Farewell and Thank you to the Hiraos

Last night we had a final dinner with Koji and Nobuko at a Russian restaurant owned by a college friend of Koji's. It was a delicious meal, and fun to meet Koji's old friend.

Today, Livia wrote Koji and Nobuko name-poems (with apologies for the lack of good "K" words in English that we replaced with "C" words):

Karing

Observant

Joking

Imaginative

And for Nobuko:

Nice

Open to new ideas

Bright

Unusually Cute

Kuddly

Original

Catsoos and Dogoos

By Scott--It's raining "catsoos" and "dogoos" today in Kyoto. Strange day. First the train ride from Takayama, then the "shinkansen" (rhymes roughly with Wisconsin, and I always want to sing "On Wisconsin" when we're on it...), then a taxi ride from Kyoto station to our machiya. Nobuko, Liv, and Kathy's driver got misdirected and lost--both--but finally arrived, where Koji, Tor, and I were waiting for them. Our "machiya"--a traditional merchant's house that's had a nice modern makeover--is very nice, and a good value, less than a hotel. It's at the end of a little walking alley, it's two stories, has a nice kitchen, two western-style beds and a tatami room where we'll throw down some futons. It's really very cozy, our own little home away from home.

After a noodle soup lunch Koji and Nobuko went their way, to their hotel. Tonight we're going to eat at a Russian restaurant, the owner of which Koji knows.

I was the only one who ventured out in the rain in the late afternoon. First for cash, which is a little adventure in itself (only special international ATMs will do), then to a Buddhist temple not too far away--Rokuharamitsuji. I know "roku" means six, but that's all I know. It was beautiful and mysterious. It was near closing time but I got in, and bought a 50 yen candle and lit it--and "prayed" for family peace, after an intermittently stressful day travelling, etc. Being together brings out both the best and worst in us. It's usually us against the world (in a sense), but sometimes that flips and it's us against us. If you know what I mean. If you're a member of a family--ha ha, who isn't?--you do. After the temple I looked for a supermarket that was on the map, but couldn't find it. So instead I went to a cafe and had a nice little bottle of sake, looking out the window at the rain.

Rock and Roll

As we strolled through the oldest, most famous Shinto shrine in Takayama, I commented on how peaceful it was. Tor’s response: “It needs a little rock and roll.”

It was a moment of teen humor... enjoyed by all.

Tor has been really great: curious about things we're seeing, friendly and respectful to Koji and Nobuko, engaged in navigating around the places we visit, and (for the most part) not complaining (!!) an amazing feat for a teenager. He's also reading "Shogun" by James Clavell -- on my Kindle. He keeps reporting on what percentage of the book he has finished, since that's how the Kindle tells you where you are (there are no page numbers!). At this point he's at 30%--after just 3 days or so.

Another Kitchen?

When Nobuko and Koji lived in America, and Amiko was about Livia’s age, they visited Williamsburg in Virginia. They went into many beautiful houses, and finally Amiko said, with a sigh, “another kitchen.”

Nobuko told me this story yesterday as we were visiting the folk village in Hida-no-sato. The village included traditional homes that had been moved there from various other locations. They were lovely wooden structures with steeply pitched thatched roofs. The thatch was more than a foot thick! In various locations around the village, artisans made traditional crafts, including sandals woven from straw and lacquerware. There was also an excellent explanation of silk-making (sericulture), showing all the specialized tools used in that process.

After Nobuko told us the story of Amiko’s trip to Williamsburg, Tor couldn’t help himself. As we toured the next building, he said: “Another kitchen.”

Steak & Lollipops

Food in Japan has been extraordinary, and today was no exception. For lunch, we went to a restaurant that specializes in the local beef, called "Hida" beef, which is famous for being particularly tasty. I had my beef in sukiyaki, a stew that cooks at your table and includes various vegetables in addition to the beef. It also included a raw egg, which you break into a bowl. You then lift a bite of stew and dip it into the raw egg before eating it. I wasn't sure about this at first, but it really did accomplish the goal of softening the salty flavor of the sukiyaki broth.

Tor, the meat man in our family, had the steak, which I tasted. I have to say that it was extremely tender. Really some of the best beef I think I've ever tasted. Everyone else had a miso beef that they cooked on a large leaf over a sterno flame. They said it was delicious.

As soon as the meal was over, both of my children grabbed a lollipop. We had purchased them earlier in the day. Koji and Nobuko found this amusing. Steak and lollipops!

Tonight at dinner the joke continued as Livia ate her chicken meatballs on a skewer, and called them chicken lollipops!

Our dinner was amazing, Koji and Nobuko treated us, and we were lined up along the counter in a diner-style cafe. We were the only customers, so it felt like we had a private restaurant all to ourselves. Actually, there were seats for only four other people anyway!

The chefs were right in front of us, and Koji and Nobuko just kept ordering amazing things that would then appear in front of us. We started with a plate of squid stuffed with egg with some octopus tempura on the side. Tor refused to try the squid (but ate the octopus). Livia, whose classroom dissected squids on the day we left for Japan, decided she had to taste it so that she could tell her friends about it. After that, we had some sashimi, and Livia also tasted the raw tuna! And the dishes kept coming. A whole fish (small) that I couldn't handle (it was grilled and the meat was so dry it was almost like sawdust to me) but the other adults enjoyed. And pieces of flounder bone fried so that they were almost like potato chips. I liked these, but Tor needed a glass of water to get rid of the flavor!! Also some veggies -- grilled shiitake mushrooms, and eggplant. Very yummy! I had to say "GoCheesoSamadeshta," (that's my phonetic spelling for the phrase that means "what a great feast!")

Takayama festival

In the Spring, for two days (the two days that we are here!), Takayama has a festival. Each of 16 or so neighborhoods hauls out a multistory shrine on wheels and rolls it around the town in a parade. Each shrine is pulled and pushed by men wearing the characteristic traditional clothing of that particular neighborhood. Some of the shrines house an elaborate system of strings that manipulate a marionette-like character at the front of the shrine. These are parked in one of the town plazas to perform "puppet shows" during the festival. We attended one of these shows today. The puppets move very slowly, acting out a story to the sound of a characteristic kind of Japanese singing similar to that heard in Noh theater (I think! Not totally sure about that!). Tor found it hard on his musical ears! One of the puppets, a female, enacted a performance that was banned about 100 years ago because it was considered too obscene. She did her little dance and then suddenly bent over, flipping her kimono over her head and revealing a dragon's head coming out of her butt area! I have to say, it was in fact a little obscene! The dragon shook and gyrated for a while, and then the woman flipped back up to standing, looking her elegant self again.

Last night, the floats were lit with beautiful paper lanterns as they paraded around town. In the dark, it was hard to make out the details that make each float special. But today we got a closer look. Each one has amazing wood carvings of dragons or other creatures. And many of the fabrics show beautiful embroidered scenes. The men who move the floats around town were everywhere. Nobuku approached one to compliment him on the beauty of his coat. He said it is 100 years old. He then took it off to show that it was reversible, and the inside showed a beautiful lion design. He modeled it for us, and then insisted that I try it on -- twice! Once with each side showing.

Crossing the River(s)

By Scott--one moment I liked today was when we were in Tokyo Station much too early for our train (my neurotic fault). The station has loads of shops but most were strangely closed at 8:30 a.m., and we didn't know what to do with ourselves. There's no "hang out" area, so, pulling our luggage behind us we knocked around looking for a place to wait. In the meantime full-on torrents of workaday Tokyo-ites are streaming in from seven directions. And about four or five times we had to cross one of these rivers, single file. It was really a little daunting at first. About the third time at it we were giggling, but the sober faces in the black suits kept coming. Kathy noted how nobody was hanging around getting a coffee, shmoozing, etc. Everyone was making a serious beeline for work.

It's nice to have Koji and Nobuko as guides. In Takayama tonight Koji very nicely scouted out a little local soba restaurant, and we went early and got their only cozy tatami room.

Koji said something interesting about the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, where I went the other day. My history is a little sketchy here, but Yasukuni is the Shinto shrine that, at least during the 1930s and 40s, was the main spot honoring dead Japanese soldiers--and, indirectly or not so, the Japanese military as an institution. And here is where I get sketchier, but in the 1990s there was a separate smaller memorial set up for a group of military leaders who were classed by the US Army as war criminals but, for various reasons, were not tried in the Tokyo trials. It is a controversial place. Every year the Japanese prime minister makes a visit, and every year the Chinese and Koreans and others protest. Koji said that he lost two uncles in the war, and that he used to visit the shrine until the war criminal memorial was created, but now because of it he won't go to Yasukuni.

More on Takayama later.