Sunday we had two things scheduled - a meeting with Yoko Watanabe, one of Maria's schoolfriends from her time here, and dinner with the Matsubaras. Sunday was a particularly cold and blustery day.
We met Yoko in front of Seiyu, and she took us around some of the famous and very Japanese sights of Kichijoji. Right across the road from Seiyu, also on Sun Road, is an O'tera (budhist temple). A wonderful example of the side-by-side naturer of new and old Japan. So first we went into the O'tera and the kids were shown the rituals with incense and the donations box. Then we went across the road (almost literally) to the Hachiman (kami/god) Jinja. Jinja are Shinto shrines with the two religions existing side by side in Japan, most people taking part in the rituals of both and each having their own provinence in daily life. Its very interesting and while perhaps sounding complex or even hypocritical, in practice doesn't seem to be at all. So, at the Hachiman Jinja (the one we'd visited earlier) the kids learnt of the basic Shinto rituals of rinsing the hands and mouth before approaching the shrine.
Then we walked to the other side of Kichijoji and to Innokashira Koen (park) - a rather famous park in Tokyo. Centred around a lake it is both large and very beautiful. During Sakura (cherry blossom) flowering season (just around the corner) it is packed with people. This day it was the usual early (cold) spring Sunday crowd - sightseers, exercisers,
tap dancers (on a small metre by metre board), and nature photographers with their tripods and special long lenses (the park is famous for several reasons including cherry blossoms, late night assignations between young people, and a particularly colourful male duck ... It was for this later form of wildlife that the photographers were there). We did a slow tour of a portion of the park, visiting both the tiny Kitsune (fox-spirit - kind of a trickster in Japanese folktales) shrine, as well as the much larger dog (? - there's some complexity here - its not a dog spirit shrine, but some other kind of female spirit (with a snake around its neck), but seems to have some dedication or association with dogs) shrine, where the kids both bought small charms (small coloured cloth bags about 5cm by 2cm in size that are attached to bags, mobile phones, and car rearview mirrors in the same way that small stuffed toys can be found attached at these locations - these charms are supposed to give luck, or health, or ...), as well as a "prediction" each. These predictions are written on a small 
piece of paper and can be lucky (in which case you take them with you) or unlucky - in which case you tie them to a special tree or line at line so the (bad) luck does not come with you. Apparently Zoe got the best prediction, and Grant got the 2nd best.
Then it was back into the shopping district for lunch. If I have many more of these large cooked lunches (lunch sets are great value at around 1,000 Yen for a large cooked main course with a couple of side dishes and sometimes a drink) I am going to balloon out. So we had a chat with Yoko and learnt that she is now an author - having written a large number of guide books (how to choose the right pet for you, how to clean the house, consulting the doctor, etc.). So we went to a bookshop to see one of her books, before seeing her off at the eki.
Since we were having dinner in Kichijoji that night with the Matsubaras we decided to visit Mari for the afternoon - keeping warm, spending some time together, and using the computer (polish up the blog a bit). During the afternoon Grant started to complain of a headache and develop a mild fever. Mari supplied us with some medicine and we decided to go ahead with the dinner (it really being too late to call it off anyway).
Meeting the Matsubaras at LonLon (a large department store attached to the station) they took us to a nearby restaurant known as Watami for a great meal. Apparently one of a franchise I highly commend this restaurant to anyone visiting Tokyo (though how anyone can find it - just in Kichijoji alone there are hundreds of restaurants with most buildings seeming to contain at least 1 on some floor or other). Great ambiance - a mix of traditional physical layout and cool jazz - combined with tasty cheap dishes that can ordered as and when wanted.
Then a cold walk home with me piggy-backing Grant part of the way due to his fatigue and illness. Though an early start the next day I watched a bit of late night TV and saw a couple of interesting stories. One on the drought in Australia, and the other on the disturbing phenomenon of "Young Idol" magazines (due to the age of some of the readers of this blog - the kids' schoolmates, I won't write further about that here). As to international news, there seems to be almost none other than that concerning North Korea, and a couple of baseball players playing in the US league. That's across all TV stations including NHK (the national broadcaster). Whether this is a reflection of an inwards looking culture, the fact that 130 (?) million people generate enough news themselves, a lack of cultural cringe, or some other reason, is unclear to me.
We met Yoko in front of Seiyu, and she took us around some of the famous and very Japanese sights of Kichijoji. Right across the road from Seiyu, also on Sun Road, is an O'tera (budhist temple). A wonderful example of the side-by-side naturer of new and old Japan. So first we went into the O'tera and the kids were shown the rituals with incense and the donations box. Then we went across the road (almost literally) to the Hachiman (kami/god) Jinja. Jinja are Shinto shrines with the two religions existing side by side in Japan, most people taking part in the rituals of both and each having their own provinence in daily life. Its very interesting and while perhaps sounding complex or even hypocritical, in practice doesn't seem to be at all. So, at the Hachiman Jinja (the one we'd visited earlier) the kids learnt of the basic Shinto rituals of rinsing the hands and mouth before approaching the shrine.
Then we walked to the other side of Kichijoji and to Innokashira Koen (park) - a rather famous park in Tokyo. Centred around a lake it is both large and very beautiful. During Sakura (cherry blossom) flowering season (just around the corner) it is packed with people. This day it was the usual early (cold) spring Sunday crowd - sightseers, exercisers,
tap dancers (on a small metre by metre board), and nature photographers with their tripods and special long lenses (the park is famous for several reasons including cherry blossoms, late night assignations between young people, and a particularly colourful male duck ... It was for this later form of wildlife that the photographers were there). We did a slow tour of a portion of the park, visiting both the tiny Kitsune (fox-spirit - kind of a trickster in Japanese folktales) shrine, as well as the much larger dog (? - there's some complexity here - its not a dog spirit shrine, but some other kind of female spirit (with a snake around its neck), but seems to have some dedication or association with dogs) shrine, where the kids both bought small charms (small coloured cloth bags about 5cm by 2cm in size that are attached to bags, mobile phones, and car rearview mirrors in the same way that small stuffed toys can be found attached at these locations - these charms are supposed to give luck, or health, or ...), as well as a "prediction" each. These predictions are written on a small 
piece of paper and can be lucky (in which case you take them with you) or unlucky - in which case you tie them to a special tree or line at line so the (bad) luck does not come with you. Apparently Zoe got the best prediction, and Grant got the 2nd best.Then it was back into the shopping district for lunch. If I have many more of these large cooked lunches (lunch sets are great value at around 1,000 Yen for a large cooked main course with a couple of side dishes and sometimes a drink) I am going to balloon out. So we had a chat with Yoko and learnt that she is now an author - having written a large number of guide books (how to choose the right pet for you, how to clean the house, consulting the doctor, etc.). So we went to a bookshop to see one of her books, before seeing her off at the eki.
Since we were having dinner in Kichijoji that night with the Matsubaras we decided to visit Mari for the afternoon - keeping warm, spending some time together, and using the computer (polish up the blog a bit). During the afternoon Grant started to complain of a headache and develop a mild fever. Mari supplied us with some medicine and we decided to go ahead with the dinner (it really being too late to call it off anyway).
Meeting the Matsubaras at LonLon (a large department store attached to the station) they took us to a nearby restaurant known as Watami for a great meal. Apparently one of a franchise I highly commend this restaurant to anyone visiting Tokyo (though how anyone can find it - just in Kichijoji alone there are hundreds of restaurants with most buildings seeming to contain at least 1 on some floor or other). Great ambiance - a mix of traditional physical layout and cool jazz - combined with tasty cheap dishes that can ordered as and when wanted.
Then a cold walk home with me piggy-backing Grant part of the way due to his fatigue and illness. Though an early start the next day I watched a bit of late night TV and saw a couple of interesting stories. One on the drought in Australia, and the other on the disturbing phenomenon of "Young Idol" magazines (due to the age of some of the readers of this blog - the kids' schoolmates, I won't write further about that here). As to international news, there seems to be almost none other than that concerning North Korea, and a couple of baseball players playing in the US league. That's across all TV stations including NHK (the national broadcaster). Whether this is a reflection of an inwards looking culture, the fact that 130 (?) million people generate enough news themselves, a lack of cultural cringe, or some other reason, is unclear to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment