267 Phytoncide

Here's the latest photo of my little plants. Sometimes I really just marvel at the fact they grow only with water and sunlight. They do grow admirably and soundly even though I only care for them 30 minutes in a week. I don't know if these ivy or dracaena plants have its own so-called Phytoncide, but there's surely something "feelin' good" that I tend to think of as a tiny forest bathing. 

266 Non-Fiction for Fashion

With all due respect, I'm kind of questioning the quality of "Fashion Stories" these days. What I see on fashion magazines are mixture of art-photo, edgy styling and non-sense concept. The women and men wearing nice clothes with odd make-ups and hairstyle look so vague that they fail to express any kind of beauty and elegance. To me fashion stories are already a way of modern art. They might be dreamy, but people don't need clothes when dreaming and don't dream when choosing outfit. 

But clothes can sparkle in real world in right place in right moment. If you look at a few pages of "The Sartorialist Closer", Mr. Scott Schuman's second book, you'd meet many women and men who proudly of effortlessly state their own style. Here these clothes perfectly fit their own personality. From head to toe their outfits are part of who they are. There is no art, no conceptual stories but their own stories and fun for wearing something they like. 

Of course they are not just the real normal people. They are one of the most remarkably stylish people as well as real and normal. So this sparkling effect that people and their clothes create might not be seen in your street. But that doesn't matter because the wonderful thing is that this is really happening. This is non-fiction and you'd likely to imagine their real stories behind the moment. When their appearances and atmosphere of outfits match their stories and personalities, they make their one and only style.

265 Just Experience It

Last weekend I was on stage again with my dance team. I've already written here "how I felt on stage" a year and a half before, then I'd like to talk about "how I did off stage". Actually I've been frequently asked why I could keep dancing while already engaged in a pressing work. I'm only sure that the answer is NOT about time management. Here's my ideas and if it makes sense, it'll be keys for anyone who wish to develop dancing skills as I do.

1. Keep listening
Listen to the music anytime you can, again and again and again. Dance is about music. Not just physical movement. I've heard so many great dancers saying that the dancer's body is a musical instrument. So keep listening, memorize the sound, beat, groove, tone, tense, and learn to be part of it.

2. Move Slowly
On the other hand, practice doesn't just mean moving to the music. If you don't get the idea of the choreography and can't control your body in the first place, you never dance with music. So start moving slowly. Move slowly as much as you can (it's harder than expected) and think about every movement, every positioning of your body, and every flow of the choreography.

3. Keep Imagining
When you learn and understand the music and the movement, then imagine yourself dancing with listening to the music. Not yourself from audience's view, but your own eye's vision when you dance. Can we see ourselves when dancing? Actually no. But the view that our eyes catch is the view you'll see on stage. So get used to it, with the music.

Dancing needs not only body. Your ears, eyes and especially your mind matter the most.

264 September

フランスで国民的大ヒットを記録した映画”Intouchables"は世界中を席巻しているようです。事故で首から下が麻痺してしまった大富豪と、口が悪いが大らかでパワフルなスラム街の青年、その2人のこのうえなく楽しく幸福な友情は実話に基づくものです。奇跡的な事実が時にこうして実現すると、まるで寓話のような単純さと力強さで人を揺さぶるものです。

最初から最後まで、すべてが名場面と言えるほど丁寧に作られ、わざとらしさや無駄も一切なく、ただ楽しい気持ちの純度がずっと保たれるという奇跡的な映画です。中でも痛快な場面といえば、あわやスピード違反で検挙されそうになったところを悪ふざけで逃げおおせた2人が、その成功を祝ってEarth, Wind & Fireの"September"を大音量でかけながら車を飛ばすシーンです。 首から下が動けない車椅子の紳士が、ただ首を縦に振るだけで見事に音楽に乗り、その心中の喝采が聞こえてくるような躍動感を見せてくれるのです。曲で場面が引き立つことはよくありますが、ここではこのミニマムな動きが曲の魅力をさらにかき立てるという、不思議な力のこもった場面です。

263 Bus Tour

都会の観光バス、と聞くと「観光客が乗るつまらないもの」と片づけてしまいがちですが、初めて訪れる都市では非常に役立ちます。1時間ほど地上の景色を楽しみながら街の要所をくまなく巡るだけで、街の構造が分かり、道が分かり、雰囲気が分かり、人の様子が分かり、距離感が分かり、土地勘が付いてきます。そこまで俯瞰できればあとはバスを降りて歩いてみるのは簡単なことです。

クリスマスのコペンハーゲンでも、秋のヘルシンキでもバスに乗って楽しい街巡りを満喫したのですが、一味違ったのはパリの観光バスです。驚いたのはその速さ、です。かなり背の高い2階立てのバスで、2階席はオープンです。それがパリ中心部の混みあう道をすさまじいスピードで駆け抜けるのです。石畳の坂道を急降下していったときには、まるでジェットコースターでした（手すりにつかまらないと振り落とされそうなほどです）。もちろん子供たちは大喜びでしたが。疾走するバスの2階から、セーヌ川や、ノートルダム寺院や、コンコルド広場の夜景や、シャンゼリゼの夕景に目を見張ったものです。しかし、あまり長く風にさらされたせいか、バスを降りたときにはすっかり身体が冷えていました。身震いしながら目の前にあったカフェに駆け込み、「ホットチョコレートはありますか？」と聞くと、店主が「無いわけがないだろう、ついでに甘いものでも食べていったら」と笑いながら答えてくれたのが、楽しい思い出に残っています。

262 Reunion

There is no punchline in this story. This is just personally funny, but I'd dare to share it with readers.
One of my best friends and I met our old homeroom teacher who taught us arithmetic at elementary school years and years before. We talked and laughed a lot. Suddenly the teacher looked me in the eye and said, "your laughter is exactly the same as the days when you're a kid in my class" I'm not sure if this is something happy to know, or worthy to share, but it left something to me.

261 A Glass of Quality

There's a huge difference in sense of taste between drinking water from plastic bottle, and from a glass. It's huge as I experience it. The story goes like this. Recently I changed an old plastic cup with which I rinse my mouth and gargle every morning and night, into a finest Finnish-designed glass tumbler from iittala.　(I think I should make a short remark here about using designer stuff for the daily toothbrushing---some might say that's a lavish way of life, but it's perfectly reasonable from a point of view. You can serve to your guests with a glass tumbler but you'd never use a plastic cup.)

The tap water was dramatically changed. I did expect it but I didn't expect such a huge difference. While the water is physically just the same liquid, how is it possible to describe the change properly? （Or could it be explained physically, like "the material and the shape of the glass affect the molecular structure of water..." ?)

Whatever the theory is, I felt through the experience that there's something invisible and beyond just a function; that's quality.