Heading back home

Late breaking news: Donna, Marina, and I are heading back home to California this evening to be with Lillian.

Jenny will continue on the trip. and will start the walk along the Nakasendo Trail this afternoon. She will return home after spending a couple of days in Tokyo.

Events sometimes overcome plans. We'll just have to return another time.

Day 2 in Kyoto

We started this morning at the Nijo Castle.  Well, just as the silver pavilion wasn’t silver, I must say that the Nijo Castle didn’t seem much like a castle.  It is stately and impressive, but more like a convention center than a castle …. a series of large meeting rooms.  My favorite thing was the floor, which was deliberately built to squeak when walked on, so that you knew if someone was coming.  (Hah – that’s just probably the contractor’s excuse, don’t you think?).

The surrounding gardens, though are beautiful.

We continue to see a bazillion school kids.  Many of them stop and ask us if we would pose for a photo with them, and we did this on several occasions.  Jenny got into the spirit making the “peace” sign.  For some reason, all Japanese people do this for all photos.  Then, the guide explained that often their instructors will assign them the task of getting a photo with a gaijin (foreigner).  I’m hoping this is to force them to practice English, rather than as a trophy!

We then visited the Gold Pavilion, which thankfully is actually gold.  The twist with this place was that the original burned down, so the one we are seeing is a replica, actually constructed in 1955.  Speaking as someone born that year, it didn’t strike me as very old!  But it was quite beautiful and the gardens and ponds around it were spectacular.

We strolled through a flea market on the way to a set of temples.  The flea market was filled with interesting street food as well as plenty of trinkets.  We made a stop at a statue that is supposed to be good luck for students taking exams, so both Marina and Jenny gave it a good rub, hoping that the effect would last a while.

Our next stop was a bamboo forest outside of town.  First, we stopped for lunch at a place specializing in tofu.  Actually, it seemed they were specialized in buckwheat, as many of the items were made from buckwheat (for those readers who are familiar with kasha, it was like a whole kasha-tasting meal, even the tea and the ice cream).  The tofu was good, too.  Then we strolled through the bamboo, which was amazingly cool on a very hot day.  The bamboo grows very fast and are used in many items here.

We took the streetcar back to town and are relaxing at the hotel. Highlight of the day:  green tea ice cream!

Both Marina and Jenny are really enjoying Japan.  I think Marina likes it because everything is small, so it fits her perfectly!  Jenny is working on picking up a variety of phrases in Japanese and talks to everybody, so she is a particularly popular subject for those gaijin photos.

My mom is doing a bit better today, but we’ve decided to come home early, so are trying to figure out our logistics.

-- Donna

We started our day with the hotel breakfast, which was an amazing assortment of individual strange items, none of them really recognizable.  We visited the (not-really) silver pavilion; apparently the guy ran out of money before getting to the silver part.  This visit was during school field trip season, meaning that the place was stuffed with class after class of schoolchildren of all ages.

We then went to the Craft Museum, where we saw an artisan making lacquer.  It is incredibly impressive how many arts the Japanese have taken to a gorgeous level, from paper making to watercolors, to lacquer, to bamboo fencing, to magnificent fabric and kimonos.  I was interested at how many of the styles looked contemporary, whether they were or not.  We then visited a small manufacturer of porcelain.

Our lunch was our first taste of real Japanese sushi – excellent!  We then visited a modern-style kimono shop, with some quite expensive but exquisite items that looked like a cross between a robe and a kimono.  We ended the day with an introduction to the Japanese tea ceremony with our host, Michael.  It wasn’t what we expected at all.  First, the tea was ground up green tea, not leaves, so it was a stronger, almost bitter, taste.  Second, it wasn’t a tasting of multiple types of tea … it was just one, and we learned how to make it ourselves.

I was determined to have yakitori (grilled chicken) for dinner tonight, for some reason that I can’t explain.  The first place we went, recommended by our guide, was full, so we went on a search.  We simply stopped and asked every Japanese person who looked like they worked in the neighborhood, “Yakitori?” until we found one (a guy with an impressive Mohawk hair style) who consulted with his friend, smiled, and signaled to follow him.  We trailed him down several alleys until suddenly there we were, at the neighborhood yakitori shop.  It was definitely the local place – no tourists here – and we had a good and quite inexpensive meal.

We found ourselves making lots of mistakes here, such as these:

• We keep opening and closing the taxi doors, which you are not supposed to do, because they are controlled by the driver with a remote opener, and he REALLY DOESN’T LIKE YOU opening it yourself. But apparently they are used to stupid Americans who simply can’t get out of the habit.
• We left our tickets on the bullet train when we arrived, but needed them for the turnstiles to exi. (Actually, Jenny had the tickets for her and Marina, so it was really me and Lenny who messed up on this one.) The kind lady let us go through without them, “just this once”
• Vending machines are ubiquitous. I bought beverages from one, on the train, thinking I was buying still water and sparkling water.  I actually was buying water, lemonade, and ice coffee. (The one in a bottle with a mountain pictured on it … wouldn’t that say “water” to you, rather than “coffee”?)

But making mistakes is part of the fun of being tourists.

We’re all a bit sad today because my mother has taken ill and is in the hospital.  We’re trying to assess the situation as to whether we will head home early or not.  Stay tuned for more info. 

 -- Donna

Day 1 in Kyoto

Breakfast this morning wasn't the usual hotel fare. Delicious!

Then we were off to the Silver Pavilion temple (Ginkakau-ji), which isn't silver now and never was,

but it is set in a beautiful garden dating back to the 15th century.

We then went to a family-operated ceramics workshop.

After lunch we got to model some modern kimono-like robes.

Across town again, to participate in a tea ceremony presided over, believe it or not, by a Swiss German who speaks fluent Japanese and English.

Arrival in Kyoto

The 12-hour flight was easy, and after getting through customs we managed to find the right bullet train

to take us from the Osaka airport to Kyoto in 70 minutes. Then a quick taxi ride to the hotel, and dinner at a local restaurant. Now we're struggling to stay awake until at least 9pm so we have a chance of sleeping through the night.  The fun starts tomorrow. Zzzzzzzz.

Our first haiku

From in the airplane.
Flying for many hours...
Love that business class!
   -- By Donna and Jenny

Off to Japan

Donna, Len, Marina, and Jenny are off to Japan on May 22nd. Stay tuned for our blog!