ken atchity door to door: Akashimate Omedeto Goazaimasu -- Happy New Year

Akashimate Omedeto Goazaimasu -- Happy New Year

First photos are us going to the nearby Shrine at midnight and standing an hour in the freezing cold with 100,000 people to wait ourchance to bow twice, clap twice, then bow once again to give thanks and make prayes for the New Year. Following that a stop at the "sweet hot sake" stand (Ama Zake) and to peruse the shrine Korean dishes.

Stayed up till 3:15 drinking sake and Grey Goose, alternately, and celebrating being up past our bedtimes! Traditional New Year's feast at the Mitsumatsu manse--preparedby Izumi, Mama, Kayoko. Closeup, left to right starting with the Ise Ebi(Japanese lobster, $40 each, a present from friends), Kamaboko(pink/white fish cake), 2-color Tamago (egg), Datemaki (egg roll), Konyaku (jellied yam!), Gobo, Butterflied Yuba (Tofu skin), Roasted Shitake, Roasted Seaweed, Renkon (lotus root), Hamaguri (skewered cherrystones), and Kohada (vinegared bluefish) -- all drunk with Otoso,a lightly herbed form of New Year's sake, to promote digestion and generally underline "tradition." served in progressively smaller cups with I being honored with the first and largest. Side dishes include Kuromame (black beans, with gold & silver foil),

Mama's tori-yam-daikon-carrot-shitake stew, colorful carrot-daikon salad with subtle vinaigrette, etc. Chicken soup included rice cake and tiny Mitsuba individually tied into bows. Kayo and I took the train to Harajuku Station to see the teenagers, shrine-goers, and food merchants celebrating another perfectly clear day--with snowcapped Fuji-san perfectly visible. The 'emperor's platform' was open, this one day of the year, to give easier access to the shrine. Instead of the shrine, we worked the street market: My favorite were the potato twists on a sick and the dancing bananas--as well as a band of female drummers drumming up a storm. Today,--after a much needed one hour walk with Papa -- for the visit of Cousin Junko and her family I am improvising a gumbo with Japanese sausage and various other daring or dubious substitutes depending on how it turns out! Tabasco is, thank God, everywhere available. Yes, Fred, uokka and sake throughout!

Clouds over Tokyo Bay greeted us as the sun set. Bus ride to Shinjuku, then Papa-san picked us up for the last lap to Okigubo--where Mama and Izumi had a welcome feast prepared. Next night, the best sushi bar in Tokyo--Isohan with Mr. Ishi presiding. Japanese New Year starts 12/26 and is all about eating different 'traditional' meals every day! Fortunately the portions are perfectly manageable and we are working out every day! The city very orderly, the people happy, everything spic & span!

A rainy day in Ogikubo and the house filled with the aroma of a double pork roast. I'm cooking for tonight's feast--Yoshi to provide the vintage French wine. Meanwhile some dishes that slipped my mind (apologies!): At Isohan: cod-sperm soup. Oh My God. Once you get over the thought, it's like drinking liquid pate.

At Ukai-Tori-Yama: minced quail cake soup. The area is famous for its quail. This dish is prepared by charcoaling whole quails then mincing them, bones included, to make a crabcake-like cake that has a pleasant light crunch to it along with the subtle flavors of quail, in scrumptious broth.

At Beijing-Park, Chinese-Japanese restaurant here in Ogikubo: kanage-daikon salad--jellyfish and radish. Absolutely unforgettable. Slightly better than the best sizzling rice soup I've ever had--three weeks in the making. And my all-time favorite snack (from food courts at either Lumine or Takashimaya): flash-fried river shrimp--those tiny little shrimp, with a flavor twice their size. Try them sipping your favorite vodka (or, in fact, any vodka!). And, oddly enough, vodka is less expensive in the grocery stores here than it is in the duty free shop at LAX.

One of the most hilarious, and awful, experiences was seeing this huge line and discovering that it was the "around the corner line" for Crispy Crème (Ivonne--see photos), where the 'time to get in' is posted like a line at Disneyland: 1:00 hour, when we saw it! Can you imagine waiting an hour for a donut, when there's no wait at all at gorgeous little coffee shops filled with pastry delicacies (see meringue photo).

One thing that's clear: this is a nation based on merchandising. Because almost everything here is imported except sake, things are more expensive (though the dollar's rise has helped us!) AND come in much smaller portions. To enhance the price, the packaging and merchandising are exquisite (see photos of Takashimaya and Lumine department stores). Buyers value what they get more because the actual opening of a food package turns it into a delicacy--so you feel more or less ok about a bag of 'Japanese pickles' that costs $30! And you open them with reverence, and gratitude for having this wonderful food at your disposal.

Some odd contrasts with U.S. and India: where at home and in India, ATMS are everywhere, here almost none of them work for US bank cards or credit cards--only for local banks. Getting cash is a real challenge, except at the airport where it's cash for cash. Although the streets and stores are spotless, it's very difficult to find a trash can! Recycling is so advanced here, that the cans that are available--very rarely--are super-sophisticated and divided into flammables, non-flammables, etc. Don't come to Tokyo looking for wireless cafes, either. Although folks have wi-fi at home, we haven't found a single coffee shop with one yet! And forget about decaf coffee. Here it's strictly the caf standard or nothing, the way it was in NY until a few years ago when Californication set in there as well.

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Yoga Gives Back

Written by Kayoko Mitsumatsu

From Posture To Power: Microcredit Changes Lives On Both Sides of the Ocean

We can talk about making change. But affecting real change in the world comes from impacting the lives of individuals. It comes from empowering people to be independent and able to make a living on their own while at the same time being fully integrated in our interdependent global community. Sometimes it takes something that seems to be radical to make this change, but these shifts can be deceptively small. They can be even as small (or as large) as the cost of a Los Angeles Yoga class.

How could this be? In the practice of microcredit, lending seemingly small amounts of money to small-scale entrepreneurs allows them to succeed and change their circumstances. This is the fundamental basis of microcredit’s transformative power; it’s a revolutionary concept in finance. This practice shifts the emphasis from financial transactions being focused only about large loans and large scale businesses, which are out of reach of many one-person operations, institutions and organizations – to lending practices that actually make a positive difference in a person’s life. Microcredit practices based on social justice and empowerment operate through a combination of small-scale loans based on trust and community support, with structured repayment plans and programs that encourage savings. In these situations, people actually have the opportunity to solidify long-term change in their lives.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the Yoga Gives Back Team: Joel Bender, Leslie Hendry, Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Kayoko Mitsumatsu (left-right)

In 2006, economist Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the institution he founded, the Grameen Bank, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This award was in recognition of their revolutionary efforts to create this micro-credit model, support sustainable economic practices, and provide an alternative to what were exploitive norms. When a person is caught in a cycle of poverty, they may become trapped in the system, particularly since large banking institutions have historically ignored people without assets or credit histories, who are just starting out and who may not have already proven themselves. Most banks prefer to lend large sums of money that represent a greater profit margin and are set up only for large loans in order to make a profit themselves. And even making it more challenging, people at the bottom of the economic scale worldwide have had to rely on moneylenders charging usurious terms and interest rates to obtain funds to plant the next crop, buy inventory of new equipment, or upgrade a business in any way. Institutions such as the Grameen Bank and their affiliates are offering another approach. It’s one that has significantly impacted millions of people.

As Dr. Yunus described in an exclusive interview with Yoga Gives Back in May, 2009, “We started in 1976, and today within Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, eight million people borrow micro loans, ninety-seven percent of them women.” This represents an enormous potential for change and empowerment that just did not exist on a large scale in this form prior to 1976.

There is a social cycle in economics, and Dr. Yunus explained this: “Poverty is not inside the person. Poverty is forced from outside. Poor people are as capable [a] human being as anybody else. They have the same power and energy, same potential. But they are denied such facilities. They cannot express themselves. Money is one of the most important items missing in their lives. You need a dollar to catch a dollar. You cannot catch a dollar with an empty hand. So, that first dollar, nobody has given to her. So she remains dependent on someone else. She has to be hired, to slave; she has to work to make food available on the table. What we have done, we have put that first dollar into her hands as a banking proposition. Conventional banks never come to the poor people. They go to rich people to make more money. The person who does not have a dollar – she cannot get it. So we did it. We did it in a way that is affordable to her. Because we do not insist on collateral. There is no collateral.”

While that may seem like a radical concept, the Grameen Bank has proven that their success is much more than ideological. Dr Yunus cited statistics for us, “The repayment rate is almost 100%, without collateral or anything. This is the strength of microcredit which is now spread all over the world. There are by now at least 150 million borrowers in the world today. Bu it is still very small comparing to the need. We need more microcredit organizations in the world so that more people can be reached.”

Yoga Gives Back is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization begun in LA, with the goal to provide a way for Western Yoga practitioners to give back to India, the birthplace of Yoga, which has given us so much. We’re heeding Dr. Yunus’ call to reach more people through expanded opportunities for and awareness of microcredit and have targeted India and Indian families, women, and would-be entrepreneurs, who would be otherwise stuck in the cycle of poverty that Dr. Yunus described. Yoga Gives Back supports microfinancing operations in India, through the Grameen Foundation, headquartered in Washington, DC. Donations go directly to Grameen Koota, Bangalore, South India and our YGB awareness campaign focuses on the real stories of how poor women are changing their lives with small loans from Grameen Koota.

Ms. Vinatha M Reddy

Grameen Koota was started by visionary teacher and philanthropist, Ms. Vinatha M Reddy (pictured, above) in 1999, who learned about Nobel Peace Recipient Dr Muhammad Yunus’ microfinancing and immediately began exploring ways of replicating his work in her hometown. In 2000, she started providing small microcredit loans, averaging $25.00 a month, to fifty local women. Today, Grameen Koota’s work is reaching out to over 280,000 women in Bangalore, Mysore and many areas of Karnataka state, in South India, making real impact on these women’s lives as well as on the local economy.

Yoga Gives Back

The Los Angeles-based Yoga Gives Back has a worldwide reach and began out of the inspiration and dedication of my Yoga mentor Joel Bender and me. Our group has suddenly started growing almost daily and our mission is shared by a quickly expanding and loving Yoga community.

When I was growing up in Japan, which is a very middle-class society, I had never experienced or seen any real poverty, especially growing up in Tokyo in 1960s and 1970s, when Japan's post-war economic miracle was taking place. Then, I had a chance to live in Brazil in the late 1970s for two years, where as a teenager, I saw the divide between poverty and wealth, the reality of the real slums, kids on the streets begging every time you stopped the car at the traffic light, all very much like India. Social injustice hit me hard.

Once I started Yoga practice and feeling my life being so enriched by it , I felt a need to use my resources to help others. I was producing a documentary on Social Entrepreneurship and learned about microfinancing. I shared this information with Joel [featured in the teacher profile in this month’s issue of LA YOGA] who had been looking for the way he could give back to India since his first visit there – so we teamed up.

When I think about the growth of Yoga Gives Back thus far, I give a lot of credit to the entrepreneurship and volunteer spirit of Americans, willing to embrace and support a new grass roots campaign like ours.

Kayoko Mitsumatsu, co-founder of Yoga Gives Back, is a documentary filmmaker whose films deal with social justice issues, including First They Killed My Father a memoir of a Cambodia’s Killing Fields’ survivor.

A Life Changing Story of Microcredit: Jayashree

Jayashree

Jayashree lives in the suburbs of Bangalore and is married and the mother of two children. We visited her at her humble dirt floor one room home for the first time in 2007. We were touched by her warm smile and most generous hospitality, serving us hot tea and cookies.

Jayashree was born into a very poor family in Bangalore. When she was a child, her family’s financial situation became so severe that she had to drop out of school and work at a garment factory. She toiled throughout her childhood and after she got married at fifteen, her meager earnings had to support her ailing in-laws. She had two children. Her husband’s rickshaw business was not enough to pay her sons’ education or secure food for the family.

In 2007, Jayashree learned from her neighbors about Grameen Koota’s microcredit program and applied for her first loan. She was granted a first loan of 7,000 rupees ($175), and immediately bought her husband’s auto rickshaw. Owning their own rickshaw business increased their income significantly.

Jayashree was able to pay back her entire loan in one year and became eligible for her second loan in 2008. Having proven her diligence, her second loan amount doubled to 15,000 rupees ($375). This time, she bought a sewing machine and started stitching bags. The family’s earnings have now tripled and she is earning 150 rupees ($3.75) a day. In addition, she opened a small shop next to her house to sell her products which is earning her an additional 100 rupees ($2.50) a day.

She is sending her elder son to a medical school. Her son dreams of becoming a doctor and thanks his mother’s business for providing his education, their own home and daily food.

To participate in a Yoga practice where the proceeds support Yoga Gives Back and directly impact the transformation of not only your own life, but that of someone in India, start your Thanksgiving week at Yogaglo, Sunday, November 22, 10:00 A.M. - 12 noon. Some of the teachers include John Sahakian, Felicia Tomasko, Alexandra Aiken and Ally Hamilton; more to be announced. Yogaglo.com; yogagivesback.com.

For more information on Yoga Gives Back or to host a Yoga Gives Back class at your own studio or location, visit: yogagivesback.org or contact yogagivesback@earthlink.net.