Ashtanga wha?

The purpose of ashtanga is to create heat in the body, which leads to purification of the body through increased circulation and sweating.

I went to a yoga class at a time I am usually working. Oooh yay! I thought, I can go to this Ashtanga class! (whatever that is)

The shaved headed, tattooed, powerfully built gaijin instructor strode in all pumped up. There was a definite mischievous lilt in his walk. Right away, in Japanese, he started rattling off some yogabulary I was unfamiliar with... first primary something and today we are not doing the usual foot holdie thingie. Ummm? The others in the room seemed to process this information quickly. Perhaps this class was not the meditative-while-sporadically-challenging yoga I had been expecting. But chop chop! Class is about to start!

I thought I was so clever having laid my mat the right next to the open windows, but later realized I was now farthest away from the door from which I could make a covert escape. I resigned myself to the fact that walking out was not an option, and within the milliseconds of firing across neurons and synapses, I resolved to take the bull by the horns, if you will.

The next two hours were a whirlwind of bending, jumping, push-uping, lunging, holding, balancing. The constant being these steady, deep inhales and exhales. There was no break in the flow from one posture to the next. There was nothing I could do. It was as if somehthing other than myself was moving my limbs. The sweat was rolling off my head. My hair was in shambles. There wasn't even time to fix myself.

Check this out and you will get an idea. We did most all of these moves but if this video is level 10, we were at 9. Most of my amazing fellow class-mates could carry follow through, but I myself fumbled along, quivering, but trying the best I could out of respect for the others also persevering.

Afterward, there was a great happiness wanting to burst out from inside me. The retarded grin could not be wiped off of my face. I am unashamed to admit that I was quite proud of myself. It was supremely rigorous, but unquestionably fun. The last 45 minutes were puctuated with laughter and a hint of playfulness as some of us pleaded and exclaimed, ha! no way! you want us to go into that?!

I took a hot bath and body-slammed myself into bed to make way for the best sleep ever.

Mo! Dig! Liani!

My mother and I went to the National Museum of Art, Osaka to see the Modigliani exhibit.

I love oil paintings- there's something luxurious about it compared to plastic-y, flat acrylic paint. I also like looking at portraits. Why are renderings and images of people so fascinating and attention-getting? Who are these people and what might their relationship to the artist be?

Mr. Modigliani simplifies his figures to very plain geometric shapes. He sometimes does not paint in the eyeballs, at times leaving the whole eye an astounding light blue! The slight tilts of his subjects' heads are quite intriguing.

I had seen Modigliani paintings in various art books- flip flip flip. For me, this show reinforced the importance of seeing art in person- for your eyes and body to be in the same space with the actual canvases. You can see the real colors, look closely at the textures, examine the quality and the movement of the brushstrokes... and also step away and feel the aura man.

Cat, Cow, Pigeon, Downward-facing Dog

This morning was my first yoga lesson since coming to Kyoto.

I am not quite new to yoga, but today was still very fresh for me because of course, all the instructions were given in Japanese! My vocabulary is still limited, but I got to hear a whole slew of new words for parts of the body (shins, palm of hand, ball of foot); direction (inward, outward, face-up, face-down); and movement (dip down, spread out, twist). I was definitely drawing a lot of blanks, and needed to look around at the people around me. For me, these lessons are a lovely mind, body, and language practice! No doubt new words and phrases will sink in slowly but surely the more I go!

The day started off with rain, and the sky was overcast and cloudy. The windows in the studio were bright from the light shining in. It felt like a good thing to be in a room with others, working at one shared time to move and shift our bodies in a kind of proper and orderly way. It is always encouraging to see many women in strong poses. Yes, we ladies have got to be powerful.

unexpected and good

At times, certain songs suddenly appear that I'm inclined to listen to over and over.

One of these is this.
This Kostars record was tucked away in the myriad of hip-hop LP’s that arrived from my uncle in two large boxes. What's this? The cover looked straight 90’s. Actually, the song sounds straight 90's too. I put it onto the turntable and gave it a whirl as BGM to my Sunday evening dinner-making. Even as background music, I had to go over and repeat repeat repeat.

Forgive me for this sentimental post (and sappy song!) that has nothing to do with Kyoto. But sometimes, it’s not so fun to stick to some kind of rule. Drunk inspiration calls