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This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

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Tuesday, September 24, 2019

entry arrow7:14 PM | Kibun Tenkan on a Tuesday

I took it easy today, because I wanted to feel the world as it went by. Having just one class to meet made it feasible, of course. After completing two more work meetings, I decided to go to the Ariniego Art Gallery just to soak in the quiet of the cavernous building, and to admire the paintings of Federico Alcuaz, all by my lonesome. There was no one else there when I made my way in, and I must have stayed for an hour, looking at the paintings a little bit deeper than usual. Then I followed my feet, which took me to drop by the office of Elizabeth Susan Vista-Suarez, where we listened to someone play the piano, and while Ma’am Sue painted flowers we talked about the vagaries of love. Then I got a haircut. And now I’m having coffee in a cafe by the boulevard, convinced that Tuesdays were made for easing up on the restlessness of our days.

 My friend Donna Sanchez tells me that the Japanese have a word this: they call it kibun tenkan, literally “change feeling,” which means “clear one’s head,” or “for a change,” which you apparently accomplish by doing exactly what I did—see some art, for example, or listen to music, or to get a haircut. “For all the stresses the Japanese experience day in and day out,” Donna tells me, “they need a specific phrase to remind them to take a breather and refresh themselves.”

 I feel I must have been Japanese in my past life.

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