Water, Wood, and Wild Things: Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town by Hannah Kirshner, 2021
An immersive journey through the culture and cuisine of one Japanese town, its forest, and its watershed—by an American writer and food stylist who spent years working alongside #artisans.
Last year on Mastodon we featured this story from the BBC about Gladstone's Library, the U.K.'s only residential library. Fediverse folk were so enthusiastic that when we discovered the library is offering scholarships to be taken in 2025, we had to share the information (see the second link in this post for all the details).
Organ grinders have been a fixture on the streets of Mexico City since the 1800s, a result of dictator President Porfirio Díaz's passion for all things European. But nowadays, they're considered a nuisance — an assault against the ears. This, coupled with the high cost of renting and maintaining an instrument, means the tradition is at risk. Whitney Eulich talked to the remaining organilleros for @csmonitor. [story may be paywalled]
The arch of Titus stands on the Via Sacra which leads from the Colosseum into the Roman Forum. It marked Titus' campaign in Judea which led to the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. Titus' deified image is depicted lifted up to the heavens on the back of an eagle.
Traveling east from Palermo along the north coast of #Sicily, the cathedral of Cefalù appears at the foot of an imposing promontory known simply as "La Rocca," where the Greeks had built a temple to the goddess Diana.
📷🇮🇹https://flic.kr/p/2hQfyZR
Detail of the dome of Palermo's Capella Palatina. The 12th c. chapel was constructed under the Norman king Roger II and probably employed artists from the Greek east.
Travelling today. Airport security at the disabled line told me I can “just use these next time”, gesturing to the regular automated gates.
When I followed the accessible entrance, I found it was routed to come out into the general security area, with the big crowd that goes with it.
It seems the only difference is the wider gate, to fit a wheelchair.
Back at the entrance, I said to security, look I use this line because it’s usually separate. I get anxious in big crowds, and I can’t really tolerate it right now.
Security said to me, gesturing towards the hall: “look we have all these people right now, so we can’t have a separate place to keep it separate, because it would slow things down”
I told them “that’s why it’s an accommodation. Because it’s not the usual”. Security acted very put out, but did eventually help me out.
I don’t always have the spoons to fight. Many people I know never do. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have needs.
#InvisibleDisabilities are disabilities. The #sunflowerLanyard I wear isn’t for fashion, it’s to make that visible. People don’t always have the spoons to stand up.
I don’t have to convince you I have a disability. There’s more - a lot more - to accessible spaces than physical movement concerns. Your staff should be looking actively for ways to help, not waiting for people to take up a fight they might not be able to.
I’m ok. Decompressing in the bathroom because they don’t have a quiet spot.
What the Trevi Fountain in #Rome looks like in your imagination vs. what it looks like when you arrive the day after Barcelona wins the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final.
Now free for all to read... I'm a fan of the humourist author PG Wodehouse, and have occasionally visited places connected with his life and work. Here are four of them:
Fushimi-Momoyama Castle (伏見桃山城) is on a hilltop in southeastern Kyōto, and not easily accessed, so very few Japanese or inbound tourists go there. It makes a good hike for the same reason. The #castle is a reproduction of the intended retirement residence of the national unifier Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but it was near the end of the turbulent Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600), to which the castle contributed the Momoyama part of its name. Although I am mostly interested in the relatively peaceful palaeolithic to Heian periods, this castle is nevertheless elegant, as befits a predecessor of the Shōguns.
Q: Someone asked if I saw a reproduction of Hideyoshi’s gold-leafed tearoom.
A: Visitors aren't allowed in. There never seem to be staff there. The place has an unfortunate history!
Q: The Meiji Emperor's mausoleum is very close by. Why was this location chosen?
The original site was taken for the tomb of Emperor Meiji! The castle is now nearby.
What do you do when you're a happy camper but your partner is less keen on a night under canvas? Wally Byam's solution was to invent the Airstream, which started in the late 1920s as a wooden platform atop the chassis of a Ford Model T and by 1937 was a sleek aluminum-clad trailer marketed as "an airplane without wings ... luxurious in the extreme." Here, @Smithsonianmag looks at the origin and evolution of this American classic.
Kajū-ji or Kanshū-ji (勸修寺) is a Shingon Buddhist temple in Kyōto founded in 900 by Emperor Daigo. It is near Daigo-ji and was built where the Emperor's wife lived as a tribute to her. The Imperial family traditionally provided the head priests.
I go there mainly for the garden and pond, which are also historic. Wisteria blossoms are over, and now there are yellow, purple, and white irises in the pond along with pink and white water lilies. I've also noticed big herons nesting in the treetops, but they are too far for a mobile phone to capture a clear picture. By the pond I did startle a young egret, to my regret 😅 .
ADRIFT IN A NEARLY DESERTED VENICE in the early months of the 2020 pandemic, a writer contemplates his native Nigeria, his life in Detroit, his love of travel, but most of all his complicated family. Beautifully crafted prose, distinctive story. B PLUS
Have you ever had occasion to say "The book made me do it?"
For me it was a trip to Syria 18 years ago.
I read Les jardins de lumière by Amin Maalouf (translated as The Gardens of Light) several times between 1995 and 2005. The story is set in 3rd century Palmyra and I was so intrigued and fascinated by the place that I wanted to see it for myself.