someone in the neighborhood just fired up a power tool. Other peoples’ noise means one thing…I can make noise without fear of disturbing Harmony in the neighborhood.
There are two kinds of noise I like to make. If the miscreant power tool is disturbing the peace only briefly, I go to the makiwara striking post and fire off some one-twos, thwack thwack, thwack thwack. Nothing like punching an unmoving opponent to make me feel accomplished.
If someone is working on a big project and making lots of noise, it is time to get out the spear.
I got the wooden shaft from a friend on one of his trips to Taiwan, later got the metal tip on one of his later trips (both to see his Sifu). It is not so common here in Japan, but since I have been working on one of his spear forms, I did it the Taiwanese (really old mainland style, since his teacher’s branch of the line fled to Taiwan after the excitement in 1949) way, and put little metal balls in the tip to rattle with each focused motion of the spear.
My noise-making was brief today, and was followed by explorations in nature, all one meter of the ground surrounding my little house here in Tokyo. Perfect twilight moment, the setting sun and the rising moon both visible. Above me one of the autumn spiders had been wrapping some fresh prey in a web which vibrated with each thwack of mine. The spider kept on undisturbed, in fact stopping its motions only after I stopped my punches. In the other corner, I spooked a frog who had come out from the jungle of ivy just before I passed.
Such excitement and wonder. I have been cooped up in the house too long.
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