relaunch

I am fickle and I switch things out every now and then but for me the last look of the Tatamimat had been the longest since the original back in 2002. Its a new year, a new focus, a new name and a new look. I finally did what I have been meaning to do for years and bought www.susanfujiki.com so you can now use the old Tatamimat blogspot address or the new susanfujiki.com address and you will still get here. I really like the new layout but I am sure I will change some more things along the way. This design is very me so I hope you like it as much as I do.

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the words

Strangely hunched over as if she’s hiding but who is she hiding from?
The words.
Head down; looking down. No-one needs to see her. She’s hiding from you and hiding from herself. There’s nothing to see anyway. She’s exhausted. Her back feels like a concertina. An accordion. With every hurt, every pain, every stress, every negative it pushes back in on itself. Getting tighter and smaller as it continues.
She hides. Terrified of mediocrity she prefers to avoid trying at all. Why even bother?
For the words.
Her eyes look out as if pleading to the sky to give her some inspiration and guidance. Pleading for just something, someone to come and make her understand what it is she is supposed to be doing. What she is here for. It is always on her mind and it is starting to wear her down.
She’s been told to sit straight; watch her posture, STOP SLOUCHING! It almost feels impossible to hold her head high. Not ashamed of who she is or what she has done with her life but she feels like the world expects more from her. But what? What is it that she’s supposed to do? She’s never had the face, never had the body, only had the words.
The words.
The words won’t get you anywhere she’s been told over and over again...but they have and they do. They do.
The words.
While she writes the words her back begins to stretch and feels like it is filling with air and she sits straighter and taller. Her eyes are suddenly passionate and powerful and determined as her pen races across the page. The ink stains the paper as the words gain speed.
The words.
The words come out and the page is filled and the accordion extends out - ready to be pushed in again.  Then she realises something, as it goes in and out beautiful music will be made.
That’s it. That’s the meaning. Immediately hit with the understanding that it all happens for the purpose of the words she smiles, looks at the page and stops writing.
The words.
Her back is straight and she waits for the next push from the world. She is now willing it to happen because she knows the push after that will be the push of the pen on the paper. The push to make the words flow.

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untitled

Utterly exhausted and yet this one small face
makes me feel calm.
Her breathing is rhythmic and
relaxing and causes my heart to slow.
Her fingers wrapped around mine.
Wispy hairs on her forehead.
Eyelashes kissing her skin.
She is beautiful.
She is mine.
I wish her every positive that is possible,
Every dream to come true,
Every wish to be answered,
And to lead a life full of wonder and joy.

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wordless wednesday

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tuesday's truth - showers

I rate showers. Yes, I said rate, not hate. I love showers, so much so that the rating system that the Burrows family created long ago is always in my mind.
It all goes back to being a kid and camping with my parents and spending many nights in caravan parks as we traveled around Australia. As kids my brother and sister and I would always grade the caravan park on two things - if it had a pool and if it had a playground. If we couldn't see a clearly visible pool or playground we wanted nothing to do with the place. We would always end up still staying there anyhow but we would still complain. For my parents though, if the park's showers were shit, well then we would all hear about it and whole family would be up in arms.

At once stage we traveled for some insane amount of time, I think it was for 3 or 4 months back in 1986 as we traveled all over Australia. We drove in a short wheel base Landrover that towed a Jayco camping trailer behind it. We would sometimes drive all day to get to where we were going and many of these places were literally in the middle of Australia where there isn't a lot of water.  It was long and boring in the car and to be honest sometimes we didn't have showers. We would get clean with tank water and a washcloth. So when we were able to have a shower when we were camping we would rate them.
We had a 0-10 scale. It was basically a 10 being the best and it went down from there. A rating of 10 meant that the shower had lots of rows of water that came out, stinking hot water and a lot of pressure. The showers that I remember the most out of any shower from that trip were the showers at Cooper Pedy in the middle of Australia - where Mad Max 2 was filmed. and where the opals came from. You had to put a $2 coin into a slot and a huge rush of jet powered water came out and then stopped literally 30 seconds later. You had to be fast.
The greatest shower I have had was in a resort on the island of Koh Samet in Thailand. Our shower was rainforest style and outdoors in a kind of fernery. It was a-mazing. I have a rain style huge showerhead now and it reminds me of Koh Samet. Not the same but the best I can get. When I am rich I will get the ultimate shower head that will score 11 on the scale. I imagine it will look something like this:

(image from Uncrate)

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music time

Wow. I adore this. A must listen. Black Hole Sun - The Section Quartet

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#snoCAL

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#snoWTF

This doesn't just happen in Santa Clarita. Snowpocalypse is in the house.

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1.1.11

The year of the rabbit has begun! My nickname is rabbit. Is it a sign? I hope so! This rabbit looks like it has mixo but that's ok as it is cute and adorable and Japanese. Rabbits have a strange association with Japan for me. The company I used to work for in Japan was called NOVA and the mascot was a pink usagi (rabbit). He was strange, actually almost evil but somehow millions of Japanese people walked through the doors of NOVA to learn how to speak English like a native speaker because of him. I found a brilliant collection of NOVA commericals on YouTube from the period around when I was in Osaka. Watch and see how evil this rabbit is.

Told you so. Insane little bugger. But I digress.
I wanted to show you some pictures of how we celebrate Japanese New Years and it's all about eating. Every year we go to my in-laws place and eat the most amazing homemade Japanese food. I don't know if it is because I am getting older and more appreciative of the details that Janet puts into the dishes but every year what she makes is better than the year before. This is strange as we always eat the same food - it's traditional! The table is set so nicely and as always with all things Japanese the fun is in the details.

See the the envelopes? They are for the kids and they have money inside - it's called otoshidama. Nice custom of giving money to kids for new years. See the kids chopsticks? Our kids are pretty handy with regular chopsticks but thats how you can make kid friendly chopsticks. Just fold up a napkin, put between the chopsticks and put them together with a rubber band. See sneaky tricks! Our chopsticks were in the gorgeous paper holders and yes I'm a pro so I don't use the kids ones.

Bring on the food! Janet spends a really long time preparing these dishes and it's easy to see why. Yes they taste amazing and yes they are completely traditional (except for the karage (chicken) and potato fries this year) but look to see the little things. I tried to take photos of everything this year so you could see the details...the shapes, the way things are placed on trays but it's still hard to show.

So we were lucky and ate amazingly good food and a had really nice start to the new year. Big thanks to Yo and Janet. Metcha oiishi. Arigato. :)

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random

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