Sayonara Kyoto

14 and 15 March, 2015

B on Sanjo bridge

Win on Sanjo bridge

Saturday was drizzly, with a biting chill, so we thought Nishiki Market would be a fine indoor walk.  We have described it in earlier journals, but it is unfailingly colorful and fascinating.  Only about half the food is familiar to me.  And I could never figure out how one choses which pickles to buy, since there are literally hundreds of kinds…Luckily you can get lots of free tastes.  Sadly not the season for Ume (pickled plums, my favorite).  If I had a chance to live here again, I would definitely take cooking classes!  Then I would know how to prepare all the sorts of fish etc (including tiny whole squid and cod testicles, to name a few).  We had a fine sushi lunch and some sweet roasted chestnuts.  Then back home for a bit before meeting our dear friend Akiko for dinner.  

We had a delicious dinner with many courses, some roasted on the table including fresh bamboo shoots (abundant at this time of year), a fine dish of rice and bamboo shoots, excellent matcha ice cream with special sweetened black beans (for New Years I think).  After dinner Akiko took us on a surprise journey to Shoren-in Temple which was having an evening light up in the gardens.  I had remembered the magnificent camphor trees out in front, but had never seen the garden.  The lighting up is quite magical, especially the lit up bamboo grove and the small shrine devoted to people about to take a journey.  The pond and rock islands also looked sublime in the soft light.  Always sad to say good bye.

Today I went to the crafts flea market at the Chionen temple - always a marvel of clever and cute little things.  Win kindly stayed behind to clean the apartment.  We leave in about half an hour for the interminable trip home, Boston being 13 hours behind Kyoto, and from what I read we should expect snow!

I hope we will be back again, and with a bit more time to visit some parts of Japan we have yet to see.  Japan definitely is a part of us that we will carry home and treasure.

We will see everyone soon and send love.

Kamogawa on 14 March

A Long Walk in Higashiyama

14 March 2015

Yesterday was sunny for the first time!  Cool but good for an expedition.  We started out at one of our favorite temples, Ginkakuji (the silver pavilion, not to be confused with Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion of Mishima fame).  As always the gardens were lovely, more green and mossy than I had remembered, and the austere tea house sits overlooking the pond as if always contemplating the reflections.  From there we had a leisurely walk down the Philopsher's Path, wonderfully free of crowds.  Here and there were some camellias and plum trees, but no cherry trees yet.  Lunch at a little soba noodle shop, then a visit of another of our favorite temples, Enkando, famous for among other things the backward facing Amitaba (see an earlier blog for more complete description).

Feeling a bit tired, we took a cab over to the Yasaka Pagoda, mainly so we could find our favorite tea shop, Yasagi-ya.  A trip to Kyoto is not complete without sitting in the ancient shop, and having green tea from the lovely little earthen ware pots and cups.  Of course sweet bean cake and savory rice cake with seaweed wrap are also essential.  I think Adam, Diana and Ella might remember being there.  It hasn't changed a bit.

Win peeled off to go home to rest, and I walked up Higashiyama-dori for a long ways, past the Yasaka Shrine where myriads of young girls in Kimono where giggling and having their pictures taken by friends.  (We think this has to do with graduation season).  I went by our little Cotyria (Bird's Nest) machiya that we had rented in 2012, and felt very nostalgic.

In the evening we went with Yasu-sensei to Izakaya for dinner supplies, and ate with him in his apartment.  We watch some of the 15hr online course on "personality" he had done, which seemed very excellent from what we could understand.  He is a gifted teacher.

Then we just collapsed.

We hope all is well in the states and will be home very soon.  Send love.

Ginkaku ji

Kasagi ya

Philosopher's path

Meeting Old Students and Friends

12 March 2015

Satoki chan and Curious George

Yesterday was blustery and cold, with even an occasional snow flake.  Unusual for Kyoto in March.  We left the apartment early enough to have a nice lunch in a tiny restaurant (four tables) across the street from the university.  The owner cooked a delicious vegetarian meal starring hot sweet potato fritters which were tasty and warming!  Good fortification for Win, who delivered his talk in the afternoon.  Many old students showed up - they were so happy to see him again.  He called on everyone to talk of their clinical experiences treating trauma - a most un-Japanese teaching style but I think quite appreciated.  Afterwards we had coffee with Akiko san, and then, feeling quite exhausted, headed for home, stopping at another tiny restaurant in our neighborhood which happened to feature Okanomiyaki.  The warm food and the warm griddle on the table were most welcome.

Today was our first day of leisure.  We went into town and had coffee, did a little shopping and then met Berg and Somdev for lunch.  It was good to see them again; they have decided to stay no more than 18 more months and then move back to the states, hopefully CA where they can continue to teach Sanskrit.  We went back to Ipodo for some tea and enjoyed the matcha and sweets.  Excellent dinner with the Oyama family.  Satoki-chan just graduated from nursery school and was in high spirits.  He is greatly attached to Win.  Kaya is a beautiful baby, but a bit wary of strangers (being 7 mos) and unfortunately I kept making her cry.  Mayo and the children leave for Korea tomorrow, but we will see Yasu-sensei tomorrow evening.

We send love to all.

The Long Journey Back to Kyoto

11 March 2015

After four days of travel, we are finally at home in Oyama-sensei's second apartment in Fushimi-ku.  We arrived the night of March 9, after dealing with a canceled UA flight, and then the long wait for rebooking in San Francisco where we got to spend an unwanted extra night, and finally a flight which took us to Honolulu for all of two hours!  So much for our first trip to Hawaii.  Anyway, when we arrived at Kyoto Eki around 9:30pm, we were going through the gate when we heard someone shout "stop!"  I figured we had violated some mysterious regulation, but it was Oyama-sensei and Satoki, which was the best possible welcome and cheered us greatly as we had expected to find a cab on our own.

Yesterday, the 10th, was the day of my talk on intergeneration transmission of trauma from a child psychiatry perspective.  By some miracle, I was able to talk (I think mostly intelligibly) for two hours and it all went pretty well (at least the English speakers in the crowd seemed positive).  My sense is that child maltreatment is a sort of taboo topic and very awkward for Japanese to discuss.

We had a very relaxed dinner with two of Win's old students, Taro and his new wife Midori, both of whom work in Kobe now.  We went to a tiny Izakaya with a cozy charcoal fire right in the middle of the table.  Ate food that was described as being from the Nagano region.  Some vegetables grilled in a miso paste on a large leaf of some sort - don't know the name…Good conversation.

We seem to have brought a hint of snow and rather cold weather (30's) with us from Boston, alas.  Our Monday plans to visit a famous plum tree garden in Nara with Harada and his wife of course never happened, but we may see some gardens in Kyoto later in the week.

This afternoon is Win's turn to lecture, then a few days to relax and sight see.

We send love to all.

Flyer for our talks!