Japan, October 19-31, 2000
10/19/2000 - Jack and I leave MSP airport Thursday afternoon in NWA nonstop to Tokyo. At about same time, KBH leaves on NWA from JFK nonstop to Tokyo. We meet late afternoon October 20 in Narita Airport. Proceed by train and taxi to Miyako Hotel where we crash! Saturday, October 21, 2000 - We get up about 4AM and go to the fish market where tuna from around the world is auctioned 6 days a week; Inspecting frozen tuna; And fresh; 5:30AM bidding starts several places at once.
In the adjoining market after the auction; Sawing open a frozen tuna; Filleting a smaller fish; Octopus; Scallops slicing; In the afternoon we tour the city, primarily Ginza area. Visit department stores, art galleries, Imadegawa Museum, Starbucks! At 4:30 we go to kabuki-za which we leave after 2 acts about 8pm, we're all cramped and fall asleep; City Zen
Sunday, October 22 - We check out and take a train (more like a subway) to the Hakone-Mt. Fuji area. We get off at Yumato and take a bus to Palace Hotel near Mt. Ashi. After check-in we bus to a wetlands center for a walking tour; Some maple-red; Many labels; We then tour a Samurai Museum, a pseudo art gallery and walk through Sengogu. We return home for mineral baths, dinner and bed.
Monday, October 23 - Pouring rain! We cab to the Open Air Museum (only drizzling at first). Then the onslaught so we sit inside for a while, watching a video of the museum and wait for the rain to stop; It never lets up so we venture outside for several wonderful wet hours; Entrance with mobile and grass sculpture; How we felt.
Darling daughter! 3 tourists on a ball; Marvelous brick and timber dragon wheels feeder into goldfish pond with goldfish sculpture; We stop in shelter in museum woods for some noodles.
Still smiling...; Open Air Museum to Hakone Art Museum; Lovely moss carpeted grounds; We stop in a tea house for matcha and sweets then view exhibit of Chinese and Japanese ceramics.
We then tour 2 Tokkaido Road museums and teahouse way station with dirt floors. Then a modern Imperial summer home. By then we are sloshing in the rain so take a taxi back to our hotel for a hot bath, dinner and bed; Tokkaido Road way station; And inn/teahouse; Tori Gate and Lake Ashi; Buddha near Saga Brother's shrine; Fuji-san.
Tuesday, October 24 - Rain stops, fog lifts and Mt. Fuji appears! "Fuji-san appears and scatters the Hongi mists across the valley" - Jack's haiku draft; We take the bus to Odawara, buy tickets in the Shinkansen for Kyoto (they don't take credit cards, banks are closed, so we scrape together our 33,000Yen to buy 3 tickets. Have less than 1000Yen left so we are grateful for K's water and a few snacks in train. Luckily our Kyoto hotel has a courtesy shuttle from train station! Upon arrival we rush to Imperial office for tickets to Katsura, etc; Ryogen-in entry in Kyoto; We then rush to Daitokuji Temple to tour some of its subtemples and beautiful Zen gardens; Landscape artists use forty men and tons of rock to create silence; First stop at Daitoku-ji.
Another temple, Koto-in or Koren-in; Jizo figures, a type of guardian figurine, often for dead children.
After Daitoku-ji we and the Collins have dinner at Ten-ten in the Gion area.
After dinner we come out to tour Gion and watch Geisha actresses being filmed at Shinto shrine for TV or movie.
Wednesday, October 25, 2000 - Sento Gosho in the morning.
The rather dull Imperial Palace in the afternoon.
We then head off to Kitano-Temmangu Temple for a flea market. Go through Nishijin Textile area, then to Golden Pavilion; Gardens built here are replica of those of Moss Temple for Shogun's mother, senile women weren't allowed in temples; Jack interviews a gardener about pruning, in learning for his next career; Smiling in the rain.
Thursday, October 26, 2000 - We tour art galleries in the morning in Kyoto; Antique shop? Pleasant entry; Then head to the Moss Temple in the afternoon. Exquisite! Before we can enter we must listen to Buddhist priests chant (gorgeous) then write sutras for an hour with some brush and ink block!
What we copied to gain entry.
Pines with every third needle plucked to give a lighter look.
After an exhilarating ramble through Kokodera, we head over the hill and visit a bamboo-encased temple, Jizo-in. then home for a massage. Kate Doyle comes up from Iwakura that night and bunks with Kristen.
Friday, October 27, 2000 - We tour Katsura Temple in the morning but can't talk Katie in past the guards. We then head for Ryoanji Temple where we tour the gardens and have a tofu soup lunch in the temple restaurant; At Ryoanji Temple grounds.
Our view from our tofu lunch on the temple restaurant veranda.
We then head down the road to Ninna-ji Temple, huge complex with dwarf cherry trees; On the street, a model for our new gate?
We finish the day with a hike up the hill to Kyomizu then Din-din at Ten-ten; Saturday, 10/28 - We bus it to Shugakuin Villa where we all have tickets; Kate and I drink hot and cold beverages while we wait to get in. Jack reads with his feet in a ditch!
Kristen does her artistic thing with the camera and then the battery dies! The mist becomes a steady rain during our 1-hour tour of Shugakuin. After it, we cab it to O'Haia and first tour Sanzen-in which has become way more commercial since we saw it in 1986. After a bland tourist lunch K&K go to buy handmade paper on the way home. Jack and I visiti 2 small delightful temples, Jikko-in (with a cherry tree that blooms October to March) and Hosen-in where I help make matcha in the kitchen!
Shugakuin; Sunday, October 29, 2000 - We go South of Kyoto to an antiques market (quarterly) where Kristen and I buy Obis. We then take Kate to the train stations for lunch and farewells. K, Jack and I then head off to meet Cliff Kaihek, a Finnish artist from Duluth, buy several gorgeous prints, then have an extended dinner. Jack, K and Cliff then go for drinks; Monday, October 30 - Our last day in Kyoto, tour Kurin-an and Nanzenji Temple. Then the Shinkansen to Tokyo.
October 31 - We take Kristen to the Happo-en, a nearby meeting center and exquisite gardens. The night before, Jack and I sat by the lake and listened to the koto; Some other Shugakuin shots.