So I got fed up….well not really fed up. Just tired of working everyday for two months straight with nothing other than the weekend break! So…..off to BAL-TI-MORE….MARY….LAND to see the Wretched and have BIG FUN! (If you haven’t seen Off to See the Wretched please WATCH it NOW…it is my favorite Cosby show Claire moment)

I can’t take credit for the Baltimore idea it was actually my friend MJ (who I convinced to play hooky with me) idea…and oh how we did have BIG FUN in Baltimore. We took the MARC train from DC’s Union Station, enjoyed the hour long ride by taking a nap arrived around 2:30 and hit the mean streets. Our first destination was the Washington Monument. MJ, my famous history buff friend, knows anything about everything and promptly informed me that the Washington Monument located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore was indeed the first monument built in honor George Washington. We climibed teh 228 steps to the top and enjoyed a picturesque view of Baltimore….we panted our way down and headed over to Baltimore’s inner harbor where we got frozen treats and people watched. Our last destination, was some big hill (me standing atop it very exuberant in my rock star stance) where I had great encounters with a little kid named Jalil…who called me a ‘monkey on a swing’ and then in his kid friendly way, forced me off the swing so that I could push him higher and higher into the sky! Well of course, I was afraid that 4 year old Jalil would flip off the swing and bust his head wide open….and then I would be sued for my last $175.87.

So I called….er Jalil kicked me to the curb and called his dad to push him higher and higher to the sky! I walked away, happy….the way you feel when little kids take time out to invite you into their way of life.

If you haven’t done it recently….play hooky from work…..an adventure awaits you!

Sumon and I studied Japanese in Kyoto for a semester back in college, so instead of temples and shrines, he wanted to see some of the places where he spent time back then. I live on the same train line that he was on 6 1/2 years ago, so we followed his old commute to school, KIC which is on the campus of Kyoto University of Art and Design. Later we went to his favorite bar, ING, where the rock’n'roll bartender/owner remembered him!

College friends and world travelers, Snow and Sumon, joined me in Kyoto for a few days of catching up and sleeping in but we made it out of the house a few times. Our first stop was vegan restaurant, Mikoan, which really filled us up with delicious Japanese style dinner sets.

We wondered around a bit and went to a couple bars, thinking that we would head home early, but somehow when we checked the time, we had already missed the last train! Being committed to five more hours, we transformed from low energy to dance energy and had a great night! No photos of the actual dancing, but here’s one of a group of cute young salarymen enjoying the club, still in their suits from work.

U-Street has changed since my last stint in DC….Gentrification……and my heart lags around old and new…..I ate NACHOS at Alero with ‘everybody’ and had a  good time (eating) and enjoying the atmospheric sounds of folks happy to be off work.

I found the website for a shop called Veggie Sweets a couple months ago that looks interesting. They make vegan cake and ice cream and I’ve been wanting to go but there is no map and I don’t trust myself with Japanese addresses at all! The other day I checked the website again and there was a post about the Earth Love Festival (地球愛祭り) where they would be selling some of their sweets the next day! I invited Beth, a JET from New Zealand for the adventure.

It was a small but nice event with a few non-profit booths, music and dance performances, and some vegetarian businesses. The most exciting thing was all the vegan sweets! I bought way too many, and I found out where the Veggie Sweets shop is, so I’ll be going soon! I also met a woman whose small business making vegan cakes and selling them to stores and restaurants is called Spiritual Sweets. She doesn’t have her own shop, so I exchanged contact information with her, and she offered to teach me some vegan baking! Maybe we can trade tips!

One of the teachers I work with invited me to go with a group of people to see Son Rosado, a latin music band. I didn’t have any of the details, so I didn’t know if it would be at a concert hall or what, but it turned out to be at a bar called Mojo West. I was glad because we could dance instead of just listening! Of course we were shy at first, but after other people had been dancing for awhile Raymond (my fellow JET) and I got out there. Later, the singer gave a mini lesson, so everyone could dance to the remaining songs. It was so much fun! Every time I go salsa dancing I think I should do it more…

Once in the Spring and once in the Fall, Cultural Tourism DC offers free walking tours of a dozen or more DC hotspots. I immediately noted the Black Georgetown tour in my calendar, begged my friend MJ to come along with me as just a few weeks prior to learning about the Black Georgetown tour we were having a conversation about Georgetown’s current residents and those of the past. MJ is quite smart and has a great capacity to store and process information and history and proceeded to tell me about the history of slaves and free blacks who once made up over 1/3 of the population of Georgetown (The 1800 census reported 5,120, which included 1,449 slaves and 227 free blacks. Today the number of African Americans living in Georgetown is less than .3%…you count on one hand).

Our conversation peeked my curiousity and I started research of my own. I’ve known of course that slave labor was used widely to construct the monuments and many of the buildings in the new capital of Washington, DC in addition to providing labor on the tobacco plantations in VA and MD. What I had not known was the history of slaves and blacks particularly in the Georgetown neighborhood (which was located in Maryland).

So I read and found many interesting things that peeked my interests even more and decided to join the walking tour. The tour led by our guide Noel, was a bit underwhelming as it was merely a ’stop and point out location/building tour’ and didn’t really weave together a story like I’d hoped or even touch on some of the more fascinating things I researched about. (I’m happy I researched on my own before going.) The highpoint of the tour was finding what is believed to have been a ’safe house’ (picture above) in the slave cementary owned and operated by Mount Zion United Methodist Church (the oldest black congregation (190 years old) in DC). The cementary speculated to have been a stop on the underground railroad offered free burials to blacks. I wanted to enter the safe house but of course the door was glued shut. Its difficult to see in the picture but the safe house was quite small with only one tiny hole or window on the right side. I speculate that from the position of the house (down a sloping hill) that it was once covered with debris and immersed in the forest (some of which is now carved out by a concrete jungle of a freeway).

I could go on and on about what I’ve learned but I hope you’ll take some time to dig deeper into the facade of gentrification and uncover the hidden, lost and buried histories of other American neighborhoods. I know I will operate in this greater conciousness when visiting cities. We never know where history lies……..

For more resources on Slavery and Emancipation in Washington, DC please click here. Otherwise, I strongly recommend you read the book Black Georgetown Remembered.

Good people of America…… Why do we not love the arts???? This post is about Sweet Sonia and how she sat behind me and talked to me and smiled to me and laughed with me and agreed with me (about how cold it was in the auditorium).  And about E. Ethelbert Miller and how he called me out and said ‘wow, she’s reading Black Voices, I haven’t seen that one in a while’ on more than one occassion. And about Askia Toure and how he sat next to me in quiet old man charm and smiled and was calm…..and allowed me to look at the way his hair spiraled in beautiful black and gray ringlets. And I am selfish, because if everyone was so interested in Poetry and the arts and hearing our elders share stories than perhaps, I would have never had the access I had this week…To the great writers and artists. So for once I applaud apathy…as it has truly been my friend. Each day I sat in the front row, attentive, eyes wide, ears in attention….full and happy. Check out details on the Symposium here.

In the picture Sonia Sanchez, E. Ethelbert Miller, and Askia Touré. Take some time to Google them, baby.

So, my famous artist friend T.J. came in from NYC on the Greyhound (what? you didn’t know that the BUS is so in with famous artists?) to celebrate her big B’DAY, take a break from her PhD studies, and importantly LIVE IT up in DC! The weekend started off with a big meal on Saturday at the infamous Ben’s Chilli’s Bowl.  (If you don’t know about Ben’s Chilli Bowl, stop everything you’re doing and research this historic pillar in the DC community.) After full belly’s and with smile’s on our faces we go off to catch the last shows of the Cherry Blossom Festival and tour the MALL (yes this is my 2 time touring the mall in a 2 week period)…but what are friends for? We end the day at Glady’s & Ron’s Chicken and Waffle where my famous artist friend T.J. got served a very special ‘jazzed’ up B’day song by the Saturday night Jazz Band. In the group picture we are all smiling and sucking in our stomachs. I recommend the Midnight Train to Georgia. Glady’s and Ron’s House Dish. It will leave you oh so happy. (BTW it’s actually called the ‘Midight Train’ but I can’t help me self when ordering.)

When I got back form Tokyo I still had a few days before school started so I asked my friend Hitoshi if he had some time to hang out. He is REALLY busy with work and never has weekends off so it’s hard for us to get together, but he had Thursday off! He wanted to go to the National High School Baseball Finals because a team from Okinawa, his home prefecture, was playing. It was as at Koshien, the stadium for the Hanshin Tigers professional team. Okinawa won! Here’s the Okinawa cheering section: