How the nightingale got her song

"Pi-pi-pi-pi-pi Ho-o ho-o kekyo!"

In the past few days Tetsu and I have been greeted by this bird call when we go for a walk in the mornings. This is the call of the Japanese nightingale and he always heralds the arrival of spring. The Japanese nightingale is a small bird and though I hear him when I am outside I rarely get a glimpse of him. Far off in the trees I think I can see a small brown bird and it is amazing how far and clearly the nightingale's voice carries over the fields and forests. Tetsu will sometimes whistle back and the nightingale will answer with a long warbling voice that ends in the familiar "Ho-o ho-o kekyo!" (picture from the Internet)

Do you know this story? It was always one of Leiya's favorites when she was a child and each spring when the nightingale's song could be heard, she'd ask me to repeat it.

One morning God sent out word to the birds in His world that He had planned something special for them and that they were all supposed to gather at a certain time and He would give them a present. Birds from all over the earth flew to God's side and He pulled out a huge box of paints.

"Today I am going to paint each of you and give you whatever colors you want. You are to go out in the world and brighten your place!"

The birds were very excited and started lining up in front of God and talking about what colors and feathers they wanted.

The cardinal declared that he wanted to be RED. As bright as possible! And God painted him in a brilliant vermilion.

The gentle swan gracefully came to God and said she wanted to be pure white so that the sun would reflect on her wings.

The peacock wanted each of his feathers painted in detail and it took God a long time to paint the sparkling designs on each long feather. The peacock strutted off proudly displaying God's amazing artwork.

The parrot was a bit of a joker anyway and he said he wanted every color that God had to be splashed on him. And then the toucan, not to be outdone, said that he wanted that strange looking beak at the bottom of the box and the brightest yellow available to spice up his shimmering black coat. The other birds giggled and thought the parrot and the toucan had overdone it but God smiled indulgently and the two birds chattered about who would be the brightest in the jungle.

The sweet little robin came up to God shyly and asked only for a soft red on her breast that she could look down at and admire alone.

All the birds got the colors of their choice and God spent a wonderful day painting and choosing the colors that were just right for each bird's personality. When evening drew near and all the birds were happily on their way home, God started to pack away His paintbox. It had been a busy day and all His wonderful paints had been used to their fullest.

But just then a small drab nightingale came fluttering in all in a panic.

"God! God! I just heard that You'd called all the birds together today! I live in the far off mountains and I didn't get the message! I have just come! God! Please paint me too!"

But God looked into His paintbox and then looked sadly at the nightingale.

"I'm so sorry. All the paints are gone... I used them all up and there is no color left for you my little nightingale."

The poor little nightingale looked so forlorn and so sad that God took another look in the box and at the far corner He noticed one tiny drop of gold.

"Little nightingale, open your beak wide and I think I can give you the best present of all."

So the nightingale opened her beak wide and God took one of His paintbrushes and placed the drop of gold at the back of the nightingale's throat.

The nightingale started to thank God and when she opened her mouth the most wonderful melody flowed forth! She could trill and warble and for miles around her golden voice could be heard over the hills and fields! All the other birds in the world were envious of the nightingale's beautiful song!

Although the nightingale stayed a brown little bird, God had given her the most beautiful voice in all the earth, and she spread her joy whenever she sang her thanks.

Nightingale

Lorraine and Tetsu and I visited a museum on Saturday even though it was still a rainy day. The museum is tucked away in the wilds of the Tochigi Prefecture forests overlooking the valleys and plains. The artist who works there illustrating children's books, is quite well known in Japan for his 14 Mice series and his illustrations are filled with details of nature and the flora and fauna of Tochigi. No photography allowed in the museum of course.

There was a little gift shop attached to the museum and a deck that looked out on the countryside so the three of us sat outside and enjoyed coffee and the sound of rain and the songs of birds.

For awhile Tetsu whistled back and forth to the many nightingales hidden somewhere in the treetops.

And for a few precious seconds a nightingale (I'm assuming he's a nightingale... ) made an appearance in a far off tree!

In honor of the nightingale I'm re-posting a story that I related a couple of years ago on this blog.


How the Nightingale Got Her Song

One morning God sent out word to the birds in His world that He had planned something special for them and that they were all supposed to gather at a certain time and He would give them a present. Birds from all over the earth flew to God's side and He pulled out a huge box of paints.

"Today I am going to paint each of you and give you whatever colors you want. You are to go out in the world and brighten your place!"

The birds were very excited and started lining up in front of God and talking about what colors and feathers they wanted.

The cardinal declared that he wanted to be RED. As bright as possible! And God painted him in a brilliant vermilion.

The gentle swan gracefully came to God and said she wanted to be pure white so that the sun would reflect on her wings.

The peacock wanted each of his feathers painted in detail and it took God a long time to paint the sparkling designs on each long feather. The peacock strutted off proudly displaying God's amazing artwork.

The parrot was a bit of a joker anyway and he said he wanted every color that God had to be splashed on him. And then the toucan, not to be outdone, said that he wanted that strange looking beak at the bottom of the box and the brightest yellow available to spice up his shimmering black coat. The other birds giggled and thought the parrot and the toucan had overdone it but God smiled indulgently and the two birds chattered about who would be the brightest in the jungle.

The sweet little robin came up to God shyly and asked only for a soft red on her breast that she could look down at and admire alone.

All the birds got the colors of their choice and God spent a wonderful day painting and choosing the colors that were just right for each bird's personality. When evening drew near and all the birds were happily on their way home, God started to pack away His paintbox. It had been a busy day and all His wonderful paints had been used to their fullest.

But just then a small drab nightingale came fluttering in all in a panic.

"God! God! I just heard that You'd called all the birds together today! I live in the far off mountains and I didn't get the message! I have just come! God! Please paint me too!"

But God looked into His paintbox and then looked sadly at the nightingale.

"I'm so sorry. All the paints are gone... I used them all up and there is no color left for you my little nightingale."

The poor little nightingale looked so forlorn and so sad that God took another look in the box and at the far corner He noticed one tiny drop of gold.

"Little nightingale, open your beak wide and I think I can give you the best present of all."

So the nightingale opened her beak wide and God took one of His paintbrushes and placed the drop of gold at the back of the nightingale's throat.

The nightingale started to thank God and when she opened her mouth the most wonderful melody flowed forth! She could trill and warble and for miles around her golden voice could be heard over the hills and fields! All the other birds in the world were envious of the nightingale's beautiful song!

Although the nightingale stayed a brown little bird, God had given her the most beautiful voice in all the earth, and she spread her joy whenever she sang her thanks.

The Nightingale room

We survived! Look, look, look at my wonderful new carpet in the Japanese room! (Maybe I should call it something else since it no longer has Japanese tatami mats.) Tetsu spent all day from 9:00 to 5:30 working away and it is finished!!! I absolutely love it!!!

The whole project was not without aggravations. First Tetsu took out all the furniture. That left the living room also a mess for the day. Then he took up the tatami. Did you know that tatami mats are really very thick boards of matting. They are heavy and unwieldy. Easy part done.

Next Tetsu went off to buy lumber with very rough measurements. I don't know why, but we do not have a tape measure and he didn't seem to think it necessary to buy one and instead was using my quilter's ruler to do his measurements. Even those, he was content with the "roughly 54 centimeters" type of thinking and he came back with a lot of wood that he then had to cut by hand. I offered the suggestion of borrowing a neighbor's electric saw but Tetsu preferred to huff and puff and do all the cutting with this little hand saw that was so old I thought he'd make more progress with my kitchen knife. "Do not give unnecessary advice." I kept telling myself.

Choco tried to be helpful (stealing the rag) but all in all was quite happy that she had Dad out in her yard cutting lumber all day. The cats were very good and even with the windows and doors open, didn't venture downstairs at all. Too much confusion.

Next came the laying of lumber and nailing down the frame and then the base. There is a little patching under there but I didn't take pictures of the mistakes. Someday someone tearing down this house is going to say "What was this builder thinking?!" It serves our purposes and only Tetsu and I know the flaws.

Finally the laying of carpet tiles. That was the fun and easy part. Tetsu wasn't sure about the color I chose, "Orange? You want an orange floor?" Well, I wanted a cheery floor. I teach in this room and I figure the kids should be in a happy atmosphere while they're here. True, it doesn't really go with much but it is cheerful and sort of vitamin color! I love it!!

The new floor isn't perfect but I think it is wonderful! It creaks when you walk on it! Hmmm... Not much we can do about that now. That's ok! There is a famous castle in Kyoto, called Nijo Castle where all 33 rooms in it have purposely creaking floors so that no one could creep up on the Shogun there. The floors are called "nightingale floors" because they make bird like creaking sounds. I could call my former Japanese room, the "nightingale room". Sort of has a nice ring to it and so does the floor!

What do you think? Isn't my husband wonderful (and tired looking!)

Birds and flowers

I have a zillion things to do so this is going to be short. One of my English kids is already here!

Here's a picture of one of the herons that I was talking about yesterday. There is a nesting site along our daily walk route and talk about noisey! If anyone needs a definition of squabbling, you just have to walk by this part of the forest. These herons are white and quite large. There is another species of heron which are smaller and grey but they all seem to be competing for trees.

Another bird that we hear a lot during this season sings "Ho---ho-ke-kyo" I think this is a Japanese nightingale and because it is shy and small it is difficult to search out among the trees, but it sings a lovely song early in the mornings.

The azaleas are blooming and one of my elderly neighbors does azalea bonsai which he is quite proud of. Every morning he picks off the dead blossoms and sits and smokes a cigarette while he admires his handiwork and drinks tea. He has other bonsai too but the azaleas are of course the most colorful and seem to be his favorites.

Only two more days till we see Leiya! (Can you tell I'm excited?)

Getting together

Yesterday turned out differently than we'd planned. (How often do I say this?)

All day Saturday Tetsu and I had worked on the "Nightingale room" and thus we'd unplugged the computer and the telephone. Around 6:00 I plugged everything back in and checked e-mail. Leiya had written to say that her host father "would be" in our city on a business trip. She sent the hotel address and telephone number but didn't say when he'd be here. I wrote back immediately to ask when. Yesterday morning at 6:30 after our morning walk I checked the e-mail again. Mail from both Leiya and Scott! He is here! Scott was trying to get in touch with us but the telephone wasn't working (Because we'd disconnected it all day!) So even though it was before 7:00 am. I called the hotel and made contact with him. Since he is in Japan on business he didn't really have much time for visiting, but he did have yesterday free so of course we were bound and determined to see him!

Problem. The house was in shambles from the day before. (We had been too tired to clean before going to bed.) One or both of us had to leave the house in about an hour in order to pick Scott up and go with him to church. Leiya needed some stuff from the computer put on a disc. So...I took off for the hotel about an hour away and Tetsu cleaned house and played with the computer! (Which, by the way we couldn't figure out so Leiya didn't get her stuff)

What a wonderful reunion with Scott! I talk to him occasionally when I call Leiya in Ohio but hadn't seen him in nearly 2 years. He had two business associates with him and the four of us went to church at the church where our family had first met Scott's family 6 or 7 years ago. It was good to see old friends (even for me) and everyone welcomed Scott like a long lost family member (which of course he is, in the family of God!) I got back into my mode of translating which means scribbling the sermon into English as fast as I can. My head doesn't work as fast as it used to and my handwriting hasn't gotten any better. I don't know if any of the three Americans could make heads or tails of what the pastor was saying even after reading my translation!

After church we headed back to Nikko where Tetsu was waiting, the house clean! My husband is so good about cleaning. I was amazed at how good he could get the place looking in just a few hours! He even put down left over carpet tiles in the kitchen! A quick look around and then we headed out to lunch.

A quick aside. Tetsu and I both drive moderate-sized cars. Not vans or SUVs but certainly not little compact cars either. At least for Japan they are medium size. But all three of the American guys were big and squeezing them into my car was painful to see. Knees up around their ears. Neck twisted to one side or the other because they couldn't sit up straight! Poor guys! We went in two cars to lunch but even so, I felt sorry for them as they folded and unfolded themselves when getting in and out of the cars.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with Scott and his friends and covered many topics of conversation. Not too much said about Leiya except that she is studying very hard and doing well in school (Scott's observation) and our repeated thank yous for giving her the opportunity to study in the States. It was a great day!

Weekend activities

Tetsu and I are still making the rounds of recycle shops. Tetsu absolutely hates shopping BUT he loves recycle shops. Maybe even more than I do! He says he feels like he is on a treasure hunt and never knows what may be hidden away on the shelves and racks. In the department stores he knows to go to his size rack and that is that...BORING!! Everything is right there and everything is expensive. But in the recycle shop he has to LOOK and occasionally he finds something in his size that only costs a piddling amount.

While Tetsu went through the racks of men's clothing I stayed in the kimono section. There is almost NOTHING that I can wear in the women's section of a recycle shop. Everything is too small! (Or I am too big....) So it is a waste of my time to look at clothing. But since I've been helping a blog friend look for a kimono I've been in seventh heaven. Look what I found the other day and bought for my friend!

This is a little boy's ceremonial kimono. I just love the castle and samurai helmets on the kimono back. It has a couple inner kimonos too so at whatever price I bought it, I thought it a real bargain. (and even contemplated keeping it around for someday grandchildren of my own... but since neither of my children are married I'd really be jumping the gun!)

And this weekend was Setsubun, a holiday associated with the beginning of spring. I have no reason why but these beautiful little Japanese sweets were being sold in the supermarket in honor of Setsubun so I bought a set for Tetsu's mother. Let's see... a treasure boat on the left, a spinning top in the center and a nightingale in a plum tree on the right. Tetsu' mother decided not to eat them (they are made of candied jellies) and will leave them on her table as a decoration...