Beings Who Love the Feeling of Magic


My friend Nina with whom I lived many years ago in Finland appeared in the back of my van last night. Legs crossed and smiling, wearing a beautiful and shiny light blue dress, she held three antique dice in her hand. She told me to watch carefully as she threw each, one by one, on the cloth we sat on.

Each dice rolled slowly until the number '1' was facing up. She looked at me smilingly, then grabbed all the dice and rolled them again. Again, number one, on all three of them. One, one, one.

She giggled and smiled warmly. She told me that she's not trying to impress me or anyone else. She said the trick itself is insignificant. What matters is the atmosphere of magic that surrounds her when she does such things.
"I just like to feel magic around me."


Like Nina in this dream of mine, I love to feel surrounded by mystical warmth, vision and a kind of cosmic playfulness too. Sometimes I fall into the deep clarity of it, and sometimes into the unexplainable creative power of it. This is wherefrom I draw my inspirations and the personal strength to dance through this sometimes gnarly world.


When do you feel magic around you? I feel magic when

  • I see dreams that I know hold some special meaning or guidance, like this one with the dice (although I'm not exactly sure of it's full meaning yet)
  • I'm absorbed in meditation, prayer or kirtana (kirtana means playing instruments and singing mantras - my main magic trigger being the Hare Krishna mantra)
  • I get something out that has been bubbling under like a poem, song or a drawing
  • I'm alone in nature
  • I get a realization, philosophical or practical, or both at the same time - it's definitely magical and feels like a gift from above
  • I connect with another person on a deeper level, even if it's just for a few seconds when my eyes meet theirs in a grocery store, or when someone sends me an email that touches me
  • I'm the vehicle that serves another person by connecting them to a magical experience, for example by kirtana

Now I'll stop here - I told you some of mine, let me hear yours! :) Let's pour some Magic on this mousy internet!!


PS. I found the fairy goddess photo of Nina after I saw the dream - she's conveniently wearing light blue, too! The art in this post is all made by her. Look at what she did to her TV! She calls it "TV humiliation". LOVE IT!!

Japan Day 1 (Meiji Shrine & Harajuku)

Japan May 2011 007A magazine Ad of Ninomiya Kazunari from the super popular Johnny Junior band, Arashi! It was on a magazine in the Airport Limousine we took. Anyone have any idea what it’s advertising?

Continuing from my previous post about Namja Town and our awesome hotel room. This is the later half of our first day in NipponLand! Since we were on our own, day one’s itinerary was simple. Shopping!

But before that, I begged Cvy to visit the Meiji Shrine with me.

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Walking from our hotel to the train station! Heroine Cvy totally leading the way!

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The familiar Tokyo street view I’ve had only been able to see on TV is in front of me now o_o…

Anyway, We took a train from Ikebukuro to Harajuku and apparently, Meiji Shrine is just across the street from one of the train exit!.Japan May 2011 131

It was a really LONG and uncomfortable walk because of the pebbles on the ground. But the lush greenery was relaxing. And I'm sure the view would have been splendid if it was autumn.

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Camwhored with Cvy! WAI IS SHE SHO CUTE?!

And this is where the photos floods!

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Cvy looking really bored at the barrels of presumably, Sake.

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In front of a Tori! They were HUGE! I’ve never expected them to be so big! The pillars were easily twice of me.

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My camera was going crazy with the overexposure =\

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After like near 15 full minutes of walking on pebbles, we finally saw the temple!!

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Another Camwhore to do my tediously drawn makeup justice Open-mouthed smile I seriously need to brush up my camwhoring skills. Smile is awkward =_=

Japan May 2011 147The place where you cleanse yourself before entering the Shrine

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Male Miko???

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And the famous wishing tree we always see in Anime!! You're supposed to pay 500yen for one of those wooden tabs and then hang them along with your inscribed wishes onto the rack. I didn’t do it because of my religious belief so ^^;;…

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There was 3 sacred tree in the compound. One that is surrounded by a fence and all the wishing plaques. Another is these 2. It’s also fenced.

 

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This part of the temple is apparently housing the most sacred object in the entire temple. And the security guard even had to stop me from taking photographs (in a very polite way of course).

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Miko!!

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Check out the Mikos selling the souvenirs/ charms

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Cvy call me the Miko stalker =__=Japan May 2011 196Japan May 2011 170Japan May 2011 158

Japan May 2011 206Shrines and School girls. Can’t get any more Japanese than this!

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Our way back out. 15more minutes of pebbles grinding.

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Public phone booth near the entrance that are dressed to the theme xD

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Me camwhoring with the Meiji Shrine and random Japanese School kids in the background  xD We were the last few to exit the Shrine hence the white gates. The shrine closes at around 5pm so make sure you get there early!

Japan May 2011 212I find myself unexplainably attracted to taking pictures of their Trains..

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Another back pic of everyone’s favourite Cosplayer; Cvy dressing ever so fashionably and taking pictures.

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And I present, Harajuku to you!

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Pop Idol photographs & merchandise shop! They really do exist! No, we didn’t went in =\

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Japan May 2011 223And Cvy finally found her Crepes store!

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I've been reading about how wonderful the strawberry, cream and cheesecake crepe in Japan was so I didn't waste any time ordering one! Strawberry Cheesecake Crepe, Y450.

It was the BEST crepe I’ve ever eaten O_O! I’ve never been a fan of Crepes and it might be the cool weather that makes everything infinity more enjoyable.

But OMGOSHHHH the abundance of fresh cream, the dense flavour of the cheesecake, the sweet and sour tingle of the strawberry sauce and fruit coupled with the soft sweet crepe was HEAVENLY! I’m not a fan of cream but the cream here was so light and fluffy it was hard not to fall in love T_T I do admit it gets a little queasy towards the end but it was Y450 well spent.

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Cvy ordered Cheese & Smoked Salmon, Y500 (?). It was awesome as well. I mean, cheese and smoked salmon, how far can you get ?!

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I’m sorry I don’t have more pictures of Harajuku because I was lazy. But after that we went to Daiso and lugged a bunch of stuffs back.

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Harajuku Station entrance was full of TegoMass Concert DVD posters!! I’m sorry the picture is so bad, there was too much people and Cvy kept walking away too fast >.< Spot her distance from me >.<??? #$%^&

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<3 Masuda!!!

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And we ended our day with our first dinner in Japan, Saizeriya along the bustling roads of Ikebukuro=_=; Food was good but it was a bad decision. Should have gone for Ramen or something more traditional but we didn’t spot any along the way. Sigh…

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My loot from day one. All Daiso stuffs ToT

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Will be giving these Evangelion chocolates away soon! Stay tuned!

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