Here are photos frmo Rieko of the game we played. Players are supposed to throw the fan and knock that thing off the box. It was a lot harder than it looks.
And here’s our dinner, post-onsen. This was great. I loved cooking my own food over the coals. They served venison which I couldn’t even bring myself to eat. It was raw. Incredibly, my mom ate it and loved it.
The Toshogu Shrine area in Nikko is always a great place to take visitors and I have learned to never put off a visit because of rain. I consistently get great shots there when it’s wet because the colors are so saturated and overcast skies create a wonderful and diffuse light. We were lucky enough to happen upon a wedding taking place but shots were tough because they were inside a dark building.
All of my pictures are starting to look the same so I reluctantly dug out the lens that came with my camera when I bought it. It’s perhaps the shittiest lens ever and is totally cheap but it does go down to 18mm which is a great focal length for wide angle shots. The problem is that the photo quality is abject crap. I really need to get a wide angle lens before I leave here. It sucks having an expensive hobby.
Nikko’s rough if you have a problem climbing – there are stairs everywhere. My mom couldn’t handle it anymore so she took a break:
After Nikko, Heike Village. This place was an aggregation of original Heike buildings for public viewing. Inside were all kinds of tools and implements used in everyday life in that time period. None of it was fake…at least it didn’t look like it to a tourist like myself.
By this time I was beat down tired and was ready for an onsen. We found our hotel, checked in and went to the onsen…but on the way there we were waylaid by a group of people playing Japanese darts. We joined in the fun for while but needed to get moving since we had dinner reservations for 6pm. Photos from that experience will come later since Rieko was the only person with a camera and hasn’t yet sent me the photos.
The Bankyu Hotel spanned a creek and to get from the guest house to the dining area visitors had to cross a rope bridge that wasn’t all that stable. We tottered across the bridge in our yukatas (which amounts to nothing more than a cotton bath robe), haoris (old-style Japanese jackets), and geta (traditional shoes) surrounded by snow and ice with the wind crawling up our yukatas and freezing our bare asses. But it was worth getting scared shitless and frozen when we reached the other side – a seat on a pillow next to a pit of hot coals that was warming skewers of fresh fish and hot sake, a personal table loaded with enough food to feed even an American, and an enka performance by Ms. Heike herself was waiting for us. Dinner was a vast menu of more things than I can even mention but it consisted mainly of mountain food which I really enjoy. It was a ridiculous amount of grub but I was able to eat almost all of it.
The next day we went to a waterfall and then to Edo Wonderland. The Edo period in Japanese history was an important period for a number of reasons. In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu was appointed Shogun by the emporer and established his government in Edo, now called Tokyo. The Tokugawa shoguns continued to rule Japan for 250 years. During the Edo period most of what people consider traditional Japanese culture was born and flourished; kabuki theater, tea ceremony, literature, painting, martial arts and other popular culture endeavors. The reason Japanese culture is so unlike anything in the rest of the world was because in 1633 shogun Iemitsu forbade travelling abroad and almost completely isolated the country from foreign influence. Contacts to the outside world were reduced to very limited trade relations with China and the Netherlands in the port of Nagasaki only and, in addition, all foreign books were banned. In this isolated and stable microcosm, Japanese culture was able to become highly specialized and refined producing a unique style that is recognizable by almost anyone. And then in in June 1853, the U.S. East India Fleet, commanded by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, entered Uraga Harbor (which is just down the road from us) and brought with him McDonald’s and KFC which is what actually killed off the samurai – they all got coronary artery disease. Anyway, it was the end of the Edo Period and the beginning of the Gaijin Invasion.
So, Edo Wonderland was modeled on this period and all the employees walked around in appropriate costumery and staged a number of plays. We watched a play about poor farmers and ninjas that was excellent, but unfortunately there were no subtitles for the two Americans in the crowd. We enjoyed it anyway.
So my mom got a gutload of culture packed into a very short time and we took it easy the rest of the week. Here are some photos from Kamakura:
My mom arrived last Friday and I just returned from seeing her off at the airport. I must admit that I was really impressed with her stamina and adventurous spirit on this trip. She’s from Lancaster PA which is a bastion of tasteless food – the strongest spices used in the local cuisine are salt and pepper so I didn’t have high hopes for her venturing too deeply into Japanese cuisine. I couldn’t have been more wrong. On her second night here she ate the infamous natto…even after she smelled it. And then she moved on into eating sashimi which was also fairly impressive. This was her first trip out of the US. I think that people who’ve never left the US think for some reason that they can’t travel or that it’s really difficult. All this strange and 
forbidding territory is just out of their realm of reality…so they think until they actually take the plunge and go somewhere. Now that she’s overcome that mental hurdle, I am relatively certain she’ll go somewhere else. Any travel after a journey to Japan will seem like only a hop, skip and a jump away.
We had a great time but were totally burned out by the end of the week. We started the trip off at full-steam with a day 
of sightseeing in Nikko, a stop at Heike Village (really cool) and then overnight at Bankyou Ryokan in Yunishigawa Onsen about 90 minutes north of Nikko. Yunishikawa Onsen was discovered in 1573 when the Heike Clan used the area as a hideaway when they fled the Genji clan after a battle in which they had been defeated. They settled in the area and you can still experience their influence in local cuisine and customs. Bankyou Ryokan was really cool and unique even by Japanese standards. It’s a 400 year-old hotel owned and operated by a 25th-generation direct-descendant of the Heike family. We had a spectacular dinner around an irori (a square fire pit in the floor used for warmth and cooking) in our yukatas after a dip in the in-house onsen. The next day we visited a waterfall and a historic park that was comparable to Williamsburg in Virgina, except that it was geared a little more towards kids rather than adults.
We spent the rest of the week touring locally with trips around the Miura penisula and Tokyo. We went to Ueno Park to see the cherry blossoms, then on to Kappabashi, Tokyo’s kitchenware district, and finally to Harajuku to Aki’s for haircuts and a massage.
Mr Hanzawa, a student a friend, came over for dinner Friday night to experience some Lancaster County home cooking and meet my mom. She made pot pie which he thought was fantastic. I figured that would be a dish that would suit the Japanese palate; bland dough with some salt and vinegar. I thought I was terminally burned-out on pot pie, but after not having eaten it for probably 20 years, it tasted pretty darn good.
I’ve got a lot more photos, but we’re getting ready to watch this week’s Lost episode, so I’ll post more later.
Oh, and now I can leave Japan – I saw wild monkeys for the first time. We were driving over a mountain outside of Nikko and there was a group of them in the trees alongside the road. I told somebody a long time ago that I won’t leave her until I see monkeys. Snow monkeys and platypus all within 9 days -what more could a person ask for?!
I am amassing quite a collection of Japanese souvenirs and cultural objects. Apparently packrattery extends across all cultures because my friends and students have figured that I will take anything that’s free and I’ve recently made two major acquisitions. But it’s not like I’m getting junk – I’ve gotten some really high quality things and all of them are from good friends so they will not only serve as nice souvenirs, but also good mementos of my Japanese friends.
Two weeks ago a friend called and asked if I would be interested in some byoubu, or folding screens. A lot of Japanese furniture is easily portable and rooms serve a multitude of purposes. For instance, a futon is folded up and put in a closet during the day and the room is used for something else. Byoubu are used to further the utility of a room by dividing it in two or preventing drafts or light from coming in. I could hardly believe that someone was giving them away! Two of them are slightly damaged but with strategic placement of plants or other furniture they’ll look just fine in our house in the States. Two of them are as pictured below and two are all gold. They fold out into 6 panels, but I don’t have room to expand them in our apartment.
A student of mine is in the process of moving out of his house of 15 years and into a brand new one. He had a couple of items that he and his wife didn’t want anymore, but couldn’t stand to just get rid of, so they gave them to me. I got two wool kimonos, a beautiful black and gold obi, this really cool cast-iron shuuse kabuto, or samurai helmet given to a kid on Boy’s Day…:
…and these painted gourds that someone (I hope that someone is not reading this blog!) gave him as a wedding gift a long time ago:
Last week Rieko and I went to a used kimono shop. I went there with the intent to just look but ended up buying the ultimate Japan souvenir, a kimono that actually fits and all of the accessories to go with it. American readers are probably wondering “what accessories? They look so simple.” Well, looks are seriously misleading in the case of kimono dressing. You just don’t put one on. It can take hours to get ready and most times it’s difficult to do it yourself. In April I’m going to attend a class to learn how to wear it. There’s all kinds of undergarments and ropes and ties and knots that keep the whole thing together and your body bound up tight like a swaddled baby which forces the wearer to walk with restricted steps. I tried on about 6 total, but none fit my long gaijin arms, save a pink one which happened to be my favorite anyway. The woman at the store gave me the kimono for about a hundred bucks which is a heck of a bargain as far as kimonos are concerned. It’s all silk and hand-sewn. I suspect it was so cheap because of the long-arm issue – I haven’t seen too many Japanese women with arms that hang to their knees so she probably would have had a hard time getting rid of it. One of these days this spring we’re going to have a party and I’ll probably wear it then. Here’s a photo of the obi detail:
I am warming to the idea of San Diego a little every day. Things at the hospital have been tough for Gene lately, so he is looking foward to working in a larger hospital with more doctors instead of just the two radiologists they have here. It will be nice when he’s not on emergency call two weeks out of the month and will make our lives much more pleasant. I’ve been researching the area on the internet and it looks like just about everything I could ever want is available. Photo clubs, Audubon Society, graduate school, wildlife centers, animal shelters, national parks, volunteer opportunities, dog parks, birds, wildlife, you name it. I discovered that a few years ago San Diego was the “Birdiest County” in the US meaning that the greatest diversity of bird species had been sighted in SD County than anywhere else in the US. Of the 700 species of birds in America, San Diego is home to 400 of them. That’s an impressive number. Another special draw for me is that my brother is moving to New Mexico just as soon as he can sell his house in Alabama. His last day in the Army was last Friday and he was just hired as a pilot by a helicopter company in Farmington that does search and rescue in the mountains. They will live just a few hours’ drive from the Grand Canyon and 40 mintues from Mesa Verde National Park. It’s about a 10-hour drive from SD to Farmington, but after living in Asia, that seems like it’s right around the corner. But, there is a catch. Gene has yet to receive official orders for San Diego, so they could yank the carpet right out from under us and send us somewhere truly horrendous like Great Lakes Navy Base in Waukegan IL. Now that I am looking on the bright side of things, I really hope that doesn’t happen.
If you take away the flight, the trip in it’s entirety was pretty good. It was nice to see the family and all the familiarity that comes with returning to the place where you grew up. We were pleasantly surprised to see Lancaster in the midst of something of a rennaisance. Everywhere we went there seemed to be a new restaurant, coffee shop or another neighborhood being revitalized. I never realized how much character Lancaster really has until this latest visit. The architecture is remarkable when you take the time to really look at it. We made up for lost time eating. I love Japanese food, but nothing beats an Italian sub shop. Those guys would make a killing if they opened one here. Cheese steaks in Japan would be a goldmine.
I arrived a week ahead of Gene, but I didn’t hit the ground running as I had planned. Instead, I hit the ground and then the bed. The jetlag was crippling and seriously cramped my evening activities. I had high hopes that I’d be unaffected as are many of my friends, but being of wimpy constitution, I bore the full brunt of international travel. Usually around 6 or 7pm I was overcome with a heavy fatigue and was forced to go to bed. I slept well until about 3 am when I became completely awake with no hope of going back to sleep. It lasted about 6 days and then I was OK.
I arrived in PA on a Wednesday and on Friday my sister, brother and his wife drove to Washington DC for the day while my mom stayed home and babysat my brother’s Whino. I was exhausted but had fun anyway. I never get 
tired of the Smithsonian. We happend to be there at the same time the Museum of Natural History was exhibiting the works of selected winners from the 2006 Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards and the National Wildlife Photography Awards competitions. I was totally blown away by the display. The photos were enlarged to several feet in height and width so the impact was even greater.
I continued on to North Carolina after our day in DC. Big mistake. I don’t know what I was thinking trying to get out of Washington on rt 95 on a Friday afternoon, with a severe case of jetlag to boot. At several points on the journey I seriously considered pulling over to rest, but then I saw a sign that said “DURHAM 120 miles” and I thought of Annie, Dot and Buddy waiting for me and a homebrew in the refrigerator with my name on it. That was enough to keep me going. I eventually made it but not without getting lost in the backwoods of North Carolina first. I was so tired and disoriented that when I got off the highway I acutally lost my way and there wasn’t a anywhere that I could ask for directions – just miles and miles of forests full of possums and chiggers. But getting lost got me angry enough to produce a few molecules of adrenaline and I was able to recover my senses and make my way to my destination.
I visited Pam and Virginia, some friends from the wildlife center, and went to Mimi and Jon’s for dinner and to pick up Little Buddy (they were babysitting. But I couldn’t imagine just spending a couple of hours with him so I brought him along back to PA so I could spend time with him at my mom’s and now she’s going to keep him for the next 6 months. Also, he kept running off on them and I felt really bad that he was causing them so much grief), then back to Annie’s when I could no longer keep awake. On Sunday Scott and Syd hosted an afternoon soiree at their little slice of heaven by the lake in Clarkesville, Virginia. The weather couldn’t have been any better so Scott fired up the boat and we went for a cruise on Kerr Lake. The icing on the cake was when we sighted a loon from the boat.
On Monday it was back to PA and I have almost no recollection of the rest of the week. I went to Kendall’s overnight and took a trip to Middle Creek and probably just sat around and ate subs. Gene arrived on Friday and we spent Christmas at his parents’ house. On Tuesday I went back to Kendall’s and we had a fantastic day exploring Bucks County.
We arrived at the Savannah airport on the Saturday before New Year’s and stayed at a timeshare condo thanks to Gene’s brother. He rented 3 units that were enough to house 6 families which included Gene’s parents and all his siblings and their kids. Gene and I spent most of our time in the local wildlife refuges where we saw an incredible array of birds. To American birders, probably not a big deal. But coming from an urban environment like we were, we felt as if we were in the tropics.
Hilton Head was cool but it always makes me sad to go to places like that and see WalMarts, malls and sprawling car dealships when there was once only flocks of coots, ducks and shorebirds. I can only imagine what it must have been like when the Indians were still in charge. I was disappointed that we didn’t see any armadillos, but I guess they weren’t too active in the cool weather.
Gene came up with the great idea of taking advantage of our proximity to Savannah by staying in a historical B&B in Savannah. He found a place in the internet called the Gastonian and we made a reservation. The B&B was fantastic and I really enjoyed Savannah. The best way I can describe it is a hybrid of New Orleans and Lancaster, if you can imagine that.
We should find out at the end of this month where the Navy will station Gene for the remaining two years of his sentence. We are hopeful that it will be either Bremerton, Washington (near Seattle) or back to North Carolina on the coast at the LeJeune Marine base. It would be a tough decision if the deciding factor were me. I think I’d be happy in both places, but I am kind of leaning towards Washington. The area where we’d be living has a stellar wildlife center of national fame and a very active and highly organized Audubon Society. But I’m trying really hard not to get my hopes up on either location because we’ll most likely get hosed anyway and end up somewhere awful which would be typical of our experiences with the Navy so far.
Gene’s gotten some real Japanese culture in the last month. Mayumi’s parents, Yutaka and Atsuko, invited us and Rieko and her husband to their house last month to celebrate the release of this year’s Beaujolais Nouveau. This was Gene’s first time in a Japanese home which are quite different from an American home. Mayumi cooked what amounted to a feast and afterwards she presented us with a plate of locally caught tuna sashimi. The meal was fabulous and so was the booze. Yutaka-san is not the kind of person who skimps on quality alcohol and he is as equally generous with regard to quantity, so one can be assured that a taxi will be needed for the ride home.
Of course the evening started with Beaujolais Nouveau, but it wasn’t long until we moved into Nihonshu (Japanese sake) territory…and then back to the wine, but this time it was a French wine the likes of which we had never tasted. It was the best wine we’ve ever had. At one point Gene had 4 glasses of alcohol in front of him from which to choose. Gene mentioned that he wanted to try real honest-to-goodness sushi instead of the low-quality stuff found at the kaiten-zushi stands that are everywhere so we made plans to reconvene in two weeks at a good restaurant halfway between the Iwasaki house and the base.
I had been to this restaurant before with Rieko and Atsuko, but we had lunch instead of dinner. It’s a really small place, only big enough for a small bar across from the chef and two small tables. Our party sat down at the bar and ordered drinks with Yutaka taking the lead and ordering the best sake for Gene. What followed was an epicurean dream; the freshest and most amazing sushi we’ve ever eaten, all prepared to order. I realize that sometimes I am prone to being dramatic, but when I say “fresh” and “Japanese culture”, I’m not kidding. There was probably only a 60 second lapse between the time the fish was swimming in the tank and when it appeared on your plate for consumption. And sometimes there were still signs of life.
Being an animal lover, I surprisingly didn’t really have too much of a problem with this. I would definitely prefer to eat that way than to buy meat at the grocery store that comes from abused and tortured factory-farmed animals. Another benefit of that style of dining is that you can see exactly where and how your food was prepared. Think about where that hamburger’s been. No idea, right?
After dinner we went to a karaoke bar where Gene got his first taste of the Japanese national past-time. I don’t think there’s enough alcohol in the world to make Gene do something like sing in public and I wasn’t drinking (the driving alcohol limit here is 0% and I was designated driver) so we just enjoyed everyone else. But I did sing at one point, just a little.
Now that I can read Japanese there’s no way I can worm out of singing since all the words are printed on the TV screen and I am completely capable of reading them. I might not know what 80% of them mean, but I can still make an ass of myself in a foreign language. Everyone gets a real kick when I do that because I imagine it sounds the same as when they sing a well-known song in English; someone who was just seconds ago unable to communicate with you now sounds fluent. It’s really a strange and interesting experience.
It’s rare that I get interested in a TV show, but Gene and I have succumbed to the Lost addiction. But now we’re screwed because we rented all the Season 1 and 2 DVDs from the video store on base, but season 3 is not yet available. It’s torture. So that’s part of the reason for lack of posts. We’ve been sitting in front of the TV in the evenings like a couple of crack addicts.
My trip to the US for the first time in 1.5 years is now less than 48 hours away and I can’t sleep. I am really excited, yet a little nervous. It will be very interesting to see the US with new eyes after having been away so long. I’m arriving on Wednesday and then on Friday my siblings and sister-in-law are going to Washington DC for the day. I’ll continue on to North Carolina for the weekend to collect Little Buddy and do a lot of visiting with friends. Then back to PA on Monday. Gene arrives on the 22nd, just in time for Christmas and then we’re spending New Year’s on Hilton Head Island with Gene’s family.
I’ve kind of petered out on taking photos and I am hoping that the change of scenery will recharge me. I am really looking foward to returning to my home armed with some decent lenses. When you go somewhere with a photographically-oriented brain you see things that would otherwise have remained unnoticed.
Well, the Benadryl is kicking in, so it’s time for bed. The next time I post it will be from Pennsylvania, so check back soon.
Melody
