Tao Yuan-ming

The mountain air sparkles as the sun sets
Birds in flocks return together.
In these things there is a fundamental truth,
But when I start to explain it, I lose the words.

Tao Yuan-ming (365-427)

山气日夕佳
飞鸟相与还
此中有真意
欲辨已忘言

陶淵明

shan(1) qi(4) ri(4) xi(1) jia(1)
fei(1) niao(3) xiang(1) yu(3) huan(2)
ci(3) zhong(1) you(3) zhen(1) yi(4)
yu(4) bian(4) yi(3) wang(4) yan(2)

天上大風

High in the sky, a great wind. Brushed by Ryokan for a village child who asked him to christen his new kite. Planted in rice fields in Tsubame, Japan, near Ryokan's birthplace.

http://www.city.tsubame.niigata.jp/guide/industrial/tamboart/

Ryokan kanshi

Without a craving
I crave nothing.
With a craving
I crave everything.
Among the mountains
I can feed myself on herbs
And get along
Wearing only one robe.
Rambling alone
I make friends
with deer and others.
I can join the village children
Singing loudly with them.
To wash my ears clean
I go to the stream
Under the rocks
And on the peaks I make friends
With the pines standing there.

-Ryokan

Chiru sakura

散る桜, 残る桜も, 散る桜 (良寛)

chiru sakura
nokoru sakura mo
chiru sakura

falling cherry blossoms
those remaining
also will fall

-Ryokan

Zen monk Ryokan

It's not that I don't care to socialize  
It's just that amusing myself alone is the better way  

世の中に | yo no naka ni | in the world  
まじらぬとには | majiranu to ni ha | mixing-not that  
あらねども | aranedomo | not  
ひとり遊びぞ | hitori asobi zo | playing alone  
我はまされる | ware ha masareru | by myself is better

* Image: self-portrait of Ryokan with inscribed verse

Mouichido Tokyo ni tsukimashita

Here again, business again, the Hotel Sunroute Akasaka in Tokyo ...

I'll be attending the SEUS conference with other delegates from North Carolina. Things get going tomorrow night.

Tokyo ni tsukimashita

Yes, I arrived in Tokyo. I'm in a little closet, err, I mean "room" in an otherwise very nice business hotel in Akasaka-Mitsuke, the Hotel Sunroute. Despite the room being small, it is nice, neat, clean, and well organized with all I need, toothpaste, razors, green tea, .... I really like this part of Tokyo. I have a 10:00 am meeting tomorrow at the Fulbright office in the Sanno Grand Building off Sotobori Dori, and more meetings lined up for the weekend and next week, and more still to line up.