Identity is a funny thing. When you are young, you don’t have much idea of it, and in the first part of your life a lot of energy is...

(A correction to the last blog – awa is not a nut like chestnut, but a type of millet. Excuse the error.) I don’t remember when it was...

Many places in Japan are regarded as romantic. One such place is the Gokayama Gassho villages in Toyama Prefecture, and the related...

I’ve been thinking about the difference between loneliness and aloneness. I vacillate between the two – ironically, I often feel more...

Spring festival procession, involving half the town, hundreds of years old – canceled for the first time since large-scale roadworks...

Recently I had some dental work done, a tooth pulled actually, and before that I organized my bedroom so that I would be able to spend a...

The other day in the supermarket I saw a checkout girl hurrying an elderly man who was trying to get his money, card and receipt all...

I know a lot of people who will be bidding 2020 farewell with a sigh of relief, and anticipating a better year to come. From a big...

My mother, Lucy Phillipp Rasmus, turned 100 on November 1, 2020. Five days later she departed this life. I wasn’t beside her for either...

My husband recently bought a handmade wok at a craft fair. It cost 8000 yen -- the equivalent of about $90 US. I didn’t object, because I...

I have always been attracted to Tibetan Buddhism, its pragmatism and its beauty. One of my favorite spiritual leaders is the Tibetan...

In this time of COVID-19, it is rare to have somewhere to go and really go there. Thus, I was happy to be sitting once more, after an...

The Challenge of Real Change This blog is slightly longer than usual. Think of it as compensation for not writing in so long. Things are...

My mother was a great one for “tone of voice”. “Don’t use that tone of voice,” she would scold when we were sarcastic, rude, or mouthy –...

Please forgive my tardiness in posting this blog! Time has gotten away from me recently, because it’s Veggie Time in the Otowa household....

Happy Solstice! To mark the occasion, I have changed my photographs on the website to reflect Summer. Please check them out. Recently on...

Many of you know that we are undergoing a sea change in our house, one that happens once a generation if that. My son and his family have...

Amid the coronavirus upheaval and the recent unrest in the United States, I read an article in The Atlantic entitled “History will Judge...

A Meditation on Goals Longfellow wrote in the poem The Village Blacksmith, “Something accomplished, something done, has earned a night’s...

My 10-year-old granddaughter, who has lived in the USA for most of her life, is now living with us, along with her family. She recently...