Ite Kimasu

On the morning of the 20th, we took our time getting moving, had our morning tea at the hotel, then took the subway a couple of stops south to the main Kyoto rail station. The station itself is interesting, a huge complex with dramatic modern architecture. It has attached stores, including a large department store, and in the underground beneath the station there are huge shopping areas that extend for blocks. One of the department stores, Isetan, has an interesting configuration of escalators that follow like stairsteps, one flight after another, in a straight line from bottom to top (maybe 8 or 9 floors), rather than the usual switchback configuration in other department stores. We rode all the way to the top and back, stopping along the way for a little shopping here and there.

At lunch time we went upstairs at Isetan and found a good place for a lunch consisting of soba noodles and tempura. After lunch and a little more shopping, we returned to our room to rest a bit before heading off to dinner with our friends Ken and Toshiko in Nishinomiya.

New friends and old friends in Nishinomiya

About 4:00 p.m., we went downstairs to the nearby underground station of the Hankyu railway, and headed out for Nishinomiya, where we planned to meet Ken at the Kotoen station. This trip is special to us, because Kotoen is the neighborhood we consider our home in Japan. It is the nearest station to Kwansei Gakuin University, and we lived in an apartment near the Kotoen station during our last sabbatical at KGU in 2005-06. After changing trains at Umeda Station in Osaka and again at Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi, both familiar places for us, we arrived at Kotoen a few minutes before 6:00. Ken was waiting for us there, and walked with us to his and Toshiko’s nearby home. In addition to the two of us, they had invited their friends Koichi and Kiyomi—a congenial retired couple who for many years lived in Europe, where Koichi’s business took them. As a result, they speak very good English, and had lots of interesting things to talk about.

As she always does, Toshiko prepared a true feast, and we all sat around the table eating and talking until after 9:00. It was Ken who first convinced us to come to Japan in 1992, and we reminisced about those days, old friends, the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 (during which time Ken was chairman of the board at the university, and thus had great responsibilities), and our families. Ken turned 79 just a day or two ago, and, although he is technically retired, he continues to teach part-time at a university in Osaka, and to do sell-out parent training workshops for people in the community. He also continues to volunteer as a coach with the KGU American-style football team, which won national championships in earlier days when he was the head coach. Toshiko continues to head a school in Kobe, and they both enjoy golf. We are grateful to them both, not only because they have been good friends for nearly 20 years, but also because it was through them that we made all the contacts that have led to so many other friendships and personal and professional opportunities in Japan. When it’s time to go, we always hate to leave, and we hope, of course, we’ll see them again before too long.

Koichi and Kiyomi live a short distance from Ken and Toshiko, and when it was time to leave, they planned to take a taxi home and suggested they drop us at a nearby rail station on their way. We agreed, and were soon back on the Hankyu, bound for Kyoto. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was after 11:00 and we were ready to collapse. We were asleep by midnight, and slept late this morning (Jan. 21).

A geisha in the Gion area

Today, our last full day in Kyoto, we strolled through the underground passageways from our hotel to the Kawaramachi Station area, one stop east of the hotel. From there, we went up on the street and took a stroll through the Gion district, the neighborhood made famous by the presence there of the geisha culture. Although we were there in late morning, when it’s less likely that the geisha will be out and about, we did see two young women dressed in geisha costumes, and C took a picture or two. Although it’s in the middle of a huge, bustling city, the few blocks of this neighborhood have a quiet, small-town feel, with many picturesque old buildings housing tea rooms, restaurants, and small shops.

These last two pictures will look familiar to Heather, Steve and Jamie

From Gion, we boarded the Keihan railway and went a few stops north toward the neighborhood where Steve, Heather, and Jamie lived for a few months a couple of years ago. We found a little restaurant, Felafel Garden, where we had eaten with them, and had our lunch there. Afterward, we traveled by rail back to the main Kyoto station, where C spent some time browsing through a large sewing supply and fabric store she remembered from a past visit to the underground shopping area. In midafternoon we returned to our hotel via subway, and picked up (this is true, Randy) Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the station under the hotel. We came back, had tea and doughnuts, read a couple of English-language newspapers, dozed, listened to public radio news from home via computer, and relaxed for a couple of hours.

We found we weren’t really hungry by evening, so I (K) went out to a small nearby shop and picked up a couple of things to bring back to the room to eat. As I returned from Shi-jo Dori, the main street through the center of Kyoto, I found myself going back to the corner and looking down the street one more time, just to try to implant it in memory. We have spent time in many big cities: New York, London, St. Petersburg, Chicago, Tokyo, Seoul, Los Angeles, Guadalajara, Paris, Helsinki, and others. But it is in Kyoto that we feel most at home. Despite having many of the typical, unattractive features of any huge city, Kyoto also has places of incredible history and beauty, and a kind of refined feel quite unlike the bright lights and sometimes garish atmosphere of Times Square, Tokyo, Osaka, or Kobe. We know our way around, where to shop, the places we like to return to, and there is a sense that, although times of course change, some things in Kyoto are timeless. It’s a place we keep coming back to, and we hope we will again.

Tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 22) we will take the Haruka express train to the Kansai International Airport, where our departure is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Interestingly, given the time difference, if everything is on time we’ll arrive in San Diego four hours before we left Kyoto! Home will look good (but not work on Monday), but we’ll also hate to leave Japan. Ite kimasu (We’ll be back soon).

Old Japan

Temple building in Daitoku-ji complex

Yesterday (Jan. 18), we had a late breakfast at the Starbucks in our hotel lobby, then set out for the Daitoku-ji Buddhist temple complex in northwest Kyoto. This large area includes 24 different temples, many of which are not open to the public. We visited two that are open, Daisen-in and Koto-in. Both are more than 400 years old, and each is beautiful in its own way. Daisen-in is known for its small, but lovely garden—with rocks and gravel symbolizing water features, and trees and stones representing mountains and islands.

"Trained" tree in front of Daisen-in (no photos were allowed inside the garden)

We viewed the garden as we walked around the temple on a veranda, including a “nightingale floor”—a wooden floor deliberately built so that it squeaks when one walks on it. This was a common feature of temples, designed as a warning signal to protect against intruders. Following our walk around Daisen-in, we had a cup of tea and a traditional Japanese sweet while seated at a low table in a small tearoom. As we were leaving, the temple priest called us over to ask our help; he was trying to sing “Oh Susannah,” but was having difficulty with a couple of lines. C helped him get it right, and he praised her as a “good teacher.”



Lane leading to Koto-in



Snow-covered garden at Koto-in


When we left Daisen-in, we wandered along the temple walkways until we came to the shady grove of large bamboo trees that surround Koto-in. The entrance meanders through the trees via several twists and turns, eventually ending up at the temple building. The garden is less spectacular than that of Daisen-in, but the building itself was interesting, and the setting, in the midst of the bamboo grove, makes it a special place.

After leaving Koto-in, we went in search of Izusen, a traditional Buddhist vegetarian restaurant. After pursuing a couple of deadends, we eventually figured out that it is within the walls of one of the temples, Daiji-in. The dining rooms are tatami-matted, with windows looking out to the trees and garden surrounding the building. This place is no doubt jammed with visitors at lunch time in the tourist season, but at 2:00 on a weekday in January, we had it all to ourselves. The food, although expensive, was wonderful, not only in flavor, but also in its presentation—numerous courses of delightful vegetables, tempura, tofu, pickles, soup, rice, and other traditional Japanese dishes. Each time we thought we were finished, the young woman server would bring another dish. Eventually we did in fact finish, and after finding our way back out to the street, we got a taxi for the ride back to the Kita-Oji subway station, where we had begun. After a little shopping at the department store above the station, and picking up a couple of cream puffs at the bakery there, we headed back to the hotel. After a late lunch and the cream puffs, we didn’t really feel like a big dinner, so in the late evening we walked out to a nearby convenience store where we bought o-bento (small Japanese boxed meals) and took them back to our room.

This morning (Jan. 19) we went to the Kyoto Handicraft Center, a 7-story aggregation of shops selling all kinds of Japanese arts, crafts, gifts, trinkets, and jewelry from all over the country. The Center also serves a buffet lunch of a variety of Japanese foods. Our taxi dropped us at the front door just before opening time, and we spent the rest of the morning shopping—some gifts, and some things we wanted, including a woodblock print to add to our collection. We arranged to have the print and a couple of other items shipped home, then went to lunch at the buffet. We finished our shopping after lunch, then returned to the hotel to rest a bit before setting out for Kobe for dinner with our friends Yoshiharu and Yoko.



For the trip to Kobe we caught a Hankyu Railway train (underground just a block from our hotel) to Osaka, where we changed trains for the trip to Kobe. Our friends met us at a station there, and we all walked through a neighborhood shopping area to an old restaurant where Yoshiharu and Yoko know the owners. The place specializes in Kobe beef, but also had delicious vegetables, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, and fresh fruit for dessert. It is also apparently a place where some well-known Sumo wrestlers and Hanshin Tigers baseball players have hung out from time to time. We spent the evening laughing, talking, and remembering good times past. One of Yoshiharu’s worries had been the fact that the restaurant had always had old traditional Japanese toilets, and he was afraid that might be a problem for us (It wouldn’t have been, but it concerned him)—He even suggested we use the bathroom at the station before we set out walking. When he discovered that the restaurant had installed new high-tech toilets, he announced to us all that he had “good news!” It turned out that the wife of the restaurant owner had won some money (we couldn’t figure out exactly how much) in the lottery, and they apparently used some of it to upgrade the restaurant toilets.

After dinner we continued our conversation as we walked back to the station, where we all headed for home. We were back in our room by 10:00, exhausted but pleased to have had yet another wonderful, satisfying day in Japan—we keep reminding ourselves how privileged we are to know these people and to be able to keep in touch with them over the years.

Kobe and Hamamastu

After a leisurely day in Kobe, we met up, on the 14th, with our friends Miwa and Lee, who accompanied us to the Junichiro Tanizaki museum in Ashiyagawa. Tanizaki is a well-known novelist and philosopher in Japan. His books are nearly all available in English translation, and K has been especially interested in his perspective on the aesthetics of daily life in Japanese culture. We learned a great deal about Tanizaki’s life and times at the museum—an accomplishment that would not have been possible without the Japanese language skills of Miwa and Lee. Although there was a small English-language flier, all the exhibits and photographs were labeled and described in Japanese. We also learned that next door, at a city museum, there was an exhibit focused on the life and work of an artist, Koide, who was a friend of Tanizaki and who illustrated Tanizaki’s books. So of course we also went to see that exhibit, as well. Koide’s old studio building, a small, airy two-story Japanese house, has been moved to the site too, and rests right between the two museums. It was a fascinating afternoon during which we learned a great deal about these people, their work, and their times in and about Osaka, Kobe, and Ashiya.

At Tanizaki Museum

At the end of the day, we drove with Miwa and Lee to central Kobe, where we had dinner at a buffet-style restaurant on the top floor of the huge Daimaru department store. The buffet featured a variety of traditional foods, and had a home-cooked feel. We found a quiet table where we could have a good conversation, allowing us to catch up on events of the past couple of years since we have seen Miwa and Lee, share photographs of our grandchildren, and generally enjoy their good company. Afterward, they dropped us at our hotel, which was not far from the restaurant.

Sorakuen

Old teahouse at Sorakuen

While in Kobe, we also walked from our hotel to Sorakuen, a traditional Japanese landscape garden near the center of Kobe. We have been there in years past, but wanted to see it again. In addition to the permanent fixtures there (an hold teahouse and boathouse, an old Western-style house and stable, etc.), the garden had a display of various kinds of peonies, many of them with colorful umbrellas standing over them. We weren’t quite certain of the purpose of the exhibit, but it appeared to be a way of showing different varieties of the plants. Interestingly, although it’s January, many of them were blooming, as were a few camellias in the garden.

Friends in Hamamastu

On Jan. 15th, we were back on the Shinkansen, traveling to Hamamatsu. We arrived around noon and left our bags at the hotel near the station. We then walked to another nearby hotel, one we have stayed in several times, and had lunch there. We had the afternoon to ourselves before meeting a group of old Hamamatsu friends whom we know from our work with Seirei Christopher University over the years. All of them except our friend Makoto are now retired, some living some distance away now, but they all meet up whenever we are in town. Once again, we had a lovely dinner, this time in a private dining room, with course after course of colorful, delicious Japanese dishes, and lots of reminiscing about good times we have shared over the years. We met these people in the early and mid 1990s, so we go back nearly 20 years with most of them.

A delightful family

Part of a wonderful lunch in a lovely spot

Dessert!

At the bird and flower park

On the 16th, Makoto and his family picked us up at the hotel and took us to The Oriental Terrace, a beautiful restaurant overlooking a small lake in Hamamatsu. There we had yet another lovely meal, again in a private room, and enjoyed getting reacquainted with Makoto’s family, whom we also had not seen for two years. And we had never met daughter Kana, who will celebrate her second birthday in the spring. After lunch, they took us on an outing chosen by their 13-year-old son Daisuke—a bird and flower park with large aviary/greenhouses filled with colorful, exotic birds (parrots, flamingos, penguins, etc.), many species of owls, a myriad of hanging plant baskets, and huge pools with koi and many varieties of water lilies. The kids were able to touch and feed many of the birds, including emus in a large enclosure (like a corral, actually). As always, we hated to say good-bye to this young family when they finally delivered us to our hotel.

Yesterday (January 17) was a special day in at least two ways. First, it was the 16th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake that devastated much of Kobe and the surrounding area (including our old stomping grounds at Kwansei Gakuin University) in 1995. There was a lot of TV coverage of memorials, speeches, and the like, commemorating the day. More than 6,000 people died when the earthquake occurred around 5:45 in the morning; the death toll would no doubt have been much higher if it had happened an hour or two later, when the freeways and trains would have been packed. Second, we were on a Shinkansen train, from Hamamatsu to Kyoto that was an hour late! We’ve heard mixed discussion about the reason—we passed through a heavy snowstorm along the way, which may well have slowed the trains (and some were actually cancelled), but we also heard on TV that there may have been a software failure in the scheduling/controlling system. So we aren’t sure exactly what really happened, but it was nevertheless a very unusual thing.

After arriving in Kyoto, we dropped our bags at our hotel (Karasuma Kyoto Hotel) and went out to explore some nearby shops. We had lunch atop the Daimaru Department Store, and wandered through the Nishiki, Teramachi, and Shinkyogoku covered shopping arcades. Afterward we had a cup of tea at Starbucks (in our hotel lobby!) and later dinner at a Chinese restaurant on the second floor of the hotel. Today (Jan. 18) we’re off again to wander about Kyoto.

Nagasaki

We can now post another update, after having a couple of days without internet access. When we left Kumamoto on Jan. 10 we travelled, via JR trains, to Nagasaki. There we checked into Minshuku Tanpopo, a small family-operated traditional Japanese inn. We slept on futons on the floor in a tatami mat room, and ate our breakfast and dinner (lots of fresh fish and vegetables) each day at the minshuku. The inn was within walking distance of the important World War II sites of Nagasaki, and we spent our first afternoon exploring them. The most significant is probably the Atomic Bomb Museum, which houses lots of artifacts and memorabilia associated with the bombing of the city on August 9, 1945.

The epicenter of the blomb blast in the middle of the modern city

Just a few of the many colorful origami cranes throughout the museum site

Just as they have at Hiroshima, visitors to Nagasaki have left thousands of origami paper folded cranes at the museum and nearby memorials. Although the Nagasaki museum is an important place to see, the exhibits are not as extensive or numerous as those at Hiroshima. There are, however, interesting chronologies showing some of the events leading up to the war and the bombing, and there is a lifesize replica of “Fatman,” the bomb that leveled Nagasaki. Ironically, Nagasaki was the secondary target for “Bockscar,” the plane carrying the bomb, but the primary target, Kokura, was obscured by smoke or clouds; even so, Nagasaki still nearly escaped bombing due to cloud cover, but just before deciding to call off the raid, the Americans were able to gain sight of the Mitsubishi shipyard, and released the bomb. The experience at Nagasaki reminds us, yet again, that for all our supposed human intelligence and sophistication we seem unable to find ways to coexist peacefully in the world.

The reconstructed Chief Factor's Residence on Dejima Island

The reconstructed warehouses on Dejima

The reconstructed sea gate on Dejima

Perhaps the most interesting feature of Nagasaki is the preservation and restoration of Dejima, the tiny Dutch island trading post that, for a couple of centuries (mid 1600s to mid 1800s), was Japan’s only real connection to the Western world. Dejima was a man-made island in Nagasaki harbor, where the Dutch traders (Dutch East India Company) landed their ships (which only came once or twice a year) and where a small permanent contingent of Dutch people lived. Most of the Dutch were not allowed to leave the island, and except for interpretors and officials, Japanese were not allowed on the island. Thus, Dejima was the filter through which Western news, goods, and people reached Japan. Although the Japanese carefully controlled the materials and information coming into Japan, Dejima nevertheless was an important source of Western medical and scientific knowledge, and some members of the Dejima community (especially physicians) became both respected and important for the service and information they provided the Japanese.

In the 1850s Japan opened other ports to Western trade, and the Dutch East India Company was abolished. Soon thereafter, the land around Dejima was reshaped and the island was reclaimed as a part of Nagasaki harbor. As a result, today there is no island—Dejima is surrounded by a neighborhood. However, a major restoration is underway, and many of the buildings of Dejima are being reconstructed. The old walls and foundations have been excavated, and there is a long-term plan to once again surround Dejima with water. The entire island was fan-shaped and tiny--only about 70 meters wide by 200 meters or so in length. It resembles a small village, with one street running the length of the village, and one very short cross street in the center. It would have been an incredibly boring place to live, we assume—no freedom to come and go, very little access to outside information, and no native language (Dutch) reading materials except those that people brought with them. All in all, a fascinating place.

Nagasaki from Glover's Garden

The harbor at Nagasaki from Glover's Garden

We also visited an area of Nagasaki known as Glover’s Garden. As Japan became more open in the mid 19th century, a number of Westerners settled in Nagasaki and became important figures in business and culture in the area. One of these was Thomas Blake Glover (1838-1911), a Scot who arrived in Nagasaki in 1859. He became a very successful business man and industrialist, and was instrumental in such developments as the first Japanese railroad and establishment of the famous Kirin Beer company. He married a Japanese woman and lived all his adult life in Japan. His home, and those of several other important Westerners, have been situated on a landscaped hillside overlooking the harbor and are open to the public. These houses are generally Western in design, with some Japanese touches, and are probably more interesting to Japanese people than they are to Western visitors. We nevertheless found them worth a look.

Yesterday, January 12, our (very friendly and accommodating) host at the minshuku drove us to the local train station in Nagasaki, where we caught the JR to Hakata Station back in Fukuoka, and from there the Shinkansen to Kobe. After finding our hotel and resting for a couple of hours, we set out to meet our friend Junko (from Kwansei Gakuin University), who treated us to a wonderful teppanyaki seafood dinner on the upper floor of a beautiful hotel overlooking the bay. We had an evening of good conversation and fine food. Today has been a kind of catch-up day in Kobe, with the morning spent doing laundry and the afternoon strolling around some old familiar shopping areas in Kobe. After an early dinner downstairs in the hotel, we’re settled in for a quiet evening before spending a part of the day tomorrow with our friends Miwa and Lee, visiting a nearby museum dedicated to the work of writer and philosopher Junichiro Tanizaki. More about that later.

On to Kyushu

On January 7, our last night in Matsue, we ate dinner at Kawa-Kyo, a tiny mother-and-daughter operated izakaya. The place has a small L-shaped counter that seats about 8 people, and looks like something from the 19th century. The mother and daughter work behind the counter, separated from customers by not only the counter itself, but also by old sake bottles and boxes, various ads and signs hanging from the ceiling, stacks of rice bowls, baskets, and an assortment of other stuff. Nearly everything they use to serve food seemed to be piled on the counter, and they do the cooking right there, on their side of the counter. The place was dark, and the bench we sat on was supplied with blankets if we needed them to cover our legs for warmth.

The two women were friendly and cheerful, and the daughter spoke reasonably good English. She rummaged through a stack of menus and eventually found food and drink menus printed in English. The place specialized in local delicacies, including bass baked in parchment paper, grilled eel over rice (which we ate), and tiny clams in a kind of stewed broth. They gave us the clams as a kind of appetizer, along with edamame (soy beans) in their pods. After we had eaten the clams, they took the broth back and used it in making us bowls of miso soup. The food was delicious, and the company was good. Although Matsue is a reasonably large city (maybe 150,000-200,000 people), we could well have been in any rural village on a wintry night in Japan. (C's note: We were sitting on the short side of the L-shaped counter against a wall. When we slid into our seats, I hoped no one would come in to sit in the seat next to us as we were pretty tight -- the counter in front, against the wall in back and against the wall to the side. Of course, halfway through the wonderful meal an elderly lady came in and took the seat on the end, effectively blocking us in (claustrophobia was at the edge of my mind). However, we finished the meal and conversation without any panic on my part and learned that we would not have to disturb the lady sitting next to us in order to depart. Low and behold, the "wall" next to us was in fact a small hidden door which allowed us to slide off our seats and out the door.)

The following morning we again had breakfast at the 9th-floor lakeview restaurant in our hotel, then took a taxi to the Matsue station to arrange our train trip south to Fukuoka, via Okayama. The southbound trip from Matsue to Okayama simply reversed our earlier trip north, and we then boarded the Shinkansen at Okayama for the journey to Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu. This trip illustrated the amazing reliability of the Japanese train system; the agent at Matsue booked us on a train scheduled to arrive in Okayama (after a 2 ½ -hour trip) 8 minutes before our Shinkansen connection left for Fukuoka. This worried us just a bit, but we were standing on the platform waiting for the Shinkansen with time to spare—the rail network is truly amazing.

L. Hearn's house in Kumamoto

After arriving at the Hakata Station at Fukuoka, we walked to our nearby hotel, checked in, and left our bags. We then took a taxi to a local museum dedicated to life in Hakata over the past couple of centuries, including lots of photographs and some demonstrations of old arts and crafts—textile weaving and local handmade dolls. This morning we were up early for breakfast at the Hakata Park Hotel, then caught the JR for Kumamoto, another of the cities that were home to Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo). We arrived too early to check into our hotel (the interestingly named Dormy Inn), but they were happy to keep our bags while we went off in search of Koizumi’s house. It was an easy trip on the local tram system (the cars look like the old street cars that used to roam American streets, and still do in a few places, such as San Francisco). As he did in Matsue, Koizumi lived in Kumamoto for a time in a former Samurai house. In fact, the house is quite similar to the one he occupied in Matsue, and has interesting photographs and information about his time in the area. He taught in a school that later became Kumamoto University, before leaving to become a journalist in Kobe. At the house one of the staff members was a talkative, helpful woman who seemed to enjoy speaking English with us, and who pointed out some interesting features of the house, including the small shrine at which Koizumi “played” every day.

Matsumoto-jo

On the way from the tram to Koizumi’s home, C spotted a fabric shop in a covered arcade, and we spent a little time there choosing a selection of pieces of fabric of sorts unlikely to be available at home. Among other things, at the Koizumi house C found a flier for an interesting art exhibit at the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, so we got a taxi to take us there—beautiful painted scrolls from the 17th, 18th, & 19th centuries, as well as a special exhibit of various artifacts from the Samurai era. Our travels took us past Matsumoto-jo (the castle), which is enormous—one of the biggest we have seen in Japan. Although it dates from the early 17th century, the castle was largely destroyed by later wars, so the current buildings are mostly 19th-century reconstructions. For that reason, we enjoyed the view and C took a couple of pictures, but we chose not to go in.

You never know what you'll find in Japan, Mike and Joan, -- too bad it was closed.

Following a walk back to the arcade near Koizumi’s home, we found a noodle shop for a late lunch, then took a leisurely stroll back through the arcade (which is very large and stretched back nearly all the way to our hotel). In the process we had a look through both the Daiei and Hanshin department stores before returning to the hotel for check-in. Japan is nothing if not service-oriented, and we found, when we tried to reclaim our checked bags, that the hotel staff had already taken them to our room.

Tomorrow we’ll be off to Nagasaki, where we’ll no doubt see the various memorials associated with the atomic bombing of World War II, as well as sites associated with the early Dutch traders who, for a significant period before the Meiji Restoration, were the only Westerners with whom the Japanese dealt.

Back in Japan

After leaving San Diego on the morning of January 4, we flew to San Francisco, and then to Osaka. This time the flight across took about 12 hours, one of the longer flights to Japan that we’ve experienced, probably due to the headwinds we faced all the way across the Pacific. After arriving at Kansai International Airport, we took a Japan Rail train to Osaka Station, and from there a taxi to our hotel in Osaka. After a quick dinner at the hotel, we slept surprisingly well (unusual for our first night here), had breakfast at the hotel, and took a taxi to Shin-Osaka Station.

Bullet trains, nose to nose -- We got on the white one.

Nice way to travel

A taste, from the train window, of what we will find in Matsue.

View from our lunch table at the noodle shop

From Shin-Osaka, we took the Shinkansen (bullet train) west to Okayama, where we changed to a regular JR train for the trip north to Matsue. This trip, which took about 2 ½ hours, carried us nearly all the way from the south coast, on the Inland Sea, to the north coast, almost to the Sea of Japan. Along the way we crossed the mountains and passed through innumerable tunnels. The scenery, as we got away from the cities and into the countryside, was beautiful, and as we went north we began to encounter snow, eventually traveling through a genuine snowstorm. At Matsue we found a thick layer of heavy wet snow already on the ground, with more falling. After taking a taxi to our hotel, we set out on foot, walking past Matsue Castle, to find lunch at a noodle shop we had read about, reaching it just as a heavy combination of rain and sleet began to fall.

Ken at the front gate of L. Hearn's home in Matsue

The front garden through the window of L. Hearn's home

The back garden at L. Hearn's home

After lunch we walked a little farther along the street to the Matsue home of writer Lafacadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo). We found the home very much as he described it in his famous essay In a Japanese Garden, and tried to imagine what it would have been like to live there in 1891, as Hearn did. The house was once a Samurai home, and is in a neighborhood near another Samurai residence, Buke Yashiki, which we also visited. We spent some warm, interesting time in the nearby museum dedicated to Hearn’s life and work, before venturing back out into the slushy snow. Our interest in Hearn (who became naturalized and took the name Koizumi Yakumo in 1985) is related to K’s research on the views of Hearn and the Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki on old Japanese culture and aesthetics.

Matsue Castle

The walk back to the hotel was wet and slippery, and we relaxed and warmed up before having a multi-course dinner, including a number of local specialties (tempura, clams, fish, shrimp, and such) downstairs in the hotel restaurant. We were tired, and went to bed by 8:00, sleeping till 7:00 Friday morning. For breakfast we discovered a 9th-floor buffet in the adjoining hotel building, with big windows and nice views looking out over Shinji-ko, the large lake on which Matsue is situated. After a leisurely breakfast we set out walking again, this time visiting Matsue-jo (the castle). The castle had its beginnings in 1607, with work on it finishing in 1611. It is one of only 12 such castles in Japan that survive in their original condition, and is equipped with some of the usual features of castles of that era (including those of Europe as well as Asia)—such as hidden openings from which the inhabitants could drop stones or boiling water on anyone silly enough to try to attack the castle. It is a beautiful structure, with huge wooden beams, and standing atop a hill on mammoth stone walls. From the top (sixth) floor there are long views in all directions.

Tonight we’ll go out to eat at a little izakaya (old-fashioned Japanese country-style bar) that we found on our walk today. Then tomorrow morning we’ll leave Matsue, traveling to the island of Kyushu and the city of Hakata.

The Semester Ends & One of Us Takes a Long Walk

Well, the semester at St. Clare’s College has wound down. Ken has graded the papers and turned in the grades. It was a delightful experience, including an interesting group of students and a kind and generous array of colleagues and new friends. St. Clare’s, Oxford has an interesting history, having been established following World War II to bring together English and German students. Now it hosts students from more than 25 countries, and occupies something like 27 Edwardian buildings in North Oxford.

St. Clare's College Administration

St. Clare's Library

One of St. Clare's classroom buildings

As the semester was ending we also had the fascinating experience of being in the United Kingdom during the national election, which resulted in an unlikely Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. The outcome seemed to disappoint most of our friends, but most people also seemed to think the Labour party, which had been in power for 13 years, had more or less run out of ideas. So we’ll watch with interest to see how the new government does.

Soon after the end of the semester, our friends Mike, Charlotte, and Molly came to Oxford to spend a day with us. We drank lots of tea, walked around the city to see some of the colleges and other sights, and had lunch at one of Oxford’s many fine pubs. We very much enjoyed their company, and of course hope we’ll see Mike, Charlotte, and Molly when we’re next back in the beautiful Shropshire countryside, where they live in a renovated 12th-century church.

We spent the past weekend in and around Ludlow, where Connie stayed with Joan; they passed the time visiting the Hergest Gardens in Kington, drinking tea, reading, and shopping. In the meantime, Ken, Mike, and Jonathan went walking on Offa’s Dyke, an ancient (8th century) earthen fortification that extends for 80 miles or more along the Welsh-English border. They departed from a point a few miles north of Hay-on-Wye on Friday, and walked north along the Dyke. Finishing at midday on Sunday, they walked about 30 miles, staying overnight at pubs in Kington (a lovely little town) and Knighton. Joan and Connie dropped them off at the beginning, and picked them up at the end. To top it off, Joan treated the whole group to Sunday lunch at the Sun pub in the pretty village of Clun. The walk encompassed steep climbs to high vantage points with amazing views, the crossing of countless meadows and pastures full of sheep and cattle, and paths following pretty rivers. The hikers also had a couple of exciting (and humorous) opportunities to ford the River Teme. As always, we very much enjoyed our time in Ludlow, and left talking about when we might return.

Hergest Garden

Offa's Dyke Walkers -- Jonathon, Ken, Mike

On the Dyke

Fording the Teme -- someone is keeping his boots dry, huh Mike

The last pub stop -- Joan and Connie are having a drink under the umbrella while waiting for the walkers to return

Today we are back in Oxford, awaiting the arrival tomorrow of Heather, Steve, and Jamie. They will share our last 11 days here, returning, as we do, to the States on May 29.

Happy May Day!

Today is May Day, and in Oxford it creates quite a fuss. We were up at 4:30 a.m. to organize ourselves to walk to Magdalen College, where the choir traditionally sings from the tower at 6:00 a.m. on May Day. Unfortunately, the size of the crowd, as well as the crowd control tactics of the local police, made it impossible to get close enough to really see and hear the choir. We could hear them in the distance, and we could see them (vaguely) around the top of the tower, but we couldn’t get a truly good look.

The choir in the tower

A policeman at the barriers said that the first 8,000 people were allowed into the street nearer the tower, and that then access was shut off. The Oxford May Day celebration is a centuries-old tradition, and in the old days the students (who have in many cases been up all night) gathered on the Magdalen Bridge, with many of them eventually jumping off the bridge and into the Cherwell River. These days, the bridge is closed off (apparently, there were many injuries due to the jumping). One man at the barricades was shouting out the name of the local councilor, asking people to write her to protest what he saw as an abridgement of personal freedom in the crowd control tactics. We can at least say we’ve seen the spectacle.

After checking out the scene at Magdalen, we walked back into the city centre, where the bells of the old St. Mary’s church were pealing nonstop for a time. We watched (and listened to) some interesting bands (one decked out in May Day costumes with flowery hats, cloaks, and such) and several troupes of Morris dancers (Morris dance is an English folk tradition dating from the late 15th century and involves choreographed dancing in traditional costumes and using such props as colorful scarves and wooden sticks). The Morris dancers were scheduled to slowly make their way through the city, moving out to other neighborhoods through the day. A few interesting characters moved through the crowds in rather unorthodox costumes—One person, for instance, was dressed as a tree or shrub, and another was apparently the Oxford ox.



May Day Dancers


Morris Dancers

The Ox and the May Day Tree (Shrub?)

Many of the city centre pubs and cafés were open, some as early as 5:30, for May Day breakfast. We went down the narrow alley to the Chequers Pub, where we had tea and a traditional hot English breakfast. After breakfast we watched some more dancers before heading home. We spent the rest of the morning napping, and had a lazy May Day afternoon at home before going back to the city centre for an early dinner at Edamame, a delightful little family-run Japanese restaurant. Edamame is a tiny place that doesn’t take reservations; the best strategy is to be in line when they open at 5:00, which is what we did today. It was a delightful way to top off a pleasant festival day in Oxford—unlike any other May Day we’ve experienced.

London, Theatre, and Hiking Around Oxford

Since our last update we’ve been to London, where we managed to get tickets to see the musical Oliver!, a wonderful 40-year-old show that has been revived in the West End in London in the past couple of years. It was an outstanding production, with great singers, interesting and innovative sets, and a big group of talented youngsters who played the roles of English street kids of the Charles Dickens era (the show is based on Dickens’s book Oliver Twist).

We also made a visit to Harrod’s, the famous London department store, where we explored the various children’s departments and the food halls, among others. We also enjoyed a Japanese dinner at a restaurant with various kinds of sushi on a conveyor belt—As we’ve done before at similar places, we simply picked the plates we liked off the conveyor, and after the meal the staff simply count the number (and color) of the plates to calculate the bill.

In London we stayed at our favorite little hotel, the Luna & Simone. This is a 4- or 5-story hotel (no lift!) in a long row of beautiful old buildings (1840s), many of which have been converted to small hotels. We like this place not only because it’s near Victoria Station, but also because it’s owned by a friendly, service-oriented family headed by two guys who are middle-aged identical twins. They treat us well, serve a nice breakfast, and are invariably kind and helpful.

Back at home in Oxford, we’ve again been walking and exploring, including three long walks to interesting pubs on the outskirts of the city. We returned to the beautiful Trout Inn, situated on the Thames River 2 or 3 miles north of the city—Ken walked there through the meadows of the Oxford Nature Park, and Connie took the bus, meeting him at the pub. After having lunch and enjoying the view of the river, we walked back to Oxford via the Thames Path.

We also found the Victoria Arms, another pub situated in a beautiful country setting, this one east and a bit north of us, along the River Cherwell. This pub has excellent food, picnic tables in the garden extending down to the river, and horses in the pasture next door. After a pleasant lunch, we followed a walking path south along the Cherwell, eventually walking all the way to the Oxford city centre, from which we took the bus home. This was a walk of perhaps 5 miles or so.

Finally, we found our way to North Hinksey, a village on the southwest edge of Oxford. We walked from a busline going west out of Oxford, finding the village after a walk of a half mile or so. We were in search of The Fishes, a fine pub in a big Victorian building—again with a large lawn, picnic tables, and a stream running nearby. The Fishes is located near 4 or 5 much older thatched houses, making for a very picturesque village atmosphere. After another fine lunch, we followed a public footpath through nearby woods and back to Oxford, where we walked back to the city centre before catching a bus back home to our neighborhood.

Thatched-roof houses in Hinksey

These adventures are serving at least 2 functions: They’re helping us to know the fascinating off-road nooks and crannies of our area, and they’re hopefully getting Ken in shape for an upcoming 3-day hike (with friends Mike and Jonathan) on Offa’s Dyke, along the England-Wales border. We’re starting to realize that our time here is getting short—Classes at St. Clare’s College end next week, and Heather, Steve, & Jamie will arrive on May 18 to spend 10 days or so with us before we return to the States on May 29. In the meantime, we continue to realize how fortunate we are to have this opportunity, and we’ll write more over the next month.