Model and Defect

washing dishes together

Some background info: the village I went to as a exchange student located at the southest end of Kagoshima, with a population of 8900 people. At 43%, it also has the highest ratio of aged 65+ residents among the different districts in Kagoshima prefecture. My host family has 4 members. The father is the head of a NPO farming facility which hires mainly people with mental disability. The mother also works in the facility, but not on a full-time basis. She also cooks very well. There are two kids, aged 8 and 4 respectively. The little girl is very cute but wants to have her way all the time, likes to follow me everywhere and pinches me to get my full attention. The boy likes to read manga, athletic, and is very kind to his lil sis. They are the model Japanese family in my opinion.

On the second day of my arrival,  I got a chance to tour around the farming facility. The site includes various plant fields (tea leaves, carrot, onions and such), a ham processing facility, a bakery, a small cow raising area as well as workers' dormitory and recreational area. My tour guide is a man with down's syndrome and he commutes to the facility everyday doing some light manual work. He talks clearly and has a better command of Japanese than I do. He told me that he had a big heart surgery when he was small; I later found out that this was common among down's syndrome patients. I had a very pleasant time walking around and talking with him. My host family later said he is the "spokesperson" of the farm and loves to talk to different people even though at times he makes up story in order to make the conversation flow. But I thought that was very nice of him. On my third and forth day, I worked in the plantation area alongside with workers of light degree of mental disability. Most of them have completely normal appearance. They were very diligent and did not seem to mind repeating manual and robotic work. I spent most time with an old lady above 70 and she was the cutest old lady I ever met, always cracking jokes and even took care of me when we were in the cafeteria. Both she and her daughter live in the dorms of the facility. We picked out tomatoes, cleaned and weighted them and put them into small plastic bags, all by hand. We also packed green onions together and there went the day. A lot of times I did not understand what the workers were saying to me but they always gave me a big smile and I felt like I was most welcomed.

These 2 days got me into deep thinking that the line of between role model and the rest is not that clear-cut after all. And in fact on site yesterday, I was mistaken to be one of the workers there by a staff and he later apologized to me. I thought that was funny and the movie "Shutter Island" popped up on my mind but really, we are not all that different from them. Here I am, in a perfect family who works for the bettering of people with innate disability and that to me, is true harmony.

Related links
花の木農場

生活的藝術

看到某搏客的文章說到「沉澱比吸收」重要，只要好好細味審視，看似刻板的生活也能發找到得著。如此說來現在的我更需要沉澱凝固的時間。5日前離開東京出發到鹿児島的兩星期交流，期間在大阪稍作停留順道觀光。雖然在東京生活的一年半內已經學會了經歷了很多，但這5天尤其充實得著甚多，現作小回顧將精彩的回憶急凍保鮮。

大阪內印象最為深刻的是在大阪國立美術館的草間弥生作品展。草間弥生雖然年過70但仍然在活躍地創作，是最能代表日本的當代藝術家之一。欣賞她的作品就像要解讀她的人生一樣不是人人也能參透，自問雖然沒有藝術的慧根，只是，看著她的繪畫與雕刻便能感受到她對生命的熱情對藝術的執著。她為自己最近的collection作了這樣的註釋：「...當我確實感受到人的生命是個不息的循環的時候，當中的喜悅令我跨越了對死亡的恐懼，我決意要每一天都藉著最好的藝術將人性最美好的一面展現出來...」在她的作品裡我看到自己的不濟﹣草間雖然已經不良於行但仍每一天在畫在創作，我所謂的奮鬥根本不值一提。在她的作品裡我更看到生命的無限可限性，只要不給藉口自己美好的事情一定會發生。其次在大阪內為生命留痕的是hostel裡的friday night party。席上和剛認識在本地從事藝術工作的人言談甚歡，摸著酒杯談文化，日文英文交雜，隔膜意外地簡單刺破。

生活的藝術或藝術的生活﹣在大阪這個自古以商業聞名的城市，都比我想象的更精彩。

來回折返人間

要到白川鄉村莊，遊客要走過吊橋，跨過一條水流湍急但看來不太深的川流。吊橋不長，大概走兩分鐘便到達彼岸，但要真正的從一邊走到另一邊卻如隔世般遠。白川鄉像個不現實只會出現在宮崎駿動畫內的國度，魔幻而神秘。從展望台俯瞰，它更像中國的墨水畫，山巒深淺有序。屋頂用茅草鋪成的一百四十多個小屋被山巒環繞著，河流在旁邊不息的急湍，它們謙卑的靜處著，沒有爭奇鬥艷的氣勢卻和周圍的自然完全融合。在大自然前人都是微不足道的，白川鄉的平實大概是它正正的魅力所在之一。我站在展望台，看著前面的景色，深深吸了一口氣，心裡既激動又平安。不以物喜，不以己悲﹣這是白川鄉給我上的一課。