Tokyo

I've been in Tokyo for 3 days, staying with my friends Manami and Tim. Manami was at SIT with me some years ago and after living in the US in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Iowa and Chicago, she and her American husband decided to live in Tokyo, so I'm lucky to be able to stay with them for a while. You can see some pictures of Manami and me posing on our visit to Akiba, the 'heaven of computer and animation nurds' as Manami puts it. This is a place where Japanese fans of computer technology hang out. Also in this area you can visit a 'maid cafe' where you are served by maids, some of whom stand on the street and try to entice customers. They don't like being photographed as you can see from the picture but everyone does it anyway.

I also visited Manami's junior high school and met 3 of her classes with approximately 42 13-14 year old boys in each class. With Manamis guidance, I spoke with each class for about 20 minutes .Some of them were very shy but others volunteered answers to my questions and asked their own questions, " Who is your favorite animator?", "Do you play computer games?", and "What is your favorite sport?"One of them asked me what time I was born, in the morning or the night and another, how much money I made!

Today's weather is uncertain- it's the rainy season- so we will be prepared with umbrellas as we venture to Kichijoji, an artsy area where there is an arts and craft market and live music around a lake. I will be able to use my JR ( Japan Rail) pass to travel there.

Nara trip

It's been a busy last few days. I spent the night at a wonderfully immaculate hostel in Kyoto and visited Ryoan-ji temple, which has a traditional rock garden, then went into Osaka to join Kris and her charming adoptive parents, Kazuo and Nobuko, pictured below, for happy hour back at El Pancho's, the Mexican restaurant we had visited earlier. Kris just loves those yuzu margaritas!!

A more memorable meal for me was in Kyoto at a tofu restaurant. Now I know many people find tofu very bland and boring, but I have to say this was one of the most delicious and aesthetic eating experiences of my life. Who knew that tofu could be prepared in so many ways, and have so many tastes and textures, sometimes, chewy, sometimes melt-in -your mouth, lighter than air soft? Even the dessert was a green tea flavored tofu souffle like concoction. I did take pictures but am having tech problems downloading them.....hence the double picture of me in the Nara tourist office. (Just can't figure out how to erase the second one!!)Since you may be wondering why the comical statue has horns, it symbolizes the town of Nara, known for its many Buddhist temples and also many deer wandering around, badgering tourists for food. The photo below those 2 is me at a temple in Kyoto, Ryoan-ji, famous for its traditional rock garden.

Today I am going to Osaka to get my Japan Rail pass tickets for my trip to Tokyo in a few days and also I hope to use it to travel to Koya-san, a Buddhist temple town , where I think I'll be staying overnight at Buddhist monastery. It's in the mountains and should be a little cooler than the plains. I've been pretty lucky with the weather so far...it's not nearly as hot as I expected and just yesterday we had the first heavy rain of the season. It will probably get increasingly hot and humid from this point on, so I'll appreciate the cool hill weather.

More later....

trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima

Over the weekend, Kris, Susanne and I took the shinkansen, or bullet train, to Hiroshima. The train is very fast, as the name implies, and very comfortable with attendants walking through the compartments offering drinks and snacks as they do on planes. We stayed in a hotel with traditional tatami rooms and both nights, we each unrolled our bedding side by side on the mats.

On the first day, Saturday, we visited the neighboring island of Miyajima, known for its temples and shrines and wild deer wandering around looking for any paper maps or pamphlets or better still, anything we normally think of as edible that an unsuspecting tourist may be holding. They are quite aggressive and there is a warning as you disembark the ferry to make sure that you put away your Japan Rail Pass safely before venturing on the island. I was lucky enough to witness a formal marriage ceremony

held in one of the shrines...many bystanders were watching and taking pictures as the bride in a gorgeous white satin kimono and the groom also in traditional clothes, went through the marriage rituals.

Hiroshima of course is known as the first place where an atomic bomb was exploded in 1945, initially killing about 140,000 people outright and many more who died of radiation related illnesses. The crane, a traditional Japanese symbol of happiness and longevity, became associated with HIroshima, when a little girl who developed leukemia at the age of 11 in 1955, decided to fold 1000 paper cranes. Unfortunately, she died before reaching her goal but her classmates folded the rest and since then, paper crane folding is a Japanese pastime. The pic at the top of this posting (sorry, the images are out of order with the text) is the remaining shell of a famous building that was left after the bombing.

The memorial hall has some moving stories of survivors on video and computerized records of the names of known victims, including some American servicemen and prisoners of war who happened to be in Hiroshima that August day.

These days, Hiroshima is also known as a prosperous city with a lively nightlife scene. We visited a bar after our okonomiyaki meal on Saturday but crashed pretty early. My final picture- which is the first one at the top- shows us posing with some college students who had an assignment to ask us questions in English!

shiatsu massage

Two days ago, I picked up Susanne- a friend of ours who taught in Istanbul with Kris and I- from the Osaka airport, successfully negotiating 4 trains to get there. The last train was a special airport express that resembled a plane from the outside, very fancy on the inside, with reserved seats. One interesting feature of many Japanese trains is the announcements, first in a high pitched female voice in Japanese and then in a deeper, serious voice in English. Girlishness is 'cute' in Japan and high pitched voices, ruffly dresses, impossibly high heels and all the "Hello Kitty" type accessories are manifestations of this. (There are, of course, some Japanese girls/women who rebel against this look and sport high top sneakers, baggy jeans, etc.)

Yesterday Susanne and I had massages from an English friend of Kris' who has lived in Kyoto for 15 years and trained in the shiatsu method. While Susanne was being massaged first, I visited a local temple and shrine, with a beautiful multi-level garden and, just sat for a while enjoying the peace, only interrupted by the croaking of a frog and soft murmuring of people working in the garden. Back at Brigid's, in her traditional screened studio, covered in tatami mats, I had an hour of mostly gentle, occasionally mildly painful but enjoyable and relaxing pressure massage. The area that is being massaged is covered with cloth and no oil is used, unlike my previous experience of shiatsu in NY where I was naked and massaged with lots of sesame oil. At various points, Brigid asked me how I felt as she applied pressure. At the end she said I was in good shape but the sensitivity in my small intestine area might indicate a tendency to hold feelings in.

After our massages were done, before heading back to Hirakata where Kris lives, we looked for a restaurant that Brigid recommended. When we entered and I told the two guys behind the counter that Brigid and Tad had sent us and there was no comprehension in their eyes, this should have been the sign that we were in the wrong place, but we stayed and instead of the recommended soba noodles, drank beer and ate yakitori, Japanese skewered and barbequed meat and vegetables. I used my Point It book again - the page with pics of pigs, cows, goats, hens and other livestock- to identify which yakitori we wanted to try. The ground chicken balls and tofu appetizer mixed with things that resembled curled up sea creatures were the most delicious. The two young guys who had about 3 words of English between them, scurried around their small area behind the bar, chopping pieces of meat and chicken, arranging the tiny plates of food just so, keeping meticulous track of everybody's order and loading the tiniest dishwasher I have ever seen when the sink got full with dirty dishes. I shot a short video of them, but they thought I was simply taking a picture so one of them remained still for the first 15 seconds of it, holding his peace sign in the air while the other ran off to attend to a customer.

Tomorrow, the 3 of us are off to Hiroshima on a shinkansen, a high speed bullet train. We are spending 2 nights there.

more photos

Wasn't able to put all my photos on previous post...here's 2 from the busy shopping area in Osaka...note Japanese Little Bo-Peep.

photos

Here's some photos taken around the beautiful Heian-Jingu temple gardens and previous days visits to Kyoto and Osaka.

cycling around Kyoto

I rented a bike and cycled around Kyoto yesterday. Somehow I find that cycling in a new city is one of the most enjoyable activities when I travel. It enables you to explore and get the feel of a place in a different way than walking, which I also love to do. I feel less like a tourist and more like one of the residents (and with my helmet and dark glasses, who knows I'm a tourist??). Who am I kidding? It's precisely because I'm wearing a helmet (and a dorky one at that- thank you Kris!- red, and covered in stickers) that I stand out, since the Japanese generally don't wear helmets. As it is, I had a slight accident when I rode into the bushes on the side of the cycling path, but only sustained minor scratches on my leg. Here, they drive on the left so that gets some getting used to and they are very reluctant to use their little bells when they go past pedestrians, although to me it seems cyclists ride precariously near the walkers. Kris say the reason they don't use their bells is they're shy!! Kyoto is a cycling friendly city and you can ride along the river and go up and down little alleys and canals lined with charming old homes, and some modern ones too, all with little gardens or at the least, pots of beautiful flowers. I can now see why people find Kyoto so attractive.

I have seen geishas walking on the street, although whether they are are 'real' geishas or simply girls who are 'trying out' the experience for the day, I'm not sure.

I visited another wonderful temple and watched a ceremony of purple clad Buddhist monks chanting and filing in and out of the shrine area. There was a lot of gold in the alter area, but the overall effect was beautifully balanced with the dark wood of the architecture, not gaudy at all, as I've seen in some temples in China.

Some other observations: I saw a restaurant that advertised an 'a ra carte' menu- that cracked me up. The trains here are quite impressive...very clean and very comfortable. Everyone lines up on the platform at designated spots to board in a civilized manner. At the end of the line , the conductor pushes a button and all the backs of the seats flip to face the other direction so that passengers are facing the direction of their travel. And finally, I saw a woman wearing a uniform carrying a flat oblong shaped thing with a handle, who was waiting at the front of the line- when the train stopped and the doors opened, she snapped open her package and it unfolded to become a platform she put on the ground, so that a passenger in a wheelchair could easily roll herself down. Quite impressive!

visit to Osaka

Yesterday we took the train and then a subway ride into Osaka and explored the very busy shopping area called Shinsaibashi. Parts were gaudy and 'downscale' while other streets were full of very expensive stores. The atmosphere on the street reminded me a little of parts of Shanghai....busy consumerism. Kris took me into a store which caters to all kinds of dancers and I saw young Japanese girls standing on point, testing out new pink silk ballet shoes...on another floor we ogled and fingered the most garish of ballroom dance costumes costing thousands of dollars. Back on the street, again I was amazed at the number of women wearing black leggings, lacy black pantyhose, ruffly skirts and very high heels...Kris says disparagingly, "very fashionable.... back in 1983!" Even women on bikes are sporting these high heels. I bought some hand-painted cards from one of the few stores selling traditional Japanese textiles and paper fans. Most of the stores were selling cheaply made clothes, probably from China, for too much money. I took pictures of a couple of girls dressed in little Bo Peep type costumes-apparently this is a fashion here among some girls. (I hope to post some pics soon as soon as I can buy the connecting device to download my camera to Kris' computer). We watched a Japanese band playing very authentic Scottish and Irish music on a street corner to an appreciative audience and then went into El Pancho to meet Kris' expat friends over traditional Japanese burritos, enchiladas, nachos and yuzu margharitas. (Yuzu is a Japanese fruit and I must say it makes a damn good margharita.)

Today Kris hosted the monthly meeting of her book club. We had an interesting discussion of a Japanese novel called "The Doctor's Wife", set in the 18th century, based on the true story of the first doctor who experimented with and developed the use of anesthetic during surgery. In the story both his wife and mother, who have a difficult relationship, vie to be the first human subjects of his experiments (he had previously experimented on dogs). It seems that the mother/daughter-in-law relationship is tricky no matter where in the world one is from, according to the experience of Kris' Japanese and foreign friends! Although the translation was considered skillful, according to the Japanese readers, many details and subtlety was missing from the English version. We had a feast of Turkish and Indian dishes, homemade bread, guava paste someone brought from Mexico and Kris' delicious honey pecan oatmeal bars washed down by Japanese beer.....or the special tea someone brought.

Having a lazy evening...oh it's so wonderful to have nothing particular to do, especially no grading!!!!

Kyoto trip

Took the train to Kyoto yesterday from Hirakata, the neighborhood where Kris lives, a short trip from Osaka city. I wasn't really sure how to find the train station so used my Point It book for the first time (thank you, Amy!) The Point It book is an extremely useful booklet crammed with photos of every possible item you could need, from foods to hotel rooms to transportation vehicles to different types of medicines,medical conditions, hardware tools, sewing needs...you name it, it's in there. Found a picture of your standard train, not the shinkansen, the fast speed 'bullet' train, and sure enough was directed to the train station.

This is a largely above ground commuter train, very civilized, with well behaved travelers sitting sedately in their upholstered seats, quietly reading their manga (Japanese comic books), or having discreet conversations with their neighbors. Cell phones are officially forbidden and it's very rare to hear one ring. The announcements may be in English as well as Japanese at each station, but sometimes, as I discovered coming home yesterday, only in Japanese. I had to pay close attention to the map so that I got off at the right stop.

I chose to explore the Southern Higashiyama district of Kyoto, recommended as one of the richest in sightseeing areas. There are many different districts and I will be taking, I think, several more day trips to explore other neighborhoods. Unlike my somewhat romanticized vision of Kyoto as a charming old world throwback to the days of geishas flitting along winding narrow alleys lined with charming old architecture (as in Memoirs of a Geisha), my first impression was that it looked like any other place with sections that do indeed have the old homes with shingled sloping roofs and beautiful temple architecture. I came upon Sangusangen-do, a temple mobbed by hordes of Japanese school-kids in uniform, in which there are 1001 almost identical gold covered wooden statues of Kannon, theBuddhist goddess of mercy, each with 40 arms. The 40 arms are the symbolic representation of 1000 arms because each one is supposed to save 25 worlds. Quite impressive...I lit some incense and made a wish. After this I tried to find another temple complex, set into the mountain with multiple shrines and many places selling good luck charms for various functions: long life, conception, good exam results, healthy baby....... this was also full of school groups and the Japanese tourist far outnumbered the foreign ones. People generally ignored me (in a good way) but were helpful and very courteous if I asked them to shoot a picture of me, or I needed directions.

From the temple area, there were great views of dense greenery on the mountain slopes and a good view of Kyoto city. The weather is unusually cool and it couldn't have been pleasanter to meander around. Those young girls who weren't in school uniform, favor an interesting style of dressing: lots of black tights, leggings, high heeled platform shoes and sandals, ruffly short skirts or baggy smocks, lots of dyed reddish brown hair.....a great place to people watch.

On the way down the hill, there were many little shops selling ceramic tea cups, bowls and plates and I was considering one or two, thinking that the prices were quite reasonable, when I realized once again, I was mentally putting the decimal point in the wrong position when converting to dollars- so that a mug which I thought was a good deal for $5 was actually $50. Oh well. We will be going to a dollar store later today in Osaka!

first day in Japan!

It's more than 36 hours and I'm still exclaiming every time I sit down on Kris' heated toilet seat. It's still a bit chilly here, not the heatwave she prepared me for, so it's a pleasant sensation. Yes, I know, a funny way to start blogging, but I can't get over the multiple settings, even in the airport and restaurants' 'ladies rooms' for 'flush sound' (to mask the sounds of bodily functions), and 2 different ways to have water spray your private parts.....

Had my first lunch in an okonomiyaki restaurant. This is a concoction of chopped cabbage, egg, bonito fish flakes, a special tasty sauce and noodles cooked on a griddle right at your table...it was yummy and not too pricey. Kris actually was saying that we should go to an Italian restaurant for lunch (I kid you not!!) but I protested. My first real meal in Japan made with tomato sauce and cheese- no way!

We traveled into Kyoto yesterday, a comfortable 40 minute ride on a train and walked around a little. I am going back today on my own to explore one of the neighborhoods that make up this old capital of Japan. Kris is working. Should be an adventure...