日本郵便 2013
10/2
We are back in Tokyo, one of our favorite cities in the world! In the
Edo period the Emperor decreed that
all
points in Japan be measured from Tokyo's Nihonbashi, the Bridge of Japan.
Here, L is a meter from zero. When we lived here last (2008), our apartment was
6 blocks away; this time we're 5 blocks away. We're converging to zero.
日本郵便 2013
10/3
This is Kubota Sake filling a glass and the masu (box) it's standing in. It really messes
with the optics! Masu
have been used in Japan for over 1300 years as units of measure,
as when rice was currency. (Volumes were standardized only 500
years ago, finally thwarting swindlers.) When used for sake, the glass is filled to the brim,
spilling into the masu. Often sake is drunk directly from masu made of raw mountain cypress, which
imparts a freshness. And it avoids dirtying a glass! Kampai!
日本郵便 2013
10/4
Tokyo Station -- known to all as "JR" -- dominates central
Tokyo, as rail travel dominates Japan. The station has been
primped
up for its 100th birthday next year.
The Shinkansens (bullet trains) -- providing frequent high speed
travel all over the country -- are being upgraded with the addition of
green
Hayabusa ("Falcon"). Hayabusa comes with "cabin attendants" and goes 300 kph. The future is
L-Zero, the magnetic levitation train, demo-ed this year at 500 kph. Japan's new domestic air travel.
日本郵便 2013
10/5
Shibuya is a district of Tokyo that is
legendary
for a six-way intersection in front of its subway/train station, for Tokyu Hands, and now also for Taro Okamoto's massive
mural Myth of Tomorrow. Often compared to PIcasso's Guernica for its scale and commentary,
the Surrealist work shows the effects of an atomic bomb explosion. It was painted for a luxury hotel in
Mexico City in the late 1960s, but was lost for 30 years when that project when south.
日本郵便 2013
10/8
Tokyo's Tsukiji is to fish markets what Everest is to mountains: the most awesome. Besides
cuttlefish, sellers
handle
most
aquatic
animals. The alpha fish is tuna, huge fish
flash frozen at
sea. Quartered on a
bandsaw and the spinal column removed by
a hatchet, it is
lovingly cut
for sale. Visitors -- a nuisance for the workers -- must dodge the
trucks, like these carrying tuna heads.
It's all over before 10:00 AM.
日本郵便 2013
10/11
One of our four favorite bars in the world is Tokyo's Ichi Ichi. It is near the Nihonbashi,
the bridge of Japan (see above). Ichi Ichi has
a great happy hour with loads of yummy bar snacks: glow-in-the-dark squid guts,
firefly squid,
tuna guts and Japanese leek with vinegar and
miso, and french fries with tuna gut butter. OK, so maybe something gets lost
in the translation, but they are incredibly tasty foods. Oishi!
日本郵便 2013
10/16
Among Kyoto's spectacular temples, Nanzen-ji is simply the best. Visitors
arrive at an imposing "two story" gate that, according to poets, presents
the best view of Kyoto. Behind the gate
Nanzen-ji is more refined.
Built in the 13th century as Emperor Kameyama's retirement villa,
today Nanzen-ji is the headquarters of the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism. Gardens fill every view. There is a Zen
garden, a "field" of gorgeous
rocks, and
gardens disappearing into the distance.
日本郵便 2013
10/17
Perhaps the best part of Nanzen-ji temple is the Tenju-in temple located within its grounds.
From Nanzen-ji's gate one is
drawn to Tenju-in's raked gravel
and island pine entry.
It is an elegant garden with a small bamboo forest, a
plank bridge, and a stunning
stream.
Next to a supine tree, there is a natural
basin that is filled at a drip from a moss covered log.
Every detail seems perfect.
It's tranquil in a spectacular sort of way.
日本郵便 2013
10/18
One joy of Japan is a beautiful Kaiseki meal with good friends. In a lovely room
looking onto a small garden we joined Chikako
and Kamon, Mizuho and Naoto, and our traveling companions
Melissa and Brendan. Lunch began with
sake, then featured
lotus root with egg yolk,
sashimi,
chicken and aubergine,
nut encrusted salmon and pumpkin tempura,
daikon salad, finishing with
rice and pickles. Dessert was
ice cream and apple custard.
Each delicious artwork in it's own perfect dish.
日本郵便 2013
10/19
More ubiquitous than
UPS,
faster than
FedEx,
Japan's Yamato
delivery service is a tourist's dream. They ship everything, but best
of all they ship your luggage.
Traveling around the world with way more stuff than two people can handle?
Yamato was
there. Leaving Tokyo for Kyoto but too lazy to schlepp your
roll-aboard aboard the Shinkansen? The
nice lady
at the hotel will see that it gets to your next hotel before you do.
Not staying at her hotel? She'll do it anyway!
日本郵便 2013
10/20
Located on a small mountain south of Kyoto, Fushimi Inari looks superficially
like any successful Shinto Shrine.
It's a shrine to Inari, however, patron of merchants and manufacturers.
It seems every Japanese company donates a torii, so they stretch
on and
on through the woods.
They continue to add more.
And another curiosity -- shops along the approach to the Shrine have, since the 19th century,
sold a cookie from which our familiar Fortune Cookie comes!
日本郵便 2013
10/21
In Nara in the world's largest wooden
building sits the
largest bronze statue of
Buddha Vairocana,
or Daibutsu. Completed in 751 in response to Emperor Shōmu's edict
for citizens to build temples (after a run of epidemics and disasters), it took
the help of 2.6M Japanese, and used most of the nation's
copper. To convey scale, a
hole the size of Buddha's
nostril (30cm) is cut in one pillar. Kids love to
squirm through it. A thousand
Sika deer (Cervus nippon) wander the temple grounds befriending
tourists.
日本郵便 2013
10/22
What is it about Japan that makes it unlike anywhere else in the world?
Our list begins with these ...
ancient art,
contemporary art,
tea cakes, and
yakitori eggs,
Akihibara,
Tsukiji Market,
tea for waiting Takashimaya customers
pines,
architecture,
many steps,
and
sleeping while commuting.
Sayonara, Japan.
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