If I were a stamp...

Have you ever imagined that you were an inanimate object? Probably we have all done it as children. Thinking of ourselves as inanimate objects is possibly one of our greatest imagination boosters and I want to bring my imagination back to life. So, here goes,

My name is Jamal and I used to live with my family in Barbados. We were always together. We lived in the top drawer of the big cedar desk  in Papa's room. From time to time Jamila would open the drawer and play with me along with other things in the drawer. However, we never went very far. Usually she would just play with us on top of the desk. So, as you can imagine, I longed for an adventure. I wanted to go on long trips outside the drawer and meet new people. When stamps from other places visited they usually tell very interesting tales about their journeys. Tales that sound so amazing. 

I wanted to be able to tell a tale of my own one day too. So one day I changed my outfit, from a hibiscus to a mango in hopes that as a mango faced stamp, I would be luckier and someone would want to send me somewhere exotic.

Last week I woke up to something wet on my backside. It was a tongue! I was being licked :). Soon I would be off on a journey of ecstasy. One that would undoubtedly end with me being in a different part of the world.

After days and days of being shut away in the dark abyss of airplanes, I finally reached my destination. The only problem was I couldn't understand the language that the other stamps were speaking.

 I found myself between a strange looking man with a funny hairstyle and an unbelievably pretty woman with a face to be called innocence reincarnate. They both looked like the definitions of exquisite. Oh how small and insignificant I felt lying between them.

The pretty lady then looked at me with admiration in her eyes and began to speak to me in broken English. She exclaimed how privileged I must be and stated how expensive mangoes were in Japan. The funny haired man chimed in that the person who received me will undoubtedly keep me as a prized possession and show me off to all his friends and family. How wonderful it must be to be from the Caribbean. How rare and lovely. 

Hanami, the spring coloured stamp overheard our conversation and looked over to see what all the excitement was about. The sakura on the fringes of her dress were so delicate and elegant and Mount Fuji looked so inviting. Excitedly, with a breath of fresh air she extended an invitation to a picnic under the cherry blossoms. "Oh how lovely it would be to have a Caribbean mango stamp with us for this year's spring picnic next week" said Hanami. Oh what a lovely feeling to be welcomed into this new and beautiful place by all these beautiful stamps. 

You never know just how rare and lovely you are until the other beautiful stamps around you shower praises upon your head :). Oh what a lovely feeling indeed.

Source of pictures:

Hibiscus Stamp

Mango stamp

spring stamp

Caribbean Stamps

Sunday Living

The best Sundays are like today, peacefully bliss, meals with family and friends, chill time after dinner on the veranda while occasionally browsing the newspaper. It's a special day, the beginning of a new cycle and the end of an old one. 

If ever I were asked to choose just one day of the week to be my favourite, it would definitely be Sunday. As Lionel Richie once sang, I'm 'easy like Sunday morning'. It fits my personality, easy going and cool like a cucumber. 

In traditional Jamaica, church is usually a staple on Sundays, however for the non-traditional ones, it has become the norm to sleep late then have brunch. My newspaper vendor recently introduced me to another type of lifestyle for those who work on Sundays. Apparently there is night church for those who work on Sundays during the days but still want to attend church. 

In the future, I think I would like to visit night church to ascertain if the services are similar to the Sunday morning sermons or more relaxed. Sometimes the day services can go on for quite some time and after church there is usually a lot of things to be done, well a lot of talking among church members :).

Onsen Town, Kinosaki

There is a quaint little town on the Northern Hyogo coastline in Japan, called Kinosaki. It is both strange and lovely at the same time. People go there for one reason and one reason only, they go there to soak in expensive public hot baths. In Japan, public hot baths are called 'onsens'.

During winter (and in other seasons as well), many Japanese people prefer to bathe in public bath houses instead of using their private bathrooms. In these public bath houses, there are usually a few Jacuzzi type baths where naked people of the same sex sit in very hot water (40 degrees celsius or more) in absolute silence. Before sitting in the tub though, each person has to stand in the open and take a shower in front of everyone in the room. At the Onsen, there is absolutely no privacy.

Upon first learning of this cultural practice, one might wonder 'who would forsake their private bath tub at home to go shower naked in front of others then share a bath with absolute strangers?' I still don't really know the answer to this question, but since children are brought to Onsens from a very young age and are taught to love it, they grow up and go to places like Kinosaki :).

So, back to Kinosaki.

The town is filled with onsens. That is the only form of entertainment in the town. It is possible to eat eggs boiled in onsen water and stand around this special rock that brings forth water and steam from the underground.

Master or Jack of all trades?

A friend asked a question recently and since then I have been turning over the question in my mind without a solid answer. The question was 'Is it better to have a lot of knowledge about one field or is it better to have knowledge about a lot of fields?'. In essence, is it better to be a 'jack of all trades and master of none' or a master of one field?