Jingu Sensei

Errgh. Got a massive sorethroat and am thoroughly sad and depressed. I think it's partly due to the lack of sleep I've had - did not get to bed until 4am yesterday. Must have been because of the Cha Yen or else the fact that I was making postcards till late at night.

Today I had my last lesson with Sensei Jingu. I don't know why I feel so sad about it. But I guess it's coz', everytime I went for lessons at his place, I felt like it was a space away from the hustle, bustle and craziness of life. I felt like I was breathing - breathing in the language and soul of a different culture slowly and surely - with no pressure no rush, but sheer enjoyment and ease. Like a child discovering the world.

And it also helped that Sensei Jingu is a kindred spirit. I haven't used that word for the longest time. But I could really 'connect' with him on a certain level.

He's really different from most people I've met... everything about him speaks of simplicity and a humble life. He lives in a shophouse in a quiet corner of an alleyway. Has six cats, speaks Lingara, has a tiny tiny half-working guitar that he bought off a small shop near his place, teaches Japanese to slum kids in Klong Toei at 4 dollars an hour. He's mild mannered and yet very congenial. Used to take black and whites and wash them in his own darkroom. He told me that he would lose track of time in his darkroom - because he'd be so absorbed with washing the pictures. And when he'd look out of his window, sunlight would stream in through a tiny crack and he'd be so surprised that it was already morning.

He has an entire book of A4 sized black and whites that he took of his wife ten years ago. He knows who Max Roach and Dave Brubeck and Paul Simon are. He went to the music capital in Africa (somewhere in Congo) very often in the past because of his love for African music. He loved soul, jazz, R&B and he discovered that it all came from Africa, so he went there. For the music.

He wanted to set up a music group in Klong Toei, but apparently one of the personnel there does not like him... so he's involved only to the extent of being a teacher.

I accidentally left my Thai-Jap Textbook at his place and I think I will go pick it up at his place. He asked me when I would be free for dinner because his wife and him wanted to host me and Ben (another of his students). I'm not sure, but I think tomorrow the people at work want to bring me out and on the day after too.. so I probably won't be able to make it for dinner with them tomorrow. I feel abit sad though. I would really have loved to have had dinner with them.

I'm going to miss lessons with him!

ps
I realize that the words 'simple' and 'humble' may not be fully appropriate for my description of him: going to Africa, listening to Jazz and taking photos and washing them are neither 'simple' nor 'humble' in conventional terms. But when I talk about 'simple' and 'humble' I describe it more in terms of his mannerism, his aura, his way of talking, his way of describing things. For example, I asked him what 'Wabi Sabi' meant, and he used a haiku to explain it to me: a very simple illustration of a frog jumping into an old pool and making a small splash as it jumped in. And for some reason - I felt this special appreciation/aesthetic pleasure even as he described it. Such a simple illustration. Yet it conveyed so much.