Sojourner - Traveling with the “Canman”

My Nagoya friends invited me over to see how they make and eat sushi and Sukiyaki at home. What an amazing experience topped off with superb Japanese white wine. The Sushi ingredients are fresh and all that is needed is a hint of washabi and soy sauce. The key to the sukiyaki was adding cane sugar and cooking sakai to the broth. The thinly sliced meat was very fatty like a wagu, giving it tons of flavor. Oishi as they say in Japanese for delicious.

Would you live your life differently if instead of the 70 or 80 years you hope to have, lifespans are only 8 days? I recently rediscovered a story written by Ray Bradbury in 1946.  Many years ago it helped shaped my perspective on the rush-rush dilemmas sometimes posed by modern life. In the story, "Frost and Fire" , a group of human explorers are trapped on a planet. Birth to life encompasses only 8 days. They frantically attempt to live their life and make sense of their existence.  You can listen to a radio version of the story at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= AJ1P_bfbgfk&feature=youtu.be How would I live my life differently if I only had 8 days?  Ideally not too differently than now, if I am "living in the now" ala Eckhart Tolle.  What about 800 years?  In a way that is what religions like Christianity or Buddhism attempt to fortify you with. i.e. living forever.  

Hopped a flight to San Francisco to visit family near the Mendocino coast, close an open book, and attend the world famous Cotati Accordian Festival. The redwoods are so big, strong and SILENT. You feel their presence. Something to learn from this. I stayed in my Aunt Lil's old cabin. I drove up on a moonlit, foggy nite to the remote cabin. Such wonderful solitude to reflect or shoot a haunted movie. 👀🌙I shared a meravigliosa Italian meal with family. Great grandchildren to Aunt Lil. Dinner was a plethora of home grown vegetables and homemade gnocchi. Aunt Lil worries that the farm is running down. You can see it and is a vivid reminder that nothing on the earth stays the same. Visiting my 92 year old Aunt and her 89 year old "baby bro", I pondered the question again, what to do and where to live when one's working career is over? Their lives center around extended family, living in nature, and growing. Can that be enough? On this trip I closed one chapter in life.