Madrid

Madrid is a city that I think would take years to discover. Each barrio seems to have its own flavor and sights from stuccoed buildings to charming narrow, winding streets, perfect for getting lost in. There are also hundreds of traditional restaurants, most including inviting outside dining to take in the ambiance (and the smoke) and enjoy the cooling evenings.
The days start late and they still indulge in the afternoon siestas. While stores were open for the tourists, there seemed to be a slackening of pace at least on the part of the locals during the early evening. However, Madrid is the city of night-life and by 9:00 pm it is starting to gather steam.

Lawn Mower

Quick! Think of associations for this word……Lawn Mower….ok…grass, hot weather, fresh cut grass smell, summer, tall ice teas, beer, sweat, weeds. Hmmm…I didn’t hear the word cute in that collection. Here in Japan the lawn mowers are a little different. Small, narrow, tiny, in a word…..cute. Please note in the picture that my sandal is in front of it just for comparison. It took me well over an hour to “mow” the lawn and I had to dump that bag probably 8 times! In comparison, I probably could have used a regular lawn mower, finished the job in 15 min. and dumped the bag once. The problem ….real lawn mowers cost approximately 7 times as much…..

Tsuramai Park Tea Ceremonies

Ah…spring….blossoms, fresh air, sunlight and….tea ceremonies. It’s a special time in the Japanese yearly cycle of festivals and one that should not be missed.
Once again we found ourselves at Tsuramai Park, though this time the skies were merely cloudy rather than smoggy. Though the rain fell all night long, the day proved to be dry.
Scattered throughout the park were large tents (just in case the rain returned). Inside benches, platforms and other props for preparing tea were set up. Each included a small area that was elegantly decorated; it might be a simple flower arrangement or a bit of landscape, taking in, of course, the natural setting of the park. The irises were in bloom, or at least a good number of them were, so many of the items incorporated irises as the theme for the day.

Kimonos

The women were not to be outdone by the setting. They all wore elegant kimonos and carefully picked their way through the various paths to attend the different tea ceremonies representing numerous schools.

Tea Ceremonies

The ceremony varied a bit. Instead of sitting on the ground with the hostess, we sat upon benches, covered with red cloth, set around the hostess. While the hostess made the ceremonial cup of tea, other members of the school made and passed out tea to all of the people who were watching the process of making the tea. It is a very stylized and rigidly adhered to process, with each “school” having slight variations in hand movements and proscribed equipment. Each movement is done individually; there is no setting down the bowl while you are reaching for the tea pot. It can be relaxing to watch them work.
It takes YEARS before you are allowed to participate in the formal tea ceremony. The first year you are an observer only, in fact, you can come but not to do anything at all. The next year you can help out a bit…answering questions, collecting tickets, watching the line. The following year you MIGHT be able to help with passing out the dessert plate. It’s quite literally years before you even help with passing out the tea that someone made in the back.

Making tea

However, if you’re naïve and trusting, you just might get conned into making tea. They had a special, small area behind the main tent. It included a small table with the red tablecloth, small decoration and the tea pot/tea and such. Marjon (my ‘friend’) said “oh gee, I wonder what they’re doing here”. Well, we went to look and found a woman making tea under the VERY watchful eye of the master. She did quite well (to my untutored eye) and drank her tea. Lo and behold, when she finished, it turned into “gee, Karen. Why don’t you do it?” Needless to say I got to sit and try to make tea, with everyone looking on and all directions in Japanese. It was fortunate that Tomi-san had shown us how to do a simple ceremony so I could understand a bit of what was said but still…..it was difficult but fun. Turns out Marjon had been tempted into the same area last year so as the new person…she thought it should only be my turn!!!

Tsumago again

We took our 2nd hiking trip between Magome and Tsumago over Golden Week. (The historic post towns along the old Nakasendo, that connected Kyoto and old Edo (better known as Tokyo). Most of the buildings in the two towns date from the Edo Period (like early1600 something to mid 1800 something – obviously you don’t want me on your Trivial Pursuit team). Most of this stuff was in the October 2005 post so if you’re interested, check it out.
Spring is definitely an interesting time to go. First…the place is packed with people…the weather was gorgeous and everyone decided that a trip on the old road was a great activity (probably not a sentiment shared by the daimyo’s of the olden days). In contrast to the fall scenes shot earlier, here are some wonderful spring offerings.

Tsumago - 2nd round!

The picture of the path took a while to get...we had to wait until it was clear of people!!!
The path was originally paved with the stones you see there. I'm not so certain that they really helped the footing. The stones are uneven and difficult to walk on, though I suppose that during the rainy season they might have been nicer than the mud.

Meiji Mura

Meiji Mura is an “open air museum” that takes you on a trip into the past. It includes buildings from the Meiji period (1867) through the Showa period (1989). The architecture from these periods is characterized by a strong influence of western ideas and techniques. The fusion of Japanese style with Greek columns, ranch style houses, gothic churches and more led to some very interesting structures.
Probably the most famous building is the entrance and lobby for the Tokyo Imperial Hotel, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and originally completed in 1923. It was created in a Mayan Style that is really interesting. The bricks are all different shapes and while they are art by themselves, they blend together to create a really interesting structure.

Meiji Mura Post Office

The post office is still working. You can sit in the center, write a note and actually mail it there. It’s really an interesting building, the main section is round and it includes a history of postal services around the world. Now...the Japanese was lost on us but the pictures of different boxes were cool. Actually, all of the different buildings had explanations in Japanese, English and Korean so it was easy to learn about each building.

Meiji Mura again

Here are some more of the interesting buildings at Meiji Mura. The first one is the entrance porch to a girls’ religious college. The 2nd picture is that of a ‘foreigners’ home in Kobe. They even had a completely separate building in the back, connected by a covered walk on the 2nd floor, for servants.

Meiji Mura Train

The train at Meiji Mura is a coal powered steam train. It runs on a single track from the top of the hill down to the midpoint of the museum. At either end, the conductors turn the engine around on a “hand powered” turn table. They put on quite a show for the kids…big and little…with lots of steam, many whistles and lots of waves.

Hanami 2

Another picture of hanami (read the article below for more information). The hillsides are just spectacular!

Hanami: Cherry Blossom Viewing

Hanami, or “cherry blossom viewing’ is taken very seriously here. There are websites available that track the blossoming of the famous sakura blossoms, letting you know when you might expect the ultimate viewing experience. The local trades people, not to miss out on an opportunity for a festival, set up their stalls ahead of time so that they’ll be ready for the matsuri (festival) the minute the blossoms come out in force.
The week before is a tease. You can see the promise…the tiny buds, the slight pink shade to the trees, the mountainside taking on a pink hue. A few bold blossoms poke out but the rest are still slumbering. And then…the moment arrives. ALL of the blossoms seem to unveil simultaneously. We went to work in the morning, noting the pink, the handful of blooms peeking out and the brave trees in full bloom but nothing spectacular. On our way home, the same day mind you,....oh my gosh it was like a switch had been turned on and EVERY tree had bloomed that very afternoon. Gorgeous!!!
Needless to say, the vendors went into high gear, the blue tarps were laid out under the trees, the sake (or beer) was purchased and people began VIEWING with a passion. We went to Tsuramai park on Saturday, a horribly windy day with a strange sun (thanks to pollution from China cascading into the region). It was cold, it was threatening to rain, it was gritty, but the people were everywhere. Some people had placed their blue tarp out with a note giving the group name and what time they’d be arriving AND, lo and behold, people respect that and the tarp will be waiting for you when you arrive after work (only in Japan….).

Asuke Revisited

We took off to Asuke on what promised to be a beautiful, sunny, warm day. Once again the promise of sakura was in the air. The drive was fabulous because the mountains were just barely tinged with a hint of pink. Asuke itself was in ready for action. The entire entrance was filled with vendors, all trying to sell you various handmade crafts, some exquisite and others that were…well…interesting.
Even though we have been there a number of times, we still discovered new things. They have a wonderful restaurant in the back of the traditional village – and it’s all Tofu!!! I was thrilled. It was truly delightful. We tried out a number of different things on the menu and were delighted with all of them.

Visiting Japan

This has been quite a week, taking Mom around to all of our favorite places here in Japan. We began with a trip to Nagoya Castle where the Sakura blossoms are attempting to bloom. The entire country is on edge just waiting for the day to come. Every place is set up, waiting for the blooms and all of the crowds that will follow.
Nagoya Castle was quiet still…a few blossoms to ooh and ah about but the promise is there. This particular weekend they had a number of programs already in place. Numerous groups were playing for the, admittedly, small crowds. We did get to see a ninja presentation that was very entertaining, even though it was all done in Japanese. They were quite good and very funny.

Izu Coastline

The trip home was plagued with rain but the advantage was it kept the tourists home. We had a delightful trip following the coastline and viewing some of the spectacular scenery.

Izu Peninsula

Jeff decided that Gabby, our navie system, needed an outing so we took off for a long weekend on the Izu Peninsula. It’s one of the hot spots to travel to here in Japan and particularly popular with the folks in Tokyo because it is so close. We learned, through a prolonged, attempted, sightseeing excursion one afternoon, that the eastern side of the peninsula is actually one large parking lot. Fortunately, there is an inland route to get to the tip and we used it on the way down. There is even a spiral bridge on the road…we made 2 complete revolutions coming down the bridge…just like in a parking lot but free-standing in the middle of nowhere!!!
Except for our rather dull crawl up the coast (we gave up after 2 hours-took us a while to figure out it was pointless), we spent most of our time in Shimoda.
History alert!!! This city/port is the location where the American Black Ship, (Kurofune in Japanese), entered in the 19th century. Prior to this there was a national isolation policy which had preserved Japanese heritage by making any exchange with foreign countries illegal. Whew! end of lesson.
The port and the surrounding areas are gorgeous. We spent most of the morning hiking between Shimoda lighthouse, Tsumekizaki and Sazaki, a neighboring fishing village with its own, smaller lighthouse. It was our only sunny day and the view and scenery was spectacular.
Later, we took the ropeway up to the top of the hill that overlooks the port where the Black Ship entered. They have a lot of information about that first contact. It’s interesting…we’ve been told that school books here portray Perry with a slightly wild look to him….

Home delivery

We came upon this truck, unloading large machinery, on our way out of our ryokan. The road is quite wide at this point, but he's using the whole thing. We had never seen a truck up in the air like this. The man was very quick as he switched two machines, bowing to us as he raced from one to the other. When he finally brought the truck back down to a more normal setting he bowed once more and then quickly moved the truck.

Those wide streets

Here's a picture of our car coming up a two-way street! (it's actually the road to the ryokan as well as a number of homes) Obviously, you’ve got to wait your turn. THEY race up and down it…we crawled. To top it off, it’s roughly a 110 degree turn into this road.