Really Hard Trouble

This week has been devoted to Japanese study, so writing has taken a backseat once again. Please enjoy this excerpt..........

                                     FROM THE DESK OF MRS. BUNBERRY

Friday, July 18th

My sister likes languages. When I'm struggling for a word I'm more likely to shoot her an email than to open up a Thesaurus. Back at home, just before I left for this trip, we were talking. Random stuff probably, but during the conversation she said this phrase "really hard trouble." Of course, I teased her about it for as long as I could. "Don't you mean 'difficult'?" I asked. Words are funny like that, I guess. Like, if I said that Monday, July 14th, was a difficult day, what would that mean to you? Or if I said that it was a little sad, or kind of depressing, would that preclude me from saying I enjoyed it? From saying "it was a good day, I had a nice time"? 

Well, Monday was a hard day. And it was a good day too. We went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and spent around three hours in the museum. It was awful, but it was also, in a sense, inspiring. 8:15. Time takes on a new meaning..... 

But one can't really talk about something like that, not for long. That Thursday we went to Iwakuni and were shown around the Marine base. We ate off base, though, passing up taco bell, pizza hut, and Baskin Robins for a little curry restaurant known as Cocos. It was spicy good. Rice, gravy, okra, eggplant, and chicken. All eaten with torn off pieces of nan. And of course we went shopping too. We even saw some guys breakneck dancing.

          Next week We go on our first homestays, and teach at Hiraoi and Nijigaoka for the last time. We've only two more weeks before Friendship English Camp (FEC) starts, but we're sure the time will go quickly. 

 

      

Time Warp in Kyoto - Installment the Third

Well, I've been wanting to get this series wrapped up, and this post will do it. I'm going to be telling you a little bit of what we did in Kyoto, but the focus will be the food. I'll try to squeeze a few formal introductions into the post too, so you can start feeling as if you know these people. As is only proper, we're going to start off with Monday's breakfast. 

The morning has already been an adventure. The shower here at the inn is designed for rinsing off before bathing. The bathroom contains a huge sunken tub, which is covered most of the time, and two shower heads hanging on the wall. That's it. The other essentials that you'd expect to find in a bathroom are elsewhere. But that doesn't affect my shower, and now I'm done with my morning preparations and ready for breakfast. The ladies at the inn actually make us our breakfast, and serve it to us on a low table. I sit down across from Misty. She's the lady who picked us up from the airport last night, arranged for the bus from Osaka to Kyoto, and has opened her house up for us to live in. Next to me, on my right, is Ms. I, who I met two weeks ago at blaze. Her friend, Ms. A, sits across from her, completing our quartet. The lovely innkeeper comes in with our breakfast - fruit and yogurt, toast and jam, and an egg poached in a tomato - and we all "fall to."  

Breakfast conquered, we file outside and mount our bicycles. We're off to the Imperial palace to reserve spots for the different English tours we'll be taking, and then we are off again to the Nishijin Textile Center to see a kimono fashion show and drool over the beautiful clothes. Passing school children on the sometimes-narrow sidewalks sure gives one an appetite. This is a replica of what I had for lunch. Having plastic replicas of the menu for customers to look at is a common practice here in Japan, and very useful for us gaijen (foreigners). 

Tuesday dawns a little cloudy, and we place umbrellas and  raincoats in our bicycles' baskets. It's quite a bike to the  station, where we board a train to take us to the Imperial  Villa. We leave with visions of bridges and tea houses still in our  heads, and enter a train bound toward Nara, home of incorrigible  deer and the Todaji Temple. We eat lunch on the train, a variety of things  bought at the station: rice wrapped in fried tofu, assorted onigiri (rice balls), and sushi.  Back in Kyoto we've still a bit more sightseeing to do, but it's all worth it when we sit down to an entertaining night at Zoronpa, where the yakisoba and okonomiyaki is cooked at the bar and then brought to our own personal stovetop to keep it warm while we eat. 

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we will travel halfway  across Kyoto on bicycles in search of recommended shops; we'll  see the five story pagoda temple called Toji, and the extravagant Kinkakuji (golden temple); however, the most wonderful event of all will be when we make a complicated journey by shinkazen (bullet train) to our new home, Hikari. 

Time Warp in Kyoto - Installment the second

So, yesterday was an improvment on those previous monosyllabic posts, but it had very little information in it. Today will be different. I'm going to show you some of the places we went in Kyoto. Lets start out with a little cultural lesson: In Japan, buildings must be at least five hundred before being considered old. If they want to be seen as having historical importance they should aim for one thousand. There's a loop hole in this guidline though, for Japanese architecture is really prone to fires. In fact, people point to it as proof that lighting does strike twice, or thrice, or five-ce. Okay, lets start with the inn we stayed at. 

Nashinoki Ryokan 

Merely a hundred years old, and run by the sweetest couple, this inn provived shelter, breakfast (you'll see that some other time), and bicylces. In the picture you can see our futons all rolled up. Like all good japanese houses, you took your shoes off before coming in, wore toilet slippers in the bathroom, and were offered the use of the ufon (the Japanese bath). With tatami mats, turkish toilets, and parperd doors, the cultural expectations of this traveler were quickly fulfilled. 

The Kyoto Imperial Palace 

 This is one of those indomitable structures, with the tenacity of a dandilion. It was built back in 794, making it a little over a thousand years old, but it has been burned down so many times 

that the current structures only date back a hundred and sixty years. These buildings are used mainly for show now, the capital was moved to Tokyo in 1869 and the Emporer has other places to dwell when he comes down to visit Kyoto. 

The Omiya Imperial Palace

Enclosed by the same stone wall that surounds the Imperial palace above, this imperial compound is lush with greenery. It's referred to in the guidebook as the Sento palace, but there has been no Sento palace here since 1854, when the last one burned down. The Sento palace, now only history, used to house retired Emperors. The Omiya palace, as pictured, was for dowager Empresses. But, as with most of these houses, the real beauty is in the detailed landscape.  

The Nijo-jo (Castle)

Funnily enough, I have been to this castle before, though it seems quite a number of years ago now. Cameras are band beyond a certain point, so the real beauty of the place - its ancient painted screens, exquisite wood carvings, and even its decorative nails - must be viewed in person. The coolest thing about Nijo though is not it's looks but it's sound. It is equipped with something known as a nightingale floor, a floor designed to alert it's owners to the presence of an enemy through the squeaks and chirps created when it's stepped on. Since most homeowners like their floors to be silent this invention is rarely found outside of Nijo.

 

The Katsura Imperial Villa 

This Villa is, in my opinion, the cream of the crop. Located far enough from Kyoto that we had to take the train instead of out bikes, the villa was so perfect, so natural, so superior to the other palaces, that I even bought a pocket guide book. Luckily for those non-visual people, the ones who just hate seeing pictures of a place, who prefer to read about things instead, my camera's batteries were on the blink and I was constantly having to turn the silly thing off to fool it into thinking it had enough power for just one more picture.The Katsura Villa was walled in with an impressive bamboo hedge known as the Katsura-gaki (literally - Katsura hedge, but lets pretend it has some obscurer meaning).

Within this hedge, and on the other side of a number of fences and gates, lay the garden and tea houses, pearls protected by their oyster shells. The Shokin-tei, the Shoka-tei, and the Shoi-ken are prime examples of dignity and subtly, mixed a romantic ruggedness. The Shokin-tei was my favorite of these tea houses, but even it was topped by the garden. The buildings of Katsura are all at the beck and call of the gi-normous pond which sprawls in their midst. Every window, doorway, tree, and stone seems placed with the pond in mind. It is under the bridges, around the islets, and idling on the stone shore of Katsura.     

"Let Your works appear to your servants, and Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us"     - Psalm 90: 16-17

  

Time Warp in Kyoto - Installment the First

Dear friends, I'm attempting to write this post with the knowledge that it might be a many day project. But I've decided to have no more of those skimpy one-liners that I've been indulging  in. These post are brought to you by Falcon, the T-rusty laptop, and my camera, who has no name. Please, let me know if I'm putting too many pictures up, I don't want to be a hard page to load. 

Now, on to the featured presentation. 

Bicycling in Kyoto is one of those pure joys that reminds us of God's original intention for Earth.  It ma

y be humid when you're sitting still, or even when you're merely walking along, but sitting on the seat of the bicycle, weaving in and out of sidewalk traffic, the wind plays a song for your body and soul. 

Here we are, the four of us, the leader in the front with the rest trailing behind in a line. Ducks on a pond, almost, passing all kinds of interesting things upon the shore. All around us the people of Kyoto go to and fro. The baby faced intern, in his suit and tie, whizzes past us, his briefcase resting in his basket like a shiny loaf of bread. Mothers, their kids balanced alarmingly in bright red seats, ride serenely by. From the young school girls, in their grey, pleated, knee length skirts, to the iron haired salary man, Kyoto's sidewalks are filled with the miracle of two wheeled flight. Sailing down the side walk, gracefully executing turns, waiting for the electronic chirping that accompanies the blue light of crosswalk freedom, we are the Unconquerable.