The Crisis of Islam by Bernard Lewis.

On 08 February, members of our Non-Native English Speakers’ BookClub will discuss Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway.

Conan the Librarian says:

Strange Questions of the Month:

Do you have explanations to electronic dictionaries?

Do you have books on Japanese seaweed?

Do you have books on how to learn Japanese, in Korean?

Do you arrange your books by size?

Strangest comment: Reading isn’t rocket surgery!

Strangest books traded this month:

Dancing in the Distraction Factory by Andrew Goodwin.
 
Zip-Zip and His Flying Saucer by John M. Schealer.

Walking the Old Tokaido Road: Tokyo→Kyoto #8 Progress report: Our intrepid duo continued their Tokaido Road hike in clear and sunny weather from  Mishima to Fujigawa. Mout Fuji was visible during the entire hike. Our duo passed Tagonoura and were reminded of the following poem:

Tago no ura yu
Uchi idete mireba
mashiro nizo
Fuji no takane ni
yuki wa furikeru

I passed by the beach
At Tago, and saw
The snow falling, pure white
High on the peak of Fuji.  Yamabe no Akahito

Translation by K. Rexroth