Posted by Free on November 24, 2010, at 22:06:12
In reply to Re: NEW poll of the day, posted by sigismund on November 24, 2010, at 14:39:13
> When I was in Kyoto I was struck by how beautiful the young Japanese men were. They spent so much money on their haircuts. I'd never seen anything like these haircuts. Long hair, sort of, just lovely. And they had these crazy shoes. Black high boots with silver buckles that wrapped around the ankle.
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I read somewhere, the Japanese (men and women), spend half of their income on clothing and grooming. Their culture is permeated by aesthetics. You can see it from the way they present their food in pretty little dishes to the way they design their serenely beautiful gardens. I respect their nature inspired aesthetic sensibility. It's simple yet sophisticated.It's been a while since I went there, but I remember thinking how impeccably groomed from head to toe everyone was. I was too young to notice the men, but I thought the people were very polite and respectful. But I mostly remember enjoying myself eating delicious sushi and noodle soups in various restaurants. Which reminds me, I should watch Tampopo, again. (I recommend this off-beat movie about the joys of food, if you haven't already seen it.)
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> It's one of the reasons to travel to Asia......the people are so friendly. In Vietnam I could go to a cafe with a beautiful view and read Cormac McCarthy for an hour or two while drinking my Vietnamese rum. Then I would walk home. If I felt like it I would walk past a shop and there would be some lovely looking Vietnamese man. He would ask where I came from. I could count on a 90 minute conversation about the American War, the French War, the communist victory, life under communism, the ethics involved in dealing with a defeated enemy, what the takeover was like, corruption, was it all worth it, the roots of genocide.
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> Imagine a Vietnamese person hanging around a shop in our countries (mine anyway) hoping for a conversation with a local in Vietnamese about our politics for 90 minutes!
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> The Vietnamese people are generally so beautiful.
>Nothing compares with the experience of travel. I think travel anywhere abroad always leads to a new appreciation of my life and reminds me of how utterly different and varied life can be...how much beauty and magic that abounds out there. I find this particularly true of Asia and its peoples...
poster:Free
thread:960272
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20101122/msgs/971249.html