By Alex Sawit

28 February 2009

 

I’ve come to a decision, Cyrano friends.  I’m going to open a Cyrano wine shop in Batanes.

Yes, Batanes.

I hear you.  I don’t have to be a mind reader to know what you’re thinking, something along the lines of, “WHAT THE &@%#… A WINE SHOP IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE???  HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND???”

Hear me out.  It’s all about location, location, location. That is, a location like the one in this picture:

 

 

No, there is no business plan.  No, I don’t expect customers to beat a path to our door – I don’t expect to have any customers, period.  And no, there is no capital investment.  It’s all wishful thinking, sort of.  After all, if other folks can entertain starry eyed visions of building their dream homes, why can’t I dream about opening our wine shop in what is arguably the most magical place in the Philippines?

Sigh… but what a dream it is.

If you’ve never heard of Batanes, it’s the province that lies to the extreme north of the country, so far north that on a clear day it is said that one can see Taiwan from the province’s northernmost island.  Separated from the mainland of Luzon by nearly two hundred kilometers, it remains one of the less accessible destinations in the Philippines due to both its distance from the capital and its vulnerable latitude, which lies in the regular path of some of the country’s most forbidding storms during the typhoon season.  But while these factors have traditionally deterred visitors, they have also allowed Batanes to thrive in isolation as an unspoiled gem of natural and cultural beauty.

Having just returned from there more than a week ago, I will say unequivocally that Filipinos will not find anything more breathtaking anywhere else in their own homeland.  Photographers and film directors love to describe Batanes as the closest thing one can find in the Philippines to a Mediterranean coastline, often drawing comparisons to Italy or Greece. Other travelers speak of Ireland or New Zealand, while I myself have seen Northern California’s jagged coast conjured in a few of the many stunning seascapes to be found in this province.

There is much I want to say about Batanes, that enchanted windswept world wherein time has a different meaning and where the people are the noble guardians of their own identity.  But that’s for another discussion.  For now, I offer Cyrano friends a glimpse of three fantasy locations where I can only dream of opening a shop where we can all hang out to share good wine before a glorious view.  By all means, feel free to tell me which one you like best.

 

 

Wine Shop Location No. 1:  “Rakuh a Payaman” on Batan Island

Popularly known outside Batanes as “Marlborough Country,” this communal pasture overlooks a spectacular panorama of the surrounding coast. Laden with spellbinding visual textures, the view starts on the left with Mahatao Lighthouse moving toward Mt. Iraya and the big Pacific Ocean on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wine Shop Location No. 2:  “Vayang Ranch” on Batan Island

Also referred to in tourist guide books as “The Rolling Hills.” Surrounded by stark, weathered fence posts running along the slopes, the lonely hilltop at the heart of the ranch offers visitors a hauntingly beautiful view of the South China Sea. Wine lovers will definitely want to watch those gorgeous sunsets over the horizon with a glass of vino in hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wine Shop Location No. 3:  “Saddleback Rock” on Sabtang Island

Overlooking Chamantad Marine Sanctuary is a coastal point leading to the Ivatan village of Chavayan. In the absence of a name, I refer to it as “Saddleback Rock.” Towering above the pounding waves and cutting through the wind from the sea, it forms the right side of a beguiling cove in which turquoise waters transform to aquamarine in the shallows. The clifftop from where these pictures of Saddleback Rock were taken would be an incredible location for our fantasy wine shop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Alex Sawit

30 January 2009

 

 

In Samurai X: The Motion Picture (the movie version of the hit anime series that I used to watch when it was airing a decade ago) there’s a moment early in the story when the hero befriends a kind-hearted samurai who would, through a twist of fate, later become his mortal enemy. In this peaceful beginning, however, the two speak with warm familiarity as only two warriors can relate to each other. As they talk about how fleeting life is, the other samurai then recites a haiku that strikes a chord in the hero’s heart.

He said:

 

“The bluest sky

Is infinitely high

And crystal clear.”

 

 

The poem struck a chord in me, too. If you’ve ever really looked up and gazed at the clear blue sky, you might also understand it the same way I did.

Try it. Wait for a calm, cold morning when you can feel the chill of the air bracing on your skin and awakening your senses, when the sky above is wide open and faint clouds delicately whisper across in white, when the sunlight is so soft that it ever so gently makes the colors glow around you. Then look up. If everything is right, that’s when the sky is at its most dazzlingly beautiful – a blue so deep and so vividly pure that it pierces you and quiets your soul.

You need not be a samurai to understand it. But as a martial artist, I like to believe that this sentiment is what defines the heart of a warrior – the quiet heart.

To be calm in the heat of battle… to see clearly and not be blinded by rage in the face of your enemy… to feel compassion for those whose hatred seeks to destroy you… that’s the quiet heart as I understand it.

All the martial artists whom I most respect and admire in this world have this heart. I see it in my longtime friend, Rico M., a truly decent human being who is both my senior colleague and chief instructor of our school. I see it in our headmaster and teacher, Master Y., a Korean gentleman whose good nature and old-fashioned modesty belie how terrifyingly efficient he can be in action when life and death hang in the balance.

And then there is me. I know what it is like to have such a heart. But I also know what it is like to lose it. You see although the quiet heart is a state of being, it is also a continuing path. One can therefore diverge from it.

The thing is I used to be an active martial artist who trained regularly with my colleagues before I opened Cyrano in 2004. Four years. I hadn’t really thought about how long it had been until only a few weeks ago, when our small family of black belts got together for a special lunch to celebrate the beginning of the New Year and catch up with each other. But seeing everyone again only made me realize what I’d done, what I’d given up in order to commit myself to something else.

The truth is I have no regrets about the choice I made. I love this wine shop of ours and I love the Cyrano friends I have met and dedicated myself to during these last few years. I know I made the right choice.

And yet…

One way or another, if I have to do it one step at a time, I need to find those blue skies again.

 

 

By Tisha Samson

12 December 2008

 

Samu on the junkyard cruiser trying to get to North Carolina to visit the Iona Pig…

 

 

 

[EDITOR’S NOTE: It seems that we can’t get enough of the continuing Samu-Iona love story. The pics and message came straight from Samu’s human guardian and our first ever Cyrano friend, Tisha, whose e-mail text I posted above in its entirety along with the original e-mail subject caption. At least we know Samu can take a seat if it’s a first class ride. –Alex Sawit]

 

 

By Alex Sawit

10 December 2008

 

Not long ago, I introduced Cyrano friends to our official wild boar hunter, Samu, a soft-spoken but self-confident Shiba-Inu who calls upon the comforts of our wine shop whenever he pleases (or at least whenever his humans deem it convenient).

This time, I’d like to call your attention to his officially designated girlfriend, Iona.

 

 

Iona is a seven-year old Pembroke Corgi who lives with her humans in that barbecue paradise of the U.S. East Coast, North Carolina. By all trustworthy accounts, Iona possesses all the qualities that make her a compelling match for our Samu. Allow me to mention a few of them:

 

• Iona has a nice orange-brown coat, as does Samu (in other words, they are color coordinated together).
• Iona has short legs, which is appropriate since Samu is good at hugging the ground (in other words, when they’re on a date, he’ll be on his knees as they look into each other’s eyes while sharing a bowl of Pinot Noir and a plate of roast beef).
• Iona sort of tried to take down a deer in the woods of North Carolina, which is cool since Samu has it in his pedigree to hunt for wild porkers in the forests of Japan (in other words, they’re a match as romantic hunting companions in keeping with the Greek archetypal love story of Artemis and Orion).
• Iona is an “older woman,” which is fine since Samu probably digs that (in other words, they can take inspiration from the Demi Moore-Ashton Kutcher arrangement).

 

In other words, Iona and Samu are M.F.E.O. in the opinion of this writer. Never mind that she lives with her humans on the other side of the world separated by twelve time zones. True love can find a way.

Which brings me to today’s pressing matter. I just found out that Iona was taken to the vet for a distressing emergency procedure. On behalf of her boyfriend – who for all his remarkable intelligence still requires a human to set his thoughts to the written English language – I would like to convey his most heartfelt concern for his “Lady” as well as his wishes for her speedy recovery. Teeth extracted or not, Iona is still his girl.

So to comfort her, Sarah, please read to Iona the following poem of Andrew Marvell (my apologies to Marvell, but I’ve taken the liberty of altering the title of his poem just for this post, all for a very good cause). Given all that has yet to transpire between these two love birds… er, dogs, I thought it would make a good read. I hope it makes her day – and hopefully it makes her seize it, too. And make sure she understands it’s from her one and only Samu.

 

 

To His Corgi Mistress

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love’s day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust:
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

 

 

Samu – The Wild Boar Hunter

 

 

By Alex Sawit

30 September 2008

 

 

Meet Samu.

Samu-san, as his doting owner Mrs. Tisha Samson calls him (alternating between this and the more sugary “Samu Pie”) is a one-year old Shiba-Inu. A cool customer of the four-legged kind, he never barks out of place when he’s brought to the wine shop, stays calm and collected even in the company of merrymaking strangers and is undeniably popular with the ladies, who just can’t resist his teddy bear looks. And he is, of course, a Cyrano friend.

But don’t let his demeanor and lack of size fool you, Tisha proudly tells us. Underneath that sweet puppy-like charm is the roaring spirit of the Shiba-Inu, the legendary hunting dog of Japan, ready to take down the mightiest of forest prey at his master’s command.

Behold, Samu…The Wild Boar Hunter!

“Oh, yeah, that’s right, Shiba-Inu is a Japanese hunting dog,” I said to Tisha when she brought Samu to the wine shop last week. “I just checked Wikipedia and it says that the Shiba-Inu was traditionally raised to flush small birds and hunt small game… like rabbits and mice.”

“Why don’t people believe me,” Tisha exclaimed with a little exasperation, “when I tell them that Samu is a boar hunter??? The Shiba-Inu was bred in Japan to hunt wild boar!”

Hmm… did I just touch on a sensitive subject?

“Alex,” Tisha continued, “you can Google this right now… he’s a boar hunter!!! No one wants to believe me!”

I politely suppressed my chuckling as Tisha fervently defended the honor of her little samurai. I was quickly told that poor little Samu has become the regular recipient of comments from Tisha’s friends and family (her brother Manito is particularly gleeful), all of whom express lighthearted doubt about his alleged ability to take down a beast of the woods that possesses a big, bulky frame and is armed with the ugliest dental work in creation.

Let me put things into perspective. Although wild boars typically grow to about 3-4 feet in length and reach about 150 pounds in weight, under certain conditions these aggressive porkers with deadly tusks are capable of attaining freakish sizes – like the 550 lbs. juggernaut shot in the French forest inside Ardennes in 1999. Granted, such giants seem to hail mostly from Europe, but it’s still a scary thought. Even today in Samu’s ancestral home of Japan, wild boar attacks against people still occur every once in a while. The Mainichi Shimbun mentions an incident from 2002 wherein a heroic motorist had to use his automobile (I repeat, his automobile) to shove away a boar that had knocked down an elderly lady after it had already injured a young mother and her child.

On the other hand, the Shiba-Inu (inu is the Japanese word for “dog”) is one of Japan’s original dog breeds and one of the world’s oldest; as such, it possesses the prized intelligence and cunning hunting traits of the first domesticated dogs, directly carried over from their wolf ancestors. Though considered small at a little over 20 pounds, the Shiba-Inu comes into its own in dense forest brush, where large dogs have difficulty entering and where a quicker, more agile hunter like the Shiba (which translates as “small”) is lethal.

“Here!” Tisha said, beaming with satisfaction as she called me to the shop’s laptop computer, having just appropriated it along with our internet connection. “Read what it says on this website!”

Looking at where her finger was on the screen, I read the text as follows:

“The Shiba Inu was developed in Japan, to flush birds and small game and occasionally used to hunt wild boar.”

Having made her point, a smiling Tisha returned to the backroom of the shop where Samu awaited. By now, however, her cute predator was calmly napping on the floor and eliciting sighs of approval from everyone passing him by.

Alright, Tisha, I believe you. Samu is now Cyrano’s official wild boar hunter. I hereby concede this title to him – even though I actually didn’t get to read aloud the rest of the text to you:

“It has been said that a Shiba looks like a live teddy bear. But the Shiba is not a toy.”

All hail Samu. Woof.