i can kiss babies and scale tokyo tower!

today is the official last day of xmas according to tradition. i read it on my friend satya cacananda's blog. it's funny, because i was raised catholic and have celebrated xmas my whole life and i never knew this.

ok-can i just take a moment to thank the universe, siva, god and all my awesome teachers (dena, lino, suddha, manju, guruji, sharath, david and simi roche, gwendoline hunt, amy treciokas & cara jepsen) and whoever else is responsible for leading me down the yoga path? i woke early today, saturday (usually my day off) and ventured into the yoga studio. open up my stubborn little mind and forced myself to do my intermediate practice. the moment i entered that room, my mood lifted right up. and there was zen, set my mat up next to him, and had another happy but horribly painful practice. i would hate to see my grimacing face, especially on the 4 killers (for me), eka pada through titti, and everything that involves a lotus. i have to practice the ultimate in what lino has always said, "don't think. just do." it's simple and direct. as painful as it all was, i feel steller when it's all over. and right now, post yoga, i feel like i can kiss babies and scale tokyo tower!

*tangent time* a tribute to my teachers

there are snippets of spiritual advice passed onto me by many of my teachers, which i would like to share with you:

*dena-they can't take away your light (about being fired from moksha in the middle of an intensive 10,000 miles away)
*lino-don't think, just do (getting up from a backbend and everything else that is difficult)
*suddha-give it to god. (about teaching yoga) always expect the unexpected (about india)
*gwendoline hunt-the more you do this yoga, the more you will understand it
*amy treciokas-yoga does not change you. it just makes you more of what you really are (enhanced personalities)
*sharath-anyone can do astanga. except for lazy people (at conference in byron bay this year and astanga new york movie)
*guruji-mind your own mula bandha! (a snippet told by manju when asked if guruji taught muslims)

it's pouring rain again, and always when i am energized and have many plans that involve scaling the tokyo landscapes in search of a healer for my hips, more bath bombs from lush, skirts on sale, hats, and food. the rain won again, and i ended up in a nice internet cafe where it's free if you buy something. great coffee and food, and close to my future house in shibuya-i move in a week or so. then i went to get those bath bombs, but my bones got cold. turned around, and that was it for me. but not before visiting the ...

tobacco and salt museum!

6 floors of the history of tobacco and salt in japan! i parked my umbrella in the locked umbrella parking outside the building. all of the stores have parking spots for them, many provide long skinny baggies, too. paid my 100 yen (85 cents) and locked everything in my locker for another 100 yen-which was returned to me upon retrieving my goods! my only complaint was that everything was in kanji, so i had to try to figure all this out for myself. the first floor had educational tvs, artifacts, and interesting souveniers to buy, such as a collection of vintage matchboxes, many types of salt, some in rock form, others ground, vintage japanese smoking kits, pipes, postcards, pens, stuff like that. up i went to the next floor, which had all kinds of smoking devices from the 16th century, which is when japan was introduced to tobacco voyagers (spanish?) who got the tobacco from the mayan indians in south america. we have ashtrays, old lighters, pouches, cigarette holders, hookahs, pipes. here you can sit down to the more than half a dozen places and thumb through giant panels with old tobacco wrappers and cigarette cartons.

the next floor had a lifesize exhibition of a japanese family making their own cigs. husband grinding the leaves, wife rolling, child stuffing into boxes. i noticed that the smoking aparatases have not changed much. this floor emphasizes the pleasures and relaxation of smoking, smoking in kabuki, privatization of the leaf in the meiji era, the state monopoly through 1985, and the new age of tobacco. here, we have an installation of 80s cigs, 90s cigs, and the ones from the new millenium. names like sakura, harmony, siesta, peace, frontier, neo, bitter valley, golden bat, it is?, cabin, and my favorite which comes in a neon multi pink mondrian inspired box-bevel fina shineberry!

around the corner was a makeshift japanese living room from 1970, complete with an old color tv playing various vintage japanese commercials! cool! suntory, toyota, candy, and my favorite, U.F.O. noodles!
a video showed how tobacco plants are grown and produced. quite interesting, actually.

the next couple of floors were about salt. these were less interesting to me. the first thing you see is a four foot rock salt in a glass box. and many others, displayed like crystals. they are brown and blue, white, red and orange. you can watch videos of salt miniing and how it's made. and microscopes with salt dna. the top floor was a changing art gallery dealing with the said subjects, including a box you could sniff something familiar, but not sure what it was.

it was time to go, but i wanted to use the bathroom. how happy was i to discover old school flushable squat pottys! just like india, but more state-of-the-art! the highlight of my day.