Seven Irreverent Observations of a Zen Traveler - Rich Gray

THESE OBSERVATIONS WERE SHARED WITH THE THIRTY-TWO RAKAN AT OUR FAREWELL DINNER:

Ichi. Buddhas are everywhere. But even in ranks of 10,000, each is individual. Buddhas are sometimes in disguise - Der Bode might even be wearing your clothes.

Ni. Time is eternal. A 20-minute slog in the light rain can be forever.

San. Space is relative. All compass points have equal value. Left and right are only abstractions.

Shi. Nature is wonderful. Earthquakes can uncover strata of unusual design; and glowing flows of lava can be “cool.”

Go. The primordial material of the universe is tofu. Odorless, colorless and absolutely tasteless, tofu can appear in many forms – from totally ungraspable in a lacquered bowl to completely impermeable in a hotel pillow.

Roku. “All the world’s a stage.” The essence of Zen theater is enlightenment – nothingness: noh actors, noh music, noh drama. Even the little stone figures that border the noh stage had no names until travelers in stocking feet kept stumbling over them and calling out “JIZO!” Hazardous ones are now marked with red cloth.

Shichi. Whether the traveler’s destination is enlightenment, Belmont, Cincinnati, Naperville, Goslar, Pittsburgh or the environs of Greater Cleveland, it’s the journey that counts, the leader who makes it worthwhile, and the traveling companions who make it an experience of a lifetime.

The RAKAN Ace Their "Final Exam"

When the Friends of Lee first got together to begin our preparations for this trip to Japan, Lee put forth the proposition that, by the time of our arrival in Tokyo, all would be prepared, ready and able to strike out on our own, taking in the sights of the city that most intrigued us individually or as a couple.

Friday came the test -- and everyone did, indeed, manage just fine, despite the showery weather encountered throughout the day.

Three of the guys made their way very early in the day to one of the ubiquitous golf driving ranges; several tramped through the Tsukiji fish market well before breakfast. Over the course of the day, quite a few took in either the permanent collection or the special exhibition, "The Legacy of the Tokugawa", at the Tokyo National Museum.

Late in the afternoon eight of us watched raptly from the single act nose-bleed balcony at the Kabukiza as Tomasaburo (kabuki's leading male actor specializing in female roles) mesmerized the capacity audience with his superb dancing skills.

Others shopped at Shinjuku's Takashimaya Times Square department store, lunched in the elegant Wako department store's tearoom, visited the Nikkei Stock Exchange, wandered through Venus Fort and the world's largest Toyota showroom out on Odaiba (an artificial island in Tokyo Bay), marveled at an ikebana flower arrangement exhibition, salivated over the newest products on display at the Sony headquarters showroom on the Ginza, shopped for grandkids at Mitsukoshi and were awestruck by the forest of skyscrapers crowding the Shiodome area skyline.

Having by this time mastered the Tokyo public transportation network, many even wanted another day to engage in even more exploration of this magnificent city!

We gathered for our Farewell Dinner at Seryna, one of Tokyo's premier restaurants, in Roppongi. Besides enjoying an excellent shabu-shabu meal and sharing tales of our Tokyo explorations, we were regaled as the evening progressed by tribute poems and songs and speeches marking the occasion. No doubt about it, this group has bonded!

Twenty-one of us head off to the airport Saturday at noon. Sixteen of us fly together to Detroit with connections to Cleveland. Others will return to Germany, stay on in Tokyo for a few days, travel to Hawaii or on to Hong Kong and the Philippines.

We all will carry with us great memories of experiences shared with one another over the past two weeks and images of a culture so very different from our own, yet representative as well of a shared humanity.

Bye-bye, Japan. (No one says "Sayonara" anymore.) We'll miss you and think of you often, particularly as we sort through the hundreds and hundreds of digital pictures we have captured on our ever-ready cameras and the blizzard of brochures, entrance tickets and explanatory maps we have amassed along the way!

One Last Shrine and One Big Buddha

Our final day of touring together as a group focused on Kamakura, a small city about ninety minutes to the south and east of Tokyo. We were joined there by lots and lots of other tourists, small groups of elementary school children on field trips and families bringing their three, five and seven year old children for a blessing at one of the numerous local shrines.

Japan's first independent military government was established here after the 1185 success of the Minamoto in battle against their arch rivals, the Taira. The Minamoto (also known as the Genji) then became Japan's first shogun, ruling the country in the name of the emperor, until disposed by another military-aristocratic family, the Ashikaga, in 1477.

During the era of their ascendancy, the Minamoto presided over a resurgence in Japanese interest in Buddhism and in "things Chinese" in general. We saw evidence of this influence in the images displayed in a Special Exhibition we visited at the Kamakura National Museum, featuring the Ten Judges of Hell, dressed in Chinese style, dispensing judgment on the human souls coming before them.

These visions of "heaven" and "hell" reflect a growth in forms of popular Buddhism imported directly from China during this period as it spread through the larger population for the first time. Zen also comes to Japan from China during this period, exerting a particular influence on the warrior class.

The era also saw an unprecedented intermixing between Shinto and Buddhism -- the two religious traditions became increasingly indistinguishable. The architecture at Hachimangu, a Shinto shrine we toured, showed results of this mingling in the curved Chinese-style entrance roof and the colorful embellishments decorating structures throughout the complex.

After a delicious tempura lunch at the Kamakura Park Hotel along the nearby Pacific coast, we joined the masses gazing up at the serene iconic outdoor statue of the Amida Buddha known as the Daibutsu, the Great Buddha, for many of us a fitting conclusion to our travels together.

Back in Tokyo that evening, a large group of us spent the evening exploring "the new Tokyo", going by subway to the Tokyo Midtown - Roppongi Hills area with a side trip to view the nearby, brand new, spectacular National Art Center.

Back in Touch with Lots to Say

As befits any onsen ("hot springs resort") worth its thermal and therapeutic waters, Teisenen's Japanese style rooms at our stop in Hakone did not come equipped with telephones, let alone high speed Internet access. Consequently there has been a gap of a day or two in these blog entries while we have been enjoying our mountain retreat in the Fuji-Five Lakes area around Hakone in the Japan Alps.

Following our delightful afternoon and evening in Kurashiki on Monday, we moved on Tuesday morning to Okayama for a brief tour of Korakuen, one of Japan's three most highly-regarded gardens, before boarding a Shinkansen "Bullet Train" for Odawara.

Four hours later we were headed by bus for a late-afternoon visit to the Hakone Open Air Musuem with its extensive and very impressive collection of sculptures beautifully displayed in a glorious mountainside setting.

A TRIO OF HENRY MOORE SCULPTURES

Our overnight accommodations were in the resort town of Yumoto known for its extensive array of hot springs.

We ate dinner together, all appropriately dressed in yukata summer kimono, and feasted our way through a multi-dishrepast the components of which most of us would be hard-pressed to describe adequately -- but we ate it anyway!

Later in the evening and again Wednesday morning, a good many of us found our ways down the resort's endless corridors to the two outdoor public baths. The one reserved for Gentlemen in the evening and Ladies for the morning won universal approval as the most enjoyable , mainly because the water temperature was the most agreeable.

The first part of the day yesterday (Wednesday) was spent cruising Lake Ashi and taking in distant views of Mount Fuji (visible from the train the day before as well) from the summit of Kamiyama.

We had taken the "rope way" cable car from the shores of the lake up the mountain for the view; but, adjacent to a Shinto shrine at the top, we found ourselves witnesses to an impressive annual religious thanksgiving ceremony hosted by local Hakone officials. Also in the audience were a group of kamso Zen "mountain priests" dressed in pilgrim guard and wearing woven straw baskets over their heads!

One couldn't plan this kind of experience in a million years!

Masae-san arranged for us to share an Italian buffet lunch at a lake-side restaurant (great food and a wonderful contemporary setting) before setting off by bus for Tokyo.

Prior to heading to our hotel, we took in Sensoji, THE mandated sight-to-see in the city, located in the Asakusa area of the city, where, once again, they must have known we were coming -- a troop of Kodo "heartbeat drummers" were entertaining the crowds as we arrived!

... never in a million years ...

An Afternoon in Kurashiki

Kurashiki on a Monday turns out to be an ideal time to spend an afternoon visiting, mainly because, since a number of the small museums in town are closed, fewer busloads of tourists arrive on Monday than on any other das of the week.

Consequently we had the place pretty much to ourselves. Even better, both the Ohara Museum of Art and the Traditional Japanese Toy Museum were opened; they are the two best in town, so we didn’t really miss much, Plus we all had plenty of additional time to shop!

Lee’s “find of the day”, indeed his find of the entire trip, turned up at the gift shop attached to the toy museum. Here he stumbled upon a small two fold screen depicting (Are you ready for this?) thirty-two RAKAN! Actually there are more like thirty-seven figures pictured, but who’s counting?

Here we are, then: our new blog logo!

A Day of Contrast: Miyajima and Hiroshima

Our bright, sunny, cool Sunday weather made up for that storm-tossed Thursday past and proved a pleasant background to a busy, enjoyable, yet sobering day.

As our morning began, we traveled by trolley from our hotel in Hiroshima down to Miyajima-guchi, forty-five minutes or so away, where we boarded a ferry for the short ten minute cruise out to Miyajima ("Shrine Island").

Imagine our surprise when we arrived to find a large screen monitor in the terminal lobby broadcasting the sixth series game between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Redsocks, Unfortunately the Indians were already behind, so we didn't linger long but instead headed off to visit Itsukushima, the Shinto shrine that is the island's claim to fame.

The shrine's great orange torii gateway, which at high tide appears to float in the Seto Inland Sea, today was instead left high and dry by the receding waters; the colorful structure nonetheless still presented a memorable sight to the hundreds of Sunday visitors surrounding us flocking to see it on this picture perfect day.

At the shrine itself we happened upon a wedding just beginning and were able not only to witness the entire ceremony but also to watch a richly-robed and masked ritual dancer perform afterwards for the newlyweds, their family guests and the resident shrine deities!



Thirty or forty minutes later, as we left the shrine complex, we encountered a street performer and his trained monkey entertaining the Sunday crowds. What a treat!

Thereafter a short uphill climb brought many of us to Daishoin, a Buddhist temple with as eclectic a collection of ritual objects and religious artifacts as one could hope to imagine, including a Tibetan Buddihst altar and image dedicated by the Dalai Lama, a full set of 500 Rakan and a cave with a ceiling covered with perpetually burning small bronze lanterns!

EXITING THE TEMPLE WE COULD TWIRL TIBETAN PRAYER WHEELS AS WE DESCENDED

Returning to the mainland and to Hiroshima for the afternoon, we spent much of the remainder of the day working our way through the exhibits at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and listening to the sobering memories of August 6, 1945, recounted for us by an hibakusha (A-bomb survivor) who met privately with us for an hour or so at the end of our museum visit.

Afterwards we stopped at the Victims' Memorial Arch and the Children's Peace Monument. At the latter each of us approached and rang a bell, offering our own individual prayers for peace and pledging our efforts to work towards achieving it.

We left behind as well the folded paper cranes we had made the day before in our hotel lobby under Masae-san's tutelage. None of us, I suspect, will soon forget the feelings welling up during these memorable moments, even long after this tour is over and done with.

The day ended with all of us trooping off to Okonomiyaki Mura, a seven-floor emporium in the center of the city, much of it dedicated to okonomiyaki, a one-dish meal of great complexity which every visitor to Hiroshima worth his or her salt (soy sauce?) must, without doubt, sample at least once.

A thin crepe about eight inches across is topped with julienned cabbage, bean sprouts, seaweed, bacon and a fried egg. The entire crepe is then flipped and, after cooking on the grill, placed atop a bed of soba buckwheat noodles, sprinkled with spices and served with a flavorful dark brown miso sauce. Delicious with a cold beer, some sake rice wine or even a glass of orange juice.

Those of us still functioning after dinner, went off to a karaoke box while the rest returned by trolley to our hotel and (hopefully) a satisfying good night's sleep ...

Nara and Kyoto Highlights Album

We arrived here in Hiroshima yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. Our hotel, the Hiroshima Granvia, has high speed Internet access available in each room; so Lee has taken the opportunity to upload a set of twenty-two photographs to a Picasa web album and embedded the result here -- ain't technology wonderful?

Just remember that Lee already has literally thousands of photos of both Nara and Kyoto, the subject of these pictures, and as a result has become much more selective in what he chooses to photograph!

For a captioned review, click on the words "web album" above to be taken directly to the Picasa web site.

What Friends Are For

What do you do when a friend cuts a sushi morsel in two in order to share it with another friend? How do you manage to obtain a restaurant reservation for nineteen at the very last minute, rather than several hours ahead at the very least, when that many folk decide to help celebrate your wife’s birthday with you? What is one supposed to do when a member of your group of friends falls and badly slices open her leg below the knee? How do you get through a day of largely outdoor sightseeing in the pouring rain?

I’ll let you know the secret – it’s because they ARE your friends that survival is even remotely possible. Believe me!

MISTY MORNING RAIN IN OHARA ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF OHARA

The day began promisingly enough. The morning drizzle darkened Japan’s muted color palate and brought out an unsuspected richness in our natural surroundings. Spirits were high as we bordered our tour bus, umbrellas and rain gear at the ready.

We marked Marvin Nevan’s birthday along with Heidi’s as we got underway and were anxiously awaiting word on the fate of the Cleveland Indians baseball team in their fifth (and, many of us hoped, final) American League Championship game.

By mid-morning the Indians were hopelessly behind, losing by a substantial number of runs. Lynn Markus had fallen on a rain slicked path and opened a serious gash (eventually requiring multiple stitches in two layers to close). And we were soaking wet – the rain had become a serious downpour.

What a team of good sports, however. We soldiered on, dining at Daitokuji, a Zen temple, on our second vegetarian lunch in two days focused on multiple variations on tofu. We skipped only one garden on the original schedule and miraculously kept our collective spirits up throughout the entire day.

In the evening we rallied once again, many of us gathering in the lobby, planning to dine together to celebrate Heidi and Marvin’s “big day”. The hotel called ahead to see if we could be accommodated. It turned out we could be, but only if we were willing to sit on the floor.

The number of willing participants in the outing immediately dropped precipitously. We decided to abandon our plans and go our separate ways.

Then the restaurant called back: they found us a room of our own with foot wells to allow us to dangle our feet comfortably. The group reassembled, and off we went.

Lee watched with bemusement as the group poured over the extensive menu, made their choices and set about enjoying them. Fortunately our waitress had spent some considerable time in New Zealand and was able to roll with the punches as we (again, collectively) managed to break every imaginable rule in the etiquette guide to proper dining in Japan!

Well, maybe it wasn’t quite that bad; indeed, it proved yet another in a series of enjoyable evening meals. Lee relaxed a bit eventually, the conversation flowed under the influence of the sparkling wine provided by the Nevans. And on the way back to the hotel, we noticed the weather had broken.

A Photographer’s Note

A typical photographer’s dilemma: trying to decide, in a shot like this, whether to darken the interior more in order to prevent the loss of detail in the garden view or to risk losing even more by making the interior less dark. While the human eye can make the needed adjustment so quickly that we hardly notice the accommodation process involved, the camera can not, having to chose instead, one “view” or the other.

Enter HDR, a means of assuring a “high density rendering” by taking several shots of the same scene in rapid succession (over exposed, normal exposure, under exposed), thus preserving all the detail present in both the darkened interior and the bright exterior view. Computer software combines the resulting set of images into a single composite. (I use a program called Photomax Pro.)

Unfortunately neither the average computer screen nor printer can show the resulting image so as to render the resulting combination in all its glory. The computer software, however, comes to the rescue again with a formula that puts the detail where it belongs while compressing the overall result to something a computer screen can “see” and a printer can transfer appropriately to a paper print out.

It all sounds more complicated than it is, but, as the photo pair below indicates (the top a single shot; the bottom, an HDR composite), in many complex situations combining areas of shadow with bright sun, the results are worth the effort involved.

From RAKAN to JIZO to PAPARAZZI

Two sights to behold – or at least to contemplate in one’s mind’s eye: thirty-two perfectly sober adults, each attired in a big white bib, chopsticks in hand, busily consuming a divine steak dinner at a very refined Japanese restaurant; then, again, the next day after lunch, eighteen attractive women grouped on an elegant stairway while fifteen bedazzled men snap away with digital cameras amidst a frenzy of flashbulb flashes.

What has come over the Thirty-Two RAKAN in Japan?

And what’s the meaning behind the blog entry title above?

Here’s the explanation.

Our tour Welcome Dinner took place Tuesday evening, our first in Kyoto. As befits the occasion, we all dressed up (even the Bodes, whose luggage failed to arrive until the following evening, turned up appropriately attired).

Off we went to our appointed rendezvous, a scant hundred yards distant in an elegant traditional style building along the bank of the Kamogawa at the edge of the Hotel Fujita property.

Then came our first “cultural adjustment”: to enter, as is the custom, we had to remove our shoes, heels and polished loafers alike.

We padded along endless corridors, past illuminated garden masterpieces, to our banquet room where we encounter our second cultural surprise – we would be seated on the tatami-matted floor for the evening!

Fortunately for all, the floor in front of the long counter at which we were to be seated had been cut away so that we had someplace convenient in which to dangle our feet. It was a bit difficult, however, to maintain the appropriate dignity as we all scrambled down to floor level and maneuvered to sit correctly on the provided cushions.

The staff of chefs and kimono-clad waitresses on hand then went immediately into action, tying those huge bibs around everyone’s neck and shoulders, the better to protect our clothing from splattered sauces.

Then we noticed that, although forks and knives were available at each setting, we were really being expected to use chopsticks for the meal ahead, yet another “cultural adjustment”.

In reality, of course, none of this was much of a surprise. We’ve all eaten “Japanese style” before. But it did make for an amusing scene -- and reminded Lee of rows of small Buddhist statues often encountered along roadways in Japan.

These Jizo are there to protect children and travelers, keeping their defenseless souls safe from harm. Many wear bright red bibs; and, although ours were white, the scene – in Lee’s mind, anyway – transformed the Thirty Two RAKAN instantly into Thirty Two JIZO.

Wednesday after lunch, while waiting to board our tour bus, we gathered the women for a group portrait on a stairway bedecked with beautiful flower arrangements, only to have the women laughing in glee at the flashing cameras of the gentlemen below. Hadn’t anyone realized that a single digital image could be shared easily enough by email with everyone present? But the PAPARAZZI just wouldn’t go away – until the ladies turned the tables and began snapping their own pictures!

So there you have it – from RAKAN to JIZO to PAPARAZZI all in less than a day.

Are we having fun or what?

Outlining a Typical Day of Touring

ON THE ROAD WITH THE THIRTY-TWO (AND THEIR EARPHONE GUIDES)

Our first day on tour we concentrated on gaining some basic understanding of the role of religion in Japanese society, culture and the fine arts, focusing on representative examples of both Buddhism (imported originally from China) and Shinto (the empire’s indigenous religious tradition) as found within the small city of Nara, Japan’s first permanent capital (764 – 784).

We began at Todaiji, the largest wooden building on earth, designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Built initially in the eighth century, this Buddhist temple illustrates, in both its architecture and imagery, numerous characteristics and concepts associated with the practice of Buddhism in Japan. We walked to and from the temple complex through the famous local Deer Park; no one, however, stopped to feed the small Chinese deer we encountered everywhere we turned ...

Next we visited Kasuga Jinja, a Shinto shrine dedicated to the divine ancestors of the aristocratic Fujiwara family, the second most important lineage in Japan after the Imperial line itself.

KASUGA JINJA SHRINE LANTERNS

Particularly noteworthy throughout this religious complex were the numerous stone and bronze lanterns dedicated to the shrine by grateful adherents. We also slipped in to small shrine museum along the way for a brief visit to a special exhibition of Japanese swords.

After a delicious lunch at a restaurant run by the Nara Hotel (one of the oldest Western hotels in Japan, dating back to the nineteenth century), we concluded our exploration of these two religious belief systems with a stop at the Kofukuji Treasure House Museum where we were able to see some of the most important Buddhist sculptures in Japan, many dating back centuries. We also encountered our first pagoda here.

MASAE-SAN EXPLAINS THE ORIGIN AND PURPOSE OF THE BUDDHIST PAGODA

We then journeyed by Limited Express train to Kyoto, about an hour away, where we now are housed for the next four nights at the Hotel Fujita on the banks of the Kamogawa, the river running through the city center from north to south.

Our Welcome Dinner this evening was taken at the hotel’s Steak House, a most elegant and stylishly setting, its subdued atmosphere much appreciated after our very FULL and SATISFYING first day in Japan.

Family Life: Learning to Listen

Enroute to our hotel in Nara, our Japanese guide, Masae-san, chatted with us about, among other topics, baseball fans in Japan and her own family background. In doing so she illustrated characteristics associated with what many consider to be the typical Japanese communication style, including the use of indirection, subtext and layered references. The listener’s responsibility under these circumstances is to put everything together, to take what is said and give it meaning.

In talking about the fanatic behavior of Hanshin Tiger fans – the Tigers are Japan’s equivalent to the New York Yankees and the Osaka area‘s “home team” -- Masae-san spoke about post-victory behavior with “crazy guys” jumping into the Dotombori River flowing through central Osaka from a well-known bridge in the area. She pointed out that the river was “dirty and polluted” and that “only guys” participated.

As we cruised along, out our bus windows we could see brightly neon-lit buildings calling attention to the Pachinko parlors housed therein. Pachinko is a form of vertical pinball that has been around for a century or so, one of the means employed to get around a formal government ban on gambling. Masae-san admitted she had never been inside a Pachinko “entertainment center” in her entire life – too noisy and smoky for her taste – but conceded men found the lure hard to resist.

Later, describing her family life, she mentioned that she and her husband of twenty-eight years had an arranged marriage. An older family friend introduced the idea to her just before she and some female friends left for an extended European vacation; the proposal escaped her attention during the European adventure but was revived upon her return.

She found, upon meeting her prospective mate for the first time, that he seemed like “a nice guy”. Moreover, agreeing to the match made the entire process of finding a husband much easier and less fraught with unpleasant possibilities. She also mentioned that the marriage itself eventually worked out so well because both spouses found within it the ability “to go our own separate ways” without recrimination from the other.

The couple have two children: a son, 27, who edits digital visual materials for a media company (she thinks – he doesn’t tell her that much about what he does) and a daughter, 24, now teaching Japanese language and culture in Ghana as part of a government program like the Peace Corps in the United States. She and her daughter are “great friends.”

Listening to all this, one has to pull together lots of individual strands to gain insight into what is really being said here. Taking into account the editing involved in the above description of excerpts from Masae-san’s monologue enroute to Nara, the attentive listener can gain several interpretative meanings from her comments.

• Men and women here live on different planets.
  
• Male behavior is frequently crazy and uncouth and seldom takes the more refined feelings of women into account.
  
  
• Women is general hold the behavior of the Japanese male in some distain, keeping them at arms length as much as the culture will allow while still fulfilling their “female responsibilities”.
  
  
• Masae-san is willing to share these comments with us because we are, after all, gaijin (“foreigners”, literally “outside persons”) here in Japan for only a brief stay (and only the truly intuitive will “get” what she is able to say to us that she might not be able to say to a Japanese audience).

This can be exhausting work for us “outsiders”, all this working out the “real” meaning behind what is being said. But it’s well worth the effort and will give us lots of insights into the “real Japan”..

They're There !

Well, here we are, ensconced at the Hotel Nikko in Nara after a somewhat shortened flight (thirty minutes early!) from Detroit to Kansai International Airport outside Osaka, Japan, a long but bearable journey. Local time: 9:00 p.m. on Monday, October 15, 2007; time at home: 8:00 a.m. the same day, thirteen hours earlier!

Rosewitha and Ingo Bodde met us at the top of the lobby escalator, having arrived (sans luggage) earlier in the day from Germany; rumor has it that the Coates and Hartts have already checked in as well. Only the Brights, flying in later this evening from Seattle, have yet to join us. [note: They arrived eventually, a little after midnight.]

Our Japanese guide (for the next ten days), who asked us to call her “Masae-san” (using her given name), met us at the airport, made sure our luggage was loaded on the truck to the hotel, then accompanied us on our bus to Nara – regaling us along the route with lots of “chatter” about what we were seeing out the bus window, current issues in Japan and a bit of personal history. Her garrulousness, she explained, is a typical Osaka area trait, especially among middle aged women!

Once Lee figures out how to get online, he’ll upload this “alert” for all those friends and relatives back home seeking assurances of our safe arrival. Our first day of sightseeing comes early tomorrow morning – and with it, undoubtedly, some of our first photographs of our surroundings …

Goodnight and Sweet Dreams ‘til then!

Just a Few More Hours ...

Heidi and Lee are all packed and ready to go -- as, we're certain, are all the others set to join us tomorrow in Detroit (arriving from Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati and Boston mid-morning for our mid-afternoon departure) as we begin our two week journey.

The Hartts and the Coates have already flown on ahead to Osaka and are awaiting our arrival on the other side of the international dateline. The Boddes will be winging their way in from Germany; the Brights, from Seattle.

the gathering of the RAKAN begins ...

Let the good times roll!

And how does one spend the week before embarking on such a much-anticipated excursion? Well, we can't speak for everyone, but Heidi and Lee took off (via the Megabus) last weekend for four days in Chicago where we visited the Lonergans in Oak Park, motored on down to Champaign to surprise Julia on her birthday, then returned to the Windy City to spend a night with Evan and Oliver (while Sarah flew out to Cleveland to be with her parents when her father underwent a -- successful -- heart catheritization proceedure).

Whew!

Not only that but, back in Cleveland, the two managed as well to take in a Thursday performance of Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" at the Great Lakes Theater Festival, a Friday late afternoon showing of "Across the Universe" (truly a wonderful film!), two of the Cleveland Indian' play-off games and "Mostly Martha" (a gem of a German film)!

This may well prove to be a quite relaxing trip in comparison ...

Garden Visits in Kyoto: A Preview

THURSDAY afternoon, OCTOBER 18, 2007, following lunch at Junsei on the temple grounds, we will have the opportunity to visit – on one's own or in small groups – several exquisite gardens in the immediate Nanzen-ji area.

Nanzen-ji (Southern Mountain Temple) is considered one of the most famous and important temples in Japan, the headquarters of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism. The main buildings are surrounded by twelve sub-temples, three of which house gardens open to the public.

The most well known of the gardens in the temple complex, however, lies adjacent to the Shohojo (“Small Abbot’s Quarters”) within the main Nanzen-ji building.

Here’s a description by a first time Western visitor discovering the garden for the first time:

A ZEN GARDEN WITH NO ONE IN IT

It's raining as we pass under the massive wooden gate of Nanzenji, a temple built in the thirteenth century. In mid-October, the tips of the maple leaves have already begun to turn; in another month they will go up in a flame of red. Because of the weather and the lateness of the day there are few tourists, and after changing into a pair of slippers and padding down a dim wooden corridor to the porch overlooking the temple's famous Zen garden, we're surprised to find ourselves alone.

Like most Zen gardens, this one is to be contemplated from the edge, not entered. Designed in 1600 and guided by the principle of yohaku-no-bi, or "the beauty of extra white," the garden consists of mostly empty space: a long rectangle filled with raked white gravel. The exception is an irregularly shaped island of moss at the far end where a number of large stones, rounded azalea bushes, and three trees have been set in an arrangement that seems, the more we stare at it, to possess profound meaning. The largest stone echoes the shape of the mountain behind it in the distance, creating an elegant rhyme. The garden's original name was Toranoko-watashi, "young tigers crossing the water," and if you squint at the stones in a certain way, they do take on the humped forms of animals leaping across the waves.

But what about the precise placement of that tree, what is the meaning behind that? Or the rounded forms of that clump of bushes that seem so significant? Is it possible to break the garden down into its elements, since the enigma lies in their combination? What is accidental, we find ourselves wondering, and what is deliberate? Are we really to believe that the original meaning of the garden, if there was such a thing, has been preserved through four hundred years of weather and pruning, and if not, why are we sitting here, staring speechlessly?

- Nicole Krauss, "Eight Ways of Looking at a Garden",
Traveler magazine (October 2005)

The three other temple gardens within the Nanzen-ji complex open for public viewing are Konchi’in, Tenjuan and Nanzen’in.

The dry garden in front of KONCHI’IN’s main worship hall is thought to have been designed by Kobori Enshu, traditional Japan’s most famous garden designer and architect. Strolling around the sub-temple will bring you to a pond containing an island and across from the pond a small Shinto Shrine. Follow the path around the pond and you will find yourself in facing a large gateway that leads to a path lined with lanterns and ending in a Shinto torii gate.

TENJUAN’s garden consists of a small waterfall, two ponds, a waterfall and a white sand footpath. This sub-temple was founded in the late 14th century in honor of the founder of Nanzen-ji. Much like the other buildings here this temple was leveled in the Onin War (1467 – 1477) and not rebuilt until 1602

NANZEN'IN: On the site of a villa originally built for Emperor Kameyama in 1274, this Nanzenji sub-temple has undergone numerous reconstructions, the most recent being in the Edo period. The garden here is reported to have been created by Muso Soseki (1275-1351), but because the garden has been changed so often if he did indeed design it, few if any of his original ideas can still be seen. The garden's pond contains several small islands, one even in the shape of the Japanese character for heart (shin). The hill that houses the waterfall which feeds the pond also is home to the temple Bell Tower.

Just outside Nanzen-ji lies MURIN’AN, a private residential garden from the late nineteenth century designed to complement the Kyoto home of one of Japan’s most important and influential early modernizers, Yamagata Aritomo.

The site is primarily covered with mowed lawn, but two small streams, clusters of stones and clipped shrubs line the water features that meander across the space. It is one of the finest residential gardens open to the public in Kyoto.

Between 1892 and 1896 Yamagata worked with Ogawa Jihei, the era’s best known garden architect, on this garden and the attached two-story house.

In Murin’an Ogawa created a stroll garden around two pairs of brooks and shallow ponds, all fed by water from a nearby canal. He included in his design as well the entire Higashiyama mountain range looming up behind the garden as shakei or “borrowed scenery”.

The trees [ at the edge of the property] form both the vertical elements and the horizontal trimming line to frame the mountains. Below the gap in the trees, the eye is drawn down a three-tiered cascade from which the water flows over a miniature rapids into the first pond. A second stream flows from the north part of the garden and is spanned by a bridge from which a rock composition at the confluence of the streams can be seen. Other such compositions are interspersed among the clipped shrubs in a way that draws the eye across the intervening lawn space.

… A member of the so-called "literary" tradition and considered a progressive thinker in his time, Yamagata's preferences were toward what was known as the "naturalistic" rather than the more stylized gardens and limited palette of earlier periods. Despite this, the garden is firmly rooted in the Edo stroll garden tradition with Ogawa offering little innovation other than the introduction of some European plant materials and the deployment of patches of lawn around the buildings. The topiaried azalea, the use of shakkei to draw outside elements into the garden, and the revealing and hiding of views as one passes around a prescribed path are the techniques that structure the experience of the garden and would be recognizable to anyone familiar with gardens throughout the last two centuries.

The house overlooking this tranquil garden space, as a product of the Meiji period (1868 – 1912) itself, also represents a blend between classic traditional architectural taste and the Western-influenced modernism influential in Japan at the time.

- adapted and quoted from “Murinan”, www.jgarden.org

Not far from Murin’an lies Heian Shrine, a colorful Shinto shrine which honors three of Japan’s emperors constructed as a model of the capital’s earliest palace in 1895 to mark the 1100 anniversary of the movement of the capital to Kyoto (then known as “Heian”).

Behind the main buildings, surrounding the shrine on three sides, one can stroll through SHIN’EN, one of the largest gardens in the city, another design by Ogawa Jihei (who also designed Murin’an just a few blocks away).

This extensive stroll garden combines traditional elements of Japanese garden design with a balanced design sense imported from the West and, like many gardens in the area, makes extensive use of water from a nearby (and recently constructed – at the time) canal.

• Nishi Shin'en (West Garden): The focus of the Nishi Shin'en is a quiet pond. The irises around the pond bloom in all their glory in early summer, lending the garden an ethereal beauty. A tea ceremony arbor is located in the cluster of trees in the garden's southwest.
  
  
• Minami Shin'en (South Garden): This garden is a Heian-style garden designed for holding a garden party during which aristocrats amused themselves by composing poems. In spring, the garden is bright with the deep pink blossoms of drooping cherry trees. The cherry blossoms are followed by azaleas in early summer and by hagi (Japanese bush clover) in autumn. The garden contains a smaller garden featuring plants and flowers which appear in Heian era (894 – 1185) literary works.
  
  
• Naka Shin'en (Middle Garden): Visitors who pass through the cluster of trees behind the shrine's main buildings will find a beautiful garden surrounding a large pond. Across the center of the pond one can cross a walkway consisting of stone pillars which once served as foundation stones for the girders famous bridges in the center of the city. The pond is surrounded by an exquisite expanse of rabbit-ear irises.
  
  
• Higashi Shin'en (East Garden): This garden was constructed in the early 1910s. In the center of the garden, there is a pond on which courtiers are said to have gone boating in ancient times. Borrowing the Higashiyama hills as background scenery, the garden contains two elegant old-style buildings which add to the garden's overall charm.
  
  DON'T PANIC, FOLKS; LEE WILL BRING COPIES OF THESE REMARKS TO PASS OUT ON THURSDAY FOR YOUR INFORMATION WHILE VISITING THE GARDENS LISTED
  
  

Food Notes on Our Final Itinerary

Academic Travel Abroad sent out packets on Monday to all those signed up for our tour and included copies of our final itinerary. Taking logistical and other considerations into account, this schedule alters Lee's original just the slightest bit while still keeping the essential outline in place (and, in fact, adding some wrinkles and details that improve on his earlier plans).

More meals are now included, for example, taking into account the difficulties involved in setting us all loose in an out-of-the-way location with few available alternatives. The Japanese usually travel in groups and eat together while on the road, so the shared meal approach is easily enough accommodated and provides us the opportunity to try out a variety of cuisine options we might otherwise not encounter. In addition to our In Flight meals, breakfasts, our Welcome and Farewell Banquets, two Buddhist tofu-centered lunches and our hot spring resort dinner as originally included, we now can look forward to lunch in Nara our first day "in country" and a similar repast in Kamakura near the end of the trip.

With that in mind, let me suggest that the expenses for the other meals we personally will be responsible for should run around $300.00 apiece. Surprised?

Japan, unfortunately, has a reputation for being expensive; to some extent that's deserved -- being taken to dinner on a corporate expense account can mount into the hundreds of thousands of yen!

However, reasonable alternatives exist, and the nation abounds in moderate priced restaurants serving appetizing and filling meals presented with flair and originality. Adding beer and sake into the mix can run up the bill considerably (wine and mixed drinks, even more so), but that need not be the case.

Some of these provide a wide range of menu choices while others specialize -- in wide, flat soba noodles, for example, or sushi and nothing else. Usually these more moderate restaurants feature plastic models of menu items in their display windows -- and, in a pinch, patrons even can drag the waitress outside and point to what one wishes to order!

Another alternative lies with the "to go" meals found in the local Lawson's or Seven Eleven convenience stores (where the stock of fresh food items is "updated" several times each day). When you're in a rush or not particularly hungry, they are the way to go.

A wide variety of snack items is also available, everything from salty soy crackers to delicious dark chocolate morsels. Coffee is readily found, not only the Starbucks variety but also heated (or cooled) and dispensed from seemingly ubiquitous vending machines everywhere one turns.

In a pinch, one can also an revert to any number of recognizable fast food franchise operations, everything from McDonald's to KFC to Wendy's . The menu may be a bit strange -- shrimp pizza, anyone -- but the comfort level provided is considerable.

And no one should have to starve, either! Just remember that, at dinner time, the Japanese are apt to eat quite early -- "last orders" are usually taken around 8:30 p.m.

Etiquette at an Onsen

Etiquette demands in Japan can sometimes seem a bit overwhelming, primarily because of the cultural differences that even now continue to exist between our very individualistic society and the much more group-centered social setting in Japan.

During our tour, we will encounter many instances where we'll need to modify our behavior so as not to embarrass ourselves or our hosts, but probably none as daunting as the expectations involved in staying overnight "in the Japanese style."

On our itinerary we will spend one night in the Fuji-Five Lakes area high in the Japan Alps along the stone cliffs abutting a mountain stream at TENSEIEN, a Japanese onsen ("hot springs resort") where we will also have both dinner and breakfast the next morning.

Here are some guidelines about what to expect; many of these expectations we'll encounter elsewhere along the way, so that by the time we arrive in Hakone, many of these "modifications in behavior " will seem almost second nature! No need to worry all that much, then, about committing an unforgivable faux pas.

The Japanese distinguish between "interior" (uchi) and "exterior" (soto) space by removing their shoes when entering a private or privileged space. They wear slippers on hard wooden surfaces while inside, then remove even these to walk barefoot or in stocking feet on the tatami woven straw floor coverings found in traditional style Japanese rooms. So when we arrive at TENSEIEN, we'll likely spend much of our time in slippers or socks, leaving our shoes at the entrance (often in stacked storage racks).

Another way to distinguish "interior" from "exterior" worlds is to bathe soon after arriving and then put on a yukata blue-and-white cotton sleeping robe for the duration of your stay. Once one arrives in one's room, one also likely sits down briefly for a cup of tea (cold barley tea in summer, hot green tea in winter) and a sweet even before changing into a yukata or unpacking. Again, this ritualized expectation is meant to distinguish the serene onsen spa-like experience from that found in the hectic world of everyday life "outside".

At a typical Japanese inn, one would dine in one's room. Dinner would be taken in the presence of a kimono-clad maid who would preside over the repast, serving tea, beer or sake and chatting with you over the meal. When groups of travelers take in an onsen experience, however, the group usually eats together in a banquet room set aside for its use instead.

The meal (often referred to as kaiseki) consists of numerous small dishes of seasonal and local specialties which are eaten in any order desired (or simply left untouched if thought unappealing). Usually, too, some kind of (silly and often embarrassingly childish) entertainment is incorporated into the meal in an attempt to lighten the mood and further relax the crowd.

Visitors to a Japanese hot springs resort are usually drawn by the access provided to the hot springs themselves. TENSEIEN, for example, boasts four hot springs baths (two for men and two for women, one each inside and outside in the open air) for the enjoyment of guests. These are not treated by the Japanese, however, as we would treat swimming pools or hot tubs in the United States or Europe; that is, bathers "take the waters" in the all together, not wearing bathing suits or otherwise clad for modesty's sake. Another part of the ritual involves washing outside the pool before entering so as not to contaminate the water ...

Japanese have never traditionally associated nudity with sex per se. Therefore the naked body is not seen primarily as erotic in and of itself as is often the case in the West. Even in Japan, however, over the past century and a half Western notions in this respect have seeped into the local culture; and, as a consequence, mixed bathing is VERY unusual in contemporary Japan.

Proper behavior, still then, though, requires bathers, male and female alike, to take off their clothes in the bath, using a small combination washcloth and towel, properly placed, to maintain some degree of appropriate modesty.

Another strategy often utilized today even by Japanese patrons is to go into the bath when no one else is around. Since the baths are open long hours at a time (the men's baths at TENSEIEN, for example, are open 24/7), one can usually slip in alone or in the company of only one's closest friends to enjoy the experience. Since the baths all have an attached changing room, it's easy enough to ascertain if one is apt to be alone -- and often others will not enter if they sense the bath is already occupied. Again, this doesn't always work out, but it may be worth a try for the more modest among us.

Our rooms at TENSEIEN will be in the Japanese style -- floors covered with tatami mats set during the day with a low table and flat zabuton pillows (often nowadays with a backrest provided as well). There may be some low chairs on the veranda, but otherwise one lounges about seated on the floor around the low table during the day.

After dinner in the evening, the table and pillows are put away and a futon fold-up mattress replaces them, turning the room into sleeping quarters. Japanese pillows are rice-hull filled and much harder than those we're used to, and often a night light and a tray with glasses and water are placed near the head of the bed for nighttime use; turning off the overhead light usually requires several pulls on the attached string to cycle through the various possibilities.

Remember, too, to use your bathroom slippers in the toilet room, leaving them behind on exiting the facilities ...

Breakfast may give us the opportunity to try on a traditional Japanese morning repast, consisting of rice, seaweed, smoked fish, raw egg, miso soup, tea and pungent pickles, a robust and hearty meal that you might never have had the opportunity to try before. But, here again, the Japanese have shifted towards a more Western style breakfast over the years themselves, so toast and jam, eggs and coffee are just as likely to turn up.

The key to the entire experience here is to be prepared and forewarned about what to expect, then to go with the flow, always aware that you have not been sentenced to ever having to experience this entire undertaking ever again. So enter in with gusto and enthusiasm, taking our night at a Japanese onsen for the cultural experience it is meant to be.

Enjoy yourself and you're sure to gain the expected relaxation benefits so culturally prized by your Japanese hosts!