Nijo Castle

Well, last weekend was not particularly eventful. For the most part I stayed in, got some rest, did some homework…and watched my new Takarazuka DVDs. All very important things. The week itself was not very eventful either, as per usual, and so also not much deserving of recounting, but I did have a small class field trip to Nijo Castle (another UNESCO world heritage site) that was rather fun. Nijo Castle was built by the first Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu back around 1610 in the middle of Kyoto more as a symbol of power than as residence, as the Tokugawas actually ruled from Edo (modern-day Tokyo). I went there with my architecture class, as it is a wonderfully preserved example of a very old building style. It is essentially a fortress in the middle of the city with battlements, arrow towers, a moat, and several interior layers of defence as well. The part of it that we went to see was Ninomaru palace, which is inside all of the walls and is extremely lovely. Every room is painted and gold-leafed, and there are massive wood carvings over many of the doors. Outside of the rather massive building is a garden that is also very lovely in a rather austere sort of way. It’s probable that it’s a little prettier in spring when there are actually flowers, but I rather liked it the way it was. One of the most famous features of the palace is what they call the ‘nightingale floor’, which cannot be tread upon without making a squeaking sound reminiscent of chirping birds. This was to prevent anyone from sneaking up on the Shogun. It really was nice, though a little chilly, and I really wish that cameras were allowed inside the building itself, but they probably are worried about the effect of flashes on the paintings inside.
-The rooms inside the palace are painted to reflect their uses. For instance, rooms for receiving lower-ranked lords who might have fought on the opposing side in the battle that established the Tokugawa Shogunate is painted with tigers and hawks, while the rooms that served as the private quarters have serene landscapes on the walls.
-While many traditional Japanese buildings have painted sliding doors, or scrolls in special niches, Ninomaru palace’s rooms are like one continuous painting, continuing above the doors, into alcoves and sometimes even onto the ceiling.
-No one new is allowed into the palace after 4pm, and I don’t think that you can enter the main Nijo castle structure after 3.
-Even though I had heard that in Japan department stores and the like play ‘Auld Lang Syne’ (pardon my butchering of the spelling) when they are trying to close for the evening, this was the first time that I actually heard it.

Tales of Hoffman

Alright, I am sure that people are sick of me talking about this on here as they are listening to me talk about it in the AKP lounge, but I went to Takarazuka again on Sunday. This was my first time seeing a play in the smaller theatre (called Bow Hall), where they put on simpler shows without musical reviews after them that are cast with actresses who might later rise to top-star status. In the larger theatre the top role is always taken by the performing troupe’s top star, but in Bow Hall they give various different people chances to take lead roles. The play itself was ‘Tales of Hoffman’, and was based on the opera of the same name, though was not really an opera stylistically. I believe that some of the music was the same, but there were liberties taken and (I believe) songs added. The people that I saw really did seem promising, though I was not fond of the sound equipment, and felt that it would have been better if the actors hadn’t been microphoned, as the theatre itself was small enough that I’m sure we would have been able to hear them. After the show itself we hit up the gift shop, this time to buy DVDs that I had been allotted grant money for. I submitted a proposal a while ago for money to use buying Takarazuka DVDs that would allow me to expand an earlier project that I had done on trends in Takarazuka costuming, and had received approval before I went to Takarazuka this time. I bought: ‘Rose of Versailles- Oscar and Andre’, ‘Elizabeth’, ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, ‘Hoshikage no Hito’, and ‘Phantom’ in addition to some things for myself (a ‘Rose of Versailles’ song book, a Kei Aran calendar and another set of tickets for a show about vampires). Unfortunately, spending this much money was way out of my spending pattern, which meant that my debit card company got suspicious and put a hold on my card that I had to clear up on the following Monday.
-Most shows in Bow Hall are double-cast, which gives even more actors chances to take lead roles.
-Spending that much money in one go (even knowing that I’m going to be reimbursed) makes me lightheaded.
-If they do not have a piece of merchandise that you want at the gift shop in the theatre, go to one of the stores outside the theatre.
-It seemed that there were (very quiet) scalpers outside the theatre, which makes me think that I might be able to get tickets on the day of for a play that I was not able to reserve tickets for initially.
-If you want to buy mp3s from a Japanese site, you need a credit card with a Japanese address attached to it, but if you buy something called ‘Net Cash’ from a convenience store here you can use that to pay online.

Making the Rounds

Because it was going to be one of the last days that I would get to spend with my friend from school who was in town, we just walked all around the district near my school on Saturday. We didn’t visit anywhere that was particularly new (to me), but we did get to talk a lot and managed to see a couple exciting things, including a bride and groom having their wedding pictures taken outside of a local shrine and a maiko getting into a cab (in full dress) in Kamishichiken geisha district. We had lunch at a ‘Colorado Café’, where the service was slow but the sandwiches were cheap and tasty, and hit up Book Off (a used book, CD, DVD, and game store) and the 100yen shop. By the time I limped home I had some impressive blisters and wallet that was rather lighter than when I had left in the morning.
-The white hood worn over a Japanese bride’s hair is supposed to ‘hide her horns’ until after vows have been exchanged, which I think is just hilarious.
-Some of the people here are great at sales. I went into a used kimono shop and the woman there asked me if I’d ever been on television. It might also have been the sunglasses.
-Apparently traditional Japanese formal shoes that are worn with kimono are ‘one size fits all’, and don’t fit me at all.

Karaoke in Kimono

Friday was the big AKP New Year’s Party, for which I had had my outfit planned for weeks: a furisode kimono (one where the sleeves fall down to below waist-level when the arms are extended at shoulder height) that was cream with red and gold chrysanthemums and peonies, a green obi decorated with fans and gold, purple, orange and white flowers that my host family had bought for me, and a hair ornament with red and cream flowers made of folded silk. I had also bought a book full of complicated obi knots and chosen which one I wanted, which my host mother and my host mother’s sister helped me to implement. I finished it all off with a magenta kimono coat and headed off to the Kyoto Tower Hotel, where we had all stayed our first week in Japan. They had a lot of very tasty food at the party, and a lot of people performed things that they had worked on all semester, including groups doing koto, shamisen, taiko and shakuhachi (traditional Japanese instruments), Hula, and my own traditional Japanese dance class. It was a lot of fun, and afterward (just as I was about ready to return home, actually) some friends invited me to karaoke. So, still in my kimono as I didn’t have any other clothes with me, I joined them in a rousing night of singing everything from the Beatles to my own Takarazuka solo. We were out really late, though, and I ended up riding the last train home at about midnight.
-People still seem to be baffled by the concept of a foreigner in kimono.
-My friend stopped a couple of well-dressed men on the street to ask if they were hosts. They said ‘no’, but we were not convinced, maybe they were off-duty and didn’t want to admit it?
-Make sure you know when the last train is.
-If an entry into the karaoke machine doesn’t take right away, just try again.

Birthday

Well, today was my birthday, January 16th. As things go, it was a pretty calm day, and since I had classes all of today I really didn’t have the time to do anything more exciting, though I plan to do something on the weekend with some friends if I have time then. My host mother made a truly lovely dinner for me, and my host sister got a bottle of wine to go with it. I have to say that I was really touched.

Coming of Age Day

We had Monday off because of ‘Seijin no Hi’ or Coming of Age day, where all people who turned 20 in the preceding year dress up *very* nicely (The girls almost all in kimono, the boys usually in suits, I think) and go to an event put on by their local government. Many students from AKP were eligible for and received invitations to the event, but my birthday evidently falls into some sort of grey area, and I was thus too old to go. Instead, some friends and I went to the Kyoto National Museum, which had an exhibit of swords that had been made for Temples and Shrines in the Kyoto area. Some were more heavily decorated than others, and there were even swords from before 800 AD! We toured around pretty much the entire exhibit before heading back. On our way to the Shijo subway station we passed one of the other top geisha districts in Kyoto, Miyagawa-cho, which I had not previously known the location of. I was excited, but my camera had completely run out of batteries, so I have no pictures of the area.
-It might be worth taking the bus to the museum next time, especially if it’s as cold as it was this time.
-The Kyoto National Museum has a really good student discount, whereby you can see anything in the museum (excepting the special exhibit, which is in a different building) for 250yen.
-After the festivities for Seijin no Hi, those who are studying ‘kyudo’ or traditional Japanese archery go to the Sanjuusangendo Temple for a big contest that includes the area’s masters as well. I didn’t go; it was too early in the morning.
-The symbol of Miyagawa-cho is three interlocking circles.

Familiar Faces

On Friday I finally had the chance to meet up with a group from my college that had been in town since the beginning of the month. I had been asked to give a small presentation, which I was a little nervous about, but it was fine in the end. For my presentation I decided to wear kimono, but since it was raining I had to wear it with my boots instead of more traditional footwear, which is an interesting look that is slowly becoming a trademark of mine. I topped off the ensemble with my host mother’s bamboo and silk umbrella, which was beautiful and very useful, though made me feel doubly out of place on the return home. I had never been out late enough that I worried about catching the last bus before, but this time I missed the 201 bus that I wanted to take home, and so wound up taking a 203 instead, which actually only went about four stops before it reached the bus depot where it was staying for the night. Because it was not a bus that I was used to taking, I didn’t really know where I was or how to get home, so (in a step that made sense at the time) I went to the convenience store for a coke and some bread. The people behind the counter looked at me like I was an alien. In a kimono. Everything turned out okay, as after a quick call to my host mother I learned that I was within cheap cab distance of home.
-Outfits that seem cute and well thought out in the early evening feel ridiculous at midnight in a little-known and almost deserted part of town.
-Have I mentioned that cab doors open for you automatically here? It’s pretty cool.
-I have got to get myself one of those umbrellas, they are really beautiful, though admittedly not very portable.

Back into a routine

Well, classes have officially begun, and it seems as though I’ve chosen some good ones. My first elective is called ‘Japanese Antiquity and its Political Uses in the Modern Era’, which is an interesting topic, and even though that class hasn’t actually met yet (it’s a Monday class, and we have yet to have a Monday with classes) I think that it will be interesting. My other class is ‘Kyoto and the History of its Housing’, which is taught by an actual architect and is already engaging, especially since it’s a topic that I don’t really know very much about yet. In addition to those I have Japanese class again, but everyone shifted professors, so it’s almost like a new class.
Something happened to a friend of mine that I think is worth mentioning. She was walking home one evening (about 6ish, she said) and was almost in front of her homestay where she hear a motor coming up quickly to one side of her. At first she thought that it was a car, and so was startled when she felt it brush against her, but it was in fact a motorcycle, the rider of which had just grabbed her bag. The rider was wearing a helmet with a dark visor, and got away quickly enough that she had no hope of chasing it. Inside her bag was, of course, pretty much everything that she had that was of value: DS portable video game, cell phone, wallet, alien registration card, textbooks and tickets to two different Takarazuka shows. She reported it to the police, and they actually went to the first of the shows for which her tickets had been taken to see if the thief was stupid enough to use them (he wasn’t). Everyone always talks about how safe Japan is, visitors and natives both, but it’s probably important to remember that there is no place that is completely safe.
-I really need to get back into shape for school.
-I need to be more careful about my purse, and I’m thinking that I’m going to start using a shorter strap (to keep it closer to my body when I walk).
-The Takarazuka tickets were the biggest worry for my friend. I think that they would have been for me as well, sadly.

Last day of Break.

My friend’s final day in town (and my last day of break) we decided to spend shopping. Because we had more time than we had initially thought, we headed back to Teramachi street to pick up some last souvenirs and waste some time. Breakfast was at the convenience store (hot tea and sweet red bean buns), and then lunch was at a store in Nishiki market that sells mochi (glutinous rice pounded to make a sticky sort of cake) out of the front but also has a little restaurant in the back. It was really very good, not very expensive, and seemingly completely vegetarian. I had white miso soup with mochi and sticky rice with sweet red beans, while she had mochi coated in various types of bean powder. After we’d finished shopping and wandering around, we headed to the airport shuttle bus which she then took to the airport. The rest of the day was spent getting errands done and preparing for a new semester of college (I forget sometimes that that’s why I’m here in the first place).
-Nishiki and Teramachi don’t have a lot going on early in the morning, or maybe it’s just because it’s New Year’s season?
-If you are one of the first people into Daimaru department store, every clerk and worker stands at their post and bows to you as you pass. We were only taking a shortcut through the basement grocery store there, but I still felt very important.
-There are airport shuttles that leaves for Itami and Kansai airports, though they are not every hour as was reported to my host mother. The shuttle itself departs from in front of the Keihan Hotel attached to Kyoto Station and is not very expensive.
-I did not fail any classes, and my teacher actually liked my Takarazuka project, hurray!
-I’m actually going to get more sleep now that school has started than I did over break.

The Market at the Temple and the Shrine in the Fields

The 6th was Dad’s last day in town, and luckily my friend had found out about another flea market at Toji that was happening on that day, so we decided to go take a look around. It was less than half the size of the usual Toji market on the 20th, but it was still very interesting and filled with a large variety of unusual and random items. We managed to find an old diving helmet and framed pieces of old Japanese WWII propaganda among the usual kimono and porcelain. For Dad’s final dinner in Japan we actually had some very lovely Italian food, some of the first that I’d had in a long time, with tomatoe, mozzarella, and basil salad. Afterwards we got Dad back to his hotel in time to catch the airport shuttle, and then it was just my friend and I. That afternoon my host family had offered to take the two of us over to Arashiyama to see some of the sights there, so we headed out that way by car. We walked through a lovely bamboo forest to a shrine called Nonomiya, which, in the Tale of Genji, is where the Lady Rokujo last meets with Genji while her daughter is being prepared to become high priestess of Ise shrine. Because of this, the shrine is likely to do some good business in 2008 with the 1000th anniversary of the writing of ‘Genji.’ After that we tried for another big temple (the name escapes me just now) but it was, unfortunately, closed for the New Year’s season. We did, however, get to see the neighbouring lake that was used for moon viewing parties centuries ago. After that we returned to my host family’s house for dinner, which they had made an effort to keep vegetarian for my friend’s sake. It was very good, though I could hardly move at the end after eaten so much.
-Nonomiya is described both in Genji and at least one Noh play taken from it as being a bleak and isolated place, but now it’s a thriving tourist area that seems to meet up with the rest of the city, more or less.
-We had sushi for dinner, but not the kind that most people think of. ‘Sushi’ actually refers to vinegar-seasoned rice and not fish, so what we had was a rice-bowl sort of setting topped with vegetables, egg, and seaweed.

Takarazuka Again!

I had managed to get tickets to see the Takarazuka Snow Troupe’s performance of ‘Je t’Aime’, which was set in France, starring Mizu Natsuki. It was a great performance, though the first half (the actual play) wasn’t as much of a spectacle as ‘El Halcon’ had been. The second act, however, did not disappoint. It was called ‘Mirroir’ and was centred around the theme of mirrors of various kinds, from reflections in water (with beautiful blue silk veils as part of the set) to a new take on the Medusa story (very good statue impressions in that one) to Snow White and Cinderella having an argument over ‘who was the fairest’ (in massive hoop skirts no less!). All of this was set to various pop songs such as ‘Night and Day’, ‘Cartoon Hero’ and ‘Johnny Angel’. The dancing, costumes, sets, singing and sequins were all that I had hoped for and more, and it seemed that Dad and my friend enjoyed it all as well. After the show (and the required visit to the gift shop) we got some lunch in a soba shop in the shopping mall adjacent to the train station. It was really good, and seemed to be the real deal, complete with sweet buckwheat crackers when we sad down, buckwheat tea, and actual wasabi roots to grate over the noodles themselves. I have to say though that the best thing about the restaurant was probably the fact that it was non-smoking during lunch hours. After that I believe that we got back on the train, dropped off things at our various rooms, and met up again for dinner.
-My first Takarazuka show was no fluke: they just happen to be amazing.
-The more I look the more non-smoking restaurants and cafes I see, but they still seem to be a long way from an all-out ban.
-Takarazuka DVDs are still expensive. I bought what I thought was a cheap copy of ‘Rose of Versailles,’ but turned out to be only the scenes that a certain actress (Aran Kei) was in. Even in scenes where she was present, the camera only focused on her, often to the exclusion of the actual action in a scene. I still like it, though. So, you should probably be aware that in the Takarazuka gift shop it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.
-There’s also a nice little cafeteria-style restaurant that has good, cheap food that is quick. This is nice especially if you’re just catching a quick bite before the show.

Very Important Moss

The following day my host sister and host mother took Dad, my friend and me around to a couple famous places in Kyoto. The first stop was the golden temple again, where Dad got a coin into the bowl in only one shot, and then on to Ryoanji which was close by. Ryoanji has beautiful grounds, but it’s most famous for its rock garden (an area of carefully placed stones amid raked gravel). The rock garden has about 15 stones in it, but they are positioned such that you can only ever see 14 at a time, with one always hidden by one of the others. It’s pretty nifty. In addition, the back wall of the garden is tapered towards the corner, creating the illusion of a larger space. The grounds themselves are very calming, and undoubtedly stunning in the spring, when the massive wisteria trellis and rows of cherry trees would be in bloom. From there we went to the Silver Temple, Ginkakuji, the sister temple to the Gold Temple, Kinkakuji. While Kinkakuji is located under one of the mountains around Kyoto on which the Chinese character for ‘big’ is burned every summer, Ginkakuji is under the other character for ‘big’, and was meant to be covered in silver to strengthen the comparison. Unfortunately, a war broke out before Ginkakuji could be finished, so even though it is called the ‘Silver Temple’ it is actually made of wood. While the building itself is rather unremarkable, the gardens surrounding it are truly lovely, and include sculpted white sand flows and winding manicured rivers winding down the mountainside, which is in turn covered in green mosses and trees. Apparently there are mosses in the garden specific to the area or rare that are threatened by invasive species of mosses from other locations. After this temple we attempted to get across town to Sanjusangendo, but did not make it in part due to the heavy traffic and in part due to the fact that the temple closed early. Instead we had tea and tarts at the neighbouring Hyatt and returned to the hotel.
-Kinkakuji may be more immediately impressive, but I found Ginkakuji to be more beautiful overall.
-At Ginkakuji there were samples of mosses for the purpose of pointing out the different species present on the temple grounds. The label for the native mosses was ‘Very Important Moss (Like VIP)’, but the one for the invasive species was ‘Moss the Interrupter’, which I think should be the name of a super villain.
-They have samples of this wonderful plum and shiso tea at Ryoanji that is tart and thankfully quite warm.

Another trip Northward

On my friend’s first day in town we did the Kamishichiken/Kitano Tenmangu course on foot. Kamishichiken was still closed, but Kitano Tenmangu had booths set up and a lot of people milling about. After that we decided to walk somewhere else, and realized that we were within walking distance of Nijo Castle. On our way there we passed a lot of closed stores, but also found a strange shrine that was located on small islands within a pond. I later learned that this place had something to do with ninjas, though I wasn’t clear on what exactly. Unfortunately, when we reached Nijo Castle we learned that they do not allow people to enter after 3pm, and since it was almost 4 by then we had to head back home instead. We ate at my favourite curry place that night and then headed to bed, since my friend was about ready to fall asleep in her dinner.
I believe that it was the following day that we met my friend at her hostel and went to see the nearby Higashi Honganji, which is the main location for its particular sect of Buddhism. One of the main buildings was under construction, but we could walk around the sort of porch that circles it. The placard there said that it was the largest wooden structure in the world, but I seem to remember that Todaiji in Nara said that *it* was the biggest wooden structure in the world. Maybe it’s a point of contention between the two. we went to Teramachi street, where my friend bought a kimono and obi at the same store that my mom and sister had earlier (the prices were still great) and we all managed to tour around a neat woodblock print store that carried a wide variety of things, both original and reproduction. For lunch we decided on grilled noodles (yakisoba), and I found a small place that looked both tasty and cheap. Unfortunately, the entire table of people behind Dad smoked like chimneys, and I swear that between the four of them they more than killed a pack of cigarettes while we there in the small, unventilated restaurant.
-One of these days I’m bound to get the hours at Nijo Castle right and actually manage to go inside.
-When buildings go under construction here they encase them in other buildings, doubtless to control the conditions inside. The one covering the building at Higashi Honganji was massive.
-Smoking is still very prevalent here, though I have seen a few non-smoking places. The thing that worried the most was seeing small kids at the next table in that smoke-box of a restaurant. I saw on the news here recently a segment on second-hand smoke, where they were stopping people on the street to ask them about it, and most everyone seemed surprised to hear that it was dangerous.
-It never occurred to me how hard it would be to be a vegetarian in this country until I started trying to find things for my friend to eat. Even though she was allowing fish for the purpose of the trip (because seasonings, soup stocks and sauces are all fish-based) we’d still find pork sprinkled into things without any mention having been made on the menu.

Happy New Year!

It must have been the first, then, that my dad, my sister and I went to Shinkyogoku Street to shop around. Shinkyogoku is parallel to Teramachi street and is another shopping district with a bunch of cute little shops. It was really cold, however, so we wound up heading home a bit early, but not before we stopped at an okonomiyaki restaurant for lunch. I’d never been to an actual okonomiyaki restaurant before, but it was a lot of fun, especially since the two waitresses on duty were excited to practice their English with us while showing us how it was done. Basically, you order what kind you want (I got pork) and they bring it to you raw and you cook it on the table in front of you, which has basically a large griddle on it. You put down the meat first to cook it, then (if you’re having this style) the noodles. While they’re cooking, you mix together the egg, cabbage, and batter that they gave you in a bowl, pour it on top of the meat, put the noodles on top and cook it on both sides. All that’s left after that is to top it in sauce, mayonnaise, seaweed and/or bonito flakes and eat up! It was the perfect lunch for that day, since the griddle gives off a lot of very welcome heat.
It must have been the next day that we tackled the Yasaka Shrine/Nene’s road/ Kiyomizu temple trip. Yasaka was very busy, but it was also full of booths selling all sorts of foods and shrine charms, which gave it a very festive atmosphere. My sister bought a special sort of protection charm that they (apparently) only sell at New Year’s, which is an arrow without a point hung with ribbons and bells and very attractive. If Yasaka was busy, Kiyomizu was quite nearly un-navigable. Somehow we managed to get through it, see the sights, buy some charms, and marvel over the architecture unharmed and return home. My sister sadly had to leave extremely early in the morning on the 2nd, se we had a final meal at Mos Burger together before I left for Kyoto station to meet my friend who was coming into Kyoto that night. I had, stupidly, thought that the Mr. Donuts in Kyoto Station would be a good meeting place, and waited there for awhile before realizing that not only had I given awful directions, but also that it could not be seen from the main level of the station as I had thought. My next thought was to leave a message for her apologizing and giving directions for how to contact me the next morning at he hostel, but when I asked at a nearby hotel where there was a hostel near Kyoto station they told me that there was none. Luckily all was actually well, as the email that I received not long after confirmed.
-‘Modern Yaki’ is a type of okonomiyaki that has noodles on it in addition to meat. This style is, I believe, most popular in Hiroshima and Osaka.
-It seems that every Japanese person ever goes to shrines and/or temples in the first week or so of the New Year. Many of the women wear beautiful kimono to do so.
-Mos Burger currently has this amazing shrimp burger out that comes in an almost pita-like wrap with shredded cabbage and mayo or chile sauce.
-There actually is a hostel near Kyoto Station, it’s just not called a hostel, it’s called a ‘Tour Club’.
-A lot of things are closed for the first week or so of January, but convenience stores (and Mos Burger) are always open, so we didn’t have any trouble finding food.