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Published On: Mar 17, 2007 02:40 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Mar 17, 2007 02:40 PM
Gaijin Family in Japan
Our family (my husband Brian, my daughter Laurana
(5 years-old) and myself) went on a two week trip to Japan in March of 2005.
This journal entry describes our intriguing journey into a distinctly different
culture.
Photos of our trip to Japan: http://www.galadrielconsulting.com/japan/
Before we left for our trip to Japan I was nervous. I felt the same nervousness before we left to France the first time. Being in another culture where you don't even speak the language can be overwhelming. And at least in France I could read the signs, in Japan I didn't even know if I would have that luxury. I was also a little nervous about the culture and whether or not I would commit faux pas. The Japanese society is very homogenous and somewhat rigid. I know that I had committed faux pas in France. Would I be worse here? Would they forgive me since I was a foreigner (gaijin)?
I can say that the nervousness left me once we arrived. My brother George is fluent in Japanese (even his students said that his Japanese was excellent). George was also a wonderful tour guide and babysitter. My pen pal Tomomi was also great. She went right over the top taking care of us. We were also treated royally by Aguri and Ayaka's families (students of George's who stayed with us briefly last year). So the nervousness was all for naught and if I broke any customs everyone was very gracious to us and didn't let us know if we had overstepped any boundaries.
I guess you can say that I had been preparing for my trip to Japan since I was in high school. I had taken one semester of Japanese then because I had applied to be an exchange student. Being an exchange student never worked out, so the plans were put on hold indefinitely-well at least for 20 more years! :-) But in the meanwhile I had been watching Japanese TV and movies (mainly Anime) and I had even been reading their comic books (manga) since high school. I also had read many books on Japanese culture-so that I would be prepared for the trip.
Do you know that you are not supposed to eat while walking or traveling in Japan? Even if you have an ice cream cone you are expected to sit down and eat it. You will be stared at if you don't. You are also not supposed to touch your food in Japan. Boy it was hard to teach this one to Laurana who eats almost everything with her hands! I think the Japanese made exceptions for her. Luckily Brian and I were also fairly good with chopsticks and at some meals that was the only thing you could eat with. Brian was even complemented during a formal Japanese dinner about how well he used his chopsticks!
What was Not Surprising
Medical Masks:
When we arrived in Japan Brian asked if everyone was worried about SARS since about 10% of the population was always wearing medical masks. Luckily I had already seen it on TV from shows dating from the 1980's. So I was able to tell him that they had colds and were simply trying to keep other people from getting the same cold. Since people in Japan also don't shake hands (they bow) I can only wonder if their rate of infectious diseases is lower than it is in the US.
Bathrooms/Toilets:
I think the Japanese bathrooms would have been pretty surprising if I had not seen how the Japanese bathe in their TV programs. I had also been warned about the squat toilets in advance by a friend from Cambodia. First, when you bathe you are supposed to do all washing outside of the bathtub and then once you are clean you soak in a very deep bathtub. You are not supposed to get any dirty water in the bathtub. The toilets are also different. They ranged from squat toilets (which took a little getting used to)-to electronic western style toilets. Yes, I did say electronic toilets. Their electric toilets are a combination western toilet and bidet. They also have electric toilet seat warmers. You might think toilet seat warmers are over the top, but when you consider that most Japanese homes have no central heating and that it was snowing in Niigata-that warm toilet seats are absolutely awesome! I kinda wish I could order one for my home!
What Was Surprising
Trains
Can I wax poetically about the train system in Japan? They have the Shinkansen (bullet train) there which runs on average at 120 mph (180kph). They even have some newer models coming out in a few years that hit 405 kph (about 300mph). Not only are they fast, they are always on time. They say in Japan that you can set your watch by a Shinkansen-and you know they're right. I was amazed to travel over 500 miles in one day (via Shinkansen). And even with one changeover we still did the journey in 4 hours! If we could only put a Shinkansen between Sacramento and SF. That trip could be made in 30-45 minutes! Wouldn't that be amazing? Man, I don't think I can ever go back to regular Amtrak trains after this. They are just to slow and noisy compared to their Japanese counterparts.
Honor System
I guess I shouldn't be surprised about the honor system in Japan. I knew that Japanese have an honor code that is very different from ours. All I can say is that every time I dropped change or left something someone would run after me trying to return it. Even when we left some notecards in a taxi car the driver came back to return them to us. (And you don't even tip taxi drivers!)
Taxis
They were the cheapest, cleanest and most honorable taxi drivers on the face of the earth. I still remember taxi drivers from Mexico and Greece who blatantly overcharged me because I was a foreigner and they could get away with it. There was nothing like this in Japan. All taxi's start at about $6 and generally ended up costing no more than $10 (and again no tips). Oh and you should have seen how clean their cabs were with white covers on the seats and the driver always had white gloves on. Compare this to a taxi driver at LAX. I rarely got a taxi driver from LAX who spoke English, let alone who actually knew how to get wherever I needed to go. And worse I was usually out at least $60 for the trip. Not only did Japanese cabbies speak Japanese and they sometimes even spoke English. And of course they always knew where to go and had a version of the Thomas Guide available in every car.
Passing of the Peace
Our family attended Easter Service in Kobe, Japan. My pen pal, Tomomi, was able to find us a church that had a bi-lingual service! Communion wasn't surprising, I even had an Englishman serve me the bread, but the passing of the peace was different. Instead of shaking hands they would bow to each other with hands folded in prayer. I only had to admit that there were probably less colds in Japan because of this!
Food
I was surprised at the cost and the variety of food in Japan. To give you a cost comparison it runs about $9 for a happy Meal in Japan. I also, when we ordered two medium pizzas and some chicken tenders (yes pizza has invaded Japan) it cost us $45! Ack! So food was expensive, but I was amazed at the variety. I thought that we would only have Japanese options and that sitting at sushi bars would be the standard for eating out. Instead we discovered (no surprise here) McDonalds. We also found "Royal Host" which is the Japanese version of Denny's. We were able to get a pancake breakfast with sausage and eggs for about $15/each. The family restaurant of course became Ramen (they call it Chinese noodles) with Gyoza (Chinese pot stickers). So I'll admit to going to Japan and eating Chinese food. At least it worked well for our family who is very picky. Oh and I also hit a sushi bar for one day (without Brian who can't stand sushi). I ate some wonderful Uniagi (eel sushi)! Laurana had noodle soup…her standard meal in Japan.
Daily Travels
Our travel started in Tokyo where my brother George met us at the Tokyo airport. Then we left for a "cheap" hotel in Tokyo. Only $235/night! The first thing that surprised me is that you don't tip in Japan. Not only do you not tip, but their customer service was amazing! Up until that point I had always thought that American customer service was the best, but now I can say that the Japanese have us beat on that front. You can't imagine all of the ways they bent over backwards to please us. I remember asking for a poster at a bookstore. They no longer had the poster, but they took the sample down and gave it to me for free.
Jet Lag had not been much of an issue for Brian and I, but Laurana was another story. She would get up at 3AM for the first few days and would usually crash by 3-5PM. Luckily she waited until 5AM to wake up after a few more days!!
Our first day in Japan we visited the Meiji Shrine. It's a shrine to a deceased emperor of Japan. If you see the Last Samurai, this is the emperor who you see briefly in the movie. It's a beautiful shrine in the middle of Tokyo. There were even two Japanese weddings going on at the shrine that day. I was happy to take some photos of a Japanese wedding. What costumes! Everyone was gorgeous!
That same day we headed to the emperors palace (kinda like Buckingham Palace for the Japanese). They have an emperor who is a figurehead (much like England) and a parliament called a "Diet". We weren't able to go inside the palace, but we were able to see the outside grounds and have lunch nearby. The entire palace is surrounded by a moat that is about 200 feet wide! Apparently it is only open to visitors one day a year. What was neat about that visit is that we had our first experience with how the Japanese treat children. They love children! It was so refreshing after all of the disdain that there is in the US about kids. (I remember getting dirty looks when I took my daughter with me on mother's day to Mace's at the Pavillions.) In Japan we had people wanting to go up to Laurana and hug her and take pictures. They adored her. They said she looked like a doll and the little kids wanted to stroke her blonde hair. One man took about 20 shots of her while we were at the palace. Laurana also ran into another Japanese girl for the first time and attempted to communicate with her. Luckily her parents spoke English and George spoke Japanese. For the first time I think Laurana understood that there is another language other than English and that if she wanted to talk to the Japanese girl that she needed to talk in Japanese. Laurana said "Hi" (Ohio) and said "Butterfly" (Cho cho). She was also constantly asking George about sentences to say to the little girl.
The next day we were still in Tokyo and we visited Tokyo Tower. Tokyo Tower is a slightly larger replica of the Eiffel Tower. It was constructed in 1959 I believe. It also has a red and white striped finish to it. I think our French relatives would be aghast at the Tokyo Tower, but Laurana loved it. The first thing that would drive our French relatives crazy is that the entire bottom area between the four legs was a parking garage. It looks ugly, but it makes sense in Tokyo where there is so little space for things. The Tower also had an aquarium and a wax museum (which cost extra so we didn't visit them). The views of Tokyo were great and we went all of the way to the top. We spoke to a few Japanese who also spoke English while we waited in line to go to the top. Once we were done we were let out at the top of the parking garage-which had an amusement park. I groaned inwardly-but there was no stopping Laurana who wanted to go on the rides. They even had a contraption that looked like a big bear with a wheel on it. Laurana got on and the thing started to move and Laurana had to steer. There were no tracks folks! It moved very slowly, but Laurana got a kick out of it. I don't think they would allow 4 year olds to drive one of those things around in America.
After Tokyo Tower we headed out to Nikko, which is a small Japanese town with a major shrine to Tokogawa there. Tokogawa is the Shogun in the James Clavell book "Shogun". He is called "Toranaga" in the book, but that is who he really was. Brian got a kick taking a picture next to a statue of Tokogawa. I found it interesting that many Japanese asked us about our visit to Nikko, but never asked us about our visit to Tokyo. I think Nikko has a stronger place in their hearts. Nikko was my last internet connection for a week...the withdrawal symptoms began…
We then traveled for 4 hours on the Shinkansen to George's apartment in Niigata. Niigata is in the middle of Japan on the northernmost part. So it was cold! It was snowing part of the time that we were there. And remember that the Japanese don't have central heating. George was kind enough to give us his one heater to use in our room while he froze in his own room (with no heating) while it snowed outside. George said that you get used to it.
We then visited a local preschool the next day that George had worked at. We had planned in advance to give the Japanese preschoolers an Easter Egg hunt. I had mainly done this so that Laurana could have an Easter Egg hunt and also so that I could have pictures to show Laurana's preschool when Brian and I helped with Japanese Children's day. I had packed and mailed over 200 plastic eggs, coloring kits and candy to Japan in advance.
The kids were amazed to see Laurana. They had never seen a little girl with blonde hair before. She was quickly mobbed (there are 100 kids in this preschool) by about 10 kids who wanted to stroke her hair. They also wanted to talk to her and me. But we didn't understand Japanese and they didn't know why we couldn't understand them. Luckily a teacher would occasionally step in and translate. They wanted to know why Laurana's eyes and hair were the color they were. This visit was only to get ready for the Easter Egg hunt for the next day, so we left after about 20 minutes.
Afterwards we were able to visit the local Buddhist temple. One of George's student's is the wife of the monk who runs the temple. It has been in his family for many generations. They showed us around. It was gorgeous. I wish that I could have seen the gardens in the Summer. There was still piles of snow on the ground. But everything was exquisitely manicured. It was like looking at a full-sized version of a Bonsai plant. They also showed us the inner temple grounds and they allowed Laurana to "bong" the temple gong. She loved that. We also asked questions about the Japanese rosary beads and incense. Both of which are used in some Christian services as well. I also found out something very interesting about the local monk. If any townspeople have problems they go to him to be an intermediary. George had even used him once when he had mistakenly insulted a student. (He had asked about what her Dad did, but she had no Dad. Apparently she was hurt by this and the local monk was able to intervene and fix things.) Wouldn't it be neat if our local priests could do the same thing?
That night we then went to Aguri's family, the Naito's. Aguri had stayed with us for about a week during the Summer. Her mother is a licensed in Japanese Tea ceremony. So we had a short (one hour) Japanese Tea Ceremony. Normally this would be a day long event. But we really couldn't stay on our knees for all day. Luckily George and his girlfriend, Terumi, babysat my daughter while we were at the tea ceremony. George was quite a trooper since Laurana was still suffering from jetlag and could be a handful. I absolutely loved the sweets that they served during the ceremony. I was also lucky to have had "ma-cha" Japanese bitter, powdered, green tea before. So I wasn't surprised about how it tasted. You are supposed to finish the tea in three gulps. But I think it took me at least 5 gulps. We then spent the rest of the evening going over a picture book that we had brought them called "Spectacular America". They were surprised to see how big and varied America was. They really liked the pictures from the Grand canyon. I guess we take such things for granted here in America, but there really isn't anything else like it in the world.
Other things we did, but I haven't written about yet:
Preschool Easter egg hunt
Japanese formal geisha dinner
Yahiko Shrnie
Kareoke Party Night with George's students
Kyoto
Kiyzmizi Temple
Golden Temple
Himeiji Castle
Shopping in Kobe
Back to Niigata/Shopping
Back to Tokyo and Home
I had been meaning to put together all of the photos from our trip to Japan and here they are. I put them online so that you could view them one at a time. If you click on the photo they will enlarge.
The photos are in chronological order and show our two week trip throughout Japan. The photos include Tokyo, Nikko, two visits to a Japanese preschool where we organized an Easter Egg Hunt, a Japanese Kareoke Party (with George's students), a Japanese Tea Ceremony, a formal Japanese geisha dinner, many temples, Kyoto, Kobe and Himeji Castle. Oh and don't be too surprised about my pictures of the squat toilets. I was just a little too amused I guess....
http://www.galadrielconsulting.com/japan/
Before we left for our trip to Japan I was nervous. I felt the same nervousness before we left to France the first time. Being in another culture where you don't even speak the language can be overwhelming. And at least in France I could read the signs, in Japan I didn't even know if I would have that luxury. I was also a little nervous about the culture and whether or not I would commit faux pas. The Japanese society is very homogenous and somewhat rigid. I know that I had committed faux pas in France. Would I be worse here? Would they forgive me since I was a foreigner (gaijin)?
I can say that the nervousness left me once we arrived. My brother George is fluent in Japanese (even his students said that his Japanese was excellent). George was also a wonderful tour guide and babysitter. My pen pal Tomomi was also great. She went right over the top taking care of us. We were also treated royally by Aguri and Ayaka's families (students of George's who stayed with us briefly last year). So the nervousness was all for naught and if I broke any customs everyone was very gracious to us and didn't let us know if we had overstepped any boundaries.
I guess you can say that I had been preparing for my trip to Japan since I was in high school. I had taken one semester of Japanese then because I had applied to be an exchange student. Being an exchange student never worked out, so the plans were put on hold indefinitely-well at least for 20 more years! :-) But in the meanwhile I had been watching Japanese TV and movies (mainly Anime) and I had even been reading their comic books (manga) since high school. I also had read many books on Japanese culture-so that I would be prepared for the trip.
Do you know that you are not supposed to eat while walking or traveling in Japan? Even if you have an ice cream cone you are expected to sit down and eat it. You will be stared at if you don't. You are also not supposed to touch your food in Japan. Boy it was hard to teach this one to Laurana who eats almost everything with her hands! I think the Japanese made exceptions for her. Luckily Brian and I were also fairly good with chopsticks and at some meals that was the only thing you could eat with. Brian was even complemented during a formal Japanese dinner about how well he used his chopsticks!
What was Not Surprising
Medical Masks:
When we arrived in Japan Brian asked if everyone was worried about SARS since about 10% of the population was always wearing medical masks. Luckily I had already seen it on TV from shows dating from the 1980's. So I was able to tell him that they had colds and were simply trying to keep other people from getting the same cold. Since people in Japan also don't shake hands (they bow) I can only wonder if their rate of infectious diseases is lower than it is in the US.
Bathrooms/Toilets:
I think the Japanese bathrooms would have been pretty surprising if I had not seen how the Japanese bathe in their TV programs. I had also been warned about the squat toilets in advance by a friend from Cambodia. First, when you bathe you are supposed to do all washing outside of the bathtub and then once you are clean you soak in a very deep bathtub. You are not supposed to get any dirty water in the bathtub. The toilets are also different. They ranged from squat toilets (which took a little getting used to)-to electronic western style toilets. Yes, I did say electronic toilets. Their electric toilets are a combination western toilet and bidet. They also have electric toilet seat warmers. You might think toilet seat warmers are over the top, but when you consider that most Japanese homes have no central heating and that it was snowing in Niigata-that warm toilet seats are absolutely awesome! I kinda wish I could order one for my home!
What Was Surprising
Trains
Can I wax poetically about the train system in Japan? They have the Shinkansen (bullet train) there which runs on average at 120 mph (180kph). They even have some newer models coming out in a few years that hit 405 kph (about 300mph). Not only are they fast, they are always on time. They say in Japan that you can set your watch by a Shinkansen-and you know they're right. I was amazed to travel over 500 miles in one day (via Shinkansen). And even with one changeover we still did the journey in 4 hours! If we could only put a Shinkansen between Sacramento and SF. That trip could be made in 30-45 minutes! Wouldn't that be amazing? Man, I don't think I can ever go back to regular Amtrak trains after this. They are just to slow and noisy compared to their Japanese counterparts.
Honor System
I guess I shouldn't be surprised about the honor system in Japan. I knew that Japanese have an honor code that is very different from ours. All I can say is that every time I dropped change or left something someone would run after me trying to return it. Even when we left some notecards in a taxi car the driver came back to return them to us. (And you don't even tip taxi drivers!)
Taxis
They were the cheapest, cleanest and most honorable taxi drivers on the face of the earth. I still remember taxi drivers from Mexico and Greece who blatantly overcharged me because I was a foreigner and they could get away with it. There was nothing like this in Japan. All taxi's start at about $6 and generally ended up costing no more than $10 (and again no tips). Oh and you should have seen how clean their cabs were with white covers on the seats and the driver always had white gloves on. Compare this to a taxi driver at LAX. I rarely got a taxi driver from LAX who spoke English, let alone who actually knew how to get wherever I needed to go. And worse I was usually out at least $60 for the trip. Not only did Japanese cabbies speak Japanese and they sometimes even spoke English. And of course they always knew where to go and had a version of the Thomas Guide available in every car.
Passing of the Peace
Our family attended Easter Service in Kobe, Japan. My pen pal, Tomomi, was able to find us a church that had a bi-lingual service! Communion wasn't surprising, I even had an Englishman serve me the bread, but the passing of the peace was different. Instead of shaking hands they would bow to each other with hands folded in prayer. I only had to admit that there were probably less colds in Japan because of this!
Food
I was surprised at the cost and the variety of food in Japan. To give you a cost comparison it runs about $9 for a happy Meal in Japan. I also, when we ordered two medium pizzas and some chicken tenders (yes pizza has invaded Japan) it cost us $45! Ack! So food was expensive, but I was amazed at the variety. I thought that we would only have Japanese options and that sitting at sushi bars would be the standard for eating out. Instead we discovered (no surprise here) McDonalds. We also found "Royal Host" which is the Japanese version of Denny's. We were able to get a pancake breakfast with sausage and eggs for about $15/each. The family restaurant of course became Ramen (they call it Chinese noodles) with Gyoza (Chinese pot stickers). So I'll admit to going to Japan and eating Chinese food. At least it worked well for our family who is very picky. Oh and I also hit a sushi bar for one day (without Brian who can't stand sushi). I ate some wonderful Uniagi (eel sushi)! Laurana had noodle soup…her standard meal in Japan.
Daily Travels
Our travel started in Tokyo where my brother George met us at the Tokyo airport. Then we left for a "cheap" hotel in Tokyo. Only $235/night! The first thing that surprised me is that you don't tip in Japan. Not only do you not tip, but their customer service was amazing! Up until that point I had always thought that American customer service was the best, but now I can say that the Japanese have us beat on that front. You can't imagine all of the ways they bent over backwards to please us. I remember asking for a poster at a bookstore. They no longer had the poster, but they took the sample down and gave it to me for free.
Jet Lag had not been much of an issue for Brian and I, but Laurana was another story. She would get up at 3AM for the first few days and would usually crash by 3-5PM. Luckily she waited until 5AM to wake up after a few more days!!
Our first day in Japan we visited the Meiji Shrine. It's a shrine to a deceased emperor of Japan. If you see the Last Samurai, this is the emperor who you see briefly in the movie. It's a beautiful shrine in the middle of Tokyo. There were even two Japanese weddings going on at the shrine that day. I was happy to take some photos of a Japanese wedding. What costumes! Everyone was gorgeous!
That same day we headed to the emperors palace (kinda like Buckingham Palace for the Japanese). They have an emperor who is a figurehead (much like England) and a parliament called a "Diet". We weren't able to go inside the palace, but we were able to see the outside grounds and have lunch nearby. The entire palace is surrounded by a moat that is about 200 feet wide! Apparently it is only open to visitors one day a year. What was neat about that visit is that we had our first experience with how the Japanese treat children. They love children! It was so refreshing after all of the disdain that there is in the US about kids. (I remember getting dirty looks when I took my daughter with me on mother's day to Mace's at the Pavillions.) In Japan we had people wanting to go up to Laurana and hug her and take pictures. They adored her. They said she looked like a doll and the little kids wanted to stroke her blonde hair. One man took about 20 shots of her while we were at the palace. Laurana also ran into another Japanese girl for the first time and attempted to communicate with her. Luckily her parents spoke English and George spoke Japanese. For the first time I think Laurana understood that there is another language other than English and that if she wanted to talk to the Japanese girl that she needed to talk in Japanese. Laurana said "Hi" (Ohio) and said "Butterfly" (Cho cho). She was also constantly asking George about sentences to say to the little girl.
The next day we were still in Tokyo and we visited Tokyo Tower. Tokyo Tower is a slightly larger replica of the Eiffel Tower. It was constructed in 1959 I believe. It also has a red and white striped finish to it. I think our French relatives would be aghast at the Tokyo Tower, but Laurana loved it. The first thing that would drive our French relatives crazy is that the entire bottom area between the four legs was a parking garage. It looks ugly, but it makes sense in Tokyo where there is so little space for things. The Tower also had an aquarium and a wax museum (which cost extra so we didn't visit them). The views of Tokyo were great and we went all of the way to the top. We spoke to a few Japanese who also spoke English while we waited in line to go to the top. Once we were done we were let out at the top of the parking garage-which had an amusement park. I groaned inwardly-but there was no stopping Laurana who wanted to go on the rides. They even had a contraption that looked like a big bear with a wheel on it. Laurana got on and the thing started to move and Laurana had to steer. There were no tracks folks! It moved very slowly, but Laurana got a kick out of it. I don't think they would allow 4 year olds to drive one of those things around in America.
After Tokyo Tower we headed out to Nikko, which is a small Japanese town with a major shrine to Tokogawa there. Tokogawa is the Shogun in the James Clavell book "Shogun". He is called "Toranaga" in the book, but that is who he really was. Brian got a kick taking a picture next to a statue of Tokogawa. I found it interesting that many Japanese asked us about our visit to Nikko, but never asked us about our visit to Tokyo. I think Nikko has a stronger place in their hearts. Nikko was my last internet connection for a week...the withdrawal symptoms began…
We then traveled for 4 hours on the Shinkansen to George's apartment in Niigata. Niigata is in the middle of Japan on the northernmost part. So it was cold! It was snowing part of the time that we were there. And remember that the Japanese don't have central heating. George was kind enough to give us his one heater to use in our room while he froze in his own room (with no heating) while it snowed outside. George said that you get used to it.
We then visited a local preschool the next day that George had worked at. We had planned in advance to give the Japanese preschoolers an Easter Egg hunt. I had mainly done this so that Laurana could have an Easter Egg hunt and also so that I could have pictures to show Laurana's preschool when Brian and I helped with Japanese Children's day. I had packed and mailed over 200 plastic eggs, coloring kits and candy to Japan in advance.
The kids were amazed to see Laurana. They had never seen a little girl with blonde hair before. She was quickly mobbed (there are 100 kids in this preschool) by about 10 kids who wanted to stroke her hair. They also wanted to talk to her and me. But we didn't understand Japanese and they didn't know why we couldn't understand them. Luckily a teacher would occasionally step in and translate. They wanted to know why Laurana's eyes and hair were the color they were. This visit was only to get ready for the Easter Egg hunt for the next day, so we left after about 20 minutes.
Afterwards we were able to visit the local Buddhist temple. One of George's student's is the wife of the monk who runs the temple. It has been in his family for many generations. They showed us around. It was gorgeous. I wish that I could have seen the gardens in the Summer. There was still piles of snow on the ground. But everything was exquisitely manicured. It was like looking at a full-sized version of a Bonsai plant. They also showed us the inner temple grounds and they allowed Laurana to "bong" the temple gong. She loved that. We also asked questions about the Japanese rosary beads and incense. Both of which are used in some Christian services as well. I also found out something very interesting about the local monk. If any townspeople have problems they go to him to be an intermediary. George had even used him once when he had mistakenly insulted a student. (He had asked about what her Dad did, but she had no Dad. Apparently she was hurt by this and the local monk was able to intervene and fix things.) Wouldn't it be neat if our local priests could do the same thing?
That night we then went to Aguri's family, the Naito's. Aguri had stayed with us for about a week during the Summer. Her mother is a licensed in Japanese Tea ceremony. So we had a short (one hour) Japanese Tea Ceremony. Normally this would be a day long event. But we really couldn't stay on our knees for all day. Luckily George and his girlfriend, Terumi, babysat my daughter while we were at the tea ceremony. George was quite a trooper since Laurana was still suffering from jetlag and could be a handful. I absolutely loved the sweets that they served during the ceremony. I was also lucky to have had "ma-cha" Japanese bitter, powdered, green tea before. So I wasn't surprised about how it tasted. You are supposed to finish the tea in three gulps. But I think it took me at least 5 gulps. We then spent the rest of the evening going over a picture book that we had brought them called "Spectacular America". They were surprised to see how big and varied America was. They really liked the pictures from the Grand canyon. I guess we take such things for granted here in America, but there really isn't anything else like it in the world.
Other things we did, but I haven't written about yet:
Preschool Easter egg hunt
Japanese formal geisha dinner
Yahiko Shrnie
Kareoke Party Night with George's students
Kyoto
Kiyzmizi Temple
Golden Temple
Himeiji Castle
Shopping in Kobe
Back to Niigata/Shopping
Back to Tokyo and Home
I had been meaning to put together all of the photos from our trip to Japan and here they are. I put them online so that you could view them one at a time. If you click on the photo they will enlarge.
The photos are in chronological order and show our two week trip throughout Japan. The photos include Tokyo, Nikko, two visits to a Japanese preschool where we organized an Easter Egg Hunt, a Japanese Kareoke Party (with George's students), a Japanese Tea Ceremony, a formal Japanese geisha dinner, many temples, Kyoto, Kobe and Himeji Castle. Oh and don't be too surprised about my pictures of the squat toilets. I was just a little too amused I guess....
http://www.galadrielconsulting.com/japan/
Posted: Thu - March 31, 2005 at 10:47 AM