Tourmaline
Crystal Scabbard
If you are ever in the San Francisco Bay Area, I would recommend stopping by the Hakone Gardens which is the the oldest surviving Japanese-style residential gardens in the Western Hemisphere and is made up of a variety of hillside gardens, historic buildings, multi-tiered waterfalls and koi ponds, strolling gardens, unique lanterns, stonework and many other elements of Japan's ancient civilization. Many scenes from the film "Memoirs of a Geisha" were filmed at this location.
I visited Hakone Gardens not long ago and participated in a Tea Ceremony. I spoke to the middle aged Japanese Tea Instructor as she ceremonially prepared the powdered green tea in her kimono. She sat in the seiza position on the Tatami mat, where I and several other guest were also seated. This was all very familiar to me, having grown up in Japan myself.
She asked me if I liked Steven Seagal and told me that her husband studied Aikido with Seagal in the early days at his Dojo in Japan. It was an interesting experience to meet someone who knew Seagal long before long before he became famous, in the midst of this Buddhist inspired ceremony, and a ceremony that has displayed prominently in one or more of his films. her husband studied with Seagal at the same time I had lived in Japan as a young teenager.
The spirit of Aikido is alive in this place, the Hakone Gardens, and Seagal would be right at home here. Visit it if you get the chance.
Check out the website:
http://www.hakone.com/
I visited Hakone Gardens not long ago and participated in a Tea Ceremony. I spoke to the middle aged Japanese Tea Instructor as she ceremonially prepared the powdered green tea in her kimono. She sat in the seiza position on the Tatami mat, where I and several other guest were also seated. This was all very familiar to me, having grown up in Japan myself.
She asked me if I liked Steven Seagal and told me that her husband studied Aikido with Seagal in the early days at his Dojo in Japan. It was an interesting experience to meet someone who knew Seagal long before long before he became famous, in the midst of this Buddhist inspired ceremony, and a ceremony that has displayed prominently in one or more of his films. her husband studied with Seagal at the same time I had lived in Japan as a young teenager.
The spirit of Aikido is alive in this place, the Hakone Gardens, and Seagal would be right at home here. Visit it if you get the chance.
Check out the website:
http://www.hakone.com/
