girly food

i finally did it. i saw it when i first got here. i thought about it. i wondered about it. there were lines around the block for them. it intrigued and intimidated me.

japanese crepes.

i talked katsu into joining me for one today. at first he said no way, cause they are "girly". something that is interesting about japan is that food is man food or ladies food. i have been eating pocky for the last couple weeks, a popular snack food, basically a cracker stick dunked in chocolate, or strawberry, or the limited edition strawberry white chocolate mousse, OR the one i saw yesterday, MAN pocky! bittersweet. sweet sugary treats are meant for ladies. and with the pink girly wrapper on the crepe, watching katsu eat it, i finally understood. so he must eat his "girly" sweets in private. so funny to me! and any place that specializes in meat items is considered man food. and ramen, one of my most favorites, is also MAN food. we pondered marketing black crepe holders for men. hmm...

the reason i waited so long to try these is because usually the descriptions are in kanji and there are hundreds to choose from, i was embarassed. we both had the chocolate mille-feuille crepe. which was stuffed with great chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, whip cream, white chocolate, and home made pie (?). you could get bananas stuffed inside also for 50yen more. it was then i understood the crepe frenzy. so good, so different, so bold, so unique. i will never be the same. you can even purchase crepe memorabilia. i will return to purchase the socks. 5 pairs for 1000 yen. yes, 5 pairs. cause you can never have too many crepe socks.

back to yoga. teaching is going well, classes are packed. many students are making significent progress in their practices. it is inspiring to see. backbend drop back fear is melting away. twists are getting easier. pinca mayurasana is happening. breathing sounds good. and everyone seems happy. i am also happy. the second workshop was as good as the first. the numbers were the same. two more to go-one here and one in nikko. and i am moving on thursday. i am happy about that because i will be much closer to the studio and can do a full practice. but will sorely miss host mom's cooking.

my practice is a bit sad, difficult, painful. but i do what i can and always feel better. it's much easier these days silencing that little voice inside my head that tells me i'm never working hard enough. that's the trick. and you can only do this after practicing for a long time. it's such a hard thing for most people to do less. harder than doing more. much harder. society puts a lot of pressure on humans to succeed. yoga is one of the only places that we do not need this pressure. it's OK to do less! it's OK to forward bend without dropping back. and it's definitely OK to do just primary or even half primary when you have had some time off yoga. and if something is painful in a bad way, lay off! your body will thank you if you put this perspective into practice. it's ahimsa. we must always remember that it is not a good thing to cause pain and violence to our bodies.
to do this is the real success in yoga.
it's not about advancing, or perfecting. because the path is endless and there is nowhere to go anyhow.