Ysengrin does not like hugs

This photo was taken in Kyoto this past summer, during the run-up to the Gion Matsuri. Various neighborhoods in the city construct massive wooden floats, gloriously decorated, and for a week before the festival these floats are lit up at night and most of the city becomes a giant festival. I took this outside one of the "home bases" of one of the floats: the float topped with a staff bearing a crescent moon, hence the moon character you can see on one of the lanterns. Straw rope usually denotes a holy place, although these divisions can be treated so casually as to shock Westerners with more rigid ideas about sacred spaces. I can't claim to understand these things myself, having done no in-depth study about it. But a torii gate does much the same thing, and these can stand over a busy pedestrian commercial street without anyone feeling there is any conflict in this blend of the mundane and the divine.


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What do I do on a Wednesday night? After I have been at school since 9 in the morning, having spent the entire day in meetings, consultations, presentations, brainstorming sessions, discussions, and hard work? When I ate my breakfast on the walk to school, spent my lunch in a CV surgery session, and ate my dinner in 5 minutes before I went to Japanese class for two hours? And then walked home afterwards to arrive at 10 PM, a half-hour uphill hike?

Sit at my computer and read scholarly blog posts, of course.

subsiding_leaf posted a link to this academic blog post on friendship, which is absolutely fascinating. I recommend reading the comments as well, they're quite interesting.

I had a boyfriend a few months ago, which probably surprised the hell out of anyone who knows me-- I admit to being a bit puzzled about the whole thing myself (still am). He was puzzled that I told him I absolutely wouldn't cancel plans I had previously made to see my friends in order to hang out with him. I was puzzled at his puzzlement.

It's hard for me to think of any relationship that can be stronger and more important than some of the friendships I've known. The only thing I can think of that comes close for me is my family-- and actually, I tend to think of those bonds as friendships, too. I'm endlessly grateful for the blood relationship, because if not for that I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to become friends with such a diverse group of people.

The article I mentioned above contains further links to a series of lectures on the subject of friendship, which ironically took place here in Edinburgh. I haven't watched them yet, but I hope to sometime soon. One of them is over here on YouTube, and is an hour long.

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In other news, I can't help but approve of stories like this. Fair play to the fox!

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"There are things lurking in my saved draft posts that would make a heartbroken 14 year old go 'oh come on, that's a bit much.'"

Ysengrin does not like hugs. He punishes them with words of wisdom.