Zen-garden designed by the Zen-monk

Very interesting.

http://www.kenkohji.jp/s/english/index_e.html

Ultimate minimal / Chashitsu- Japanese tea house

Revisit calculus: keep dividing 1 by ever decreasing number, and the result becomes larger and larger and larger.....toward infinity. 1/0.0000001, 1/0.00000000000001, 1/0.000000000000000000000000000001......

Zero has infinite power.

Yes, zero is null itself, but by being null, it can have infinite power. This is like zen.

Japanese traditional Chashitsu (tea house, tea room) is designed to be very very small as if it wanted to be infinite by being physically null.

Discover some concepts and philosophy that are embedded in 20 square feet or so confined room where most minimal and sophisticated ceremony happens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chashitsu
http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/architecture/japanese-teahouse.cfm
http://www.teahyakka.com/chashitsuElayout.html
http://takatsuka-architects.com/suki&sukiya.htm

It reminds us that we don't need huge or extravagant things to be rich in mind. We can release our mind to the world of infinity by allowing ourselves close to zero, physically and conceptually.

Super lunch! Bento box

Eating little bit of everything is one of the key philosophies of Japanese cuisine.

For presentation, it requires putting together little bit of everything in a coordinated manner. Beauty: well balanced nutrients intake, enjoyment of eating and aesthetics - it's almost an art.

Bento lunch box (to go) is a simple, daily-life version of little bit of everything. At home, Moms have been making Bento for family.

There are a lot of websites that talk about how to make Bento; authentic(like the pic), casual, fun and Bento for kids! Check them out. Or you will find whole bunch of information just by Googling by "Bento box".

Great alternative for brown bag.

Lunch in a box
Cooking cute
USAlifehacks (Japanese)

Stay cool! Sensu, Uchiwa and Higasa

Sensu: Japanese old style fan.


World of artisanship.






Uchiwa is also a traditional Japanese fan but much more casual.











Higasa ( parasol) has evolved a lot. Most of today's models cut UV rays.

If you want to mimimize the use of air conditioner, ask people who lived lives without air conditioner! They have so much to offer.

Sensu http://www.kururi.net/SHOP/sensu1.html
Uchiwa http://www.kinuito.com/nshop/feature/uchiwa.php
Higasa http://allabout.co.jp/fashion/fashionitem/closeup/CU20080516A/

Futon: Japanese minimalism in bedroom

When I first came to US, I was amazed to see that "futon" has evolved somehow and did not look like Japanese original futon.

The original futon bedding is just mattress and blanket. No frames whatsoever.

I guess the idea of futon was to live efficiently in a small country/small house.

Futon is foldable. Traditional house rule is that you have to fold your futon and put it in a closet when you wake up in the morning. You pull it back from the closet when you go to sleep. In that way, you can keep your futon clean and use the room for something else during the day.

Living in a smaller house is one way to reduce our carbon footprint. Futon will fit nicely in a small house and help you use the space efficiently.

Do you really need one of those pesky “beds” taking up space in your home?

Mimimizing input, maximizing output

Japan is geographically small and isolated. It has very little resources except for water. Up untill the middle of 19th century, Japan had almost no contact with foreign countries; it had to live on what scarce resources it had. Japanese needed to be the expert in efficient resource management....to survive.

I belive this is the underlying secret for the success of Prius (most energy-efficient hybrid vehicle) and whole bunch of other energy/resource efficient products that Japanese companies offer. For centuries and centuries, Japanese were under constant pressure to maximize output by using minimum input, which probably became our second nature.



I took lessons for Japanese flower arrangement for a very short time of period. I was totally amazed when I dawned to me that it was not the flowers that I was arranging! It is the space or dimention in between or around flowers that I had to capture and display.

You don't have to have so many flowers to impress people. Mimimum is beautiful because it's not all about flowers. Japanese flower arrangement enjoy the combination and interaction of what is there (flowers) and what is not there (nada). Art of minimum input.

photo by: YAYAYAYAYAY!

Need a name! nuno zori, cloths sandal, eco zori, recycled sandal

Eco-samurai is moving to a new website! 
Updated version of "How to make nuno-zori" will be added shortly.
In the meantime, enjoy new posts.
******************

I wrote several posts on "how to make a nuno-zori". Since then, I've been knitting some myself. What I like with this easy-to-make cloths sandal is that next one is always much better than the previous one! Improvement is sooooo obvious!

My previous "wanna-be-sandal"s didn't make it to be worn by me because I wasn't very impressed with the finish. So I am redoing them.

But I can wear this one!

For those who didn't read the previous posts, this sandal is called Nuno-zori. You can make them with your old cloths (T-shirts, towels, pretty much anything you want). It is really between reuse and recycle; EoL cloths change their forms physically, but not biologically or chemically. But probably I should call it "recycled" because the old cloths transformed to something else.

This is very easy to make, and definately revive the old cloths in a very useful way. I think it deserves a nice translation.

Nuno-zori simply means cloths sandal, but it's not just that. It uses recycled cloths and can be easily hand-knitten by anyone. even kids. Keep your room and toes clean. Washable.

Nuno-zori --- eco-zori, eco sandal, recycled hand made sandal, recycled sandal.....

What do you think is a nice translation to the inspiring nuno zori??

What is Mottainai anyway?

2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai re-discovered the Japanese word "Mottainai". By the way, I was lucky to be at Dr. Maathai's lecture when she came over to California last year. Such a smart, strong, empowering woman of dignity. I was totally impressed.

"Mottainai" is translated into "what a waste" or "don't be wasteful". Until re-discovered by Dr. Maathai, Mottainai was rather a grandma's saying or one of those old-fashioned virtues. If you were to toss the food you couldn't finish, your grandma would say "Mottainai, you still can eat it or your cat will!" If you are throwing your cloths away because they are totally out of fashion, she would say "Mottainai, we still can wear it or use it!". If you keep your tap water running while chatting, she would come and say "Mottainai, shut it off!" Basically, "Mottainai" was the word to remind you that what you are wasting still retain some residual value which needed to be used again.

Mottainai, in one sense, is a symbolic word that describes Japan's poor days (probably up until 1950) where people couldn't afford to waste anything. Food, fossil fuel, textile, metals......nothing was abundantly available.

When Japan started see a tremendous economic growth after 1950, we rapidly started to forget about "Mottainai" because we were suddenly surrounded by plenty of stuff. We no longer needed to feel "Mottainai". We were free to toss anything that were once recovered....and now considered waste.

Then, why can one country once poor be now so rich in materials?

Japan does not have much resources on its soil. When we used to live with whatever we had, we were materially poor. Just simply, economic growth made it possible to import huge amount of resources from other countries. What makes our lives rich now mostly come from other regions! If, for some reason, we have to go back to the situation where no import is available, "Mottainai", once again, will be a call to survive.

Import is as if we are borrowing resources from other countries or from environment, especially when those countries are suffering from poverty, or we are degrading environment. If we try to re-distribute the resources fairly (such as fair-trade or conservation), resource flow would be totally different from what we see today.

Mottainai reminds me how unfairly or unsustainably the resources are distributed right now. If the resources are fairly or sustainably distributed, no one on earth would have luxury not feel Mottainai.....

who is eco-samurai?

I came to US a couple of years ago. As an environmental professional, I am intrigued by the fact that different countries/regions have their own version of being green.

Japan has its unique tactic to be green: Live small.

I wish to introduce Japan's tips to live small, lean and green. And I'd like to hear other version of being green.