It's about 6:30 am and I am sitting in the quiet dining room of the retreat center owned by Linda Miyashita in the mountains above the city of Nagano.  We are surrounded by trees and the healing, meditation music of her late husband, Fumio Miyashita.  The other guests--about 10 people--are not yet up.

It's a comfortable, homey place, and at one end there is a large room for listening to music and watching videos--a place obviously designed by Fumio.  There are many pictures of him in the house--a handsome, charismatic musician. 

The hair styles give away the time frame--chest-length hair in the seventies, moving towards a shorter cut with a goatee in maturity--always warmth and kindness in the face, and a big smile.  He was a pioneer of healing meditative music and became quite well-known and successful.  Linda now lives nearby and continues to open this place to those who are fans, or who have found their way here--like Fumiko and myself.

Yesterday, the conference went very well, and our seminar and private sessions sold out.  Today we have one more short seminar and a few sessions.  Tomorrow Linda-san will take us on a little sight-seeing drive before we return to Tokyo.

No one has come in for breakfast yet, so I think I'll steal a few minutes to read my Jonathan Kellerman murder mystery--books keep me sane on the road. I also have a Eudora Welty book of short stories from the Berkeley library.  Have to have a back up!