As I am incredibly lazy and terrible at keeping in touch, I decided to start this blog to keep friends and family up to date with what's happening in my life. Since I have moved away from my long term friend base and the pub drinks usually sufficient for catching up are no longer practical, this will have to serve as a web-based pub. As most of my friends include English in their linguistic repertoire, I will write the vast majority of my posts in English with a light smattering of a variety of languages where appropriate. The second purpose of this blog is to work things through in my head (although I will try to avoid any personal psychoanalytical tangents).
Martial arts are a big part of my life so some posts will focus on those martial arts I practice (kendo, iaido and jodo) and will make little to no sense to those not not interested. For this I can only apologise. If you just stumbled on this page as you waded through the quagmire of information that is the internet, feel free to poke around and have a read as I'll be leaving all the personal stuff out.
Lastly, I will touch briefly on the wording of the web address. It comes from a work entitled Oku-no-Hosomichi (おくのほそ道) by Matsuo Basho, arguably the most famous Japanese poet who also spent most of his life on the road. The title is translated as either The Narrow Road to the Deep North or The Narrow Road to the Interior and is one of the major works of classical Japanese literature. The full sentence is:
"舟の上に生涯をうかべ馬の口とらえて老をむかふる物は、日々旅にして、旅を栖とす。"
"Those who float away their lives on ships or who grow old leading horses are forever journeying, and their homes are wherever their travels take them." (Translation by Donald Keene)
"The journey itself is my home" is one translation of the last five characters (amazing how much meaning you can fit into under half a dozen characters!) which I chose to use (there was also a measure of desperation as my chosen title was not available). Of course, I am nowhere near as much of a nomad as Basho was but given the chance, I would kill to have that kind of lifestyle!
Martial arts are a big part of my life so some posts will focus on those martial arts I practice (kendo, iaido and jodo) and will make little to no sense to those not not interested. For this I can only apologise. If you just stumbled on this page as you waded through the quagmire of information that is the internet, feel free to poke around and have a read as I'll be leaving all the personal stuff out.
Lastly, I will touch briefly on the wording of the web address. It comes from a work entitled Oku-no-Hosomichi (おくのほそ道) by Matsuo Basho, arguably the most famous Japanese poet who also spent most of his life on the road. The title is translated as either The Narrow Road to the Deep North or The Narrow Road to the Interior and is one of the major works of classical Japanese literature. The full sentence is:
"舟の上に生涯をうかべ馬の口とらえて老をむかふる物は、日々旅にして、旅を栖とす。"
"Those who float away their lives on ships or who grow old leading horses are forever journeying, and their homes are wherever their travels take them." (Translation by Donald Keene)
"The journey itself is my home" is one translation of the last five characters (amazing how much meaning you can fit into under half a dozen characters!) which I chose to use (there was also a measure of desperation as my chosen title was not available). Of course, I am nowhere near as much of a nomad as Basho was but given the chance, I would kill to have that kind of lifestyle!
