Hieizan, II.

Jaybird follower(s) might remember that a few weeks ago we went up Mt. Hiei (the big mountain to our northeast) to find the Enryakuji temple complexes and took a wrong turn and found a telecommunications array instead. After getting our courage up again (mostly to ride the incline train and ropeway), we ascended the mountain today and retraced our steps to see where we went wrong (and to find the temples). Happily, we were successful.

Cable car...

Ropeway...

Place where we went hidari (left) instead of migi (right). We're slightly more literate than we were a few weeks ago.

We had a nice picnic at this resting spot (last time we were probably distracted by the beautiful view). To cut down on plastic consumption (there's plastic everywhere here, but at least it can all be recycled), we bought our own bento boxes and packed a picnic lunch. Somebody had his siesta before lunch, which actually made for a nice, quiet picnic for the rest of us.

After lunch, we hiked down from the summit to the eastern complex of the temple (there are two other main complexes that we'll see another time). We were especially interested in visiting Enryakuji because it is the founding temple of the many branches of Japanese Buddhism. It was founded by Saicho in the 8th century on Mt. Hiei to protect Kyoto from the evil northeast direction (this belief came, with Buddhism, from China), and it once housed over 1000 subtemples. There are "only" 70 or so left today (you'd think we might have been able to find just one of 70 temples last time we visited the mountain, right?), though the buildings have been rebuilt over the years. Saicho founded Tendai Buddhism, and most prominent priests of other branches of Japanese Buddhism got their start at Enryakuji: Honen (Pure Land), Shinran (True Pure Land), Ippen (Ji), Eisai (Rinzai Zen), Dogen (Soto Zen), and Nichiren (Sokka Gakkai/Nichiren). It's known as the mother of Japanese Buddhism.

The fact that most buildings have been rebuilt is interesting. Why? Lightening strikes? A few. Forest fires? Some. But mostly the buildings were burned to the ground over the years by shoguns and other monks to keep the "warrior monks" of Enryakuji in check. That's right--warrior monks. If you associate Buddhism with jolly, peaceful spirits like the Dali Lama, you're mostly correct. However, Japanese Buddhism has a long history of temples vying for political power and waging war against other temples and the central government. In fact, the reason Kyoto was once the capital is because the monks of Todaiji in Nara became too powerful, so the Emperor moved his goods to Kyoto. Enryakuji had powerful armies and Emperor Shirakawa apparently said there were three things he couldn't control: "the waters of the Kamo River, the roll of the dice, and the monks of Mount Hiei." (John Dougill, Kyoto: A Cultural History)

In order to keep Enryakuji from becoming too powerful, Oda Nobunaga (unifier of Japan) burned the entire thing to the ground, killing some 25,000 people. Today, it is 1/20th of its former size which, after seeing just one small part of the complex, is hard to imagine.

What we enjoyed most was hiking through giant sugi (Japanese cedar) trees and coming across temples scattered across the mountainside, preceded by a sutble whiff of incense. The buildings are beautiful and the mountain is majestic. We saw several subtemple buildings, including the hall where most of the priests above were ordained and a hall that houses a wooden statue of the Buddha of medicine, carved by Saicho himself and flanked by lanterns that are said to have been burning for 1200 years. Steve points out that they must have continued burning when the building burned around them.

It was quite cool today on the mountain, and I imagine we'll visit again when it heats up in the city this summer. Little J was a good sport about the agenda. He took both of his naps on the mountain (he prefers to sleep at home), had to eat rehydrated spinach for lunch (he doesn't eat sushi and pickles yet), and seemed interested in the giant trees and the sights and smells of the temple. He especially liked the ladies on the ropeway and at the temple hall who shook his hand and conversed with him.

A final cultural note: I think I can safely say that little J was the only baby in all of Kyoto wearing a John Deere onesie today. Thanks Deb and Roger! (Roger, I think he aspires to your dress code).

Hikone

We had planned to travel this weekend, but with H1N1 flu in our region (and too much work to do!), we decided to stay closer to home. To make ourselves feel better, we planned a fun day trip and went to see the castle at Hikone. This is a small city on the other side of Lake Biwa (Japan's largest lake, just on the other side of the mountains from Kyoto) that has a Tokugawa castle on a hill overlooking the lake. The main tower (early 17th century) still stands guard over the town, and part of the city has been reconstructed in the style of a castle town of the era. There's also a fine strolling garden between the inner and outer moats.

Little J's favorite part of the day, however, was the ride there and back. We wanted to avoid the flu by traveling in a less crowded vehicle (that's the excuse we used, at least), so we took the Shinkansen--the bullet train. The Shinkansen is such a nice ride, and J seemed to enjoy both the trip and sitting on the platform and watching the Shinkansen. He looked utterly shocked the first time a Nozomi rocketed by and then started looking around when he heard trains in the distance after that. S and I had "Eki-ben" for lunch on the train (bento boxes (sushi or veggie lunch boxes with rice) specially made for train travel) and J had his lunch in his little Shinkansen bento box. The only problem is that the trip via Shinkansen to this city on the other side of a large lake in an entirely different prefecture only took 22 minutes. It wasn't long enough! Oh well, we're going to Tokyo next month and will ride the Shinkansen again then.

There's not too much flu yet in Kyoto (though it's coming), but my lecture in Kobe this week was postponed again due to the spread there. We've decided to go to Seoul next month for the conference, so we're finishing up our papers this weekend. Back to work! J would rather count blades of grass in a nice garden than hang around the apartment watching his people click away at their laptops.

By the way, a note about Kyoto Station. We recently stopped at the Cafe du Monde at the station to enjoy coffee and beignets. For those of you familiar with this famous establishment from New Orleans (or its former branch in Osaka), you know that beignets are delightful little donut-y things with powdered sugar. Sure enough, right there on the sign it says "Cafe and Beignets." Note the ."..AND Beignets" part. So, they should have beignets, right? The only food item on the menu is hot dogs. Hot dogs! Oh well, with a bakery at every train and subway station, including a very fine German bakery at our own depato down the street, and coffee on every street corner, we have no shortage of tasty snacks.

Masked men

Despite vigorous attempts to keep it from invading this island nation, swine flu has hit Japan. In the last couple of weeks, Narita airport has famously checked, double-checked, and quarantined whole airplanes of people (if there was one "suspect" on board), but H1N1 is spreading. Last week, a handful of kids and a teacher returning from Canada tested positive for the virus. A couple of days ago, four high school students in Kobe (near us) had it. Today, there are over 130 confirmed cases in Kobe and Osaka, and 1000 schools in the region are closed. We caught a train on the way home today from Arashiyama (a temple district on the outskirts of Kyoto) that had come from Osaka--it was full of people with face masks.

We keep reading news reports quoting Prime Minister Taro Aso saying that he won't release details, but that the government is working to limit the spread of the flu beyond the region. I'd be a little worried to live in Kobe just now--is the government going to burn it to the ground or something? So far, all he's done is to ask "social businesses" such as movie theaters to close for the week.

We're hoping not to get sick, but the swine flu is already affecting us in minor ways. I was supposed to give a lecture at Kobe University on Thursday, but that has been rescheduled since the whole university is closed all week. For S, of course, this means a day off! We were planning to travel beyond Kobe to Kyushu for the weekend, but we may change our plans to avoid trains and buses full of infected people. Though people here are very dutiful in staying home when they're sick, H1N1 has a long incubation period, and many carriers may not know if they're sick until after others are infected (hence the closing of schools and many businesses in the region).

We're also both supposed to give papers at a conference in Seoul early next month, but we're waiting another day or two before finalizing those plans. Kyoto University has instituted a 7-day exclusion policy, which means that anyone (us, for example) who visits an affected country (S. Korea, for example) cannot be on campus for a week after returning (which would make it difficult for S to teach his classes there). We're also concerned about being quarantined (sick or not) for up to 10 days upon returning. On the other hand, we've been looking forward to this conference and to the chance to see Seoul and S. Korea. I expect we'll still go, but we're seeing how things play out in the next few days. Of course, it might be safer to go to Seoul with the flu spreading so quickly here!

In the short term, we're avoiding riding trains coming from Osaka and trying to stay a little closer to home. I'm pretty sure the baby won't tolerate a flu mask, but it sure would be cute if we could find a tiny one for him!

I love a parade

We are fortunate in the location of our apartment that we are just across the river from the Shimogamo Shrine--one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Kyoto. The shrine itself is pretty interesting--Noh stages, an inner sanctuary, a Chinese bridge, a large torii gate, and beautiful trees and flowers--but the landscape which contains it is another reason we're glad to be nearby. It's in a large (for an urban area) forest with several magnificent old trees. The mythology of the forest is that one can tell no lies there. S tries to disprove this every time we enter the forest, but I always catch him, so I suppose the myth is true. In any case, we enjoy walking there and appreciating the stream, the trees, and the relative quiet.

In the first two weeks of May, the forest and shrine were anything but quiet. The Shimogamo Shrine and its sister the Kamigamo Shrine (several blocks north) are home to the two-week Aoi Matsuri, one of the "three big" festivals in Kyoto. The first part of the festival features mounted archery, which is just as exciting as it sounds. The archery course was quite crowded, but we were able to appreciate the horses, the period dress, and the actual archery. The horses galloped full throttle down a straight course while the riders shot arrows at tiny wooden targets. It was very dramatic! I think my crazy horse would love this event.

Today was the culmination of the festivities with a 600 or so person processional that represents a ceremony from the Heian period Kinmei Emporer (8th century) in which offerings were made at the Kamigamo and Shimogamo Shrines to appease the gods and to lift a curse (resulting in slow ripening grains) of the Kamo (river) kami.

Today, hundreds of people dress in Heian period clothing and bring horses, oxen, household goods, and other offerings to the two Kamo shrines. There are also private ceremonies at the shrines, including the installment of a young woman as high priestess, but we only saw the public events, which were pretty spectacular. The highlights of J's first "parade" were the giant decorated oxcarts and the beautiful horses, some of which were given as gifts. Mounted archers were at the front and rear of the processional, I suppose to protect the goods. In the middle were the ladies of the court, decked out in full kimono and white makeup. Beautiful.

"Aoi," by the way, is variously translated as hollyhock or geranium, but seems to most resemble the wild ginger in our woods at home (also blooming this time of year). These leaves decorated every hat, oxcart, horse, and sword of the processional, and even graced the modern hats of the police officers handling the crowd. Finally, there's only one thing better than a parade, and that's a parade with food. I was delighted to find a stand selling frozen chocolate-covered bananas--my favorite summer treat, which I usually get at Sam's Doghouse back home. This place is a far cry from the Doghouse, but, here or in Vermont, nothing says "summer" like a good parade.

The wheels on the bus...

Yesterday was J's 8-month birthday. We celebrated with a little coffee picnic in a park at the confluence of the Kamo and Takano rivers, about a 25 minute walk from our house through a shrine and wooded area. S had class yesterday, so he went to the office from our picnic. I was mostly caught up on work, so I decided to jump on a train and take J downtown for a little shopping. (Secretly, I conjured up an entire shopping trip just to justify getting a box of my favorite chocolate croissants--"Choco Cros").

We remarked that once upon a time we would plan for 6 months to end up in downtown Kyoto, and now we can go on a whim and be in the heart of the temple district or in one of the downtown shopping arcades in just 20 minutes or so. Yesterday, all it took was a walk across the street the Keihan train line, and then two stops to Shijo Street and its specialty shops and covered arcades.

One of my students in Vermont this semester is from Nara. She noted recently that, coming from Japan, she was shocked by the lack of public transportation in the U.S. Compared to Japan, it is shocking. For example, here are some places we can go from our apartment. We walk five minutes to take our little local Eizan train to two mountain villages, one which ends up in a beautiful hiking spot (you can hike over a mountain to another train station and go home from there); the other ends up at a cable car and ropeway to the top of Mt. Hiei. Beautiful. The other direction, our little train takes us to its terminal in the northern part of downtown Kyoto.

The Eizan trains are cute--just one or two cars running every seven minutes or so. They're called "one-man," which we thought referred to the fact that it's just one car, but some have two cars, so it might refer to the fact that it's staffed by just one engineer who is also the conductor. For roughly $2, we can get to the terminal; for roughly $4, we can get to the mountains.

The Eizan deposits us at the Keihan terminal--a much more extensive private train line that takes us downtown and connects us to subway and other train lines. If we time it right, we can get off the Eizan and right on a Keihan limited express (tokkyu) and be in downtown Kyoto in about 15 minutes. The nice thing about the Keihan line is that it's the same price for local or fast trains, so we usually just wait for an express since it passes the locals anyway. We can also take this train line all the way to Osaka (about 50 minutes on the limited express)--for less than $5. A couple of weeks ago, little J and I decided to meet S in Osaka after his class in Kobe. I thoroughly enjoyed texting him from the train: "on train. C u 6 @ big man." This means that we met at "Big Man"--the large screen television in Osaka's Umeda station that serves as a meeting point for hundreds of people each day (there's a new big screen on the other side of the terminal cleverly called "Co-Big Man"). I've always wanted to meet someone at Big Man!

The Keihan trains are nice. We rode the Keihan to Uji last weekend to visit a temple and buy some new tea. We returned via a rapid express "Saloon Series 3000" train--we didn't see a saloon, but the train was very nice. All Japanese trains are very clean and on time. The platforms are clearly marked so we know just where to stand for the open doors, and J and I are becoming adept at knowing which car will be closest to the elevator (for the stroller) at our destination.

Kyoto also has an extensive subway and bus system. All buses cost 220 yen (just over $2), and we have two major bus lines just outside our door. These take us to the botanical garden, Kyoto University, the Silver Pavillion, the Golden Pavillion, the Philosopher's Path, many parks, temples and shrines, the downtown Gion district, and Kyoto Station. The buses, like the trains, are frequent and incredibly easy to ride. Also, we can always count on the stations and bus terminals to have restaurants and shopping nearby.

People are nice on public transportation, too. They're always giving up their seat for whomever is holding the baby, and they often strike up a (somewhat one-sided) conversation with or about little J, so we can count on entertainment for the baby. On our little "one-man" train, the engineer gets off the train to help me with the stroller.

If he's late, S sometimes rides the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kobe for class. We'll take that to Kyushu later this month and Tokyo next month. Last time we were in New York in Penn Station waiting for Amtrak, we heard an announcement that Amtrak's high speed train was delayed three hours. What's the point of a high speed train if it's delayed at the station? You don't hear announcements like this in Japan.

Such easy access to public transportation is going to be hard to give up when we leave Japan. Here's our plan for tomorrow: we'll ride the bus a few stops to Kitaoji terminal where we'll get the subway downtown. There, we'll catch the Hankyu limited express to Umeda (Osaka), but we'll get off just shy of Osaka to get on the line to Kobe. I'll get off in Nishinomiya at a shopping center that has a baby store (we're on the lookout for organic baby goods), and J and I will probably have coffee somewhere and take a walk. S will continue on to Kobe where he teaches his class at Kobe U. Later, we'll meet up again at Big Man in Umeda to visit the English language section of the large bookstore there (we're looking for a field guide to the Kansai region) and the "food museum" floor (i.e., restaurant floor), where we'll have supper at one of the forty or so restaurants in the station. Then, we'll head home via train, subway, and bus. All this travel between three major cities will cost us, round trip, less than $20 each. J, because he's so cute (and small) rides free.

Things we learned today

1. The Kintetsu train line's signage isn't as clear as Keihan's or Hankyu's.
2. When almost everyone gets off a crowded train, it's probably a good idea to follow them, especially if you're not sure you're on the correct train in the first place. If they all go across to the other track, it's probably because an express train is coming that's going to go faster than the local train you mistakenly got on.
3. Kintetsu charges more for their "Tokkyu" trains (limited express), but it's worth it.
4. There are lots of school field trips to major tourist sites during the week after Golden Week.
5. You can picnic anywhere in the very large park in Nara (containing the important Kasuga Taisha shrine), but you have to watch out for deer droppings.
6. If your bus doesn't come to the main bus bay at Kyoto Station within a few minutes, it's because something has made it terribly late and by the time it comes a gazillion people will be in line to crowd on. You should have just taken the subway, which you knew was a good idea but you wanted to try something different.
7. Even when taking both naps today in the carrier (one with S and one with me), having his lunch outside with nosy deer eyeing his mashed spinach, having to eat boring rice crackers for supper because we stayed out too late, and riding the train and then an overcrowded and slow bus home past his bedtime, little J is a good sport and the sweetest baby around. Happy Mother's Day to me!

And Happy Mother's Day to our moms and grandma/great grandma (and all the other moms in our lives).

Rainy day in Kyoto

Some days we don't get out much, though we still try to do interesting things (even looking out the window at the bikes, people, and rooftops can be pretty fascinating). Today was a typical rainy day around here. Poor S had to go back to work after his Golden Week holiday, so J and were on our own this afternoon. We're closing in on the end of the semester, so on the days when Steve has classes, I do a lot of work while J is sleeping (naptime and after bedtime). It's not always as easy to work, though, while he's awake, so often we go for walks or take the train or bus someplace interesting (the Botanical Garden, the Imperial Palace Park, downtown...) between naps. Today, we just did a little looking around the neighborhood.

We are fortunate in the location of our apartment (our "mansion"). It's on two main bus lines (most of Kyoto is convenient to a bus line) and just a few minutes walk from a train line that takes us downtown one direction and to great hiking in the mountains the other direction. We're walking distance from a major shrine, and a short bike or bus ride from Kyoto University and S's office. We also have a nice view from our window.

Today, we took advantage of our proximity to shopping. We're two blocks from two major department stores, both of which have supermarkets. One is advertised as an American-style shopping mall (it isn't, thank goodness) because it has lots of other businesses on its premises, including a German bakery, a dessert crepe place, a 100-yen store, a Starbucks, a food court, and several restaurants. It also has two floors of fancy department-store type shops and the Kyoto Holiday Inn on the upper floors. Just around the corner from there is another less fancy department store that also has a food court and grocery store. We visit one or the other most days to buy groceries or baked goods. We wondered whether we'd see a lot of Westerners around our apartment since we're close to the Holiday Inn. It's not the case; the hotel seems to cater mostly to Japanase tour bus groups. There's very little English spoken in our neighborhood, which suits us fine because we have to practice our Japanese.

Today, J and I had iced coffee and a snack at one of the coffee shops (well, I did--he munched on some rice crackers and skipped the coffee). Then we strolled around the shops and did some grocery shopping. Some things I found out: the bookstore does not have an English language section (we have to get closer to downtown for that, though the convenience store next door has the Japan Times, an English newspaper), the grocery store does have pancake mix (though this means we'll have to hit our limited Vermont maple syrup supply that we actually brought for gifts), baby gear is very expensive, and the German bakery's stock is better earlier in the day. So, we learned a lot today. Oh, and J learned to play catch with a ball (well, he learned to sort of roll it back to me), which is great fun for both of us.

Here's what Mt. Hiei looks like from our apartment on a rainy day.

Kodomo no hi

This past week has been "Golden Week" in Japan, a series of national holidays starting with the Showa emporer's commemoration and culminating in Children's Day. S had much of the week off, and our friend K visited us from Nagoya, so we did a little touring around of some of our favorite spots in Kyoto. More posts on these adventures coming soon...

We were very happy to celebrate Children's Day with our very own little J, and it was a time to reflect on the milestones in his life, and ours, as he enters his ninth month (he'll be eight months old next week). Every day brings something new and interesting, usually taking us by surprise. He sits up very well now and seems to enjoy this new view of the world. When we go out to eat, he often sits next to me (with some help) if I'm on a bench or booth seat. He also is better able to enjoy picnics (until he tips over on the hard ground!).

We've been working on sign language. We haven't made much progress, but J really enjoys the DVD with a cutesy lady singing about "more, more, more" while making signs. Me, not so much. What he has learned (and we're so proud of him) is to "give me five." That will take him a long way in this world, right? He also blows raspberries and squeals a lot and spreads joy wherever we go. He's followed by a chorus of "kawaii, desu neh!" (cute, isn't he!) when we walk down the street, and lots of people (women, usually, but often older men) like to shake his hand and talk to him. It's really fun to have our own little ambassador, and we speak a lot more Japanese than we otherwise would. He's eating well, and whatever we put in front of him (Japanese sweet potatos seem to be his current favorite). He has three teeth as of today, with the next three coming in all at once (two down, four up). He loves to read books (and eat them).

J continues to adjust well to this adventure we're having in Japan. He giggles when we put him in the carrier to go out and, except when he's hungry or tired, he happily tolerates slow walks around temples, hikes in the mountains, grocery shopping, and crowded city streets. He really is a good traveling companion. He's been sleeping pretty well and is now able to take his naps either at home or in the carrier. Unfortunately, he doesn't yet like his stroller much, so we're working on short trips with that. Honestly, I wouldn't like being pushed down a crowded street at knee level, either.

For Children's Day, we celebrated with traditional carp flags ("koi no bori"--well, the ones we got have some kind of Japanese power rangers on them), small gifts which harken back to Japanese folklore about strong and prosperous boys, and oak-leaf wrapped mochi with adzuki bean filling. We also ventured out to our local Shinto shrine (the Shimogamo Shrine, which is very close to us) to let J ring the bell to talk with the Kami (gods). He wants everyone to know that he wished for good health for all his family and friends.

We're having a wonderful time here, especially because of the presence of little J. The downside is, of course, being away from family and friends. We want to be sure J remembers all of you, so feel free to send pictures, links to video, or call us via webcam. He gets excited when the "phone" (i.e., computer) rings.

Happy Children's Day, everyone!