No Amy, Month 6 --- Day 9/139

Walk: Hood
Distance: 2.6 miles, Housecleaning, small yoga

Now multiply by two and there you have most of Ciwt's housecleaning. 

Actually in fairness to them, Ciwt should say her cats are really quite socialized and tidy.  Now, if they could just figure out how to stop shedding and tracking litter....

Sunday Travels: Japan --- Day 9/138

Walk: Monday errands
Distance:  2.6 miles, Yoga

Lately Sunday has become Ciwt's 'travel' day.  Yesterday, after a few days avoiding the harzardous air from wildfires, a trip to Japan called to her.  Japantown that is, a few blocks away and an immersion into many aspects of Japanese culture.

The Japantown she went to is a revival of sorts of one of the original California Japantowns, so central to the Japanese immigrants who bgan moving into the area in 1906 after the earthquake and Great Fire. By World War II it was the largest of such enclaves outside of Japan, closely resembling the Ginza District in Tokyo. It was a place of community halls, churches, temples, Japanese food, and a neighborhood of residents, cultural organizations, language schools, festivals and other uniquely Japanese gatherings.

Then came FDR's 1942 order which forced all Japanese citizens of the United States to be relocated and interred in camps.  A sad topic beyond today's CIWT.  Following the war some Japanese returned along with new immigrants and investment by Japanese companies but many found other parts of the city to begin new homes and businesses. Finally though a firm Japantown foothold began being re-established with the development of the Japan Center in the early 60's.

The centerpiece of of the new Japan Center is the Peace Plaza built almost entirely with funds from its sister city, Osaka, as a symbol of Japanese goodwill and friendship.  And the crown jewel of the Plaza is most certainly the Peace Pagoda.  The designer of it was a noted modernist architect, Yoshiro Taniguchi, who rejected the typical square-roofed temple design in favor of a many-storied circular roof inspired by miniature pagodas placed in ten temples by Empress Koken ca 770 A.D.  

Today Japantown is once again home to Japanese cuisine, supermarkets, indoor shopping malls, hotels, banks and other shops including one of the few U.S. branches of the Kinokuniya bookstore chain.  Children play in the Plaza, rallies and political announcements are made there.  It celebrates two major, hugely attended festivals every year, the two weekend long Cherry Blossom Festival and the NihonmachiStreet Fair. And there is a strong possibility that its future will be even more active when this fall (fingers crossed) the voters approve a $25 million redesign and renovation project.  Japantown is shovel ready for that!

Even now, after a long and difficult history, Japantown is once again a true community place for San Franciscan Japanese as well as an interesting, lively, authentic destination for traveling and local visitors such as Ciwt. 

Red and Brilliant --- Day 9/137

Walk: Japantown
Distance: 3.5 miles, Yoga

Henri Matisse, The Dessert:, Harmony in Red, 1908. oil on canvas

On a cold hazy grey Sunday Ciwt is enjoying thinking about a painting several art historians consider Matisse's greatest masterpiece.  

Indie Books Day --- Day 9/136

Walk: No (air)
Distance: Yoga

So important, lots of work and labors of love.  Take it from former bookstore owner, Ciwt.  Some of her home favorites; what are yours ?:

Browser Books, Fillmore Street (since 1976)

Books, Inc, Laurel Village  (West's Oldest Independent Bookseller, tracing history to 1851)

Green Apple Books, Clement Street (since 1967)

Books, Inc/Formerly A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, Opera Plaza (since 1982)

Electric! --- Days 9/134 & 135

Walk: 1. No? (can't recall)  2. Hood
Distance: 1. ?, small yoga  2. 2 miles, Pedal, Yoga

Melania Trump at RNC 3rd Night

Melania Trump Last Night of RNC

Again, politics aside, these remarkable electric colors were breaths of fresh air for Ciwt in the midst of our smoky, hazardous haze out here.

Once again, remarkable fashion choices by our First Lady, and once again she rocks commanding colors and unusual shapes.  Difficult to do and Fun to see.  

Military Rock --- Day 9/133

Walk: More Errands/Excuses for Walks
Distance: 5 miles, small yoga

It is early after last night's convention speech and so far Ciwt hasn't seen anything written about Melania Trump's outfit.  So let her be one of the first.  

Military/militant and amazing.  Think what you will politically, Melania's fashion choices are original, definite, and personal- and she just rocks all of them.  (in Ciwt's opinion) 

A Masterpiece and A Man --- Days 9/131 & 132

Walk: 1. Monday Errands  2. Tuesday Errands
Distance: 1. 2.5 miles, Yoga  2. 1.5 miles, Yoga

Cathedrale Nortre-Dame de Chartres

So, appropriately because it was Sunday, Ciwt took a quick trip to Chartres.  (via Zoom and an artist guide who is leads tours to the site).  It was her first time 'there' and really one of the few times she's been so attentive to the details of church architecture and history.

As architecturally significant and beloved as Notre-Dame de Paris is, turns out Chartres' Notre-Dame is even more so.  The Roman Catholic cathedral is designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO which deems it "the high point of French Gothic art" and "a masterpiece."  The art expert who presented it on Zoom has returned (from Berkeley) many times and says one should allow at least two days in Chartres to begin to take it in - with all its pilgrimage history, its grand carvings, its stain glass windows, architectural innovations and achievements.

And, truth be told, Ciwt is the last person to introduce you to it.  The worst grade she ever got on any paper from kindergarten through graduate school was the one and only architecture paper she ever wrote.  It was a requirement, she thought she'd done okay, but was mortified to find she'd been given a D+😒.  So she'll leave the Chartres architecture education (and hopefully even a trip there) to her readers.

But she does know something about history so she can inform you that, old as Chartres Cathedral is (its North Tower was completed around 1150), it would not be standing today if it hadn't been for an American colonel, Welborn Barton Griffith, Jr.  

Griffith was with the Allies when they entered Chartres in mid-August 1944 in their campaign to defeat Hitler's forces and end World War II in the European theater.  When they got there word was that the Germans were occupying the Cathedral and its steeples and towers were being used as artillery highpoints.  Because of this, the order went out to defeat the Cathedral by any means necessary including completely destroying it with shelling and bombs.  Griffith.who was in charge, and could see first hand the magnificence of the building, questioned this order.  Further he volunteered to be a personal 'canary in the coal mine' and, accompanied by one other brave soldier, walked into the Cathedral.  When he found his doubts were well-founded and the church was empty, he had the church bells rung loudly as a signal not to shoot, the order for destruction was rescinded and the cathedral was saved.

Sadly, Griffith was not.  Later that same day (August 16) he died in combat action near Chartres. For Griffith to take the stance he did to protect the cathedral - much less making a personal reconnaissance accompanied by a single riflemen - was an extraordinary decision.  His feat was not forgotten and posthumously he was decorated with the Croix de Guerre avec Palm, the Legion d'Honneur, and Ordre National du Merite by the French government as well as the Distinguished Service Cross by the American government.

Colonel Welborn Barton Griffith, Jr.

So Much World --- Days 9/129 and 130

Walk: 1. West Portal (another haircut!) 2.  No (air)
Distance: 1. Not far ('unhealty' air quality), Pedal, Yoga  2. Pedal

Watercolor of Sonoma County fire by Sonoma County artist - from life, 8/21/20

Coronavirus shutdowns, lightening storms, wildfires, thick hazardous air: the world is so much with us in California right now.