Found in Japan

Fork

2011-05-28T21:06:00.003+09:00

When you come to a fork

in the road,

Pick it up.

I found this fork

in New York.

In the middle of the road

in Soho.

On the back,

it says

"Japan"!

Happy Finding to all and to All a good Find

Found in Japan

JGY

Glamorous, Fabulous--Front and Back

2011-05-28T20:46:00.002+09:00

Happy Finding to all and to all a Fab Find!

found in Japan

JGY

pink origami and meiji meltykiss wrapper

2011-02-11T22:09:00.004+09:00

Early
Valentines
Finds

Early Valentines

Happy Finding to all and to all a Good Find.

Found in Japan
JGY

Paper Clip & theory of breath

2011-01-21T21:15:00.006+09:00

I keep finding paper clips lately.

Whenever I see one it reminds me of meditation.

I talk on this blog about things containing messages, and the paper clips seem to be asking me to share a meditation with you.

It is a taste of meditation-- a simple way to begin to pay attention to your breath…

On behalf of the paper clips being dropped around the neighborhood, I share it with you.

I call it the The Tomare Paper Clip Theory of Breath:

Relax in a comfortable position.

Begin to observe the inhale and exhale of your breath (into and out of your nose).

Imagine your breath like the shape of a paper clip.

When you inhale, imagine one of the long sides of the paper clip, then imagine the exhale is the other side.

Inhale, exhale. On the next inhale, imagine the top ‘curved” part of the paper clip. This is a “pause/turnaround” (tomare) in the breath.

Exhale and at the end of the exhale, once more imagine the breath stopping briefly and turning back around.

Begin to sense this movement: Inhale (up long side of the clip), Pause/turnaround (top curvy part of the clip) at the end of the inhale;

Exhale (down other long side); pause/turnaround after the exhale.

Inhale, pause/turnaround, Exhale, pause/turnaround,

Inhale, pause/turnaround, Exhale, pause/turnaround…

Pay attention to the “pause/turnaround” where the breath “stops” between each inhale and exhale.

Feel the luxurious quality of each precious inhale and exhale.

Keep watching this elongated oval motion of the breath (*For this breath, all inhale and exhale are through the nose, the mouth remains relaxed), until you fall into a rhythm, This watching or paying attention is the beginning of meditation. As you continue to do this for a period of time, little by little something new opens up in the “pause”, which is where the magic and the reality of meditation can be experienced.*

*excerpt from meditation article in this month's TheTombo, Oita's international newsletter

Happy Finding to All and to All a Good Find

JGY
Found in Japan

pointsetta

2010-12-25T00:51:00.003+09:00

M E R R Y C H R I S T MA S

happy finding to all and to all a good find

JGY

Found in Japan Game--Play it at the New Year!

2010-12-04T20:55:00.009+09:00

In the Found in Japan Game, you play with 100% found-in-Japan playing pieces. Move around the board; see if you can be the first to arrive at Mt. Fuji. Pick up 'garbage' along the way and turn them into treasures as you clear the roads to make the area around Mt. Fuji clean.
That is the idea of the game, where you may recognize the found items that I post along the way here! When you land on a 'found item' you jump to the next found item; when you land in a "picture frame" (garbage turned to treasure), you move the same number as the number you rolled on that move and advance in this way towards Mt. Fuji.

In Japan, playing board games and card games is a tradition around the New Year, from January 1st and into the first weeks of the year.
Today I had the idea to make the game available as the end of the year draws near.
I don't have an FIJ shop, so I am using this post to let you know about it.
It's fun to play with your friends and family.
The original JGY Found in Japan Game comes with instructions; a set of original assorted found-in-Japan playing pieces(many of which you've seen posted here!); and a pair of dice.
All for $12.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling!

If you are interested to order, please write me an e-mail at joannegyoshida@yahoo.com and include the address you'd like me to ship it to. Payment total of $17.00 can be made through paypal.

I know I once said that one thing I love about blogs is that it's pure thought and nothing is for sale, but as the thoughts consolidated into "form" I wanted to make it available to any readers who might like to play!

Today my daughter found a new "playing piece" which I posted below. Be the first to order and receive this playing piece with your game!!!

And, if you'd like to request a set of playing pieces specially found for you, please add that to your request, and I will put on my special Finding Glasses and do so at no extra charge. Just allow an extra few days for the 'finding' time!

Happy finding to all and to all a good find.
JGY

Playing Piece

2010-12-04T20:26:00.003+09:00

Found in Japan
JGY

Heart Glasses---Part III to Found in Japan, mystery

2010-11-21T19:48:00.005+09:00

Things we loose are things we no longer need
Things we need

find us.

(would you believe it if I told you the glasses flew into my hand, from the roof opposite, I had no idea they had hearts when I saw them from above, they fit the two side pieces perfectly; but they don't like to be inside too much, now they are out watching the moon;

for those who are following the mystery, you'll be happy to know the glasses are back together with the side pieces, here for now anyway, until someone else needs them)

happy finding to all and to all a good find

Found in Japan
JGY

Japan Flag

2010-11-15T08:06:00.008+09:00

Today the roads

are dotted
with

Japan flags

Found in Japan JGY

origami and chelsea--front and back

2010-11-03T22:55:00.003+09:00

origami and chelsea
has a poetry
to the patterns
almost the same actual size, but I can't tell you
which is front and which is back?

Childhood color flower, heart leaf, patterned leaves, and a Chelsea wrapper

2010-10-25T15:25:00.012+09:00

f

i

n
d
s
for

fall,

General note: On finding patterns,
After some years of this finding business, I notice that finding certain
wrappers = signs of seasons for me, and like the leaves on the ground, maybe certain ones 'fall' to the ground around now;
today I wonder if wrappers fall into seasonal patterns...remembering these Chelsea wrappers I found one Halloween Night... do you find any similar patterns where you are?

chelsea wrapper for John

Note to Lady Ren of the Arts, I am listening to the song "Crimson and Clover" from your post as background music to these finds. Thanks for the accompaniment.

Happy finding for fall and to all a good find.

Found in Japan
JGY

3000 yen

2010-10-11T14:34:00.003+09:00

Three thousand yen flew into my hand.
These bills I planned
to take home and scan.
Instead I put them in a can
for that they should turn
into
music.

(what comes in from a breeze goes out with ease)

Happy finding to all and to all a good find.
Found in Japan JGY

Gum

2010-10-05T20:53:00.002+09:00

come
together
s

Dont try
to figure it out
eventually
all the
piece

don't try to figure it out eventually all the pieces come together*

*each of the pieces found separately from the ground up

happy finding to all and to all a good find
♡
JGY

Ice Cream

2010-07-21T21:21:00.003+09:00

I scream

You scream

We all scream

For

Ice cream!!

Happy Summer,

Happy finding to all and all a good find.
JGY Found in Japan

Dear Crow

2010-07-14T20:37:00.003+09:00

Now I know (or am pretty sure)
it's a crow who has brought me these finds

Now I know
it's a crow,
She's the one who lifts
such gifts as
mirrors and J's
Umbrellas and frames

waiting for me to see that it's she
who's spelling my name

It's not a coincidence that she flies these things
up to the sky, deposits them under
the roof of my eyes

The roof which houses children at play

Oh crow you dear trickster,
Your game's mine today

JGY
Found in Japan

Found in Japan Mystery, Part 1--edges of glasses

2010-06-11T18:20:00.005+09:00

Three or four days ago I noticed the two side pieces from a pair of glasses on the street in front of my apartment. I mentally registered the place and object and went on, without picking them up.

Two or three days ago, I noticed there was only one of the side pieces on the street. I registered it again and made a mental note, to keep an eye out for the other piece. I like happy endings, and I felt distress at seeing a pair split up.

Later that day, I saw the other part of the pair on the other side of the street, picked the two up and brought them home with me, happy that they were now together again, unaware that there was more to the story than meets the eyes...

(continued...)

Found in Japan Mystery, Part 2--main part of glasses

2010-06-11T18:10:00.006+09:00

This a.m. I walked out onto the outside corridor of our apartment when my daughter left for school, as I always do. After I waved goodbye, I looked out and down 6 floors, at the children walking to school. I then looked up to see if there was a moon, but knew there wouldn't be one yet.

This is when my eyes noticed the object on top of the roof below, almost staring up at me. Could it be the frames from the glasses that the two white side pieces I'd found (above post) were from.

I ran to get my camera for some zoom-in action. Can you see it there, sure enough, it must be the glasses that went with the sides.

But how did it get on that roof?
Was it a message for me?
Was there something I'm supposed to see, in this unusual unfolding, this completion of a find?
I asked the usual finding questions, finding it's never purely a coincidence.

I looked up in the direction she (the glasses) was now looking, thinking perhaps after all , there was a moon that she was pointing me to.
But no moon. It's not yet the cycle for the new moon.
She pointed up to the great expanse of sky and agreed...

" indeed,
a mystery", she said to the vastness and to me...

Found in Japan Mystery, Part 3---seen through the frames

2010-06-11T18:07:00.002+09:00

Pink Washi (2)---a gift, for you*

2010-06-05T10:32:00.004+09:00

I found that I could use this pink wa-shi, to wrap a gift,
in thanks for using your imagination and for seeing who she might be...

*to all who stop by,
Happy finding to all and all a good find

Pink Washi

2010-06-02T17:40:00.002+09:00

I couldn't get it to scan in a way that it would come across as light and delicate,
so I leave it blank, open to the imagination...

happy finding to all and to all a good find,

JGY

Lost and Found

2010-05-26T14:52:00.002+09:00

In the department stores from Oita to Tokyo, I found there are Lost and Founds tucked away in the basements, with business-like and at the same time angelic clerks who hold your lost items and await your return.

A lost item takes a surprisingly short time to find it's way to these tucked away corners.

Just the other day I lost a scarf on the 8th Floor of our local Department Store at a busy food festival. Soon after I realized I lost it, I traced my steps back to the wakame seller who sold us wakame when we first entered. I told her of my lost item and she directed me to a desk.

The person at the desk then directed me to a phone on a wall, from where a voice from seemingly far away asked me a few questions about my lost item and confirmed that Yes, they had it, and asked if I could proceed directly to the basement floor, behind the sake & liquor area.

I went down eight floors by stairs, amazed that my scarf could have found it's way down here so quickly. I was guided past the sake and Japanese liquors, to the small corner where a man in glasses sat behind a desk with my scarf neatly folded in front of him with a white square of paper and some notes on top.

I sat in one of the faded upholstered chairs, comfortably, as if I had just been called up to the front of the class or to the pearly gates to heaven. I signed my name, received my found item, and smiled. Passing back through the sake and Japanese liquors I turned back and think I saw a smile and a wink from the man at the gate...I mean the man at the lost and found.

:)

Happy finding to all and to all a good find.

JGY
Found in Japan

A garbage can

2010-05-14T18:45:00.004+09:00

Look at this.

There's a garbage can.

I don't know why I'm surprised to see one here.
hmmmm.

(opening the lid to deposit my cup)

slight laugh, also not knowing quite why I laugh, and listen to the birds... see a shadow of my hair and hand on this page...post fades out to two items that I pick up from the ground nearby...

JGY
Found in Japan

50 yen coin and my own hair clip

2010-05-09T16:40:00.003+09:00

I followed my own advice,
never to leave a find un-turned,
and to my surprise,
I turned over the silver side of the hair clip
and it was
my own rainbow hair clip.

I hadn't even realized I dropped it, or when I'd lost it.

Finding something that was mine on the road gave me a childish sense of happiness,
like finding a 50 yen coin (which I found on the same day!).

Happy finding to all and to all
a good find.

JGY
Found in Japan

mysterious blue key

2010-05-03T10:32:00.005+09:00

what doors will it open, the mysterious blue key?

Found in Tokyo, found by me.

JGY Found in Japan

Azaelea

2010-04-22T12:56:00.003+09:00

I scan you, azaelea
not wanting to judge
Oh, but look at your pistils
They make a
perfect swirl

Joanne Gover Yoshida
Found in Japan

Azaelea, back

2010-04-22T12:53:00.002+09:00

We rarely look
at what is behind
but tell me, azaelea
how do you find
this human behavior,
this scanning
of mine?

Joanne Gover Yoshida,
Found in Japan

A cork on a pink carpet

2010-04-17T22:23:00.004+09:00

Petals flutter,
cherries dance
falling to the floor.
A pink carpet
covers all,
dappled sun
galore.

Amidst these flakes I find
a cork,
as leaves are turning green.
A little man whose bib is red
asks me for
a fork.

I plop down onto to the ground.
Searching for a rhyme...

(left unfinished, as I find that the cork has led me to savor the bubbly evanascent of the scene...
)

Found in Japan JGY

fragment of verse for the man with the red bib

2010-04-17T22:20:00.005+09:00

You are lost and I
am Found,

A lexicon
is on the ground.
The things not written
in the stars,
those not seen by passing cars--

a seventeen,
a twenty two,
the universe
becomes see-through...

(it was just around then that I spotted the cork)

Happy finding to all and to all a good find.

JGY

birthday cake mascot

2010-03-20T22:06:00.003+09:00

A birthday!
What is the message here, I thought---celebrating the birth of each new moment that connects us to ourselves and to the world around us....

JGY
Found in Japan

playing pieces for Francesca

2010-03-17T16:15:00.007+09:00

They always dreamed of going to Italy.

JGY

Playing pieces for Kay

2010-03-17T16:07:00.004+09:00

Valuable, trusty, rusty and rare,
classic finds can be found everywhere.

glad to hear they've safely arrived and have been meeting with lots of vintage in Holland....

JGY

pink petals

2010-03-14T20:07:00.002+09:00

A pink flower is
as..???...says
made up of many
forevers

JGY Found in Japan

cat in a mat and blue find

2010-03-10T18:26:00.006+09:00

Our thoughts need to travel and sometimes they wind up
attaching themselves
to things.

I'd been thinking of mats
in royal and pink
when down by my feet
a cat said hello,
as if with a wink.
(you, otli?!)

How I arrived in this coffee shop is another tale.
Without giving it a thought,
through the door I did sail;
when the proprietess saw me land
in her shop, she said "just a minute" and let everything drop.

She told me her son found something for me--
the 4th of this blue find!
Which just a few minutes before
had been on
my mind.

Happy finding to all and to all a good find. JGY

correction on beginners mark

2010-03-04T23:35:00.003+09:00

I found out that the mark I found and posted below is not a beginning driver's mark, as I'd thought, but rather the sign of an elderly driver.
The beginner's mark looks similar but the shape is more rounded and flower-like. The colors I believe are the same. **
Someone pointed this out to me.
Still, I will leave the post and maybe there is some message in the mistake.
Maybe as we get older we forget that we are still, and always...
where one begins.*

* from RMR

**correction on my correction:
the colors are not the same, or rather, the yellow is the same;
but the beginners mark has green next to the yellow, where the elderly drivers mark has orange

beginner's mark and a rilke quote

2010-02-26T22:41:00.003+09:00

"I tell you that I have a long way to go before I am-- where one begins...
...I want to beg you, as much as I can, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

Resolve to be always beginning--to be a beginner!"

--Rainer Maria Rilke

*beginners mark,
JGY Found in Japan

peace sign earring (front and back)

2010-02-17T17:11:00.003+09:00

Joanne Gover Yoshida
Found in Japan

second confession of love(back)

2010-02-15T20:16:00.004+09:00

Found in Japan
JGY

second confession of love

2010-02-15T20:02:00.003+09:00

I was walking with my daughter when I looked down and saw this button.
Oh! The second time I found one of these, how lucky,
I said.
My daughter said it's probably the second button from the top on someone's school uniform.
How do you know? I asked her.
She told me that boys give the second button from the top off their uniform to confess their love to a girl. And the buttons I was finding must have been dropped by the recipient.

I accepted it as a message of love from the universe on that day-before-valentines day.

Happy finding to all and to all a good find. ♡ Found in Japan JGY

New Chelsea

2010-02-04T20:27:00.004+09:00

In the south of Japan,
a wrapper
dreaming of the snow

for inspiring wintery wrappers,
all the way in Finland:
lumetta

two new playing pieces

2010-02-02T16:44:00.003+09:00

Right one, for Donna

Found in Japan JGY

Blue Zipper and Fish

2010-02-01T15:27:00.006+09:00

I see some alliteration happening
here
The "i" in the "ip" and
The "ish" in the "fish"

I wish to un-zip
the whole sea
and take a long dip
oh so lei-sur-i-ly

You'll find in the vastness of great sky and sea,
there's enough blue for you and
enough blue for me

Happy Finding to All and to All a Good Find
JGY

Aphrodite

2010-01-28T21:53:00.007+09:00

Adonis adored her
As did Ares.

The goddess of Love.

愛の神
アドニスが愛し
アレスが愛し

女神がクレープに

Joanne Gover Yoshida
Found in Japan
Translation thank you to Kazuko

Rainbow Strip

2010-01-27T13:58:00.004+09:00

H A P P Y F I N D I N G T O A L L And T O A L L A G O O D F I N D

JGY, found in Japan

taking my cues from a strip of color

Beace

2010-01-27T13:29:00.006+09:00

Idea for a bumper sticker:
"Don't Pass it By--
BEACE!"

where found: on the bridge coming back from yoga
colors: red and white
dimensions: depend on the way you say it
notes: at first I passed this by on the bridge on the way to yoga.
On the way back, I heard it's message, thinking it said "PEACE" , as the letters "PEA-" and "BEA" are very similar in the Japanese katakana alphabet, the only difference being two small dashes or one small dot:

ピ＝PE(pronounced "Pea")

ビ＝BE

ピス
ビス

The top word is pronounced Pea-su and the second is Bea-su,
in English respectively "Peace" and "Beace".

I was quite happy with this Peace sign I thought I discovered until I scanned it to post and realized I was looking at the word "Beace".
But I am still happy, and shan't let a small matter of semantics ruin the
pleasure of this find.

Beace!!!

JGY

Gallery Views--At work

2010-01-20T21:51:00.007+09:00

PS＞words on a found paper=作業中＝sa-gyo-chu＝ at work

2010-01-15T22:51:00.005+09:00

This week, in a cafe/shop that reminds me of Greenwhich Village, I am finding joy. As the sun shines through the room and illuminates a tatami edge that was saved from a garbage pile, I remember many moments of adventure and discovery. I see she (the strip of tatami edge fabric) is glistening. I feel her happiness at luxuriating in a large silver dish, in between two balls of yarn that Nahomi keeps in her shop for her weavings. We matched the colors of yarn with the colors of my finds and the colors of everything seem to sing with gratitude for being displayed there with all the natural rustic beauty in the shop.
The finds are the 'actors' this week, playing a main role.
We don't often stop to think of what 'garbage' dreams of being and perhaps these objects have grander dreams that I don't yet know of.

I am thankful for these finds (most of which are posted throughout this site) have brought an opportunity to communicate and collaborate. In this humble setting in a roadside shop, I am sensing a wonderful energy of connectedness between the things that were dropped, the 'me' who picked them up, the 'she' who invited me to collaborate, the 'you' who are reading this and those who have come to view them, the sun for shining on them and all of us, the chair I sat upon and the wood it came from; and ultimately the hand that dropped them there in the first place.

JGY
Happy finding to all and to all a good find.

Found in Japan

Square 52, Tomare

2010-01-15T08:20:00.006+09:00

Stop and Enjoy the View of Mt. Fuji,
with only 23 squares to go.
Take a rest after making it this far.

The instructions on this square read:
Lose 1 Turn
一回休み

your turn....

Happy finding/playing to all and to all a good find/play.
JGY

Found in Japan at Nahomi Works (Playing the Found in Japan Game)

2010-01-14T02:46:00.006+09:00

I have been enjoying a collaboration over these early weeks of the New Year, with a weaver named Nahomi who runs a cafe and handmade shop in Oita. I am grateful for having had the chance to display some finds and to "inaugurate" my Found in Japan Game in her warm and inspiring space. Around the New Year in Japan it's a tradition to play games, and so we planned this event in the early weeks of the year to try out the games and share some relaxed moments to gather as the first snow falls in Oita (unusual and it never sticks, but the flakes were big and luscious today!)

About the game, I must say it's great fun to play, an old fashioned board game modelled on some very old games like the Italian Game of the Goose and others that I found when researching games about a year ago for this game. The goal in the Found in Japan Game is to be the first to reach Mt. Fuji, as you pick up 'garbage' (my found objects of course) along the route and turn them to treasure.
There are some rules to learn about what to do at each square, but beware---
don't get caught in the turn of history where you have to go back to start!!!
There's still a chance to catch up, as you make the journey up to Mt. Fuji all over again.

Happy playing to all and to all a good....play?!

JGY

Found in Japan at Nahomi Works (image to go with "Neko")

2010-01-11T15:47:00.001+09:00

JGY Found in Japan
Collaboration with Nahomi Works

Neko

2010-01-11T10:49:00.006+09:00

Later in the day I saw the cat,
she was white and sat
under a ladder just when the sky
went from dusk to dark
We stared into each other's eyes
during which time I hadn't known
she was you.

Thank you Otli and thank you John for sharing words to share in the post below.
I read the poems yesterday, and said your names and expressed thanks for the support from
all my friends ==thank you friends!---who visit here. I 'found' a cat (neko) later in the day, and with it,
this poem.

JGY Found in Japan

Found in Japan at Nahomi Works

2010-01-04T23:20:00.009+09:00

Found Objects, Original JGY Found in Japan Games, and Collages in a Collaboration with Nahomi Works

Date: January 5 to January 19th, 2010
Time: 10:00 to 19:00
Place: Nahomi Works
大分市中島東３−３−２０
０９７−５３６−５２１９

--NEW YEAR's OPEN HOUSE:
Sunday, January 10th, 10:30 to 13:00--
Enjoy Mochi with sweet red beans to mark the end of the Japanese New Year and play Found in Japan Games in the 'sho-gatsu' tradition---Suguroku and Carta, and Reading Poems

PS to my blogging friends and family who too far away and can't make it, let me know if there is a poem from a post or a find you like and I will share it in your honor at the reading.
Thanks always for visiting and for your support of my Found in Japan Litter-ary endeavors!!!

Happy Finding to All and to All a Good Find.

*Nahomi Works Business card, also a "Found" item!

JGY Found in Japan

A pink morning glory, the first sunrise, forgiveness and peace

2010-01-03T20:40:00.007+09:00

My first find of the New Year was a pink morning glory made of cloth.
I found it on the way to watch the first sunrise of the year.
I kept it in my pocket when I watched the sky, which was covered in clouds.
I spun around with it still in my pocket as some pink emerged from under the clouds.
I walked to a spot between cypress trees where plastic bottles were filled with
one thousand cranes each.
Sen-ba-zuru.
Folded tiny cranes, in bright pinks and oranges and blues.
I laid the pink cloth morning glory in between two bottles of a thousand cranes.
I touched the names of the children.

I hadn't known that this shady spot where I often sit during summers and sketched the cypress trees was a memorial to the children.
I brought the enduring morning glory to the spot where the names were written
and left it there amongst the thousands of folded paper cranes.
I wonder if I can forgive, if my husband's mother and the 100's on this island who lost their elementary school age children, brothers, and sisters have forgiven, and I wonder how we can forgive terrible things that happened.
Then I know that even if I don't know how I must somehow
forgive.

Peace and forgiveness
♡

one of a kind---neatly folded

2009-12-27T14:33:00.011+09:00

Someone neatly folded the item before letting it drop to the ground.
When I pick it up I can't help but become aware of this extra bit
of care...

Happy Finding to All and to All a good Find
JGY

two of a kind, sushi menus

2009-12-21T14:06:00.003+09:00

JGY Found in Japan

three of a kind, found three separate times

2009-12-20T00:35:00.005+09:00

JGY Found in Japan

four of a kind

2009-12-17T20:49:00.003+09:00

JGY Found in Japan

wisdom from fragments of a found 'kissing mint' package

2009-12-08T12:46:00.002+09:00

re is a random chaos that ho

there is a random chaos that holds the world in place

the

finds longing for form

2009-12-08T12:32:00.003+09:00

he random act of finding begins to
Eventually it happens.
T

Eventually it happens.
The random act of finding

begins to coalesce into
patterns.

The finds themselves call upon being made into some sort of
order.

more Pure

2009-12-08T12:28:00.002+09:00

Pure and Patterns from Pure

2009-11-22T00:06:00.003+09:00

Quote from Pascal, Pensees, to go with "Heart" find

2009-11-21T11:55:00.000+09:00

"The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing…"

Heart

2009-11-18T08:32:00.007+09:00

Follow your...

Who do you ask when you are looking for guidance?
These days I ask my finds and see what they
turn up.

Happy finding to all and to all a good find. Found in JapanJGY

At Work

2009-11-16T10:38:00.005+09:00

作＝SA, tsukuru=make

業=GYO=occupation, business, undertaking

中=CHU=in the middle of

SA-GYO-CHU, at work, i.e. in the middle of the business of making something,
In -progress

How does this translate to 'finding'?
At find.
In the middle of doing the business of finding.
Out finding.

Happy finding to all and to all a good find. Found in Japan JGY

sewn founds

2009-11-10T12:48:00.005+09:00

Finding that finds become self-conscious when you attempt to give them titles.
Not knowing why this text is being unconsciously underlined
making me self-conscious as well

leaving the lines, showing the thread,

Found in Japan JGY

Uni-qlo, XL

2009-11-09T11:24:00.007+09:00

There are days and moments when I get irritable and frustrated that I haven't done this or that. Haven't published a book or made X$amount of dollars.
That was yesterday.

Today is another day and I am lucky. My home is my castle. My friend M told me this expression in Japanese, but I didn't write it down. It means that you can appreciate where you are when you acknowledge and accept that your home is where you are, and get to know the things around you intimately.

I spread out a red carpet--really it's a small one-person-size mat with a pattern of rabbits and music notes on the soft surface where I sit, and red vinyl on the back side that touches the concrete ground. I feel it's slight padding beneath me, put down my knapsack, take off my clogs, and leave them on the concrete along the side of the mat.
There is one heron perched a long stone-throw away.

I'm here to return a find.
A shirt I found the other day.
It's sun-dried-hard-and-crusty with dirt. The only way you'd know that it's a shirt is from the indigo colored tag with the letters spelling UNI-QLO (XL).
I don't know why I took it home nor why I brought it back. Must've been so that I'd have a a reason to return here to see this morning light make ripples between those four stones.

PS

2009-11-09T11:22:00.005+09:00

I laid it down where I found it, and just when I was leaving to go,
a small white butterfly appeared out of nowhere, as if it was
born from the once-white shirt

(note: I had a picture of this, really I did,
but it looks like my cellular phone camera is not willing to give it up, so I don't have it in the form I need to post here.
if you see a white butterfly pass your way, it might be the one;
catch it only if you want to see it turn back into a uni-qlo shirt)

Joanne Yoshida, Found in Japan

Intermission--black and red curtain

2009-11-07T20:16:00.003+09:00

It was inevitable, I became one of my finds

2009-10-31T18:21:00.005+09:00

Posted here at bionicbong

Afternoon Glory

2009-10-20T16:01:00.004+09:00

From an afternoon glory,
overlapping choruses
sang.
Bells rang
and white light radiated
from deep within a
purple star.

(when I turned to go the wind winked from a crossing and revealed
that it wasn't just one,
but a whole chorus of afternoon glories
that sang.)

Found in Japan, Joanne G. Yoshida

Imagining a scene from a finder's life and a litterer's dream*

2009-10-16T16:40:00.011+09:00

I used to draw.
I used to paint.
Now, I find.

Follow this if you will.
One person throws or accidentally drops a paper or wrapper on the ground.
Another person does the same in another location.
They each realize they dropped something that they should pick up, but say 'never mind' and
continue on their way.
Before going to bed each realizes that they 'littered'. Both at the same time dream the same dream.
In the dream, he/she wanders into a cafe/shop off the beaten path.
The item they dropped is displayed elegantly among handmade crafts. The aroma of freshly baked bread and coffee brewing fill the air.
They look at each other and recognize something in each other.
They look towards the camera and for once we come face to face.
They look away, I close-in on the objects and begin to film...

*or is it just a finder's dream?!

Is there no place for abandoned umbrellas in this land?

2009-10-13T08:24:00.006+09:00

As a finder, I never know where a new day will take me. This a.m. when I went to take out the garbage---today's recycle day is "缶とビン" (cans and bottles), I opened the metal grate and saw this umbrella, spread out on top of the pile. I almost gasped, and couldn't close the cage. I didn't quite know what to do, so I walked up six flights of stairs to my apartment, got my camera, and walked back down. At least if she was photographed in her last minutes it might give her some sense of dignity. But then when I looked at her beautiful pattern through the lens, my hand reached out to her and before I knew it she and I were walking up the six flights together.
Oh, how I could feel her happiness, she revealed a light transparency of a blush as the morning sun went through her. She pretended to be a skyscraper towering above the city skyline. Our city doesn't have skyscrapers, I laughed. She laughed back and proudly said she'd be the first!

PS I just found a wonderful poem about patterns on a blog by a writer I love who happens to be my sister. I feel it goes with the umbrella I found today.
You can find this poem by Tzivia about a dream about a pattern store here.

Umbrella

2009-10-11T21:45:00.003+09:00

There's still breath left,
it's not too late.
To save her from
an un-known fate.

I thought I'd wait
to see if she's still there
on my way back
but I see tears

and a "J"
in light blue.
Through one tear
she looks up to
a cloudy sky.

"Take me home",
she cries...

2009-10-08T20:21:00.002+09:00

Finds like what everyone else likes

2009-10-08T19:57:00.011+09:00

When we listen to things
we find
that we don't need science
to tell us that
everything
matters.

When we listen to things
we find
that who wouldn't rather
bathe in a warm radiant
sun shower
than be extinguished
by fire.

When we listen to things
we find there is a magician
in the universe
inviting us
to play.

JGY
Happy Finding to All and to All a Good Find

hook

2009-10-02T08:10:00.003+09:00

Cast aside
what you have read.
All thought
dangling in your
head is well and good
up to a point.

Then, when you're ready (and you'll know when)
"Look into yourself
for what you need to know is already there,"
said the sharp little hook.

happy finding to all and to all a good find
found in japan, joanne g. yoshida

Finds with play, for Otli and Cabrizette

2009-09-29T18:07:00.018+09:00

This find's message was:
We are all pieces of one another;
finding pieces of
ourselves.

Big Apple is the Grande Pomme, see: Otli ,
the Net is a find with Cabrizette in mind.

happy finding to all and to all a good find

JGY. Found in Japan

Net

2009-09-29T13:18:00.003+09:00

(to be continued)

Found in Japan, happy one year b-day

2009-09-26T17:01:00.010+09:00

My first FIJ post:

Almond Glico.

Happy finding to all and to all a good find! Thank you for the camaraderie in seeking.
JGY

PS If I could find a candle today, how apropos it would be!

PSS (later edit) I probably shouldn't tell you this.
After I wrote this post about the candle, I went back to the spot,
the small no cars street where I found the red box;
Like a child thinking the candle would be there, affirming my
very being as a finder.
But you know how it goes
there was no candle there.
Though I did find
the flame.

All's fine in this life of mine

2009-09-25T09:02:00.004+09:00

I walk through the smell
of fresh cut grass
down to where
the herons stay
passing trash
along the way
(I don't need to know this much about who was here---
two asahi beer cans and a plastic senbei wrapper, left)

My poems are starting to sound the same,
it's all one poem, it's just one game.
I find,
I look,
I write it down
alongside my shadow on the ground
who comes with me where'er I go.
She doesn't mind that I
move slow...

Layers---for Donna

2009-09-23T16:39:00.004+09:00

Yesterday I looked for something for you, perhaps as a going away present for your journey or in response to your comment about paper.
I found these, some things probably new that looked old because of the way they'd been weathered slightly. The earthy grays and whites and the 'layers' reminded me of you.
Hope you find lots of inspiration on your travels...

PS Yes, I too enjoyed the part of In Praise of Shadows about paper.

2009-09-21T18:51:00.002+09:00

The Red and the Black

2009-09-21T18:44:00.008+09:00

On the way,　I found the Red

On the way back,　I found the black---

The same exact top　of a cheeza snack pack.

One on the right and one on the left
sides of the street, found hours apart.

What are the odds?

My mind goes　to roulette　and to placing
your bet---

Together, they're
a matching
set,
two sides of

---------------?♡

happy finding to all and to all a good find

Weathered Wood Stick

2009-09-19T12:14:00.007+09:00

In an old Japanese film, a samurai threw a stick and went whatever direction the stick pointed him in.

If you are on a path and you don't know which way to go,
throwing a stick up in the air to see
where it lands is as good a way
as any to find your direction.

Found in Japan, Joanne G. Yoshida

nuts and bolts and sumi

2009-09-16T17:04:00.005+09:00

If I knew what I was looking for, would my world become a bore?
I pick up nuts, I pick up bolts from a burned-out pile.
Looking for meaning in the ash,
finding intrigue (and keeping amused) all the while.

Found in Japan, Joanne G. Yoshida

there's a wish in this

2009-09-14T09:02:00.005+09:00

Here's where it gets interesting.
A find leads to finding
patterns. (thanks m, whose name has a 3 in it!)
I then insert
the patterns
into other
finds.
A karakusa pattern into a found Eiffel Tower.
And it's not even Sunday!
wink, link...and into a found pink strip,
I need to learn the magic of photo shop so I can really add patterns
to my finds.

PS threefold plus+thanks

2009-09-14T08:31:00.004+09:00

thanks for the comments and insights,
and for finding connections,
leading me to ponder the universal connections even more!
doodling in threes....

Three fold

2009-09-13T20:42:00.003+09:00

Three-fold, I found a paper that said "3 FOLD" I looked for meaning in the words...	This structure is called the spiral of life and was found in the remnants of an old temple from the Bronze Age in Ireland. The sign is drawn in one single line without beginning or end. Compare with , an old Celtic sign that was also used in pre-Columbian America, and in Greece and neighboring countries in antiquity. See The triple spiral denotes the Threefold Goddess. The circle, spiral and wheel are all powerful symbols representing the cycle of life, death and rebirth, including the seasons of the year.

	The ancient structure has been found both in pre-Columbian America and in Bronze Age Europe. In Europe it is especially associated with the Celtic tribes. These symbols are called triskele or triskelion. The Triskele is used to symbolize the cycles of life with in the three fold, or three spheres of influnce in the material world. The three spheres (Land, Sea and Sky) represents the three aspects of the material world that are contained in every object. Each aspect ever flowing outward and always returning to the point from which it started.

	This symbol is also used to symbolize the Druidic Threefold Sister Goddess: Fotla/Eiru/Banba. Ireland, or Erin, is named after Eriu. It also symbolizes the Wiccan Threefold Mother Goddess: Maiden/Mother/Crone. The Triskele was a representation of the importance of the number three.

flower

2009-09-10T11:21:00.004+09:00

I picked up this flower from the gutter.
I held it in my right hand on the handlebar of my bicycle.
Seeing it there made me smile at a woman passing by.
She smiled back and said "go-men-na-sai".
Excuse me? For what, I wondered,
oh, she's just being polite.
Then the flower asked me to take the long way home, so I could see the sparkle of colors shining forth along the street. She (the flower) reminded me that it is almost fall, even though the children I glimpsed through the kindergarten gate are still dressed in bathing suits, blowing the last of summer bubbles.
She reminded me that sometimes I say or do things that aren't perfect, but that I should trust the process, because I'm doing my best.
When I got home and parked my bicycle her petals were dropping onto the ground, and she reminded me of something I read this morning, that Everything, everything is fleeting.*

*quote from The Radiance Sutras, by Lorin Roche Ph.D., page 79

Step

2009-09-07T15:37:00.005+09:00

I took a look down and I picked this SteP up.
Whatever I put in it will always be in-SteP.
When I take it with me I'm taking a SteP.
Towards what, I don't know.

As long as I take it one SteP at a time,
my new find reminds me that
things will be fine.

Happy finding to all and to all a good find!

Found in Japan,Joanne Gover Yoshida

2 steps (back)

2009-09-07T15:31:00.002+09:00

Eco Fish, 2

2009-09-01T16:55:00.003+09:00

Eco fish seems to like the sky.

Just ask her and she'll tell you why.
I like it too, in every way
for reasons all too vast
to say.

Eco Fish

2009-08-29T22:42:00.002+09:00

This is one happy fish
to be in Japan.

Riddle:
How did the fish travel to Japan?

(Eco-nomy class)

Riddle:
Why did the fish fly to Japan?

(fill in your own answer!...)

Joanne Gover Yoshida, Found in Japan

Vacation Finds--Found in Quogue

2009-08-07T06:53:00.004+09:00

A Thank You note,
washed out by the rain.
I knew it was for me, though it didn't
have my name.

Upon it was a nest of pink , with printed roses
and petals washed in ink that didn't run off
the page. A little bird cried out the words,
written in small script:
thank you

How did I know it was for me, you ask? The hints were--
The torn pink envelope, translucent in just the right way and the tiny dots along the scalloped top.
But what really gave it away were the two bits cut out from packages; one the universal color code, and one a royal blue frame.
Message cards included, in lieu of my name.

Y is for Yokan

2009-07-28T16:43:00.002+09:00

You can bet it's gonna be a good day!
Enjoy.

JGY

Found in Japan, Joanne Gover Yoshida

Ato no Matsuri

2009-07-21T21:36:00.004+09:00

In Japanese, there is an expression,
"ato no matsuri", which means literally, "after the festival".

It is used something like "after the fact" in English.

I found this fan with the character 祭, "matsuri" which means "festival",
sometime after the festival.

Found in Japan, Joanne Gover Yoshida

Buried Treasures, Peace, & Gratitude

2009-07-17T08:14:00.007+09:00

I enjoyed reading Seth's blog and his idea of bringing out a collage from a previous post as part of a "buried treasure" sharing.
I remembered this one, from when I was making mandalas out of discarded packages.
Though I can't seem to find the post in my blog archives, I am re-posting the image.
The Japanese writing says "Peace" (actually pronounced "pea-su").

At the same time I would like to thank Cheryl at Mandala Oasis for the Gratitude award, and to extend my gratitude to all who visit and to all who share their inspiration and creativity in the circle of blogs and the circle of life!!

Please visit Cheryl and Seth to find more inspiration and to enjoy their works and words.

PEACE
♡

Found in Japan, Joanne Gover Yoshida

Summer Festival--rocket hanabi

2009-07-13T18:10:00.005+09:00

Found in Japan, Joanne Gover Yoshida

Summer Festival--rocket hanabi, b/w variation

2009-07-13T18:08:00.004+09:00

Found in Japan, Joanne Gover Yoshida

Summer Festival--looking up

2009-07-13T18:06:00.003+09:00

Found in Japan, Joanne Gover Yoshida

Summer Festival--ice cream bottom pointing down, pointing up

2009-07-13T18:01:00.007+09:00

happy summer,

fireworks

ice cream,

travels,

oceans

bottoms
up