"I will keep this book the rest of my life"

I get letters and emails every month from readers all over the world.  I just got a lovely handwritten note from Switzerland yesterday.  I feel, strangely, a bit shy getting them.  Perhaps those of you who have lived in Japan will understand my feeling.  To be praised for this book is both pleasing and gratifying, personally, but also kind of embarrassing.  "Who, me?"  

Your author

I mean, I do know how many years of my life I put into this book, and I wrote it with all my soul, revising and revising and polishing endlessly.  And, sure, I'm proud of it.  But resisting the temptations of pride and accolades is one of the themes of the book.  I must be cautious.  But on the other hand, I also am so full of admiration of the people in the book, and it is their lives that makes it a meaningful and powerful piece of work.  So it is not "me" (whatever that is!) that wrote it, but just the spirit of the people I wrote about, plus all that I have received from the other people in my life, my collaborators and teachers, that I was able to manifest.  

Also, I live a life that has allowed me the time to write the book, and that is simply privilege.  I remain aware of that.  Still, if I've used my life in such a way as to have written a book that fosters a letter such as the one below, than I feel like I have spent my days well. 

Murata walking down the road
with his son Kohei

 From Bonnie Young,


I, too, am a librarian, and I agree that A Different Kind of Luxury is one of my very favorite books. I will keep this book the rest of my life, and will enjoy it again and again.

For me, "A Different Kind of Luxury" has a life-changing influence. I decided to underline quotes in the book so I can refer to them later. One quote that I am taking to heart is "what I need, I have." I think about that every day. I take "need" to mean not only material things (although definitely that) but also spiritually, mentally and physically. That is my favorite quote in the book, expressed by Kogan Murata. 

Nakamura's Kitchen

My favorite chapter in the book has to be the interview with Osamu Nakamura. I adored the photos of his simple but beautifully elegant home! I also underlined many, many paragraphs in that chapter. Andy, your description about building a fire and making tea (and others) are simply poetic. I read them aloud to my husband in the car while driving (he was trapped).  I enjoyed hearing them again, only this time aloud. 

Nakamura's craftsmanship is admirable, but so is the art and crafts of many of the other personalities in the book. Because of their influence, I have started to buy a few pieces of pottery and I have signed up for a pottery class!

The book itself is beautiful. I enjoyed the color photographs in the front and even the size and shape of the book is lovely. I like how it opens so you can appreciate the beautiful black and white photos and art.

I talk about your book, the ideas (simplicity, slowing down, making do, etc.) to others, and so far my sister and my sister in law each bought a book!

Nakamura's workroom

Thank you, Andy, for the hard work you put into this and for your exquisite writing.

Bonnie Young



PS: When you answered the question "what do you really need? and the answer you gave was " love."  I tell that story to people when I describe the book and I ponder that thought often.  It reminds me to put people first - enjoying time with them, slowing down, cooking for people and expressing love - just like all of the wonderful Japanese folks you interviewed.

I haven't read "Tiger Mother"- I prefer "richness and great beauty"

Apparently there's a book out called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.  But I'm not going to read it.  I know this is a provocative idea to put out in public, but I feel firmly about it, and I hope to persuade you.  

Do either of these people look happy?

What I do know about this book comes from a review I heard on the radio, and from a caption of photograph in the NY Review of Books in which the author refers to herself as  "mean me" while glaring at her daughter practicing the violin.


Apparently in "Tiger Mom" the woman contentiously brags about her daughter performing the violin at Carnegie Hall, and that she is "mean" to her daughter, pushing her to succeed.  The reviewer on NPR doesn't like the methods, but expresses a wistful longing at the results and laments that she (the reviewer) will not be sending out invitations to her friends to see her own  daughter perform at Carnegie hall.  That daughter expressed some laziness of some kind about her violin practice.


The mother of this girl is a professor at Yale, a fact that the NPR reviewer also presents as something wondrous and awe invoking.


To me, this is a lot of "same old, same old."  The question imbedded in the review is, "Is it worth it to make your children suffer, to discipline and punish them, if they achieve 'success'?" After uncounted millions of heart attacks and other stress related-diseases throughout the past century, I often wonder why we are still debating this.  Is acclaim that important?


But maybe I should address why would I presume to criticize a book in public without even reading it?  Here's a quote from my friend Kai's (amazing) blog.  Kai quotes from  "Tools for the Transition to Sustainability" in the book, Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update:

Information is the key to transformation. That does not necessarily mean more information…It means relevant, compelling, select, powerful, timely, accurate information flowing in new ways to new recipients, carrying new content, suggesting new rules and goals. When its information flows are changed, any system will behave differently.

(And by the way, Kai's blog is the perfect example of not "more information" but relevant, select information".)


I know some people feel like they need to listen to Fox News so that they can counter those toxic arguments. I disagree.  You are what you eat.  Do we have to taste mercury regularly to be sure it's poisonous, or to build up our immunity to it?   I feel it's ridiculous to spend the days of my short life drinking in ideas I feel are heinous and destructive.  I want to spend my reading time with poetry and beauty, and if it's information, it should be "relevant and select powerful information" that will help me have a better life, or will help me in my work in, and understanding of the world.  


The article in the Wall Street Journal is titled "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior."  It shocks and saddens me that we are still mired in such debates.  A Different Kind of Luxury is many things, but one of them is an extended look at the utter destruction of our souls by being over-busy, striving for success in the eyes of "the world", strangers mostly, and of course the destruction of the earth and everything for our future generations along with it.  Carnegie Hall??  Is it really worth that?


I heard this quote once, I don't know who said it. It is about a famous movie director, talking about his reputation after he dies: "It's wonderful to live on in the hearts of your audience, but it's better to live on in your apartment."


Here's really fabulous quote, by Jiddu Krishnamurti.  I found it on a blog called Whiskey River, which is great in itself, and really gives an example of what this quote says. 

"You know, it is good to hide your brilliance under a bushel, to be anonymous, to love what you are doing and not to show off. It is good to be kind without a name. That does not make you famous, it does not cause your photograph to appear in the newspapers. Politicians do not come to your door. You are just a creative human being living anonymously, and in that there is richness and great beauty."- Jiddu Krishnamurti

I will close with a short excerpt from the book. Chapter 9, from the introduction to that chapter:

Koichi Yamashita in his rice fields

            So many wisdom teachings talk about humility.  Yet our daily habit is to admire people with advanced degrees or important positions.  We may even, if we have certain socially-recognized accomplishments ourselves, fall prey to the all-too-human tendency to get proud.  Even if we don't, we tend to think of them as a safety blanket, trying to blunt the edge of our own worries by saying, "I'm established in my field."  In tandem with this, many of us look down on manual labor.  "Anything but!" our psyches seem to cry.  But how much are we letting these assumptions choose our priorities for us?  Is it possible that we are losing something nourishing without even knowing it?  Koichi Yamashita has gone in his life from being a university professor to, as he calls it, "an artist of farming."  He's found a living philosophy, in the true meaning of both of those words, and a feeling of sympathy with the entire life world in that most basic of acts, growing his food.


[later in the chapter]

            When I ask Yamashita about his studies, he tells me that he studied the Upanishads in Sanskrit, can read classical Chinese and published the first book on Japanese grammar in English in India.  With his wife Asha, he published a book of on the culture of Darjeeling and the ancient to the ancient Buddhist kingdom of Sikkim to the north.  It has much of his research on festivals and folk religions, and is also a walking guide to many of the temples and monasteries there.   But I can tell that he doesn't have one shred of attachment to these accomplishments, or any feeling of entitlement about the respect he should get for having these letters after his name.  His voice is exactly the same answering my questions about them as it is when he tells me about raising chickens or the paperwork he has to do at the elementary school where he teaches.

Have you read it deeply?-- A letter from a Mormon reader

I received a letter last week from someone I never met, someone who was touched by A Different Kind of Luxury in a profound way, as you will see reading part of her letter below.  She is a Mormon who lives in Utah, and has shared the book with women in her book group, and it really inspired those women as well.

Dorothy's letter made me consider the years of time I put into exploring these 11 men and women’s lives, and incorporating what they have said into my life, and also, I should admit it, to consider the enormous labor I put into doing the interviews, translating, shaping and publishing this book.  Fifteen years of my life.  

I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of letters and emails and phone calls and the people who I’ve met at the readings, and how they  have been moved by the book. 

I know, as well, however, that the same forces that pull people away from themselves, that pull them away from a rich full life, that distract and waste away our lives, those same forces are still at work.  Some say more so than ever.  It is in this context that I hear from people who have read only a bit of the book.  Perhaps there's more in this book for you yet?

One person I know has a strict policy of reading only one book at a time. 

Masanori Oe,
profiled in Chapter 11 of
A Different Kind of Luxury

So, before sharing Dorothy’s letter with you, I’d like to encourage you to delve deeply into A Different Kind of Luxury. Chapters 8 and 9  and 11 are particularly profound.  Even my publisher said about Chapter 11, “That one is a real mind blower.”  (He’s not a man given to hyperbole.)

If you’ve read the book, perhaps consider giving a copy to a friend, there’s something called Buy a Friend A Book “the site that encourages visitors to surprise their friends with the gift of book”  or a site like Pass the Book  where you put a little note in the book, and hand it on to someone else.  You could also write a group email to your friends about the book The ordering link from Amazon is here http://amzn.com/193333083X  (You can cut and paste that link into an email). 

Or you could also get it from your local independent bookseller.  Another thing that truly helps is to write a review on Amazon and tell your friends about that.  Reviews that are most useful have a some specific details about why you like this book, or why it was important to you.  

Perhaps at minimum, just send your friends to this blog, and let them explore around themselves a bit.  I'm not writing all this to boost sales, I should say.  Selling this book is not how I make my living.  Most of the money goes to the bookselling industry.  I write this because the stories in the book have inspired and helped so many people, and the onrush of trivia and blinking distraction is so strong in our culture.  You can see what I mean by reading Dorothy's letter:

Dear Andy,

I have just finished A Different Kind of Luxury and wanted to express to you my gratitude for this amazing work.  It has taken me a year to carefully excavate the precious bits of wisdom from its pages and incorporate them into my own daily walk.  I could have read it much faster than that, but sensed in the first paragraphs that this was something to be cherished, explored and carefully worked through, or much would be lost to me.  This is not a 'reading book;' this is a 'pondering book!'

I have taken this book to book groups and shared the insights and truths with women who would never think to venture out of their role as conservative Christian  housewives.  I commend them for being brave enough to crack the pages; instead of something that threatened the fabric of their lives they found a feast for their souls for which they didn't even know they were starving.  (I lost a copy that way--it never came back home!) 

This is a sacred season for our family right now, with many changes and the growing up of children and so forth.  I have felt deeply rooted and well centered during these transitions because of the offerings you have given me.  For that I thank you, though I feel a bit at a loss after spending a whole year having my own inner workings  nurtured, and am now wondering “what comes next?”  Still, it is fitting that I seek and find the next pieces, the relationships and other bits that will continue what you have begun--as well as my own means of offering the light I have been given to those who are also seeking.

I thank you for this outpouring of self and call down the gifts of the Universe in response. Gods all bless.

Gratefully,

Dorothy Guinn

SECOND LETTER EXCERPT, IN RESPONSE TO MY QUESTIONS:

How I found  your book--my teenage daughter is an absolute Japanese freak since about the age of 3 (she is now 18).  She taught herself how to cook, write and speak Japanese-and shares with the rest of us.  We joyfully hosted a Japanese exchange student for a few weeks right after the tsunami and then my daughter organized a fund raiser comprised of local students and raised over $3,000 for Japan.  So we are always on the lookout for good Japanese-anything to satisfy her appetite, and when ordering something else from Amazon this book was suggested. I actually bought it for her but fell in love with it myself. 

What do I do with my days...hmm...that is a loaded question.  I LOVE to combine much reading with study, meditation, journaling and 'clearing work' of old belief systems that no longer serve me, and would gladly spend the majority of my time in this pursuit!  I have lived in the Northwest, Las Vegas and Texas, though currently I live in northern Utah.  Yes, I am a "Mormon," though we are encouraged to use the 'correct title of being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We are a homeschooling family.  We actually share the same philosophy offered by Koichi Yamashita, on pg 259, "I teach them how to study. And after that, they can teach themselves." My husband and I have been together for 25 years and have 3 children.  For our book club I ordered an extra copy of A Different Kind of Luxury  to share because I was unwilling to part with mine so others could read it!  Most of them ended up ordering one as well and the extra somehow got absorbed into someone's household and never made it home -which pleased me immensely as the lady who kept it had been rather narrow of heart and mind and this cracked her wide open to the ideas that people of other cultures / faiths could still be deeply spiritual in their own good ways.  I have since thought of buying another copy to turn into one of those books that float around the world such as http://www.bookcrossing.com/   In the mean time, I'll probably donate one to our library. :)

About Christian ladies: as mentioned above, I am LDS as are the vast majority of people here, so incidentally the women in my book club were also.  I have embraced the concepts of so many different belief systems, that I often rock the boat at church, in book club, at co-op, etc. I am a huge 'word junkie'--I love the way words feel inside of me and their power to express ideas and thoughts and new opportunities in life, just by rearranging them a bit.  Anyhow, being able to do that with an underlying layer of caring allows me to introduce some pretty outrageous concepts to these straight-laced women, and they listen and surprise themselves by agreeing. 

Wakako Oe
profiled in chapter 7

The first thing I introduced to them was on page 197-198 from Wakako Oe, though I admittedly tweaked the words just a bit to keep from scaring them:  "So you felt the spiritual life was the reason for their vitality?" (That caught their attention as we also believe this.)  "Yes, exactly. Because of this Larger Presence around them, bigger than humans, what you might call God--because they could always feel that consciousness they themselves would be lit up...Without that Presence, people can lose themselves, and not know what they are doing, what their values and principles are.   They get confused. But because the eyes of God are on you, you become visible to yourself; you reexamine who you are."

They were hooked.

(I knew that this information, this different way of looking at every day life, struck a cord when one of them quoted that same passage back to me when we met the following month to discuss your book, not remembering it was the one I used the previous month when I introduced it!  They loved the ideas and the slow way of working through it, almost as if it were scripture--which is the way I think of it, too.  Many, many passages were quoted and with excited voices they shared the depth of what they had craved to find in their own lives.  It was always there, but your words uncovered it, validated its worth and then set it in motion.)

We talked about the grain and muffins being served from the area near the nuclear reactor and the mother-activist protecting her family and community.  This was also easy to relate to as daughters of Pioneers who hiked with bloody bare feet across frozen prairie stubble in order to provide for their families and escape governmental persecution.

Osamu Nakamura
profiled in Chapter 2

I explained that I had found much light and truth for myself in these pages in the concepts of recognizing time as an energy source to be cherished and cared for in its own right rather than only to be spent in the acquisition of other energy exchanges (money, material objects, etc.).  Then I told them my favorite part of when you asked  Osamu Nakamura (pg 57) "Why..." collect wood, cook this way, live this way, take this much TIME to do everything, etc.? His reply rocked my world and changed everything about the way I think and do things-- and the reasoning behind them.  "Everything I do is because I completely enjoy doing it this way."  and pg. 63 "...enjoying the pleasure of meeting his needs with his own hands..."  

These two ideas added together told me that when I give enough time to any 'doing', it has the potential to become a pleasure.  Drudgery comes into play for me when I feel like I have to hurry and get the meaningless stuff done so I can have enough time to enjoy the good stuff--which never happens because there is always too much every-day junk that needs to be done.  When I flipped this over in my mind and invested my sink full of dishes with enough time to enjoy them, their prettiness, usefulness, the caring they offer my family, etc., suddenly the memories of shared meals they held turned them from dirty dishes to scared relics of my family's communion of breaking bread together at the altar of our very own temple/home (the kitchen table!), and I became the keeper of that flame with the opportunity to do it again with each meal prepared and shared and cleaned up. 

As mentioned before, I would gladly spend my time buried neck deep in the words of books, meditations and journals, and in the past had often come to resent the daily 'work' of living.  So this new way of  thinking is very profound to me.

THIS, my new friend Andy, was the message to me in your book:  TIME ALLOWS EVERYTHING I DO TO MATTER, TO BE BEAUTIFUL, USEFUL, NEEDED, ENJOYABLE;  AND IN THE PROCESS, SO AM I.  

Painting by Jinko Kaneko
profiled in Chapter 10

“Don't forsake the realistic; infuse it with spirit.”--Jinko Kaneko

I thank you for your generous gift of your time in creating this marvelous work, sharing life/time with these amazing souls and then in corresponding with me.  I am honored. I look forward as the year closes to following Atsuko's wise counsel.  It feels good to allow myself time to settle inside and feel what comes next, thank you for the reminder!

Blessings,

Dorothy Guinn

(a Zen-Baptist-Light Worker-Mormon!)

The Lone Wolf Parable: New Years Greeting from Ito-san

Here is a New Year's greeting I received from Akria Ito some years ago, and I offer it to you all, with Ito's beautiful illustration.   He wrote it from his home in the woods in the deep mountains near Mt. Fuji.  The other clue to this parable is that it was sent to me as Ito himself felt his years on Earth coming towards their end.

One hundred and fifty years ago there were many wolves in these mountains, as well as wild boars and pheasants.  Then in the Meiji period humans started to enter these parts and began to cut trees for sale.  The wild mountain wolves were reduced in numbers.  Finally there was only one left, and he began to get old.   One day he caught a pheasant and brought it high up to a rock to eat.  He sat on this big rock, and while gazing out on Mt. Fuji he chomped away on this bird, then, losing touch with all thought, he entered into a trance of ecstasy, and his soul departed his body, which was then changed into a rock.

Lone Wolf and Mt. Fuji
by Akira Ito

 The villagers later renamed this stone 'The Rock of the Huge Wolf," and occasionally they would journey up to this stone and made offerings of pheasant to it, and prayed for the soul of this great wolf. 

Read more about Akira Ito and his life in Chapter 6 of A Different Kind of Luxury. 

Interview with Japanese Anti Nuclear Activist

Hi.  If this is your first visit to the blog, please check out the book excerpts and reviews first (above).  This post deals with the ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan, and is an interview of a man, Koichi Honda, who is very active in fighting the electric utilities who still want to run nuclear plants in Japan, or even build new ones.  We sent this group "Sayonara Nuclear Power" $450 to help them copy posters and flyers for a series of protests at the Iikata nuclear plant in Shikoku. The money was donated by many people who attended my public book reading events this year.  Thank you. You can't imagine how much this money helps.

In A Different Kind of Luxury I did not profile Koichi Honda, but he is an associate of Atsuko Watanabe, who I do profile in Chapter 3.  She's been an anti-nuclear activist for 30 years, joining with with this man  in many protests.  I detail one of these protests in the book.  If you want to help with money, PLEASE do so by sending a postal money order to Honda care of Atsuko Watanabe.  Her address is Tokushima Ken, Kamikatsu-Cho, Fukuhara, Kami-Yoko-Mine 17, JAPAN 771

The webpage for Sayonara Nuclear Power (in Japanese), is here.

If you want to write to Honda, his email is hondak@mb.pikara.ne.jp  But please only contact him if you are able to help out, not to just ask general questions, since he's a very busy man.  If you have signatures (see below for details on this) send please in mass, not just one at a time, or emails, again in mass you can send it to his email address.  

Honda served as a city councilman in Tokushima city (where I used to live) and was a candidate for mayor.  He's now an organic rice farmer.  I wrote about him in a blog post last year.   Here's the interview:

Andy:  Has the government given up on trying to build nuclear power stations?

Koichi Honda: They will never give up trying to build new power plants.

Andy: What is the situation with the power plant in Shikoku now? (Honda lives on the island of Shikoku, the smallest of the four main islands, and where Andy lived for four years.  It’s across from Osaka.)

Koichi Honda: Anti-nuclear activist and
former city council member in Tokushima Japan

Koichi Honda: Currently of the three reactors two are idle for “routine maintenance” and safety checks, and one is operating.  By law, the prefectural governor of Ehime Prefecture must approve the restarting of a reactor after it has been idled.  The power company has to ask the local government for permission.  Right now, the Ehime governor doesn’t think the people will accept a restart.  In February of next year the third reactor (there are three reactors as part of the Iikata complex) is scheduled to shut down.  We are taking a local strategy since it’s much more difficult to get the national government to change. 

Andy: What can people in the US do to help with this?

Koichi Honda: Send us a message, that the people of the world will not accept the re-starting of reactors in Japan.  That we get support from people all over the world will be very helpful.  Signatures of many people, if you can get them, is really helpful.

Andy: And what about agricultural products from your prefecture [Tokushima]?

Koichi Honda: Sorry to say, but there is no food in Japan that is not contaminated.  None.  It’s just a question of whether there is a lot of radiation, or a little.   From our area, our own experts [that is to say scientists allied with the anti-nuclear movement]—the ones with very very good measuring machines—say say that the radiation in food products from Tokushima prefecture are very low, but nowhere in Japan is “0”.  We have nothing to do but accept this. It is better to think that it’s time for us Japanese to accept our responsibility, our duty, and eat the foods we produce here.  The very rich, the really  rich people, they can afford to get all of their food from overseas

Andy:  Why do you say “duty” and “responsibility”?

Koichi Honda: Because we Japanese failed to stop nuclear power.  Nuclear radiation never gets extinguished. [the word Honda uses here is: “kienai”  which is a term used for flame which can be put out, or not put out in this case.]

Andy: And what is happening now in Fukushima?

Koichi Honda: The government told people in certain radiuses--10 or 20 or 30 kilometers--to leave.  They became refugees.  But inside this radius, certain areas have higher and certain areas have lower levels of radiation. 

Andy:  Is the government giving them money?

Koichi Honda: Yes, but it’s very little, about $1200 a month for a family [prices are much higher in Japan of course].  And that gets too expensive for the government and the power company, so it is saying that “if you want” you can move back to certain areas.

Andy: One thing I don’t understand is that the US military ordered evacuations in a much larger area…

Koichi Honda: The US army knew the wind patterns and let their people know where was dangerous.  The Japanese government knew this as well, but it hid these facts from people.

Andy: Wow.  So effectively the Japanese government is being less responsible, and less transparent than the US military?!!  That’s hard to believe!...  So, my next question is how are ordinary people in Japan responding?  Will this change politics in Japan? 

Koichi Honda:  Ordinary people are being told by official scientists, and government ministers and by the official media, and the large corporations who own the media who have ties to the power companies, all of them are saying every single day to people that it’s going to be safe if the radiation is at “this level”.  We [in the citizen’s movement] can find out on blogs that certain children are suffering, that blood is coming out of their noses, and not stopping, but if you don’t follow these blogs, perhaps you don’t know. For example, there was an area where all the elementary schools were evacuated, and when the government said it was OK to return if you want to, 2/3 of the students returned, and 1/3 did not.   So many people are not changing their views, and the government and the ruling parties are all solidly pro-nuclear. 

Andy: So what is your group’s strategy?  What is the plan for the anti-nuclear movement?

Koichi Honda: There will be a large nationwide parliamentary election in 2 years.  The Jimin party, the Minshu party and the Komei party are all pro nuclear. [respectively, the “liberal democrats” in power for most of the post-war period—hard right; the “democratic” party, currently in power, but only marginally to the left of the liberal democrats; and a large nominally Buddhist party] Only the Shamin party and the communists are against nuclear power.   So our strategy is to work individually on each candidate to have them make their stance on nuclear power clear, and to tell them that we will not vote for them individually if they are pro-nuclear.  But they are getting huge payoffs from the electrical companies.

Andy: but why, why do Japanese people still believe these lies?

Koichi Honda: I myself don’t understand.  Why hasn’t there been a big change after such a big accident?  They hear the news on NHK [the national broadcasting service, like the BBC] and they think whatever is said there is correct.  The politicians say “we must continue our research and improve our technology and nuclear power will be safe.”  It’s really incredibly unfortunate and sad.

Andy:  Are people cutting back on electricity use?

Koichi Honda:  The government said that starting Dec 1, everyone should reduce their electricity use by 10%, it’s a national campaign, and that people should heat with kerosene and not electricity.  The large outdoor neon signs for the pachinko gambling parlors are dark.   

Andy: Only ten percent?!  Japan is the most electricity intensive country in the world that I have ever seen!

Update on Nuclear Situation in Japan

I just spoke on the phone with Oizumi.  He's asked us to buy him some radiation meters, and we've finally been able to find ones that are appropriate.  I'll tell you how he's going to use them below, but first, here's what he reported about nuclear power in Japan.

San Oizumi, anti-nuclear activist
profiled in Chapter One of
A Different Kind of Luxury

"There are 54 nuclear reactors total in Japan.  Only 14 are currently in operation.  Since the earthquake and tsunami and the meltdown at Fukushima, they [the government or electric companies] have not been able to restart a single one.   All the planned reactors that are in the pipeline to be built have been halted."

I asked Oizumi if he thought that if the conservative party [the LDP] got back into power that they would be able to restart those plants.

He said, "That's not going to be so easy to do, the citizen's movement is too powerful."

So that's good news.  And I should say, Oizumi (who you can read about in Chapter One of the book) is not at all prone to wishful thinking or blind optimism.

Still, of course, there is terrible nuclear poisoning that has happened in Japan, and good and trustworthy data is very hard to get.  (Remember the government and Tokyo electric swore that there had not been any radiation at all released in the first week after the tsunami.  In fact, there were three full meltdowns.)

Oizumi said that he and the others in the local citizens movement (Oizumi lives in Central Japan, near the city of Nagoya which is between Tokyo and Osaka) are forming a group to monitor radiation levels, and have gotten a very large and sophisticated radiation monitor.  The seven devices that we are buying for him and sending there will be sent to Fukushima, to Miyagi prefecture, and to the plant in Hamaoka.

Oizumi with his second daughter

The best news however, is that through conservation and the reduction in electricity use in Japan since the disaster there have been no power outages.  Oizumi said, "By turning down air conditioners and reducing power usage, Japan has had enough power.  And that means that we do not need any more nuclear power stations, and that we do not need to restart any of the closed ones.  We have enough."

The people, their art, the land, the way of life: a slideshow

The photos are beautiful, but their words, their way of thinking, and their choices in life are so much more. You can order the book here.  

Paper or Plastic?

Just recently, I made a bet.  A large, money bet.  I never bet, but I was very, very sure.  I made the bet with my dear friend Matt Stevens, the simultaneous interpreter from Japanese to English (who, by the way, helped to translate much of the difficult work of Masanori Oe in Chapter Eleven, and translate it brilliantly.)  The bet was for a thousand dollars.  (!)

It started this way.  Matt said to me, offhand, “Soon you’ll be reading all your books on a Kindle.” 

I said, “Oh, no.  Definitely I will not.”

Matt disagreed fervently, so I offered him a bet, and I made it big, to indicate I was serious.  And instead of five years, I gave him ten years.  I know I cannot lose this bet.  I will not be reading all of my books on a Kindle.

Nepali Papermaking Process
Woodblock by Akira Ito

Before we go on, let me ask you question: Do you feel like you A. Spend too little time looking at a screen?  B. Spend just the right amount of time looking at a screen?  C. Spend too much time looking at a screen?

Me, I’m in category C.  I bet most people reading this blog (Yes!  A blog on a screen!) would answer C. 

I could ask the same thing about paper or plastic.  Do you more enjoy holding paper in your hands or more enjoy holding plastic in your hands?

Aside from the feel of paper in our hands, (that alone should be enough) aside from the longevity of a volume on a shelf, aside from how many electronics we already have, if we really believe that this current system of energy use is "unsustainable", by a strict dictionary definition, and thus cannot and will not continue, do we really feel like "publishing" for an iPad or Kindle is something that will "live on"?  Do we feel it is more environmental?  Something that requires electricity to read?!  I mean, that’s absurd.  Haven’t we had enough nuclear disasters?  Coal disperses mercury.  Oil and gas require wars and drilling.

Handbound book on
Handmade paper from Nepal

Let me say it: Paper feels good.  Unless it burns or rots, it sticks around.  It does not need a power source, a server, or a credit card. You can make notes in the margin of your book.  You can turn down the corner of a page. You can make your own beautiful hand-bound book.  You can take a paperback to the beach.  You can go into any library and pick up a book printed *one hundred years ago* and just open it up and read it.  Sure you can look that book up on the internet and see and read those same words, if you can find it, but it’s not the book itself that was printed a hundred years ago.  Try these out in your mouth: “The rare book room.”  “The rare digital text downloaded from a server.”

What about the trees, though?  First of all, I’d say that if anything deserves the resources of this green earth to be used on it, it’s good writing, poetry, and splendid fiction.  That is after food and shelter, of course. (Although I know a man who lives outside, under a bridge.  But he is never without a book.  Last time I saw him he was reading Pliny the Elder.)  


Secondly, people are recycling paper.  Thirdly, trees grow and replenish.  Fourthly, I just got ten pads of paper today made from sugar cane.  If we really want to take the destruction of trees for paper seriously, let’s declare a WAR then on junk mail, let’s make our own published writing as beautiful and important as we possibly can, and let’s not give a red cent to publishers who print dumb books.

Then what about the convenience of downloading books?  The line usually goes: “All I have to do is want the book, and in seconds it’s in my hands!” 

All I can say to this is, “Do we really need even more instant gratification in this world?”  Has it made people any happier?

Ok, if you just want to check the weather, or find out what’s happening in the world political scene briefly, and you don’t want to buy a whole newspaper full of ads that you will just chuck in the recycling bin, then OK, check it online if you are one of the privileged people on the planet who have a computer and internet access.  But a fine literary magazine?  A book?  


It's true that some people read books like people eat potato chips, perhaps an electronic version is better in some sense. Or if you are just extracting information out of them, then perhaps you’ll want a Kindle, I really can’t say.  But I can’t imagine losing books, books on paper. One of the great joys of meeting a new friend is to go into their apartment and look at the books they have on their shelves.  What are they interested in?  Who is this person?

Here’s an excerpt from A Different Kind of Luxury.  It’s about a beautiful hand-made book, made on hand made paper from Nepal, by Akira Ito (please read more about this wonderful man in Chapter 6).

But of all the quite different works at the exhibition, the most moving for me was the smallest: a hand-sewn volume that fit into a box about the size of two packs of cards. The book, a loving documentation of traditional Nepali papermaking processes, displays Ito’s affection for the ways of life of traditional rural peoples.

See detail, below

“I made this,” he told me, “as a way to try to support their way of life at the time that industrially produced paper was coming into Nepal from factories in other parts of the world.

Akira Ito

The paper itself is baby soft, and so pleasing to the touch that I felt myself relaxing just holding it in my hands. In the gentle images on each page, I find women walking mountain pathways with straw baskets on their backs, while the trees, the river, the yaks, the clouds, and even the rocks of the mountain themselves vibrate with Ito’s energetic line. Nepali men in woolen caps harvest branches from saplings which, on another page, are soaked in a rushing river and then beaten against rocks. Like the meshed fibers of the supple paper, the people seem completely woven into the energy of the landscape.

In this book I can feel what Ito cherishes. The entire process of boiling and pounding the fibers, sieving the pulp in screens under a thatched roof, drying the individual sheets in the sun or by the fire, are rendered in such an intimate and inviting style.

Ito manages to have the book “say” (without saying) that in these mountain villages of Nepal, the daily life of the people, their artisanal craftwork, the specific local culture and the entire life-world are enmeshed into one single fabric.

As Ito says, “The good things of the past, that’s what we must preserve. They have passed through the hardships of history to become a tradition, and we who are alive today must treasure them, and take care of them for the future.”

Akira Ito with author Andy Couturier, showing
this book.

In a rare moment, Ito expresses some of his frustration with what's happening with this earth. “For the sake of money, and for the sake of ‘economic  activity,’ people try to change things, products, works of art—everything—as quickly as possible. To win at competition, everyone tries to make new things as quickly as possible. The acceleration of transportation, mass movement of merchandise, the forced cultivation of vegetables in all seasons, excessive lighting and air conditioning, and limitless information: the change is much too violent and intense. The human body and spirit cannot withstand this kind of acceleration. This is what I hate the most. For the sake of this changing, the world is being ruined. I don’t want to get involved in it. It’s better to be poor.” 

Akira Ito, craftsman

Here’s another excerpt from A Different Kind of Luxury.  It’s also about hand-made books but this time sewing together other people’s writings, by Mr. Osamu Nakamura (please read more about this wonderful man in Chapter 2). 

Nakamura shows me a number of books that he has bound by hand, and explains the Japanese method of sewing together the cloth-and-paper covers. I look at each of them and shake my head imagining how much time and care went into making them. Given how much labor they take, I realize that it is only possible to make a few copies of each, and that only a few people will ever see them. It seems a lot of effort for very little reward. But then I think that in contrast to a book published by machines in a factory, the simple potency and beauty of a hand-sewn book gives the reader pleasure of an entirely different order.

Osamu Nakamura with a handmade book on handmade paper

One of the books Nakamura has bound comprises a few photocopied pages on how to weave sandals from rice straw. Spending time with Nakamura, I see that the process of making something like straw sandals or a handmade book cultivates humility while connecting us with something fundamental about our humanity: the interaction between the remarkable capacity of our own human hands and the ingenuity of our minds.

Now, picking up the book on how to make sandals from straw, its pages only photocopies, I understand that through his binding them in a cover of black and red Nepali cloth, they have become something of beauty where something functional would easily have done.

As Nakamura says, “Making things with one’s own hands cultivates a generosity and openness of heart.”