13 Thursday Aug 2015
Posted in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop
Last week, The New Yorker made available online the John Hersey Hiroshima article he wrote for the one-year anniversary of the August 6, 1945 atomic blast on Hiroshima.
I may have read it years ago, but I don’t recall having done so. And I can’t imagine forgetting what he wrote. Having just been in Hiroshima last month, I was drawn to the re-release of Hiroshima and read its 31,000 words in one sitting.
It’s a masterpiece.
15 Wednesday Jul 2015
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends
Tags
Buddhist Temples, Bullet Trains, Ellen Miller's Photos, Golden Pavilion, Golden Temple, Hakone, Hiroshima, Japan, Japan: Food Picture Slide Show, Japan: Summer 2015 Slide Show, Japanese Baseball, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Maiko Performance, Mt. Fuji, Nikko, Ryokans, Shinto Shrines, Takayama, Tea Ceremony, Tokyo, Tokyo Tower, Torii Gates, Tsukiji Fish Market, Tuna Auctions, World Heritage Sites, Yokahama DeNa BayStars, Yomiuri Giants
As I promised last week, below are a few of Ellen’s favorite pictures from our trip to Japan. If you want to see more — lots more — check out her slide show of 126 pictures.
While the 15 photos below mostly capture gardens and temples, our activities were hugely varied. We went to the Tsukiji Fish Market and Tuna Auction at 5 AM our first morning in Tokyo, wandered through the teenage fashion and anime centers, viewed the city from the Tokyo Tower, and took a hands-on sushi-making lesson. We were treated to a full-on Tea Ceremony and a Maiko (Geisha apprentices) performance. We soaked our weary selves at three different Ryokan onsens (hot spas) until we shriveled. We saw Torii gates, Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples everywhere we went (in Tokyo, Nikko, Hakone, Takayama, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, and Kyoto). We visited a Gold Leaf museum/factory and a Sake museum along with the Edo/Tokyo museum, a ‘float’ museum, and the chilling museums and monuments in Hiroshima. Of course, there was a baseball game in the Tokyo Dome where we saw the Yokahama DeNA BayStars beat the Yomiuri Giants. We traveled by car, by van, by subway, by train, including the bullet trains, by boat, and we walked at least five or six miles everyday. We saw Mt. Fuji (barely), lakes, waterfalls, bamboo groves, and the wonderful Golden Pavilion. Everywhere there were gardens — miniature gardens, Emperor’s gardens, temple gardens, strolling gardens, rock gardens, ancient ones and modern ones.
07 Tuesday Jul 2015
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Tags
Bamboo forest, Bohemian Restaurant, Geoge Nakashima, Gora Kadan, Hakone, Heiruki Sushi, Hida Beef, Hiroshima, Honkawa Elementary School, Ikuzi Teraki, Japan, Kakinuma Restaurant, Kanazawa, Kenrokuen Garden, Kyoto, Lake Ashi, Mt. Fuji, Nara, Nikko, Romulus Craft, Ryoanji Zen Garden, Sekitei, Takayama, The Golden Pavilion, Tofukuji Temple/HoJo Garden, Tokyo, Tsukijiki fish market, Wansato, Yakitori's Memory Lane ("Piss Alley")
Once again our children (this time our younger daughter and her husband) have taught us a thing or two.
Although we have traveled much of our lives, we had never included Japan in those travels. My reasoning/excuse was a prejudice that it would be hard to get ‘inside’ the country (the way we have in India), and we would just be “visitors” there.
Well, I, should have known better. Almost without realizing it, we have been drawn to Japanese art and artisans. Two rooms in our house are furnished with the wonderful Japanese-American furniture of George Nakashima, and in our kitchen, our cupboards are filled with pottery, including our everyday dinnerware, made by another Japanese-American artisan (Ikuzi Teraki of Romulus Craft) who is located in Vermont. We also have two small Asian gardens, one outside of the kitchen and one outside of our sun room. And I just learned that my mother particularly loved Kyoto, something I may have vaguely known but clearly had forgotten.
Anyway, a while ago we suggested to our daughter Elizabeth/Beth and son-in-law Brandt that we take a trip together to a place of their choosing. They almost immediately chose Japan.
Promises have a way of coming due, and so we have just spent two weeks in Tokyo, Nikko, Hakone, Lake Ashi, Takayma, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Nara.
