Flowers of Egypt

I was just asked "what sort of flowers are there in Egypt?"

Flying into Egypt at the age of three, I remember the desert and was delighted by the "big sandbox". Most people have the impression that Egypt having a huge desert would not have many flowers. In fact flowers and oils of flowers like jasmine are a big export to France for example for the perfume industry.

In relation to ikebana as a child I observed the big flower arrangements for weddings being arranged by using a flower holder made of dried reeds held together.

In some schools, like the koryu schools a similar type of stay is used.

Bird of paradise, roses, tuberose, gladiolus flowers, nasturtium, bougainvillea and for trees silk tree, date trees and other palm trees, mango trees. For water plants giant reed, papyrus, lotus, nenuphar lotus water lily, other plants rice, cotton and sugar cane, root plants like potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin. Vegetables like okra, peppers and artichokes that are a favourite vegetable but an exotic ikebana material in Japan.

Other vegetables that are typically Egyptian are aubergines or eggplant, there is a white albino variety in Egypt besides the usual purple coloured one everywhere else in the world.

As the climate is usually hot and there is no severe winter, or autumn there are no autumn colours.

Cherry blossom trees have been donated by the Japanese but I have not heard of how they have survived or blossomed in Egypt.

The plants and flowers of Egypt were very well documented in 1798 when Napoleon Bonaparte was in Egypt. The Description de l'Egypte is available online through the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), the 11 plate volumes and the 9 text volumes owned by l'Institut d'Egypte. A useful search engine can be used in English and French.

Specifically the Histoire Naturelle IIbis has plates of the plants.

In 2008 after the last day of Wikimania in the BA I walked into a flower shop and saw many flowers that can be found everywhere like baby's breath gypsophila, not a flower I remember from my childhood in Egypt.

Marigold a bright orange flower was sold in bunches by lady vendors surrounded by their children, their name in local Arabic not very flattering because of their not very pleasant smell are highly regarded in ikebana because of their unique colour, so it is called "kinsenka" kin meaning gold, like in English, not "fisa kelab" dog's gas. Ikebana sees the good side of things.

Since ancient times there were plant symbols for Egypt, upper Egypt depicted by the lotus and lower Egypt the papyrus.

Further reading:

The Flowers of Ancient Egypt and Today by Jane Howard

Happy Birthday Kozan School, Happy Birthday Barbie

Tomorrow is my friend Barbie's birthday. She liked the pictures of Kozan School when she was looking at the pictures in the Ikebana International Magazine.

I asked Takeuchi sensei a Kozan School teacher and member of I.I. Kamakura chapter, she told me the Kozan school books in English can still be found. She also invited me to several exhibition, one in Yokohama Sankei-en garden and this year to the 100th anniversary in Ginza, Tokyo.

Kozan school headmaster Okada Kozan started his own school that emphasizes naturally arranged flowers.

Pictures of the exhibition will say more than I can.

The present Headmistress is a young mother so she did not mind posing with my five-month old grand daughter who was visiting her first ikebana exhibition.

Before the exhibition we had lunch so Chiyoko could see her auntie and Ginza with the Apple store a perfect place for men to hang out.

What I particularly liked was the layout and the way the arrangements were grouped with similar flowers or branches. The rope around different coloured stones defining areas was extremely effective, for example white stones just perfect with the big cherry blossom arrangement, the background white fine strings.

Happy birthday Barbie have a perfect day, and to your 100th birthday.

Palace ball and winter peonies

winter peonies

in Japanese they say a lady sits like a peony. Peonies are also auspicious in the New Year.

Kimekomi palace ball

Ikebana International Kamakura Chapter #51

18^th of February 2010.

Place: Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, Naoraiden Hall

At 9:30 there was the Shrine Maiden’s Dance and Shinto blessing. Early in the morning a sudden heavy snowfall foiled my plans to join.

Made it to the workshop but had to join a Japanese speaking group. As with ikebana one just has to watch to understand what should be done, language is superfluous as was the sheet of instructions in English obsolete due to the microscopic print and missing text at the bottom.

A bonus was being at the table of the teacher. She first learned to make dolls in 1971 and has been teaching for over 30 years. That was obvious by her choice for our workshop of making a palace ball. Instead of the usual silk thread ours was to be in the Kimekomi way, done by tucking beautiful colourful cloth into grooves filled with glue. A golden tread is used to cover some grooves. (excellent way of recycling old or left over kimono material)

Everyone was tucking away at the still uncovered part of the ball, the teacher kindly prepared half the ball for us so all we had to do is copy the other half.

I moved into a sunny spot to get some warmth and to eat my sandwiches during the lunch break.

The rest of the time everyone was concentrating so hard on the finishing touches, and on fixing the clever red tassel. Unfortunately there was little time to chat, as always it was too soon to leave the friendly atmosphere.

After the February meetings I make a point to visit the garden with the winter flowering peonies.

The best part was when my 4-month old grand daughter played with my hand made palace ball. I can see it decorating a big Christmas tree next year.

Thank you Sensei and all her friends who helped us achieve so much in such a limited timeframe.

More pictures of winter peonies by the pond at the main entrance in Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine. Map

Unfortunately after writing this blog there was another snow storm that uprooted the 1000 year old gingko tree in the shrine complex. This gingko tree was famous for its beauty and legend. Newspaper article description of the incident.

Geisha, seasons, flowers

Sayuki is the first non-Japanese, to become a Geisha. She became a Geisha in 2007 and talked to members of College Women's Association Japan for the 2010 January luncheon.

Here she is, kindly posing for me, as I interrupted her before her talk, she was checking the computer and her DVDs.

Sayuki is nothing you expect, extremely polite and gentle like a real Geisha should be, but also extremely intelligent.

She started becoming a Geisha for her research in anthropology and continued as she liked it.

In this picture she is not made up as a geisha with white make up.

My personal experience with Geisha in 1977:

I had one opportunity of being in a party with Geishas in Kobe, I was the unexpected guest, not too often that a young women (this was over 33 years ago) would join a party of men being entertained by Geisha. I was struck by how the "older" Geisha with a look would orchestrate the move of the others so that they would not be lingering too long with the same guest.

I wasn't too used to have my napkin placed on my lap or that much attention with what I was drinking or eating and the fuss of trying to make me try this or that.

This is when I found out that the idea most have of the role of Geisha is quite misunderstood.

They are real artists, entertainers who help liven the atmosphere of a dinner. Somehow in the same way as belly dancers help liven up a wedding in the middle east.

Seasons and flowers:

According to Sayuki, a Geisha should have at least 13 kimonos. The kimonos worn should be carefully chosen to have the flowers that will bloom in the next month. This is why my Japanese friend felt very uncomfortable taking a Nagoya style obi (belt) with a tulip design to wear in Scotland in the summer.

I assured her that no one would mind as long as she wore a kimono.

The hair ornaments should also reflect the season.

In her DVD Sayuki pointed out the pine design on her kimono and rice in her hair for the winter season. The rice can be used until the 15 of January when rice ornaments are burnt.

A picture of ornaments piled in a rice field waiting to be burned.

Geisha training is for one year and includes dancing and playing instruments as well as being able to perform tea ceremony, interestingly ikebana does not seem to be a requisite in the training.

Another name worth mentioning is Liza Dalby who also studied anthropology and was a novice geisha she wrote a book Geisha published in 1983 and served as consultant to the book Memoirs of a Geisha in 2004. It was also made into a film.

Special exhibition at Edo-Tokyo Museum

Visited the Special Exhibition on Ikebana-A Japanese Aesthetic through Time- An Exploration of Japanese Floral Art. http://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/english/special/now/index.html

(after the special exhibition was over the descriptions were removed, now you can find the current exhibit's description)

What does one expect from such an exhibition. At least a real ikebana arrangement. But that was missing.

In the exhibit space they had examples of ikebana arrangements of different schools made out of wax or some other material. The names were in Japanese, I asked the attendant to read it for me, the kanji characters were not familiar, the person in charge came and said they did not think foreigners would need the translation. All other exhibits had both a Japanese and English title.

When the "expert" said the first school is Enshu, I asked which Enshu? Maybe that is why the English titles were left out!

There were several films well worth seeing, many manuscripts or copies of manuscripts important in the history of ikebana.

For my friend, the end is the beginning of something new

This is a link to some ikebana pictures of arrangements by different schools at the Fair of Tokyo Founding Chapter on the 1st of December 2009.

One very stunning arrangement was that of Wafu School. Now I try to look at various schools more carefully especially after seeing their demonstration.

I also like the very simple arrangement by Yamamura Goryu using pine, two young branches of plum and "senryo" Sarcandra glabra, the design on the pale celadon vase was bamboo.

Unfortunately I got called away and did not take more pictures.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125114&id=602328388&l=438171a74d

Self Expression

If someone does an ikebana arrangement it is a sort of self expression. An ikebana arrangement mirrors not only the person's character but the current mood.

In previous blogs entitled rock and roll, martial arts and ikebana, examples were given of one headmaster using rock and roll in combination with ikebana, and the other martial art movements in ikebana. Some schools will have music accompanying the master arranging, sometimes it may be very traditional Japanese music like koto, soft background music or a pianist on a grand piano playing classical music, poetry and calligraphy are also used to accompany ikebana.

Whatever helps and enhances someone's imagination and concentration.

When I see something, it gives me an idea to do an ikebana arrangement. For example after seeing windows in Chinese gardens it has always inspired me to make such an arrangement.

The window below is in the Summer Palace near Beijin with a window that has two different paintings on two panes of parallel glass. One painting is on the front glass and the other one on the back glass, framed by the same window and with a view on the lake.(see below)

My arrangement above for the 50th anniversary of Atsugi Kado Kyokai (Ikebana Association of Atsugi) was inspired by the windows in Chinese Gardens. I used a bamboo writing brush holder to hang a small bamboo basket with and arrangement.

In front was another arrangement with the same yellow butterfly orchids and cycad leaves in a glass bowl. The hanging basket also had green necklace and the glass bowl in the front Euphorbia milii better known as "Crown of thorns".

Flower holder: To hold the flowers in the transparent glass bowl, a glass artist, Mr. Murayama made from sahara sand a flower holder. The sahara glass becomes a beautiful pale green when turned into glass. Another window into the past of the desert when it was green.

A window in the Summer Palace

A window in the Chinese garden in the middle of Naha city, carved in the window are peonies.

Japanese Garden

Ancient Garden 8th-11th Century

This is what is written at the entrance of the Japanese Garden in Expoland in Osaka.

"Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden was originally constructed as an exhibit by the Japanese Government at the Japan World Exposition, 1970.

The Garden has an area of 26ha in a long, narrow shape, stretching 1,300 meters from east to west and 200 meters from north to south. It is slightly inclined from east to west. Taking advantage of this topographical feature, the Garden design takes as its main motif a stream running eastwards from a spring on the western edge of the Garden.

The concept of the Garden follows the theme of Expo '70, "Progress and Harmony for Mankind," with the stream symbolizing human progress and the passage of time. Japanese garden styles and techniques representative of each era, from ancient times to the present, are arranged chronologically from west to east along the stream. More than a showcase of gardens of various periods, the garden as a whole constitutes a unified garden with a contemporary touch.

The Garden is comprised of four sections an ancient garden section at the uppermost reaches of the stream on the western edge, a medieval garden garden in the middle reaches, a modern garden in the lower reaches in the mountainous area, and a contemporary garden at the lowermost reaches of the stream on the eastern edge, combining the tradition of the three other gardens with features of the present-day Japanese garden, which will carried over into the future"

Ancien garden 8th -11th century

Medieval garden 12th-13th century and 14th -16th century

Modern garden 17th-19th century

Contemporary

Medieval garden

Rock and Roll, Martial arts and ikebana 2

Container before the demonstration on the right

The old schools or Koryu schools of ikebana are connected to martial arts.

October in Kenzoji temple in Kita-Kamakura, Ikebana International Kamakura chapter held their meeting. First there was a demonstration in the hall in front of the altar.

The young headmaster, who came from Kyoto, followed the steps of his father and grand father.

A very slight young man but with a lot of force in his dramatic movements during his ikebana performance which can be compared to an exercise in sword fighting. I can imagine young samurais after battle trying to relax by bending flowering branches of cherry blossoms. One slightly slashing a branch closing his eyes and raising the branch above his eyes close to his forehead and with a determine gesture bends a branch.

This is what I was actually seeing, but the samurai was a modern young man with a diamond stud in one ear and a fashionable belt with his sharp ikebana scissors in lieu of a samurai sword.

Everyone was silently watching.

At the end pictures were allowed.

Autumn tinted leaves of a classical arrangement of heaven, earth and man in a diamond shaped bronze container with legs.

Modern arrangement in a black rectangular container.

Material: Iris leaves and antherium flowers

The arrangement below depicts the dragon painting on the ceiling of one of the biggest wooden buildings in Japan, Kenchoji temple

Mr. Nakano Tenshin from Kyoto, grandson of Iemoto of Honnoji school

Rock and Roll, Martial arts and ikebana

The title rock and roll, martial arts and ikebana, do they have a common factor?
You might think they have nothing to do with each other.

In September Ikebana International Tokyo Founding Chapter had their first event and the headmaster was following his mother so it was the second generation of the school.

He showed us how his first memories of being taught ikebana he would split an aspidistra leaf.

The second arrangement using a Chinese cabbage was very pretty, however I am not sure I would like to have it hanging around my house for too long.

Then cutting Monstera leaves and arranging them with equinox flowers (higanbana) a pink flower that grows next to rice fields when the rice is ready to be harvested.

Monstera leaves with amaryllis flowers arranged in clear square containers. The 1st headmistress of the school in the background.

Several arrangements followed with at the end some of the students performing and the main singer whose ikebana name includes the word "rock", to reflect his role as a rock and roll artist.

The present headmaster working with background music from a rock band.

I was really surprised that such music could fit the mood of ikebana, but incredibly it did and it was an enjoyable experience everyone walked off with a lighter step, still mentally dancing to the music.

Iemoto of the Kasui School, in collaboration with Mr. Mickey Curtis and his band for Tokyo Founding Chapter in September 2009.

Ohara School, Machida Chapter's 30th anniversary

Here are links to pictures of the preparation and various steps behind the scenes of the anniversary preparations which was held in July.

The first day was preparation of two rooms in a hotel. A special group of people came to set up the rooms

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85660&id=602328388&l=c1937a8bb2

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85850&id=602328388&l=3fa9a9d5f4

Final preparation on the morning of the opening day

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86047&id=602328388&l=7db6576a80

Final day and cleaning up

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86497&id=602328388&l=71113ab07e

Another Ohara School chapter was celebrating their 30th anniversary in Tachikawa in Tokyo and I went to see it. Some of the container were the same as the ones we had in the Machida Chapter exhibition as the containers are on load from the Ohara School.

Both Chapter presidents are students of Professor Kudo.

Generations

Hiroki Ohara, the present and fifth headmaster of the Ohara School had this huge seasonal arrangement in a basket at the Takashimaya Department store in Shinjuku, Tokyo, during the yearly exhibition of the Ohara School Tokyo Chapter.

The first moribana exhibition was in 1897 and in 1912 the Ohara School was established by Unshin Ohara. He was succeeded in 1916 by his son Koun who developed teaching techniques for moribana.

Houn Ohara the third headmaster took over from his father in 1938 and under his leadership the school became internationally known.

His famous ikebana exhibit in September 1945 just after the end of the war was followed in November of 1945 by a joint exhibition with the Sogetsu headmaster in Kobe.

Houn's son Natsuki was born in 1949, he became headmaster designate in 1972 but unfortunately passed away in 1992. His legacy to the school is the very elegant style of Hanamai or "flower dance", and Hana-isho a style that is suitable for contemporary houses.

At this month's exhibition in October it was interesting to see the use of modern furniture and artwork from many countries as a backdrop to the Hana-isho exhibits. In the same way as I learnt many things from Japanese flower arranging concerning what can be used in combination with what and what should be displayed at a certain season, the same can be applied for other cultures and these new styles will encourage cultural exchange and mutual understanding for the coming generations.

By exporting ikebana, interesting containers and concepts have been imported and have been incorporated in ikebana. In some ways I was rather disappointed with this trend but I can see that it is necessary to arouse interest in the younger generation, and from there the original styles will also be appreciated.

Ohara School 5 generations:

1st Headmaster Unshin Ohara

2nd Headmaster Koun Ohara

3rd Headmaster Houn Ohara

4th Headmaster Natsuki Ohara

5th present Headmaster Hiroki Ohara

My rendition of Hanamai

Hanamai by Professor Kudo

Jasmine

Recently, I had some delicious jasmine tea, with only fragrant leaves. I was used to drinking tea with jasmine flowers in it. The smell of jasmine reminds me of summers in Egypt where jasmine garlands are everywhere. We also had a climber on the house and now in Japan I have the same but it flowers in May.

It is probably not a very popular flower for ikebana but here are two arrangements using a bowl, that I found is also used as a fish bowl in China and I used a shell to keep the flowers in place.

Egypt exports jasmine oil and flower essence to France, apparently one ounce costs more than an ounce of gold. A famous perfume called Joy has jasmine as its base.

I find the smell very pleasant and relaxing. As it is not the season for it now, its fragrance can still be enjoyed by drinking jasmine tea.

Free style with Bittersweet vine

Arrangement with my teacher's container

Material. 2 aspidistra leaves, 2 cosmos flowers and 2 branches of bittersweet vine*

My ikebana lesson this Friday was after a busy week including a long day in Tokyo on Thursday. I heard a lecture entitled “From the waters of the mountain to landscape” by Mr Augustin Berque who received the Fukuoka prize of 2009. He explained the word Shanshui, as it is pronounced in Chinese, in Japanese it is pronounced Sansui, which is a combination of two Chinese character meaning Mountain and water and was first used as a combination on the 3 day of the 3^rd month in the year 353 in the 40 poems written in the Orchid Pavilion.

This talk dealt with the beginning of appreciating landscape and how this has affected our way of living now.

At the moment I am reading the book written by Ken Follet “The Pillars of the Earth”. In the past living in a city is where civilised people lived with a wall surrounding their city. Outside were the outlaws.

Once landscape was appreciated houses, castles and estates were built with a “view” or surrounded by landscape gardens to improve the view. Landscape ikebana is one step further by bringing the view into the house or “tokonoma”, the special alcove in a Japanese house where one displays objects of art and flower arrangements.

Back to my lesson, my teacher had a choice for us of either doing an arrangement in a basket with autumn flowers and plants, a rimpa arrangement or a free style.

I usually would have opted for one of the first two, but wanted to relax so I did the free style.

At home I used another container, a present from Mrs.K, Professor K’s wife.

Same material in a different vase, at home.

Nowadays we are free to live where we like. We can live in the suburb to enjoy the landscape. In the lecture the role of the use of the car to seek the landscape and thereby unwittingly destroying it was an interesting point.

Vase

Side view

* Bittersweet vine, Ilex, is not popular as it can destroy trees.

Are we the same as bittersweet vine ?

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References: Orchid Pavilion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantingji_Xu

Mr. Augustin Berque: http://www.asianmonth.com/prize/english/20/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukuoka_Asian_Culture_Prize#Past_Laureates

Cyclamen

To answer my friend's question to why I called my blog cyclamen.

Cyclamen is maybe the second flower I loved. It meant picnics under olive trees in Lebanon and us children (at that time) picking cyclamen flowers that grew wild and smelt so good.

It does not seem to be a very popular flower used in ikebana. I have used it for my arrangement during the Ikebana International world convention in 2006 and also as in the picture of my blog.

During the world convention, I had no time to take a picture myself as I was very busy.

Then I used white cyclamen that looked like butterflies to me.

Here are pictures of my other arrangement during the autumn festival celebrating the 10th anniversary of Morinosato citizen's hall, last autumn 2008.

The container is a small rectangular flat container.

On the right side is a stone with moss on it.

Material: Pine, Japanese Pieris, Sasa bamboo, cyclamen flowers and leaves, moss.

I just love these delicate flowers as well as the heart shaped leaves.

Nowadays there are many bigger varieties, but I always like the small one with the soft fragrance.

One of the larger potted plants with one very interesting 2 toned flower.

Cyclamen planted under bamboo

Happy Birthday this Monday

Happy Birthday Professor K. I remember the day you asked me if I would like to go to a Japanese flower arranging lesson.
Your secretary was happy to accompany me and translate for me. I had just arrived in Japan and was surprised that such an eminent Professor would even bother to ask a young researcher like me.

So thanks to you, I had my first ikebana lesson that Friday afternoon. On Monday morning after the departmental meeting your secretary asked me to go to your office. You had something to tell me. I was quite worried.

There you were standing at the door and then proceeded to demonstrate the proper way to take off one’s shoes before going into a Japanese house. Also, never to put my feet on the ground where the shoes are and then ….I was stifling a giggle of relief and disbelief.

This was over 30 years ago and I still go to my ikebana lesson on Friday afternoon.

Thank you Professor and happy birthday for this Monday.

My ikebana arrangement at the 30th anniversary exhibition of the Ohara School Machida Chapter. A 2 liter bottle to indicate the size.

My arrangement in the middle seen with others in the corner for natural arrangements.

Ohara School, a brief introduction 2.

In the last blog I wrote a brief introduction to the Ohara School.

I had two questions: one from a friend asking what I meant by styles showing water.

The other question was in the comments about Houn Ohara's exhibition after World War II.

To answer the first question, in the past ikebana arrangements were made in copper container or other vases in an upright style. With moribana in a shallow container a larger surface of water can be seen.

Rabbit ear iris, pinks and St. John's wort with the water surface showing

At a workshop on the 14th of June 2009.

So as was said before the 1st Headmaster of the Ohara School, Unshin Ohara introduced the moribana style.

The second Headmaster Koun gave lessons in a classroom using a blackboard to explain. He also had a radio program. He introduced many innovative ways of teaching.

Now, to answer the second question, the third Headmaster Houn made a big arrangement in the show window of Daimaru department store in 1945, just after the end of the World War II. It was with the back ground of the painter Kakuzo Inoue. The material was a fig tree charred from the war, upside down with the roots at the top and with red flowers. The arrangement was significant by giving hope and lifting up the spirit of those who saw it.

His student Mrs. Ellen Gordon Allen received her certificate in 1951. After leaving Japan, she came back and founded Ikebana International in 1956.

Houn Ohara was good friends with other flower masters, especially the Headmaster of the Sogetsu School.

One way of securing flowers in a shallow container is by using a pin holder (kenzan), another way can be done using a holder called shippo.

Rabbit ear iris and cow lilly

Closer view of the shippo holders

Ohara School, a brief introduction.

Upright style.

I follow my friend's blog for Happy Monday and always enjoy it. Now for the past few posts it has been on different ikebana schools. As I belong to the Ohara school, I am writing something, although I usually find it more interesting to know what others think of it, so please comment if you like.

For an Ohara School person to describe the school in one sentence, I would say that it was the school that introduced the moribana style. Moribana, is a word that a newspaper reporter used when he first saw an exhibition by Unshin Ohara, to describe a new way of arranging flowers in a low flat container. It means piled up (mori), flowers (bana). The Ohara School website http://www.ohararyu.or.jp/english/index_e.html

This style was started by the founder of the Ohara School Unshin Ohara at the beginning of the Meiji period when foreign flowers were first being imported into Japan.

The use of the flat containers allowed other styles to develop the natural style and styles that will show the beauty of water.

Unshin Ohara was born in Matsue city http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&q=Matsue&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&ei=z66YSqHbMc2CkQXEj7SrAg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1

of Shimane a prefecture on the side of the sea of Japan, there is also a beautiful lake, Shinji lake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Shinji (Shinji ko), this influenced his arrangements.

Now for a simple arrangement.

I bought a triangular pinholder, kenzan, to arrange the flowers after a workshop in Osaka this summer. I just used a bowl for Chinese noodles.

Step 1.

Step 2 Notice the main stem is slightly placed forward.

3 days later

Thistle, 2 pink roses, gypsophila(baby's breath)

To give a three dimensional feeling the second rose is placed lower.

For me ikebana is like painting a three dimensional painting with real flowers. Unfortunately this cannot be well seen in a two dimensional photograph.

Women Professors in Japan

I was at the meeting of French scientists in Japan, Scienscope and heard the invited speaker who is a Japanese lady Professor who got her degree outside of Japan.

Obviously I am very naive because I applied to many of the new positions that have been made available at Japanese Universities for foreign researchers and educators in science as Professors or equivalent positions.

I asked if there were any non-Japanese women in such positions, but there weren't any. The percentage of women in top positions is around 10%. Interesting as it seems to be so in many countries.

After years I asked why I was not accepted, I got the reply that I was too old, before that it was "too young". My husband was encouraging me to pursue my hobby, he probably knew the situation but didn't want to discourage me.

Now my eyes are open, and in a way I don't feel so bad.

My first blog

Everyone is blogging, it is sort of like thinking aloud or writing a diary.