Author: JWF

Asian Adventure: Yushukan

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Yesterday we meandered through several more parks (can’t seem to get our fill of these cherry blossoms!), but more significantly visited the Yushukan museum.  It celebrates Japanese warriors down through the ages from the early Samurai through the Second World War.  Those Japanese who died in battle are considered enshrined deities and their photos and mementos are archived here.  On display are the uniforms, relics and letters of these men as well as the weapons of war. Everything from torpedoes and guns to bombers and ammunition.

There are also several rooms tracing Japanese military history up to the modern era.  I found the account of Admiral Perry’s trip to Japan in the 19th century and his demand that the country be “open” particularly interesting and wondered why the U.S. thought it had the right to demand that.  No reason was given here.

Also noteworthy for me was the depiction of Japan’s role in the Second World War, their decision to bomb Pearl Harbor, and the battles they fought in Midway, Guadalcanal, and the Philippines. I read in its entirety the emperor’s message to the Japanese people announcing the country’s surrender to the Allies. Without his assent and encouragement, the military leadership would have kept on fighting. The emperor valued the land and wanted to protect the Japanese people.  It’s always enlightening to read about one’s country’s wars from the other side as we did in Vietnam and in Berlin last fall.

Visiting this museum, I was reminded that in 6th grade, I had two Japanese pen pals. This was a program through my school and I signed up to write to two students.  One was a boy whose first name began with “H”and a girl whose full name I do remember,  Setsuko Ito. I wonder where she is today. One of my sisters also had a pen pal. My letters were written on thin blue airmail paper and then mailed to the other side of the world, somewhere here, with a long wait for a reply.  Nothing like the immediacy of e-mail or Facebook.

We were on foot most of the day and joined the throngs of Japanese individuals and families worshipping the cherry blossoms with their cameras and their picnics. We didn’t picnic, but did locate a small café in a park where we had lunch. Can you believe they ran out of rice?  The small picture menu had five options including a curry and something else hot with rice. No rice, so we both ordered the spaghetti and meatballs.  It wasn’t bad and served the purpose of refueling.

Last evening we finally had Japanese food for dinner.  We ordered miso soup, chicken skewers or yakitori, and tempura.  The skewers had bites of chicken prepared three ways and the tempura was in an exceedingly light and delicate batter and consisted of pieces of fish, shrimp, green beans, lotus root, and eggplant.  There was a dipping sauce to which we were instructed to add a piece of the soft round white radish from its separate little dish.  Delicious!  Dessert was a soupy brown bean concoction served with a small dish of tiny matchsticks that tasted a bit salty and also like anise.  Not to my taste, but worth the experiment.

[Source of Yukushan image:  www.panoramio.com]

Booknote: Fuller and Divorce

JWF Leave a comment

I have been traveling for almost five weeks now and not getting in my usual component of reading. However, I did read one book that I’d like to share.

I enjoy well written memoirs, ones that share someone’s life experience in an informed, but not a whining, way. It’s a genre I seek out. Recently I read  Leaving Before the Rains Come  by Alexandra Fuller.  Fuller has written other autobiographical works, one about her mother and another about her childhood.

This book details her marriage to an American and its unraveling over several decades.  Fuller had what most of us would call a harrowing, disjointed childhood and it is encapsulated here as she sets the stage for why and how she fell in love with Charlie Ross. Growing up in Zambia and Zimbabwe, a transplanted English child, she experienced war, near starvation, encounters with snakes, frequent moves, and from uncles and family friends, what was most likely sexual abuse. Her parents seem to have been loving, but checked out or oblivious and probably some of both.

Fuller by Laure Joilet for The New York Times
Fuller by Laure Joilet for The New York Times

Charlie, her boyfriend and then husband, represented and seemed to offer adventure, but also predictability and stability and a grounding she hadn’t ever had. Theirs is a seesawing story of love and heartbreak and two very different personalities ultimately realizing that together they produced more disharmony than happiness.

While I might not like Fuller if I met her, I found it fascinating to inhabit her worldview for a time.

Asian Adventure: Tokyo on Foot

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Yesterday and today we have done all our sightseeing in Tokyo on foot.  That is, we walked everywhere and yesterday logged nine and a half miles or 23,000 steps!  Easily our best day this entire trip.  Today we did well at 17,000 steps or just under seven miles.  The weather has been lovely so we have focused our attention primarily on the parks.  Yesterday and today we spent time in Hibiya Park admiring the poppies and the fountain and then wandering over to the very large Japan Local Food Festival. Yesterday we shared one beef satay and one hot rice cake from one of the vendors.  Today we just looked.

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From Hibiya Park we then meandered on  the grounds of the Japan Imperial Palace and then on to one of the many fashionable shopping districts.  We were looking for some tea and a bite to eat and thought Takashimaya, Japan’s old and distinguished department store, would meet our needs.

Mostly, we just rode the elevator, a cultural experience in and of itself!  The elevators are run by young women in fussy uniforms, wearing hats and white gloves.  They greet you and then extend one arm, ballet-like in front of the now closed door.  There is a recitation about each floor (I’m assuming it was what is on that floor) and then at each floor, the operator locks the door in the open position, steps fully out of the elevator and announces to everyone and anyone in sight that she is going up (or down) and invites them in.  Then the door is closed and the whole ballet begins again, almost robot-like.  We took the escalator down to B2 from the main floor and all the little restaurants were full with people waiting outside them.  We found the elevator lobby, waiting somewhat patiently, and then rode the elevator to the 8th floor with every floor in between included.  The 8th floor had no acceptable options for food so we took the cultural long view and rode the elevator back down to the main floor with the same young woman!

Today was cloudy and a bit cooler.  We returned to Hibaya Park and from there walked  to the Zojoji Buddhist Temple.  The most striking thing here was the stone statues of little children, all in knit caps with brightly colored pinwheels next to them.  This is the Unborn Children Garden and represents children in Japan who miscarried, were aborted or were stillborn. Parents decorate the statues and often add little gifts as well.

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At lunchtime, we poked around the Ginza and found many small cafes and restaurants, most though were already full or had only a counter or standing space.  Just before we bailed out at McDonald’s, we lucked out with one of the last booths at the Coco Ichibanya Curry House.  My stewed chicken curry with spinach over rice was very tasty, and it was the cheapest meal we’ve had in Tokyo!  Even with a beer each. After lunch we continued on to yet another park, Hama-rikyu Gardens, for more cherry blossoms and a pretty pond.

A note about food.  After four weeks of Asian cuisine, we’ve reverted to type somewhat and have been ordering more familiar dishes. Everything from linguine with Sicilian tuna and bottarga to two nights of very good French cuisine at a brasserie a short walk from our hotel.  Tonight, though, we plan to have tempura.

Asian Adventure: Bangkok to Tokyo

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As of yesterday, we’ve traded Bangkok for Tokyo.  The population of each city is around 13 million and both are large urban areas.  But we’ve gone from tropical heat (mid 90’s) and high humidity to emerging spring (temperatures in the high 60’s).  From palm trees and lush greenery to deciduous trees just beginning to leaf.  From loud traffic, thousands of motor scooters and much street activity in Bangkok to just cars and men hurrying along the street in dark suits.  Hard to believe, but Tokyo seems very quiet to me!  And very orderly and neat.  Everything worked upon arrival.  The six hour flight was smooth, the immigration process efficient, and the luggage arrival almost immediate.  We did have to open a few bags for customs inspection, but even that was fairly quick.

Our hotel is in a quiet area close to the U.S. Embassy (not planned) and our room quite large.  The hotel is a classic one and most would call the architecture dated, which it is, but so far the service and the food have been first rate.  As this is Japan, there is lots of bowing.  All the hotel staff bow several times when greeting you and then again after whatever conversation or request has been made.

It turns out that we are in Tokyo at just the right time for the cherry blossoms.  So this morning we headed via subway to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.  Riding the subway requires both determination and patience.  Determination in the form of willingness to learn a new system that has many lines and unfamiliar names.  The names are also in English on the signs and maps, but still….  Patience to persist when the automatic ticket machine won’t take either your yen bill or your credit card.  The third time was a charm and we got our all-day 600 yen tickets.

The garden was lovely and the cherry trees as beautiful as promised.  There was a security line to get in checking bags for drinks as alcohol is not permitted, but it moved along.  We saw lots of Japanese families and office workers picnicking on the grass and, of course, everyone had a camera of some sort!

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After lunch at a small tapas restaurant where we enjoyed grilled swordfish with rice and a salad, we got back on the subway for a short ride to the stop for Meiji Jingu.  This is a Shinto shrine built in 1920, which houses the ashes of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.  It’s in a lovely park with lots of trees and the entrance is marked by a series of very high stately wooden arches.  The shrine buildings themselves are rather spare and mostly the brown of the cedar, a sharp contrast to the bright red and gold used in some of the Chinese temples we visited in Vietnam.  We had fun watching two different bridal parties process through the courtyard on their way to the shrine, the brides both in white and their attendants in lovely kimonos.

Bangkok Footnote

On our last day in Bangkok, we spent the morning at the Science Centre for Education.  This is a complex of six buildings which provides science learning opportunities and events for children in Bangkok and also from the rest of Thailand.  They see around 2 million students each year and offer science labs, science camps, science festivals, and teacher training in addition to 8 floors of museum exhibits and a planetarium.  They also have an extensive traveling outreach program which features three buses:  a planetarium bus, an astronomy bus and a biodiversity bus.  We were impressed!