Horyuji visit with Junko

Sitting Bohdisattva

Sitting Bohdisattva

Gion at night

Pagoda at Horyuji

Entrance to Eastern Precinct of Horyuji

B and Junko at Horyuji

   

Saturday, March 23

San kan, shi on.  (Three cold days, four warm days: describes March weather in Kyoto.)

 We met our old friend Junko Inokuma in the morning.  She had come from Tokyo for a visit.  We set off for a trip to Nara to visit Horyuji Temple, founded in the 7th Century and considered the oldest wooden structure in Japan.  It's quite a vast complex, housing many national treasures from different periods.  It was a rather chilly day, but OK for walking around.  (I think Kyoto has at least 4 cold days each week in March.)  We had a special viewing of a food offering in one of the smaller temples -  a magnificent and colorful arrangement made by monks over a month's time.  It consisted of tall towers and mounds of artfully arranged rice cakes, oranges, persimmons, and other items and was quite remarkable.  Not far behind the Horyuji Temple is Chuguji Temple, a small, graceful temple probably built to be a nunnery.  It is especially famous for the Sitting Bodhisattva with One Leg Pendant.  It is described in the guide brochure as "one of the three smiling masterpieces of the world alongside the Sphinx and the Mona Lisa..." It represents the purity and grace of the Buddhist redemption of mankind.
     We went back to Kyoto and Junko took us out for a lovely Kaiseki meal in Gion.  (Restaurant Nishimura - one of those a westerner would never find).  The meal was delicious, with beautiful spring vegetables and seafood.  We had our own dining room and much good talk over sochu, plum wine and sake.  Waitresses wearing beautiful kimonos, and a table with a heated well for your legs completed the delight of the evening.
     We walked around Gion with its glowing street lights and red lanterns, and then parted for the night.

With love to all

     

Hirano Shrine

First sakura with Nicholas, Win and Emmanuel

Lunch with Emmanuel and Nicholas

     Friday we met up with old university friends, Emmanuel Delille and Nicholas Dassonville.  Emmanuel is now living in Berlin where he does his research on psychiatric history.  Nicholas is teaching French here in Japan.  We had a wonderful lunch in Gion, at the kind of restaurant that Win and I usually wouldn't try because there never seems to be a name or anything in English (in other words they don't encourage foreigners).  But this was lovely, with beautiful roasted bamboo shoot for a start and sushi so pretty it shouldn't be eaten.  After we went to Kitano Tenmangu shrine to walk around and see the plum and cherry trees.  I think I can tell the difference now in that plum trees have more complex and fragrant blossoms compared to cherry, and spread at the bottom of the tree.
     After good bye we went to the Oyama's for dinner.  Of course Win played trains with Satoki again.
The dinner was lovely, with make it yourself sushi, and a little roasted wild boar among other things.
We had some talk of Noh plays, and were given a DVD of Noh play which will be fun to watch.  We will try to bring home some simple Japanese cooking ideas (indeed we were provided with some ingredients to bring home.)

Much love to everyone

Pediatric psychology group

Wednesday and Thursday, March 20 and 21

     Wednesday was Win's Seminar, the purpose of which was to provide group supervision to a small group of graduate students.  Two cases were presented, both very difficult, suicidal patients.  Win did a great job encouraging discussion, often a challenging undertaking in a Japanese classroom.  Of course, the students had a much harder job in that presenting cases in English is a huge and exhausting effort!  The Japanese way of approaching treatment seems more subtle and subjective than our own...My seminar was for the students who have an interest in pediatric psychology (for which there is not a special course of study).  I gave a talk on "Child Psychiatry in the US,"  and then a fascinating case of a boy with psychogenic vomiting was presented by Nozomi Sato.  Again a lovely and intimate way of working with a very ill patient.  There was a good discussion of the differences between a western approach to "formulation" and the Japanese way of describing a case called "mitate."  The latter being more subjective, internal, connected to the therapist's own responses (if I understand this concept at all).
     While our seminars were going on, there was a two day Symposium on Education with foreign visitors, presentations of student research etc.  This allowed us to participate in several buffet meals and see the research posters, a few of which were in English.  Last night we returned to the little sushi restaurant in the neighborhood of the machiya we rented last April.  We were warmly greeted by the owner and waiter who had remembered us!  That was fun.  Now we have one short  week to socialize with old and revisit some of our favorite places.

Lots of love to all
    

Pottery and Plum Blossoms

Blue Vase

Studio Room with Wheels

Bisque Kiln

Climbing kiln (Noborigama)

Kawai Kanjiro

Plum Blossoms in the Imperial Park

 

 

 

 

 

"Any work of art belongs to everyone, because it is whatever each person sees in it."

                                                                                        -Kawai Kanjiro

     Yesterday was rather rainy.  Though still warm.  We thought we would read and work in the International Community House in the morning, but once there found it closed on Mondays.  So we went back uptown and met old friends Berg and Somdev for lunch.   Somdev is here for four years to teach Sanskrit.  It seems a bit lonely for Berg.  In the pouring rain we went to a small shrine hidden behind large office buildings, and then back to the hotel.  Of course we had to buy the usual clear plastic umbrella of which there are billions in Kyoto.
     Today we went in the morning to the Kawai Kanjiro House Museum.  He was a famous a leader of the folk art movement and produced an astonishing output from his home.  He never signed his pots and refused to be named a national treasure.  We were first visitors of the day, and the home was lovely and peaceful, filled with pots as well as wonderful wooden furniture and sculpture.  The photos above don't do it justice, but the climbing kiln (which took some 2000 bundles of wood to fire up and had eight levels) was quite astonishing.
     After the visit we went to the University to meet Oyama-sensei, hear about our coming seminars, etc.  He took us out to lunch at a wonderful little French place called Rive Gauche, where we enjoyed a many course meal in a French/Japanese way.  Most memorable were the tiny whole squid in a salad with grape fruit, and a very delicious fish for the main course.  We then took a leisurely stroll in the Imperial Park to see the plum trees, now a bit past their height but still lovely in the sunshine and ever so slightly fragrant. 

We send love
    

Sunday by the Kamogawa

Behind the curtain of the Minamiza Theatre

Satoki-chan and his new truck

     A beautiful spring day.  Mayo-san and Satoki-chan met us at the hotel after breakfast and we set out for a stroll along the Kamogawa.  Satoki was thrilled with his new front loader, and seemed equally excited to see his old American friends.  He did miss seeing Ella however.  We threw stones into the river, watched the ducks, and noticed that the cherry trees were close to blooming (actually 15 days earlier than last year according to those who watch the "sentinel cherry tree" in Tokyo), and of course hauled loads of dirt in the truck.  We had a simple lunch and then said good bye to the Oyama's.
     We took a quick tour of the beautiful old Kabuki theatre (Minamiza theatre).  The picture is of us standing inside the curtain which says be beware of fire (these wooden theatres with their cedar stage floors are prone to burning down).  Unfortunately we probably can't see the Noh plays next weekend due to scheduling conflicts.
    Finally we went to see Emilie Louvet and Nicholas and their one month old baby Alix.  They live in a little house near Kyoto Eki, and we spent a nice few hours hearing about their lives in Kyoto, the difficulties of finding academic jobs in science, and meeting their sweet baby.   After a very round about trip home, we stopped at a local restaurant for dinner (the waitress it turned out is getting a PhD in biomedical ethics and was thrilled to learn we would be happy to help her if she ever came to Boston), and now find ourselves more or less out of steam.

Much love to all

Return to Kyoto

16 March 2013

Images of Plum Blossoms

     Even in Kyoto-
hearing the cuckoo's cry-
     I long for Kyoto.

                       -Basho

      We arrived in Kyoto late last night after an uneventful but sleep depriving 24hr+ journey.  We feel fortunate indeed to have both been invited back to give seminars for the graduate students later in the week.  Of course this was less of a surprise for Win than for B, who is now herself addressed as Barbara-sensei instead of last year's Barbara-san!
       We are staying at the Hyatt Hotel which is in southern Highashiyama, across from the Kyoto National Museum which has been closed for years and is unfortunately not scheduled to reopen until 2014.   We fell into a sort of comatose sleep and woke at lunch time, eager for a bowl of noodle soup which we found down the block in short order.  Afterwards we rested again, Win falling back to sleep and me walking up Higashioji-dori as far as the Yasaka Shrine.  I felt immediately at home, and once again was struck by all the closet-sized stores of artisans, the young women strolling about in their spring kimonos, the many bikes on the sidewalks, spring sweets in the shops, and the general bustle of Saturday crowds out shopping.
      After a bit we found a vegetarian restaurant not far from the hotel, where we were the last and only customers.  We were served by a chatty woman who was very proud of the organic vegetables (the mushrooms were particularly tasty), the tibetan tea, the beautiful handcrafted details of the house etc.  We truly felt what it is to be in Japan, to be cared for by someone who is deeply devoted to their shop and way of life.
      We will see some friends tomorrow and in the meantime need to continue to catch up on sleep on our very comfortable bed.

Love to all

Now Kyoto Seems Far Away


We have been home for a little over a month.  Our life here is very much more complicated than it was in Kyoto, giving us only a little time, so far, to put the experience in perspective.  We feel both that we know much more about Japan and Japanese culture than we did a few short months ago, and also that we can be certain of even less.  We have joined the ranks of countless Westerners who will always feel a bit in love with, but also, as has been said before, "Wrong about Japan".  We miss the people we began to get to know in Kyoto, and hope to stay in touch, but know from experience that keeping lively communication going between two such different worlds is easier said than done.  We have heard from Ibata sensei that he is willing to keep giving us calligraphy lessons via the fax machine.  We are hoping for a return invitation in October, but know not to count on it.  We miss our slow but steady progress in the Japanese language, and the visual world is emptier without all the hiragana and katakana everywhere, which I was getting pretty good at sounding out, even though the meaning of the sounds usually remained  beyond me. Awakening from a dream, we know the sense of loss that can accompany the fast-fading of strange and fascinating visions.

Much love to all who have read these posts.

That's all for now...