ゆく年くる年 is literally my favourite TV show. I look forward to it every year! #nhk
Sent out my final newsletter of the year! Now it is time to kick back, get the noodles going, and watch some end of year Japanese TV (for the last time…) 🎍🔴🎤⚪️🐲
Best of 2023
I think this photo is my fav of the year.
Historically my annual “best of” posts are a roundup of the best books and film I consumed, but this year I would like to add a little bit more about personal developments. With my father-in-law passing in 2022, this year was about cleaning up the estate, healing, and enjoying Japan before returning to Canada.
We were able to get quite a bit of travel in: Tanegashima, Kagoshima, and Kirishima in the south; a summer break in Iki; and in the north Iwate, Fukushima and Aomori. For work I took two trips to Canada and had the privilege to visit Istanbul. It was a good year for travel, though I am kicking myself for missing out on Causal Islands and I was hoping to visit Germany at some point this year.
Losing 5 kilograms has been on my annual TODO list since Iki, but I could not justify locking myself up in a gym multiple times a week when my time in Japan is limited and I could be out seeing things. We are in the home stretch, the last few months until we leave Japan. This time it has a feeling of finality since we leave no parents and no apartment behind. When we leave Japan this time we will do so without leaving any roots. We are on the verge of one volume closing and a whole new book beginning.
40 Questions
Last month I discovered Steph Ango’s 40 Questions, a framework for annual reflection. I used it to think about my year and found it useful. I will share a few of my answers here publicly:
Did anyone close to you die?
For the first time in 4 years I can say “No!”
Who did you miss?
Lots of people. This year has been a lonely one for me. This is probably the biggest reason I look forward to returning to Canada in 2024: to hang out with my friends in person. Now, we had some friends come visit us in Japan and I met old friends on my travels to Canada and Turkey. I was especially happy to share Kyoto with people from “back home” (none of my family could handle the air travel), but maybe that oasis of excitement ended up making me feel even more lonesome.
Whose behavior merited celebration?
100 Rabbits, who I met in person this year. They live much further along the ethical lifestyle spectrum than I can, which I admire. As a society we need examples like this. I even looked at buying a boat this summer!
What political issue stirred you the most?
Not quite sure about specific events, since there were so many, but in terms of overall trends, I got a lot more into anarchist philosophy.
What valuable life lesson did you learn this year?
How pretty much everything is a coordination problem, and we have to figure out how to work together in this world. This drives my interest in both governance and anarchism. It also leads to my conviction that the way I can fight climate change is by working for a better, interoperable, and unitary internet. The internet is the best global coordination platform the world has ever known, and we are going to need it if we are going to solve the climate crisis.
What is a quote that sums up your year?
“Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually slaves of some defunct economist.”
― John Maynard Keynes
A note on the Buddhist path
One of my goals for 2023 was doing more sutta study, which I did with a group of upasika from all over the world via a Zoom reading club in the early part of the year. We had weekly meetings on each chapter of The Island. This actually blends in with another trend for 2023: upāsaka training. During all of 2022 I was committed to a year of being an upāsaka, and in 2023 I actually kinda surprisingly pretty much continued that path. I meditated nearly every day this year (missed just 4 days), only drank alcohol four times, and still did about 20 uposatha days where I committed to the 8 precepts (during the upāsaka year I did about 70).
Best of Reading
Okay, now on to the more traditional annual media wrap-up.
Of my 30 book goal I read 36 books, which is not the most I have ever done, but I had a lot of podcasts to listen to this year. (24 of those finished books were in audio!)
My book club only met 3 times this year, but we read my favourite fiction book of the year: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I am not a gamer, but I am a Gen Xer and came of age during this time. The emotion just sucked me in. The book played me like a game. And I recognize a lot of the work relationship stuff from my time in startups. An excellent read.
For non-fiction I read a number of important books, including classics like Ostrom’s Governing the Commons. New releases like Crack-Up Capitalism and Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy really captured some of the ailments of the world we live in, but I think I enjoyed Cory Doctorow’s The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation even more since it presents solutions to make things better.
Best of Watching
I did not watch much cinema this year, but I did finally see 2022 Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All at Once which blew me away. I saw it while in Canada in January, and as soon as it was available in theatres in Japan I took my wife. Many tears were shed. We watched it again in September. The Daniels captured so much about the Asian immigrant experience in North America.
Most of my movie-watching time this year was with the kids. The new Spider-Man and Barbie were good. I did enjoy the popcorn-fun of Dungeons & Dragons. When I did get some screentime alone at home it was mostly television. I caught up on the last two seasons of Ted Lasso which was my fav tv series of this year by far. It hit me on a deep level making me consider my personal leadership style and more importantly my relationship to my own mental health. Football is life!
The Numbers for 2023
🖋 16 posts on the old blog and 9 long-form posts on the new microblog which I started posting to in October
✉️ 12 email monthly newsletters sent
📸 2184 photos and vids on Flickr
📚 36 books read
🎞 29 films watched
Previous annual wrap-ups
Posted on the old Wordpress blog
- Best of 2022
- 2021 in Books
- Best of 2020
- The best of 2019
- A quick end of year roundup (2018)
- Best of 2016
- The best of 2015
- The best of 2014
- The best of 2013
- My year in film and books (2012)
- My year in books (2011)
My best to you in the new year!
Hagia Sophia
As described in my previous post, Istanbul is a city of layers. Nothing demonstrates this more than one of the gems of the city: the Hagia Sophia.
Built on the site of an earlier Christian church erected in 336 AD by Constantius II (son of the Emperor Constantine) the current building was made in the 532 AD by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. For a thousand years it was the largest building in the world. Except for a short time as a Catholic church after the Fourth Crusade in the 13th century, the Hagia Sophia stood as a cathedral of the Eastern Orthodox tradition until the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453. Since then the Ayasofya has been a grand mosque until 1935 when Atatürk, in his drive to secularize the newly founded Republic of Turkey, converted it to a museum. Most recently, in a controversial move in 2020, the long-serving conservative president Erdoğan converted it back into a working mosque.
This is the most barebones of history for structure that has been standing — and used — for more than fifteen centuries. The Ayasofya is an excellent symbol of the historical layers of the city of Istanbul, as throughout the centuries it has gained new additions, but with much of its original structure still shining through. I would like to give you just a few examples. Come with me on a short tour!
During my stay in Istanbul I went to the Ayasofya twice since it was so amazing. Both times I approached from the “back”… once coming down from the Topkapi Palace (photos) — which holds such treasures as the Topkapi dagger, the staff of Moses, and the arm of John the Baptist — the other time when a frustrated taxi driver angered by traffic dropped us off in a sidestreet saying merely “You walk from here”.
The Ayasofya stands across the plaza from the famous Blue Mosque, a beautiful built to purpose mosque made in the early 17th century. The Ayasofya in contrast has had so many additions as it changed civilizational hands that it looks more like something from the “lived in” universe of Star Wars.
From the outside you can see the red walls of the original church. The massive dome (more on that later) is 32 meters across and so heavy that the church walls have been buckling so later architects installed buttressing to keep the walls standing straight. There are four minarets which were added at various times, one made of red brick, adding to the architectural pastiche.
Circling around to the front you will see a line of people out into the plaza. Since the building is once again an operating mosque, five times a day tourists are shuffled out to make way for people doing their daily prayers. The line out front can get quite long as people wait during prayer times, but if you time it right you can basically walk right in. After passing some metal detectors you get a close view of the buttresses before entering the building from the side. In the outer hall you are treated to domed ceilings with golden tiled mosaics. It feels very Byzantine. Shoe lockers line the walls where you can store your footwear before entering the mosque. The marble thresholds have been worn down by the passing feet of millions of petitioners through the centuries, and look like melted butter.
The crowd pushes you along to enter the cavernous building. Large circular chandeliers hang from the vaulting ceiling. Looking up — and everybody is looking up — two semi-domes help to prop up the 32 meter wide main dome which at its height it 55.6 meters above the floor. There are no supporting pillars in the middle of the building, so it feels absolutely huge inside.
This wide angle shot from inside shows the two semi-domes on the left and right which support the main dome. Below are the pillars of the second floor, which you used to be able to go up into, but no longer. Around the center dome you can also spot the four “biblically accurate” angels who also support the dome. In the Ottoman era the faces of the seraphim were covered with stars, but one has been restored with its face.
Everywhere you go inside people are staring up in awe and taking photos. But there are many other details to look at other than the domed ceiling. The columns were imported from all over the Mediterranean and some have special stories. People sit on the floor and rest their backs against the columns as they gaze upward. But if you look downward, to the lush green carpet you find another asymmetry of time: the lines on the carpet are at an off-angle to the rest of the building. These are the lines that parishioners line up as they pray towards Mecca, which of course the building was not designed to line up with. I mean, it was constructed more than 60 years before the founding of Islam!
There are many, many more details but I hope this gives you a glimpse at not only of the historical significance of the Hagia Sofia, but also as a symbol of the history of Istanbul.
To see more photos and videos of the interior and surrounding area, including the call to prayer from the perfectly symmetrical Blue Mosque, see my album on Flickr.
Nice discussion with @becedo.bsky.social on how Nihon Shoki & Kojiki are treated through time newbooksnetwork.com/meanings-…
If you want to hear what’s IN the Chronicles, I recommend this great podcast by @tatsushu@historians.social sengokudaimyo.com/podcast
Got a nice snack pack for the winter holidays from the company. 🎁 It’s a nice tradition. This year I got a chocolate set 😋
Merry Xmas! 🎄 After opening prezzies we drove to Ako, famous for Chuushingura (The 47 Ronin), and had lunch with a lovely view of the Seto Inland Sea. So nice and warm 🥰
Christmas Eve on the water! Cruising around the Biwako on the Michigan
Last day of work for 2023 is done. ❄️ What a year! 🗓️ And I finished it with Inbox Zero 💪
Tonight I took a yuzu bath 🍋🛀 as I enter 10 days of rest, relaxation, and recharging 🧘♂️ with my books and my family ✌️🥰 Hope you too enjoy your hols! 🥂🍾🎊
11 year old: “OMG my friend she is SO ready for the zombie apocalypse! She can climb trees 🌲 she has a katana 🗡️ AND she has an iPad with OFFLINE games!” 📱👾
From Heatmap Daily: “Americans often refer to their electricity or gas providers as ‘public utilities.’ But only about 15% of the population is served by a government-owned, customer-owned, or member-owned electric utility.” The rest are private monopolies. #ClimateCrisis
Perspective on Palestine — Review of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine
In The Hundred Years' War on Palestine Rashid Khalidi takes us through six turning points of modern Palestinian history woven with family and personal history, including his frontline experience escaping Beirut during the 1982 Lebanon War. Khalidi has a long history as an advocate and an academic and writes a highly detailed account with an insider view. He covers the early Zionist movement, the Nakba of 1948, the Six Day War of 1967, the Lebanon War, the Intifadas and the rise of Hamas, giving context throughout as to who the geostrategic players are and how they change.
The book ends in 2017, with Trump making promises for a new deal for peace. Things don’t look good for the Palestinians. Khalidi offers some ideas on how to proceed in a constructive manner, from first principles of equality for both Palestinians and Israelis. There is a lot in the book about crafting a more favourable public opinion of Palestinians around the world, from a few different angles. It certainly presented perspectives new to me. One key argument is that the world cannot afford to have the US continue as sole, self-selected guarantor of the peace process. That is borne not just of the evidence presented in the book, but of what we have seen in the past couple of months.
I listened to an interview with Khalidi on a podcast or on YouTube somewhere right after October 7th. Many people were giving this book plaudits, and since he was so well spoken I thought I would give it a try. I am no specialist, so I cannot recommend this book with any real authority. But I found it very readable, appreciated the occasional personal history elements sprinkled throughout, and came away with some new frames for thinking about the problem. But I didn’t have to read this detailed and complex book to know that they need to STOP.
My copy of EMPTY KYOTO and 2024 Calendar from @hermosawave@photog.social has arrived! 📸🎋⛩️
hermosawavephotography.com/emptykyot…
My uncle-in-law was decorated with the “Order of the Rising Sun” 🎖️ for his contributions to basketball in Japan 🎊 This is his medal. When you tilt it in the light it really shines! ✨
Chili crab time! 🦀
Interesting ideological analysis of Cixin Liu’s popular Three Body series, especially this bit on how Chinese and American reactionaries use one another
madeinchinajournal.com/2023/12/1…
He also has this striking map showing countries coloured depending on if most of their wealth is owned by the bottom 80% or top 5%. (Luckily in this map New Zealand and Australia were not left out… still not suprised though)
From www.rubenmathisen.com/blank-2
Maps showing “% of Total Wealth Owned by the Top 1 Percent” per country by continent.
From www.rubenmathisen.com/blank-2
Another great video from About Here:
#density #urbandesign
It is Dec 15th in the year of our Lord Buddha 2566 and it is deva-damned 23°C out here‼️ 🥵
