Tokyo Reverie
by Lynda Grace Philippsen

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After the end of a successful career, but one that has failed to fulfill her lifetime longing to live and work as an artist, a succession of random and serendipitous events prompts Lynda Grace Philippsen to head for Japan. There she begins the formal study of ikebana at Sogetsu Kaikan (Headquarters), in Tokyo. Ikebana, the centuries-old, sophisticated and highly-nuanced sculptural art of arranging flowers, presents her with numerous challenges. Communication barriers, cultural blinkers, unfamiliar pedagogy, and confounding social codes are, at times, as daunting as the curriculum’s demanding and enigmatic nature. Like a bird on her shoulder, Lynda takes the reader along the kado (the way of flowers), in a way that is both eloquent and relatable. A fascinating and immersive experience, not only does her story, which is told with insight and candour, contain moments of profundity, but it is also laugh-out-loud-funny at times. And while she captures the energizing experience and ambience of Tokyo in vivid detail, she does not sugar-coat her struggles. Her voice remains refreshing, raw and real. When COVID-19 interrupts her studies, forces a return to Canada and leaves her mourning the Tokyo life she must let go, Lynda discovers that the kado holds enlightening twists and turns of its own. Remarkable surprises beyond her imagination, leading to self-actualization, transformation and a new understanding of home.

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From the early 2000s until the Internet dried up traditional markets for book reviews and feature stories, Lynda Grace Philippsen freelanced for various newspapers and literary magazines, such as The Globe and Mail, the Vancouver Sun, Books in Canada, Arc Poetry Magazine and Kyoto Journal. In 2011, to record and share her travels throughout Japan she created The Way of Words, a website and blog. Following her early retirement from a 34-year teaching career, she contributed multiple stories to PostScript, the quarterly magazine for the British Columbia Retired Teachers’ Association. Lynda has been published in several poetry anthologies: Half in the Sun: Anthology of Mennonite Writing with “Strawberries” in 2006, A Verse Map of Vancouver with “Happy Hour: Bacchus Lounge” in 2009, and The Wild Weathers a gathering of love poems with “Final Round” in 2012. Other distinctions for her writing include the CBC Creative Nonfiction prize longlist for “Poor Wool” in 2010,” PostScript Honourable Mention for “The Art of Ikebana” in 2018, PostScript Best Travel Story for “I Rented an Old Man” in 2023, and Federation of BC Writers Honourable Mention Prize for Creative Nonfiction for “Love Like Salt” in 2024. Studying ikebana formally since 2017, Lynda has been granted Teacher Fourth Degree certification by the Sogetsu School of Ikebana in 2022, Teacher Third Degree in 2025, and at the time of publication has been working toward Teacher Second Degree Sanyo. Lynda lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She can be found at www.thewayofwords.com and on Instagram @lyndawow.

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Contributors

Author

Lynda Grace Philippsen