Bad Weather Forces Sonya To Abandon Her Attempted Six Thousand Kilometer Row Across The Pacific...

Sonya Baumstein from Florida had to send out a distress call on June 13 and was rescued just a week after leaving a marina in Chosi, Japan,  attempting to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific.
She was trying to cross the 6,000k to San Francisco by September.
This lady is no stranger to adventure.
She trained for three years to row her little 23ft Icha all that way.
Prior to that, she'd kayaked from Washington State to Alaska and standup paddle-boarded across the 85k wide Bering Strait.
It was always a big ask Sonya and hopefully you'll succeed next time.
If you can dream it, you can do it...

Sonya Plans To Row Her Tiny Boat Six Thousand Miles Across the Pacific From Choshi, Japan To San Francisco...

Sonya Baumstein could have flown as most people do from Choshi, Japan to San Francisco, but no, she's the sort of twenty eight year old who likes a challenge and wasn't in a hurry. Which is fortunate because rowing the
six thousand nautical miles voyage in her specially designed little twenty three foot craft, described here, is going to take
more than a few days.
If you can dream it, you can do it...

Quick Driver, Go As Slow As You Can To The Airport Please, I've Got A Plane To Miss...

There's the worldwide Slow Food Movement
and now in Japan's city of  Yokohama there's Turtle Taxis offering at the push of a button, slower, more relaxing rides to your  destination.
Pressing the button indicates to the compliant driver that you wish for a leisurely drive with less fast acceleration and no sudden braking.
The ecology minded are happy because each journey uses less fossil fuel and the new Turtle Taxis are said to be ideal for the elderly or pregnant passengers. Perhaps they drive so slowly it's possible to grow old on the way to the airport or have the time and the comfort to become pregnant...

You've Been Gone Seventy Years Husband. What Took You So Long She Said. I'm Sorry I'm Late He Said...

You've been gone for seventy years husband, what took you so long were the first words Zhang Suiyi said to her ninety four year old husband Pan Zhishan after a lifetime of being apart.
I'm sorry I'm late he said with a smile on his face.
And then they hugged and the love they had for each other all those years ago was re-ignited.
It wasn't as if Pan had gone down to the corner store for a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk.
He was torn from his new wife by war when Japanese forces invaded south eastern China.
Pan survived the war and then life and its complexities intervened. He was ordered back to his parents' home in China's Zhejiang Province where an arranged marriage awaited him.
Despite both coming from traditional Chinese families and being forbidden to marry without parental consent the two young lovers went ahead before he went to war and married, determined to snatch what joy they could.
Pan never knew Zang was pregnant.
She had never been out of his thoughts and recently an internet campaign by local media brought the two together for the traditional Qixi Festival, China's Valentines Day Celebration.
A beautiful love story isn't it.
Brings tears to the eyes...

Ryokan. The Wonderful Japanese Recluse, Monk, Philosopher, Calligrapher, Naturalist And Poet...

The hermit-monk Ryokan,
long beloved in Japan for his poetry, his humorous character, his philosophy, his calligraphy and his fondness for communing with nature belongs in the tradition of the great Zen eccentrics of both China and Japan.

I watch people in the world
Throw away their lives lusting after things,
Never able to satisfy their desires,
Falling into deeper despair
And torturing themselves.
Even if they get what they want
How long will they be able to enjoy it?
For one heavenly pleasure 
They suffer the torments of hell, 
Binding themselves firmly to the grindstone.
Such people are like monkeys
Frantically grasping for the moon in the water
And then falling into the whirlpool.
How endlessly those caught up in the floating world suffer
Despite myself, I fret over them all night
And cannot staunch the flow of tears.

Born Eizo Yamamoto in 1758 in the village of Izumozaki in Japan's Niigata Prefecture,
he renounced the world at an early age and became a monk at the Soto Zen Temple.
He took the name Ryokan Taigu.
In later life he was cared for by the nun and close companion Teishen until he died in 1831.
His reclusive life and his celebration of nature brings to mind a younger American contemporary, Henry David Thoreau.
It is said that one evening a thief visited Ryokan at his hut at the base of a mountain, only to find there was nothing to steal. Ryokan said to the would be thief, You have come a long way and should not return to your home empty handed. Please take my clothes as a gift.
The bewildered thief did his bidding and Ryokan sat naked looking at the moon.
Poor fellow, he mused, I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon...

Creative Japanese Designer Shigero Ban Wins The 2014 Pritzker Prize For Architecture...

The creative Japanese architect Shigero Ban is a very respected and highly thought of person in New Zealand and a particular favourite in the devastated city of Christchurch which was virtually leveled to the ground after the 2011 earthquakes.
Mr Ban created a stunningly beautiful 'cardboard cathedral' replacing the original iconic structure that was almost totally destroyed.
Shigero Ban's commitment to humanitarian causes is also well known and his designs for disaster relief efforts, highly respected.
One of this extraordinary man's talents is using cardboard and cardboard tubes in particular to form long lasting sustainable designs. His emergency shelters offered safe havens to the victims of Japan's earthquake and tsunami and too in Sri Lanka.
Shigero Ban is making our world a better place...

The Beautiful Tiny Yakushima Takatsuka Lodge In Japan Is Made From Recycled Cardboard And Paper Tubes...

This beautiful tiny house that's built in the National Park of Japan's Yakushima Island is constructed using recycled cardboard
and paper tubes.
It's been designed by Shigeru Ban Architects who are famous for their use of reclaimed paper products in their projects.
There's more to know here.
The opaque cardboard and transparent paper tubes which allow the light to enter can easily be replaced when over time and the ravages of the harsh mountain environment, they become damaged.
The tiny house was built on existing foundations, left vacant by a dismantled cabin so the new structure didn't disturb the delicate
balance of nature... 

The Treehouses Of Japanese Designer Carpenter Tokashi Kobayashi...

Sometimes I wonder says Tokashi Kobayashi, where I'd be now if, sixteen years ago I hadn't moved to that little wooden apartment in the back alleys of Harajuku.
I think about the living Himalaya Cedar I found there and how my life changed.
What is it that attracts anyone to treehouses? I've come to think the answer lies in the vitality of the trees. Everlasting life.
Treehouse building has taken me to forests and woodlands across Japan and around the globe. And everywhere I've seen the same nameless light I've had within myself for so many years.
I have the desire to share it with as many people as possible. And I will continue with the one-of-a-kind treehouse creations.
My companion is life itself and as long as there are undiscovered trees still waiting...
Takashi is a self taught designer carpenter of over 120 bespoke treehouses in Japan. Interestingly in that country there are regulations prohibiting people sleeping in them overnight.
I don't have one of my own says Takashi, that is my dream, to stay in my own treehouse and enjoy the quiet moments...

This Treehouse In Japan Is A High-Rise Apartment Building For The Birds...

The designers at Nendo, led by founder Oki Sato, have created a treehouse for humans that's also a sanctuary for nesting birds.
This Bird Apartment building has been installed at the Ando Manofuku Center in Komoro City.
The mission of the Center is to promote human access to nature and this structure's design allows visitors to the treehouse to get a viewing through the  peepholes into each of the seventy eight separate bird apartments.
The front of each apartment echos that of a human dwelling giving the idea that the designers consider the avian homes are as important as the dwellings occupied by humans.
For more, you might like to take a peek here...

Hugging For Peace...

This young man is trying to make the world a better place in general and relations between Korea and Japan especially.
Hugging for Peace.
Such an audacious thought!
He features on this YouTube video holding his sign and encouraging people to hug.
It's the sort of thing we could all do.
The well known lyrics from the song 
Man in The Mirror include 'If you want to make the world a better place - take a look at yourself in the mirror - and make a change - Start with the man in the mirror - I'm asking him to change his ways'.
I wonder, do you think it could work?
Imagine...