Dear Friends,
Yuri and I are back in our new home in Béziers after 10 days in Paris.
I share with you a few pictures taken from the balcony of our new apartment.
親愛なる友人たちへ
１０日間パリで過ごした後、ユリと僕はベジエにある新居に戻りました。僕たちのアパルトマンのバルコニーから撮った写真をいくつかご紹介しますね。
Over the Rainbow...
虹の彼方…
Early morning...
早朝…
In the evening... 夕刻…
Sorry for keeping you waiting so long for the end of the story.
Yuri and I have been moving our house all this month and we are also working for the Ho'oponopono Workshop in Paris on 4th, 5 and 6th of May... Busy...busy...
So, let me tell you the end ...
Because there was a Japanese version of the site of the village of Conques I felt curious and looked at their cultural program for the next months...In the program I got my answer about : "How do I start learning how to sing?" : there was a workshop teaching Corsican Sacred Polyphonic song... (I must explain that for me, Polyphonic songs from Corsica are of the most beautiful polyphonic songs of the world.) It took me less than 10 minutes to book for the workshop and plan our stay in Conques...
One month later, on a cold friday evening, we reached the village... Best timing to visit the place because in March it is a very quiet little "out of time" in the mountain with only 80 inhabitants... It was difficult to imagine that from May thousands of people come from all over the world and in July Conques is like an overcrowded train full of tourists...
The other interesting aspects of the experience were that the place where we stayed is a monastery, located just in the center of Conques (the village was built around the monastery). In front of the entrance door of the monastery, within less than 10 meters we had the silhouette of the Huge church of the village and the place where we stayed is a very famous crossroad for Pilgrims on their way to Compostella...Almost all of them stay for at least one night in the monastery where they are also served simple food. During the meals, everybody is seated at big tables where everyone eats together sharing stories about why they do the "camino" and from where they come, etc...Almost all the people we met there are really "camino addicted", several of them walked it several times, it was amazing listening to their story because all of them had a fire burning in their eyes when they talked about their experience.
It is difficult to put in words the "magic" of the experience but the spirit of the "Camino of Compostella" can be felt everywhere in the atmosphere of Conques. The Church of the 12th century itself is a pure symbol because it is dedicated to "Sainte Foy" which is a Saint incarnating the idea of FAITH...
FAITH is the Power that keeps the pilgrims walking step by step during an average of two month to reach their destination...Faith is also what keeps all of us walking towards our goals...Somehow our lives are "pilgrimages"...
The most beautiful part of the experience was that after a day of training in singing the polyphonic songs in our training room at the cultural center of the city, our group (12 persons) assembled in the medieval church and sung what had been practiced that day...At that moment, the "sacred songs" took a totally different acoustic dimension. The shape of the church giving a particular power to the sounds, the walls adding their own voice to our chorus, it was really amazing....
The story started in Hawai'i with the meeting with the Conch Shell, from then, Conques, Compostella, Ste Faith... several tiny links joining one dot to another and revealing slowly by slowly the patterns of my life...
As promised, I will go on with my narration...
To complete the story I must add a detail...
During my trip in Hawai'i I had a chance to join several meetings where people were playing music and singing...
I must say that all meetings I attended in Hawai'i for birthdays, simple dinners, ceremonies...all were musical!!! Nice isn't it?
One evening, a lovely lady playing Ukulele asked me to join by singing...I felt very frustrated not being able to spontaneously add my voice to that celebration of life and joy...
This frustration felt so frustrating that It grew into a desire to learn how to sing and play music...
The question was, "from where shall I start?"...
That is where our friend the Conch Shell will do a good part of the job...
Let's go back to our story now. Here am I, on the internet , trying a google research to find how to play music with a CONCH. In Fench, CONCH is written CONQUE...I try...
... in the list that comes out I find this link at the first place...Office de Tourisme de Conques
What immediately attracts my attention is that the site of this very small village that have been completely unknown of me until now shows a japanese flag icon indicating a link with Japan!!!!
Hahaha...A cosmic laugh between times and spaces!!!
My story will continue tomorrow...No UFOS, no incredible stuff, just a simple story, just life as it is...
Sorry, since our long trip back from Hawaii nothing happened in this blog...
only in appearance...
When we look at life closely we sometimes see funny patterns emerging.
For example, if I ask you : What is the link between Hawaii and the famous "Camino de Santiago..."what comes to your mind?
In fact links are naturally created by life...Let me tell you my story about this...
A few months ago, one of the clients of my service of consultation in Tokyo sent me a mail announcing that she was going to walk the "Camino de Santiago"from France to Santiago de Compostella. And she did it from mid September to beginning December...
The last mail I got from her was in Hawaii in January.
During my stay in Big Island I was introduced to a sacred instrument made from a shell conch and I felt really attracted by its deep sound. Unfortunately at the last moment I had no space to bring back on of theses in my suitcase...(Shell conchs are also used by Yamabushi in Japan they are called Horagai)
Until now my story may sound really boring and flat. But wait...
Back to France, Yuri and I spend a night in my Mother's house near Montpellier. Upon arrival I was surprised to find ... figure out what...
on a wooden trunk, there was a Conch Shell exactly similar to the one I wanted to buy in Hawaii... How did this come? My Mom had it for years for decoration and she does not remember when and where she bought it...The only thing sure is that she never went to Hawaii...
Even more amazing, if you look at the top of the shell, you will see that it had been cut so as it can be used as an instrument...Funny, isn't it?
Very happy to have the instrument delivered to me by the universe I have then borrowed it from my mother's and started to learn to make sounds out of it...
In the beginning I must confess that the sound is not very beautiful. It sounds a bit like a big Fart...
To find some hints about making a nice sound out of a CONCH I then looked through the web for CONQUE, which in French word for CONCH...
My story being a bit long, I let you take a break and try to imagine the next episode...I will continue my narration soon...
Departure from Hawai'i Saturday 18 at 22:30 (Hawai'i Time)
Arrival in LA Sunday 19 5:30 AM (LA Time...3:30 AM HT)
Meeting our friend J. and her Husband and sharing lunch together in Orange County.
Departure from LA at 6:20 (LA Time. 4:20 HT)
Arrival in London Monday 20 at 14:10 (London time...I lost track of Hawai'i time)
Light lunch at the airport in a trendy restaurant inspired from Japanese cuisine called WAGAMAMA...Tried 2 kinds of gyozas...forget about it...
Departure 18:40 (London Time...5:40 February 19 Hawai'i Time...gets confusing)
Arrival in Toulouse 22:00 (French Time, 21:00 in London, 10:00AM of 19 of February, Hawai'i time...) One night at the airport...
Next day, a few hours in Toulouse before our train...Some pictures taken during the day
18日土曜日、22時30分ハワイ出発。
19日日曜日、5時30分（ハワイ時間3時30分）ロサンゼルス到着、友人のJとそのご主人に会い、オレンジカウンティにて一緒にランチ。18時20分（ハワイ時間16時20分）ロサンゼルス出発。
20日月曜日、14時10分（ハワイ時間。。。もうわからない）ロンドン到着、空港にて軽いランチ。WAGAMAMAという日本食を意識した流行りのレストランで、2種類の餃子を食べてみるものの。。。あ、このことは忘れちゃおう。18時40分（ハワイ時間で19日の5時40分。。。ああこんがらがってきた）ロンドン出発。22時（ロンドン時間21時、ハワイ時間19日10時）トゥルーズ到着。空港近くに１泊。
次の日、列車に乗る前の数時間をトゥルーズで過ごした。この日、いくつか写真を撮った。
Beautiful architecture of the ceiling at the department store Galeries Lafayette Intérieur. Very nice selection of interior, table decoration and cooking items : Art de Vivre à la Française...
ガルリエ・ラファイエットデパートの内部天井に施された美しい建築。インテリアやテーブルデコレーション、調理道具など素晴らしいセレクションがある。フランス版生活はアート。
The next picture is the ceiling of a library just near Galeries Lafayette...
ガルリエ・ラファイエットのすぐそばにある図書館の天井
For lunch, Yuri Had spotted a cute seafood restaurant called "Chez Jeannot"...We had Oysters, shrimps and bullots (à kind of tsubugai). All was incredibly good...a reward after this long trip...
ユリと一緒にかわいいシーフードレストラン“シェ・ジャノ”でランチ。オイスター、海老、ビュロ（つぶ貝の一種）を食べた。すごく美味しかった。長旅のご褒美。。。
Otsukaresama have no translation in French nor in English...Zannen!!!
フランス語や英語で、お疲れさまという言葉がないのは残念！
Sun shines without asking :
"Am I beautiful?",
"Do you love me?"
Sun just shines,
and not even with the expectation of humans to be thankful for it...
Sun needs no prayer.
Sun IS Sun
that's all
and enough...
太陽はただ輝く。人間から感謝されることなど期待もせず。祈りすら必要せず。
太陽は太陽。それだけ。それで充分。
Those interesting trees on the right side looking like giant fans are called "traveler's tree".I took this picture in the garden of a friend on Big Island in Hawaii last week.
A few weeks before I was publishing on this blog some pictures of the Xmas decorations in Paris...Yes..."Traveler's tree" is a perfect match. I like them...
写真の右側に面白い木があるでしょう？大きな扇子のような形をした木。“旅人の木／トラベラーズツリー”という名前なんだって。先週、ハワイのビッグアイランドにいる友人の庭で撮った写真なんだ。
数週間前ここのブログで、パリで撮ったクリスマスの飾り付けの写真を紹介したんだけど、ねえ、あれと“旅人の木”似ているよね。いいなあ。
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