The power of place - crows at Suwa Shrine in Yokkaichi city center

 

 Day-one included three online sessions, beginning with an overview of tourism subjects and resources and developments in the city of Ise as told by Mr. M. of the tourism section at city hall. While the Covid-19 screening was being processed by PCR.LAMP tests from saliva samples, after lunch we heard about the premodern major chapters in the shrines and surroundings at Ise from Pr. O. We had an intermission and then watched a pre-recorded exploration of the program itself, along with useful books and websites to consult when developing one's own topic of investigation during the 3 weeks we are together. Then we had a lively Q and A with Pr. M. (in English this once) on related matters from the 51-minute Youtube video recording that he'd produced. That left a little daylight before the suppers were given us at 6 p.m. so I returned to the nearby spacious grounds of Suwa Jinja and the connected public space of Suwa Park at the city center of Yokkaichi. With the light fading and the crows coming home to roost in the thicket of trees with fluttering leaves, I recorded this clip and asked myself to listen for the non-human pulse of the surroundings, a loud kind of silence full of possibilities and potentiality. Perhaps the loud corvids said it best: "it just is." There is no need to seek lofty words and holy texts, all you need to know is right here, right now. It is in the air, the movement of the leaves and feathers, and the sound of every living thing. Tomorrow the seminar heads to Ise for settling into the seminar routines and working with supplied resources at the library, museums, shrine facilities, faculty and online sources, too.