the little travelers * travel blog

The Japanese saw

The 'teeth' of the saw here are facing inward rather than outward as in the west. The Japanese feel that their greatest strength is in pulling towards their center. In the west our greatest perceived strength is pushing away using force. interesting to contemplate...
Think of the difference between boxing and martial arts. In martial arts it's known that when your opponent gets too far away from you is when you can get hurt. Once you bring them in towards yourself you have more control. SOMEONE TELL OUR GOVERNMENT THIS!!!!
And yes, I get that the Japanese also used bombs during war- I'm not saying they are saintly- yet the wise ones of their culture knew these things long ago. I'm not sure our culture has yet found wise ones... we are not old enough as a culture yet, as we are still in cultural toddlerhood.

The etiquette button

One of my favorite things in Japan is the etiquette button on toilets.  It used to be that only public toilets had these but now that toilets in the home have become so fancy they are a pretty standard feature anywhere.  It is thought rude and embarrassing to have someone hear you tinkle when having a pee.  So, Japanese women used to  hold down the flush handle the whole time  they were peeing to mask the sound.  However, since it was thought of as a big waste of water, toilet manufactures came up with an electronic flushing sound button to push to hide the sound of pee.  No matter how stressed out I am when I walk into a restroom and hear the sound of electronic flushing coming from behind the door it brings and huge and genuine smile to my face.  Then I imagine a woman sitting on the toilet with her skirt up politely holding down the etiquette button as she tinkles and it makes my entire day.

toilets

Japan has the most elaborate toilets out there. The one in our house washes and dries- your choice front or back. In public there is still the choice between squat and western (sit down) in some places. Most restaurants in the city have children's size toilets and almost always a child height sink. In the stall of the bathroom they often have a hanging plastic highchair type thing attached to the wall to put your baby in while you pee. This is ingenious!! How many times have us mothers out there had to pee when we had an infant? This was one of the most shocking realizations for me the first time I was out in public alone with my new infant. Trying to pull down your pants with one hand while hanging on to your baby with the other- it seemed so absurd! If half the population is female and most have babies, how can this be??? For a country with such limited space they seem to make comfort for moms and children a priority. I have not one time had to lift a child to wash their hands since we got here! amen to that.

Quintessential zen

When people think of a 'zen rock garden' this is the one most think of- Ryoanji. Although the title, 'zen rock garden' is controversial. To be more clued in one would better refer to it as a dry rock garden. Not all Buddhist temples are that of the zen sect. And many of these still have dry rock gardens. These rock scapes are to be entered by consciousness only, not bodies. They are for meditation. This one has 15 rocks, only 14 of which can be viewed by any particular angle. The back wall is a national treasure. What one sees as one contemplates is a sign of level of ones' consciousness. I wish I could say I found enlightenment here but I was thinking of mochi (sweet rice balls) in a sea of raked sugar. I was hungry. I do think the girls found enlightenment though. Maybe it'll rub off on me.

maybe the food vision was spurred on by a cake I once made for a friend. It's carrot cake with a cream cheese frosting on a sea of raked sugar. well, well, well...
I had a Japanese friend write 'happy birthday' in kanji on senbei (rice cracker) for authenticity. OK, so it looks nothing like a rock garden, I'll admit. What really happened was that I did not have an oven so was attempting a carrot cake in a rice cooker. It didn't exactly work. So as the sides were drying out and the middle was raw I had to start taking out chunks at a time. It tasted great so I thought there must be a way to salvage this. I found some brown sugar and senbei and thought, rock garden! Points for creativity, maybe - but little for execution.  The second layer went in much thinner and came out ok.  It was actually one of those great moments as guests were arriving and getting involved in the salvaging of the cake.  It was a fun group effort in arrangement,  raking & frosting and is probably my favorite cake 'experience' of all time.  And since it was more steamed than baked it was incredibly moist.  It rocked!  - i could not resist that!

Sakura

Sakura are stunning. We venture out today and are blown away by the country exploded into puffs of cotton candy. It's so Japanese to have such a wild display of beauty but then done in the subtlest of colors. Though pink is not a typical color of Japan I think it has made a wise decision to give into pastels this one time.

Golden Pavilion

We had a fun time today at one of Kyoto's busiest tourist destinations- Kinkakuji, or the Golden Paviolion. It was built in the 1300's as a retirement villa by Japan's third Shogun during a time of national famine. The original burned down in the 1950's by a crazed monk. The Japanese often rebuild exact replicas of destroyed architecture. Most Jr. High students in Japan make a trip to Kyoto at some point during the year and this is one of the stops. Since tourists are often found here many students come prepared to speak English to foreigners, sometimes for the first time ever. Their English teachers usually give them an assignment to ask questions to anyone speaking English that they come across. Since it was pouring most of the day we were the only tourists there for a bit with LOTS of school kids. Boy did we have a lot of answering to do! They really liked talking to the girls.

Tea Ceremony

We went for some macha today- a very bitter green tea that is made from powder. The girls actually drank it. The big one drank all of it and loved it and the little one was done with a few sips. It was in a beautiful tea room overlooking a traditional garden. really lovely.

Japanese food

This topic is a bit of a no-brainer, not really necessary at all. Japanese food is good. really good. A cheap lunch in a small restaurant beats most US fine dining. Costco sushi and other US sushi found in supermarkets should not be allowed to be called sushi- with it's sweet, mushi, cold rice, soggy nori, falling out veggies and 'Krab.' Supermarket sushi here is not great, but excellent by US standards. The girls both agree, the food here is good. They are used to eating all sorts of food so squid and octopus do not take them by surprise, but the size of their appetites has taken me by surprise. Not sure if it's a time zone change or the food, but they are eating nearly twice their normal amounts. Itadakimasu! (the word said before eating- similar to bon appetit)

Rusty Japanese

My Japanese has never been 'good.' It is basic conversational level at best. My vocabulary revolves largely around food product. Today the girls and I were checking out our local area which is truly gorgeous. When I lived in Japan before it was in a place called Yokkaichi and 15 years prior was on the top of the planet's dirtiest cities in the world due to poor air quality. Petrochemicals is their specialty which resulted in things like clothes off the line on the balcony smelling like burnt sesame oil and a Jr. high school that I taught at had nearly half of the students with 'special trouble because bad air.' When I asked the teacher who had informed me of this if anyone considered moving she laughed. This is a typical Japanese response leaving those of us on this side of the Pacific wondering what that means. Is it funny? Was the question was too rude to answer? Is the concept of moving to another area for something other than a work transfer odd? i don't know.
But now we're in Kyoto. It is beautiful here. We are on the north end of the city nestled right up against a mountain and we have lots of fresh air. We are near some touristy attractions that are tucked away up here, but it is primarily a suburban neighborhood. We ran into an American couple looking for a restaurant in the area where they could get some good Udon. Since I am completely new to the area I had no idea. But an elderly woman was passing by whom I asked in Japanese for this couple. I was able to find the right words! It's been 13 years since I've been back and I can still track down a good meal. A successful start to this adventure.