Laurie R. King

From Dreaming Spies: Fortunately, Miss Sato’s lectures had prepared me for the accommodations: stark expanse of pristine straw mats, one wall of wooden cupboards, a niche holding a narrow vase with a single branch of cherry blossoms, and a low wooden table with round silk cushions tucked under three of its sides. Travelling to Japan…

From Dreaming Spies: And that is where the bears discovered us…. Yes, bears. In Japan. And not just in 1924 Japan, but 2012. At any rate, there is a sign, with a warning about bears on the Nakasendo trail—where Russell and Holmes walked 91 years ago. * * 9 days until Dreaming Spies! Other posts about writing…

From Dreaming Spies: The compound was built from an unlikely mix of yellowish brick and rugged lava-stone slabs of a peculiarly greenish tint, combining the roof-line of a Japanese farm house with a right-angle Illinois sensibility and the brutality of a Mayan temple. Over this uneasy mix lay a heavy dusting of Moorish detail, apparent…

From Dreaming Spies: A folding book of illustrated poems, some eight inches tall and three and a half wide, with a slip-case to hold it. When stretched out, it forms a panorama of the very road you travelled along to get here: the Kisokaido. The poems are by Bashō. The illustrations are by Hokusai, under…

From Dreaming Spies: At one stop, an ancient water wheel, dripping moss, became a museum piece with the delicate arch of blossom to frame it. Japan is a constant stream of beauty. On every corner, a piece of art is framed by a branch, a movement is a dance, a combination of colors have never…

Last week I talked about the fun time we had in doing the Dreaming Spies poster. I thought you might like to hear the view from the technical side. Friends, meet Evelyn Thompson—who, fortunately for me, found the challenge of translation “a most delicious undertaking”. Naturally my first step was a session in the library.…

From Dreaming Spies: “Tatami are quite uniform. Our houses are built around them, so they fit together to keep out drafts from below. Every year, we take each house to pieces and clean it, from attic to foundation: this is required, by our government. Even then, so sorry, you will often find fleas.” The pristine…

From Dreaming Spies: Rickshaw neophytes are readily identified by their pale faces and white knuckles. I was not new to the sensations of a flying jostle several feet above unforgiving ground. The rickshaw has by no means died away, although now the puller is mounted atop bicycle pedals rather than running on the ground. Here’s…

From Dreaming Spies: Arima was a village nestled into a fold in the hills. Cherry trees, coming into bloom near the coast, here showed but the smallest touch of pink in the buds. It was not entirely deliberate, but the trip I took to Japan in 2012 coincided with the height of the cherry blossom…