Nara and Kyoto, part 2

Ariana running among the ruins in Nara...

"mmmmm, tea.................yummmmmmm........
fellow photographers in Nara Park....

Eating with chopsticks VS eating the chopsticks...
Philosopher's Walk in Kyoto.....

The Ryokan

Traditional Japanese Inns - where you are waited on hand and foot by kimono clad women - don slippers as soon as you walk in the door, robes when you arrive in your room (sans slippers that you leave on the wood entry way prior to stepping foot on the tatami mats) , drink tea and are then treated to a sumptuous meal of many little courses and then watch as those kimono clad women expertly unfold and make up the futons you then sleep on.

This is when it turns nasty. Because for the price of a room at your local Four Seasons, you are sleeping on the floor in order to get a taste of traditional Japanese culture. I don't care that the meal was presented by two lovely ladies. I don't care that the room was quite beautiful in it's simplicity (ok, I could have done without the tv in the corner) and I don't care that we had a lovely view of the perfectly manicured Japanese garden outside our window.

We were still sleeping on the floor and every minute of the night I was reminded of that floor, in all of it's polished beauty. Beautiful Japanese floors are not comfortable. For those who think about what a wonderful experience it would be to sleep in a Ryokan, be warned. No matter how nice, how beautiful, how serene, how private - you will pay not only in cash but in pain as you struggle to get up off the floor in the morning while holding your back in agony, swearing on your next trip to find the hotel with the biggest, softest beds and stay there, no matter what the decor or service is.

Otherwise, our trip to Nara and Kyoto was lovely. Nara is the original capital of Japan, home to several amazing shrines and many deer, one of which butted baba-san in the butt as we strolled along the path.

The weather was beautiful, so we spent two days walking around, visiting shrines, taking pictures of the various shrines, the fall foliage, and the other people taking pictures of the fall foliage.

Fall is a unique experience here - everyone is out taking pictures with everything from cell phones to huge single lens reflex Nikons with huge lenses. The behavior is the same:

There is a tree.

With lots of red leaves.

One person stands to take a picture.

Another person arrives.

Then another.

Others notice a bunch of people standing taking a picture and assume it is a good shot, so then they all go over and jockey for the perfect spot. Here are some of ours:

This one's for you Judy - "socks drying - the next generation"
to be continued................................

"Are you going to have grandchildren soon?"

I pondered the meaning of the meaning of this as I sat in front of my computer, staring at the email that contained this most inflammatory question - one that was posed to me by a lovely Japanese woman I had met at a meeting the day before. She herself was leaving in January to visit with her daughter and new grandchild to be born sometime between now and then.

Having a conversation with a Japanese person is an interesting experience. Their age, ability to speak English, whether or not they actually lived outside of Japan all determines the kind of conversation you will have. For those whose English is not completely fluent and whose experience outside of Japan is limited, so is the conversation - in general, the conversation will be very general - the weather, something about the place you happen to be (nice place, lunch, play, etc.). For example, in the US, a common greeting is usually "how are you?". In Japan, that is something considered too private, so the greeting is usually "nice weather" or something benign like that.

This woman clearly fell into this category, so I chalk up her comment to an extremely awkward attempt to converse and find something we have in common. So, I said nothing, answering only her other points in the email.

I did however, for my own amusement and reference should this question ever come up again, come up with the following responses:

1) "I sincerely hope not. I have a three year old and two step-children; 18 and 20 and none of the three are even close to being ready to be parents."

2) "Me???? Soon-to-be grandmother???? I guess the gray roots are showing more than I thought!!!"

3) "No" (better schedule the Botox/face lift/(pick your plastic surgery procedure).

4) Are you *(&%&*)!!!!ing blind???!!!??!?!?!?.....I'm not OLD ENOUGH TO BE A GRANDMOTHER!!!!!! (my own personal favorite

And by the way, I did make the soonest possible appointment with the hairdresser.

And wore a hat until I could actually get there.

On a brighter note, one of the playgroup mother commented that she thought we were both around the same age - 38.

I feel much better.

Halloween

Ok, so the Halloween costume I made for her started to fall apart before we even got out the door. While Halloween is celebrated here in Japan, it is very difficult to find costumes for children. Having procrastinated enough to run out of time to have one sent by Auntie Marilyn, I opted for the homemade kind after picking up a pair of Panda ears at the zoo. She did look cute, but as you can see I'm not sure she was so keen on the idea.

The first party was at school last Friday. The moms were invited (along with a dish for lunch) and everyone arrived, excited to be celebrating and watching the kids. I dressed up in a fashion (a red wig and a straw hat) and realized right away that I was just about the only one who had. Well, there was one woman who dressed in a sari, but since she is actually Indian, I don't think that counts. And, there was a woman dressed just like her 15 month old daughter, but, well, I don't even know what to say about that, other than it is very Japanese.

I put my big, American sized bowl full of pasta salad on the table and went about my business socializing, taking pictures and watching the kids as they finished up with their "school day". They gave a little singing recital - Ariana mostly looked like she was about to cry, and then it was time for some games and lunch.

Lunch - can I just say I must do better next year. One woman, apparently with way too much time on her hands made little pumpkins out of rice, smoked salmon and seaweed paper. They were not only pretty, but delicious too.

Once the party got started she did seem to enjoy herself - here she is with her teacher Erica and some of the other kids.

The second party was with her playgroup and she (ear and pigtail less) was much happier.

See how well children wait patiently when candy is involved - "please sir, may I have some more??"

Now I sit with a paper mache pumpkin holding Ariana's take for the day. She is standing beside me whimpering, looking pitiful because after opening and not eating two pieces I said the rest was for tomorrow when she wanted me to open more.

Ok, I'm a pushover...........I let her have the little pack of "Goldfish" - they're somewhat healthy right????

Not Learning Japanese

After over a year and two previous feeble attempts to learn Japanese, I have started, yet again, to take lessons in the hope that I will actually be able to have a conversation where no pointing or pantomime is necessary. Unfortunately, I am not holding out much hope, as I am beyond bad when it comes to learning languages. I actually failed high school Spanish and had to go to summer school where I barely passed. Hard as I try to memorize vocabulary, days of the week and numbers, the words leave my mind just as soon as I think I've got it.

There is a particular type of torture involved in learning Japanese. Tops on the list is the counting system - there are over ten different ways to count, depending on what you are counting. Take the number 5 - one could say "go" for the actual number, if you were telling someone your phone number; "itsu-tsu" if you were asking for 5 cookies in a bakery; "itsuka-kan" if you were referring to the number of days, etc., etc., etc. There is a different word to be used if you are talking about people, age, thin or long objects, cups, books, minutes, weeks, months - the list goes on and on.

Various words are used to say "thank you" and "I'm sorry", depending on who you are talking to, and just how thankful or sorry you are. And then come the words themselves, constructed of little bits intended to confound anyone trying to figure it all out.

And let's not even get started in the actual reading of this most complicated language - there are three different written alphabets I will need to learn - and to make it worse, they can all be used in the same sentence!!

Friends of mine who have lived here for years and whose work involves speaking Japanese just started taking a class in formal Japanese, as that is an entirely different language!!

Worst of all is the amount of space you need in your brain for all of this new information. It seems my brain is full - in order to remember anything, I need to forget a bunch of stuff. So, if the next time I see you, I can't remember your name, where we met or something I told you last week, don't see it as a bad thing.

It means I may finally be able to speak Japanese.

Ya Gotta Love Japan....

.........not that I have seen this yet. But then again, perhaps I wasn't paying attention.

Big Tush

Ah yes, the sights of Sumo. If you ever want to feel better about your aging body, take in a sumo match and check out the mounds of flesh on these boys. Wow - I felt positively svelt!! In all their glory, these guys strutted around proudly on the stage, displaying their attributes (and glutes) for all to see. Part sport, part theatre, it was definitely worth the trip.

And, my fears of Ariana blurting out "tushie, tushie" were unwarranted. Instead, she kept pointing the program where pictures of all the sumo wrestlers were printed, saying "boobies, boobies". So much for not being embarrassed in front of Arny's coworkers. Fortunately, they thought she was adorable so we were safe. At one point when Ariana and I went for a walk, we stopped by the area where the wrestlers come in and out. A friendly group, they will stop and sign autographs and pose for pictures. Of course, I left the camera with baba-san, so I did not get the shot of Ariana shaking hands with one of the wrestlers.

The only problem was sitting for hours on a little cushion on the floor, as each seat is really one of four little cushions in a box. A tiny little isle runs between each row of boxes and you are required to tuck your shoes, bags and anything else you can fit (which is not much) there. While not as close a view, the seats further back are regular seats, so what you miss in proximity you gain in comfort. We may try it next time.

Riding on My Bike

After a few days practice, Ariana is now riding by herself (except for those pesky hills, where she still needs a push). Baba captured the moment for your viewing enjoyment.

G.N.O.

Girls' Night Out that is.

I had one.

Last Saturday.

My cohorts and I ventured into Roppongi, the sleazy neon part of Tokyo, where every other establishment is a bar with a suitably pushy man outside handing out flyers, free drink tickets and complements in order to get you inside.

After the required greasy bar snacks and a couple of margaritas, I was ready. Our first stop was "Motown I", where not a Motown song was played for the entire time we were there. We did dance, even if it was to bad 80's music. A silver haired gentleman definitely eligible for medicare, dressed in the only suit and tie seen in the club (and probably in all of Roppongi)took his turn with a few of us, swinging us right and left , whether we wanted to go that way or not.

We then moved on to "Wall Street", receiving drink tickets from the doorman only after we assured him we were sufficiently "wild". We stayed there for awhile and then moved again to "Motown II", again disappointed at the lack of Motown songs. We did dance with some Sikhs, the happiest people we ran into that night. There was another stop at another rather unknown and empty bar, but probably the one with the best music, where we enjoyed shots of tequila (at least I wasn't mixing) complements of our hosts. Back to Motown I (or II - at this point they all looked alike) we danced some more, finally calling it quits at about 3:30am.

What I learned:

1) Every bar in Roppongi has it's "hour" - for some reason you must go at exactly that "hour" or else (else what I never figured out).

2) You must not stay at one bar for more than an hour. Moving is the name of the game. Staying too long, especially after dancing with the same person leads them to believe you are there for something other than dancing.

3) Be prepared for the United Nations - I met people from the UK, Brazil, Nigeria, India, Japan (and that's only what I remember).

4) Do not go stereo shopping at Yodabashi the day after a night in Roppongi. For those who don't live here, Yodabashi is a very large, very loud, very bright, very crowded store that one should never enter with a hangover. Even a little one.

5) Sikhs are fun.

I love woo....

Yes, even in Japan, children (and I'm sure dogs too) dress up and parade around in costume. We went to the aquarium and they had a Halloween corner. Ariana loved the witch's hat, and I must admit she looks adorable. She will have a party at school, another one at the children's English program where I used to volunteer and possibly a neighborhood parade depending on how "Halloweened out" we all are. The question is what should she be????
Baba has started reading "Winne the Pooh" to Ariana at night. She will actually sit for more than a few minutes and listen. I tried reading to her while she was sitting in her bed, but as soon as I stopped and said "sleepy time", she propelled herself into my arms, so it was baba dancing time again. Hopefully, by the time she is in high school, she will go to sleep on her own.
Ariana has a new little boyfriend, Jack, who is in her playgroup. They are about the same size (I think that's part of the attraction)
The nose..................at the Teien Museum, a small one near our house, they have a lovely garden that is great for kids. The nose sculpture is a particular favorite, because they can climb around.

On another note, she is riding her bicycle better and better, pedaling like a big girl most of the time. She had her first fall, cried, got up and climbed right back on and kept going. Unless she gets stuck, she no longer wants help, turning back with a fast "no" or "go away" at the first sign of assistance.

But the highlight was the other day when I was holding her and looked into her eyes and said "I love you". She matched my gaze and replied "I love woo"....hee hee hee hee................