Numine.com: Seattle working-class blog

beautiful instrument! I want a piano...but I think I will have to do a lot more than hint at it to actually get one. I miss just sitting down at one to "play" and I wish I could improve my skills from where I left off back when I didn't want to sit still and practice. I would like my future children to have the means to learn piano too. Good luck with the gee-tar learnin'!

That's so cool! I got Ryan a guitar for Festivus as well, and he's starting to know the joys of achy, hardening fingers.
Made me pick up my ol' git-fiddle, and it's amazing how you forget how much pleasure you can take in it.
Cool, Kat! Nice guitar. . . I like the rosewood (looks like rosewood.)

Letters to the Dead

by Kat

When I lived in Tokyo, I often visited Meiji Shrine. Though the original burned down (as much of Tokyo did) during the fire bombings of World War II, the new shrine is just as much of a quiet retreat.

One tradition in Japan is that all girls who turn twenty during a given year dress up in bright kimono on Seijin No Hi(Coming of Age Day) and visit special events and local shinto shrines. Because Meiji Jingu is the largest and probably the most important shrine in Tokyo (and maybe because it's near Harajuku), it's the place to go.

Unfortunately for me, I didn't turn twenty the year I lived in Japan. I turned 21. Booorinnnng. But my host mother decided that before I left I should get a chance to be dressed in furisode (the fancy kimono) before I left. When Justin came to visit she rented and adorned me in a lovely kimono, complete with updo.

Naturally, we had to visit Meiji Shrine. It was the only time I felt like I outshone the cosplayers on the bridge between the station and the gate to Meiji... but I couldn't get more than five feet without someone stopping me to take a picture. Right as we arrived, Justin took this photo of some people who had wanted/were taking pictures with me:

What you can't see is that I'm holding a book behind my back that one of those old women took from the rolling suitcase and graciously handed over. It was completely in Kanji and I had no idea what it was.

When we returned to my host family's home, probably some time later, I asked my host mother what the book was about. She looked at it for a few minutes and told me it was a "cult thing." So I kept it and transported it back to the states with me but never once attempted to read it.

Last week, we went to a coworker's Christmas party. He'd spent ten years in Japan and had just moved to Seattle with his Japanese wife two years ago. After talking at some length, I told him about the book and brought it in yesterday for his wife to interpret.

Today he told me that she read it while they were having lunch together. He looked over and was surprised to see her crying. The book, it seems, is the eighth volume of letters collected from friends and family of the war dead enshrined at Yasukuni.

Yasukuni Shrine is always at the center of some controversy. It is dedicated to the spirit of soldiers and others who died fighting in the name of the Japanese emperor-- including war criminals. Certain Japanese and many Koreans and Chinese always protest when cabinet members, particularly the Prime Minister visit Yasukuni to pay tribute... even if it is a ceremonial gesture.

Why my host mother would tell me this book was from a cult is beyond me. Actually, I think NOW that I might be confusing THIS book with another book that either the women or someone else gave me-- a book that I might not have any more. There's a nagging feeling of confusion about the whole memory, primarily because I have no idea which case is correct. But it makes an interesting story, which is why I'm sharing it here!

Posted on @ 8:28 PM | 0 comments

Comments:

the site looks awesome! i don't think the links work though ... or is my computer just misbehaving?
ps: don't tell me that BEAUTIFUL masthead you had before is gone foreva though ... ?! =(

rebecca, at 10:15 PM, December 11, 2006

I still have the old header graphic and code, but I always intended it to be seasonal. :) Something new will appear after the holidays!

Let me know what operating system and browser (IE, Firefox, and version, etc) you're using where the links aren't working. And please, anyone else tell me if they're broken for you.

Kat, at 10:20 PM, December 11, 2006

On the "About" page the alignment of the links is wonky. That's the technical term of course :)

By Justin, at 9:01 AM, December 12, 2006

Fixed. Now I need to figure out why there's a damn white bar under my footer. It's not the link code. ARGH.

By Kat, at 10:24 AM, December 12, 2006

Im looking at it with IE 6 right now, and the words in the header don't seem to be links at all for me. Also, all your sidebar content is pushed down to the bottom, below where the main content ends...but still in the sidebar.

sometrouble, at 11:04 AM, December 12, 2006

ok...wait...the sidebar stuff is not in the sidebar...it is below the main content, and half in/ half out of the sidebar...kinda just below that vertical line separating the sidebar from the main.

sometrouble, at 11:05 AM, December 12, 2006

Oh god... fucking internet explorer. Great. >_<

By Kat, at 11:08 AM, December 12, 2006

AGH IT MANGLES MY CSS. I hate that browser! Windows BAD! IE BAD! NoOOOO!

By Kat, at 11:26 AM, December 12, 2006

sorry, I have to conform to what they give me at work. I did manage to dl mozilla...but it annoyingly blocks out way more stuff than IE does.

The sidebar is fixed now...but still no links in the header.

sometrouble, at 12:59 PM, December 12, 2006

Oh, I'm not blaming you. I just had no idea it was so messed up. LOL.

Fixing the sidebar was easy... the footer was still sized for the old page. What I can't figure out is why it won't apply simple text and link formatting the way it's supposed to.

That it can't get the image links doesn't surprise me. I tweaked some *completely unrelated* stuff and now it doesn't work in Firefox either. Blargh. I'll get it.

Kat, at 1:06 PM, December 12, 2006

I just discovered by accident that the header links aren't missing, they are just showing up significantly lower than they should (for me, right above the comments link in the first post). If you click by accident in those spots, you get taken to the photo gallery, etc. I'm using Firefox 2.

Also, I just ran across

this study and thought you would be interested, Kat.

By inkandpen, at 2:56 PM, December 12, 2006

Oh awesome Katie, you're right-- and they're there in IE too. Guess I'll have to turn borders back on and move em around a bit.

Thanks!

Also, thanks for the study... could have written it myself, lol.

By Kat, at 3:12 PM, December 12, 2006

i'm using IE ... not sure the version ... work computer

By rebecca, at 4:14 PM, December 12, 2006

I don't think my site works properly in I.E.

Don't care though. I put up a thing that detects if people use I.E... then tells them not to.

Adrienne, at 5:09 PM, December 12, 2006

Can I steal your IE detection/warning code? :) I'm still going to try to get it to work but I want to put the warning there anyway.

Your site looks pretty much OK in IE-- your detection's text has a few weird symbols tho.

Kat, at 5:48 PM, December 12, 2006

Holy 15 comments, Batman. Srsly use Firefox, problem solved. IE is so much insecure badness.

By Rachel, at 8:59 PM, December 12, 2006

Looks like you got it figured out. Yay teh transparent gif!!eleven``

I agree with Rachel, don't use IE srsly, but Kat isn't using IE. Other people are.

Louie, at 10:42 PM, December 12, 2006