Tag: Japan

Thirteen Reasons I’ll be Returning

« | Main | »

05/08/2013

Note:  If this blog looks familiar, it’s because I originally wrote it more than three years ago. It still holds true.  Parentheses added for additional thoughts now.  The order of these reasons has no significance!

13 reasons I’ll be going back!

1. CIVILITY.  Everyone is NICE !  Customers are always cordially welcomed and greeted when they enter a store or restaurant.  They are always thanked for coming as they leave.  Politeness simply makes the world a nicer place.  (So true.  Makes me nicer too.)

abeke
Saying goodbye at Abeke House in Omori-cho.

2.  TEATIME.  The abundance of cool cafes and charming teashops demand attention and always call for a mid-afternoon break that makes for a better day. (I’ve had to put limits on this enjoyable habit.  The cakes all come with too steep a price not mentioned. In a new list I might be forced to omit the teatimes, for obvious reasons.   I did love them dearly.)

chocolate cake

3. TEMPLES AND SHRINES.  I am magnetically drawn to the architecture, the gardens, the exotism, the mystery and the imagery of these places of worship. With approximately 2000 temples and shrines in Kyoto alone, there’s a lifetime left for exploration! (Still going strong and still discovering fascinating temples I hadn’t seen before.  This Spring, the  Obai-in Temple got my award as most unforgettable.)

nenbutsuji
Nenbutsuuji

 

IMG_0477
Obai-in
IMG_0468
Obai-in
IMG_3060
Miyajima shrine

4.  GARDENS. Japanese gardens reveal their wonders to me season by season, place by place, turn by turn.  They are places of refuge, dreams  and restoration. The sights and sounds of water,  stone, gravel and sculptured plants as manipulated in a Japanese garden can be revelatory. (After pulling up my backyard lawn, I’m now in the process of trying to put a Japanese influenced garden in its place. You’re right to laugh!)

cherry

reflection

5.  SERENDIPITY.  You just never know what will cross your path in the course of a day in seemingly the most unexpected places and moments.kooks

geikovolksie

IMG_2848
Froggy café

6.  ATTENTION TO DETAIL.  Few aspects of the visual world  is are overlooked. Sophisticated packaging, graphic design, and presentation constantly delight and astonish.  (I’m awed by the way the Japanese aesthetic raises the bar for graphic design.)

IMG_0306
IMG_0272

7.  Beer and Sake and Udon and Soba and Tofu and Tempura and Confections and Sushi and Ramen and Tonkatsu and Milk Pudding and Toast Sets and Cake Sets.  All in one day?!  (Gastronomic delights truly never end.)

ice cream sundae
summer treat!

japanese dinner

8.  FRIENDS.  There’s nothing better than reconnecting with friends whom I’ve met through my travels to Japan.  They not only enrich and enliven my visits, their patience, generosity and kindness enrich my life as a whole.

me and rob
Robert Yellin, of Robert Yellin Yakimono Gallery

katsu and harumi
Sculptor, Matsuzaki Katsuyoshi and Personal Tour Guide Yamanaka Harumi. Missing, her husband, Yamanaka Akihiko.  Also missing and missed, Steve Beimel of Esprit Travel!

9.  SAFETY.  Never a worry.  Great drivers, immaculate taxis, theft practically unheard of! (Forget your purse in the middle of a department store?  No problemo! Your camera? Your glasses?  I have a 100% rate of return, and those of you who know me know that if it’s not attached, I’ll lose it.)

taxi

10.  ESCAPE FROM THE NEWS.  The language barrier provides a perfect opportunity to tune out.  (More important than ever.)

11.  SHOPPING OPPORTUNITIES. Constant over-stimulation. Tiny shops!  Department stores with entire floors devoted to food and art? Textiles? The world’s best Ceramics? Clothing that’s actually comfortable? Regional folk art?  Entire department store basements of all kinds of high-quality food? (I’ve actually come to understand “enough. ”  Also, the object of my attention that first appears as irresistible, ultimately can become trite or cheesy.  Ex:  the first time I visited Japan, I was fixated on their covers for kleenex boxes that were in soft velour made to look like kittens!)

12.  EVERYTHING DONE WELL.   Never an attitude of “I’m too sexy for this job.” ( Every kind of work is respected.  So much so that everyone seems to take pride in their work and does it as well as possible, be it cleaning person, server, salesperson, ticket taker, bank teller, etc. It’s in the dna, I think.)

14.  NATURE CELEBRATED.  Unfortunately, lots of the untouched natural beauty of Japan has disappeared to development, particularly in the cities.  However, the Japanese inherent reverence for nature permeates all aspects of the culture, from design to food to art.  Great trees are enshrined.  Cherry and maple trees are illuminated and celebrated at the height of their beauty, and even as their beauty fades.  Seasonally fresh flowers and branches can be found sitting in traditional shop windows and on front doors at the holidays.  There’s never a question about rushing a season.  Each is paid its proper tribute.

(A local flower shop receives fresh flowers that change by the day.  From buds to entire branches.  It’s pure pleasure.)

 

fall flower
gallery display

Just realized that I could almost sum it up in one word:  “INSPIRATION!”

(Living part-time in Kyoto is an experiment that’s worked out better than I could have imagined.  I no longer feel like a stranger in a strange land, although there’s enough contrast to my everyday life in CA that I never tire of the experiences presented.  I’m making another attempt to learn the language, for my fifth or sixth time, ever hopeful that a breakthrough lies just around the corner. )

anticipation 2

One of the best parts of living part-time in Kyoto, is that when it comes time to leave, I know I will return again.  The good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.

anticipation3

Heart Warming and Belly Filling

img_8347

The hilly village of Ohara, in the northern precincts of Kyoto, is idyllic.  It’s one of the places that I must return to each time I come to Kyoto.  Its simple country farmhouses make a ring around a central area of fertile farmland growing rice and vegetables. At one time, this rural farm area grew most of the fruits and vegetables for the city of Kyoto.   Glimmering streams snake through the landscape.  Ancient temples watch over the proceedings of the ever changing lives of the mortals living below them.

ohara

Several years ago, after arriving in Kyoto in early winter, I foolishly suggested we visit Ohara and take a walk.  A light rain was falling in Kyoto, but common sense should have told me it was not a great day for a walk in the country.

When we arrived in Ohara, it was snowing ,very cold and damp. A day my mother would have  described as “raw.” The walk quickly became an endurance test.  A friend we were with kindly suggested we stop at a nearby farmhouse that had a small sign in Japanese, indicating they served food.  What a refuge.  At the time, we were the only customers.

The large old farmhouse was owned by a young couple who had inherited the house from the wife’s parents.  She had an adorable infant strapped to her waist as she served us course after delicious course of food prepared by her husband in the adjacent kitchen.  The food is beautifully served on a wonderful assortment of antique and new ceramics.  We watched the snowfall as we happily sat behind large glass windows,consuming the heart warming food prepared for us.

img_8351
Steamed local mountain veggies and tofu, from the top and clockwise, daikon, tofu, carrots in sesame sause, spinach and burdock root with gingko nuts.

img_8354

On Sunday, we decided to search again for the farmhouse, neither of us certain  just where it was.  I managed to locate it, but when we walked in, the owner told us they were all booked.  I made my plea and they kindly sat us at a counter table in the kitchen.  We determined it had been about nine years since we’d first come.  They now have three daughters and share the work of serving lunch most days to about 20 lucky people.  The husband told us, when he wasn’t cooking, he was farming, on their small plot of land, directly across the small road.

img_8339

I was happy for them, although it was obvious to see how hard they both worked, she doing triple  duty as server and busgirl and dishwasher, her husband cooking for 20 people at a time, while growing the food in his spare time.  He grows organic rice too. Her parents look after their three daughters.

img_8357

The name of the restaurant is wappado.  Open only between noon and 3pm on certain days.

img_8349-1

Prepare to have your heart warmed and your belly filled.img_8359

 

 

JAPANESE SUMMER

Welcome Summer
Welcome Summer

Rainy season delights

The rainy season in Japan has just begun. Although the season brings its discomforts, it also marks the appearance of mounds of blossoming sky blue hydrangeas (ajisai) that replace the blue of the sky for a few damp and misty weeks.  They are one of my favorite flowers and can push me to tolerate uncomfortable degrees of wetness just to take in their beauty in some out of the way soaking wet garden.  The displays of hundreds and hundreds of these plants seen in many temple precincts are dreamy and extravagant in their abundance, shape and colors.  Think flamboyant masses of every shade of blue imaginable along with occasional splashes of  pink and white .

hydrangeas 1

The Japanese indulge seriously in seasonal celebration and have specific customs that accompany every time of the year. The images of hydrangeas appear in seasonal candies, in the design of everyday fabrics, on ceramics and on kimono and accessories.

Bouquets or single stems of hydrangea are found in the windows of traditional shops.  The flower is celebrated nationally for its rainy flowering period, then replaced by other symbols of the season, as the rainy season ends and the summer heat becomes more oppressive.

multi colored hydrangea

The exquisite craftsmanship of traditional Japanese sweets (wagashi)wagashi 1

wagashi 3 wagashi 2

Japanese wind bells (Fuurin)

I became easily entranced with fuurin (Japanese wind chimes), another symbol of a Japanese summer. For hundreds of years, in the heat of the summer, they’re hung in the eaves or gardens of buildings to delicately announce the arrival of any passing breeze. Attached to most fuurin is a paper wind catcher that offers a prayer to the gods.

Just to show you how “coo coo for cocoa puffs” the Japanese can go with this kind of thing, I discovered that there is a very large market every year in July, just south of Tokyo, devoted only to the delights fuurin!  Can you imagine the sight and sound of 30,000 wind-bells made of either glass, ceramic or iron, gathered from all corners of Japan, displayed together?

It sounds like an irresistible fuurin-gasm.fuurin 3

fuurin 1fuurin 2

hydrangea
Hydrangea photo courtesy of photographer extraordinnaire, Robert Yellin

鎌倉紫陽花4_mini-1024x768 鎌倉紫陽花2_mini-1024x764

THE GYPSY STILL IN MY SOUL, PART TWO.

MOVING ON FROM GEORGIA

Brutus:
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224

I had to memorize these  lines in order to walk into English class in 10th grade .  I can still recite them verbatim. It might have been the most important thing I learned in high school.  Shakespeare’s words made it very clear that opportunity doesn’t knock twice and you can expect a steep penalty if you ignore opportunity when it presents itself.   I took those lines to heart and listened to Brutus.

After a decade living in Georgia, I urged my husband to take a position with a young company in CA. When the offer came through,I instantly knew this was just the kind of opportunity Brutus had in mind.  It seemed like a now or never proposition, if we were ever to move away.

CALIFORNIA, HERE I COME

Friends in Georgia asked us how we could move to a place that had earthquakes. That was mild compared to what our friends in the NorthEast had to say before we moved to Georgia!  It turned out, to my horror, that Georgia was smack in the middle of Tornado Alley. After living through a devastating and terrifying tornado, I decided you’re at risk for one catastrophe or another just about anywhere.

We moved to the relatively young town of Thousand Oaks, CA. in 1981.

In the early 80’s it was the land of endless Farrah Fawcett haircuts and butt-hugging dolphin shorts, ticky tacky suburban housing developments, large shopping malls and mega churches.  It was a pretty, but sterile and politically conservative town. Businesses had names like You are Hair, and Thanks a Latté.

People liked to say it was a good place to raise children. I guess that was because it was pretty, sterile and politically conservative.   It seemed to epitomize every cliché I’d ever read about Southern CA.  Within a year, my pre-adolescent smart-ass kids  took to calling it Thousand Jokes, CA.  I never came up with anything better.

dolphinfarah

I reached my limit with this location during the first Gulf War. The knee jerk patriotism became intolerable.  Within hours of the initial US strikes on Iraq, our house was the only one in our neighborhood without a boisterous American flag.  My chest was one of the few not emblazoned with the stars and stripes. Time to move on.   The day we moved, I drove down the driveway of our Thousand Oaks home for the final time and felt nothing but relief.

patriotic sweatshirt

Our next stop was Santa Barbara, just up the California coast.  I’d been attracted to it for many years. It met all my criteria for an ideal place to live.

sb

It has ocean, mountains, and a university.  It’s not too large, but is within driving distance of a large city. It’s got a strong sense of place and a strong sense of community. It hasn’t disappointed me. It can get insular and small townish, but the positives more than make up for the negatives.  Each time I return after being away, I’m happy to be home.

I’m quite sure that I won’t be initiating any more major moves.  I’ve lost the desire or energy to start over someplace new.

That said, without fail, visits to Japan renew a child-like state of wonder, discovery and delight in learning.  It’s been that way since my first visit in 1983. I delight in the warmth and kindness of the people, the celebration of the seasons, the scrupulous attention to detail and the intrigue of living in a place where there is much that remains mysterious.

Wandering the lanes, the gardens, the temples and the shops, the lyrics of Gypsy in My Soul, still ring true, particularly in the phrase, “my heart has wings.”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

TUNING OUT, OR, HOW I LEARNED THAT IGNORANCE MIGHT LEAD TO BLISS

ignorance

Can ignorance be bliss?  For the last several decades, I was a news junkie.  I prided myself in keeping up with the latest news, be it from NPR, The NY Times, PBS, The New Yorker, or any other progressive media outlet.

When in conversation, if people “got” my news references, I’d give them a positive ranking for being  informed.  If they looked blankly at me, or openly admitted that they didn’t follow the news, I would give them an automatic downgrade.

Now I am rethinking the role of ignorance as an essential self protective device for maintaining sanity in a crazy world.

During political campaigns decades ago, I could be counted on to call strangers while phone banking, to walk unknown neighborhoods and to write letters in support of causes and candidates I backed. During the 60′ and 70’s I’d eagerly join in demonstrations. I telephoned for Eugene McCarthy between breast feedings.

mccarthy200-6b384d4a0c2682cfa0e79a4529e90d3a8e26a70a-s700-c85  In the 1980’s I sat for hours, with supporting materials, at a table in front of the post office in order to engage uninterested people in understanding the importance of voting for the Nuclear Freeze.  I regularly gathered people together in my living room to talk about the urgency of living in a world Beyond War.  I was on a mission. Each day offered an opportunity to save the world from destruction. But, after several years of activism, I burned out.  Our collective efforts did help bring about change, but somehow the issues seemed simpler then. The fervor with which we worked was difficult to sustain.

nuclear freeze

At some point, my penchant for political activism ebbed.

I continue to keep myself relatively well-informed, but no longer have the energy or desire to work for a specific cause.  Crisis Fatigue has set in. Climate change, refugees, Syria, gun control, Isis or Isil, droughts, the Mideast, mass shootings, idiots running for president, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the Taliban, fracking, oil spills, bee declines, etc.etc.etc.; all my internal warning lights flash “OVERLOAD!”

It’s obvious that some crises are cynically hyped, if not openly manufactured, to drive listeners, voters  and sales.  After the selling of the first Iraq War, I began to feel loathing for most talking heads as well as many news anchors and politicians. By the beginning of the second Iraq War, my distaste was complete.  I’d lost my taste for most causes.

cnn

Maybe, in the beginning,  it was ignorance that allowed me  to believe that I/we could continue to effect change in our complex world?

One of the joys of traveling to Japan is that I can shut out the drumbeat of crises more easily than I can at home.  I’ve found it pleasant to “tune out” for a while.  To my surprise, the world goes on, with or without me.  My semi-detached state of mind continues now , even after I’ve returned home.

Because of the language barrier I have in Japan, I cannot understand what their politicians or media talk about.

And, at least for now, I’m liking it!