Serene smiles

Polite bows abound.

Lovely girls delight the eyes.

Land of serene smiles…

Mystery of East.

Pretty girls. Almond

Eyes hiding behind shy smiles.

Mystery of East…

Tokyo.

Tall modern buildings

Block the view of Rising Sun.

Is Japan’s soul lost?

Mount Fuji. (Tanka)

Dominates landscape.

White hood against the blue sky.

Dormant volcano

One day likely to erupt;

Stands on top of Ring of Fire.

Kyoto.

Seat of faded dreams

Of Empire of Rising Sun.

The sun also sets…

Golden Pagoda.

Golden Pagoda

Reflects in mirror of lake.

Time is standing still.

Cricket in a box.

Box made of willow.

Inside the box a cricket.

Cricket is silent.

One Thousand Buddhas… (Tanka)

(From the Temple of the Thousand Buddhas, Kyoto)

One Thousand Buddhas

Standing in rows like a choir,

Standing in silence,

Singing the Song of Silence…

The Song of Eternal Bliss…

Lost in translation 1.

East is east, West’s West.

Polite smiles. Words fail… no sense…

Lost in translation…

Lost in translation 2.

“Which way to Centre?”

“Ah so… Moment prease… Excuse…

No undelstand you”….

© P. J. Oszmann (March 2004. Original photo of the Golden Pagoda in Kyoto)

I just returned from a long, tiring, but eventful trip. No doubt it will take some time before I am able to get back to any writing (other than essential correspondence); at the moment I am preoccupied trying to catch up with day to day mundane tasks, like paying bills and reading piles upon piles of accumulated mail and email.

The first country I visited was Japan and there I made some short notes, which I present here.

Haiku and Tanka is a good way of making notes and what could be more appropriate than taking notes in that format in the country where the art-form originated.