Slice of Life - Alumni Connect
It's time to impress some adults!
Today we had fluffy clouds in the sky. A good omen for sure.
What was going on today?
Having attended a certain international school between 9th and 11th grade, I was invited last month to attend an alumni connect event in Washington D.C. There, I would be able to meet all sorts of alumni from this same school from a variety of different years.
Obviously, my answer was ‘yes’ to pretty much everything.
The event would start with a short tour of the Rinpa screens at the Freer Gallery (or National Museum of Asian Art) which would then extend into a small dinner party at a ramen shop.
This was all announced around the same time that The Mirror anthology was in its preorder stage, so I was excited to attend the event with my newly acquired author status to impress all of the much older and already successful adults.
The Gallery
With April 15th being the last day of the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C., I wasn’t expecting there to be as much traffic as there had been. Apparently, the end of the festival wasn’t what we had to worry about, but all the smaller celebrations happening in the area at the same time. Being a rather punctual person, I did start to worry that the tour would start without me, and I’d have the lovely and rather awkward time of trying to find the group and let them know that I was supposed to be with them. Thankfully, I arrived 10 minutes early instead, giving me ample time to get a name tag and socialize with some of the other alumni who where there.
First, the Rinpa screens:
Here’s what I learned from the tour guide:
These screens were among some of the first to have been made back in the 16th century. Typically, the screens would be first covered with gold leaf or silver and then painted on, as the top two screens show. The screens would even be double sided sometimes, with a different picture on the back from the front, and would be turned around at the beginning of whatever season it is supposed to reflect. The first photo with the gold and silver screens side-by-side used to be one such screen until the back and front images were separated from one another. Rinpa screens were often very brightly colored as well, as the second screen shows.
But what is typical doesn’t always mean it was standard. For the bottom two screens, the artist didn’t use any gold or silver for their background, nor bright colors. Instead, what the artist did was use pools of water. Wherever you see the dark ink clouds on the screens used to be where the water was, which was then shaded in blacks and greys with the dragon and waves being painted around them.
A common theme between these screens is nature. Whether it be flowers or water or both, nature is rather central to these pieces. After all, I’d say that Japan is generally a very naturalistic culture.
After seeing the screens, the tour guide took us into what is dubbed “The Peacock Room”. Every wall, floor to ceiling, was painted in a dark royal blue. The shelves were a sort of bronze-gold color, and the ceramics were different shades of blues and whites. And on the back wall was this lovely piece of artwork:
It’s called “Art and Money”, and for a good reason. To sum up the story, there was this man that bought a painting of a girl dressed in a Japanese kimono and hung it in his dining room. He later commissioned a designer to decorate the room more, in red and gold flowers which were to be painted on the walls. The artist who originally painted the girl in the kimono, when he heard of this plan, was furious, as it would have taken away from the beauty of the portrait. So when the designer fell ill, the artist offered to take up his job and complete the room. The man agreed, and so the artist went to work.
He painted the room blue and the shelves gold, covering the red and gold flowers that had already been put on the walls. When the man heard that the flowers had been covered, he became livid but allowed the artist to continue his work. Apparently, the man had originally agreed to pay the artist in shekels (I think). When it came time for payment, the man paid in shillings instead. Distraught over this development, the artist painted “Art and Money” on the wall, where the artist is depicted as the peacock on the left with the man as the peacock on the right that is surrounded by coins. And the butterfly? That’s the artist’s signature, of course.
Apparently there is a different version of this room out in the world somewhere that shows this place in a much different light. Think smashed ceramics, broken displays, and melting paint. It’s supposed to represent the anger that raged between the two, whereas this room only shows the magnificent result of the artist’s hard work.
The Dinner
After a brief thunderstorm I just so happened to get caught in as the tour of the gallery ended, I was chauffeured down to the dinner venue. The restaurant opened an hour earlier than the listed time that dinner was supposed to start, so I, a few others that had been at the gallery moments before, and a small handful of others that had come from out of town all sat down and ate our meals as we waited for others to arrive.
Even though it was a ramen shop, there wasn’t a whole lot of ramen to be ordered. So I got a fish sandwich instead, and…
Yes, that is a tail. Two of them, if you look close enough. But it was good food, though! I could have gotten some okonomiyaki, but when I saw it, as others had ordered it, I was glad I didn’t. I didn’t have that much of an appetite.
I had made a prediction the day prior that I would, at least for dinner, be the youngest member attending the dinner portion of the event. And I wasn’t wrong… sort of.
I was the only graduate from the class of ‘22 - I have no idea if there are others from said certain international school in the D.C. area, but if there were any they didn’t attend - with the next youngest person being from the class of ‘21. There were two girls from ‘16 and one guy from ‘18, but other than that all the people who came to dinner were anywhere between late 20’s all the way up to their 80’s!
The two girls from ‘16 had also been at the gallery with me - one works in politics with the other being an interior lighting designer - so we got a chance to talk a little more at dinner, where I met the girl from ‘21, who just so happened to be in town for a conference, which is why she was at the alumni connect event.
Here are some other people I met at the dinner:
A woman who is working in healthcare. Her current job is providing therapy to those with heart issues to make sure they will survive with minimal lasting damage… I think, if I heard her correctly.
An aspiring professional photographer
A woman who works for the government
A police officer who was a former firefighter
A former high school teacher
A couple of parents
And other authors!
This writing couple co-authored a book called Of White Ashes. They even had business cards to hand out!
The bombing of Pearl Harbor propels America into WWII and two Japanese Americans into chaos. Separated by the Pacific, each embarks on a tumultuous path to survive childhood and live the American dream. Ruby Ishimaru loses her liberty and uproots from her Hawaii home to incarceration camps on the mainland. Koji Matsuo strains under the menacing clouds of the Japanese war machine and atomic bombing while concealing a dangerous secret—one that threatens his family’s safety.
When destiny brings Ruby and Koji together in California, their chemistry is magnetic, but wounds of trauma run deep and threaten their love as another casualty of war.
Inspired by the true stories of the authors’ family, OF WHITE ASHES crosses oceans and cultures, illuminating the remarkable lives of ordinary people who endure seemingly unbearable hardship with dignity and patience. Their experiences compel us to reflect on the resilience of humanity and the risk of history repeating.
Of White Ashes is a historic fiction World War 2 story inspired by the experiences of the author’s parents. If the book seems interesting to you, you can preorder it from Amazon right now:
It’s due to release on May 1st in all formats - Kindle, paperback, and hardcover.
The Matsumoto’s also have a website to check out if you’re further interested in the authors. They have a lot of upcoming events post-release, all documented on the website, plus they have an entire page dedicated to stories, fictional and nonfictional, of Japanese Americans in internment during this time period for your perusal.
Did I impress the adults with my presence The Mirror? Yes. That made me very happy. And it was nice to meet other writers, too.
There are now talks of starting an alumni writer’s group and a book club. That’ll certainly be interesting if either plan follows through indeed. Just know that I’ll certainly be part of one, if not both, of them.
Online, however…
Roughly three weeks ago I posted a particular video to my YouTube channel. The video in question is a (somewhat) comprehensive lore video of one of my favorite childhood games called Wizard101.
For a while it was one of my better performing videos, although it was just barely cracking 220 views as of a view days ago. Between the 13th and 14th the views managed to double, getting up to 412, which is very impressive by my own standards.
But today…
While I was on my gallery tour and having dinner with all these amazing adults, I was getting comments and subscribers left and right. And where the blue line suddenly shoots up almost vertically? That was all views from today.
I have no idea why the algorithm just decided to pick up the video all of a sudden, but there it went. My first ever video to break a thousand views. I’m sure I’ll also crack 100 subscribers tonight as well. I’m already at 99 at the time of writing this.
If you’d like to see the video for yourself, here’s a button to take you to it:
The fluffy clouds were definitely a good omen indeed.
A friendly reminder to get your first year of paid subscription 20% off before the end of April! A paid subscription will grant you access to early sneak peeks at upcoming novels, early preorder announcements, and more. That being said, expect more book news over the summer!