Desk with a View
Dreaming up your perfect writer's den.
Dear Friends,
Hello from Tokyo!
A warm welcome to new subscribers and special thanks to those who recently upgraded to paid. I really appreciate your support!
I arrived In Tokyo two weeks ago by train, not by plane as I expected. (Find out why in my news section below). I’ve settled into my homestay in Ogikubo, not far from Shinjuku where all my medical appointments take place and have set up a routine of walks to local shrines and parks combined with time at my tiny desk. While my reason being here is to have follow up treatment for my breast cancer, it’s also feeling a lot like another writer’s residency. Who needs to apply for a prestigious AIR when you can set up your own! Although there are def a few fab residencies here in Tokyo and other parts of Japan I have been eyeing off.
This time I wasn’t sure if I’d even have a desk and was prepared for a stint of writing in bed, but to my delight not only do I have a small desk accompanied by a small stool, I have a 16th floor view out across Tokyo to the mountains and sky beyond. And on a clear day from the dining room balcony, I can see Mt Fuji!
Perched on my wee stool now, the memories of all the other desks with views come flooding back. Yangon, Bali, Jakarta, Morocco, Istanbul, Iran, Luang Prabang — to name just a few. All carry the same feeling, the comfort of a known dreaming spot, a place where I can get all my thoughts in order, make sense of the strange and wonderful days of my life. That feeling for a moment or two of — even if it isn’t — everything being right in the world. No matter what is happening around me, if I can sit at my desk and write — something, anything — all is well.
But what if you don’t have a desk?
The brilliant thing for writers is we can conjure one up where ever we are!
I do this everytime I use my guided meditation method with writers. We could be sitting anywhere: in an office block in a noisy city, in the ruins of Angkor Wat, on a beach in Bali, but still I use the same technique. After guiding people into a relaxed state I ask them to dream up their imaginary writer’s den.
Maybe it’s in a shack high on a Himalayan mountain range, a lean-to on a wild Oregon beach, or perhaps it’s a log cabin deep down in a forest glen where sunlight dapples through 1000 year old eucalyptus trees. Where ever it happens to be we visualise a huge picture window to the view, a fabulous oak desk, gorgeous papers and pens, a comfy writer’s chair, no phone, no wifi — just you and nature.
While I encourage people to sit in the stillness of the view, I remind them this place is available to them any time, day or night, where ever in the world they happen to be.
There is plenty of written online about the effectiveness of stilling the mind before beginning creative work. Several years ago at Mountain Echoes Literary Festival in Bhutan, renowned travel writer, Pico Iyer talked about how after his family home burnt down, he went to stay for three days at a Benedictine retreat centre in California. As well as stillness, he discovered that “home is not where we live, but what lives inside us.” Stillness does not need a guru, a philosophy, a religion — it’s just you taking time to to slow down, tune out and give yourself permission to be still.
This is exactly what we do in our imaginary writer’s den. We take time out to let all the babble of our busy lives, all the niggling worries and tensions fade away into the silence of stillness. Once we have the den and the view established I take us into a specific visualisation connected to the craft element we are focusing on that day. I remind the sitter to layer in the senses one by one, as each person allows a scene to unfold on their imaginary video screen. My directions are general, not specific, so each person is able to create their own imagining. At the end of the visualisation I give the instruction to write without stopping for 10 mins or so. What turns up on the page is always extraordinary.
Try it now and see how you go!
If you need a meditation to help get you into your writer’s den, find some here.
WRITERS JOURNEY NEWS
Haiku Walking in Japan participants are still talking about their recent Kunisaki pilgrimage in glowing terms. Denise, who had never written haiku before found a new creative path. She says I really can't say enough good things about this trip, it was way above any expectations I had and I hope to be able to reach that haiku state of mind if not always at least some of the time in the future. I will be posting some of their writing next month in our online haiku journal Summer Grass.
Three of our Haiku Writers happened to be in Tokyo after I arrived and we met up at an exhibition opening at Almost Perfect arts residency. Situated in a 100 year old rice store, artists are offered an exhibition/showing event at the end of their residency. On show were the wonderful illustrations of the comic artist and illustrator Deb JJ Lee.
UPDATE
We are postponing Sensing Italy until May 2025. Looking at a new idea with The Create Escape to do a retreat on the Island of Ischia, off Naples. Incredible Napoli food, thermal hot springs, lots of island inspiration. More info coming soon. Read about Ischia here.
Moroccan Caravan, Feb 10 - 24 2025. Booking now! Follow the link for more info. Read some writing from one of our 2020 participants Vicki Chan (right) here.
DRAFT BUSTERS monthly modules will start again in May. Contact Jan for dates and deets.
FREE ONLINE WORKSHOP will be back 3rd Sunday of May, 4 pm.
MY NEWS
So the reason I arrived in Tokyo by train was this. On Sat 6th April I flew Sydney to Osaka on Jetstar for a brief stopover en route to Tokyo. As we were at the gate ready for boarding, in a classic Jetstar move, they cancelled my Osaka-Tokyo leg. No explanation, no hotel, no meal voucher. With all flights next day sold out, thinking on my feet, I decided to see if I could take the slow train to Tokyo (6.5 hrs as opposed to the bullet train 3 hrs) so I could get some sleep. Went to JR Office at the airport and bingo, got me a ticket! Thought I'd be sitting up all night, after the day's flight from Sydney wasn't looking forward to that, but to my suprise The Sunrise Seto turned out to be a sleeper. Small space but so comfy ... a traditional rice grain pillow and yukata (cotton sleeping kimono) and cosy douna. Arrived in Tokyo at 7 am got the train to Ogikubo, met by my homestay host Jean at the station. Settled into my 16th floor room with a view and went walking with Jean to the local cherry blossom sites. A beautiful day, everyone out having bento box picnics under blissful canopies of delicious blossom.
Next day went to my appt at the N2 clinic where I had the first part of my AIET procedure ( aphresis) where they harvest your while blood cells. Met a couple of Aussies there having similar treatment for late stage cancers. Was great to swap notes and will see them again down the track. On the way back stopped in at gardens in Shinjuku and experienced the sakura delight all over again. Such pleasure is always so brief and fleeting as next day heavy rain and the blossoms were washed away. But a new experience awaited. The sardine peak hour crush, exacerbated by delays due to rain. I'm talking full body crush, in the carriage as more and more people try to get on and we touch, chest to chest, nose to nose, armpit to arm pit. You may have seen vids online, the guard in this case wasn't quite pushing people in, but def helping. Somehow all the young people managed to stay on their phones. Only lasted for a couple of stations but I got a taste for a moment of how awful it would be to die by stampede.
On the way back got caught in an Escher like round robin maze of stairs and trains and kept ending up at the same station. All caused by delays on the Maranouchi line. Headed for Shinjuku spent some time searching for an adapter for my ancient Mac Air then took the JR Chuo line home. No delays there although my host tells me there often are due to suicides on the tracks.
Back home my room with a view delivered an extraordinary sunset and my host predicted we would see Mt Fuji next day from the dining room. And we did! It's been in cloud since I arrived. Now I have some time off while my white blood cells are being plumped up. I’ve been visiting local Shinto shrine and temples, places of peace and healing (more on this next time) and the local onsen for hot spring bathing in four different types of healing pools.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
My Cancer Treatment Fundraiser has just reached our original target of 25K, a huge thanks to all who have contributed!!
Extra expenses keep coming in so we have upped the target to 30K. These include ongoing lab tests on my return with Genomics For Life, who will continue to monitor my progress post Tokyo treatment.
Please share Jan’s Cancer Treatment fundraiser with others who may not have heard about it yet or consider becoming a paid subscriber. Every little bit helps!
A really, really big thank you to Grace Gawler for her advice and support throughout this whole process and special thanks to her greatest supporter, my brother Pip.
So true about silence and stillness! It works miracles for any kind of writer's block or even simply, writer's frustration... And those cherry blossoms are gorgeous. Wow.
Fabulous view, Jan! And this was a dreamy exercise to imagine.