Cleary Kazoku

Yokohama Chinatown New Year Celebration

2012-02-02T17:28:00.000-08:00

Anxious to cross off a few more items on my Japan bucket list, I jumped at the chance to head to the Chinese New Year celebration in Yokohama on Sunday.

Fearless Explorer inquired if we would like to join her and her family for lunch at the “Crack Noodle” restaurant followed by the New Year Celebration Parade with lion dances, dragon dances, firecrackers, etc.

"What time are we meeting you at the train platform?" was my reply

This was my third visit to Crack Noodles in two months. Bossy Explorer introduced me after our trip to Yamate in December and well … I’m addicted (therefore the name “Crack Noodle”). I don’t go in for the spicy fare, being a total spice whimp, but my husband seemed to enjoy the hotter side of things. Look for next post to include directions and photos to start your addiction.

The restaurant was packed and while we were eating we could hear the parade going by. Firecrackers and the deep beat of a drum from outside made it’s way into the room as we sat family style around a huge lazy susan on the traditional tatami mats.

With appetites satisfied we made our way down the very crowded street, initially we were disappointed, thinking we’d missed the parade but as the crowd started to gather at the end of the street we made our way, staked out a spot and had a prime location to view the parade.

I was fascinated by the very ornate costumes and did a little research – I believe these are Cai Shen and Che Kung, the gods of wealth and prosperity. The dragon and lion dances were great, dancing aggressively to the beat of the drum and cymbals these dances are meant to drive out evil spirits. Every so often a cart would come by and stop and set off firecrackers. It was loud and raucous – such a departure from the very civil, quiet Japanese Way – and so much fun!

For those living in Yokosuka, you have one more weekend to enjoy the celebration. For more information go to:

http://www.chinatown.or.jp/agenda/event/2012shunsetsu?from=top

Great Wall of China and Ming Tombs

2010-12-31T17:52:00.000-08:00

“He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man.” Mao Zedong

The buses were in front of our hotel and waiting for our 7:30 a.m. departure to the Great Wall of China. We ran the “Ha-low” gauntlet to board the bus and settled in for the hour+ ride out to the wall. This is what our family had been waiting for – sure we wanted to see the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square – but the Great Wall? That was the quintessential image of China – I’d seen it in magazines, picture books, it was even in the opening image of one my all time favorite kids movies “Mulan.” Wrenn, my daughter, sat next to me that morning and she glanced at me at one point with the expression of “who are you?” on her face. I was so excited – I was uncharacteristically giddy. I told her I was sorry (I think I was freaking her out a bit) but that I’d seen pictures of The Great Wall and of course had thought to myself that it’s magnificent, but it wasn’t even a dream of mine to come to China and see it because I’d never even thought it would be in the realm of possibilities. And yet, here I was, sitting on a bus traveling with my family to experience something I’d never even thought possible (I know, there’s a lesson in there for me).

We arrived early, and boarded the ropeway to the top and had two hours to explore the Great Wall. It wasn’t exactly a picture perfect day – it was hazy – but while it started out a bit brisk, by the time we were all walking on the wall, we were shedding our layers and for a few, brief moments the sun broke through the. My family took off – setting a goal of reaching a far off gate. I decided to take my time, I would not be here again and I wanted to take in every, single minute. A couple of things struck me; one was that it was really quiet out there, of course it was November not exactly the height of the tourist season, but after the hustle and bustle of Beijing it was very peaceful (I understand however that if you come in the summer it is anything but quiet, more like a carnival atmosphere with hoards of tourists); another thought was that the United States is a toddler in World History, well maybe more like an infant. This original wall was started 2000 years ago (221 B.C.). With a country so rich and deep in culture, no wonder our two countries can have culture-clashes at times. It makes me want to learn more about China, with it’s population at over one billion people and it’s emergence as a world power I’m thinking we’d all better know a lot more about this country.

I did eventually meet up with my family, after climbing more than 400 steps up a steep incline to the northern most point where you could explore the wall (you can only traverse certain renovated sections of the wall). Jeff was already sipping a beer he bought from one of the vendors – he asked if I would like one and just at that moment all the vendors quickly packed up their wares and vanished over the “do not enter” sign to the off-limits section of the wall. We tourists stood there looking around wondering what just happened, when someone spotted a figure hiking up through the brush off to the side of the wall. We all surmised that a guard must be headed our way and these vendors weren’t exactly “approved” for selling their goods on a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Noting the time, we headed back – each family member at their own pace. I wanted to savor, I wanted to try and not forget a single moment. When we were stateside and oblivious to the fact that the military would one day send us to live overseas, our trips consisted only of places we could drive to – exclusively on the East Coast. Jeff and I would sometimes refer to these trips as “Scouting Expeditions” – as in, we’re here to gather information so that when we come back we’ll know what to come back and see. Our trips in Asia have a different mindset – these are onetime deals, at least for me – hopefully our children will be able to come back to some of these places with their kids … a long, long time from now. So the approach is somewhat different and when I leave a site, like the Great Wall, it is bittersweet. I’m so incredibly thankful I’ve had the chance to have the experience, but sad at the same time knowing I will not pass this way again.

We boarded the buses and headed for our next destination a Cloisonne Factory/lunch. Seeing the Cloisonne being made through the windows of the factory was interesting and we were able to get in a bit of power-shopping and purchase some gifts for our friends and family back home. And then we were off and running again, next destination – the Ming Tombs.

Ming Tombs
This is the final resting place for 13 of the 16 Ming emperors. We stopped first at the Spirit Way, passing through the Great Palace Gate and by a giant bixi (a mythical tortoise-dragon-like animal). The Spirit Way is lined with 12 sets of stone animals (sitting and standing) and officials. Along the path are beautiful weeping willow trees, which were in abundance both in and around Beijing. With all of the leaves off of the deciduous trees, these sweeping flowing beauties offered a bit of welcome color to the landscape and I loved them – making a mental note that one day, I wanted a garden with a weeping willow tree that would remind me of China.

Another long day, but it was a great day with the highlight of course being the Great Wall. So much to think about and ponder on the bus ride back to the hotel, more great stories and information from our guide, George, which I’ll save for my final Beijing entry. Till next time, sayonara.

Beijing Trip

2010-12-31T15:28:00.000-08:00

Our first day full day in Beijing started off with an 8 a.m. bus pickup, first stop Tiananmen Square but before getting on the bus though we had to run a gauntlet of the Ha-low People.

“Ha-low, ha-low … you buy Panda?”
Here is yet another Asian culture vastly different from Japan, to encounter someone here in Japan that would be literally shoving things in your face and saying “Ha-low, ha-low – you buy? Very good price!” is absolutely unheard of. The Ha-low people clearly know where the foreigners are staying and if I could think of a stronger word than aggressive to describe their tactics I would. Sunglasses are very handy in this instance – do not, as our guide George warned us, do not make eye contact, unless you want to buy something. And bargain – you must. At one point I said to Jeff “you need to bargain” and he said “but Jane, it’s only $5” and my response was that’s not the point, they expect you to bargain. I don’t like to bargain – I’d rather just not buy it, suddenly whatever it was I thought would be interesting to have is no longer worth it. Jeff on the other hand is too left brained – he’s just making the calculation in his computer brain and thinking this is a deal compared to what we’d pay back home. A good bargaining team, we do not make. Again, our guide George was great for giving us parameters – he said take the price and cut it in half, then cut it in half again – and walk away, they’ll come after you if they can still sell it for a profit. That first hat we bought for one of our sons, we paid way too much for – even if it did only convert to $5.

Tiananmen Square

The world’s largest square, Mao conceived it as a square to project the enormity of the Communist Party. Mao is entombed in a building on the square and the Chinese people are still very devoted to him. The line to see his tomb can at times be up to 2 miles in length (see photo at left). Again, thank goodness George briefed us, the Ha-low People were out here too, although not quite as aggressive as those in front of our hotel. We had time to wander the square, wander among the hordes of other tourists. There are two gigantic flat screens showing scenes from across China. One of my sons remarked about the propaganda and I questioned why propaganda? I thought the photography was beautiful and why shouldn’t a country show what’s good about them for all to see? I could envision sweeping vistas of the Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountains, Big Sur, towering Sequoias, and Acadia on huge flat screens on The Mall in DC (for all I know they have that now) of course there would probably be some sort of “sponsored by” ad at the end and the foundation the screen would sit on would have the Apple logo or whomever provided it (hopefully a U.S. owned company?). We took the requisite pictures with the portrait of Mao hanging in the background from the Gate of Heavenly Peace. I’m not sure what I was expecting, a place that I’d seen on tv with so much turmoil – the picture of the lone student standing defiantly in front of the tank. My children asked me what happened to him … and I honestly don’t know (but I’ll be looking it up just after I get this entry completed). Our guide referred to this period as “the incident.” I did not have the gumption (or would it be audacity?) to ask him if that was the Chinese party line speaking. I always think of it as the “student uprising.” The word ‘incident’ I’m sure translates well but doesn’t exactly convey how the rest of the world was riveted by what was occurring in China at the time. Incident makes it sound like a Chinese tank bumped into a telephone pole.

Forbidden City
We made our way towards the Gate of Heavenly Peace, for centuries only the Emperor could use the central door and bridge to enter into the Forbidden City. There are over 1000 rooms in the Forbidden City. If you visited a different room everyday, it would take you just over two and a half years to see all the rooms – it is massive. The amount of information thrown at us was equally massive. I quickly went into “information overload.” While I found the information fascinating at the time, there was so much to take in, the historical significance of a building, the architectural details, that I found later I had a hard time keeping it all. What follows is the “best of” what I can remember. We had a packed day – Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and the Summer Palace … so we were moving at a fairly good pace and there’s only so much information this brain can apparently absorb in an 8-hour time span.

Interesting Tidbits about the Forbidden City
• There are no trees inside the walled area of the outer court. This was a strategic decision, so that no enemies could hide in the trees. • The outer court is composed of 15 layers of bricks set in a criss-cross pattern to prevent enemies from digging up into the Forbidden City. • There are large, or maybe I should say mammoth, metal containers stationed around the different buildings – these were fire protection containers. • Emperors could have a thousand or more concubines and there were an equal number of eunuchs that would attend to them, safely ensuring only the Emperor himself would be able to get a concubine pregnant. Other than the Emperor himself, the eunuchs were the only other men allowed to live within the Forbidden City. • Rooftop ornaments led by an official riding a rooster – the story goes that an official of the Emperor’s court brought shame upon the Emperor, who then promptly cast the official to always ride a rooster. The importance of the building determines how many of the rooftop ornaments will be on top (as you will see in my photos, I loved these characters and I tried to only select a few from my expansive photo gallery featuring these guys). • Yellow was the color of Imperial Family, all the rooftop tiles of the Emperor’s buildings were yellow. • The buildings are painted vermillion which represents strength. • Only the Emperor could wear the color yellow – in all of China, not just inside the Forbidden City.

Mental Cultivation Hall – Temporary lodgings were provided here for the Empresses and Concubines, who could only visit upon personal invitation of the Emperor to attend to his “needs.” I am sure there was so much more to the information that was provided that day, but this, along with the fact that the some Emperors had as many as 2000 concubines and the beautiful architecture diverted my attention.

Our last stop on the tour that day was the Summer Palace, a good 45 minute bus ride from the Forbidden City, winding our way through the notoriously slow Beijing traffic. George, our guide, was really fabulous during these rides to keep us informed on not just what we would be seeing but also on day to day things like how he met his wife (through his mom, who worked with his future wife). Why there are few dogs in Beijing … he brought just the right amount of levity, knowing what Westerner’s say and no, it’s not because they eat them (well at least not in Beijing) – the truth is that it’s very expensive to own a dog. You have to pay the equivalent of $1000 U.S. to register your dog and then an additional annual fee of more than several hundred dollars. Before stopping for lunch George tried to enlighten our group on some more of the customs of China – for example he asked us if our parents told us when we were growing up if we’d been told at meal time to make sure we “cleaned our plates, because of the starving children in China.” He said in China they were told to make sure to leave a small amount of food on your plate “for the starving children in the U.S.” true or not, we all chuckled. He did share with us the story of being a part of a state dinner where senior U.S. officials dined – someone apparently did not do their homework and so with each course the U.S. diplomats cleaned their plates. Unfortunately, in China this is a signal to the host that they were still hungry and wanted more. And the Chinese being the ever-accommodating hosts, complied. This merry-go-round circle continued, with more than 128 courses served! That story really stuck with our crew and the importance on knowing the culture you’re visiting. I’ve heard them mention that story since we’ve been back – and when we went to Hong Kong they made sure they left a small amount on each plate, “for the starving children in the U.S.”

5-star Restrooms – “I’m sorry but who can we speak to about the rating system?”
There is apparently a rating system for the bathrooms in China. Our guide, George, with each stop would give the rating for that particular stop saying something along the lines of “very nice bathrooms at this stop – 5 star.” I had been warned about the restrooms before arriving in China. Some comments from friends were – “disgusting” “malodorous” “bring your own tp.” I like the saying “forewarned is forearmed.” So I came equipped with tissue packets, hand wipes, and tried to have a sense of adventure in all things, including the necessary room. Thank goodness we were traveling in cooler weather because it appears the Chinese sewage system cannot handle toilet paper. There are little trashcans that are in each stall where you are supposed to deposit well … your used toilet paper, the smell is overpowering. I’ve been in outhouses on camping trips that smelled better. One bathroom that my daughter and I went in together there was a sign that read “watch for landslides” – this did not convey confidence. My daughter asked “what do you think that means?” and I said I think they meant to say the toilets overflow. Dubiously looking at each other, we shrugged our shoulders and picked our stall, hoping for no landslides.

Summer Palace
The Summer Palace was a place where the royals came to escape the oppressive summer heat of the Forbidden City. Kunming Lake is man-made – dug by hand and a favorite playground for the Dragon Empress. We learned that the Dragon Empress was not a patient woman and liked to get what she wanted, so the deck was stacked so to speak, and the servants would dive beneath the water and attach fish to her lines so she did not have to wait for a bite. They would also from time to time attach jewels, like bracelets, to the fishing lines for surprises.

There is a lovely curved covered walking path that follows along the lake – it is curved because evil spirits can only travel in a straight path. There are over 14,000 paintings, along this walkway depicting landscapes, or flower and birds, or Chinese legends – our guide said that they have to repaint the scenes every seven years to maintain them. The covered walkway extends for nearly a half mile.

Our group moved along at a fairly brisk pace – it seemed I was always in the rear running to catch up after stopping for a moment to take a few quick photos. Last stop for the day was a Silk “Museum” – I was excited for this stop with my interest in fiber art/kimonos/shibori – and while we did learn about the production of silk and it was interesting, it was really nothing more than a front for selling silk products. Of course that didn’t stop us for falling for it – the kids all now have silk pillows to remember the trip by and we have a silk comforter that I will honestly say I’m liking a whole heck of a lot more than the down comforter we had at one point.

That night we ended our first day in Beijing by taking our family to the Kung Fu show – clearly geared towards tourists, we all enjoyed it anyways, seeing an additional aspect of Chinese culture and creating another part of a memory for a lifetime. Next day’s agenda: The Great Wall of China – we could hardly wait. Till next time, sayonara.

Seoul – Palaces, a Market and Seoul Tower

2010-11-22T12:27:00.000-08:00

Our final day in Seoul had two palaces, Insadong Market, and Seoul Tower on our itinerary. We started the day out with another cab ride – this one more sedate thank goodness, where we were delivered curbside to Deoksu Palace to view the changing of the guard ceremony.

The Royal Guards Changing Ceremony at Deoksu Palace
The main reason for our visit to Deoksu Palace was to see the changing of the guards, other palaces in Seoul have these ceremonies but this one is apparently considered the best. We arrived with enough time to make our way inside the grounds but were only a few steps inside before I spied a banner reading “2010 Book Festival.” My fellow traveler’s are aware of my passion for books – they are in one of the two book groups I belong to here in Yokosuka. But what they probably didn’t know was that I can not pass by bookstores, or anything about books without stopping to look. So with festival tents set up we strolled along taking a look at the books on display. One tent had a very cool display set up where you could ink up an early version of movable type and by placing a sheet of rice paper down and rubbing it you could get a sense of how labor intensive this process was. We all gave it a try and then moved along to see what else was there to see. I found a beautiful book on Korean flower arranging that I picked up, knowing I’d have to lug it around the entire day. No sooner had I made my purchase than I got a gentle nudge from my friends that time was running out and we needed to head back to the entrance to see the ceremony. As we started back we could hear the traditional band playing the music along with the sound of a steady drum beat … my pace quickened, I did not want to miss out on this, nor the chance to wiggle my way into position for some photo ops.

The elite Palace Guards who defended the palace and escorted the King were called Geum-gun (Soldiers Guarding the Forbidden Palace) and were responsible for opening and closing the palace gates as well as guarding and patrolling the area around the gate. Deoksu (meaning virtue and long life) Palace served as the king’s residence following the withdrawal of Japanese occupied forces in 1593. The palace was originally called Geum-gung (the Forbidden Palace) because it was off limits to ordinary citizens. In 1907, the Emperor Gojong moved into Deoksu after relinquishing his throne to his son, Emperor Sunjong.

The traditional Korean attire was very colorful – a contrast to the more subdued tones of Japan. The music played by the traditional Korean band was wonderful, the blowing of conch shells, the beating of the drums, the high-pitched wail of the flutes. It really was quite special and I’m so glad I had a chance to see this while in Seoul. For more information on the Royal Guards Ceremony go to: http://www.deoksugung.go.kr/eng/royalguards/

With the ceremony over we were off to the next palace – Changdeok Palace. Taxi!

Changdeok Palace
This is a huge sprawling complex with many buildings and some lovely garden areas. At the information booth/ticket office you can rent a headset with a guided tour in English. I recommend this, however even for me, one who likes details, I hit information overload at one point and shut it off – TMI. I enjoyed looking at the architecture, Korean style architecture is much more colorful than traditional Japanese architecture. The brightly painted architectural details were beautiful.

Surrounding Geunjeongjeon Hall, in the palace complex, are twelve stone statues – one for each birth year – rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, lamb, monkey, rooster, dog and boar (see photo). We moved along to Yeonji pond and the Gyonghoeru pavilion which is a lovely spot to take a break. Further back in this expansive complex is Hyangwonjeong – an octagonal shaped pavilion. This is one of the most photographed areas in Korea and I could see why. It’s lovely.

With two more stops on our itinerary we moved along in search of Insadong Market. For more information on Gyeongbokgung go to: http://www.royalpalace.go.kr/html/eng/data/data_03_08.jsp?dep1=2&dep2=2
http://eng.cdg.go.kr/main/main.htm

Insadong Market
This was the market I was waiting for … I love seeing traditional crafts and had read that this market was THE place to go in Seoul to find celadon pottery and all sorts of other Korean crafts. I was not disappointed. The main street is closed to traffic on the weekends and you can wander in and out of shops looking at all the wares. I had read some great reviews on Ssamzie Market and stopped at the information booth to find out where it is located. Armed with my map we made our way down the street – and found the building, which is an architectural treat, along with art cases (see the photo of the zipper bags – sooo cool!) and some great stores with lots of eye candy. This was one of my favorite places we visited while in Seoul.

“But why can’t you take us there?”
I have mentioned the wild taxi rides but have not yet addressed just how difficult it is to get a taxi in the first place. After our trip to the DMZ we were told “just stand here a taxi will come along” after waiting and waiting and waiting some more MJ, our taxi maven, decided to take matters into her own hands and went to the security booth at the USO and asked that they call us a taxi. The next day we didn’t do much better … after leaving the Myeongdong shopping district we asked a policeman if there was a certain place to pick up a taxi as the cars seemed to be whizzing by at breakneck speed. He said “stand here and I’ll flag one down for you.” As we waited, we watched fashionista after fashionista dash down the road about 15 feet ahead to grab the next available taxi. We thanked the policeman and decided to join in the “I’m better than you at getting a taxi” game. Later that night after the Nanta show we tried for an HOUR to get a taxi with no luck, finally gave up and tried to take the subway system back to our hotel. We almost pulled it off, but ended up getting off at the wrong station and in the end still had to get a taxi – MJ out there taking control of “Mission Taxi.” So here we are, it’s our last evening and we’ve planned to go to Seoul Tower, this time we can find a taxi but no one will take us there. Finally, one signals for us to get in and after we all pile into the cab and our “taxi maven” shows him a map and information he motions to us to get out. This is when my friend Monika says with a tone of frustration in her voice “but why can’t you take us there?” and I start to laugh. “Monika, he can’t speak English and you want him to explain why he’s saying no?” She responds with a “but I just want to understand why he won’t take us there.” I get it. It’s one of the frustrating parts of traveling in another country and you cannot speak the language, sometimes you’re just not going to understand something. This is when you hope that the “random acts of kindness” fairy will swoop down and step in. As we all unload from the cab a young man who had just stepped out of the cab, looked back and saw the confusion taking place and came over to see if he could help. In impeccable English he asked where we were trying to go and then in rapid-fire Korean had an exchange with the driver, next thing we knew we were off on another “wild taxi ride” through the streets of Seoul, destination Seoul Tower.

Seoul Tower
I’m not sure I have a lot to say about this stop … we had wanted to grab a cocktail while we viewed the city but it turns out the restaurant at the top only will let you have dinner and we weren’t too interested in this option. We had hoped to get there right at dusk but didn’t quite make it after the long lines for the cable car and then another line for the ropeway. If it’s a pretty day and you have the time you can climb up the hill to the Seoul Tower but we were on a timeframe and decided to take the easier way out. It is what it is, a tourist trap, but it does afford a nice view of Seoul.

Thoughts
I had so many questions from friends about Korea when I returned. The Japanese and the Koreans have not exactly been the best of friends over the centuries. Mostly my Japanese friends were curious, what were the Koreans like? My American friends also wanted to know if the Koreans were rude – they have that unfortunate reputation. Aside from my encounter with the chargin’ grandma I didn’t find the Koreans rude. In fact, I sort of liked the hustle bustle of Seoul. It was much more like being in D.C. or NYC to me than Tokyo. The architecture was very western, there were trashcans (something you rarely find here in Japan and when you do you feel like you just won the lottery), there was chaos and disorder getting on the subway or waiting for a taxi which is soooo much more like the U.S. than here in Japan. Japan is an orderly nation, I’m sure this is a cultural thing, when you have this many people living in such a small area in order to survive the society needs structure – you pass by a bus stop here and everyone is lined up, a taxi stand – the same thing, the train platform – ditto. In Japan if you bump into someone as your walking down a crowded street or in a jam-packed train you’d say “sumimasen” – common courtesy – but there was none of that in Seoul. So for me, Seoul was more like a taste of the U.S. with a markedly Asian flare. I liked it and I’m hoping to return, next time with my family … shopping will not be on the list but there’s so much more to Seoul than that. Till next time, sayonara.

"Pali-Pali" – Hurry Hurry we have shopping to do!

2010-11-19T16:14:00.000-08:00

Pali, Pali (hurry, hurry)
“We drive fast, eat fast, do everything fast – we are always in a hurry.”

This was what our Korean tour guide from the DMZ tour had told us about Koreans. It’s a good phrase to know before arriving in Seoul. It gives you a bit of insight into the culture here and definitely clues you in on how the taxi drivers get around the city.

“Excuse me, but did you go to the Pali, Pali taxi drivers school?”
As I mentioned in my previous entry, I heard more horn blowing in the first 24 hours of being in Seoul than I have in the entire last year of living in Japan. The cab drivers in Seoul are crazy! Most were quite nice but they drive like a bat out of hell. Red light ahead? That must mean “floor it.” Car stopped in front of you? That translates into – “Speed up and hope they start moving before you hit them.” Which sadly for us on one of our wild taxi rides the car in front of us did not move quickly enough. After rear-ending the car in front of us and checking to make sure we were all o.k. – our driver asks “is it o.k. if I pull over?” While we were waiting in the taxi for our driver to exchange information we all looked at each other and commented how this would never have happened in Japan. The rest of our taxi rides did not result in any collisions but apparently not for lack of trying – we nearly hit a bike rider in one ride, another the driver decided that going up on part of the sidewalk would help him circumvent some traffic, one member of our party had the horn blown at her for not getting out of the way quick enough (this was from the driver who had not even 60 seconds earlier dropped us off!) and after piling into one cab and telling him where we wanted to go he shooed us all out of his cab.

Namdaemun Market
Our second day in Seoul was earmarked for some shopping and a show. The first stop was Namdaemun Market – a huge, sprawling market that covers over 10 acres in the downtown area and has over 1000 shops. Anything and everything is available here – toys, food, clothes, crafts. I wasn’t in the market for anything in particular – but sure did enjoy looking. I did manage to purchase a few sheets of beautiful Korean paper and a very pretty fur scarf but aside from that my load was light – unlike some of my shopping companions. While my friends were shopping I wandered down an alley and found the Korea Snack Company – the shop owner was very friendly and offered me a sample. Some sort of pounded, puffy rice coated with honey on the inside. Quite tasty. Wandering further along I spied a beautiful display of figs. They looked delicious and I was ready to buy some, but first I wanted to take a picture …

“So were the Koreans rude?”
I was asked this a lot upon my return from Seoul. For the most part I did not find them rude – no more so than what I’d encounter in Washington, D.C. I think it’s part of the Pali, Pali mindset. They have someplace to go, are focused on the job at hand and do not have time to be bothered with tourists. But I did encounter one incredibly ornery elderly grandmother type selling her figs in Namdaemun Market. There are tourists everywhere in Namdaemun Market, so perhaps she’s just tired of them, but she does have her wares set up in the middle of a walking street – out for everyone to see and admire – so I really didn’t think too much about pulling out my camera and taking a few shots. But much to my surprise I got off one picture before she charged at me – this older Korean grandmother could move! I could not understand her anger – showed her the picture, that I hadn’t actually taken a photo of her but of the fig display … but she wasn’t about to listen to a westerner, yelling at me, waving her hands and promptly covered her nice display of figs with a cloth. Clearly, she’s done this before. She sat down behind her covered figs with her arms crossed, glaring at me. Well alrighty then, guess I won’t be buying any of her figs for a snack later … as the Scarecrow said to the apple tree in the Wizard of Oz “they probably had little green worms in them anyways.”

Nanta
Later that evening we went to see the Korean show called Nanta or “Cookin.” This was a funny show, with audience participation, lots of dancing and percussion – sort of like Stomp taking place in a Korean kitchen. I had read the reviews and the warnings … if you are a Westerner you might want to sit in the middle or further back in the audience to avoid being selected to come up on stage. We arrive after another Pali-Pali taxi ride and start to take our seats – thank you my friends who scurried in front of me, leaving me 3 seats in from the aisle. I’m thinking well, we’re halfway back from the front and I’m not on the end … surely I’m safe. Wrong – at one part of the show the “Sexy Guy” selects me from the audience to come up on stage. Happy … I am not. I am petrified to be in front of people and much prefer to always, always be in the back of a group, behind a camera, basically no where near any attention. Somehow Sexy Guy must have some sort of radar and honed right in on me as a victim. Aside from my “15 minutes of fame” I thoroughly enjoyed the show and for a brief moment at least got to have some contact with a guy who is definitely cut and well deserves his show title as “Sexy Guy.” “Cookin” is an international show and if it happens to come to your town it is well worth seeing. For more information go to: http://nanta.i-pmc.co.kr/en/about/place_myeongdong.asp

So, two really busy days down, one more to go. Our final day was spent seeing a bit of culture and getting in a little more shopping. Till next time, sayonara.

Korea - "It is o.k? Yeah"

2010-11-19T14:52:00.000-08:00

October was a busy month, my English Conversation classes were in full gear, my children were busy with school and extracurricular activities but somehow I managed to squeeze in two trips – sans family. I was due … way overdue. One trip was to Nagoya to my shibori sensei’s studio for a four-day workshop. There is so much to share from that trip that I hardly know where to begin and I can’t say that it was a pleasure trip – it was four days of long hours and hard work. I’ve made notes, started several blog entries and still I have not pulled that one together. I will, but it may still be a while. The other trip I was able to take was to Seoul Korea with three friends from here on base. It was jam-packed and there were many hilarious moments. It was a trip filled with history, shopping, a highly entertaining show, several wild taxi rides, a couple of palaces and more shopping. I had not gone away for a girls weekend for more than 5 years (no Jeff, packing out by myself for an overseas move does not count) and I needed a break, needed some time to myself, needed to have the luxury of stopping to look at something, anything that I fancied and not be questioned about “what are you looking at?” “come on, can we go now?” “how much longer?” I’ve stated this before – but as a reminder, my family is not a family of shoppers – not even window-shoppers. And while I can’t say I’m the biggest shopper in the world I do enjoy looking at things, especially things I know I’ll probably never get to see again. So I was looking forward to this trip … a lot.

We really scored on the weather, arriving in Seoul late on a Thursday evening it was clear, a slight nip in the Fall night air and it stayed that way the entire time we were there. After months and months of humidity in Japan, this was a welcome respite. My friends and I had booked the USO DMZ tour for our first day in Seoul. The taxi ride from the airport should have been my first clue that “I wasn’t in Kansas anymore” – the cab driver barreled down the highway and used his horn freely. After a year of living in Japan this was a bit of a shock – you don’t really think about things that vanish from your environment, like horn blowing, until you’re confronted with them again. Our ride over to the USO was no different, fast paced through the city streets, very reminiscent of riding in a NYC cab. Not sure my companions were digging this too much but I thought it was a crack up – sort of an Asian spin on the west.

The DMZ was a long day and honestly, I was very ambivalent about going. My family on the other hand couldn’t believe I was going there without them, “that’s not fair” was a common refrain. Here are some of my thoughts from the day:

Infiltration Tunnel
Our first stop, the 3rd tunnel tour was interesting only from the perspective of the audacity of North Korea digging infiltration tunnels into South Korea and then painting the inside of the tunnels black and claiming they were mining tunnels for coal. Really? Didn’t they think someone would discover there’s no coal in that area?

Dora Observatory
The stop at the Dora Observatory gives you the chance to look across the Demilitarized Zone and view North Korea’s Propaganda Village. Built by the North Koreans as a “Peace Village,” until 2004 communist propaganda blasted from huge speakers up to 20 hours a day in the hopes of inducing defections to the North. Apparently their propaganda campaign was unsuccessful and in 2004 the speakers were silenced.

Dorasan Station – A train station to nowhere
Dorasan station was educational – I wasn’t aware of the South-North Korea Joint Declaration in 2000 and the importance of connecting the railways. When relations were somewhat better between the two nations the CEO of Hyundai decided to build this train station in the hopes of cutting out nearly 2 weeks of transit time from South Korea to Europe. This was an economic decision – 21 days by ship or hook up a railway spur from South Korea, across North Korea and then onto the TransSiberian Railway. Good idea. Shipments would go from 21 days to 7. Sadly for him and the country, shortly after the train station and railway opened up there was an incident where a South Korean tourist was shot and killed when she veered out of the restricted area her group was confined too. That’s all it took. Now this train station is a stop on the tourist circuit – a symbol of one step forward and two steps back.

JSA/Camp Bonifas
The part the tour that impressed me the most was the stop at Camp Bonifas and JSA. We had to stop here for a briefing at Camp Bonifas – signing of a waiver in case of an “incident” the U.N. would not be held liable – and an interesting short film on the history of the area. We then boarded a bus that would take us directly to the JSA (Joint Security Area). The JSA area was what I’d been waiting for, while I found the other stops somewhat interesting, this area is where history has been made. It was very quiet, and I could feel a certain amount of tension in the air. The South Korean soldiers (ROK – Republic of Korea) are intense, as you would expect at a border with your enemy. They are trained in martial arts – all have at least one black belt in Taekwondo, are college graduates – this is an elite assignment for a ROK soldier. While visitors are in the area they maintain a ROK Ready stance – a modified Taekwondo stance – and they wear sunglasses so that no eye contact is made. At building corners they stand half-covered/half-exposed to show readiness to fight or take cover if a fight breaks out.

No photography was allowed while traveling from Camp Bonifas to JSA. We saw the South Korean village that has the unfortunate claim to fame as being located in the middle of the DMZ – but the silver lining for those born into this village is that they are well compensated, earning on average the equivalent of $80,000 each year. They do have to be inside by midnight every night and they have to spend at least 240 nights a year at their residence. I’m not sure that would be worth it to me … having restricted freedom but I supposed if this is your home and where your ancestors are from it would be hard to leave.

For more information on this area go to: http://www.koreadmztour.com/english/jsa/pan_main.htm

“It is o.k.? Yeah”
Our Korean tour guide that day was so cute, with each explanation of what we were going to do she would end with “It is o.k.? Yeah” followed by a short little “he, he, he.” My friend Monika and I started to crack up each time this was said …we wondered what she would do if the busload of Westerners had said – “Uhh, no it is not o.k.” This was our first full day in Korea and we were starting to get clued in with a particular mindset – our tour guide mentioned quite a number of times throughout the day about “when we are reunited” like it was going to happen next week. This surprised me, from a westerner’s perspective it sure seems like North Korea has dug in and they aren’t embracing the idea of reunification any time soon, but our guide truly seems to have hope that this will happen soon.

It was a long day but I’m glad my friends wanted to take the DMZ tour. I learned so much and hope that my family can come here to share this experience. Check back in for the rest of the entries on my trip. Till next time, sayonara.

Engaku-ji Kyudo

2010-09-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

The Way of the Bow
In the Spring, my family and I unexpectedly happened upon the Yabusame Archery demonstration (archery competition on horseback) in Kamakura. It was fascinating to watch, the skill, the tradition, the costumes. All of it screamed ancient Japan to me. I shared with some of my students that I had enjoyed watching this event and that my family had tried their hand from time to time with basic backyard archery. Watanabe-san shared that her husband had been taking lessons and studying this traditional Japanese archery technique at Engaku-ji in Kita-Kamakura. "Really?" I said, "Can we come watch some time?"

We moved on with our English conversation lesson, weeks and months passed by and I let it go. Maybe my request was too forward, too you know ... American. But Watanabe-san is a gracious Japanese lady and too my delight on the last lesson in July before summer break she came in with several dates and asked if our family would be available to meet her at the train station in Kita-Kamakura to go see her husband and his fellow archery students practice. I was thrilled! A window into this quiet, meditative art form of Kyudo.

Shin-zen-bi
A little research into the art of Kyudo and I found that it is considered a meditative form of martial arts and is said that it's essence is to be the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty. Attitude, movement and technique come together to form a perfect state of harmony – where truth exists. A kyuko archer maintains his or her composure and grace even in times of stress or conflict – goodness comes from this, always displaying qualities of courtesy, compassion, morality and non-aggression. Beauty enhances life and stimulates the spirit, it is found in the refined etiquette that surrounds the kyudo ceremony.

No thoughts, No Illusions
In Kyudo, the when the archer gives oneself completely to the shooting, then it is said they have reached the spiritual goal through the perfection of the shooting and the spirit - there are no thoughts, no illusions.

It was a sweltering August morning when we arrived at the Engaku-ji Temple in Kita-Kamakura. This is a Zen temple, one of the larger temples in the area, with beautiful grounds and a huge bell, cast in 1301 (no, that's not a typo), that is a Japanese National Treasure (at the top of 140 steps ... which Watanabe-san managed to knock out easily while I tried hard not to sound like I was about to go into cardiac arrest as I tried to keep up with her).

Watanabe-san guided us to a small area off to the side of the main temple grounds where there was a lovely traditional Japanese building and a small garden area. Those of you who have been reading my posts over the last year have heard me mention before how welcoming the Japanese are, when you're their guest you are treated like royalty. I should not have been surprised but I wasn't expecting anything ... just that we would have the opportunity to see someone shoot these very long and elegant bows and be on our way. I should have known better. We are greeted by a Japanese lady in traditional Kyudo attire, after introductions and bowing we are guided to an area that has clearly been prepared for us. Two benches are covered in royalty red cloth, incense has been lit around the area to keep away the mosquitoes, and no sooner are we seated than we are presented with iced tea with sugar pats. Unlike the sweet tea I grew up with in the south (so sweet it makes your fillings hurt as one of my friends used to say), tea here in Japan is offered unsweetened with beautiful little sugar "cubes" that have been molded into a shape (see photo). I have to instruct my family that you place the sugar pat on your tongue and sip the tea, not plop the sugar pat into the cup and swirl it around until it's dissolved!

With refreshments served, we settle in to watch the members practice. I learn from Watanabe-san that her husband has been studying Kyudo for 10 years and this is the first time she has seen him practice. I sit there for a moment and ponder this revelation and realize this was no simple request from me months ago ... I cringe and hope we have not caused undue disruption as honored guests, but so grateful to have another opportunity to learn about another part of Japanese culture.

Thoughts that stuck me that morning ... it was blazing hot and humid even in the shade, the cicadas are humming their incessantly loud song, butterfly's are floating and darting through the thick summer air, the aroma of incense lingers, a slight breeze stirs the leaves and even though we are only steps away from the JR tracks that run from Yokosuka to Tokyo we are in another world. Time has slowed, daily worries are gone. The kyudo students move with grace, every step, every moment seems to be measured, thoughtful.

Hassetsu - Eight stages of shooting
It was evident to me that as we started to watch there is a very clear set of rules, stages I was to learn later, that the archer must work their way through before ever releasing the arrow. There were three different positions and if you notice in one of the photos, you'll see three tiny flower bud vases at the edge of the building, this is the sort of "x marks the spot" from where the archer lines themselves up. This is as much mental as physical - the archer takes the time to examine, meditate, examine some more - very Eastern mentality. There is nothing hurried about this martial art. Our family all sort of chuckled later to think about how Westerners would just grab the bow and arrow, get yourself comfortable and "fire at will."

There's so much I hope our kids took away from this experience - faster is not better would be one thing that comes to mind. Opening your mind to learn about other cultures makes you a better and richer person would be another. Etiquette, while we may not always be the best practitioner's of this at home as we slog through our busy family life, does matter (yes mom, you did read that here! Those white-gloved manners lessons in our living room from years ago do still come into play).

I left Engaku-ji a little bit different, part of my Western mentality so ingrained in me chipped away and reshaped with Eastern. No thoughts, no illusions ... I love this, it may just have to become my new mantra. I am so thankful to Watanabe-san and her husband for arranging this very special morning for me and my family. It has been added to our family highlights of living in Japan and will be a memory we will treasure. Till next time, sayonara.

Fuji-Yoshida Fire Festival

2010-09-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

What a difference a year can make.

Last year, we were fresh off the plane only a month living in Japan when we came to the Fuji-Yoshida Fire Festival. Japan was intriguing, culturally different, mysterious. This year, Japan is home. Last year I took photos of the festival food, we tried so many different kinds of food - most of which we had no idea what we were eating. This year we passed by the food vendors with barely a glance - "oh, okonomiyaki (pancake like dish with cabbage), yakisoba (stir fry soba noodles with veggies and usually meat)", "oh yawn, look there's takoyaki" (Japanese dumpling with whole baby octopus). Last year we had eyes wide open, it was all new, it was all different and yes as far as the food went some of it was quite novel and we looked to each other to see who would dare eat the poor baby octopus in the batter ...

The difference a year can make is also apparent in your mentality. Last year we stuck together like glue. This year ... "you all have your cell phones? great, see you later, go have fun!" With fires lit, hoards of people, there was never a thought about our kids safety - this will be a hard reality for us when we do return to the U.S.

This year, with advanced planning, Jeff took leave so that he was able to join us. It was warmer than last year (hottest summer on record since they started in 1898) but the skys were clear and we were able to see Mt. Fuji.

The Fire Festival starts off for us at Fuji Sengen Jinja. It is one of the largest forest shrines in Japan and the mossy stone lanterns that line the way into the shrine were enjoying a lovely late afternoon sunbath - my family moved on as I took multiple photos enamored with the scenery. The large cedar trees offered a respite from the warm summer day and the lovely aroma of the cedars mixed in with incense wafting through the air was inhaling a deep sense calm - wish I could bottle the stuff. It was in stark contrast to all the activity once you arrived in the shrine area where there was a buzz about the place as men dressed in Hanten (a short coat with the name of their group on the back) with bells jingling as they walked, the aroma of incense lingering in the air, anticipation as everyone waited for the spirit of the princess to emerge in a shroud and enter into one of the Omikoshi (portable shrines). There's a deep respect as the shinto priests pass by, with the soulful sound of the Shakuhachi Flute (Japanese bamboo flute), the low pitched wailing that accompanies the shroud vs. the festival atmosphere as we encountered a high energy elderly gentleman with a twinkle in his eye as he stopped to offer Jeff and myself a sip of Sake from a communal cup. Jeff seemed hesitant but I jumped right in and laughed saying "what's the difference - you take communion from a communal cup" - his response was "but the priest wipes the cup with a cloth." Right. That makes all the difference.

We followed the shrines down the street with the masses, the bearer's chanting the heavy portable shrines as they go along, the mood definitely shifts after leaving the grounds of the shrine. It's like going to church for Christmas vs. opening presents on Christmas Day when all hell breaks loose. There's laughter, shouting, beer being consumed in public, jostling, kids running – it's lively, it's chaos!

As we walked down the main street the food vendors were starting to set up shop and we quickly got into our festival food mode. Release those barriers people, let's try something new! I had a delicious type of seafood on a stick (I was not going to examine it too closely) grilled and dipped in soy sauce - yum! We found our crepe lady from last year, at the very end of the street, and each of us was rewarded with a delicious crepe in a cone with the filling of our choice (yes I went for a run the next day, burn baby burn). Wrenn wanted to find the fried spaghetti - which we found on our way back up the street, at least this year we knew the choices and only had to guess which was which.

As dusk approached, the taimatsu (torches) were being lit and we had a clear view of Fuji. This year we were able to see the fires that are lit at each of the stations up the side of the mountain (you can barely make it out on our night photo). The crowds were becoming thicker, the heat from the fires much more intense. I could hear the taiko drums and of course sought them out. It is something to see and hear - the air vibrates with the beating of the drums, there is a build up as the pace quickens and the drumming becomes more energetic ... I love it and cannot get enough. In my next life I want to be a taiko drummer ...

The advantage to living in another country vs. visiting it, is that we live with the culture (I can't say in the culture since we do still live on a U.S. military base), we get to revisit favorite events from the previous year and see and notice things we either weren't aware of the year before or hadn't noticed. I spent a lot more time wandering around the shrine grounds this year, the lovely little pond garden I didn't see last year and seeing and hearing the Shishi Odoshi (bamboo deer chaser) with the steady hollow 'tonk,' seeing the awesome dragon where out of respect you are supposed to dip a cup into the water and rinse your mouth and hands from impurities before entering the shrine grounds. Like the Paper Lantern Festival in Kamakura, I do not know if we'll have a chance to come back to the Fuji Fire Festival (the Navy holds that crystal ball), but I will treasure this year's event, seeing Mt. Fuji with the stations lit was a site to behold, the signal that the climbing season has ended and the wait for the next one begins. Till next time, sayonara.

Hachimangu Paper Lantern Festival

2010-08-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

A year has past since my second entry in this blog, the Paper Lantern Festival in Kamakura. I can hardly believe we have lived in Japan for a year. I will not lie, there are days that it seems like it's been forever since we left the states and I can't wait to go home ... being homesick, no matter your age can be a powerful emotion. There are other days though that going back to the states, whenever it is will be too soon. Sunday was one of those days ...

The kids and I headed over to Kamakura to see the Hachimangu Shrine's Paper Lantern Festival. Sadly, for the second year in a row Jeff was bound to the hospital and has to "see it" like the rest of my friends and family back home ... by reading my blog. As we did last year, we arrived early enough to look at the lanterns in the daylight, enjoyed looking at the lovely artistic expressions and tried to make a mental note on the ones we wanted to be sure to come back to later when it was dark.

A lot changes in a year, for one thing I am way more savvy riding the trains and my fears from last year of ending up "lost in Japan" with our three kids did not even enter my mind. Being timid about going into shops and not knowing the language have completely evaporated - I know very, very little ... "Gomen-nasai, Nihon-ga sukoshi ... ikura deska?" (very bad Japanese, but roughly I'm trying to say "I'm sorry, I speak very little Japanese ... how much is this?" - half the time the response is in English and I smile, laugh and am sooooo thankful they can speak English! The other half of the time the sales person is very patient, rings up the amount on a calculator and shows me the amount - I can at least understand how much Yen I will be parting with ... again.

So before getting to the shrine, this year the children and I headed down the main shopping street, stopping in my favorite snack store to buy Jeff and others (for care packages to be sent to the states) some Japanese snacks. Next a store for a birthday gift. Finally the ice cream store that has the baked sweet potato ice cream - and this year, others in my family decided to go beyond safe vanilla and give the sweet potato a try (it was a hit). Releasing those barriers has come a long way in a years time.

Purchases made and sweet-tooth's satisfied we headed off to the shrine. I did not get very far before I was already distracted and taking photos of the lotus blossoms in one of the ponds that flank either side of the entrance to the shrine. They were lovely, all phases of them from the creamy white unopened blossom, to the spent pod, I realized that a year ago I would not have appreciated the beauty of what has already been ... now, I look at a lotus pod in a different way, the texture, the color – the influence of Japan has been good for me.

The kids, ever impatient with their ADD mom asked if they could take off and look at the lanterns on their own. This being Japan, I realized I did not even hesitate and said sure, make certain your cell is on so I can reach you ... and they were gone. It wasn't until an hour later and I still had not seen them in the meandering crowds, that I thought - a. they would never have done that a year ago and b. I would never ever let them do that in the States. A lot changes in a year.

One thing though that didn't change is the beauty of the lanterns. Area artists and calligraphers illustrate/paint/draw/sumi-e on these small spaces – some are playful and amusing, some with their subtle use of colors and sumi-e are like delicate flowers, and yet others with their bold calligraphic brush strokes and the intense black ink on the ivory colored paper were quite powerful. After having made the rounds, we were losing daylight, but there was still time before the lanterns were to be lit. Luckily for me, there was an exhibit of some Ikebana work that I took photos of while we waited for the light to change - for my mom and sister but also of course for me. Ikebana (flower arranging) is about the essence - this is my Americanized take on this art form - I have enjoyed learning about this artistic flower arranging, it speaks to my training in Graphic Design.

Finally, it was dusk and the shrine maidens were out with their candles lighting the lanterns, which are stunning with the candle light. Some that I had not noticed in the daylight, came alive in the candlelight – others, that I thought were lovely by day became powerful and intense.

At 7 pm a traditional Japanese Koto musical performance began. The natives were getting restless and it was time to return to the station to catch our train but I begged for 5 more minutes "just give me 5 more minutes so I can hear her play ..." – I figure they owe me, I know over the years I've given them countless "5-more minutes" as I've waited for them to finish a book, a game, a movie ...

And so, I stood there listening to this beautiful and yet haunting music and felt a sense of peace envelop me, the pace to arrive at this event was quick and sure footed ... the pace to leave was slow, calm and lingering ... I do not know if I'll have another chance to come back here, the Navy powers-that-be will determine our fate for next year (at some point, when they deem I have a "need-to-know"). But I hope so, I hope I will be back, to absorb more of this rich culture, to discover what else my family and I have to learn ... till next time - sayonara.

Kubota Museum

2010-07-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

Last month I traveled to the Lake Kawaguchiko area close to the base of Mt. Fuji, a two and a half/three hour trip from my house. The purpose of this trip was to visit the Itchiku Kubota Museum. I had seen some blog posts of this special museum and a couple of the people on our Thailand trip had traveled there and said with my interest in Indigo/Shibori/Art that this was a must-see for me. They weren’t kidding.

Once a month I travel to Fujisawa to have an English conversation class, about a 45 minute trip from my house. These ladies have been getting together for over 20 years and I am just one of a long line of American women who have become their teacher. Their English is excellent, they are all talented with varying interests and I have been so fortunate to have them as my students (and I use that word loosely, since there are times I wonder who's learning more). They had asked months ago if there was someplace that I would be interested in visiting and I mentioned the Kubota Museum – but I didn't realize at the time that it was such a hike to get to. Being ever so gracious they didn't bat an eye and started to plan how we would get there. Kimiko, Hiroko, Kato-san and Kazuko met me on the train, very early (I had to catch the 6:17 a.m. train from Yokosuka) headed for Yokohama where we were to catch a bus to Lake Kawaguchiko where the museum is located. It was rainy season and we headed out in pouring down rain but that did not dampen our spirits. In addition to the Kubota Museum there was also a doll museum and a Lavender garden in full bloom on our itinerary. I settled in on the bus ride, read the article I had printed out from the Smithsonian Magazine (in 1995 Kubota's work was exhibited at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, the first living artist to have his/her work exhibited), enjoyed the scenery through the rain soaked bus window, and tried to envision Kubota's work – kimono’s that are considered works of art, take more than a year to make and the artist who had the vision to create these masterpieces was a National Living Treasure up until his death in 2003.

Background
At the age of 14, Kubota left school to apprentice under a Kimono artist that specialized in yuzen (a rice-paste resist dye technique). At the age of 20 he discovered a tsujigahana fragment, a textile and decorative technique from the Muromachi period (1338-1573) at the Tokyo National Museum. With the technique lost over time, Kubota decided to devote his studies to recreating this technique. He also studied Japanese sumi-e and landscape portraiture that would later evolve into his “Symphony of Light” series that represents the four seasons and the universe. His vision was to create a series of 80 kimonos where the landscape design flows from one kimono to the next, creating a panorama of the seasons and views of Mt. Fuji. WWII erupted and Kubota’s self-study of the tsujigahana technique was interrupted. At the end of the war he was stationed in Korea where he was captured by the Russians and sent to Siberia where he was held for several years. During this period of imprisonment he witnessed intense sunsets – among so much despair he found beauty and vowed that once he returned to Japan he would create a Kimono to emulate his vision.

Impressions and Inspiration
The museum does not allow photos of the kimonos, but you can go to the links below and to see some photos of his work in articles that have been written about Kubota. I do love museums and this one will go down as life transforming for me … I know, my husband would probably laugh at this (nuke/doc vs. artist) – but the beauty of Kubota’s work is breathtakingly beautiful. As Kubota was speechless and moved by his discovery of the 17 century tsujigahana textile remanant, so too was I moved by Kubota’s work. It is like nothing I have ever seen – the colors on the kimono’s are intense when they need to be, subtle when called for. The detail work it equisite, embroidery used to emphasize the work is perfection with the silk embroidery threads hand dyed to match the background. The sumi-e painted details are delicate and highlight Kubota’s artistic eye. I could have spent hours there, I wish I had a seat in front of each of these works to just sit and absorb – the texture of each of the works is rich and it took great discipline to not reach out and touch the kimonos. The kimonos are displayed in a large hall that was created with Kubota’s vision. There are large, massive ancient beams that form a pyramid shape towards a pinnacle skylight in the ceiling. The museum does have a small room off of the gallery where you can view an English video of Kubota at work and see the many layers and processes it takes to complete one kimono. I was also in luck that day, with my 4 Japanese friends I was able to ask questions about techniques that perhaps if I had been there alone I would not have … however, I suspect that the docent in the gallery at the time had an excellent command of the English language since she was able to respond to most of my questions without translation.

There is a lovely tearoom off of the main gallery area where we had some green tea and sweet beans – American taste buds may wrinkle their noses at the sound of that but it’s quite nice, the slightly bitter macha green tea complemented by the sweet beans was delicious. The scenery, looking out towards the back of the garden area was lush and green with vegetation and quite relaxing with the sound of the steady rain coming down.

With much reluctance I left the gallery space, with the hope that I will be able to come back here at least once more before my time is up here in Japan. The kimonos rotate and apparently the ones on display had only recently come out to be viewed – so next time I may have the opportunity to see some different masterpieces. The garden area is supposed to be lovely with trails up and behind the museum but it was still raining when we left and I will have to save that for another time.

For more information on Kubota go to:
http://www.itchiku-tsujigahana.co.jp
http://www.cantonart.org/32
http://slowmuse.wordpress.com/2008/11/13/kubotas-kimono-art/

Lavender Garden
Heading back around the lake to the Lavender garden on the tour loop Retro Bus, just as we were coming around Lake Kawaguchiko the clouds broke and Mt. Fuji appeared! What a treat to see this natural beauty. We reached the park to discover we were in luck, there was a lavender festival going on and I made some purchases … lavender linen water (YES!!), lavender sachets, lavender perfume. Did I mention that I love lavender? Every house we’ve every lived in I’ve planted it … except here. It’s so darn expensive – I did see some plants that were for sale and were a whole lot more reasonable than what I could buy locally and as Kimiko stood patiently while I weighed the pros and cons of lugging a plant by bus and then by train, and then walking it to my car common sense prevailed and I left it behind for someone else to enjoy. We ate some lunch from a vendor, grabbed an excellent locally brewed beer and then headed to the Yuki Atae Doll Museum.

The Yuki Atae Doll Museum
This is a lovely little museum that features a changing display of the dolls by Yuki Atae. These figurative sculptures are meticulously created by Atae, some taking more than a month to create. He takes his inspiration from a more simple time, scenes of children from the early twentieth century – playing games like tug of war, caring for a younger sibling, a group of young boys having a battle. The scenes are charming, most of the dolls are dressed in traditional Japanese clothing – it can take him months to find the correct old kimono cloth to use – and gave this westerner a window into a time gone by. There is a video in the museum, it is in Japanese, but still worth sitting down and watching the process, particularly how he captures the facial expressions of the children. If you have the time to spare, this museum is well worth a detour. Atae’s work has been shown at the Louvre, the Baccarat Museum in Paris and a gallery in Soho, NY.
For more information on Yuki Atae and his work go to: http://www.westwoodgallery.com/yuki/doc/122000.htm
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20061229a7.html

After the museum we caught the local retro bus back to the Kawaguchiko Station where we caught the bus back to Shinagawa Station and made our way home from there. It was a long day but one of my best days in Japan. I feel so very lucky to have connected with my Fujisawa ladies and am thankful they are willing to take time out of their busy lives to share a part of Japan with me that I might have otherwise missed. Till next time, sayonara.

Hiroshima

2010-07-25T01:01:00.000-07:00

Day three and day five of our trip we spent in Hiroshima. We arrived in the afternoon on the bullet train, stored our gear in lockers and headed out to the Peace Park. It was a perfect time to hit the park, all of the school groups had departed by the time we arrived, it was a beautiful day, clear skies, unseasonably cool weather – perfect for walking around the area.

A-Dome
It’s hard to describe my emotions as we made our way through the park. The skeletal remains of the A-dome are haunting. There was a movement at one point to tear the structure down, the thought from the citizens that they needed to move on, live in the present. I am so glad those that favored that idea did not win out – the remains of the building is a very graphic reminder of the power and destruction of war. It was incredibly moving to stand there and realize that more than 60 years ago our country and Japan were at war and our country wreaked havoc on this land. Now, here I am living in this beautiful, friendly country, our countries are allies and I’m thankful the human spirit can overcome the hatred of war.

Monument to the Mobilized Students
We moved on and only a few steps away there was a Monument to the Mobilized Students. During the war students age 13 to 15 were mobilized to demolish wooden houses for fire prevention – on August 6, 1945 6097 of these young people were killed by the atomic bombing while they were working. There are doves scattered throughout its five tiers and at the base is a beautiful Kannon (Goddess of Mercy) statue, with peace cranes surrounding her. While we were standing there, speechless and moved by the beauty of the monument, a single yellow crane falls from one of the 1000 cranes behind the Kannon – Wrenn stoops down and picks it up and gently places it in the Kannons hands … and me in my mommy moment have to bite my lip to keep the tears from flowing. At 12, she gets it …

Centograph
Let all the souls here rest in peace: for we shall not repeat the evil.
This is the prayer that is inscribed at the Memorial Centograph. The Centograph is a tribute to all those that lost their lives on the day of the bombing and to those who died from its effects in the aftermath. The memorial is arch-shaped like that of an ancient Japanese home, symbolizing a shelter for the victims souls. Underneath the arch is a chest which contains the names of nearly a quarter of a million people who died.

Children’s Peace Monument
This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth.
This is a touching monument with the 1000 cranes in display cases and the memorial statue with the child holding up a peace crane. If you are not familiar with the story of Sadako, she was a young school girl who was exposed to the radiation from the bomb and developed cancer from the exposure. Her story is about courage and hope … she heard the Japanese story if you make a 1000 paper cranes good fortune will find you. In the hope that she would survive her battle with cancer she made 1000 paper cranes. Sadly, at age 12 she died from what her mom called the “A-bomb disease” but her legacy of peace and hope lives on with peace cranes sent to this site from all over the world.

Peace Memorial Museum
We probably arrived too late in the day to really give this museum our full attention – I’d say it needs a good 2 hours to visit and we had just over an hour. It is quite an extensive exhibit and I quickly reached information overload. The first half of the exhibit is pretty much void of the human element and is technical with the background and build up to the bombing on the 6th of August, 1945. Not realizing that there is a second half, the chime sounded indicating the museum would be closing in a 1/2 hour and I picked up my pace to discover the second half of the museum is where I should have spent 95% of my time – this side is a newer exhibit and touches on the impact of the bombing on the citizens of Hiroshima. Having been spoiled with visits to countless museums – most notably the Holocaust Museum in DC which deals with sensitive subject matter, working on some NPS museum projects and having lived in the DC area for 7+ years I was disappointed with the Peace Memorial Museum. It’s A LOT to take in and the flow of the overall exhibit seemed very disjointed to me … not that they’ll care what little ol’ me thinks but for those of you reading this and planning to visit, you might appreciate a heads up.

Peace Bell
Bell of Peace
We dedicate this bell
As a symbol of Hiroshima Aspiration:
Let all nuclear arms and war be gone,
and the nations live in true peace!
May it ring to all corners of the earth
to meet the ear of every man.
for in it throb and palpitate
the hearts of its peace-loving donors.
So may you too, friends,
step forward, and toll this bell for peace!

We returned on the morning of day 5 of our Kyoto/Hiroshima adventure. The school groups were out in full force and we decided to hit a few of the spots in the memorial that we had missed on our visit Monday afternoon. We crossed over the Aioi-bahsi renraku-kyo Bridge that the Enola Gay used as the landmark for releasing the bomb and we made our way to the Peace Bell. On Wednesday as we walked through the Peace Park I could hear almost at a steady rhythm a deep resonant tolling of a bell. I thought it was some sort of mechanical tolling of a bell, but no it is created by the human touch – we arrived and waited our turn as each one of us stepped up and took our turn at ringing the bell of peace. The sound is deep and the vibrations, when you place your hand on the bell run through you to your soul. It was deeply moving.

On our way back to catch the streetcar, I was standing by the A-dome area waiting for the rest of the family to catch up with me when a Japanese lady armed with a notebook approached me and offered to guide us through the park. She is a Hiroshima city volunteer and I was so disappointed that we hadn’t run into her when we first arrived, it would have been great to have her as our guide. She does this for free in order to practice her English. We told her we were sorry but we were headed to the train station to catch our train but we spared 5 minutes so she could tell us a little about what happened in Hiroshima during/after the bomb. One interesting fact we learned was that in September, just 5 weeks after the bombing, Hiroshima was hit by Makurazaki Typhoon which led to 3000 more deaths and further destruction, but the silver lining in this natural disaster is that it washed away at least some of the radioactivity. Scientists had thought that no trees would grow, no plants would reemerge for decades – instead within a year they started to see re-growth, as we saw with the Phoenix Trees in the Peace Park. The other interesting story was about the sole survivor of the area. Prior to WWII the area where the Peace Park stands was a thriving community full of shops and homes. A worker was in the basement of his shop when the bomb exploded which destroyed the area, he survived the impact because he just happened to go to the basement at the right moment. How does someone recover from that? It’s hard to wrap your head around something like that – how does someone emerge from utter destruction and then move on? But clearly, the people of Hiroshima have moved on, the city is quite nice and what struck me most is the space. Unlike the other cities I’ve been to here in Japan this one has breathing space. The streets are wide, there are lots and lots of trees, with a number of rivers running through the city there are many bridges adding to the scenery.

So that’s it … 5 days jampacked with history, world heritage sites and beautiful scenery. It was a great trip, our kids were at a perfect age to absorb it all – hard to believe it’s been a month and a half since we toured Kyoto, Mija Jima and Hiroshima. Hardly a day passes without someone talking about our experiences. It was a great trip and I hope we can find our way back down to that part of Japan before our time here ends. Especially in Kyoto, where I feel we only scratched the surface – there’s so much more waiting for us to explore. Till next time, sayonara.

Miyajima

2010-07-25T00:29:00.000-07:00

Miya Jima – Itsuku-shima (Shrine Island),
We stayed at the Grand Prince Hotel in Hiroshima which was nice since the ferry to Miya Jima Island left from the hotel. It was another beautiful day and we enjoyed the short ferry ride between the outlying islands. As we approached the island we caught a glimpse of the Vermilion Torii Gate – the entire island of Miya Jima is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the torii gate which seems to float on the water at high tide, is ranked as one of the three best views of Japan. The present gate was built in 1874, but for more than seven centuries a gate has been has stood before Miyajima Island.

Miya Jima island has been a sacred spot for over 1500 years and is considered one of Japan’s holiest sites. No births or deaths have been allowed on the island and in centuries past commoners were not allowed to set foot on the island and had to pass through the floating Itsukushima-jinga (shrine gate) by boat in order to reach the shrine. These American commoners landed by ferry, hit the information booth in the terminal area, got a map and some helpful hints from the attendant and set off.

After passing through the shopping district area in the little town, past the souvenir shops and small restaurants we headed up through Momijidani Park to the ropeway station. The 1-mile long ropeway will take you to the top of Mt. Misen where you can hike up to the summit and then back down the mountain which is a nice 2 hour hike. The views from the top of Mt. Misen are beautiful and while we had a hazy day, it was still a lovely view of the inland sea and the surrounding islands. The hike down was fairly easy, although by the time we arrived at the bottom we all took a break and shed our shoes and socks and soaked our feet in the icy waters by the Daishoin Temple. This had to have been my favorite part of the day … laying back on the rocks with your feet dangling in the rushing water, getting a natural foot massage, while listening to the temple bell gong and the smell of incense wafting through the air – it was a Zen moment and a lovely way to end our visit to Miyajima.

We headed back to Hiroshima via the JR ferry and train for dinner where with the help of a local we found a great Italian restaurant that was decorated in Cape Cod nautical decor, had an English menu and the food was excellent – an awesome way to end a great day. Till next time, sayonara.

Kyoto Finale

2010-07-25T00:03:00.000-07:00

On our last morning in Kyoto we got up early, hit Starbucks which was just down from our hotel, I made my purchase of a Kyoto Starbucks mug (so much for all the shopping tips I’d copied over …), and we headed off to the Kyoto station to stash our luggage before catching the train to Fushimi Inari Shinto Shrine.

Fushimi Inari
We arrived around 8:30 and the shrine area was deserted – we’d had excellent advice that in order to enjoy this famous shrine you needed to get there early. For those of you who may have seen the movie “Memoirs of a Geisha” Fushimi Inari was the background for the scene where Sayuri was running through the red torii gates. If you take the path all the way to the top of Mt. Inari you will pass through more than 10,000 red torii gates that have been donated by devotees. Inari is the fox deity who mediates between the human and the spirit world. The fox statues flank either side of the torii gates as you begin the journey through the 10,000 gates – they come in pairs, representing a male and female and they hold a symbolic item in their mouths or beneath their front paw, often a jewel or a scroll. Some of the foxes along the way were adorned with a red votive bib (yokarekake) that were placed on the foxes by worshippers out of respect. We had another lovely day, it was early and the light streaming through and hitting the vermilion gates was beautiful. The walk up the 2 mile path was an easy one, birds calling, incense wafting through the air … we should have called it a morning and left our last visit in Kyoto on a high note but instead we decided to cram in one more temple …

Kiyomizu Temple
The Kiyomizu Temple was built in 798 and this is one of Kyoto’s most famous temples. Its name, which means “Temple of Pure Water” comes from the fact that there is a spring on the grounds. Passing through the throngs of school groups, after hiking up the road that leads to the temple, we finally arrive at the main hall which was built in 1633 – without the use of a single nail. The main hall clings to the side of the hill, with large balcony’s hanging out over the tree tops. It was a Monday morning and maybe that accounted for the masses – and I suppose we were very lucky to have not encountered such large groups at the other temples – but it was hard to enjoy the splendor of the place with so many people. It felt much more like a carnival atmosphere than a temple.

Otowa-no-Taki (Otowa Falls)
Since ancient times it has been thought that the water flowing over this small waterfall in the temple grounds possess divine powers – there was quite a line for the priviledge of filling your cup with water but Jeff and Wrenn decided to wait it out. The water has alleged powers for good health, wealth, or studies – I'm guessing Wrenn is hoping for help with her studies and well Jeff ... I know which one he should be picking but am thinking he went for the other option.

Lover’s Stone
Behind the main hall and up some stone steps are two stones where it is said that if you can walk from one stone to the other with your eyes closed, your wish for love will come true. Many, many school kids were doing this and after skeptically observing for a while the Cleary kids decided to give it a whirl … I think more for the challenge of being able to walk from one stone to the other without any help from the siblings than for love. All three were successful and the parental units managed to bite their tongues and not inquire about possible love interests … (I am so not ready to go there). Maybe the best time to visit this temple is in the Fall or Winter when there is no haze and you can enjoy the view or perhaps very early or very late in the day when the crowds have dissipated. The architectural achievement of the main building was amazing, there’s no getting around that, but the crowds put a damper on our last temple. Of course all the other temples we had visited centered around gardens … so that could have been some of our disappointment, or maybe we had finally hit what is called “temple fatigue.”

So that was the end of our Kyoto tour … we walked back down the hill, hopped on a city bus which took us over to the main Kyoto station where we grabbed our luggage, some lunch and headed for the next leg of our trip to Hiroshima. Kyoto was wonderful, we had such fabulous weather it made the long days easier to take. We had a glimpse of a Maiko in the Gion district our second night but overhearing some other’s talking on the street we were not really sure she was the real thing – she had a camera crew following her and there was mention that they were filming an ad. Either way, she was beautiful and unfortunately with the early evening light my photo turned out a big blur. The city itself is easy to get around using public transportation, a tour may have been nice but I think we managed just fine on our own. I hope we can go back, there’s still so much I’d like to see – more temple gardens, and of course shopping. Check out the next two entries … Miya Jima Island and Hiroshima that conclude our 5 day whirlwind trip in southern Honshu. Till next time, sayonara.

Kyoto-5 Temples/8 hours

2010-07-22T17:04:00.000-07:00

Ginkakuji – Silver Pavilion
Sunday was set to be a marathon day of hitting the high points in Kyoto. We started off our day in the Higashiyama area with the Silver Pavilion (Ginkakuji Temple) as our first stop. By the time we arrived there, shortly after nine, the temple was already packed with school groups. The numerous students did not deter us from enjoying this unique Japanese garden, which juxtaposes dry type (karesansui) and strolling garden (kayushiki) elements – an unusual combination in traditional Japanese gardens. The pathway leading to the garden is flanked by bamboo framework that supports a well-manicured hedge on either side of the approach to the temple – the hedge guides us and marks our progression from the hustle and bustle of the outside world to the tranquility of the garden. Entering the garden area we spot a worker carefully creating a pattern in the sand – Jeff and I take pictures hoping we can remember the details when we return to the U.S. for our ultimate goal of creating a Japanese garden.

Moving on to the main garden area we are stunned into silence as we view the two large sculpted mounds of sand. The form of the truncated cone, Kogetsudai – The Moon Viewing Height – references Mt. Fuji or the central mountain of Buddhism. The lower horizontal mound, Ginshadan – The Sea of Silver Sand – is named for its appearance by moonlight.

The garden is known for its wealth of stones, both in groupings and in bridges. The walks are paved with fine stones or slabs set in the simple “cleansing” patterns associated with the tea ceremony. I took many pictures of the stone pathways hoping one day to be able to use these as inspiration in our own garden.

Honen-in
Leaving the Silver Pavilion we made our way along the Philosopher’s Path towards Honen-in, which has a small but beautiful garden. The approach to the garden has a long stone walkway that gradually narrows leading to the thatched gate of Honen-in. Stepping up and over the gate entrance, the sand mounds lay below you. A lay monk is assigned to rework the sand mounds and the pattern on top every few weeks. The pattern is different every time, sometimes reflecting the season. Symmetry is typically avoided in Japanese gardens, architecture, flower arrangements (Ikebana) – even though the sand mounds are situated symmetrically they are of different sizes and heights. Further back, passing by the sand mounds and crossing over a small stone bridge and a carp filled pond is a lovely moss garden. The light was coming down through the trees overhead and I was able to capture one of my favorite shots from that day – the moss looked so lush you just wanted to reach out and run your hands over it. Realizing we still had a lot of ground to cover we headed out of the temple grounds towards the nearest bus stop to make our way to the other side of town where three UNESCO World Heritage sites are located within easy walking distance of each other – Ninnaji, Ryonji and Kinkakuji.

Ninna-ji
This is a huge temple complex, founded in 886 and was originally built as a summer home for the Emperor. Passing through the temple gate with the Nio (Benevolent Kings) looking down on us, we headed towards the courtyard area. Just inside the eastern gate is a horizontally trained pine tree – that is quite impressive. The Ninna-ji garden is a transition garden from the kaiyu (stroll garden) to the kansho (admiration) style garden. There is a waterfall that creates a nice splashing sound and with the pond area tucked into the side of the hill there are many different ways to view the garden combining the balanced composition of sand, water and vegetation. As you’ll notice in the photos, I was certainly impressed by the garden, in particular the mammoth sized pine tree at the entrance that has been manipulated over the years to create these huge outstretched limbs but mostly I was taken with the architectural details. I kept thinking how my grandfather who was a construction supervisor, a master wood worker and a bit of perfectionist (understatement) would have spent hours and hours looking at the details and the superior craftsmanship of the verandas and buildings. From the details of covering the joints with a decorative plate, to the construction of the covered walkways – the craftsmanship that went into these buildings was impressive. After touring only a small portion of this huge complex and viewing the 5-story pagoda we headed out for our next destination – Ryoan-ji, the ultimate Zen garden attraction in Kyoto.

Ryoan-ji
The Temple of the Peaceful Dragon, Ryoan-ji, is probably the most famous Japanese dry landscape garden. We knew there would be crowds but that did not deter us from putting this high on our list. I had read about Ryoan-ji, even had a picture of it as my screen saver when we lived in the states before I ever knew we’d be coming to Japan. The kids all knew this was a classic example of a kare-sansui (dry-landscape) Zen meditation garden and that from no one spot could you simultaneously see all 15 of its carefully placed rocks. The gardens are meant to be viewed, not entered and were created by Zen masters to nudge the mind away from the mundane and to allow it to enter a higher level of consciousness. This unique style of garden uses white sand and rocks to create abstract representations of nature. We all took off our shoes and waited our turn to sit at the edge of the Abbott’s veranda and “just be.” There was no doubt that Jeff enjoyed this garden the most … I had to gently remind him that we still had one more stop to make, the Golden Pavilion, before we could call it a day. We left the kare-sansui area and rounded the corner of the building to find a lush moss garden – designing dry-rock and green gardens in pairs is popular in Japanese garden design. We found the famous tsukubai (crouch basin) on the grounds which reads “I learn only to be contented” – the Zen philosophy of he who learns only to be contented is spiritually rich, while the one who only looks for material wealth is spiritually poor. From there we looped around Kyoyochi, the pond garden, taking in the water lilies, turtles and islands before heading out to Kinkaku-ji our final stop on this whirlwind day of Kyoto temples.

Kinkaku-ji – Golden Pavilion
The guide books I read had heartily recommended viewing the Golden Pavilion in the late afternoon with the sunlight hitting the pavilion – the advice was dead on – the late afternoon sunshine on the Golden Pavilion was beautiful and with the school groups gone we had the added benefit of walking the grounds relatively free of the hoards of tourists. To the right of the pavilion is a remarkably shaped pine tree with its extended branches pruned and supported to resemble a boat. When the original pavilion was built in 1394 several different architectural styles were combined in its construction, considered very avant-garde at the time.
“The first floor of the pavilion, known as the Hôsuiin (“Temple of Dharma Water”), is built in the shinden style (shinden zukuri) associated with 11th-century Heian nobility. The second story, called the Chôondô (alternatively translated “Grotto of Wave Sounds” or “Tower of Sound Waves”), is built in the buke style (buke zukuri) of samurai houses. It houses a statue of Kannon. The third floor of Kinkakuji is built in the style of a Buddha Hall in a Zen temple and is known as the Kukkyôchô (“Superb Apex”). It has round-headed windows and is more richly ornamented than the other floors. Inside, it shelters an Amida triad and 25 Bodhisattvas. The roof is topped with a golden Chinese phoenix.”*
There is a pathway leads up and behind the temple to a famous tea house, unfortunately since we arrived so late the tea house was already closed for the day. But the views from up on the ridge looking down on the pavilion were lovely and it was nice way to end our marathon day of touring 5 temples (4 of which are World Heritage sites). We headed back out to wind our way through public transportation to the Gion area, hoping that this would be the night where we would be able to spot the elusive Maiko.

It was a crazy day – I would not recommend touring Kyoto this way, but it worked for us, the 5 teensntweens were troopers, of course it probably helped that both families are partial to time spent outside and in gardens, the U.S. cousins I think also realized that this was it – a once in a lifetime chance to see the temples of Kyoto.

If you’d like to know more about the temple history I have listed some of the websites I used in my research below, in particular the Bowdoin website is fabulous with an interactive map of the gardens. Till next time, sayonara.

Ginkaku-ji – Silver Pavilion
http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/gardens/ginkaku/ginkaku-ji.html

Ryoan-ji
http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/gardens/ryoan/ryoan-ji.html

Kinkaku-ji
* source - http://www.sacred-destinations.com/japan/kyoto-kinkakuji
http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/gardens/kinkaku/kinkaku-ji.html

Kyoto in 48 hours

2010-07-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

48 hours that’s all the time we had to cover what should take at minimum 4 days. Our destination was Kyoto and we’d done our research. We had the target temples and shrines grouped according to area and we were prepared to step off the bullet train ready to hit the ground running. This is not how I would recommend traveling to this beautiful city but we were making a big loop hitting Miya Jima Island and Hiroshima after Kyoto and we only had so many days we could take the kids out of school. We were also traveling with Jeff’s brother and his family – a party of nine in all – and had to coordinate two work schedules. It was a miracle we were getting together at all but it came together and ended up being our favorite trip here in Japan so far.

We were taking the Shin as it’s called here (a.k.a. the Shinkansen or the Bullet train) and arriving in Kyoto around noon on a Saturday. But first we had to get on the darn train. I have learned since moving here to always, always, always allow extra time when traveling – get places early because you never know what’s going to happen. Thank goodness we followed our own guidelines that day because as we got off the train at Yokohama to transfer to the Shinkansen, which we couldn’t find and there would be a darn good reason for that. I quickly popped into the Information booth and the helpful Japanese clerk informed us that well … “you’re at the wrong train station.” I thought I would loose it right there but with the extra time allocated we managed to get ourselves to the correct station – that would be Shin-Yokohama. Ahhh.

Shin
Standing on the platform watching the bullet trains pull in and out with Japanese efficiency is like watching a well choreographed dance. I cannot possibly imagine what a Japanese National thinks if they visit our country and plan to take the train. I loved riding Amtrak to NYC or down to Richmond to see my grandparents … but efficient? Amtrak efficiency is an oxymoron. We were warned by our travel agent – she had highlighted this information – that we would have less than 3 minutes to get on and off the train. They would not wait for Americans struggling to get their gear on board. This led to us shipping off our luggage ahead of us by Black Cat.

Black Cat
If you ride on the trains or fly within Japan you rarely see Japanese with luggage. I’ve seen foreigners trying to lug their suitcases onto a crowded train during rush hour but never have I seen a Japanese do this. There’s a good reason – they ship their luggage ahead. All over Japan you see signs with a black cat on them. I guess a very loose equivalent would be Mail Boxes Etc or something similar – only here they arrive at your door and pick up your luggage and ship it to your hotel within 24 hours. Seriously. So for roughly $80 we had our luggage sent ahead of us (which was already placed inside our hotel room when we arrived in Kyoto) and I am in love with this service! All suitcases were packed and gone the day before, aside from the last minute screw up with the train stations that had to have been one of the easiest ways to leave for a trip. No one running around the night before scrambling to find things (I won’t name names), no throwing in one more load of laundry late the night before because “I have to have this on the trip.” It was awesome – I’m a Black Cat convert and thank goodness, because we breezed onto the train, found our seats, shortly a hostess came down the aisle and offered us beverages. Jeff decides he doesn’t care it’s 10 in the morning he’s on vacation (it's 5 o'clock somewhere) and he’ll have a beer and I think that sounds like a brilliant idea and join him. One beer and I’m out (my UGA Dawg Days are looooonnng gone) – I wake up just as the train is pulling into Kyoto.

Kyoto
The Kyoto train station is HUGE. Probably somewhere around the size of Grand Central Station in NYC. There are multiple train lines that come into the station, stores restaurants, and people everywhere. The thing we were probably struck by the most were all the school groups, hundreds of them, all in their school uniforms. And they’re so organized – not like a group of U.S. high schooler’s milling around – these kids are lined up in rows waiting for the signal to move out. My Japanese students had warned me that this was school group season and they weren’t kidding. The closest I could equate this to is being in D.C. during Spring Break on steroids.

Trying to connect with Jeff’s brother and family in Kyoto station sounded like a good plan but was a bit more challenging to execute but we finally were all together, reunited – it had been a year since the kids and I have seen family – and we were off to see Kyoto.

I took over 500 photos and ran out of room on my memory card, with so much to see it was hard not to take photos. It has taken me weeks to edit the photos down to a reasonable size and try to gather my thoughts about our trip. I will break my entries down by day and try not to bore you to death – I should have 5 entries (Kyoto, Kyoto, Kyoto, Miya Jima and Hiroshima) – this one is the first.

Aryishama
We began our Kyoto adventure in the Aryishama area with the Togetsu Bridge which crosses the Katsura River. The name translates as “Moon-Crossing Bridge,” and has been celebrated in poetry, song and woodblock prints (one week later Jeff and I saw an antique woodblock print at one of the bazaars here on base – tempting, but I chose a lovely print with an Ikebana scene instead). We enjoyed watching the numerous blue row boats on the river, most of which ended up being swept to the edge of a small damn – one after another being pulled away by a motorboat.

Tenryuji
Tenryu-ji (Temple of the Heavenly Dragon) is known for it’s beautiful pond circling garden and uses the principle of ‘borrowed landscape’ (shakkei) to draw upon the wider landscape. It is one of the oldest gardens in Kyoto that uses the borrowed landscape design. There is a significant Chinese-inspired rock arrangement featuring a grouping of seven rocks positioned near the shore at the rear of the pond. The vertical placement of the rocks are arranged in such a way as to be beautifully composed from any point in the garden. This group of stones consists of a cluster of rocks suggesting a mountainous island, a three-slab stone bridge established along the shore line, a succession of peninsulas (dejima) carries the eye toward the tree-planted island at the eastern end.

I have my maps, my notes, my guidebooks in hand (relying heavily on A Guide to the Gardens of Kyoto). I’m reading out loud trying to get my family to appreciate why we are hear but no one seems to care … my voice trails off into silence. I stand there and try to take it all in, making mental notes, hoping one day I can bring part of Japan to my country and enjoy the beauty of shakkei with the Shenandoah Mountains as the backdrop.

From the temple we walked through the Sagano Bamboo Grove which was a nice contrast to the temple garden. The bamboo soaring overhead, bamboo leaves rustling in the wind as we walked through, it was quite peaceful and lovely. We were making our way towards the small Nison-in Temple, along the way there were rice paddies, little shops, tree-lined fields … it was all very picturesque. As I was waiting for members of our group who had ducked into a little shop, I kept hearing a clonking sound at a regular beat. I tried to get near the source but the sound was coming from a traditional Japanese home tucked back from the road and while I couldn’t see it I recognized the distinctive “tonk” of a Shishi-odoshi or “animal-scarer.” A bamboo pipe fills with water and then swings down to release the water, when it returns to its original position the bamboo strikes a stone, making the “tonk” sound and begins to fill with water again. This is a common element in a classical Japanese garden because of the serene sound it makes and as I grabbed my family to wait patiently for the sound we all decided that this would have to be included in our garden when we return to the U.S..

Further down the road we came to Koto-en, a shigaraki ware ceramic shop that has a hundred or so ceramic tanuki lining its courtyard. The wily tanuki are able to transform themselves from beautiful maidens into ugly old hags … these magical creatures are not to be trusted. With a special place in my heart (or wallet) for Japanese pottery I stepped inside the shop. It looked as though they were preparing for guests, a traditional Japanese table was laid out for tea and the smell of green tea wafted through the air. Since I had to lug my purchase through Kyoto, I was looking for something rather small and found a charming bud vase with maple leaves on it, it nestled into my camera bag perfectly and we were off and running again to our next stop. Unfortunately the Nison-in temple closes early and the gentleman at the entrance was nice enough to point out we would have little time to enjoy the grounds, so I will have to return to Kyoto on another trip to see this small temple.

We made a very circuitous way back to the train station and headed toward Gion in the hopes of spotting a Maiko or Geisha but with nine hungry members we decided to try our luck at dropping into a local restaurant first … down a side street. The key selling point? “We have English menus.” Sold! It was quite delicious, our bellies full of soba or udon noodles (patrons choice) and sake (adults only of course) we walked the streets of Gion but on this evening we had no luck spotting the beautiful Geishas. We made our way to our hotel (Hotel Monterey which was lovely) and called it a night … the next day was going to be a long one with two different areas of Kyoto to see and five different temples. Till next time, sayonara.

For more information on Tenryu-ji go to:
http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/gardens/tenryu/tenryu-ji.html or
http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden/tenryu-ji-abbots_garden#ixzz0u7g9J6ea

Mother's Day - Japan Style

2010-05-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

This mother's day Jeff asked - would you like to go to brunch somewhere? Well, actually I had in mind a little something different ...

Kamakura has fast become one of my favorite spots here in Japan. I love the temples and shrines, and the peacefulness that surrounds them. I have enjoyed all my outings in Kamakura and know that our good weather days are coming to a close. Rainy season is days away, followed by the three dreaded HHH's ... if you're from the south you know what's coming - hazy, hot and humid. Whenever we move, it has been in the summer - I politely meet our new neighbors and then say "I'll see you in the Fall, when the weather breaks, when the three HHH's go away." Most people are amused, particularly when they find out I grew up in Atlanta - but I've done my time, thank God for ac.

So with a beautiful forecast, I convinced my family that a hike from KitaKamakua station to Kamakura would be fun! Temples to see, shrine's to visit, fresh air and sunshine followed by the promise of soba noodles at one of the best noodle restaurants in Kamakura. What more could a mom want?

We started our day by taking in the Jochiji temple - 4th ranked of the 5 Great Temples of Kamakura. The 1923 Kanto earthquake destroyed much of the temple and there has been a steady reconstruction of the temple and the grounds since that time. We saw the main icon, Sanzebutsu Nyorai - which is actually three statues of the Gods Amida, Shaka and Miroku - symbols of the past, present and future. We sought out Hotei, located behind the cemetery, who is one of the Seven Lucky Gods - if you pat his belly you will receive much luck.

From there we headed to Kencho-ji - the head temple and first ranked of the Five Great Temples in Kamakura. I was fortunate to come here in the Fall for an Ikebana International program and it was nice to have the opportunity to wander around a bit more, this time with my guidebook in hand. We saw the Jizo Bosatsu located in the Butsuden (Buddha Hall). The Jizo Bosatsu holds a cane in his right hand and a treasure ball called a Hoju in his left. I'll have to come back here sans family ... the natives were getting restless and I missed my opportunity to enjoy the garden located behind the Hojo.

Off we headed to the trail that would take us over to Kamakura-gu (where I had been on May 5th for the archery demonstration). Thank goodness it was a moderate day - because I was certainly getting my workout with the stairs! There was a set of very steep stairs leading up to the Hanzobo Shrine and from there we picked up the trail, over the mountain and down into Kamakura. We were able to enjoy a fabulous view of Kamakura, with Sagami Bay off in the distance. Mitchell picked out Kamakura Station - our final destination point - and we could see the grounds of the Hachimangu Shrine. It was quiet, the birds were chirpping, the kids saw many caves they could peek into, we passed by bamboo groves ... it was perfect.

Once off the trail we tried to go to Kakunoji - but this is a closed temple with guided tours (in Japanese) once an hour. We had just missed the tour (lucky kids) but I'm glad we took the detour, because we saw one of the most beautiful houses that I've seen since arriving in Japan. What then ensued was a lot of discussion about architecture - schools that are known for it (go RISD!!), balance and understanding between right and left brain ... appreciation of form and function. If we'd just hopped on the bus (that we just missed because of the detour) we would have missed out.

The outing ended with a fabulous lunch at a soba noodle restaurant in Kamakura - lucky for us the Western seating was full - we got to sit on Tatami mats at the low tables overlooking a lovely garden eating our noodles, and yes, I even let the slurping go ... only while we're in Japan!

This was probably one of my best mother's days ever - the gift of time spent with my family, experiencing our host country and enjoying a glass of sake over lunch. I couldn't have asked for more. Till next time, sayonara.

Fuji (Wisteria floribunda)

2010-05-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

North of Tokyo, in Koshigaya, stands a 200-year old wisteria thats twisted and turned gnarled branches have wound their way through an arbor at the Hisaizu Shrine since 1837. For a several days during Golden Week, the shrine celebrates the blooming of the wisteria by holding a festival – a group of us decided to venture out seeking the heady fragrance and beautiful grape-like clusters of blossoms while they were at their optimum.

To get to the shrine from the train station you follow along a river lined with a 500-meter long tunnel of wisteria, inspiring this group of explorer’s with the sweet fragrance wafting through the air and the blossoms gently swaying in the breeze, to keep moving forward to reach the final destination of the Hisaizu Shrine. Crossing over a lovely arched walking bridge, you enter the shrine grounds with a shimenawa rope hung at the shrine’s entrance. There is a long pathway leading to the main hall that is lined with tall dawn redwoods. I have included a picture of one of these – my fellow master gardener’s from Maryland would shudder looking at the way these trees have been amputated, an American arborists nightmare. I do not understand the philosophy behind this type of “tree surgery” but you will see this all over Japan.

We could smell the sweet aroma of the wisteria before we caught sight of it, once past the festival vendors there was the old fuji – it’s vines intertwined and reaching up and spreading out over the arbor like a huge violet-blue web. It’s pea-blossom shaped flowers, hang like many clusters of delicate grapes swaying in the breeze. There’s a lovely pond next to the arbor with a walking path, and benches under the arbor where you can sit and close your eyes and inhale the intoxicating fragrance.

After we had our fill of photos and fragrance we turned our attention to the festival food vendors. I did not feel adventurous enough that day to try the “fish on a stick” but I did sample the custard cakes that were delicious.

Wisteria is one of my favorite floral aromas, it marks the beginning of my litany of spring time fragrances that I look forward to each year. We have never lived in one place long enough for me to plant and enjoy wisteria, it can take more than seven years before the plant blooms, so for now, until this Navy gig is over and I can finally plant my own roots, I will continue on my quest to seek out wisteria and enjoy it’s sweet fragrance and the violet-blue pendulous blossoms for the brief period of time it graces us.

Till next time, sayonara.

For more information on this shrine and the festival go to: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20010503se.html

Odawara Castle

2010-05-03T03:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a beautiful Spring day and so the kids and I decided to head out and go to Odawara Castle. This is about an hour twenty minute train ride and given that it's Golden Week here in Japan we got an early start to try and beat the crowds. Only a 10 minute walk from the Odawara Station we found it easily and made our way to the top where there is a beautiful view of Sagami Bay.

The castle was originally built in 1706, abandoned in 1870, suffered substantial damage in the Kanto earthquake of 1923 and was restored in 1960. There's an interesting museum located inside the castle with artifacts from the Edo time period and Samurai armor. 26 gates, 14 towers and 5 bridges by the time the Edo period ended (recited by Wrenn - they do actually retain some of the information on these trips!).

My favorite thing I learned that day was about the Shachi which are dragon-like fish that adorn the roof tops of the castles. They are symbols of good luck to ward off fires. They are usually in pairs, one male and one female facing towards each other.

After we enjoyed the view we headed to the grounds below where there were a number of vendors selling food. Wrenn and Mitchell enjoyed fried sweet potatoes dipped in sugar; Walker, Mitchell, and I tried the Yakisoba; all three kids went for the soft serve ice cream. It was a fun outing and a warm up to our upcoming trip to Kyoto and Hiroshima at the end of this month where we'll have the chance to see two more castles.

Till next time, sayonara.

Hama-rikyu Garden

2010-04-19T16:10:00.000-07:00

Another opportunity to head to Tokyo and experience a part of Japan's culture was offered to me, and of course I jumped at the chance. Ikebana International, Kamakura Chapter, had a program in Tokyo that sounded enticing ... a tour of a garden, a boat ride, a luncheon with a Geisha and a tour of an area of Tokyo I had still not had a chance to visit, Asakusa. No brainer ... I signed myself up.

Driving around the Tokyo area is always a risky endeavor ... especially if you're on a time frame. Sadly for our group, the bus hit bad traffic and our tour of Hama-rikyu Garden (in the pouring down rain) was a speedy one. But I am thankful our break away group hustled through the gardens and I was able to get off a few good pics and make a note that I'd love to come back and sit in the tea house and enjoy the view and the wisteria that was just beginning to bud. It's a beautiful contrast, the garden which dates back 300 years, with the sky scrapers surrounding the garden. From the garden you can board a sightseeing boat which takes you up the Sumida river to Asakusa. We arrived and were whisked off by our tour bus to the luncheon where we were entertained by a Geisha and a Kaiseki-Bento lunch at Kusatsu-tei.

Kaiseki
Kaiseki has it's origins in the Zen Buddhist traditions and is a meal of courses consisting of a number of small dishes. I first learned about this culinary art form when I read "Untangling My Chopsticks," where they author spent a year in Kyoto learning about Tea Kaiseki. Most kaiseki restaurants are very expensive because each dish takes time and skill to prepare. It is a multi-course meal on par with western haute cuisine. This culinary art form balances taste, texture, appearance and the colors of the food. Dishes are beautifully arranged and garnished, many times with real leaves and flowers. I loved how when we arrived the tables were already lined with our kaiseki-bento boxes and as I opened them there is this "ahhh factor" - like opening a present.

Geisha
While we were enjoying our delicious lunch, we were entertained by a Geisha. Geisha are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance (not as many westerners think sophisticated call girls). She performed three traditional dances for us, spoke to us in fluent English (I was told that she spent 1st-5th grade in Bethesda, MD when her father was the chef for the Japanese Embassy), and then had us compete in some drinking games. For us, our drinks consisted of tea, but I can certainly see how these games would become quite animated with some sake. The first one was Konpira Fune Fune - a traditional Geisha drinking game. With our group the music started off slow and then would speed up with the contestants having to increase their speed to keep up with the rhythm of the music. It was great fun to watch. I found this video clip from YouTube so you can see the game:

The second game was Goshi Hiori (sp?) - I could not find any information on the web so I may have the incorrect spelling, but this is where 2 teams of 5 people compete against each other in a race to move small stones from one plate to another with a pair of chopsticks. One of my Japanese friends (who also happens to be one of my students) was sitting next to me and tried the first round to get me to go up and play the game - but still not confident of my chopstick skills I declined, saying maybe next year when I've had more practice. However, on the second round of the game Yuriko was much more insistent and I agreed, reluctantly, I was sure I would be the one to make our team lose. Do you remember a previous entry on how much the Japanese ladies love to play games? And even more to win? I did not want to be the reason our team lost. So flanking me with one Japanese lady in front (to give me a lead) and one behind (to catch up) I gave it my best shot - and shockingly I held my own (I think more than shocking me I surprised the heck out of my fellow team mates). Our team went on to win. It was great fun and all I could think of was I have to find these little stones for Mitchell - who uses his chopsticks at every opportunity and probably has the best chopstick skills in the Cleary household.

Sadly, I had to get back to Yokosuka and so my time in Asakusa on Nakamise-dori (the shopping street) was nothing more than a cut through on the way to the metro. But there were many cool little shops and like the garden above, I plan to come back.

Till next time, sayonara.

For more on Kaiseki go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiseki

Saipan

2010-04-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

After an interesting but definitely not relaxing trip to Thailand over the Christmas Break, Jeff was looking for some much need R&R and suggested Saipan for Spring Break. “There’s beautiful beaches and World War II history” … just perfect I thought to myself, maybe I could go get a Pedi while he takes the kids on the war tour?

With a work schedule to dance around we were only able to get away for 5 days – but they were five wonderful days, filled with lots of water sports and some much needed rest. Jeff’s one request was to make sure his “levels” didn’t get too low and to keep the Margaritas coming on a 90 minute cycle. I think we were able to meet his request … he was the most relaxed I’ve seen him in years.

PIC – Pacific Island Club
Our family has never stayed at an all inclusive resort so this was a new experience for us. It worked out perfect – they kids all did what they wanted and I basically said “I’ll be right here, under this umbrella, if you need me this is where you’ll find me.” Off they went. Snorkeling, windsurfing, paddleboarding, rockclimbing, tennis lessons, archery – enough to keep them busy for a few days. The lagoon off of the western side of Saipan is huge – over 20 square miles – with coral and beautiful fish to see, lots of time in the water.

CNMI
The question came up almost as soon as we started talking about going to Saipan – how exactly is it connected to the U.S. – good question I said, but truthfully I had no idea. Hoping that when we arrived I would be enlightened I only got a bit more confused – seeing CNMI around the island – we all learned this stands for Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, there are 14 islands but Saipan has 90% of the population. They became a commonwealth and entered into a political union with the U.S. in 1978, they are a democracy with an elected governor and a U.S. House of Representative (who can vote in committee but not on the house floor – I am not sure what good that does). The defense and foreign affairs are the responsibility of the U.S. Saipan is about the size of Washington, DC – 13 miles long and 6 miles wide. It is the furthest point from the west coast of the United States to be protected under the U.S. flag and is as far from the west coast as Washington, DC is to Cairo, Egypt.

History
On our last day in Saipan we rented a car and traveled the island hitting some of the high points (and trying hard not to be so shocked at the extremely depressed economy that was evident everywhere we looked). Our first stop was at the CNMI Museum of History and Culture. Clearly not as well funded as the NPS American Memorial Park, it was still quite interesting and is housed in the former quarters of a Japanese Hospital. There we learned that Saipan has been ruled by the Spanish (who brought God in the form of the Catholic church), then Germany (who brought business), then Japan (who brought agriculture and over 30,000 immigrants – Koreans and Okinawans who worked the sugar cane fields) and then the U.S. which brought democracy … and a whole boatload of other problems. There was also an interesting a quite poignant exhibit from the seniors of the local high school– they digitally documented Saipan through their eyes. Through their images you could see their hope for the future, the dismay at the present, and the very clear understanding that this beautiful island is at a fork in the road (as one photo depicted) … which path will they take? For more on the history of the island go to http://www.cnmi-guide.com/history/

Our next stop was the NPS American Memorial Park, which was very well done and incredibly interesting … yes, even if it was mostly about the war. One of the pieces of history that I just couldn’t really wrap my head around was why there were so many Japanese casualties during the 3-week Battle of Saipan. Nearly all of the 30,000 Japanese defenders were killed, less than 1000 remained alive at the battle’s end. And over 10,000 civilians committed suicide in the last days of the battle. Why? I found the answers although I’m not sure my western brain can quite grasp it – one of the interviews I read in the museum was from a Japanese POW who said that as a soldier they were never told or trained in what to do if you became a POW (vs. the U.S. service members who follow the Code of the U.S. Fighting Force, based on concepts and traditions that date back to the American Revolutionary War). Fighting to the death was expected and would bring honor to the soldiers family. Emperor Hirohito, sent out an imperial order encouraging the civilians of Saipan to commit suicide, the order promised civilians who died there an equal spiritual status in the afterlife with those of soldiers perishing in combat. Over 10,000 civilians committed suicide in the last days of the battle some jumping from Suicide Cliff and Banzai Cliff, many with their children in their arms. For more about the museum and/or the history of Saipan go to http://www.nps.gov/amme/index.htm or http://www.cnmi-guide.com/history/ww2/4/

After going through the museum we headed out to the northern tip of the island to see Banzai Cliffs, Suicide Cliffs and whatever other war sites popped up along the way. The cliffs are stunning and quite the popular spot with the Japanese that were there by the busloads. Mitchell and Walker were even corralled into having their photo taken with some of the Japanese. We also stopped at the Grotto, a naturally formed area popular for diving. As I was waiting for everyone to come back a native Saipanese taxi driver came over and we started to chat – I asked him about the economy and he said it’s bad, very bad. When I arrived home I did my research and found out that the problems there are many, the garment industry which used to have numerous factories including Gap, Lord and Taylor, Levi Strauss, and WalMart by 2009 had all closed up shop – due in large part to immigration violations that permitted questionable work permits with little oversite to the working conditions. The last statistics I could find were from over a decade ago, at that time the unemployment rate was 14% and the poverty was at 35% - that’s before all the garment factories closed. With that the crime rate has increased and thus tourism has declined.

The island is beautiful with its turquoise waters and huge lagoon. The PIC was fun and interesting. The cliental was Japanese, Korean, Russian and American military families. It made for interesting buffets with a variety of international foods to try at each meal. And there will probably always be the memory for Mitchell who played a nearly 3 hour chess game against some Russian kids about his age – they couldn’t speak English and he couldn’t speak Russian but the game of chess crossed the language barrier (in the end he lost but I’m darn proud of him for holding out that long).

We’ll have great memories from our trip and I think we all learned a lot, more than just about the battle or enjoying the beach activities, but also about cultural differences that impact decisions and choices. We saw beautiful fish that we’d only seen in books or on Discovery Channel and I’ll always remember hearing Wrenn through her snorkel going “OOOOOHHH, OOOOOHHHH” as she saw some beautiful fish go by.

Till next time, sayonara.

First day there my camera battery died and I realized I had left the charger at home ... lesson learned. That will probably be one of the first things I pack next trip as well as ordering an additional battery pack for my camera. Except for the flower photos, the rest were taken by Jeff on his little pocket camera. I realized just how much I missed my DSLR and won't make that mistake again.

Sources
http://uolcnmi.com/index.php?pages_id=50&t=About-the-CNMI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saipan
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/events/index.cfm?fa=eventDetail&id=65

Shomoyo-ji Yokohama

2010-04-17T15:17:00.000-07:00

The grounds of the Shomyoji Temple are of the Jodo (Pure Land) style garden. There is a large pond, called a Ajiike Pond, in the middle with two bridges - one arched and one flat - over the pond. This garden was originally styled by Shoitsue, a monk of the Kamakura period who specialized in garden design. It was restored in 1978, following maps and drawings and is today one of the few 12th century design gardens in Japan.

The JAW group I belong to visited this garden during Cherry Blossom season. The grounds are beautiful and lucky for me the temple is only about a 20 minute train ride from Yokosuka. With more area to explore than we had time for, I made yet another mental note to add this place to my ever growing list of places to return to ...

Till next time, sayonara.

Hanami

2010-04-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

The Saturday weather forecast was for clear skies. The Saturday Sakura Zensen (cherry blossom front) was excellent. It was a perfect day to grab the camera, bribe my two sons with the promise of "the best waffles you'll have in Japan" and head to Kamakura.

We arrived early hoping to beat the crowds but it appears others had the same idea. We took a walk down Wakamiya-oji Street that leads to the Hachimangu Shrine. I do not know how "Wakamiya" translates but in my mind it should be "Cherry Blossom Avenue." The walking path in the middle of the street is lined with cherry trees - they were all out in their full glory.

The photos from that day are from the Hachimangu Shrine, the hiking course that leads from the Genjiyama Park to the Kotokuin Temple (Great Buddha) and of the Great Buddha temple grounds. Along the hiking course there is a great place to stop and take pictures of Kamakura which lies below, looking out towards Yuigahama Beach and Sagami Bay.

I recently purchased a great little book called "An English Guide to Kamakura's Temples and Shrines." It now stays in my camera bag and travels with me whenever I head to Kamakura. While sitting at the Kotokuin Temple and enjoying the cherry blossoms, I pulled the guide book out to see what I could learn about the Big Buddha. From the book "... built in 1252, it is a Japanese National Treasure. The stud-like cured hair consists of 656 pieces. The spot in the middle of his forehead is called a Byakugo and is where the light which shines on the entire world emanates."

It was a great day, loved being out in Kamakura, loved even more having the rare chance to spend time with just Mitchell and Walker. With the teenager parenting phase upon me, I realize these moments will be few and far between. I treasure each moment I can get.

Till next time, sayonara.

Sankeien Garden

2010-04-02T23:22:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, Jeff and I actually had a date. First one since I arrived 8 months ago. Clearly we need to do a better job of getting out more – without family in tow. Months and months ago I had said I wanted to go to Sankeien Garden in Yokohama. But it was hot then and Jeff suggested we wait until the fall. Fall came and went … and he had to periodically listen to me whine about still not having gone to the garden. Once I find out about a garden I’m like a dog and a bone – I simply will not let it go until I’ve had my chance to see it. We had a window on Saturday, no call, kids were busy with various activities, weather was good and the cherry blossoms were starting to bloom. He was stuck – with no real good excuse as to why we couldn’t go visit the garden. Time was also ticking – the cherry blossoms don’t hang around for long.

A train ride to Yokohama station and a 40 minute bus ride to the garden and we finally arrived. Immediately we ran into a problem – you can NEVER bring enough Yen with you when you travel in Japan – this time it wasn’t that we hadn’t brought enough but that our Yen was too much. The machines wouldn’t take a bill of that high of denomination. Thankfully, helpful Japanese were right there to break the bill into a smaller amount and help Jeff purchase the tickets from the machine (see photo of Jeff receiving assistance).

Background
Sankeien Garden is a traditional Japanese-style garden located in Yokohama. Designed and built by Tomitaro Hara, a silk trader, the garden opened in 1906. Almost all of the buildings are historically significant structures and were bought by Hara and relocated to the grounds of Sankeien. The garden was badly damaged during World War II’s Great Yokohama Bombing, requiring 5 years of restoration.

The gardens are lovely, strolling paths, historical structures – it was easy to forget that we were in the middle of the second largest city in Japan. We were lucky to view the cherry blossoms, although they weren’t in full bloom yet – but I jumped right in with the rest of the Japanese, pointing my camera at Sakura (cherry blossoms) and clicking away. Still, there was so much to see, more visits are in my future. Two of my favorite structures were the Three-storied Pagoda and the Old Yanohara House.

Three-storied Pagoda of Old Tomyoji
Originally constructed in Kyoto in 1457 and relocated to the garden in 1914 it is the oldest pagoda in the Kanto region. Surveys indicate that this pagoda was built during the Muromachi period (1333-1573) because of its style. This structure also seemed to really impress Jeff, when he read about how old it was he was relatively speechless (being a PG blog I can't repeat what he said) - but he pointed out that while our country had native Americans living in teepees (not all together true but I get his point) and Columbus hadn't even crossed the Atlantic yet, the Japanese were creating structures like this.

Gassyo Zukuri Old Yanohara House
This house was built around 1750 as the residence of a village headman. The miscanthus-thatched roof is named Gassho (handjoining) style because its construction is made by stacking large logs in a way that resembles clasped hands. It was moved to the garden in 1960 from Gifu Prefecture.

Till next time, sayonara.

Zeniarai Benten Ugafuku Jinja

2010-04-02T23:12:00.000-07:00

Money Washing Temple

Recently I was invited to go on an outing in Kamakura, the itinerary was a hike, followed by lunch and then a visit to Swany’s a local fabric/sewing store. Fresh air and exercise, good food and fabric – what more could a gal want? Sounded like a perfect day to me!

We started the day by walking/hiking to the Genjiyama Park. This park is up on a hill above Kamakura, cherry trees surround the park but they still weren’t out yet – but note to self, a return trip is a must-do to see them in bloom. On the way we passed by an old traditional Japanese style home, a beautifully sculpted cypress tree in front of someone’s home, a honey store (yum) – I constantly feel like a kid here in Japan – everything is new and different. A honey store? But not just any honey store, one that also has a really cool window display for those of us who are constantly searching out visual stimulation, I’ll be back.

After taking a break at the park we headed to the Zeniarai Benten Ugafuky Jinja temple. This temple was founded in 1185 and is one of the most popular spots in Kamakura. It is believed that if you spend the money that has been washed in the spring’s water, it will increase many times and come back to you.

With my damp Yen in my wallet, and the hope that my money will multiply – and we were headed to a fabric store later? Well, we know that wasn’t going to be in my wallet for long.

Hisayo, our leader, found a perfect café for the 6 of us to stop and have lunch. It was lovely – we were the only customers, 3 Americans and 3 Japanese ladies. The number three in Japan is a fortuitous number and I felt more than lucky to be sitting there having a wonderful lunch, great conversation and lots of laughter. Very good for the soul.

With recharged batteries we headed to Swany’s. This place is oh so cool. It reminds me of a smaller version of G Street Fabrics in DC. This could be bad … very bad. Not only does it have beautiful Japanese fabrics, but loads of fabulous purses on display (with all of the unique handles and finishing details), beading supplies AND they are only a few blocks from where I teach my English Conversation classes on Mondays. All Jeff is probably thinking is thank God she left the Ferrari (a.k.a. Bernina sewing machine) in storage … how much damage can she do in a fabric store when she can’t sew? Mmmm …

It was a great day and I thank our Japanese friends for sharing the day with us – one filled with great memories. Till next time, sayonara.

Home is where the Navy sends you

2010-03-27T22:38:00.000-07:00

For months my mom has asked, nudged, requested pictures of where we live. “For all I know you could live in a box” she says, to which I laughed and said “mom, we do live in a box.”

When you move from this …

Charm, character, some place where you want to put down roots and dig in and stay.

To this …

“the hood,” “the cell block,” “the projects,” these are all various references I’ve heard since moving here to our government housing.

From over 3000 square feet, space, breathing room, privacy.

To 1800 square feet and living the cozy life.

I will have to admit that I have been less than enthusiastic about doing more than maybe put up a few pictures. Miniblinds? Ick. I hate those things – dust collectors as one of my friends calls them. I’ve taken them down and wrapped them up in previous houses and made window treatments (or my mom has made window treatments). Here though – I just look at the blinds, shrug my shoulders and think, “whatever.”

The “yard” and front flowerbed have gone ignored for months and it seems to have unsettled my family more than just a little. When we lived in Maryland I went through months of training to become a Master Gardener. I put my knowledge to work and dug up our backyard and landscaped it – and it was a HUGE backyard. I pulled out everything from the front and relandscaped that too. When we moved to Virginia I started all over although thankfully this yard was teeny, tiny compared to Maryland. I love looking at plants, would rather spend weeks in the yard doing hard labor than spend an hour cleaning in the house. But here, when the family has asked – so what are you planning to plant? I’ve replied “nothing.” Jeff even went so far as to say I was freaking him out a bit “but you’ve always planted things, every place we’ve moved.” So true. I’ve left my trail from Rhode Island, to Virginia, to Maryland, to Virginia, to North Carolina, to Maryland and back to Virginia again. I’ve left behind gorgeous rosemary, lavender that makes me smile just by touching the leaves and smelling the lingering scent. The lambs ears that our boys loved to sit in when they were toddlers just to feel the softness of the leaves. The mint beds that our first faithful canine used to love to lay in (and I didn’t mind it either since it made her smell nice). The cosmos and zinnias that my daughter and I would plant and she named them the “happy flowers.”

But here, well I’ve had no vision. No motivation. Perhaps though, it’s the feeling of spring in the air, but I’m starting to get that itch to get out there and plant a few things. Wrenn was even able to sway me to stop by a garden store and buy some plants for our front bed. She planted them all and did a fine job too. Guess all those hours and hours she spent with me in the yard has paid off. And pulling up in front of our box, with plants there to greet me has made a difference … the box now has started to feel more like home.

Maybe home is not where the Navy sends you but where you dig in and plant some roots. I’m off to the plant store … till next time, sayonara.

Kappabashi Kitchen District

2010-03-09T12:56:00.000-08:00

On a cold and blustery day in March, five explorer's set out from Yokosuka and headed to the Kappabashi Kitchen District in Tokyo. I had done my research, had my print out in hand, made my list to try and keep me focused on what I was looking for - had even found an excellent review for a coffee house, Kappabashi Coffee, at the half way point of Kappabashi-Dori. I had a goal (well many goals ... my list was a bit long), I had motivation - caffeine. I was set.

It's hard to miss the entrance to the district with the large chef up on top of the building (see slide show photo). And immediately, you are enticed with stacks of dishes spilling out onto the sidewalk from a well positioned store, artfully arranged it would appear to distract you from your list and get you to part with your precious Yen. I made a few mental notes and promised myself I would save enough space in my bag and yen in my pocket to stop back by on our way to the metro station. Why load up at the beginning?

There are so many cool things here, even beyond the great dishes at Target prices. There are the shops that sell the plastic food models that many of the restaurants have on display in front of their shops. They are so cool, and if they weren't so blasted expensive I would have picked up a few items.

The bamboo shops were neat with all kinds of cool hors d'oeuvre picks - and I thought about how much my mom and sister would love that place. Which in a round about way brings me to why I was so desperate to get to the kitchen district this month - in the rain, sleet and snow. Once a month I get together with a fabulous group of Japanese ladies for English Conversation. Each month they take turns hosting the meeting at their homes. It has been great fun for me, and they pull out all the stops. I think each one has graduated from some sort of "Art of Entertaining" University - I say this in jest, but they are all gracious, welcoming and they certainly know how to put out a spread. I should know how to too ... my mom seems to pull together dinner parties with ease, my sister has clearly inherited this skill and throws impressive parties - but for all my alleged creativity in some arenas I feel it always falls short in the entertainment/hostess section. So already, I'm starting to sweat it out a bit, I'm thinking of what to serve and OMG! What to serve it on! On the advice of a friend who lived here in Japan I brought very little in the way of dishes and serving platters. We are talking bare bones. She said "pack light and go back heavy." So I surveyed our kitchen shelves and realized, aside from the lone salad bowl I had brought (that we got as a wedding present more than a quarter of a century ago and has a couple of chips in it) my kitchen was in a sad state for entertaining. Thus the long list.

The list did help me stay focused, but along with the recessive entertainment gene from my mom I have a much more dominant gene from my dad - growing up if he said as he was walking out the door "I'm headed to the hardware store" we all knew that it would be hours before we saw him - if we were lucky. Kitchen stores are my equivalent to my dad's hardware store - I love them. I love all the gadgets, all the cool kitchen tools, and maybe there's the flicker of hope in there that if I get this "whisk or pan or dish or strainer or ..." I'll be able to whip up a fabulous meal and entertain like my mom and sister. There's always hope.

I had a blast and my fellow explorer's were patient with me. Next time though I think I'll be dragging along my husband with the promise of an awesome cup of coffee at Kappabashi Coffee (which tasted particularly good on a cold day) and a knife store, Kamata, to end all knife stores as well as the Union Coffee Factory that has more coffee gadgets than I would know what to do with - but Jeff, who loves a good cuppa joe, would be more than happy to try and figure out. Besides, I'll need that extra set of hands ...

Till next time, sayonara.

What is that golden frog? It is a Kappa, the mischievous frog-like sprite from Japanese legend. The Kappabashi street has adopted it as its mascot.

Inspiration

2010-03-08T02:23:00.000-08:00

Olympic Addict Withdrawal

I do not watch much tv. In fact, since we arrived here in Japan I’ve hardly watched tv at all because I have a handicap – they’re called remote controls. When Jeff called me from work the morning of the Super Bowl to program the DVR I just started laughing – and said “you’ve got to be kidding, I don’t even know how to turn on the tv.” After patiently trying to guide me over the phone on which button to press … “first pick up the remote with the red button, now pick up the remote with the blue button …” – it didn’t end well. I had to call my neighbor and have her program it for me.

Once every 4 years I become a total couch potato and plant myself in front of the tv for 14 glorious days and absorb the Olympics. I cannot, it seems, get enough of watching these athletes give it their all and work for something the rest of us can only dream about. What is it that draws me to this event like the addict who needs their next fix? My daughter and I laughed over the fact that normally I have the attention span of a gnat when I watch tv but when it comes to the Olympics I am completely and utterly glued to the screen. We decided that the Olympics are the perfect sports venue for people with ADD. Bored with one sport? Well no worries, in about 17 minutes a new one will be on (NBC even tells you that in a little window at the bottom of the screen). I can rarely sit through a televised football or lacrosse game – even though I actually enjoy watching both of these sports. But when it comes to the Olympics I’ve watched it all – yes, even the curling. And I question why? What is it that makes me rearrange my schedule so that I can have the luxury of watching marathon coverage? What is it that finally got me past the avoidance of using multiple remote controls? Yes, much to Jeff’s utter astonishment, I now know how to not only turn the tv on but also program the DVR AND delete programs to make room for more Olympics. Amazing what you can do when you want something …

Inspiration
For me I believe it is the numerous virtues that these athletes display that for 14 days kept me coming back for more. Who could fail to be inspired by Bode Miller overcoming the disappointment of the Torino Olympics to win three medals, Lindsey Vonn pushing through her pain, J.R. Celski who only 5 months ago suffered a severe injury to his left leg in a crash, Evan Lysacek’s incredible work ethic that shows nice guys can win, Johnny Spillane ends an 86 year American drought and Steve Holcomb getting past his degenerative eye disease to steer the Night Train to an Olympic gold. I could go on and on … they inspire me with their perseverance, determination, courage to face fears or disappointments and the willingness to start a journey with only a dream.

But there was one athlete that I loved watching the most – I have come to love his sport and the way he carries himself in interviews – Apolo Ohno. His story is interesting to me, he’s been up and been down and yet he’s found a way to keep coming back and giving it his all on the ice. In one interview I saw when talking about coming back after taking time off and coming back even stronger than before Apolo Ohno said (and I paraphrase here because my DVR deleted this segment) “You have to ask yourself at the end of the day – did I do my best today? Did I give it my all?”

And so, I’ve had a thought percolating for months – an idea to create a blog that for 1000 days I will make an entry about something that inspires me or something creative I’m working on. This is a bit scary for me - a 1000 days doing something totally optional is well, quite a commitment. But what I realized watching these athletes is that, it's all scary - putting yourself out there, making a commitment and not knowing where something may lead. But what you may lose by not following through on an idea or a dream could be even bigger. And so, follow me if you will - inspiration could be a beautiful flower I saw that day or a quote I read or musings or art … I do not know where it will lead because it is a journey with no destination and no purpose other than for 1000 days to seek out and be inspired - all I know is that at the end of my day, I want to be able to look back and say that whatever I pursued for that day I did give it my all. Visit http://journeyofonethousandcranes.blogspot.com/

Till next time, sayonara.

Ikegami Baien – Plum Viewing

2010-03-07T22:28:00.000-08:00

“Would you like to …” – before our faithful leader (a.k.a. “bossy explorer”) can get the words out of her mouth she should already know my answer. If it’s outside the gates my response will automatically be “I’d love to.” And so, on a beautiful day with the smell of Spring in the air, four explorer’s headed off in search of beauty and inspiration in the form of Ume (Japanese plum blossoms).

Ume
I am of course familiar with the beautiful Japanese Cherry Trees. In celebration of our move to Japan, we planted a cherry tree in our front yard in Norfolk hoping it will keep a quiet vigil over our home until our return. But I was not familiar with Ume, the Plum Tree. Walking around Kamakura in early February a heady fragrance led me to a winter treat – when all else is bare, this tree blooms and gives us hope of Spring. Having teased me with the simple beauty of a bright pink five petaled flower I was then on a quest to find more places to see these harbingers of Spring.

Ikegami Baien
Ikegami Baien is located south of Tokyo and before World War II was on the edge of Tokyo Bay (after the war there was a movement towards land reclamation for factories and homes). The plum garden contains nearly 400 plum trees and before reaching the garden you could smell the fragrance wafting over the garden walls. There are two tea houses on the grounds and a wonderful area with what I will call Japanese water-chimes. With my fellow explorer’s off looking at blossoms, I stop to take a picture of a lovely area with water and bamboo – not realizing that as with many things here in Japan, all is not as it appears. A Japanese lady motions for me to come closer and holding a long bamboo tube to her ear she slowly pours some water from the bamboo ladle into what looks like at a quick glance to be a water drain. But this is no ordinary drain – when the water cascades down it hits something on it’s journey and causes a delightful sound, like the sound of wind chimes. Handing the bamboo tube to me, I give it a try and the delight it gave me must have been evident on my face – she laughed and moved on as I sat there like a little kid pouring the water down the minature sized well. I could have sat there for hours pouring the water and receiving the gift of water chimes. I will be on a quest now (add it to my ever expanding list) to find out how to create one of these in my garden when I return home. With a little bit of research I did find out that in a Japanese garden, water is a key element, the sight and sound of it is there to remind us of the passage of time.

Oba-san

The next stop on our adventure was to the compound of Daibo Hongyo-ji. This is where our adventure really began. As you may have noticed, I am entranced by the beauty of the Japanese architecture and the attention to detail I have seen at the temples and shrines. I was clicking away, zooming in on another architectural detail, when a Japanese Oba-san approached me (Oba-san is a name for grandmother), motioning me to follow her. I simply could not resist, she had a twinkle in her eye and even though she was quite a bit shorter than me I could barely keep up with her. At the entrance to a temple annex, I removed my shoes and followed her into a building … my three friends trailing along behind me. She guided me around to the back of the building and as I turned the corner I saw before me a lovely Japanese garden. There were chairs to sit in to relax and meditate. It was peaceful, serene and I could stayed there for much longer. My pictures do not nearly do this place justice.

After the garden Oba-san guided us up through a cemetery area and to the Honmon-ji temple. This is a major Buddhist temple, the original was built in the 13th century (all but a few of the buildings were destroyed by American bombs in April 1945). The stone stairway leading up to this temple was built at the beginning of the 17th century – there are 96 steps, inspired by a passage from the Lotus Sutra. The main hall is an impressive structure and guided by Oba-san we entered the main hall to the sounds of chanting, the smell of incense in the air and the deep resonant sound coming from a wooden bell.

Oba-san wanted to make sure we saw one more building that day and motioning for us to keep following her she led us to the five-story wooden tower which is a nationally-designated important treasure, was erected in 1607 and is the largest and oldest in the Kanto region. At the end of our visit to the five story tower, Oba-san bade us sayonara and walked away. I was touched – here a complete stranger had offered 4 Gaijin a gift of her time – even through the language barrier, she shared with us what clearly brings her joy. She seemed to delight in watching our expressions as we stopped to look and take photos of the temple grounds and buildings. I wish I had gotten her name, I wish I knew more than my pathetic dozen words of Japanese so I could have had a conversation with her. But Oba-san gave me a great gift that day, I left with a smile on my face and much joy in my heart. I hope she felt the same.

Till next time, sayonara.

Check out Kathy’s blog (“bossy explorer”) for her take on the day: http://kmkrentz.blogspot.com/2010/03/taking-candy-from-strangers-in-ikegami.html

Hokkaido Historical Village and Lake Shikotsuko

2010-03-01T14:21:00.000-08:00

Our last day in Sapporo was filled with what else, but more activities involving snow. The kids still not having reached their fill of snowballs, headed out with Jeff for an early morning round of Snowball Mania. Barely back in time to gather up the bags before the 11 o’clock checkout time, we stashed our gear with the rest of the tour group and headed back out in search of another adventure before our tours 3 pm hotel departure time.

Looks can be deceiving – Caution Map not to Scale
I have a couple of really good guidebooks to Japan and one of them recommended a visit to the Historical Village of Hokkaido. Jeff and I pulled out the brochure provided by the concierge and thought “well this looks easy – it’s right across from the train station.” Having had some previous experience with maps not to scale (see Mashiko to Nikko blog entry) we really should have known better.

Oh yeah … we blend.
With 4 out of the 5 Cleary family members taller than the average Japanese, most of us with blonde hair and blue eyes, it’s not exactly like we blend in here in Japan. There is no doubt that we are Gaijin, and some times this can be a good thing. Like for instance when you get off a train and you stand there looking at a map, trying to orient yourself and you realize you have no idea which way you are supposed to go …

I know you all have read this before, but it is worth repeating once again – the Japanese will go out of their way to be helpful. Above and beyond the duty helpful. It’s like they all take a course in “Helping Clueless Gaijin: 101.” So with the five Clearys standing around, the wind whipping outside the station blowing in yet more snow, we are approached by a Japanese gentleman who speaks English – he guides us to the underpass and we are on our way – or so it seemed. But not 10 yards out into the blustery weather we quickly realize that this museum is not “directly across from the station” as the map seemed to indicate. In fact it’s nowhere to be seen. A dad pulling his son on a sleigh was headed in our direction, so putting on my best voice I say “sumimasen” and point to the map. I have no idea what they must have thought of us, but looking back now the thought must have crossed their minds that we are some crazy foreigners. He pointed off in the direction of a tall tower – that certainly didn’t look like it was very close. Jeff and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and pressed on with the tower as our beacon … while the snow balls were whizzing by – thank goodness it appears that our kids are happy just to be in snow – it doesn’t matter that their parents are dragging them on a snow hike to a place they now question is worth the effort and have a useless map in hand to get them there.

We discover the major road, cross it and continue up a hill until we nearly reach the top and realize that, well, we really have no idea where we’re supposed to go. It’s still snowing, we can see the tower but from where we’re standing it’s not evident where the historical village is. Seeing two girls who look to be college aged, I yet again call out “sumimasen” and show them the map. There is much discussion flying back and forth and they point us off in a direction – as we start to trudge away in the snow yet another Japanese gentleman stops in his car and in impeccable English asks us if he can help, even apologizing profusely that he cannot fit all of us in his car and drive us there! Hello dear readers – please read that last sentence again and ask yourself when was the last time you stopped your car in the U.S. to ask complete strangers if they needed help and then even contemplated giving them a ride?! I love Japan! (Of course the crime rate in Japan is very low, and they do have gun control here – that probably has a bit to do with it.)

After about 15 more minutes of walking through the snow we reached the Historical Village of Hokkaido and I have to say I thought it was pretty darn neat. It is sort of like a Japanese version of Williamsburg. There are around 60 structures from the mid 19th to early 20th century that show what a pioneer’s life was like in Hokkaido. The huge bonus for me was that during the winter they have a horse drawn sleigh that will take you down the main part of the village – this is something I have always wanted to do and I only wish the ride could have been longer, or I could have been like the kids with the roller coaster and immediately gotten off to run around and get back in line. It was great fun, covered with blankets and the bells on the horse jingling along – and the quiet. You know how when it snows, everything becomes more quiet, like the snow has laid a quiet blanket over everything, this was what it was like and it was lovely. Jeff and I broke apart as a member of our party needed to find the facilities, and so while I waited in the visitors center, I walked into a room where there were several people making monoprints – this very sweet ancient Japanese man made a print for both Wrenn and myself, “gift for you.” I found out later that he is 98 years old and comes to the Historical Village every Sunday and makes these prints. I love them, they are so graphic and the image he is holding is the famous clock tower in Sapporo.

The village is very English friendly, brochures are available in English that tell you about each structure, inside there are docents that will tell you about their building. Wrenn and I stepped inside the Sake Brewery and were please to discover the interpreter there was fluent in English. We could have spent much more time at the village, but our adventure in getting there had eaten up quite a bit of time. And so we headed out, hoping that this summer we could head back up to Hokkaido and visit here again. Our trip back into Sapporo was much easier – if only we had known, there is a bus that takes you straight to the train station! For more information on the Historical Village of Hokkaido visit www.kaitaku.or.jp.

Chitose-Lake Shikotsuko Ice Festival
The last stop on our Snow Festival adventure was to visit the Chitose-Lake Shikotsuko Ice Festival. There was some doubt as to whether we would be able to go since it had snowed and we were headed into the mountains but luck was with us and we arrived just as it was getting dark. Huge ice sculptures are formed at this venue by jetting the water from Lake Shikotsu with sprinklers and they are large enough to walk into. They reminded me of an ice version of a “dribble sand castle” – where you take the soupy sand and let it run down your fingers, adding layer upon layer until you get the look you want. It was pretty, although quite a trek through the mountains from Sapporo – it is supposed to only be about an hour but with all the snow it was slow driving and it took our bus nearly 2 hours to get there. The best part though was probably the awesome grilled scallops on a skewer I had from a vendor, along with the warmed sake (see the photo of Jeff). If you’ve never had warm sake, you haven’t lived. It hits the spot, warming you up all the way down to your freezing cold toes and was the perfect ending to a wonderful trip.

Till next time, sayonara.

Sapporo Snow Festival 2010 - Day 2

2010-02-14T16:19:00.000-08:00

While the weather was still nice (i.e. sunny not snowing) we decided to head over to the Sapporo Tsudome where there were snow-themed attractions. It was fun, Jeff and the kids went rocketing down a snow slide in inner-tubes and when I say rocketing I’m not kidding. I watched Jeff take down the poor Japanese guy who was supposed to stop him at the end. It was fun but the snow front had moved in, no more nice sunny weather, and it had become wicked cold – I could no longer feel my toes even with toe warmers in place. We warmed up, a bit, inside the Tsudome with some food from the various vendors – don’t ask me what we ate, you have to leave your Western taste buds behind when you come to Japan and just go for it – I think it was squid on a stick, scallop balls and a seafood curry which was really good. The kids all eyed the fare with a lot of suspicion but were game to give it a try.

Since all our kids really wanted to do was to have one massive knockdown snowball fight we headed over to the Government Building which was located close to our hotel and had a lovely garden area. When we first arrived in Sapporo our tour guide had announced that “for those of you who would like to have snowball fights this would be the place to go” … mmm, well at least he didn’t name any names on the bus but this was clearly for the Cleary’s information. While Jeff and the kids battled it out (I did not partake and strangely enough no one even asked me to be on their side. I would definitely be a liability since, well, um - I throw like a girl. The worst girl ever.) I headed out to take some pictures. I love how the Japanese wrap their shrubbery and protect their trees with a winterized version of a maypole and who can resist a beautiful Japanese bridge in the winter snow? With the snowball mania over we headed to the train station to catch a train to Otaru.

Snow Gleaming Festival - Otaru
On some excellent advice we decided to spend Saturday afternoon in the small seaside town of Otaru. The train ride out there was easy and pleasant, the train for a large part of the trip hugs the coastline of the Sea of Japan and from the side I was riding on all I could see were very grey and angry looking waves rolling in, crashing somewhere beneath my line of vision (I tried hard not to think about that too much). When we arrived at Otaru the snow was really coming down and the winds were whipping in off of the Sea of Japan. I have to hand it to the kids, they were really troopers – we have pictures where you cannot see the end of the block because we were in white out conditions. Otaru has a much smaller snow festival than it’s more well known neighbor but I enjoyed this far more. This is an old fishing village with canals and charming old buildings and warehouses from the Meiji and Taisho Eras. Besides the architecture they have become known for their Venetian Style Glass shops and yes, I managed to scoot into one with enough time to make a few select purchases before closing time (wwwkitaichiglass.co.jp). We had tried to time our arrival to have enough time to walk around the city before the illumination began at 6 – by the time we walked back to the canals the lanterns were floating in the water but sadly for us the wind was so brisk that night that nearly all of the floating lanterns were out.

On the way back up the hill to the train station we went down a snow path that was lit by 100’s of candles. It is apparently a park that runs along an old train track, the first train line in Hokkaido. It was such a departure from the crowds and lights and festival atmosphere of Odari – it was beautiful. There were hundreds of little vignettes carved into the snow, there were globe lanterns embedded with pressed leaves and flowers illuminated with a candle resting in the crook of a stick that were charming. It was lovely and with the shelter provided by the buildings lining the route this area was almost down right comfortable – well, as comfortable as you can be in –3 degrees Celsius (not factoring in the wind chill).

We returned to Sapporo by train and again, it was a treat. I love riding trains and this train was one of the older ones I’d been on since arriving in Japan. It had the seats that flip in either direction – I think the kids got a kick out of seeing that. And the train whistle, it was one of those long high-pitched whistles that American trains don’t make. As a matter of fact as I was looking out the window, with the snow swirling by, the train rocking back and forth and the whistle piercing the night sky my thoughts drifted trying to place where I had heard that sound before and then I remembered … one of my all time favorite movies Dr. Zhivago. How fitting.

One more entry to wrap up Sapporo, till next time, sayonara.

Sapporo Snow Festival 2010

2010-02-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

Since we arrived in Japan we’ve had the opportunity to take day trips and see some of the easier sights to get to from Yokosuka but we hadn’t yet ventured beyond a several hour radius of home.

Last weekend we took advantage of a tour trip being offered and we all boarded a plane bound for the northern most island of Japan, Hokkaido – home to the Sapporo Snow Festival. As a family we have a number of trips around Japan that are on our wish list: Hiroshima, Kyoto, Okinawa and Sapporo. This was a trip we had all been looking forward to – while our friends and family back on the East Coast struggle against mother nature and record snow fall, we watch the evening news … somehow feeling like we’re being left out. “It’s not fair” has been declared more than a few times, as all three kids point out they’ve spent their entire lives up until 6 months ago in the current blizzard zone and they are missing out on the fun.

Well we made our own winter fun in Sapporo and we had no shortage of snow. Sapporo has several different venues – the Odari Park Snow sculptures, the Susukino ice festival and the Tudome site, with snow rides and slides. The tour started us off the right way with a stop at the Sapporo Beer Museum/Factory. We had lunch there and all the beer you could drink in 90 minutes. Normally, I am not much of a beer drinker – those days are long gone. But I will have to admit, I am enjoying Japanese Beer. I do not know how it is different from the American Brew but it tastes fabulous. Jeff and I sampled several different types – meanwhile all the kids cared about was the snow and snowballs. Our children apparently entertained a several Japanese as the snowballs flew. I got a couple of questions: “Twins?” “Yes” I would answer with a sigh, “14 and competitive” – they would just chuckle before moving on and I'm yelling out "Don't hit any Japanese!" After the adults were satisfied with beer and the kids with snow, the tour took us to our hotel and then pretty much cut us loose – warning us to make the most of the festival while we could because a snow storm was moving in the next day.

Odari Park
The main part of the snow festival runs the length of Odari Park, a short walk from our hotel. It was cold and snowing lightly but we decided to venture out and take a look until we couldn’t feel our digits. Superlatives (and photos) can hardly do these works of art justice – they are quite impressive. For the larger sculptures it can take up to a month to sculpt and hundreds of truck loads of snow.

Susukino
The ice sculptures in the Susukino area were equally interesting – especially since a number of them were still being worked on – the buzz of the chainsaws and the ice shavings were flying. It was fascinating to watch.
Close to the ice sculpture venue was Ramen Noodle Alley that we had read about in one of our tour guidebooks. We had heard that Hokkaido is known for their Ramen Noodle bowls, this small alleyway is filled with little noodle shops. We were having a bit of a struggle to find a noodle shop that had 5 seats open for our family but one very insistent shop owner kept popping her head out of the door, loudly claiming “Number 1 Noodle.” My initial reaction was to move on – we were tired and hungry and I wanted some place charming – not a Japanese version of a NY City Diner. But after peering through a number of windows to other shops and realizing there were not enough seats for us all, Jeff and I just shrugged our shoulders, exchanged a look saying “what the hell” and stepped through the “diner” noodle shop. It was a form of entertainment we had not counted on. The female owner was loud and exuberant, she spoke enough English for us to make our selections. Her husband (I’m guessing) was the chef and as we sat at the counter we could see him working fast and furious on our orders. It was in fact quite delicious, and the perfect meal to warm us up after walking around in the snow.

It had been a long day, up at 4 a.m. to make our flight so we called it a day after filling ourselves with delicious ramen and headed back to our hotel. I'll post 2 more entries covering our next two days in Sapporo and the area. So far we were impressed and were already talking about coming back this summer for the fabulous national parks they have here.

Till next time, sayonara.

Tokyo Quilt Show 2010

2010-02-11T13:46:00.000-08:00

Nearly two weeks ago I went to the Tokyo International Quilt Festival at the Tokyo Dome. This is the biggie, the mother of all quilt shows on this side of the world. The Yokohama show in the Fall had stunned me with the beautiful craftsmanship and the inspiring displays and if that was the warm up show than I knew I’d be in for a treat with the Tokyo show. I was not disappointed.

This time I was most fortunate to have two Japanese friends accompany our group. They acted as translators for us – which was particularly helpful when we happened upon two demonstrations in the special exhibit “The Beauty of Indigo – The World of Japan Blue.” This exhibit was of particular interest to me with my current study under Master Shibori Artist Hiroko Andou. If you would like to follow my experiences with shibori you can go to: www.shiborispirit.wordpress.com.

There was a beautiful exhibit “Technique and Sensibility: Nubi Quilting by Korean Artisan, Hae-Ja, Kim” and a whimsical special exhibit called “Welcome to My Room” where nine different artists came together to present their works on different themed rooms.

This quilt was the first place winner in the Traditional Quilt Category. It’s called Ocean of Trees by Keiko Morishita. Thank you to movinghands.wordpress.com who provided the translation on her blog and this description:

“After taking a trip to Hokkaido, she could not forget the quiet and depth of the forest there, and recreated it in basic squares. But in order to convey the far depth and heaviness, she put the seam allowances on the front, and to prevent fraying, all pieces were cut on the bias.
From a distance, it looks like a regular quilt. But up close…
The pieces are what you normally see on the back of a quilt top. Look closely, and you can see how all pieces were cut on the bias (to prevent fraying), and the seam allowances show on the front. The quilt was finished in a regular way–quilted, and with a solid backing.”

There were several special exhibits in addition to the winners and entries in a numerous categories. There was so much to look at and really, I think next year I would like to go twice. And lets not forget the vendors … oh, so many cool Japanese sewing and quilting supplies. Yes, I bought – spent pretty much all my allotted Yen, saving only enough for the train ride back. I have more projects and a cute apron is one of them. But it requires a sewing machine … mmm, not sure how I’ll get around that requirement. Was reading about a Babylock serger on the moving hands blog – that could be a fine compliment to my Bernina. Wonder what Jeff would say to that one? For the amount of money I spent on my Bernina (which he calls the Ferrari) I believe he thinks the darn thing should be able to make and sew anything and everything by itself.

I absolutely loved looking at the craftsmanship of these quilts. I know, for some of you (including my immediate family members) it would be like watching paint dry. But the attention to details, the innovative combination of machine stitching, hand stitching and embellishment left my head swimming with ideas. I picked up some projects – mostly hand work, and tried to keep reminding myself that one of my goals while I’m here in Japan is to just be a sponge. To learn all I can about all that interests me, let it percolate for the time I am here and when I get back to the states we’ll see what starts to happen.

So for now, I will be content to observe and appreciate, to take classes when I can and to be thankful again to have this wonderful opportunity to live in Japan.

Till next time, sayonara.

A very special thanks to Kim Jordan and Valerie Okon who lent me their cameras and patiently took oodles of pictures for me. When I arrived at the Tokyo Dome I pulled out my camera only to discover the battery was dead. Lesson learned, always, always check the battery level the night before.

Mt. Nokogiri Adventure

2010-02-01T04:04:00.000-08:00

It was billed as a day of hiking and a ferry ride across Tokyo Bay – sounded like a chance for some fresh air and exercise while seeing some more sights in Japan. Sign me up. But as with many adventures, expectations and reality don’t always mesh.

We set off from the Kurihama Ferry Terminal, located just south of Yokosuka. It was a breezy day but fairly clear and the crossing was nice. Did I mention it was breezy? Well just file that fact … because it will come into play later in the day in a couple of ways. We were headed by ferry across Tokyo bay to the small port town of Kanaya. This is where the Daibutsu of Nihon-ji is located, the largest stone Buddha in Japan.

Kanaya is a little bayside town, probably the most hoppin’ thing it has going on is the ferry terminal. There is a little shop in the terminal building that has lots of packaged local food items for sale. Apparently this part of the Chiba Prefecture is known for its peanut production – and having grown up in Georgia I was fascinated by all the different types of peanuts. There were cocoa peanuts, wasabi peanuts, pepper peanuts, miso peanuts, yogurt peanuts, sugar peanuts – all with little containers for you to taste test. I had a good time trying to figure out which ones my family back in the states would actually like (and eat) and felt a bit like Goldielocks as I tasted them – “too hot,” “too spicy,” “ohhh, way too different they wouldn’t like that at all (miso),” “not different enough (sugar).” But I really felt like I scored when I ran across the Japanese version of boiled peanuts. Now you really can’t claim southern roots until you’ve experienced boiled peanuts or as my grandfather used to say “baaaaawwl’d peanuts” – for the longest time as a kid I thought we were eating bald peanuts, gotta love that southern accent! Not sure my fellow adventurer’s were too enamored with these culinary delicacies but I loved them. Different from the “bald peanuts” of my childhood (enough sodium in those puppies to make you retain water for a month) they were good nevertheless.

We headed out from the terminal and walked to the rope-way gondola. It was a nice ride up the mountain and we had great views of Tokyo Bay. But it was windy (did I already mention that?) and a tad unnerving as the gondola swayed back and forth – we all reassured each other that the Japanese were all about safety … right?

Once at the top we all broke off into different groups – some wanted to see the Kwan-non and others wanted to see the Buddha. The group I was in headed down the hill in search of the Daibutsu. We passed by the Tokai Arhats, the 1500 Stone Figures that were carved from 1779 to 1798. Many were destroyed or damaged during an anti-buddhist movement in the Meiji Era. There is now an ongoing restoration effort.

We finally reached the bottom of the hill, after going down countless steps and we were rewarded by a magnificent stone Buddha (Daibutsu) carved into the side of the mountain. This Buddha took three years to carve and was completed in 1783. It was constructed as a symbol of world peace and tranquility. There is a lovely view from the area looking out over Tokyo Bay and from there we planned to hike back up all those steps to the gondola. But the forces of nature had a different adventure in store for us. We found out that the gondola was now closed due to the windy conditions. We were now faced with how do we get back to the ferry? There was an attendant at the Daibutsu and she assured us that once we reached a lower parking lot we would be able to grab a taxi back to the ferry terminal – sounded like an easy solution. However, something must have been lost in translation because when we reached the parking lot – there was not a soul in sight. The five of us decided to forge ahead and hope for the best – which ended up being a pseudo 5K run back to the terminal. We had to pass through 5 tunnels with no pedestrian walkway and the tunnels here in Japan are narrow. We sprinted through the tunnels and walked the straightaway’s laughing for the most part at what the Japanese drivers must be thinking as five crazy Gaijin’s were playing a tunnel version of “chicken.” Finally, we were out of the tunnels and could see the terminal … and our ferry, which had already left for the return trip home. No worries, we would catch the next one.

It is a bad sign when the ferry you are sitting on is rocking back and forth because of the waves, and you haven’t even pulled away from the dock. Even though I am married to someone in the Navy, I am in no way shape or form a sea-worthy kind of gal. In fact, I really hate being out further than I know I can swim back to shore. But there was only one way that day to get from A to B and it meant crossing Tokyo Bay with swells high enough to make the horizon line disappear. That wind that had forced the gondola to be closed was kicking up some might fine swells. Thank goodness, my motion sickness that can pop up if I happen to go over a speed bump too fast stayed away that day. I think it was the pure terror of being on a ferry, with compatriots who were looking to see where the life jackets were that sent an adrenaline rush coursing through my body and kept my lunch down where it should be.

Once home and safely on land – I relayed the day’s events to my family. Jeff, the former Navy line officer sort of rolled his eyes as I described the white caps and swells. Yes, yes I know – if we’re comparing “war stories” I will never be able to top his in a Spruance Class Destroyer off the coast of Japan in Typhoon season. And my children were no better in offering any sort of empathy – “really, you were on a ferry and there were swells? Cool, when can we go?”

We’ll go when mom has checked the small craft advisory, done a visual and see’s nary a white cap in sight and the flags are hanging like limp rags.

Till next time, sayonara.

Chatuchak Weekend Market

2010-01-24T13:30:00.000-08:00

On our last day in Thailand we caught the hotels shuttle service to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. I had my tour book in hand, my mental wish list, and the sections I knew we wanted to hit marked off. We arrived early – 9:30 – just as many of the vendors were starting to set up. It’s a perfect time to arrive, there are no crowds, it’s not beastly hot yet and you can take your time to look at the endless variety of goods being offered. There was eye-candy everywhere. This is the mother of all markets with over 15,000 vendors catering to the hundreds of thousands of visitors who hit the market each weekend. Our first stop was an information center where we picked up the Chatuchak Weekend Market map.

With our navigator leading the way we arrived at Section 1 which houses antiques and collectibles. We were in search of some gift items and as well as some interesting Thai hammered silverware. Score! As they were unwrapping their wares, I hovered outside of P. Rangsan’s Stainless Steel shop – spying a number of items that were “must haves.” Surprisingly, even Jeff was onboard with all the purchases … although he did hustle me out of there when I started asking about the silverware sets, declaring “no more! Besides, how are you going to get that on the plane?” I would highly recommend stopping by this shop if you are in the market for some Thai stainless steel – check out their website at www.prangsan.com or contact them by email at janrit.jj@hotmail.com. Mr. Rangsan (see photo) and his son were delightful and their English was excellent.

We stopped in Suleeya’s silver shop (see photo), also in Section 1. She has a nice variety of silver boxes. I found myself a beautiful box with twin elephants on top, as well as some gifts. She was lovely to deal with and I’d recommend a stop by her shop. You can contact her at sulee@loxinfo.co.th if you need a more specific shop address.

Our last sections to hit were 26/25/22 – I found some beautiful Thai silk scarves, saw some beautiful fabric that I wished I could have ditched the family and just submersed myself in. Wrenn was on a quest to find her lucky elephant – she had been holding out and finally found the perfect one. The man we purchased it from was actually sitting in front of his stall carving items that he sold – and when I asked him if he’d carved the elephant he smiled and said he’d carved everything in the shop. Tourist trick? Perhaps, but I like the idea of buying straight from the artist – and so I asked to take his photo, we paid for the elephant and called it a morning. It had become quite steamy under the awnings and we were all desperate to get out and breathe some fresh air. Of course that term in Bangkok is relative – the aroma wafting through the streets is a mixture of incense, rotting food, sewers – quite overpowering at times to our western noses.

Jim Thompson House
After a day going up to Kancnanaburi to satisfy the WWII history buffs in my family – today was my day to counter that with a different type of Thai history and culture. Our next stop after the Chatuchak Market was the Jim Thompson House. This was easy to get to using Bangkok’s rapid rail system – that seemed to be filled with more westerners than native Thai’s.

Jim Thompson was an American who was stationed in Bangkok during WWII, who worked for OSS. He fell in love with Thailand and rediscovered the Thai Silk Industry. He purchased a number of traditional style Thai houses and had them brought to a site in Bangkok where he had them joined together to form his home and office. The Asian artifacts he collected while living in Southeast Asia are on display throughout the home. His life is surrounded in mystery following his disappearance while out for a walk in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. No clue to what happened to him has ever turned up.

There is a lovely restaurant on the premises that was doing a hopping business while we were there. We decided to stop in after our tour. Our food was good and the air conditioning even better – it was a nice way to end the day. For more information on Jim Thompson and his home visit http://www.jimthompsonhouse.org/. Photos are only allowed on the grounds and since I had the wrong lens attached to my camera, and at this point in my trip was suffering from camera fatigue, the only photo I took was of the Spirit House.

So that was it. Our trip to Thailand was over. We headed back to our hotel via the rapid transit and waited for our airport pickup later that night. There were some good things about our trip – most of our disappointments had more to do with our tour package – what was “promised” vs. what was delivered. If anyone wants the low-down on where not to stay in both Phuket and Bangkok or if you want to know which elephant trek to avoid or any other tourist traps to avoid in Phuket please feel free to post a comment and I’ll be happy to share.

One final note: on our way from the Skytrain to the Jim Thompson house, two British ladies asked if they could follow us since they were for the moment apparently lost. As we were walking we struck up a conversation and it turns out one of the ladies has been living in Bangkok for the last 5 years teaching school there. She asked what were my impressions of Bangkok and I tried to be somewhat diplomatic but honest and said that it wasn’t what we were expecting. “How so?” was the response. And I mentioned we were all struck by the amount of poverty we saw, the streets being so dirty. She asked where we were living and I said Japan and she said “Isn’t it very rigid there?” I laughed and thought to myself “I suppose … but only in a very good way! And thank God. I couldn’t wait to get back – and if rigid means clean streets and order and efficient waiters and polite friendly service and not having to worry about pick-pockets and taxi's not taking you where you want to go – then I couldn’t wait to get back to my host country. There’s no place like home."

Till next time, sayonara.

Kanchanaburi

2010-01-20T01:35:00.001-08:00

Probably one of the highlights of our trip to Thailand was our daytrip to Kanchanaburi. This is the home to the infamous Death Railway portrayed in the 1957 World War II classic Bridge Over the River Kwai. With two 14-year-old boys that are not only Civil War buffs (I’ve been to more NPS Civil War sites than I care to recall – nearly 20 but who’s counting?) it appears that now that we are in the Pacific Theatre this mom will be on some sort of forced march through World War II sites on this side of the world. Truthfully, some of this is of my own making. When they came home from school and said they had to read 2 novels over winter break I suggested they look up some options on the web. The web being very organic, one click led to another and they landed on The Bridge Over the River Kwai. Mmmmm, not exactly what I had in mind but when I realized that “hey, wait a minute, I think that took place in Thailand …” which led to a few more clicks of the mouse (what was life like before the web?!) and I quickly realized we could take daytrip to Kanchanaburi from Bangkok.

For all the glory young men see in war films, this mom of two boys and the wife of a service member sees things very differently. I made sure they’ve been to Andersonville to see the horrors of what humans can do to each other and Arlington where silent soldiers markers tell the story of the ultimate sacrifice. Here on the other side of the world was another chance for them to see a side of history where there is no glory in war. The Japanese Army used slave labor and prisoners of war to advance their war effort in building the Thai-Burma railway. During construction of the railway and bridge over 100,000 conscripted locals and 12,000 POW’s died.

Our first stop was JEATH War Museum (Japan, England, Australia/America, Thailand and Holland). This is run by a local Buddhist temple and has reconstructed bamboo huts like those used by the POW’s. The hut contains photographs, newspaper articles, paintings by POW’s, weapons and other war memorabilia. It was interesting if not in need of a major overhaul. But I did read a very interesting article about the bridge blowing up – which in reality is nothing like the Hollywood version. Click on this link to read about the harrowing bombing run of the American B-24 Liberator crew http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_ac_hero_c_f_linamen.html who blew up three spans of the steel bridge.

From there we went to the Thailand-Burma Railway centre – this museum was excellent and we all wished we had had more time to go through it. The stories, the exhibits, it was well thought out and well done – and I’m picky about my museums having worked on a couple of NPS exhibits. I would highly recommend this as a must see stop if you’re planning a visit to Kanchanaburi. It is across from the Kanchanaburi Allied Cemetery where 7000 prisoners are buried. For more info you can go to www.tbrconline.com.

Next stop was the railway itself. We were to ride the train from Kanchanaburi up to Thamkrasae where we would have lunch on the river. We had a bit of time before the train arrived and they allow you to walk out onto the bridge. You will notice in the photos that the bridge sections that are rectangular are the replacement sections of the bridge that were blown up by the B-24 crew.

The train ride was one of my favorite things I did while in Thailand. It was nice once you got past the t-shirt vendor, the cap vendor, the tourist photo vendor, the drink vendor … gee did I leave anyone out … everyone in Thailand seems to have their schtick. You traveled through agricultural land with beautiful mountains in the background. We passed by sugar cane fields, tapioca fields, sweet potato fields, banana trees. With no air conditioning and all the windows down, wind whipping through the train cars, the swaying back and forth and the rhythmic clacking of the train and the landscape stretching out for miles – it was an hour and a half meditative journey.

We arrived at Thamkrasae station and had our lunch over looking the river. The lunch was fine, not that it was anything that I would rave about, and it was clearly geared to the tourist crowd. The kids and Jeff walked back over the tracks down to the area that the tracks were along a shear cliff by the river. We returned to Bangkok passing by countless sugar cane trucks with their cargo spilling over the top – this is harvest time for sugar cane. With one more day to go we in Thailand we made plans to hit the weekend market early the next morning.

Till next time, sayonara.

Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha

2010-01-10T13:17:00.000-08:00

The tour of the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew were the highlight of our stay in Bangkok. They were everything we expected and then some. The superlatives are endless – beautiful, breathtaking, majestic and it is hard to describe the vastness of the complex and the powerful impact on visitors. There are the buildings covered in thousands of tiny porcelain pieces and mirrors that glitter and sparkle in the light, there is the polished golden chedi that shimmers and the yaksha’s the brawny guardian giants that guard Wat Phra Kaew where the Emerald Buddha resides and there is the Grand Palace with it’s unique blend of European and Thai architecture. All the guidebooks I’d read, websites I’d researched said this is a “must see” stop if your visiting Bangkok – they were right on the mark. It is not to be missed.

Wat Phra Kaew

Built in 1785 by Rama I , the main building houses the Emerald Buddha, Thailand’s most sacred holy image. No photography is allowed inside the temple and a visitor needs to be briefed in temple etiquette - your feet cannot face towards the Buddha at any time, men must wear pants and shirts, women must have covered shoulders and pants or long skirts. No shoes are allowed within the temple. The Emerald Buddha itself is quite small, measuring only 31-inches tall and is carved from one piece of jade (not emerald). The king is the only person allowed to touch the Emerald Buddha – three times a year he changes the Buddha’s robes for the hot season, the rainy season and the cool season.

Some of the more interesting architectural details we learned about on our visit were:

The Phra Siratana Chedi (the tall polished gold monument)

This is the reliquary said to hold a Buddha relic. There are five purified elements represented in chedi architecture (I’m not sure this particular chedi has all of these qualities):

• the square base represents earth

• the hemispherical dome/vase represents water

• the conical spire represents fire

• the upper lotus parasol and cresecent moon represent air

• the sun and dissolving point represent the element of space

Chofah

A Thai architectural decorative ornament seen at the top of a wat or palace roof. It resembles a tall thin bird and is generally believed to represent the mythical creature Garuda, half bird and half man, who carried the god Vishnu across the sky.

Yakshas

Guardians protecting the Emerald Buddha from evil spirits. Twelve of these 20-foot tall yakshas are dressed in battle attire and are seen throughout the temple compound,

Kinnara/Apsonsi (these terms were both used to describe these golden creatures)

Beautiful mythological creature, half-woman, half swan, with the head and torso of a woman yet below the delicately tapered waist she has the body, tail and legs of a swan.

Grand Palace

Built in 1782, this former royal residence is used today by the king for ceremonial occasions. The palace is a blend of neo-classical architecture and traditional Thai architecture – referred to as “westerner wearing a Thai hat” because each wing is topped with a mondop – a layered heavily ornamented spire.

The visit to the Grand Palace compound was definitely a highlight of our trip to Thailand. The architectural details were fabulous – there was eye candy everywhere I turned. I tried my best to edit down my 100+ photos of Wat Phra Kaew to a more manageable 15 – hope you enjoyed the entry.

Only two more blog entries to go, check back in on my wrap up of our trip to Thailand.

Till next time, sayonara.

Phuket Temples

2010-01-08T17:03:00.000-08:00

What’s a Wat?

A wat is a Buddhist temple or monastery and, in general, is more like a compound than a western equivalent of a church. Many times, a wat will have a temple, school, chedi, bot, and a mondop. A chedi is the conical or bell-shaped tower often with relics of Buddha. The holiest prayer room, or bot, is often where monks take their vows. A mondop is usually a square building with a pyramidal roof, and is used to worship religious texts or objects.

Wat Chalong, Phuket Thailand

We visited Wat Chalong on our first day in Thailand. We were still trying to reconcile our expectations with reality – right off the tour bus we experienced one of these contrasts. Here was this beautiful wat, with traditional Thai architecture built some where in the first half of the 1800’s (the date is debated), when suddenly very loud firecrackers startled us. People were igniting strings of Chinese firecrackers hanging near the wat’s sermon hall. Our tour guide said they do this to give thanks for prayers that have been answered. It was quite loud and a steady stream of firecrackers continued to sound off while we were there. This practice is apparently unique to Wat Chalong.

Buddha details

Mudras - are the hand positions of the Buddha statues. The mudras represent Buddha's teachings or incidents in his life and were created by his disciples who used them to enhance their meditation. There are over 100 different mudras - seen in the photos are 3 of the most common. Meditation - the center Buddha seated in the lotus positions has his hands in his lap with the palms facing upwards, this hand position represents a disciplined mind. Absence of Fear - the Buddha with the arm bent and palm facing out with fingers pointing up represents Buddha’s absence of fear or encouraging courageousness in his followers. Subduing Mara – Mara is a demon who tempted Buddha with visions of beautiful women, the marble Buddha is sitting with his right hand on his right thigh with his left hand palm upward in his lap signifying his renouncement of such worldly desires.

Laksanas - these are the sacred marks that a Buddha's body must display. They usually have slender toes and fingers, a full lion-like chest, long eyelashes and elongated earlobes that is a reminder of the Buddha's original life as a prince, when he wore heavy earrings.

Monkey Temple

At the end of our second day in Phuket we stopped at the Monkey Temple – a frequent stop for those returning from James Bond Island. Somewhere between 50 to 100 monkeys were roaming around outside the temple. They were cute and one could buy bananas to feed the monkeys. Not being terribly fond of monkeys, I was glad for my zoom lens and kept my distance.

The temple itself is a cave with a large reclining Buddha; worshipers believe that a reclining Buddha symbolizes him dying and reaching nirvana simultaneously. The temple is a holy place and a Buddhist monk was there – sitting so still and quietly that at first I didn’t realize he was real. But this was my second Thai Buddhist temple in two days, and I was still struck by how different it is from western churches – you could buy a prayer from a carnival-like vending machine with flashing lights around it. Cats were roaming all around, and bats were hanging from the ceiling – giving the cave a distinct aroma.

The Monkey Temple was the end of our touring in Phuket as a few members of our family came down with Thai Tummy that night, and we ended up staying pretty close to the hotel room for the remainder of our visit in Phuket.

Hey daddy-daddy …

Some of the things that will stay with me from our visit have nothing to do with any “must see” tourist spots. Motor scooters are apparently the equivalent of a family car in Thailand, with the car taxes there making it difficult for most to own cars. Jeff and I were appalled to see moms hanging on the backs of the scooters holding infants in the free arm – no helmets of course (not sure if you can see it, but there a tiny hand peeping out between the two adults that is holding onto the dads shirt - the scooter is holding a family of four). Or the pickups that act as pseudo-buses – I would count the number of people standing in the bed of the truck as they passed us, the most I got to was 15. Thailand is the second largest market for pickups in the world after the U.S.

And the dogs, there were stray dogs everywhere - in Phuket, in Bangkok, in Kanchanburi. Lying in the street, lying on tables, sidewalks and they were pitiful to look at. There are efforts in Thailand to reduce the number of stray dogs and feral cats – for more information you can go to http://www.soidog.org/

But we will have funny stories too – our kids could not wait to get back to the hotel and tell me about how Jeff got propositioned with the kids in tow walking down the streets of Patong, by a “scantily clad woman” hanging outside of a bar. “Hey, daddy-daddy you get rid of kids, come back see me later.” Mmmmm – well this was supposed to be an educational vacation afterall, just not sure we were planning on explaining that one to our 11-year-old daughter quite yet! Or, the beach that Jeff took two of the three recovering victims to for a last ditch effort to go snorkeling – only to discover that this particular beach was “european style” – we were already trying to wrap our heads around the very senior men who walked the streets and rode the scooters in nothing but their Speedos (eeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuwwwwww), not sure we needed that visual too!

There are a few more entries to wrap up our trip to Thailand. Check back in to hear about our visit to the Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha in Bangkok, our excursion trip to the Death Railway and our last day when we visited the Chatuchak weekend market, with over 15,000 vendors.

Till next time, sayonara.

Phang Nga Bay

2010-01-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

On our second day in Thailand, we caught an early bus and rode for about 1.5 hours to a tiny inlet where we caught a longboat that would take us out to the Phang Nga Bay sea caves, to James Bond Island, and for lunch at the floating Muslim village of Koh Panyi. As we made way towards the huge limestone monoliths, known as Karsts, they appeared to rise from the water far off in the distance The scenery was beautiful, passing through mangrove forests said to be the largest in Thailand. There are more than 40 limestone islands rising 1000 feet out of the water that were breathtaking. But it was not a peaceful ride – the longboats are loud, I was starting to wonder if the decibel level was some sort of outboard motor alpha-male status – sort of “mine’s louder than yours.” And if you sit in the front of the boat you will get wet; we were all drenched by the end of the day.

Sea Caves

You have to time your visit according to the tides in order to be able to enjoy the cave formations. Our kayaking guide took us in and out of nooks and crannies carved out by centuries of water from the bay. At times, we had to lie on our backs to give us enough clearance to get into the cave areas. This is certainly a high destination spot for tourists – if you’re looking for quiet solitude you won’t find it here. We had to wait our turn to get into some of the caves and experienced kayak-jams. This area is definitely a commercial enterprise with several sea canoe outfitters and a floating “7-11” that you could stop by and quench your thirst (see photo). Even having said that, I would recommend this stop on the way to James Bond Island. It was nice to get off the longboat and see a bit more of nature up close and personal.

If you are planning a trip to Phang Nga Bay and would like to do a bit of background reading I would highly recommend checking out Bangkok Babylon by Jeffrey Hopkins, and the story of “Caveman” John Gray. Gray formed one of the original sea canoe companies to take tourists out to the caves. Very interesting story and gives you a much better take on the ins and outs of doing business in Thailand.

Koh Phing Kan aka James Bond Island

This area of Phang Nga Bay was made famous in 1974 with the James Bond movie Man with the Golden Gun. Knowing that it is part of a national park, I had envisioned a quiet moment to sit and reflect on the beauty of the islands. I should have known better. The stop for taking pictures is crawling with tourists – like a bunch of ants on an anthill. The longboats and speedboats pull in and out at a quick pace to let off boatloads of tourists with cameras in hand. You practically tumble out of the boat into rows of tourist stalls selling their wares – James Bond Island t-shirts, postcards, beads, jewelry – “You buy? You buy?” as they follow along beside you.

We took our photos and we will be able to watch the movie and know that we were there, so I suppose that’s a good thing, but with so much tourist traffic on the island I have to wonder what the long term effects on the island will be …

Koh Panyi - Muslim Fishing Village

The boat took us from James Bond Island to the Muslim Fishing Village of Koh Panyi where they had a meal already prepared for us. This village is built on stilts and has about 1200 residents. The meal was decent and clearly they cater to the tourist trade with our tour boat being one of many arriving in during the lunch hour.

With much of the day behind us we headed back to shore by longboat. There was one more stop for the day – the Monkey Temple. Check back in tomorrow for more about our visit there and to the wat in Phuket.

Till next time, sayonara.

Thai Rubber Plantations

2010-01-04T22:45:00.000-08:00

One of the side trips we took in Phuket was a stop at a Rubber Plantation. We had seen the acres and acres of the rubber trees growing along side the highways with the small cups attached to their trunks to collect the sap. Truthfully, I had not given much thought to rubber production prior to our trip but you could hardly ignore the vast stretches of trees planted row upon row. Turns out, Thailand is the world’s biggest producer of rubber.

Our guide told us the trees are cut through the bark at an angle to a certain depth to release the milky white sap. The sap runs into coconut halves where it is collected each day. The cut is made in the middle of the night, which is apparently when the most sap is released. The trees do not begin producing the sap until they 6 to 7 years old and they can continue production for 25-30 years.

The roadside stop to this rubber plantation was actually quite interesting. For some of us, this was one of the more interesting stops on our trip – rubber is something that is integral to our daily lives, whether it’s the latex gloves Jeff uses at the hospital or the tires we have on our cars and bikes, and I knew nothing about where natural rubber came from (doing my research for this entry I did discover that there is synthetic rubber production for these products as well but that it is tied to the oil industry).

The workers demonstrated how the sap is poured into flat tubs and mixed with formic acid which causes the rubber to become solid – and is shaped into a round flattened ball. This is then pressed through two cylinders several times into the shape of a small mat (you can see Jeff and Walker pulling one of these mats against each other in the photo). The mats are hung out to dry and change from the milky white color to a light to dark brown color. The mats are usually bought by middle-men who collect them and take them to factories where car tires and latex gloves are produced.

Perhaps some of us enjoyed this stop so much because it was a nice break from all the tourist-traps that seem to be as abundant as the sand on the beach in Phuket. Sure the owner had his little gift shop but for once thankfully, there was no pressure to buy.

This was the first stop on a long day, we headed to Phang Nga Bay from here where "James Bond Island" is located. Tune in tomorrow to read about our next Thailand adventure.

Till next time, sayonara.

Spirit Houses or San Phra Phum

2010-01-04T22:33:00.000-08:00

Throughout our tour of Thailand we saw these miniature houses outside of homes, businesses, restaurants, hotels, and like much of this land filled with contrasts, you could see extremes – from the down right opulent miniature palace to the plain and simple traditional Thai-style house.

These are small shrines to animist spirits - every dwelling has one. They are placed in an auspicious location, usually a corner of the property on which the shadow of the main dwelling will not fall. They are located high above the ground – almost all with a ladder leading up to Spirit House. They are high enough to show the respect for the spirits that reside within, but low enough for offerings to be made.

Over 90% of the Thai people practice Theravada Buddhism. But as our guide tried to explain, spirit houses are neither Buddhist, nor Muslim, they are just Thai – with a blending of different religions that are not in conflict with each other. These are shrines to what is known as Animist spirits – the belief that not just humans and animals that have souls but also plants, rocks, rivers. Offerings are made to the spirits in order to appease them or to make a request - for a job or to have safe travels. The offerings are usually flowers, or water, or food.

The houses usually have small figures or symbols that live within the center of the spirit house. Various animal figures like elephants, furniture and figures of people such as a married couple can be found on the Spirit House as well. The balcony which usually surrounds the spirit house can have incense holders, candle sticks and/or vases for flowers.

Till next time, sayonara.

Thailand Trip

2010-01-04T21:59:00.000-08:00

Thailand is a land of contrasts. This trip was what we were expecting and at the same time it was nothing like we had imagined. Parts of our trip were interesting, equally there were parts of our trip that in time we hope to forget. Over the next week I will post highlights from our 10-day visit to the country known as the Land of 1000 Smiles.

I have always wanted to go to Thailand. When I was in 4^th grade I made a book for a school assignment on the top 10 countries I wanted to visit – there are only a handful of countries that I remember, Thailand is one of them. Maybe to a 9-year-old it was exotic. Perhaps watching The King and I fueled my childhood imagination about far off places and architecture shimmering in gold – whatever it was, a visit to Thailand for me had always been on my wish-list.

We were able to do a lot of what we wanted in Thailand – ride an elephant; go to Kanchanaburi, home to the infamous death railway and where The Bridge over the River Kwai took place; see the Emerald Buddha and Grand Palace in Bangkok; go to James Bond Island; visit the Chatuchak Weekend Market and the Jim Thompson House. But there were things we did not get to do … and I won’t whine about that too much because we did after all get to go to Thailand. But traveler beware, even with extreme caution - no ice, only bottled water, no salads - some in our family got hit, and hit hard with Thai Tummy. All seasoned travelers probably have their tales to tell … our kids will certainly have theirs. I am not too sure we’ll be able to get a couple of them outside of Japan ever again – unless their suitcase is stocked with MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) and a water purification system attached to their Camel Backs. That was about the time that the question arose “what’s a third-world country?”

Developing Country, NIC or Third-World?

You look at the travel books and go online and see the websites and of course you know in the back of your mind everything has been edited (or touched by Photoshop)… but it’s not until you come face to face with reality that your brain registers a disconnect. There are of course the beautiful wats, the impressive urban shopping areas in Bangkok and the rapid transit system we found easy to use, clean and at least on the day we used it primarily filled with westerners. But from our hotel you could see shantytowns, the streets were a far cry from pristine and the street odor at times could be overwhelming, and for all the new construction and modern hotels and office buildings the streets were also lined with concrete buildings in desperate need of a whitewash – there was depressing squalor everywhere. As I mentioned, one of our boys asked “what’s a country a third-world country?” (darn those kids for keeping me on my toes), after sort of skirting around the issue I finally had to admit that I would need to get home and look it up – or better yet, he should look it up! For those of you who are like me and too much time has passed between your last World History/Economics class and today, here's the very brief run down: third-world is apparently cold-war terminology, when the world was divided up into First-world (U.S. allied countries), Second-world (Soviet allied communist countries) and Third-world (all the others). Today the U.N., WTO and IMF classify what were then called Third-world countries into Newly-Industrialized Countries (NIC’s) or Developing Countries – but believe me it is not as black and white as all that, and I am certainly no economist having detested all 5 of the econ classes I had to suffer through in college - if you want to know more you’ll have to do your own research. But the information I was searching for is where exactly does Thailand fall in all of this? Thailand is a NIC. They have a constitutional monarchy, their king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, is the longest reigning monarch in the world and by all accounts beloved by his countrymen, and Thailand is the only Southeast Asian nation never colonized by Europeans’ - something they are fiercely proud of. Their economy has moved from primarily an agricultural one to one of exports for goods such as garments, footwear, furniture, jewelry and technology products. However, they are the top (or second, depending on the data you look at) producer of rice in the world. While more than 15 million of their population earns less than the United Nations measure for poverty levels (that’s roughly 25% of the population) and there are 1200 officially designated slum neighborhoods in Bangkok alone – Thailand makes up for it in their social services with the official UN poverty figure of 9.8%. Just FYI, that’s better than the UN rates the U.S. at 12% – guess those social services rank high with those crazy UN folks.

So there you have it in a coconut shell … more about Thailand than you may have wanted to know but it helps to set the stage for what we saw during our visit. Why we continued to be baffled by our expectations vs. reality. Hope you can check back in throughout the week and enjoy the visit to Thailand.

Forewarned is Forearmed

2010-01-02T03:05:00.000-08:00

Many of you have asked about celebrating American holidays here in Japan - do we celebrate Halloween (yes, on base), Thanksgiving (yes, on base) and Christmas (yes - but outside the gate it is more of a secular celebration than a religious one).

One of the first pieces of advice I received upon arriving here in Japan was "stock up on butter." Really? Apparently for those who have lived here a while they still recall The Butter Shortage. Seriously. For some unknown reason the commissary was out of butter starting before Thanksgiving until after Christmas a few years back. Holiday bakers were apparently having a major crisis. And so, following this advice I stocked up on butter (5 lbs in my freezer) and have now crossed the line from "be prepared" to "be a hoarder."

Hoarding

My friends and family know that I do not like to keep unnecessary items - "purging is cathartic"- could be one of my mantras. Stocking up is against my nature - which is probably why we don't belong to places like Costco, I start to hyperventilate when I enter those places - there's just too much stuff. However, apparently to survive here on base during the holiday season (which starts here around Labor Day when the Halloween candy comes out) one must become a hoarder in order to make it through the holidays without having to grovel for let's say ... cocoa. This year apparently the item "to have" - instead of the latest Coach purse or Jimmy Choo shoes is baking cocoa. At social events you could hear the whispered conversations of “where did you get the white chocolate for Peppermint Bark?” or “You have baking cocoa?! How did you get that?”… “The commissary has been out since October and they're not getting any more in?!” “If you’re really desperate, I heard “so-and-so” has some in her pantry … she’s a hoarder.”

Pumpkins, Turkeys, and Christmas Trees

I have been given many good pieces of advice since arriving – some of which include:

• buy your Halloween candy as soon as you see it out, and set a price limit - you will never have enough.

• buy your turkey as soon as you see it in the commissary, last year they ran out (I bought mine right after Halloween).

• buy your Christmas tree Thanksgiving weekend when they go on sale. They will run out by December 1.

For someone who tends to procrastinate when it comes to these sorts of things – this forced holiday preparation is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s sort of like preparing for a hurricane back east, where you have an emergency kit to survive for a week with food items that need little prep only here it would include things like canned pumpkin – because I was told they ran out last year before Thanksgiving and they never received another shipment. Or, Halloween candy – you’d better get it the first week it’s out or you may not be able to get any. Oh, and you can’t buy enough Halloween candy because they open the base up to Japanese guests – this year we had over 600 pieces of candy and the advice I was given was one piece per child. I didn’t even make it an hour – that’s more than 10 kids a minute! It was madness.

I had our Thanksgiving Turkey in the freezer for a month before Thanksgiving, which meant I had room for very little else what with the 5 lbs of butter already being stockpiled. And our Christmas tree, we went to Nikko Thanksgiving weekend but you can bet we managed to stop by and get our Christmas tree – the kids were confused “but we’ve never gotten our tree this early.” I think mom's holiday preparedness freaked them out just a bit - I can just hear them thinking "Who is this woman? Where's my mom who would run out to Target on Halloween to buy candy and then come home to carve the pumpkins and hope somehow it would all be done before the first trick-or-treater arrived?"

It is amazing though when you think about it, that the commissary actually ship pumpkins, turkeys, and Christmas trees all the way across the Pacific so that we can enjoy our American holidays here – and yes, we do have to pay for them Koggie – the pumpkins were so expensive I was relieved (but also somewhat saddened) that our boys decided this year they did not want a pumpkin to carve.

You can take the Southerner out of the South but not the South ...

Most people that meet me are genuinely surprised that I am a Southerner – whatever accent I had has all but faded over the 25+ years of moving all across the U.S. There is the occasional “y’all” that will slip out and I’ve been told if I have “enjoyed a few glasses” my words start to sound southern, it’s in there – deeply embedded. There are some things that a true southerner just could not do without – one being, bringing in the new year with greens and blackeyed peas. Thank goodness someone out there knows that a certain portion of the military population was raised “south of the Potomac” – as my mom would say – and as a southerner you absolutely cannot bring in the New Year without Collard Greens (for money) and Blackeyed Peas (for good luck). The Commissary had fresh Collard Greens (thank God because I’m not sure I could swallow canned greens, I think that’s some sort of southern sacrilege) and plenty of blackeyed peas. Our family sat down to our New Year’s Day Dinner of Luck and Money and I took quiet pleasure knowing that this annual tradition continues despite being half way around the world from my southern roots.

Shortages? Bring it On.

None of us know what 2010 will bring. I love the end of one year and the start of another – the end and the beginning – see sidebar quote from T.S. Eliot. Jeff mentioned on the 31st as he was walking out the door to work “What? You look pensive.” (which I know unsettles him … when he sees me staring off and thinking – it’s like oh no, here it comes she’s going to want to repaint the living room for the third time or tear up the entire backyard and landscape or decide to throw herself full steam ahead into training for another tri). “No, I said, I’m just reflecting.” I enjoy looking back on the last year and taking stock. Almost as much as looking forward to the New Year with all the anticipation and hope that new beginnings bring.

Will we have butter/cocoa/turkey shortages in 2010? Who knows, and honestly I don’t care – I can learn to make do. Looking back over the last year I am reminded how much we have to be thankful for and it has nothing to do with how much butter I had stashed in our freezer. It was much more about what we do have, like our friends and family that were there for us, helping our military family make an international move and bring us together again – and for that we are forever grateful.

I wish my friends and family much Luck and Money in the new year. And, new beginnings.

Till next time, sayonara.

Nikko

2009-12-06T12:33:00.000-08:00

Grab a cup of coffee ... this entry is a long one.

After our side trip to the pottery town of Mashiko last week we headed for Nikko. As we made our way towards Nikko, we could see the mountains in the distance. It was a race against the sun for us - what looked on the map to be a short distance and an easy route ended up for us to be a marathon drive of stop lights and nearly missed turns. There is a bit of excitement about driving here - aside from the whole other side of the road thing. It's the constant vigilance the navigator needs to maintain. We were following what looked like to be the equivalent of a state road back home - you know, the kind that has the state road route number at every intersection and then shortly after an intersection another marker letting you know that yes, you did make the correct turn and you're on the right road. Well, I'm sure the Japanese must be clued in, but for 2 Americans we still haven't quite figured out their system.

Most of the ride went something like this:

Jeff (navigator) "you want to take a right coming up here ... I think"

Jane (driver) "where? here? I don't see the route number!"

Jeff "no wait, go straight"

Jane "no, I think you're right, I see the route number! We're supposed to turn."

Jeff "no - go straight!"

Jane "no, look - between the trucks going by, you can see the route number on the telephone pole (it was about the size of an index card)"

Jeff "right, I see it, o.k. turn right!"

Thank God the kids were all connected to technology and had their head phones on. Mitchell and Walker were probably just wishing they could beam themselves the hell out of this car, and Wrenn, in the way back, was trying hard to fight off motion sickness from all the stopping from traffic lights.

We finally reach Nikko, but in the dark. We went through what looked like some really beautiful forests but the roads were very narrow and it was dark and I was trying to stay focused on not getting sideswiped by oncoming traffic. When I say narrow, I mean really, really narrow. At one point I flipped the switch to have the side view mirrors fold in because the on coming traffic (trucks - clearly much more comfortable traveling at high speeds on narrow winding roads in the dark than I) seemed to be uncomfortably close when they passed by (why is it we suck in our breath when vehicles come so close to us? It's not like we actually believe we will somehow make the car skinnier ... just something to ponder).

We arrived at the Turtle Inn Annex, our first Ryokan - a Japanese style hotel and slept on tatami mats and futons. It was a nice place, very clean and English friendly and I would recommend a stay there. It turns out to be a popular place with the Yokosuka crowd as I ran into two people that I know that were also up for the weekend. If you'd like to see the Turtle Inn visit: www.turtle-nikko.com

It was a clear night and quite chilly – I think all of us wished we had packed a few extra layers as we walked to the closest restaurant (Chinese!). Along the way we could hear rushing water. I love that sound – when we went to the Mt. Fuji Fire Festival we heard it as we walked along the streets. It speaks of nature and power to me – the rushing water coming down from the mountains. After dinner we returned to the ryokan and with not much to do we decided to call it an evening. FYI - if you are thinking of trying out a ryokan you need to adjust your western mindset – if we had wanted to watch the tv, we would have had to feed coins into a slot. There were no reading lamps to hang out and read in “bed” by. We were all lamenting the fact that we had not thought to bring our Uno cards. As one friend here said, staying at a ryokan is like paying $300 for the privledge of camping inside. Don’t get me wrong – we liked where we stayed and yes it was pricey – you just have to know what you’re in for and adjust your western expectations.

Temple or Shrine?

For the Westerner, it may at first be hard to distinguish between a Shinto Shrine and a Buddhist Temple. I suppose for someone coming to the states from Japan it may be something like trying to figure out what the difference is between a Baptist Church and a Greek Orthodox Cathedral. In Japan about 84% of the population follow Shinto and Buddhist teachings. Disclaimer: I am putting out a disclaimer right now - I am not a student of world religions nor am I an authority of Japanese religion. The information below is only as good as what I was able to glean from the internet and a couple of books I have on Japan and it is given in the spirit of trying to help my friends and family follow along on our journey in Nikko. If you would like to know more, these two websites were most helpful in my research: www.taleofgenji.org/japanese_temples.html and www.jref.com/glossary/shinto_traditions.shtml

Shrine

Shinto is the native religion of Japan and almost everyone in Japan at some point in their life is involved in a Shinto ritual. Newborn children are presented at a shrine and most marriage ceremonies in Japan are at a Shinto Shrine. Shinto beliefs are based on "The Way of the Gods" - rooted in animist folk religion it stresses the importance of harmony between humans and nature. It has no doctrine or scriptures, instead worshippers are moved by awe and reverence. The shrines are usually located in beautiful natural settings but the buildings are usually modest traditional Japanese style, the grounds feature large expanses of gravel. The priesthood is a hereditary post serving the community by maintaining the shrine. A Shinto shrine is recognizable by the torii (the distinctive Japanese gate), which is there to act as part of the barrier to separate our living world and the world the kami (gods/nature spirits/spiritual presence) live in. There are often two guardian animals placed at each side of the gate and they serve to protect the entrance.

Temple

Buddhism is a religion and a philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices that are largely based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as Buddha (Enlightened One). Of the 300 million Buddhists worldwide, about a third of them are Japanese. According to the teachings of Buddhism all life is suffering, the cause lies in attachment, desire and ignorance - the remedy is found is abstinence, righteousness, learning and meditation - the steps along the path to enlightenment. There is also Karma - where the path or conduct you choose in this life determines the quality of your reincarnation in the next life. After death, those who have attained enlightenment break the karmic cycle of suffering and enter nirvana, a blissful state of higher consciousness. Buddhism was brought to Japan over 14 centuries ago, and there are several different sects but the Zen philosophy may have had the most influence on the culture of Japan that is still apparent today. Zen's focus is on austere self-discipline, frugality, and hard work. Especially appealing to the samauri, it gained wide popularity through the 15th-17th centuries. The Zen philosophy brought innovations to calligraphy, poetry and painting; invented the tea ceremony and reinvented the art of flower arranging (see previous blog entry on Ikebana).

Nikko

The Shrines and Temples of Nikko are a designated World Heritage Site by UnESCO (United Nations Educations, Scientific and Cultural Organization). They are a sacred site and known for its architectural and artistic genius from the Edo period. The shrines and temples, along with their envionment are an outstanding example of a traditional Japanese religious centre. The Shinto perception of the relationship of man with nature, in which mountains and forests have a sacred meaning and are objects of “veneration” in a religious practice that is still very much alive today. For more about this World Heritage Site visit: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/913

Tosho-gu Shrine

This complex consists of more than a dozen Shinto and Buddhist buildings set in a beautiful cedar forest. Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Ieyasu was the first shogun to unite Japan, and his Tokugawa shogunate ruled Japan for over 250 years until 1868. The significance of this site to the history of Japan cannot be underestimated, in one blog I read on the site it gave the analogy of Americans visiting the homes of George Washington and/or Thomas Jefferson. Initially the mausoleum for Ieyasu was a simple complex, following the request of Ieyasu at the time of his death, but just over 20 years after his death Ieyasu's grandson, Iemitsu, had a much different idea. He enlisted some 15,000 craftsman who used more that 2.5 million sheets of gold leaf in the lavish decoration of the complex. There are more than 5173 sculptures in Toshogu Shrine complex.

The Nikko Shrines and Temples are in an cedar forest – beautiful ancient cedars surround you as you walk through the complex. Even with the crowds, there was a peaceful serenity to the place, with the Shinto beliefs of harmony between humans and nature apparently taking hold. It was a brisk morning, the scent of the cedars and the faint smell of insense in the air, and a bright blue clear sky – it was a perfect morning to enjoy the Tosho-gu Shrine. Jeff and I both commented about how we wished we knew more about what we were looking at - and it wasn't until we were driving out of town that we saw the visitors information center that I'm sure had a lot of useful information for English speakers. Sigh. Next time we'll know better. Most of what follows is what I found out after we came home - and then had the aha moment of why so many Japanese were standing in a group all taking pictures. Luckily, I followed along and took pictures too!

Ishidorii – Torii Stone Gate

The Ishidorii is one of the best three stone-made torii gates in Japan, but it is the biggest among the stone-made torii gates in Edo period.

The Five Storied Pagoda

Located just past the Ishidorii (Stone Gate), there are no floors inside – each story is connected directly.

Omotemon and Nioh

The Nioh, which are 4 meters high, are put on either side of the Omotemon. The Nioh is a pair of Deva Kings, and are guardians of Buddhism.

Sanjinko – Three Sacred Warehouses

Kamijinko (Upper Sacred Warehouse), Nakajinko (Middle), Saijo (Sacred Rest Room),

Imaginary Elephant

There are two big sculptures of elephant on the gable of the Kamijinko. However, ears and tails are different from the real elephant because the chief painter, Tanyu Kano had not ever seen the real elephant when he painted. Therefore, those sculptures were called the Imaginary Elephant.

Shinyosha (Sacred Stable)

There are 8 panels that contain sculptures of monkeys which express the ways of life. The most famous of which is the “See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil.” Monkey spirits were once believed to protect horses.

Karadou-torii – Bronze Gate of Torii

The Karadou-torii was the first bronze Torii in Japan. In today’s currency the grandson of Shogun Iemitsu spent 200,000,000 yen to have it made. There are Lotus flowers carved on the foot of the pillars, which is unusual since the lotus relates to Buddhism (vs. Shinto).

Yomeimon Gate (Gate of Sunlight)

The Yomeimon gate is designated as a national treasure with more than 400 gilt carvings divided up into categories of sages, immortals, chinese children, animals, imaginary animals, flower, birds and patterns. There is apparently a law for the arrangement of these carvings. The photos just do not do this masterpiece justice. On a beautiful fall morning, with the sun glinting off of the gold it was a breathtaking site.

Kitouden (Prayer Hall)

In 1872, the Meiji government ordered Buddhist temples to be separated from Shinto shrines, but this building was excused from the order. One of the uses today is for wedding ceremonies and as I was walking back from the Okusha Inner Shrine a group of us were stopped to let a wedding party pass by - now how cool is that?! In this beautiful setting I had the opportunity to see a Japanese bride dressed in the traditional white wedding kimono called shiromuku (white kimono robe). Maybe it was the setting, the kimono, but I thought she looked beautiful.

Sleeping Cat

The master craftsman, Jingorou Hidari carved the Sleeping Cat which lies at the entrance of Okusha Inner Shrine and is designated as a National Treasure. There is a sculpture of a sparrow on the backside of the Sleeping Cat. The sparrow will be eaten if the cat is awake. However, the sparrow and the cat co-exist, meaning that the nation wide chaos is over and a peaceful society now exists. Sorry folks, I did not get a picture of this because I did not know the story until I did my blog research - it just means I'll have to go back when friends or family come to visit.

Rinnoji Temple

Rinnoji Temple is not a name of the building, but it is the generic name of Buddhist temples in Nikko. The central building of Rinnoji Temple is the Sanbutsu-doh Hall. Sanbutsu can be translated as three Buddhas. In fact, three images of Buddha are enshrined inside. The temple's main building, the Sanbutsudo, houses large, gold lacquered, wooden statues of Amida, Senju-Kannon ("Kannon with a thousand arms") and Bato-Kannon ("Kannon with a horse head"). The three deities are regarded as Buddhist manifestations of Nikko's three mountain kami ("Shinto gods") enshrined at Futarasan Shrine. You are not allowed to take photos of the Buddha’s inside the temple – so you’ll have to take my word for it, they were quite impressive.

We made our way through most of the complex, visiting the Futarasan Shrine and the Rinnoji Taiyun Temple and you can see the slideshow that has photos from these two areas. It was a long day, and after a seemingly endless amounts of walking (I counted just over 120 steps up to the Rinnoji Taiyun Temple – darn, why didn’t I have my step counter on?!) we decided to stop at a restaurant on our way out of town. Glad we did because it was probably the best meal we’ve had so far in Japan.

Hippari Dako

Hippari Dako is a little, teeny restaurant with only 3 tables, located on the main street and if someone hadn’t told me about it we probably would have passed it right by. It appears to be a favorite among westerner’s by the walls that were covered with business cards from people who have come from all over the world. Jeff and I had the vegetarian tempura which was awesome, Mitchell had the Udon Noodle Soup, Wrenn the Gyoza (dumplings) and Walker the Chicken Yakitori. All the plates were empty – so that would be a first for us here in Japan – a resounding 5 thumbs-up from the Cleary’s.

With a 4 hour drive ahead of us, we headed home, hoping against all odds that Tokyo traffic wouldn’t be too painful. It was a great trip, I think we all appreciated the beauty of shrines and temples of Nikko and would highly recommend a visit here. Till next time, sayonara.

Daisei Gama

2009-12-02T18:17:00.000-08:00

With a 4-day Thanksgiving weekend ahead of us, and Jeff itching to get off the base, we decided to head north to Nikko, with a side trip planned to Mashiko.

I had been to Mashiko about 2 weeks ago (see previous entry), and when Jeff saw the photos there was some grumbling about “all the cool places you’re getting to see while I’m stuck here on base.” So I thought if we were headed to Nikko we could take a side trip over to Mashiko on our way. I sent an email ahead to the Daisei Gama Pottery – asking if it was possible for us to have a tour of the pottery studio. Not being sure if they had received my email we showed up hoping for the best.

When we entered the shop area it was deserted, but within a few moments Mosako Otsuka walked in and she remembered me and said that if we could wait until 1 p.m. that she and her son would give us a tour. We were served green tea with some little candies and crackers while we waited and Otsuka-san told us a little about the history of the Daisei Gama kiln and the different types of glazes that Mashiko is known for. It was all quite interesting.

The Daisei Gama has been in the Otsuka family for seven generations. They are the last pottery studio in Mashiko to continue using the wood fired kilns, with the other studios moving to either gas or electric. The area is known for their golden brown glaze, which she said is also known as the Persimmon glaze, for the fruit found in that area. There is usually a celadon glaze that is used as an accent or contrasting glaze.

With time to spare before our tour, we all carefully selected individual teacups and looked around the studio at the beautiful work. I found some gorgeous vases that I could envision Ikebana arrangements in – but as Jeff will clearly point out, I have a way of “falling in love” with the most expensive items on display. I will be saving my Yen from my teaching and will make a point of returning to Mashiko before our time here in Japan has ended. There is a beautiful vase there that has my name on it.

Seiichi Otsuka, the son, entered and with introductions made he took us on a tour of the stepping kiln. We learned about the firings – they are getting ready for their next bisque firing – and how when they are firing the pottery with the glazes they have these little “thermometers” that are inside the kiln. When the temperature reaches a certain point one of the peaks melts and with a very limited range of only a few degrees the second one melts – this very small range is where they need to keep the kiln at for the firing of their pottery. The picture shows what they look like after they come out of the kiln.

After the stepping kiln tour, we went behind the scenes to see one of their apprentices working on the wheel. He was making one of the parts to a traditional Japanese teapot. The kids each had a turn at sitting on the kick wheel, and getting a feel for what it would be like to use their foot power to spin the wheel. Mosako returned to guide us up the hill behind the studio and kiln where her husband, the master potter Kuninori Otsuka, was chopping wood for the kiln as well as burning wood for the ash they use to make the glazes. As Mosako Otsuka said, when it is a family run studio they have to do it all.

With the tour over we made our purchases and said our good-byes. My return trip to the Daisei Gama pottery studio was as wonderful as my first visit. It helps of course that both Seiichi and Mosako speak English, Seiichi is fluent having spent a year in the United States as an exchange student when he was younger. But not having the language barrier is only a small part of the delight in visiting this studio – the obvious joy they take in making their work and sharing their knowledge is infectious. This was my second visit, but it is most definitely not my last.

We headed back to the car and started the journey towards Nikko. With map in hand we chose to go the scenic route … mmmm, well we're not so sure we choose wisely. Look for the next posting to find out more.

Till next time, sayonara.

Mashiko

2009-11-22T16:06:00.000-08:00

Mashiko is a small town located in the Tochigi Prefecture, about 2.5 hours north of Tokyo. It is known for it’s rustic, utilitarian pottery and became famous when Hamada Shoji settled there. He became a National Living Treasure here in Japan and was part of the Mingei movement (see previous blog entry on the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum). I had the opportunity to travel with a group from the base, and unlike my previous trips I did not do my homework before getting on the bus – I pretty much went to Mashiko blind, not having a clue what to expect. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

As we left the Tokyo area behind us, there was a distinct shift – the concrete buildings faded away, more traditional Japanese houses were visible and there was much more breathing space. It became more rural and quite lovely. Once we left the highway and started to wind our way towards Mashiko, on very narrow roads, there were photo ops galore. Beautiful Japanese homes surrounded by lovely gardens and fields; a Bamboo grove; a Persimmon tree with all the leaves gone but the brightly colored red-orange fruit was still dangling in contrast – this was the first time since arriving in Japan four months ago that I realized this is what I imagined Japan would look like. We arrived in Mashiko and our bus parked in the center of town. Our guide (who is another Navy spouse and has traveled extensively throughout Japan) provided us with a map of the area and set us loose with a 3-hour time frame. There are over 400 pottery studios in Mashiko and unlike my trip to Seto (see blog entry) we were there during the middle of the week and there was not a pottery festival going on. It was a cool, overcast Fall day and the streets were fairly empty – so with map in hand my friend Ami and I started to make tracks, knowing 3 hours would barely make a dent in all there was to see.

The plan of attack was to head down one side of the main street and when we hit the 1.5 hour mark start to head back. Well something caught Ami’s eye and she crossed the street and I followed – what great luck, because if we had headed down the original path we may never have reached the Daisei-Gama pottery studio and kiln within our deadline. Instead it was one of the first places we went into and I fell in love. Most of my photos are from this studio and the work there clearly spoke to me. I hovered over Sake sets and bowls (still not sure which are for rice and which were for miso soup) – but with not much time and this only the second stop on our whirlwind tour, I decided I would wait and see if I saw something else making note to allow enough time to come back.

There were many shops, some with similar work, and with my very limited Japanese it was hard for me to know if they were just a shop selling many different artists work or if their work was by a resident potter. Like in Seto, I favor buying work from the artist – I like to look back on my purchases and remember the artist I bought the work from, the piece then has so much more meaning to me.

At the very end of the street there was a building tucked back from the street that is an indigo dyeing shop. Here is where I kick myself for not having done my homework … it is Higeta Cottage and shop and you can take workshops explaining the traditional indigo dyeing technique. Sadly for me, when I arrived they must have been taking a lunch break because there was no one to be seen. But now that I have their name and number I will have to go back before my time is up here in Japan.

With time ticking I made my way back up the street, determined to get back to the Daisei-Gama Kiln. I am not a potter, and truthfully I know very little about the process – I certainly appreciate the craft though, having watched Greg, one of my studio mates at The Hermitage, create like magic, art out of clay. But even someone as unfamiliar as I am with the process would be able to see the beauty in the work at this studio. The lady who was helping me make my selections was very helpful and thankfully spoke English. They take a lot of time and care in wrapping their packages and while she wrapped mine I wandered around the store, kicking myself for not having brought more Yen with me. The next thing I knew I was being offered some tea and was sitting at a small table with 3 Japanese Nationals – who I gathered spoke about as much English as I spoke Japanese. So we just sat and smiled at each other while the shop owner acted as our translator. After they had made their purchase and left the shop I asked about a beautiful Sake tray (or she said I could use it as a cheeseboard) – but as lovely as it was I explained I was out of Yen. She uttered the magic words – “oh, we take Visa!” Yes! With time now ticking and with much help I selected 5 bowls for us, each slightly different. And with help from her son, who spoke flawless English (he had spent some time in the states as an exchange student) they quickly wrapped things up and I hurried to make my bus in time.

Once home, I told Jeff about what a wonderful experience I had had that day and how I wanted us all to go back to Mashiko and in particular to the Daisei-Gama kiln and studio. Through some help from one of his co-workers who is fluent in Japanese, we found out the name of the artist - OTSUKA, Kuniyori (I hope I have that spelled correctly) - and that it is a family run kiln. This particular kiln is the last wood-burning kiln in the village of Mashiko and has apprenticed many world famous potters. The colors of the pieces from this kiln are complex, and it can take up to a week to complete the glaze process. If I understood correctly, they have a firing (?) 2 to 3 times a year – I hope that we can come back to see that – especially after being shown 2 pieces with the same glaze but they looked quite different because of their placement within the kiln. I am quite intrigued.

It was a great day and the pieces I purchased that day I will treasure. Mashiko was definitely one of the high points so far on my journey here in Japan.

Till next time, sayonara.

International Quilt Week Yokohama 2009

2009-11-18T21:11:00.000-08:00

This week was one of the largest quilt shows in Japan. I knew about the Tokyo Quilt Show, it’s already on my 2010 calendar, but I was not aware of the Yokohama show. Thank goodness my friend Kathy, savvy Gaijin that she is, not only knew about the show but had planned an outing to attend. Sign me up!

Upon exiting the subway we had a fairly good idea which way to head but it became obvious as we followed the masses. It was like a slow flowing river with all these side tributaries feeding in, flowing in a steady stream towards fabric, buttons, and lots of inspiration.

I’ve mentioned in previous blogs about the Japanese attention to details, so it should have come as no surprise upon entering the exhibit hall you immediately saw these huge patchwork balls and then looking up with out a doubt the largest quilt I have ever seen (see slides). The message was clear – this was not going to be like any quilt show I’ve seen in the U.S. (just in case any quilters out there get all riled up – no, I have not been to Houston – but I have been to quite a few nationally ranked shows, Mancusco does a nice job but they should come here and take some notes). The quilts are displayed like a real exhibit (not hanging on what is basically curtains), with exhibit walls and proper lighting – now maybe that sounds a bit picky, but all my fellow quilters out there will know exactly what I’m talking about. It makes a HUGE difference in how the quilts show.

We enjoyed the quilts immensely. As usual, I was fascinated by the many different techniques and stood there wondering, “now how did she do that?” My photos are of the entrants, none of the professional quilts nor the special exhibits were available to photograph. The octopus quilt you see in the slide show was one of the three grand prize winners. It was drop dead gorgeous. The attention to detail was amazing.

After feasting our eyes on the quilts and getting high on inspiration we headed over to the vendors. When we turned the corner it was like … oh, boy – maybe we should have come here first! It was packed – solid. I was getting my daily work out just trying to get through the crowds. There were so many great vendors there it would take me quite a while to get through them all so I’ll give just give you the cliff notes (an aside – did you know that cliff notes are now passé and that Sparknotes are “in” – I discovered this doing research for one of my books for bookgroup. They are great and you can go online – just FYI for any of you out there with kids who need to understand the importance of books like Catch-22, like we had to do this summer.).

Purses and more

OMG!! The Japanese appear to really be into making purses. And I have to admit, I could see getting sucked into this. There were vendors selling nothing but handles – all kinds of really cool handles – like nothing I’ve seen back in the states. And weaving, there were vendors selling tools to help you basically stitch fabric and weave purse bottoms – sort of like those placemats we used to make when we were kids. But way more sophisticated. Now I stood for quite a while watching a demonstration and it was very cool but the one thing that was holding me back was I put my sewing machine in storage for three years. Why? Well I knew my space here would be limited and I figured it would force me to focus on hand stitching – exploring new areas fiber art. My mom said I’ll never make it three years with out caving in and buying myself a sewing machine. I have to admit, standing there watching the endless demonstrations – it seemed like nearly every booth had a demo going on – I was starting to think she may be right. But for now, I purchased a few items I could make by hand and if I really can’t control myself I might just have to hit up one of my unsuspecting sewing friends here and ask to borrow their machine.

It was a great day, I loved seeing the many different techniques. From what I understand, this is just a warm up to the Tokyo show in January. I can hardly wait.

Till next time, sayonara.

Azamino Shibori Exhibit

2009-11-18T16:14:00.000-08:00

This past week has been a fabulous week for getting off base. I had several opportunities to learn more about this fascinating culture, to see an exhibit of some beautiful shibori work and finally to go to the Yokohama Quilt Festival.

Background

One of the things I really wanted to do while here in Japan was to have the opportunity to teach English to Japanese students. O.k. before any of you Grammarphiles out there suck in your breath in horror and think “How could she? She writes with run on sentences, she breaks grammar rules left and right, using dashes and ellipses with abandon.” Just chill – I am not passing myself off as someone who has a Masters in ESL. I am looking for students who are interested in practicing conversational English and exchanging cultures. As luck would have it I have recently acquired three new classes of students. One of those students has a family member who has been studying shibori for the last two years and as it so happens this week they were having an exhibit of their work in Azamino, a suburb of Yokohama. It was my very good fortune that two of my new students offered to take me to the exhibit to see the work and introduce me to the sensei (teacher). A train ride with a transfer to the subway system finally brought us to Azamino – all in all about 1.5 hours from my house. We all laughed about how if they had not been my guide I never would have gotten there – it would have been “Jane lost in Japan … again.”

Shibori

For those of you who have no idea what the heck I mean when I say “shibori” – it is a technique that manipulates fabric through folding, stitching, twisting, binding or a combination of and then the artist dyes the fabric, sometimes multiple times to achieve the desired look. The process is very organic – for all your efforts at control you never really know what you will unfold. There are many variables, the type of fabric, the tightness of the binding, the intensity of the dye – these are just a few that come to mind. For the last two years I have been a studio artist at The Hermitage Museum and Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia. This was an opportunity for me to continue my self-taught journey into the world of Shibori. Two of the essential books to a Shibori artists library are Shibori: The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing by Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada and Memory on Cloth: Shibori Now also by Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada. I found these two books to be indispensable. Shibori by Karren K. Brito was also a book I never had far from me with Americanized ways of practicing shibori.

It was through these three books that I experimented and tried the many different techniques of Shibori. The positive results ended up in two of the gallery shows that The Hermitage Foundation Museum and Gardens had show casing the studio artists. But as wonderful an opportunity as it was to have my own studio I also realized that to be able to study in Japan with a shibori master would be the chance of a lifetime – something I really never dreamed I would have. Moving to Japan was not even on our radar screen. Go figure.

Japanese Shibori

The Japanese are known for their beautiful Shibori work, primarily dyed in indigo. Not having had the opportunity to learn indigo dying yet, I really wasn’t sure what to expect but let me tell you that when I walked through the door of the exhibit I was speechless. There were gorgeous shibori works hanging from the walls in all shades of indigo blue – some intensely dark, some light. There were many of techniques I had seen in books but never in person. There was a demonstration area where I had the opportunity to meet the sensei and she showed us some of the techniques. I am not sure they quite knew what to make of a tall, blonde American woman walking into their exhibit … but once they found out that I knew a bit about shibori they were very happy to share their knowledge. As I was walking out my door that morning I had stuffed a few samples of my work into my backpack, not really sure what I was going to do with them but figuring why not. I am so glad that I did – I was able to share them with the sensei and I guess I demonstrated enough interest in this art form that it was agreed that I could join the monthly class, taught by the sensei. If I understood the translation correctly, it is called 100 Shibori Ways (or Techniques). She has a strict curriculum that must be followed – if your technique does not pass, you cannot move to the next level. With less than 36 months to go before we leave I am not sure if I will be able to make it through all 100 – but as those of you who know me, know I love a goal and a challenge!

Proper lunar alignment

Was it luck? Were the moons properly aligned? Fate? Serendipity? Happenstance? Who the heck knows … all I know is that because I met a woman named Kathy (my Yoda), who introduced me to Diana (gift giver of Japanese friends), who gifted me a group of her students, where one of them happened to have a family member studying Shibori, who happened to be having an exhibit, who happened to introduce me to the sensei – I now have the opportunity of a life time to study shibori here in this amazing country full of surprises at every turn.

Was is a good week? Oh yes, it was a very good week.

Till next time, sayonara.

For those of you who would like to follow me on my shibori journey you can also check out my blog www.shiborispirit.wordpress.com. This blog is geared toward my love of all things shibori and interesting fibert art I encounter while here in Japan.

Japanese Folk Crafts Museum

2009-11-09T15:13:00.000-08:00

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo, also known as the Mingeikan Museum. The museum, built in 1936, has over 17,000 items made by crafts people. The term Mingei (folk art), was coined by Yanagi Soetsu who used it to refer to common crafts that had been brushed aside by the industrial revolution. Yanagi “sought to counteract the desire for cheap mass-produced products by pointing to the works of ordinary crafts people that spoke to the spiritual and practical needs of life” – this came to be known as the Mingei Movement.

To celebrate the 120^th anniversary of the birth of Soetsu Yanagi, the Mingeikan Museum currently has an exhibit of 400 works selected by Yanagi that reflect his philosophy of finding beauty and art in everyday items. In his words he described the beauty of Mingei as “wholesome, honest, natural, innocent, free, simple, and pure.” The works on display had to meet the following criteria in order to be considered Mingei – made by anonymous crafts people; produced by hand in quantity; inexpensive; used by the masses; functional in daily life; representative of the region in which it was produced. Photography was not allowed inside the building but I would encourage you to take a few moments to check out their website - http://www.mingeikan.or.jp/english.

The photos on the slideshow are from the grounds and exterior shots of the 2 buildings. One is the museum, the other is the Nagayamon (long gate house) which was built in the 19^th century in Tochigi Prefecture and moved to this site in the 1930’s. Sadly, we were not there on the day the long gate house is open for tours but I plan to go back. In December, they have an annual show called the New Works Competition where craftspeople are asked to submit their work – and I have already spied some shibori work from previous shows. Like a moth to flame … shibori calls me to return.

You will notice from the photo with the basket of slippers that once again, I had to take off my street shoes and tour the building in surippa (slippers). If you are planning to visit Japan, making sure you always have a pair of socks with you is highly recommended – especially in the summer time, sticking hot, sweaty American feet into the provided slippers is sure to offend someone! Of course, the Japanese are probably way to polite to ever say anything – they’d just discreetly whisk away the contaminated slippers. If you can find some easily compactable slippers to put in your backpack or purse – that would be a good idea. Most places provide slippers but the problem I seem to have is my big American feet hang off the back of the slippers and I end up shuffling along like some sort of degenerate.

My friends and I lucked out on another glorious Fall day, and after leaving the museum (with countless creative ideas swimming in my head after the beautiful and inspiring works) we stumbled on a park and decided to take a detour as we wound our way back to the train station. The park, Komabano, was at one time used as a hawking area during the Edo Era and during the Meiji Period the first military review was held there. With history crammed into every nook and cranny here the Japanese appear to take great care of their public spaces. Over and over I will probably continue to share my astonishment at how clean everything is here – there was not a single piece of trash, candy wrapper, cigarette butt, water bottle to be seen lying on the ground throughout the park. Nor walking down the numerous streets we were on that day. I am also impressed with all the details – the lovely iron gate for instance that led into the park. It seems that everywhere I turn here, there is opportunity for eye candy and inspiration.

Till next time, sayonara.

Chozubachi Stone

2009-11-05T02:54:00.000-08:00

This weekend Jeff and I had a Sunday morning trip planned to the Machida Shrine Sale. This sale is on the first of each month, except January. Figuring that this would be the only chance Jeff would have to go for a long while (May and August are the only two months in 2010 that fall on a weekend), he was a good sport and agreed to set out on another adventure outside the gates. We left early, map in hand hoping to score a few hits with some items I hand in mind.

There is a center here on base called the Fleet and Family Support Center that offers some great classes, information and among other things directions to some of the more popular destinations within driving distance. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am grateful that they even have directions at all … it’s just well, somehow every single time we follow the FFSC directions we manage to get lost. And this outing was no different. The hopes of getting up and back to the shrine sale in a timely manner were soon dashed as we tried to decipher what “turn right after 7-11 5 minutes” exactly meant. Finally realizing we must have missed the turn and were now 20km passed where we thought we should be we turned around, hoping if we retraced our steps we would stumble on the Shrine Sale. Finally, matching the Kanji we found the location for the sale … but there was nothing there. After all of that, it turns out that for some reason it was not being held that day. Sigh.

Not to be deterred from having a total loss of an outing, Jeff decides to pull into a stone shop that we have passed by probably a half dozen times – usually on a way to one of the children’s sporting events, that we are already late for because … we got lost. Each time, he hears “ooooooh! Look, there’s that stone shop, I sure wish we could stop there sometime … it looks like they have some really cool things for a garden.” I guess he figured with no children in the car, no sporting event that we were trying to make, now was as good a time as any. He squeezes our car into a teeny, tiny parking space (there was only one) that is just inches away from the main road that has cars and trucks whizzing by at top speeds. We step out to discover there is a beautiful Koi pond, with a stone bridge crossing over it and a waterfall with a moss covered frog that the water spills out of. It was an unexpected treasure! I walk around seeing many items I would love to have, while I think Jeff was checking his pulse rate as he went into sticker shock. I had warned him and said that these stone pieces were expensive – maybe he and I need to have a discussion about what the definition of expensive is. Clearly we have a different price point! I finally settle on what is probably the least expensive item on the lot, a stone water basin – and the older gentleman who was helping me guides me into a little building and offers me a seat at a table and then promptly disappears. I think to myself, “well, this is different. I figured I’d point, pay and go but no this is clearly not the way a business transaction is handled in Japan.” My cultural education continues.

While I am seated at the table, wondering now what? Did they misunderstand, and where is Jeff? Jeff pops his head in to see what is going on, and why is it taking so long to buy a “rock.” Next thing we know we have tea being served to us and Jeff is now seated next to me and Mr. T. Ebisawa starts to pull out several books. I’m thinking “uh, oh … something just got lost in translation and he thinks we want him to create a Japanese Tea Garden or something like that” - but no he is actually taking the time to show us a garden book that has the flower that the stone chozubachi is modeled after! “Wild Beach Chrysanthemum” Asteraceae Heteropappus hispidus var. Arenarius, is a coastal flower, and best as I can tell native to Japan.

I found this photo off of the Wild Beach Chrysanthemum off of the mitomori website www.mitomori.co.jp .

Mr. T. Ebisawa then pulls out a few more books, one of which is The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura – which to Jeff’s surprise I said “oh, I have that book!” This book is considered a classic essay on “tea drinking, its history, restorative powers and rich connection to the Japanese culture.” The granite stone water basins, chozubachi, or crouching bowl, were designed by Japanese tea maters for guests to wash their hands and rinse their mouth as a symbol of purification. These low crouching bowls were meant to humble the guest and create the right state of mind in the tea garden before entering the tea house. Often these bowls are fed with water from a bamboo spout called a “kakei.” Mr. T. Ebisawa, proceeded to pull out a kakei … but we would have to save that purchase for another day.

As we were wrapping up our transaction Mr. T. Ebisawa gave us the brochure for the Ishino Yoshidaya Company – beautiful shrine lanterns for me to save my penny’s (or Yen?) for. Jeff and I both noticed at the top of the business card attached to the brochure it had “Since 1592” – we pointed to this and Mr. T Ebisawa proudly stated that their company had been in business for more than 400 years. Jeff and I just started laughing, talk about cultural history! (The closest American company I could find was J.E. Rhoads and Sons, 1702 – they make conveyor belts today, but started as a tanner and harness maker.)

As we rode back home, with our chozubachi carefully wrapped in the back of the car with instructions to “not scrub off the moss,” we talked about how much time and care Mr. T. Ebisawa took with us – even though we were probably his lowest sale of the week, you would never have known it. He treated us like we were buying the most expensive shrine lantern on the lot. He was patient, treated us like guests in his home by offering us tea and took the time to educate 2 Americans on one more aspect of this very rich culture. This outing turned out to be one of my favorite memories so far, and it reminds me that just when you think you’ve had a bust of a day, if you open your eyes and your heart life’s happenstance will reward you greatly.

Till next time, sayonara.

Mikan Picking

2009-10-26T01:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend we were invited to go Mikan picking with a group of families from the base along with Tokiko our Yokosuka Fairy Godmother (Tokiko is the lady who took us on the outing to the Fish Market). We started off with overcast skies, keeping our fingers crossed the weather would hold out. Four cars, caravan style, headed outside the gates for another adventure in Japan.

The Mikan orchard was about a 30 minute drive south of here along the Miura Peninsula. It was an easy drive, passing by Miura Beach where there was a Wind Surfing competition taking place – the wind was strong and those guys were flying across the water. At the top of a hill, just after Miura Beach we all turned off onto a narrow road towards the water. The road was so narrow that a truck headed in our direction “forced” a car ahead of us to back up until the truck could get by. Not far off the main road the caravan pulled into a teeny tiny parking lot where we double parked our cars in order to get us all in. When we all piled out we discovered that just below us, carved out of the side of the hill was the Mikan orchard and off in the distance you could see Kaneda Bay – it was very picturesque. With space so limited, the Japanese seem to be able to fit in fields and orchards where we Americans would probably think it’s not possible. The first photo was taken from the top of the hill, the Iijima Mikan Orchard was just below us.

Honey Citrus

Mikans are Japanese tangerines – also called Satsuma, the seedless mandarin. Closest thing we have back home are Clementines. These little citrus fruits are sweet and delicious and the name translates to “Honey Citrus of Wenzhou” – that should clue you in to just how good they are. The kids all had fun picking them and it’s a good thing they eat the Mikans like candy … we have quite a lot.

Tokiko knows the owners of the farm and so in addition to picking the Mikans we had the added bonus of a side trip to a sweet potato field to dig up our own potatoes. If you notice the first photo from the slide show you can see some fields way off in the distance – towards the water – that’s where the sweet potato field was. We all piled back in our cars and followed the Iijima Orchard guide, winding our way past fields, traditional Japanese houses and then right at the edge of the sweet potato field was a more modern neighborhood. Our kids had fun digging up the potatoes, and the ever efficient and courteous Japanese even had gloves there for everyone to use! Check out the photo of Jeff and Mitchell showing their “catch of the day.”

Kojima Kojin Mocks Me!

Remember how I mentioned in a previous entry how much I loved sweet potatoes? I think Kojima Kojin, the “God of the Cooking Range” decided to have a little fun with me … “Ahhhh, she like sweet potato! Let’s see how much she like!” (I am learning that in Japanese they drop words, because they are inferred, and they have no participles - o.k. I have to confess, I am relearning my English grammar – when our teacher told us “The Japanese language has no participles” I was thinking to myself … “come on Jane, participle, participle … think, think.” Thank goodness the classmate next to me muttered under her breath “now if I can only remember what a participle is” whew, glad to know I wasn’t the only one!). Well, it is true, I do love them but … even someone who loves sweet potatoes has to wonder what in the world she will do with over 20 lbs of Sweet Potatoes (I know, I weighed them). Jeff said we’ll be like Bubba from Forrest Gump … Sweet Potato Pie, Sweet Potato Pudding, Sweet Potato Soup, Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Sweet Potato Crisp, Sweet Potato Balls, … anyone have any “to die for” sweet potato recipes? If you do, email them to me – I’ll be cooking sweet potatoes for quite a while. For more information on Kojima Kojin go to: http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/kitchen-gods.html#sanbou.

Uummmm, does anyone know what these are?

As we were leaving the Mikan picking area we were each handed a bag that contained radishes. Very large radishes. Lots and lots of radishes. Each of us were given a bag of beautifully cleaned radishes – I have 5 bags worth of radishes (see photo)! I’m starting to feel like I need a root cellar. I’m thinking, what in the world will I do with all these radishes? So off to the library I go, checking out 3 Japanese cookbooks to try and figure out different ways I can use these ... I’ll let you know how successful I am.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention – or is it “The Necessary ...”?

The day ended with a stop at a family style restaurant – reminded me of a Japanese type of Denny’s or Big Boy. It was fun – every time I turn around there’s always some unexpected experience. I decided before we headed out that I would visit the ladies room and crack me up! When I entered the personal toilet area all of a sudden I heard a “waterfall sound” and I realized that there must be some type of motion sensor to set off a nature sound to cover well, um, your own nature sound. I just starting laughing – leave it to the Japanese to come up with something like that! I guess when you have so many people living close together they come up with all kinds of ways to be discreet.

Tokiko gave us such a wonderful gift that day. A “thank you” seems inadequate when she opened up another door to the Japanese culture that we wouldn’t normally have, had she not shared her friendship with us. I am truly grateful for the good fortune that has brought her into our lives.

Well, tomorrow I head to Tokyo in the afternoon – will report back if anything interesting pops up – how can it not, in this fascinating country? Till next time, sayonara.

Ikebana International

2009-10-21T16:16:00.000-07:00

Ikebana International is a nonprofit group that’s aim is to stimulate and cultivate the continuous study and spread of Ikebana; to develop a better understanding of the Japanese people and likewise a better understanding between all nationalities; to strengthen the friendship between Masters, teachers and students; to stimulate international friendship and spread goodwill throughout the world.

Ikebana

From the Ikebana International website “IKEBANA is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. It is more than simply putting flowers in a container. It is a disciplined art form in which the arrangement is a living thing where nature and humanity are brought together. It is steeped in the philosophy of developing a closeness with nature.

As is true of all other arts, IKEBANA is creative expression within certain rules of construction. Its materials are living branches, leaves, grasses, and blossoms. Its heart is the beauty resulting from color combinations, natural shapes, graceful lines, and the meaning latent in the total form of the arrangement. IKEBANA is, therefore, much more than mere floral decoration.”

For more information on this beautiful art form go to: http://www.ikebanahq.org/whatis.html

Kita-Kamakura

When a spouse moves to the base here, there is an opportunity to join Ikebana International – they have monthly programs that offer you a chance to get out and experience the culture. Or, if you know someone who is a member, you can attend a monthly program as a guest. This is how I was able to attend the fabulous program offered last week – my friend Kathy asked if I would like to join her and of course I said absolutely! We arrived at the Kita-Kamakura train station and I was surprised to find when I got off the train that this was a tiny stop, in vast contrast to the stations in Tokyo. Back in the states we might call this a one traffic light town (I’m not sure they even had that) – the areas I saw were absolutely charming and there was no doubt as I walked towards the Temple that I was in Japan. We had to walk (imagine that!) up a slight incline to the temple grounds where the program was being held. It was another beautiful Fall day and we headed off – passing lovely traditional Japanese homes with beautiful well manicured gardens and small restaurants with their tempting dishes on display.

Kencho-ji

Kita-Kamakura is the home to the oldest Zen training monastery in Japan, Kencho-ji, and it is the first-ranked of the five great Zen temples of Kamakura. Work on the temple was completed in the fifth year of the Kencho Era (1253), from which the temple takes it’s name. The grounds of Kencho-ji house 10 sub-temples and 10 main buildings. These areas were restored after fires destroyed the buildings in the 14^th and 15^th centuries. The program was held in the Hojo (main hall) and it is often called the Ryuo-den (Dragon King Hall). The building was first used as the chief priest’s residence, but it is now used in the performance of religious services.

Kadou Honnoji

There are many different schools of Ikebana. Here on base, there are two different styles of classes offered at the community center where you can work with a master sensi (teacher) who has been trained and received certification in their respective schools. The Ikebana demonstration at the Kencho-ji was being performed by Tenshin Nakano – and when I say performed, I mean it - he stretched out his arms holding various organic pieces clipping away like Edward Scissorshand, until he had achieved the shape in mind or he used his clippers to score horizontal lines on the branches and then pressed them to his head until the form was reached and we could hear the branches cracking as he worked to achieve the arc of the branch he was seeking. He also used his metal clippers to sound out a beat while he was mulling over a piece before placing it in the container - reminding me of the chefs at the Japanese hibachi restaurants who perform with their knives. It was like no flower arranging demonstration I'd ever witnessed and Mr. Tenshin Nakano was the most theatrical flower arranger I’ve ever seen! He is from Kyoto and is the son and grandson of famous flower masters of the Kadou Honnoji School of Ikebana. There had to be absolute silence and no photos while he created the five different arrangements. After all 5 arrangements were completed he opened up the floor to questions and from that I scribbled down notes as quickly as I could – he was asked "what does he think of while he is creating his work?" and his response was as follows (now, this was through a translator so if I’ve lost something in translation I apologize to the artist):

The first arrangement he thought of a Dragon and he used rikka, which is the oldest style of Ikebana.

The second arrangement, he was thinking of the branch of heaven (highest branch), the branch of man (middle), finally the branch of Earth (lowest).

The third arrangement was about opposites – bringing the green line over the black surface.

The fourth was about how everything is inter-connected, we are all dependent on each other and cannot stand alone.

The final piece was in a transparent (glass/crystal) vase and so he said that because you can see through the vase you have to put something in it – in this case, a lot of leaves and to counter that he only used a single branch. A root was twirled and placed over the side – Tenshin Nakano said that this style of Ikebana always contains an old root.

With more visual treats swimming in my head the group moved to the second floor of an adjoining building where we sat on tatami mats and ate at the traditional low tables. We had a bento box lunch which was delicious.

I found the program to be very entertaining and I certainly learned a lot – I was inspired by the art form of Ikebana and the setting was lovely. As luck would have it, one of my neighbors had already asked if I would be interested in joining her Ikebana group that meets once a month. Her sensi teaches the traditional school, Ikenobo, and with that in mind I left Kita-Kamakura in high spirits, knowing that very soon I would be beginning a new creative journey - learning the traditional Japanese art form of Ikebana. Till next time, sayonara.

Yamato Shrine Sale

2009-10-20T00:38:00.000-07:00

On the third Saturday of the month a Shrine Sale is held in Yamato near the train station. This is about an hours drive from the Yokosuka area (if you leave early) – and early did we leave! 6:30 a.m. was the pick up time, as four fellow Navy spouses headed outside the gates for another adventure in Japan.

Shrine sales are a lot like our flea markets back home – only much, much better. If you plan to visit Japan and looking at interesting items from another culture sounds like fun – I would highly recommend including a trip to a shrine sale. There are many shrine sales but all of them have their own schedule – I counted at least seven in the Tokyo area on varying days of the month.

The Yamato Shrine Sale is the favorite of many in the Yokosuka area – there were many vendors (I didn’t count but I would estimate over 100), selling all kinds of different items. I really didn’t have anything on my list – I was more curious than anything. It was an absolutely beautiful Fall morning and so, equipped with Yen (no credit cards), a shopping bag and a piece of paper with 2 key phrases I set off to search for treasures.

Gateway to purchases: “Sumimasen, Ikura Deska?” “Kaite Kudasai”

There was so much to look at – buttons (now that’s bad … I have a penchant for buttons, even with no sewing machine for three years I could envision just what I’d use all those very cool buttons for), kimonos – tons of kimonos. Kimonos on hangers, kimonos folded and stacked neatly in piles, kimonos piled up on the ground (see photo). I saw an American woman looking through kimonos at one of the vendors and stopped and asked her, how does she know what she’s looking at? There are more kimonos to look at than you could get through in one day. Apparently the hierarchy goes something like this: hanging – very good quality more Yen, folded on tables – good quality but there may be a spot not as much Yen; on the ground in a pile – you are going to cut these up and use the fabric for something else very inexpensive. Shockingly I stayed away from the Kimonos – I am in no rush, with very limited storage space and no sewing machine I decided to wait and learn more about Kimonos. There are cotton, polyester, and silk Kimonos with such a wide range of prices that without guidelines I could see I would get overwhelmed quickly wading through the rainbow of colors and textures. There were many vases of varying sizes, dishes, cups, tools, really just about anything you could imagine – many of which I had no clue what the heck they were for but no worries, I will be on a quest to find out! Not that I’ll use it for the original intended purpose but if I end up buying a Japanese bedpan thinking it’s a vase then I’d kind of like to know that! I’m all about repurposing.

The plan was to scope first and buy later (after checking everything out) but of course I didn’t even get to the half way point before that plan was blown out of the water. Equipped with my precious piece of paper – I whipped out my “gateway to purchases” and looking at my paper asked “Sumimasen, Ikura desuka?” (excuse me, how much?) as I pointed to a pretty blue and white vase. I think she got the sumimasen part (excuse me) but after that there was no connection – mmmm, guess we know who needs to work quite a bit more on her Japanese. So instead, I handed her the piece of paper that my Japanese Conversation teacher had written down for me along with a pen and said “Kaite Kudasai” (please write it down). I then received the response I was hoping for “Hai, 1000 Yen” – so Yen was exchanged and I didn’t break the bank on my first purchase and I have a pretty little vase. Yeah! Empowered, I moved on in search of more “must haves.”

One Persons Trash is Another Persons Treasure

I am not sure if we’ll have that saying on my dad’s grave marker (certainly not if he’s sharing it with my mom!) but at the very least it needs to go in his obit. My gene pool apparently missed out on the beautifully decorated house and food presentation skills (sorry Jeff) but it most definitely did not miss the “trash pickers” gene. Even my mom would have to reluctantly admit my dad has found some real treasures on the side of the road in someone elses trash pile. He has the eye for potential. While I’m not sure if I have that gift (jury is still out on that one) I do love rummaging through piles of well, apparent trash to find that one piece of treasure. So which picture do you think I plucked my pretty little vase from? The nicely lined up selection of various vases and pottery or the piles of stuff overflowing on the table? You decide.

One down – twelve to go!

By car or by train there are at least twelve more shrine sales within a reasonable distance to Yokosuka. Before we leave I plan to hit every one of them – at least once. It was great fun looking at all the different wares and getting to the shrine sale early was key. By the time we left, close to noontime, the aisles were packed. Yes, I did make a few more purchases – and I started on my Japanese button collection, buttons don’t take up much space or weight. Now that’s thinking like someone who’s moved more that a few times! Till next time, sayonara.

Shibori Seeker

2009-10-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, after the meeting at Tadodai Residence, a friend and I took the train to Kamakura in search of a gallery that was having an exhibit of some shibori work. For those of you who are still trying to catch up with us – I was a studio artist in Norfolk at the Hermitage Foundation Museum and Gardens for the last two years. The focus of my work was based on a Japanese technique called Shibori – where you manipulate fabric through stitching, binding, folding and then dye it. I will be a seeker for the next three years to find fellow shibori artists and with any luck take some classes or study with a master. On a previous outing to Kamakura my friend and Yoda, Kathy, spotted a poster hanging up that appeared to advertise an exhibit. We could figure out the dates and times of the gallery but the one thing we did not know was where the show was located. So I took a picture of it and had one of the interns that works with Jeff translate the information – she was nice enough to include directions from the train station to the gallery. So with my information in hand, Kathy and I set off to find the exhibit. To set everyone straight - Kathy is NOT old like Yoda (and I have to put this out there because she reads my blog and will be all over my case for calling her a Yoda) - I am referring to her seemingly endless knowledge on all the cool things to do here in Japan. This is her second tour here in Japan and I count myself as extremely fortunate to have hooked in with her (or maybe I latched onto her?) - she has included me in numerous outings and managed to guide me in joining the groups she thought I'd get the most out of while here in Japan. She has been a Godsend.

Left means Right

We immediately sensed that we had made a wrong turn coming out of the station – standing on the street looking like confused American tourists we spied a immaculately dressed older woman watching us (Lord only knows what she was thinking – crazy American women) … so I went up and asked if she spoke English and pointing to my directions, did she know where the gallery was located. She responded in perfect English, was very gracious and said she would take us back in the right direction. Now setting off on the correct path, we still had to find the gallery – we ended up standing in front of the poster where I took the picture. I proceeded to approach anyone passing and said “English? Gallery?” as I pointed to the poster, trying to give my best Vanna White impression. Soon enough a young lady said in again, perfect English, “I speak English and I’ll take you to the gallery.” Score!

Beautiful Art

The Gallery was small but the work was stunning. I am totally kicking myself now that I did not ask if I could take some pictures. The show was the work of four women, some of the techniques I have explored but some I have not. One of the artists spoke a bit of English and I asked her if she would consider teaching me – I have contacted her and I’m waiting for her reply (keep your fingers crossed for me).

Do Japanese calories count the same in English?

Kathy has been raving about a French restaurant that serves “THE BEST” coffee in Japan and it is located in Kamakura – and as it turns out is not far from the gallery. She and I stopped in for absolutely divine waffles with delicious coffee. I took pictures, although something is lost in the translation – the café au lait came in two different pitchers and you mixed it yourself. Once again, the care with presentation here is great eye candy. The waffles were fabulous, I’ll be coming back here for sure – after I resume a very intense work out regime!

It was quite the busy day between Tadodai Residence in the morning and Kamakura in the afternoon. The rest of the week had a couple more outings planned – check back in on the blog as I try to get caught up. Till next time, sayonara.

Tadodai Official Residence

2009-10-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

Tuesday of this week I went to my first JAW meeting, which was held at the Tadodai Official Residence. I know, what’s JAW? In case you haven’t picked up on it yet (or have been sleeping through all of my blogs) the military seems to love acronyms. And apparently the trickle down effect is that the military spouse organizations use them too. Personally, I dislike the use of acronyms – I mean who wants to be in an organization that’s members are women and it could be pronounced “jaws”? Well, it’s not a bunch of women “jawing off” about being a military spouse – it instead stands for the Japanese American Wives group. It is an intercultural group “… to promote lasting friendships between Japanese and American women and increase intercultural understanding.” I belong to the conversation group which meets twice a month and our first meeting was Tuesday, hosted by the Japanese at the Tadodai Residence.

Tadodai Residence History

Tadodai Official Residence was built in 1913 as the official residence for the Commander-in-Chief of Yokosuka Naval Station. The Baron and Lady Uryuu collaborated with architect, Mr. Kotaro Sakurai, on the design of this official residence. Baron Sotokichi Uryuu was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and at the time of the collaboration was a Vice Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of Yokosuka Naval Station. Lady Uryuu was one of a group of female students selected by the Japanese Government in 1871 to study in the United States. She graduated from Barstow College in 1881. Mr. Sakurai was a graduate of the Architectural Department of London University and was the first Japanese authorized to wear the title of British Certified Architect.

The residence has two styles of buildings, Western and Japanese. Upon completion, the residence became known for it’s unique design of American colonial and English decorations. If you notice in one of the photos taken from the garden you can see that the front part of the house is Western and the back part traditional Japanese.

By the end of World War II, 34 Commanders-in-Chiefs had lived at the residence. After the war the residence was taken over by the U.S. Occupation Forces and nine U.S. Naval Forces Commanders lived there until 1964, when the residence was transferred to the Japan Defense Agency.

Tadodai Residence is now used for a variety of official functions such as receptions for high ranking officials and cherry blossom viewing parties.

JAW

The Japanese side of the Japanese American Wives Conversation group hosted our first meeting of the year. I was eager to attend at the Tadodai Residence as my parents have a friend who actually lived there while his father was CFAY (here we go again … Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka). Mr. McManes had sent me an email with some background information on his time while spent living at the Residence. It was a beautiful fall day and I was again getting “outside the gate.” Never having been to a JAW meeting, I wasn’t really sure what to expect – we initially started off with each of us picking up an information card for each member that we put into a little photo book. These were actually a great idea – I immediately found that two of the Japanese ladies are quilters and was able to speak with one of them during the social side of the meeting. There was then a game – I have been told that the Japanese love games – this was one where there were a number of questions and if you answered one way you were on one side of the room and another way you stood on the other side. I was still in the running with the game with quite a number of American wives until they question was would you rather have steak or sushi? Well, no brainer for me since I don’t eat red meat – and so I landed with a whole bunch of Japanese ladies and one other American – we out numbered the meat eaters and I ended up being one of the winners! It was lots of fun. Then came the social part and they had a wide assortment of goodies – and I was in heaven. The Japanese apparently like sweet potatoes – a lot. I’ve already mentioned my love of the baked sweet potato soft serve ice cream in a previous entry. Well I think over half of the sweets being offered at the meeting were “sweet potato something” and they were delicious. What more could a southern girl want in Japan but sweet potato desserts and sweet tea (which they did have – yeah!).

Afterwards we wandered the grounds, which were lovely. I have been told that if you can get invited to the Cherry Blossom Viewing the Japanese hold at Tadodai Residence to attend – it is beautiful. Well the garden was a treat and I hope that before we leave I can come back and see it with the Cherry Blossoms in full bloom.

That concluded our first meeting. It was very fun – although I believe I need to work more on my Japanese. Pretty much all I can do is introduce myself and say thank you. The conversation part of this day was heavy on the English for my part.

The day was not over for me – my next entry is on my afternoon trip back to Kamakura. I just can’t seem to get enough of that town! Till next time, Sayonara.

Tokyo – First Impressions

2009-10-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a 3-day holiday and so we decided to take advantage of the time off and head to Tokyo. We totally lucked out and were able to stay at the New Sanno – which is a military hotel. It is very nice and I can see why they book up a year in advance. It is conveniently located to the Tokyo metro and that is how we got around plus – you guessed it lots and lots of walking. You know how when you have babies you bronze their first baby shoes? I just may have to bronze my Dansko’s by the time we leave Japan – I brought along my 2 pairs and they got a hefty work out.

Ginza - Silver Mint

The name Ginza means “silver mint.” From 1600 to 1812 this area was the sight of a silver coin mint. This is also the world’s most expensive real estate, where one square meter of land in the district’s center is worth more than ten million yen (more than 100,000 US dollars at today’s rate).

The first day we arrived we hit the Ginza Shopping area. Now let me just put this out there – we are not a family of shoppers. I swear Jeff made some sort of in-utero pack with our children about shopping – they hate it. Even as little kids just about all I could ever do was window shop – if the stroller slowed down they all hit the freak out button. Not sure what he promised them but it must be something really, really good. They were however, all willing to make an exception to the no shopping pack and seemed to be more than ready to hit the 4-story Apple Store. This store was very cool, even had a theatre where there were ongoing workshops. There were no buttons in the elevator – it just went up and down, stopping at each floor so you, the customer, could step off and immerse yourself in the latest technology. It was Saturday and it was packed but we still managed to find the few things that were on our hit list.

After making our purchases we headed out to walk the main street – the Chuo Dori. On the weekends it is closed to traffic and becomes a pedestrian zone. If you are a serious shopper you could do some major damage on this street - Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes, Cartier, Prada and of course Mikimoto – where I stood outside and just drooled. And, just for the record, my husband already gave me a beautiful strand of Mikimoto’s years ago that I treasure. For some women, I guess their thing is diamonds, for me it is pearls. I absolutely love pearls and so a girl can stand there and dream … like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

We heard the clock tower chime from the Wako Department Store. I’d like to go back and see the building along with sneak in a visit to the 6th floor where they have an Art Gallery (shhhh, don’t tell the kids). This is the only building in Ginza that survived the bombings during WWII and it housed the Military PX during the reconstruction period. There is also the Hakuhinkan Toy Park which has the latest and greatest toys (eye candy) and the Sony building which would keep the techies in my house happy.

From Ginza we headed back to the New Sanno and then Jeff took the kids out to an observation tower. It was a beautiful day and they said the view was “awesome.” I just needed some chill time and opted to hang at the hotel and enjoy the silence.

Museums, Metros and Harajuku

Sunday we ventured back out with metro map in hand. Jeff and I are used to the DC Metro system – which is pretty darn simplistic compared to the extensive Tokyo Metro. It definitely took some checking and double checking on all our parts to make sure we were on the right platform – but I will give the Japanese credit. All the signage has English, even the metro fare card kiosk has English so it’s not that difficult to get around – and two separate times we had people come up and ask us if we needed help.

The first stop on our marathon day was the Edo-Tokyo Museum. This is a fabulous museum and should be on everyone’s must see list if they are coming to Tokyo – they have English headsets you can use and 2 out of the 3 Cleary kids said this was the highlight of our first trip to Tokyo (yeah! A museum scored a hit). They have 2 sections pre-WWII the Edo era and post WWII – reconstruction. There was so much to absorb that I will have to go back – by the time I hit the reconstruction era my brain was in overload. If you are curious – check out their website http://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/english/index.html. As luck would have it for me, there is currently a special exhibit going on Japanese woodblock prints – and yes, I made my family go. They owe me … when anyone starts to complain all I have to say is “Civil War battlefields.” It is a fabulous exhibit – I only wish they had English translations, I would have gotten much more from it. The exhibit is in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery which houses one of the world’s largest woodblock collections. Jeff even admitted the video showing the process was very cool – 42 different wood blocks to make this one print!

Harajuku

From the museum we cut across Tokyo on one of the trains to Harajuku Station. Takeshita Dori Street, also called Teenager Street by locals, is the street for looking at the shops that sell Harajuku fashions and doing some major people watching. On Sunday’s teenagers dress up in a variety of styles from babydoll cute to something like Goth Lolita – it’s a fashion style all it’s own and you have to see it to get it. There were many, many teenagers dressed up – I just couldn’t get up the nerve to ask them for a photo but if you want to take a look at the style (or get an idea for Halloween) check out http://www.mookychick.co.uk/style/harajuku_girls.php. The street was packed – probably with as many teenagers as tourists. Squished bodies as the masses flowed down the street. There was nothing do to except throw ourselves in there – with Wrenn and I holding hands in a death grip. It was certainly interesting, but I think I’m good with crossing that off our list and moving on – to let’s say a Japanese garden or shrine.

Our first experience in Tokyo was certainly busy but fun. The city is absolutely pristine – no trash. Oh, that’s one thing you should know if you’re planning to visit – there are no trash cans in public (you will find them outside of quick mart places where you are expected to sort your trash into the appropriate recycling container). You are supposed to carry your trash home. I am not sure that concept would work back in the states – but I can tell you it works here. The streets and cities are spotless. And another thing, no one eats in public – you may spot people eating in a park but walking along the street eating let’s say a Big Mac, would have people stopping and looking at you. And cell phones … ahhh – I love this – it is against the law to talk on your cell phones on the trains! I cannot begin to tell you how many annoying conversations I had to listen to while commuting on the Metro in DC – like I care what you did with your boyfriend last night (and I bet the rest of the train doesn’t either). There are many things about Japan that I appreciate – I guess when you have as many people as they do crammed into a small area they have to figure out ways to be considerate. And, it works.

I have a busy week ahead with several outings so look for a few more entries. Till next time, sayonara.