23 Days in Japan

Headed home and many thanks

2009-03-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

Last night, I joined Kenny for a lovely dinner with some of his friends. We ate in a ninth-floor restaurant with a great view of Shinjuku, which is sort of like Times Square on steroids.
I'm nearly done packing and need to catch an 11:45 a.m. bus for the airport.
Kenny leaves tomorrow and heads home to Mike and then more adventure, but he will have to tell you all about that.
I'm grateful for all of Kenny's planning and patience, and his understanding when I've had difficult moments on this trip. I've seen Japan in a way that I never even imagined, and learned more than I could possibly share here.
Thank you to Joyce, Dave and David and Mauricio, and all my Noh friends. And all of Kenny's friends who were so kind during my stay here.
Thank you to Kim for taking care of things at home, and Joel and Bill for all the support. And thank you to everyone who sent me notes about the blog and the trip. It was good to feel connected while traveling.

Back in Tokyo, briefly

2009-03-16T22:56:00.000-07:00

Kenny and I arrived in Tokyo a little after noon local time Tuesday. Tokyo has gone from winter to spring since we left. It's warm and sunny.
I leave tomorrow (Wednesday) around 4 p.m., and will arrive in Connecticut Wednesday around 9:30 p.m. Who knows where the times goes?
I'll try to post something from the trip home.

Hot water, old trolleys and a ferris wheel

2009-03-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

Kenny and the Botchan Ressha.

Kenny and I changed hotels yesterday morning. We moved just a few miles across town, but the new hotel looks out over Dogo Onsen, a hot-spring spa that is supposed to date back 3000 years.
We checked in early, and then decided to head back across town.
Kenny has been tracking down sites and information related to two famous writers connected with the area - Natsume Soseki and Masaoka Shiki. (I'm reading Soseki's novel Botchan now. The onsen plays a part in this book, so that adds a little something to my reading.)
Yesterday, Kenny wanted to visit the home (or re-creation of the home) where Shiki lived. We set out from our new location near the onsen on the old-style trolley, named the Botchan Ressha. It is impossible to walk a block here without seeing something about these two writers. And of course the trolley also plays a part in Soseki's novel.

The conductor.

We found Shiki's modest house tucked between a small Zen temple and a cemetery.

Kenny tells me this is a tanuki. It's outside Shiki's house.

The house is also behind the Matsuyama Takashimaya department store, which features an enormous ferris wheel on the ninth floor roof. I've been a little obsessed with all the ferris wheels we've seen from train during this trip, and as we passed the store we found an ad that seemed to imply the ferris wheel was operating.

The ferris wheel from Shiki's house.

From the ferris wheel, with the castle in the distance.

Kenny decided to pass on the ferris wheel, so I went up alone, enjoyed a slow circle around, and seemed to be nearly level with the castle at the highest point.
We came back to the area near the onsen for lunch and then took a little break.
By 5:30 in the afternoon it was time to go to the onsen. I changed into to the yukata, or cotton kimono provided by the hotel, and Kenny and I walked across the street.
There are a few levels of service available at the onsen. We could have paid less than the equivalent of ten dollars for the more public baths, but we choose the more private bath and a tatami room with tea and snacks.
This was my second visit to an onsen, and it is sort of a little production. In this case, we were taken to our lounging room, and then we each headed down the stairs to the separate baths for men and women. I put my robe and glasses in the locker, cleaned up in the washing area, and eased my way into the hot water. This is mineral water, from someplace deep and volcanic, so it's not exactly the same as taking a hot bath. I stayed in the water until I felt nearly overcome by the heat, and then made my way back to our tatami room. We were taken on a tour of the emperor's private bath (no longer used) and then back to our room, where we were served sweet rice balls and tea.
Out on the street, and in the shopping arcade that begins near the entry to the onsen, many people, of all ages, where strolling around in their cotton kimonos and enjoying the warm evening.
Sushi for dinner and an early night.

Pictures from the Castle

2009-03-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

Only photos today. We visited Matsuyama Castle yesterday, walked way more than we should have, and had some wheat-free yakitori at the end of the day.

The view from the top of the castle.

The walls, from below.

The door-less first gate.

A glimpse of the maze of gates from above.

The haiku post. I didn't bring any poems with me.

A suikinkutsu. Dripping water makes a musical sound that you can hear if you put your ear to the end of the curved bamboo pipe.

Uchiko

2009-03-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

We set out yesterday morning for Uchiko, one of the little towns that has been on Kenny's list for a while. We took a trolley to the train station and bought tickets using our rail pass for the last time - the pass expired at the end of the day yesterday.

The Matsuyama trolley.

Kenny tries his luck.

It was a short trip up, and through, the mountains. We might have been in tunnels more than we were out, and it did make me stop and wonder about the work of building all these railways. That must have been a project.

A view from the train.

Uchiko is a sleepy little town, with an older district that grew up around the vegetable wax industry. Vegetable-wax making is nearly extinct here, but the old streets and buildings remain. And although a few buildings have been converted to museums, the town is occupied, and there are shops and restaurants in the old part of town, and the sense that things here retain a little of how life might have been 100 years ago. Cars, yes, but also bicycles, and foot-traffic.
We stopped first at the Kabuki-za, which was built in 1916 and has been restored and is now a working theater. Our admission ticket allowed us to roam around backstage, upstairs, and down the tunnels that lead to the stage machinery. It's always good to roam around a theater.

The main seating area.

Under the stage.

The main stage.

We visited the Uchiko History Museum, the home of a wax merchant that is now occupied by life-sized mechanical figures who talk when you pass by. Not quite realistic, and a little startling sometimes, but we where able to walk around the tatami rooms, visit the store-house and the court-yard garden.

I help out in the kitchen. (One of these figures is a mechanical dummy.)

We visited a few other places, including a mansion that is also a museum and now serves tea and sells small gifts. The bigger house museum, the Kamihaga Residence, was closed for renovations, but the visitors center was open, and we were able to learn about the history of wax in the area, and the complicated process for extracting wax from sumac berries.

For Mike, from Kenny. Some sidewalk sculpture.

We were looking for a restaurant, which seemed to be closed, and generally starting to head back toward the train station, when we found a small shop that makes and sells vegetable wax candles. The candle-maker was busy in the back, where we could watch him work, and his wife was in charge of the store. Late last night Kenny sent me a link from Frommer's about this candle-maker. He's the last one. We had no idea when we stopped in, and now I think I own some of the world's rarest candles.

The sleep streets of Uchiko.

After the train trip back, and a little rest, we headed out for yakatori, which Kenny tells me was delicious. It was a busy place, and that made it difficult to get anyone to pay attention to my little gluten-free print out.

For Joel

2009-03-13T15:44:00.001-07:00

Windy

2009-03-13T01:53:00.000-07:00

For the most part, the travel connections I've made with Kenny have been smooth. We've had reasonably good luck finding elevators, for instance, and until today only had one connection that was fast (nine minutes) and required us to haul our luggage up one long set of stairs and down another.
We set out today from Kyoto Station on the bullet train, then transferred to a more local train to bring us onto the island of Shikoku. This leg of the trip includes a series of bridges across the Inland Sea. The weather was rainy, and the islands and mountains faded away into the mist.
While we were waiting at one train station, I made friends with a little kid who was waiting on the platform. We smiled and waved at each other and I took a picture.

And we traveled along the Inland Sea for a while.

So it was all mostly uneventful. We had not been on the island proper for too long when the man in the seat in front of us turned around to tell us there was a problem with the trains up ahead. He had heard us speaking English, and I assume he was concerned that we hadn't understood the announcements. Which was true.
The day had turned quite windy, and so the train traffic through the windiest parts of the mountains had been suspended. We were going to get off at one station and then we would be bused to a station a little further along, where another train would be waiting for us.
The transfer went reasonably smoothly, although I'm much slower with my luggage than Kenny, and this was one of those stations that didn't have an elevator or an escalator, so it was up the stairs, over the walkway across the tracks and down the stairs on the other side. (I'll pack lighter next trip)
Everything was well organized, and after waiting in line for a bit, we found a big tour bus waiting. We stowed our luggage and climbed up, and I'll admit I had a little moment of distress when I couldn't see an empty seat.
But there was a little fold out jump seat in the aisle, and someone popped it into place and off we went.
I've had to shuffle between trains and buses both on the New York subway and MetroNorth, It's usually a big noisy deal. Here though, with a bus full of people suddenly taken right out of their routine, there was only silence. Quiet. There might have been a few whispered conversations, but I didn't hear any. My aisle seat was toward the back of the bus and when a cell phone near me rang, and a woman answered, in a very subdued voice, people at the front of the bus turned around to look.
It took us a few minutes to get onto the highway, and then we got a scare. The winds were bad indeed, and pushed the bus across the highway at one point. There was a collective gasp from everyone on the bus, and then the driver pulled back into his lane and took the rest of the trip a little more slowly.
A train was waiting for us a few miles down the road, and we arrived in Matsuyama in a warm rain, only about an hour late.

Noodles at the end of the day.

Catching up in Kyoto and some photos

2009-03-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

We are getting ready to leave Kyoto this morning, so I will try to catch up on what we've been doing here.
Kenny and I have both been to Kyoto before, so there was, perhaps, a little less pressure to try to do and see everything. A person could spend a year in Kyoto and still not visit all the temples, shrines and gardens. And then there is the shopping.

Schoolchildren on a field trip leaving Ise with us.

Astroboy greets us at Kyoto Station.

After checking in to our hotel, we made a trip to Kiyomizu-dera, and more specifically, Otowa-no-taki Spring, which is supposed to have healing powers.

I drink from the spring.

Kenny and I then walked, and shopped, through Gion, the old part of the city, and across the river and down a long and street full of tiny restaurants.

A shop sign. Notice the date.

We emerged into a bustling intersection, and found our way to Musashi Sushi, a conveyor belt, or kaiten-zushi place. I love sushi, and this was very good sushi. I was entranced with the tempting little plates going around and around.
And that was all of Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Kenny wanted to visit a small garden that he hadn't seen before, and then nearby, the Myoshin-ji compound, which includes 46 sub-temples.

A small temple garden at Hokongoin

The entrance to the Myoshin-ji complex.

In Kyoto, until next Wednesday, many temples are opening areas not usually available to the public. At Myoshin-ji, this included a third-story room (up some steep stairs) where the ceiling was covered with paintings of angels and dragons, and collection of statues lined three walls. We sat on tatami mats, and listened to a lecture in Japanese and took the time to savor the artwork and architecture. After climbing back down, we took a guided tour. This included a visit to the lecture hall, an enormous room that featured another painted dragon on the ceiling. This dragon is painted in such a way that its eyes seem to be watching you no matter where you are standing. We also toured the monks' bathhouse and a few other areas. Then we spent a while walking around on our own, poking our heads into the gates of a few of the sub-temples to peek at the little gardens.
We also fit in a visit to the garden of Taizo-in Temple.

After the temple, we visited a great little restaurant that cooked me up a nice wheat-free meal, and then it was time to visit the Kodai Yuzen-in, where we were able to learn about the process for creating the intricate images on kimonos, and watch two artists at work. Of course there is a gift shop. And of course we went shopping.
I set out on my own later in the afternoon to visit Takashimaya and do a little more shopping. This is a great place to get the experience of shopping in Japan. Every package is wrapped like it's for Christmas and the service is, of course, amazing.
My day ended on a strange little note. I was taking a break on one of the chairs at the front of the store when an older man stopped and asked me if I was American. He shook my hand very enthusiastically, then sat down and started pulling little scraps of paper from his backpack. He had written out a number of sentences in English, but in each one he had a question about the grammar (why, for instance, was it incorrect to say "a moonlight"). I'll admit I was too tired to even think about what was going on, and he was pleasant and engaging. We talked for a while about America and Japan and food and culture, and he told me he's a professor of English in the process of compiling a dictionary of English usage. Or something like that.
Kenny and I finished the day with Italian food in the restaurant here at the hotel. I used the Japanese no-wheat card there, too.
For Thursday, Kenny and I headed out separately.
I first visited Sanjusangen-do. I had been here before, in 2007, but found it so affecting that I needed to visit again. I'll admit this felt more like a pilgrimage than a museum tour.
In the early afternoon, I met up with Mauricio, who had been in the Tokyo Noh workshop. (He is in Japan working on a Spanish-language encyclopedia of Japanese performing arts) We had tea (at Starbucks!) and then took a bus to the outside of Gion, where we wandered through some temples and a into an enormous hill-side cemetery. We were high up in the cemetery, looking out over the city toward the west when the five o'clock temple bells were ringing.
We wandered around Gion for a while and then met Kenny for dinner in a tiny little restaurant, where we had simple hot pots - rice and salmon for me.
It's Friday morning now, time to pack for Matsuyama.

The view from my hotel window Thursday morning, with snow on the mountains in the distance.

A moss-covered fountain.

A dragon fountain. Note the orange plastic hose.

The hillside cemetery.

Mauricio and Jean

A special thank you

2009-03-11T18:59:00.000-07:00

I would like to send a special thank you to the folks at celiactravel.com. They publish, for free, gluten-free restaurant cards in 42 languages. I have been carrying one with me for this entire trip, and have eaten some great meals. I got a quick interpretation of the card last week, and it is clear, and very easy for waiters and chefs to understand.
I am so grateful. There is soy sauce in everything in Japan, and without this card I wouldn't be eating much.

and now for something completely different

2009-03-11T18:17:00.000-07:00

The eight-tatami room.

The courtyard a the ryokan.

Me and our hostess.

When Kenny booked the trip, he booked two nights in a ryokan, or traditional inn, in Ise. He says everyone should have this experience.
And after a couple of nights in the ryokan in Ise, I would have to agree, but I would never suggest more than a couple of nights.
In this case, the inn we stayed at, Hoshidekan, is run by a woman who was well into her 80s, at least. It was a little like staying with someone's great-grandmother.
The inn is well known for the food (many are) and the other parts of the experience, the room, the baths, were charming in their own way, and sometimes a little like camping out.
I never figured out the bath, for instance. Both nights, she asked if I wanted a shower or a bath. But I couldn't locate a towel, and couldn't figure out which room to use. Kenny said I could have asked, but by that time of the evening I really truly didn't want to bother our hostess.
The sleeping room was an 8-tatami room (you measure by how many tatami mats fit). We were also served dinner in this room, although breakfast was in the dining room downstairs.
And dinner in our room meant that this very old woman had to bring multiple trays of food and dishes up and down the stairs.
But oh the food. She is well-known for her macrobiotic cooking, and all that healthy food might explain why she is able to run the inn at her age. I gave her the card I've been carrying, in Japanese, explaining that I can't eat wheat, and she went through it very carefully when we checked in. So I was able to enjoy two breakfasts and two dinners with no worries about wheat. The ingredients were largely fresh and local, and great-grandmother is a very good cook.
When we checked in, she was wearing a mask, which is common here, either to prevent the spread of cold germs or control allergies. We never saw her once without her mask, even when she took off her house-sweater to pose for a photo with me.
From what I've been able to find out, the inn dates to 1926. It is all wood, with a little outside bridge to the second floor washing area, and a well-kept courtyard, where a plum tree was in bloom.

Naiku - Part 2 - and shopping and eating

2009-03-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

Picking up where I left off yesterday - the graceful bridge over the Isuzugawa River is being rebuilt. This rebuilding is a theme that would recur during our visit to this shrine, considered to "hold the most honored place among all the shrines in Japan." The shrine may have been established as early as 4 BC, and all of the buildings are considered to be ancient. However all of the buildings are rebuilt, exactly, every 20 years.
I'm not certain that the reconstruction of the bridge is part of this other rebuilding. We crossed the river over a temporary concrete and wood bridge.
At Geku we had been impressed with the organized groups that were making a pilgrimage to the shrine. In some cases, marching (or nearly marching) men in business suits, who were then escorted into an outer courtyard (we could watch, but not photograph) for prayers with the priest. Much of the traffic at the outer shrine seemed to be of this sort.
But the grounds of the Inner Shrine were bustling with a steady stream of people, many who had come on tour buses. It was a cold Monday with rain threatening, and I kept asking Kenny if he was certain this wasn't a holiday.
At both of these shrines, it was difficult to see much more than the roof lines of the buildings. All the major shrine buildings, and most of the smaller auxiliary shrines are off-limits and behind fences. In some cases it is possible to see an outer courtyard, but not much else.
But because of this rite of rebuilding every 20 years, each shrine has next to it a large fenced in area, with a set of stairs as appropriate. The "unused" stairs go right up to a blank fence, waiting for the next rebuilding.
We were able to see various store houses on the grounds, and a number of areas set aside for music and dance performances. The store houses are for food offerings for the goddess Amaterasu-Omikami, and it is her sacred mirror that is said to be housed in the most inner part of the main shrine.
The grounds are wooded, with the mountains in the background. There are some exceptionally large and old Japanese cedar trees growing on the grounds.
Shopping and Eating
Of course all these pilgrims need to eat, and shop, it seems. Just outside the entrance to the shrine there is a area of streets full of small shops and restaurants, and we joined the crowds, looking for lunch and whatever else we could find.
Kenny had two missions. One was to find a place that served noodles Ise style, and the other to help me find the local bean and rice confection, which we knew I could eat.
We tried one restaurant, and it was only after we were seated that we understood they didn't serve noodles. Kenny ordered lunch. There was nothing on the menu that I could eat, so he ordered a glass of ume, or plum wine, for me.
His lunch came. And then they brought me a meal. And we were puzzled, to say the least. It took a few minutes of trying to decipher the English menu, but the restaurant served an set lunch named "Ume," sashimi and rice with barley and some other goodies. None of which I could eat.
We wandered around the plaza, listened to drummers performing, and found my candy - pounded sweet rice topped with sweet bean paste, all steamed, sort of the usual moochi turned inside out. It was the packaging that really charmed me. There was an outer pink paper wrapper, then inside, a wooden box, decorated with a woodblock-type print of the store, a little postcard and a holder for a small wooded spoon, all held together with a red ribbon. I didn't even want to open it.
We stopped in a small shop and sampled some plum wine, and I bought a bottle, so that made up for lunch. (I also inadvertently bought a small bottle of sake.)
We did finally find the Ise-style noodles, which Kenny says are quite good. It was beginning to rain, so we found our bus and made our way back to the inn.

Ise Jingu - Naiku

2009-03-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

First, a correction: Kenny reminds me that the visitors center was at Naiku, or the inner shrine, and not at Geku.
The city bus dropped us at the front entrance of Naiku, the inner shrine. Here we found crowds, and tour buses, and down one street we could see some interesting shopping waiting for us.
What we didn't find was the Uujibashi Bridge, which is being rebuilt. (More later...)

(and until later, a few photos)

Ise Jingu - Geku

2009-03-10T05:58:00.000-07:00

As far as I can tell, there is probably only one reason to visit Ise, and that would be to visit the two shrines - Naiku and Geku. This was our reason for being in Ise, and as soon as we had finished breakfast Monday morning we called for a taxi to take us to Geku, which is also known as the outer shrine.

This is the smaller of the two shrines, and is dedicated to the Goddess of Agriculture and Industry. According to the guidebook, this shrine dates from 478 AD. A steady stream of people were making their way toward one of the major shrines, where a few people at a time might be escorted into an inner courtyard, accompanied by a priest. Everyone else had a chance to to pray outside the courtyard fence.
In addition to the main shrine, there were various smaller shrines on the grounds. The largest shrines were hidden, except for the roof line, and off limits, but we were able to get a little closer to some of the smaller shrines on the grounds.
Kenny and I both walked the 98 steps to Taka-no-Miya.
The shrine at the top of these steps is dedicated to the goddess's aggressive spirit. I'll admit that something in me was drawn to this idea.
We stopped at the visitors center on the way out and drank some tea and watched a short film. On our way to the exit, we were escorted to the side of the path by a serious, but polite guard, only to find a dignitary in a tail coat and a Shinto priest participating in a ceremony at the shrine's main gate. We watched them proceed down the path toward the main shrine and then continued on our way to the bus. Who was this man, and why was he here? I wonder if I will ever know.
Across the street from what is known as the outer shrine, we waited for a city bus that would take us to Naiku, the inner shrine.
To be continued...

Tokyo to Ise

2009-03-10T05:37:00.000-07:00

We left the hotel in Tokyo early Sunday morning to catch the train to Ise. Or, more correctly, to catch two trains to Ise. The first train was the speedy and modern Shinkansen, or bullet train, which we took to Nagoya. In Nagoya, we switched to a different line, with older, and slower, trains running on a single shared track. From time to time the trains will pull off onto a side track to allow a train traveling in the opposite direction to pass.
We arrived in Ise's sleeply little train station and found a taxi to the ryokan, or traditional Japanese inn. (More on this soon)
We strolled around the old buildings near the river behind the inn, poked around in a craft market, found some lunch and tea, and then headed back to the inn for dinner and a surprisingly quiet evening.

Time to Catch Up

2009-03-10T05:34:00.000-07:00

I've been off-line since Sunday morning as we made our way to Ise for two nights and then on to Kyoto, where we will be until Friday.
I'll be catching up as much as I can in the next couple of hours.

Offline for a day or two

2009-03-07T13:07:00.000-08:00

This morning we are headed to Ise to visit the Shrine and stay two nights at a traditional inn. No internet until we reach Kyoto on Tuesday.

Snoopy the dog

2009-03-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

At Kenny's request, for Mike, I give you Snoopy the dog. (No the best picture. But the only one I have)

A Day in the Country

2009-03-07T03:00:00.000-08:00

Between my continued inability to concentrate on anything, and Kenny's connections and experience here in Japan, I haven't worried much about what we are doing, where we are going, or how we are going to get there. Kenny tells me when to meet him in the morning, and then the adventure begins.
Today, about all that had registered was this - we were going to a chicken restaurant with two of his friends, and then we might go to a pottery studio someplace.
It's going to be difficult to describe how distant the day was from that short set-up. Imagine lunch in Rivendell and a side trip to Shangri La and you might have a good start, but that still doesn't quite describe it.
On the way to the restaurant, we met up with Kenny's friend Shuji, and then at a later train stop, Mika, who had arranged for us to attend the house concert yesterday.
To get to the restaurant for lunch, we took the train out of Tokyo and then a shuttle bus to the restaurant, Ukai Toriyama. The picture on the web site does this place justice. It is like walking back into some dream of Japan. We had reservations, and were escorted to our own little dining building, on the edge of the stream that runs through the grounds.

The building where we ate our lunch.

When he made the reservations, Shuji had explained my wheat problem, and both the kimono-clad waitress and someone from the kitchen (the chef? perhaps) personally checked in about what I could and could not eat.
Although my meal took a bit longer to prepare, we learned that they had cooked my rice separately (since the usual rice is cooked with barley) and had made me tempura with a cornstarch batter.
Dinner also included grilled chicken and vegetables, an amazing soup made with tofu custard (if I have my facts straight) and small grilled fish, like a grilled sardine, which I was told was best eaten whole, starting with the head. So I did, even though Kenny wouldn't. The head was crunchy and tasty, and the bones quite soft.

My tasty little fish. I ate it all - starting with the head.

The chicken, green onions and potatoes were grilled over hot charcoal braziers in the center of our table.

Me, the waitress and Kenny.

Mika and Shuji.

But how to describe the setting? All green, with water falling everywhere. At one point, a gardener in hip-boots could be seen out in the stream attending to plants along the water. Water-wheels, bridges, moss, bamboo and very early spring flowers.
After dinner, we walked through the grounds, on a wood-plank path above water flowers just beginning to bud.
After lunch we headed back to the train station for our trip to Shuji's home in Fujino. At the train station, Shuji retrieved his car, and we set out on a ride of about ten minutes that seemed all uphill, or up-mountain.
The house he and his partner share is 150 years old, all wood and sliding screens, and tucked away against the hillside. Shuji made us green tea from leaves harvested nearby, and showed us some of his ceramics, and the looms and hand-dyed silk yarn his partner uses.
We visited for a while, played with Snoopy the dog, and I spent some time imagining how restful it would be to tuck myself away in the mountains like this, and just write for a while.
But there were trains to catch. On our ride back down to the train station, Shuji pointed out the tea "field" his partner farms. I don't know if you can call a nearly vertical piece of land a field, but that is how the tea is planted.
We said goodbye to Shuji at the Fujino train station. From Fujino, we traveled with many people, of all ages, who had backpacks and hiking poles, and had obviously been out on the mountain paths for the day. Mika left the train at an early stop in Tokyo, and Kenny departed near Shibuya for a show he is seeing tonight. I continued on to the Hiroo stop, the hotel, and the hot bath at the end of the day.

Pipa

2009-03-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

Because Kenny has been to Japan before, he has friends here, and that has opened up a few invitations that would not otherwise come my way.
Yesterday, we were invited to a house concert featuring a pipa player. This meant nothing to me at the time, I'll admit.
We met some of Kenny's friends for lunch, and with their help, and my handy Japanese gluten-free print out, I was able to have a "safe" lunch, which was quite welcome.
We finished our lunch and took a soggy walk to the host's house through driving rain. I learned, sometime in the course of the day, that our host is the wife of a well-known politician, and the house concert was being held on what seems to be the entertainment floor of their house. The concert room seats about 50 and has a small stage area with a grand piano.
The pipa, we learned as part of the concert, is a Chinese instrument related to the Japanese biwa. And the musician, Yang Jing, is a world-class pipa player who seems to be in Japan for a few concerts and this house concert was a private performance. The pipa, at least in Yang Jing's hands, could sound like a guitar or mandolin, and she even used it for percussion from time to time. The songs she played ranged from traditional pieces to modern compositions, and this included a selection from a new opera by Miki Minoru, who was in attendance (and sitting right behind us). The style of playing went from what you might think of as traditional Chinese music to a very rocked-out sound.
And the concert finished with two guest flute players and a traditional piece and poem, which Yang Jing recited in Chinese and one of the other guests gave us a graceful English translation.
(Here's a version of the poem, Moonlit Night by the Spring River, which is, among other things, about longing and grief)
After the concert, a reception and then a cab back to the hotel in the rain. It was too cold and wet to go anywhere last evening. I slept for about 12 hours.

Photographic Proof

2009-03-05T13:40:00.000-08:00

Mike, as I promised, a photo of Kenny. At the end of our one-day art and architecture tour, outside the 21-21 Design Sight.

Meiji-jingu, Art and Architecture

2009-03-05T12:38:00.000-08:00

This is the famous dog statue outside of Shibuya Station, where we arranged for our train tickets.

Casks of wine near the entrance to Meiji-jingu, or Meiji shrine. The wine was an offering for world peace from France.

The giant torii at the shrine. It is hard to give you a good sense of perspective, but the people between the posts are right under the cross-piece.

The courtyard at the shrine.

There were prayer offerings in many languages at the shrine.

After the we took care of the train tickets, Kenny offered me a few options - I wanted to go to Meiji Shrine. Like every other shrine or temple I have visited here, this one has a long approach, the gates, a wide gravel path, and then you turn the corner and there is the shrine.
It is hard to imagine how peaceful this is, since it's right in Tokyo, but there are, I'm learning, places like this in the Tokyo, that at not only look and feel serene, but are actually quiet.
After the shrine we walked through the neighborhood, if you can call it that, looking at the architecture, which I'll admit was a surprise. So many strange and beautiful buildings, including Omotesando Hills, a shopping mall where we didn't shop at all, just enjoyed the design. It's all very upscale. Very very upscale. The building is all angles and strange stairways and open spaces.
Kenny found a place in his Rough Guide that sounded good for lunch, and we set out in that direction. He knew most of the important buildings on the walk, and filled me in the architects and history. I have retained none of it, but I do appreciate the amazing-ness of it all.
The restaurant was tucked away and it took a bit of effort to find it, but it's a fun place, designed by the artist Nara, with a room-sized installation right in the middle of the restaurant. Sadly, I couldn't even eat the rice here, which was made with grains of wheat (why? why? why?), and had a nice strange lunch of coleslaw and potato salad.
We also stopped at the Issey Miyake store and Kenny tried on a shirt. I didn't try on anything.
After a little break in the afternoon, we headed out for two art shows.
The first, at the Suntory Museum of Art, was National Treasures of the Mii-dera Temple. The show, on two floors, includes statuary, sliding panels and a number of scrolls and documents. Last week I sort of randomly picked up a book on Buddhist sculpture, not knowing we would see this show, (and I only bought the book because it was in English, really) but it was good preparation for seeing these statues up close.
It was getting late, and there was still one more art show. Out the doors and across a pedestrian bridge to 21-21 Design Sight. How to describe this? Wood bowls so delicate and thinly carved that light shines through, all arranged on glass to resemble ice. And pottery floating in a pool of water. OK, that doesn't do it justice either.

Rail Pass

2009-03-05T00:19:00.000-08:00

Kenny is here, and the sightseeing begins. (And Mike, I promise to take a picture of Kenny tomorrow, just for you. I don't know how I ended up with only pictures of me today.)
We took care of the rail pass business first thing. With Japan Rail, you need to purchase a voucher before you enter the country, and this voucher can then be redeemed for unlimited travel for a certain number of days. We now have most of train travel set for next week. The Japanese bureaucracy requires first visiting one office to exchange the rail pass for a voucher (the rail pass has no less than four official stamps. There were also stamps on the reciept.) and then we had to visit another office for the actaul train tickets.
More later.

Maybe some sunshine?

2009-03-04T13:55:00.001-08:00

Kenny arrived last evening and the weather forecast for today looks good, so I hope to see a little of Tokyo. I've been here twice now, in 2007 and this year, and other than Noh I haven't seen anything much beyond the various train stations. If we find plum blossoms today, there will be pictures.

For Those of You Who Golf

2009-03-04T00:44:00.000-08:00

A golf shop in the new neighborhood.

Change of Venue

2009-03-03T19:24:00.000-08:00

I've moved from the neighborhood where I've been staying to the new location in Tokyo. This is near the French, Chinese and German embassies. I certainly wasn't going to try and haul my luggage through the subway, so changing hotels require a cab ride that came close to the equivalent of $30. I'm only now starting to get a sense of exactly how enormous Tokyo is. It's hard to take it all in.
After I packed this morning and checked out, the men at the front desk of the hotel in Nakano allowed me to leave my bags in the lobby until I was ready to catch a cab. I walked back to Rick's house and had some tea with Joyce. Back at the hotel, I asked about getting a cab, and after an intense conversation between the men at the front desk, they were pretty sure where I was going, and that I needed to cross the street. So, one of them helped me out the door, up and over the pedestrian bridge across the street, and hailed a cab for me. This kind of assistance still astounds me.
The cab driver had very little English, and I have no Japanese, but he seemed pretty happy to have found the new hotel, which is tucked away from any main street that I could discern. All of the cabs in Tokyo have GPS. I don't know how they could it otherwise.
We finished up the workshop yesterday with an all-day class session and then dinner, hosted by Joyce and David, back at Rick's house. The time has gone by so quickly.
The rest of this day will be resting and laundry. I might go walk around the neighborhood later. Kenny arrives this evening, and then I guess we will do whatever it is we've got planned. I keep losing track of the details, and trust that it will all work out.
Here are a few photos from the old neighborhood.

Noh Photos

2009-03-02T16:13:00.000-08:00

Back Stage at the Noh

2009-03-02T03:06:00.000-08:00

This afternoon we were guests of the Hosho Noh Theatrer, where we were given a chance to be dressed in costume and walk on the actual Noh stage. Two of us were invited to volunteer to be dressed, one as a warrior and one as a lady. Since no one else was jumping in, I took the opportunity, and chose to be a warrior. These are quite heavy and stylized costumes, and the complexity of layers and adjustments requires that one be dressed. Three young actors from the school took about ten minutes, maybe a little more, to get me into the warrior garb, complete with sword and big pants. The costumes are generally one size, and adjusted to fit the individual actor as the dressing is taking place, so the needle and thread came out to shorten the sleeves and keep the outer layer from shifting. There is also quite a bit of wrapping around the hips and waist, which makes it much easier to stand in the correct Noh posture. I didn't get a chance to pull my hair back before we started, so the look was, I think, a little like a chubby warrior character, with the wig from the part of a madwoman.
Walking onto the stage was very much like walking into a cathedral. No one is allowed on a Noh stage unless they are wearing white cotton tabi (socks) and these allow you slide your foot nearly silently (in theory) over the smooth wood deck of the stage. We were also allowed to stomp a little. The main Noh stage is designed to resonate like a drum when struck hard with the foot, and it was good to hear and feel the reverberation.

Words and Music

2009-03-02T03:04:00.000-08:00

For class today, our instructor and the two Noh drummers who have been attending the workshop presented some of our writing set to music, and sung in the Noh style. I had written three short connected pieces and it was quite helpful to hear the verses “on their feet” and get a good sense of what worked and what didn't.

Paella

2009-03-02T03:02:00.000-08:00

I don't know what I was thinking when Georgia and I were looking for a place for dinner Sunday evening. There is a small Spanish restaurant connected to our hotel, and we were tired and couldn't find a Japanese restaurant close by that had pictures to help us order. So I thought paella would be “safe.” Certainly the pictures on the menu led us to believe this. But I don't recall ever hearing the words paella and “cheesy goodness” together, but that was about what was set in front of us. Rice, small frightening bits of chicken and cheese, which I believe was actually a cheese sauce. As in white sauce with flour. The migraine followed as night follows day. I'm to the point now where I will happily eat plain rice and fruit for the rest of the trip if I can avoid getting sick.

Two Plays

2009-03-02T02:59:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try and get a little caught up this evening. I missed my chance to go online this morning, so I'm a little behind.

Sunday we were back at the National Noh Theatre for two more plays – Ataka and Sesshoseki. Ataka was unusual, in respect to most of the other plays we've seen in that it is a “real-time” play in which something like dramatic action happens onstage in the course of the play.

This play was unusual in two other ways. First, instead of the usual one or two accompanying actors, this play features nine. They move together, and in the Noh costumes, which are quite angular and striking, they always make an interesting stage picture. Also, the part of the high-ranking official in this play is, as is most often the case, portrayed by a kokata. These boys, who begin training as a Noh actor at a young age, are called upon to play children, of course, but more often they take the part of a high-ranking official. From what I've been told, in this way, by using the young boys to fill the part of the high-ranking official, these characters can be included in the play without taking the risk of offending an official who might be attending a performance. The young boys in no way could be mistaken for an adult and therefore can safely play these parts. The boys are, I have to say it, adorable, and it think this is part of the pleasure for the audience. They are also quite well-rehearsed and professional.

In the play we saw Sunday, I think we all had some sympathy for the kid. His part required him to wear a rather large and ridiculous hat for one scene, and the hat had not been tied down correctly. It flew off his head four times. He was a trooper and kept right on going.

Bonus Map

2009-02-28T16:53:00.000-08:00

Since I still don't have the camera problem resolved, here's a little visual of where I'm staying:

View Larger Map

The Writer's Life is Boring

2009-02-28T16:29:00.001-08:00

We saw two more Noh plays yesterday, a shorter piece that was mostly dance, and a longer piece that was quite lovely, and kept putting me to sleep. This happens sometimes with Noh, and I've learned not to fight it too much. It's impossible to sleep through the flute, regardless, and sometimes it feels more like meditation than napping.
The sun was out a little so I managed a walk in the morning, down the street past what I'm told is the local Zen temple and more or less "around the block" and back to the hotel. With a stop at the 100 yen store - again. This time I found something I've wanted since my last trip - big clips, like giant clothespins for holding comforters to a railing to be aired out.
The neighborhoods here, the streets off of and behind the main streets, are small alleyways, but very active, full of houses, of course, but also schools, small grocery stores and other little businesses. It feels, at least to me, like the real life of people going on.
The theater we attended yesterday was in Shibuya, an amazingly busy crowded part of the city. Sort of like Times Square on the busiest day you can imagine, with more shopping. The trip required us to go through two of the busiest train stations in Tokyo (the guidebook tells me Shinjuku station is the second busiest in the world).
I left the group early and made my way back to the hotel by myself. For me, this is always a step toward being comfortable when I travel - knowing I'm OK with the public transportation. Tokyo is actually pretty easy since the signs and most of the announcements are in English.
Now comes the boring part. At 5 p.m. I went back to my hotel room, slept a few hours and wrote for the rest of the night. I'm told there is karaoke in the plans for this evening, so I can make up for the one boring night.
Two more Noh plays today, at the National Noh Theatre.

Yes, it snowed here yesterday

2009-02-27T16:23:00.000-08:00

This is whining, but I didn't come to Japan to watch snow fall on palm trees, but the cold rain did indeed turn into snow for and hour or two yesterday afternoon. I'm told this is the first snow of the season. It is green in a few places here, and the sun is trying to come out this morning.
I'm having a great time at the workshop, and I'm writing, but that doesn't make for exciting blogging.
Otherwise, Judy and Mariko, who where both here for the workshop in '07, took me for a traditional Japanese lunch yesterday, and were able to help me order "safe" food.
Today, we see two more Noh plays, and then I need to spend the evening writing.
I still haven't worked out my camera problem, but perhaps I can find some time this weekend to get that resolved.

Writing and the First Two Noh Plays

2009-02-26T16:15:00.000-08:00

Still trying to catch up on my sleep and I haven't yet solved my camera problem. Yesterday started with classwork followed by two Noh plays, which is sort of a short afternoon, compared to the full-day programs we saw when I was here before.
The second play had to do with a warrior/musician whose ghost returns to listen to the music of the lute in the night.
I was also able to buy a blue and purple brocade case for my fan at the National Noh Theatre.
Otherwise, I wrote and watched the Sound of Music and caught up on my sleep.
My biggest issue right now is trying to find something I can safely eat. Almost everything has soy sauce and that means wheat. I'm sure I'll get it all sorted out.

Flight to Tokyo and First Full Day in Japan

2009-02-25T16:07:00.000-08:00

Only a quick note this morning. My interenet access is limited and will be until the workshop is finished, about March 3.
The various flights were unremarkable, which is always good, right? I did ask for assistance from gate to gate at JFK and Seattle, which made it possible to get from gate to gate, since the flights were booked so closely together. I've never asked for a wheelchair before, or priority boarding, but it made everything easier.
Narita airport was also easy this time. My luggage was nearly first on the conveyor, customs didn't want to look through my luggage, and the bus from the airport to Tokyo was ready five minutes after I bought my ticket.
I'm staying in the same businessmen's hotel as when I was here in '07. The rooms are not the smallest I've ever seen, the hotel (in Nakano-ku) is convenient to the subway and close to the house of our workshop host. At this hotel, you leave the key at the desk when you are going out and pick it up again when you come back to the hotel. So there is always this interaction with the gentlemen who work the front desk. I find it all comforting somehow. And the hotel provides, in addition to the usual soap and toothbrush, complementary socks.
Dave and I had dinner nearby to finish up arrival day and Joyce joined us for a little while.
My first full day, Wednesday was mostly devoted to exploring the neighborhood. I visited with Joyce for a while and then walked over to the 100 yen store, which is pretty much what you would expect from any dollar store, but it's here in Tokyo. I bought a cheap change purse to hold my yen, and some little cozies for kitchen chair legs, that are intended to keep the chair from scratching the floor. I like shopping for bits of junk, I'll admit it. And I'm likely to visit the 100 yen store again before the workshop ends.
Dave met up with me for lunch, and we walked over the the neighborhood Buddhist temple and through the local cemetery.
Then we visited the bookstore around the corner, which has a very tiny collection of English language books. My most exciting find at the bookstore was a bi-lingual guide to Japanese Buddhist Sculpture.
Most of the workshop people met for dinner later in the evening. Of the 10 or 11 people who will be participating, I know six, either from Noh summer camp or my last visit here, so it's a good comfortable group.
No pictures today, since my camera doesn't want to talk to the little netbook I'm using. I hope to have this resolved tomorrow. First workshop session this morning, and then off to the National Noh Theatre for performances of Tsunemasa and Hagoromo, which I'm told will be performed by a company of all women.
Time to get moving. More tomorrow.