The late Judith Hoffberg of Umbrella fame was indeed a memorable person. She stayed with us at ahadada central several years back on her first (and unfortunately last) trip here. Judith had just turned 70 (I believe) and was already boning up on Japanese. She was determined to find her own way around Kyoto and Tokyo totally without help. “Don’t worry about me,” she assured us. “I’m good with languages.”

I took her at her word and proceeded with what I had to do. I would come back from work and find the formidable Judith at home or Judith away exploring over the next two weeks.

Later, Judith recounted one of her adventures to us in support of the fact that she had pretty much mastered the local lingo.

One afternoon she decided to make the trip to a rather nice museum of contemporary art in Urawa–pronounced OOO La-wa in Japanese. However, Judith insisted that the town was called OOO WA WA, and would correct us if we happened to mention that the town’s name wasn’t quite pronounced the way that she was pronouncing it.

One evening, after I returned home, I found Judith recounting some of her adventures to my wife. She included me in the conversation right away, and said: “You know, I went out to Uwawa a few days ago, and I was sitting on the train, trying to see the signs at the different stops. Finally, I asked an elderly Japanese man sitting near me–’Is this U-WAWA? U-WAWA?’ and he shook his head and said ‘Yes, U-WAWA,’ and I thanked him and got out.

And you know what, Jess? It WAS U-WAWA!”

I can only wonder what the old man must have thought on that train, with the inimitable Judith Hoffberg aboard!

Had a great lunch with Burton Watson today in Tokyo. In the midst of some good wa-shoku, Burton mentioned that some of the ahadada books he’d gone through left him cold. It was then that I waxed religious (or as religious as I can wax) and said: “There are many mansions in the paradise of literature–esp. new and experimental literature.” On the table before us was a selection of the works of George Crabbe. We were also discussing some of the latest e-chapbooks that had gone up on the site and the work in Ekleksographia. I said that within that range it was my belief that Burton would find something of worth, or at least of interest. He grinned and chuckled. A Zen answer, but one that I took to be an affirmative.