RSVP: info@ashbyvillage.org or call 510-204-9200
When: First Friday of the month, 3:00 - 4:00 pm
Where: Ashby Village, in the Fellowship Hall, 1953 Hopkins Street, Berkeley
Open to: Ashby Village members, volunteers and guests
Accessibility: use entrance on Hopkins Street
Far Out Japan
This is a talk and discussion about the culture and philosophy of Japan, a very ancient, very modern, very distant country. Though Joan has traveled the globe she has never been to a place more culturally distinct, more different from her world. Last spring she spent a month in Japan, part of the time in a seminar led by an American professor of Asian religion. This isn't a talk about religion, but rather her reflections on how belief systems in Japan permeate daily life; how Japanese culture is surprisingly different not just from ours, but from every other society she has encountered. Life in Japan is both ultra-modern and ultra-traditional, a surprising mix of eager innovation and fealty to the past.