Nakama-tachi

Morning has drawn fog across Zagreb. Stage is set, curtain is here - the show can start now.

I watched Bleach 340 last night. It always amazes me how much of societal critique and life coaching can fit into something as inconspicuous as anime. I deeply approve of this. Where else can you see in mere 20 minutes most important life concepts explained in detail and shown in practice - stripped to their components and shown as full-blooded functioning cogs in the machinery of meaning of life?

What is the meaning of frendship? What are its precursors? Its purpose?

There is no better way to embrace those answers than to take a peek into Kubo-sama's brain.

In the photo above - the clogs I got from a friend on my old job. We talked in night-shift about movie Grease and how I loved Olivia Newton-John's shoes and how it is impossible to find shoes like that and tomorrow night she showed up at work with these clogs. They are just like the ones I liked in the movie, only movie-version were red and these are ocher - and she had had them for fifteen years. I was so moved I cried and took the shoes and promised to take good care of them.

I have them over fifteen years now. They are in perfect shape still.

Testing, testing

I have been testing few patterns and designs in the last couple of days and also going through lots of Japanese lessons and Bleach episodes. I am very moved and perplexed with this recurring motif of loneliness as a motive for (self)destruction. I saw it in Moore's Watchmen, sensed it in Laozi's The Way of the King, observed it closely in House MD Ignorance is bliss episode and here in Bleach it is... it is... it is so well balanced and cautiously dosed it is a feast and a celebration to watch it. Gochisou sama deshita, Kubo-sama. Arigatou gosaimashita.

Iyoku

My mojo is back! I can see it in the way I work through my workday, using even the last minute, handling task after task in feverish desire to get everything done so I can get back home to feed and cuddle with my offspringess and then ready my knitting and get in front of the PC to watch Bleach. I love how it evolves – from childs play into societal critique – sharp and heartbreaking, honorific and scandalous. The more I watch anime and get better acquainted with Nihongo more I see cultural similarities between Croatian and Japanese way of thinking and living. I see things we have had and have lost and I see ways we could get them back.