June 26, 2016 Tokyo

June 26, 2016- Tokyo

Our first stop was the Tokyo-Edo museum. It is an amazing museum that had some prehistoric finds from the area, but mostly covered the Edo period from about the 1600 until the present. Tokyo used to be called Edo and the Tokugawa Shogunate moved the government to Edo in the 1600's. Prior to this time, Edo was a small fishing village, but once the shogun moved in, it became a bustling town. The daimyo, feudal lords, had to travel to Edo every other year to pay tribute to the shogun. Also the families of the daimyo were expected to live in Edo, basically being held hostage by the shogun. This was how the shogun kept control of the daimyo. Also, since the daimyo were expected to travel to Edo every other year, they put out a huge expense to make this trip. This was another way the shogun kept control. Another interesting thing is that since the daimyo's family lived in Edo, the heir to the Daimyo never really formed bonds with the people in their feudal domain. They had more of a connect to Edo and the exciting lives there.  This also was another form of control.

Pot from Jomon period in Japan (14,000-300 BCE)

Large Scale Model of Edo period house

Small model of bridge into Edo

Me lifting a set of waste buckets. They were heavy

Edo bookseller

Cute kids we met

The museum traced, in great detail, the evolution of Edo. Lots of small dioramas of what life would be like in Edo during the Tokugawa Shogunate and also after the Meji restoration when then emperor came back to power.

Our next stop was the Asakausa Kannon temple. Another Buddhist Temple in the middle of Tokyo. It was a sea of people and outside there was a huge shopping street, Nakamise Shopping Street, where you could get any Japanese souvenir you wanted. They are famous for their giant rice crackers, so I had to try them of course. We headed off to lunch at a local tempura restaurant. Then drove around Tokyo to do some sightseeing. Finally, we attended two lectures, 1st about the economy in Japan and the 2nd one was about the evolution of manga in Japan and the US.

Asakausa Kannon Temple

Back to the hotel and then we went out to an amazing sushi dinner. I've never tasted such good sushi and it was pretty cheap too. I'm a fatty tuna convert. Back to the hotel because we had to leave our hotel at 7:15am the next morning for our trip to Sendai on the bullet train.

June 25, 2016 Nara, Kyoto, Tokyo

June 25, 2015- Nara, Kyoto, Tokyo

We started the morning with breakfast and no coffee. Luckily I had my Via's with me. they only had tea at the Ryoken. After breakfast we visited a large temple complex in Nara called Kohfukuji Temple complex. There is a large 5 story pagoda at this temple complex, but much of it is under construction. The temple complex dates from 669 AD. It was relocated to it's present location in 710 AD. There is a beautiful museum that houses beautiful artifacts from the temple complex. It was built to deepen the viewers appreciation of Buddhism. At the temple complex there was a small memorial to children who have died. We watched a Japanese man worship there. They workshop there by dowsing the stature with water which is a symbol of purification. It was quite moving.

Shrine to children

From there we explored the streets of Nara a little bit. It's a small town and felt like an authentic Japanese town. We visited a historical merchant's house. It was interesting to see how real people would have lived 100 years ago.

Small Shinto shrine on the street

Typical Japanese house

Model merchant's house from 100 years ago

Lots of beautiful man hole covers in Nara.

Time to head back to Kyoto where we caught a bullet train to Tokyo. It took about 2 hours to travel to Tokyo from Kyoto. It was interesting to see the rice fields and the changing topography. We even got to see Mt. Fuji on the way.

Our hotel, the Royal Park Hotel Shiodome, had an amazing view of the city of Tokyo. Off to dinner at Dan, a local Kushiage dinner. It was a small restaurant that was closed for our dinner. Dinner consisted of many small plates of food fried in a breaking. It was pretty good, but definitely not the best dinner I've had so far. From there we scouted out a place for a nightcap. Everything is so small in Tokyo and many of the places were closed for private parties. We were finally successful with the help of our Japan profession, Elissa. The place we ended up had about 6 seats at the bar and 2 small tables. It was cozy, but interesting. The Japanese don't have much space to work with because of the topography of the area. They make the best of this by having restaurants and bars on all floors, sometimes 5 or more floors, of a building.

View of rice fields from the train

The Japanese people are also very polite and orderly. This is in sharp contrast to the Chinese. Getting on the trains in Japan is done in lines and you don't push. In China it was a free for all and if you don't push, you don't get on the train.  Lots of bowing is done in Japan as well. Another interesting thing I learned about Japan is that once a woman has a child, she no longer works. There is very little childcare in Japan and it's looked down upon for women to work. As a result, the productivity in Japan is going down and the economy hasn't picked back up after the downturn in the 1990's and 2000's. The birth rate in Japan is also very low. 1.3 children per family, so Japan will face a crisis in the near future as the work force ages and there aren't enough young people to replace the workers.

June 24, 2016 Kyoto and Nara

June 24, 2016- Kyoto and Nara

1st stop Byodin Temple in Kyoto. It was built in 1052. It is a Buddhist Temple that has was built by the regent Fujiwara no Yorimichi. The main attraction is Phoenix Hall. We weren't able to go into the hall, but there is a museum that has many of the statues including 26 statues of Worshipping Bodhisattvas that were originally in the hall. Lots of school children were visiting this temple today. They were very cute.

We took a bus outside of Kyoto to Obakusan Mampukuj Temple. It's the head temple in Japan of the Obakusan sect of Zen Buddhism. It is also the teaching monastery for the sect's student monks. It was built in 1592 and is in the style of the Ming dynasty temples. It has 23 main buildings. This was a less touristy temple. We walked through a neighborhood to get to the temple and there were some other small small temples along the way. Then we were off on the bus to Nara.

In Nara we visited one temple complex, the Todai-Ji Temple. We had been warned that there were a lot of deer in Nara. Boy, what a lot of deer. Apparently deer are sacred in Nara. They have close to 2000 deer roaming the streets. They are actually quite aggressive since there are people selling food to feed them. One of them actually tore off one of my travel companion's rain poncho. Lots of deer poop too. Combined with the torrential downpour, the deer poop was pretty gross.

This temple was built in the Nara period (710-794 AD) This temple was built to house a Vairocana Buddha (Buddha that shines throughout the world like the sun). This temple was built to reflect the importance of this Buddha. Most temples in Japan have been burned over the years. The Great Buddha (it was a very big Buddha) was burned in 1180 and again in 1567. The Great Buddha Hall was rebuilt during the Edo period. It was quite crowded and rained very hard. It rained so hard that there were rivers of water cascading off the roof. The rain stopped after a while and we headed to our hotel.

One of the guardians of the Buddha

We also visited Kasuga Shrine. It's a Shinto shrine first built in 768 AD for the Fujiwara family. It is famous for it's many stone lanterns leading up to the shrine. 

Our hotel was a traditional Japanese Ryoken. Of course we couldn't wear shoes in our rooms and we were supposed to wear traditional Japanese robes, yukatas. There was a nice bath there that we enjoyed as well. We were served a traditional dinner that was beautiful and delicious. We did find a little bar in Nara to check out after dinner. Everything is very small in Japan. The bar probably held 15 people and of course everyone smokes. Back to the hotel for a challenging sleep on a futon with a lot a buckwheat pillow. I was able to stack two more futons and a few quilts on top to soften it. Sleep was fleeting.

My new friend Anne

Our futon beds

Bathroom slippers

Kyoto June 23, 2016

Kyoto June 23, 2016

Another amazing day. By the way, the rooms in Japan are tiny. They don't have much space to work with in this country, so everything is very small, roads, cars, houses. But they have amazing toilets.

Directions on how to use the toilet

First we visited Ryoanji Rock Garden. It's a Buddhist Zen garden. I say garden loosely. It was a Zen training temple and a summer house for the shogun. It was so peaceful.

If you have reached enlightenment, you should be able to see all 15 rocks sitting in the same location. I couldn't see them all.

Ryoanji Rock Garden

Next stop was Nijo Castle. This is the 1st official home of the 1st Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. It was started in 1603 and finished in 1626. It is an amazing example of the early Edo period architecture. It was quite grand with many reception areas for ministers, daimyo, and family. There were the original nightingale floors. These alert the inhabitants to intruders with a squeaking sound that supposedly sounds like birds. 

Entrance to Nijo Castle

Underneath of nightingale floors that squeak to alert people to intruders.

The moat around the castle.

Lunch of course was beautiful as all food seems to be in Japan. Bento boxes for everyone. 

We did a little shopping at the Kyoto Handicraft C`enter and I purchased two wood block prints from the Tokaido road. Next we were off to Kinaku-Ji (Golden Pavillion) Temple. Supposedly the Buddhist hall contains relics of Buddha. It was built around 1397 during the Muromachi period. The garden and buildings were said to represent Pure Land of Buddha in this world. It really was beautiful. 

Some cute school kids.

One thing that has been really fun is how excited some of the Japanese school children have been to see us. It is the end of their school year and they are going on lots of field trip to the local temples and shrines. Some of them are very shy about having their pictures taken, but many of them are happy to be photographed. We have also seen lots of people wearing kimonos. Some are tourists, but many are Japanese people visiting the temples and shrines.

The last stop of the day was the Heinan Shrine. It is a beautiful Shinto shrine. Shinto is Japan's oldest religion. Many shrines are small neighborhood shrines that have a part time priests who has another job as well. Many Japanese observe Shinto as well as Buddhist practices. The Shinto practices mostly  are around purification. Weddings in Shinto shrines are very popular in Japan. Buddhism is about reaching enlightenment. Most Buddhist temples have pagodas that are quite extraordinary. They are usually 3 or 5 stories and there is supposed to be a relic from the Buddha in each one. 

You are supposed to walk through this large circle in a certain pattern as you pray.

Prayers

More prayers

Lots of women dress up in kimonos and take pictures in the gardens around the city. 

A family taking pictures

After dinner, we visited the Gion district of Kyoto. That is across the river and is where the tea houses where the geishas entertained the Japanese men. There were also boarding houses where the geisha lived and trained. The training would take up to 5 years and was paid for by the boarding house owner. If a geisha decided to leave the trade, her parents would have to pay the boarding house owner back. Geisha were well trained in the singing, dancing, poetry, etc. There are still active tea houses today and we saw a true geisha as well as a geisha in training. Our guide Junko showed us how to determine whether the building were tea houses and boarding houses. 

Tea House

 2

Geisha boarding house

Directions on what to do and not to do.

Geiko walking to a tea house