Asian Rural Institute

While in the Tokyo area last week, we visited friends at the Asian Rural Institute (http://www.ari-edu.org/english/index.html) in Nasushiobara. We were introduced to A.R.I. through our friends at the Birdhouse Inn back home in Poultney, and have been interested in its mission of sustainable agriculture and community development, specifically in training leaders from rural and marginalized communities in developing countries in Africa and Asia. We stayed a couple of days at A.R.I. and met participants from many places, including Nepal, the Philippines, Ghana, Cameroon, India, and Myanmar; and volunteers and staff from the U.S., Japan, and Germany. Participants and volunteers operate a sustainable farm that provides rice, vegetables, and meat for the institute (and the food was delicious).

We were interested in seeing whether A.R.I. would be a good fit for intern volunteers from Green Mountain, but we also wanted to see the farm and visit our friends there. J especially enjoyed our time at A.R.I, being passed around by such a diverse and interesting group of people, some of whom had little babies they were missing at home. A highlight was the time spent with the friends we met back in Poultney, especially their two beautiful daughters who were awaiting J's visit with their toys and books all lined up for him. He was so happy and relaxed at A.R.I., and we were wishing we could have stayed longer. Here are some pictures of the campus, including the farm and dining hall. The last picture is one S took of our Nozomi Super Express reflected by a building in Nagoya. I think J and I are framed in the fourth full window from the left.

Shokubutsuen

We're enjoying being home in Kyoto and continuing to explore new things in this great city. Yesterday, however, we returned to one of our favorite places--the Kyoto Botanical Garden (Shokubutsuen), which is just a short bus ride (or long walk) from our apartment. The roses and hydrangea are in full bloom, and we enjoyed a little picnic on the "leisure sheet" (tarp) we keep in the stroller. We ended our excursion with a walk home via the Kamo River and the Shimogamo Shrine. We normally would take the bus, but the baby, amazingly, fell asleep in the stroller and we don't wake sleeping babies around here. We've been seeing a lot of pilgrims walking around Kyoto lately, this time across the Kamo toward the Shimogama Shrine (we think). The day before, we saw one checking out the bikes at the shop across from our apartment--maybe considering more efficient transportation to holy places.

Kyukagetsu health check

A few weeks ago, we got a letter in the mail inviting us to bring J in to our ward's medical office for his 8-month checkup. This is a free service to all babies here (even gaijin babies!) every few months. We were going to be in Korea at our scheduled time, so we phoned the office and they suggested another day (so this was really a 9-month checkup for J). This visit was optional, but we were happy to do it, both to make sure J is thriving and also for the cultural experience.

The experience was rather complicated and stretched our Japanese language ability (and the English ability of the health officers!). Before we even had to try to communicate, we first had to identify the correct building. Fortunately, we had remembered to bring the kanji address with us and we had a general idea of the distance from our apartment and the side of the street (it's about a 15 minute walk), so we just had to carefully match up the characters on our paper with the characters on the building (our kanji reading ability includes things like "vegetables" and "exit" rather than "ward medical offices"). This worked fine.

We then had to fill out some paperwork with the help of three or four staff members in a mix of Japanese and English. We filled the forms out in English, and then another staff person filled out a parallel form in kanji to include in our medical book. This will be handy in the unlikely event that we need to visit another doctor or hospital.

After the paperwork came the best part of the visit from J's perspective. We were told (all in Japanese, so it took a little time) by an apron-wearing staff person that the wait would be 30 minutes, but that we could enjoy "kindergarten" (this word was English (well, German), and she substituted "nursery" when we looked utterly confused). What she was suggesting was that we join a group of 10-12 mothers and babies and several apron-wearing women playing and reading on a big mat in a waiting room. J loved looking and screaming at the other babies and watched intently as an apron-lady read a book about animal sounds (in Japanese) to him. It's pretty great that the medical office seems to employ people to read to babies in the waiting room. J especially liked touching and yelling at a giant sumo-type 8-month old boy.

We then did more paperwork and joined a small group of people in the examining room. After a short wait, J's height and weight were checked and he was then seen by a doctor. We lucked out--the doctor on staff today did a Fulbright at Washington University in St. Louis and had pretty good English (and, we assume, an understanding about the general height/weight range for an American baby). He looked J over in just about the same way our doctor at home does and made him do the things a 9-month old should do (sitting up, standing up with support, standing on one foot). I think J was supposed to crawl, but when the doctor tried to get him to do this, J balanced on his hands and feet! Who needs crawling, anyway?

Our only question, as always, was about J's weight (especially since he had lost some while sick in Korea). The doctor just glanced at him and said he looked fine and that "it's better to be thin than too big" and that he's within the correct range. Once again, he assured us that J was in good shape.

We ended our visit with an exit interview with another staff person who spoke only Japanese. From what I was able to understand, she went over the information in our new medical baby book, recapped today's visit (including the height/weight charts), and told us we could join a child-care class next door but that it would be all in Japanese. Thus, we were finished.

The whole experience took about an hour. In spite of lots of confused discussion, getting weighed and looked over, and waiting for paperwork, J did great. The "kindergarten" waiting room made him think visiting the doctor was an acceptable experience.

My favorite cultural moment was a question on an English-language questionnaire: "Are there any times you do not think your baby is lovely?" Secretly, there are rare moments at about 3:30 a.m. when "lovely" is not the word I might choose to describe our wakeful little Jaybird. However, I couldn't bring myself to circle "yes" on the form. J is always lovely to me.

We celebrated J's loveliness and health with a "mo-ni-n-gu set-to" at the coffee shop across the street from our apartment. This particular morning set included toast and the best "aisu cohi" (iced coffee) I've had anywhere. We've often noticed this coffee shop, but thought it looked a little fancy for bringing a baby. We gave it a try today, though, and were glad we did. J was promptly picked up by a staff person and carried around the shop and sidewalk to greet people, and the owner spoke a little English and had lived in upstate NY for a year a long time ago. He noted that he'd seen us many times at the bus stop outside his shop and was curious about us. We'll definitely enjoy moningu setto there again.

Ueno Zoo

We're not totally comfortable with the idea of zoos. S and I both teach Environmental Ethics in which we discuss the ethics of confining animals that would otherwise be wild. While there may reasonable justification for the existence of places which educate the public about endangered species, most zoos do not fit this description. For this reason, I've decided against taking J to the Kyoto Zoo, which gets poor reviews for animal care and education. Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, the oldest and largest in Japan, gets better marks, so we decided to check it out. It wasn't a fantastic zoo, but it does, as far as we could tell, attempt to interest people in protecting vital habitat for wild creatures. And it was fun to see J's reaction to various animals and plants.

Hey, these gibbons look a little like me.


Excuse me, but shouldn't this animal be in a cage?

Even the bear knows this isn't real ice. Atsui, desu neh!

Our favorite animals...

Afternoon snack. Doesn't everyone have pancakes in the afternoon?

Old capital, new capital

I'm writing this next to a window in a high-rise hotel looking out onto the lights of the Ginza district in Tokyo, listening to the vague whoosh of the bullet train speeding buy every few minutes. I used to think of Kyoto as a big city, but it's quite small compared to Seoul or Tokyo.

We're in Tokyo because S, as part of the Fulbright experience, has been invited to a "flute reception and buffet" at the American Embassy here. He's there now, and J and I are just back from a stroll around the Ginza. We considered doing some shopping, but decided that anything we could buy here (as if we could afford anything) just wouldn't look quite right back in Poultney.

We came on the Shinkansen Nozomi super express--one of the fastest trains in the world.

We enjoyed all the people and lights of the Ginza tonight, and are looking forward to a full day tomorrow of gardens and (maybe) the Ueno zoo.

Yesterday, J and I practiced our new rule: if we're both feeling like going somewhere, but can't decide among the gazillion options Kyoto has to offer, we just get on the train toward downtown and figure it out as we go. We ended up in Gion, the old pleasure district, and did a little market shopping and strolling around the old tea shops and geisha houses. We came upon these two maiko (geisha apprentices), and I snapped this photo with the cell phone camera. I never take my camera downtown anymore (having been there so much, I figure I have enough pictures of the area) and always regret it.

Jaybird in Korea

The Jaybird team has just returned from South Korea, where we (two of us) gave papers at a conference. We spent a couple of days in Seoul seeing the sights, and then took a highway bus to Naksan Beach in Sokcho on the northeastern coast. The conference was quite interesting--seven presentations over the course of the weekend from scholars from Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, and the U.S. (we were the only people from the States) on the topic of "Search for the Lost Buddhist Paintings of the Goryeo Dynasty: Arts, Healing, and Spirituality." The conference was co-sponsored by Sogang University and the Goryeo Buddhist Painting Institute, and even had some UNESCO support. Part of the conference was a tour of the Buddhist nun Heydam's painting institute and studio. Heydam is an interesting person and artist, and she and her staff graciously hosted us during the conference. We stayed at a beautifully located hotel (best ocean view I've ever had), ate remarkable food (a lot of really good vegetarian bebimbop), had interesting conversations with a genuinely diverse group of philosophers, religious studies scholars, and artists, and J got fawned over and carried around by adults from all over Asia. Our presentations were well-received, and we learned a lot about Korean culture, history, and religious traditions. The conference was in English (and translated to Korean), though we were the only native English speakers in attendance. Though international travel isn't easy with a 9-month old (who happened to be sick during the trip), we're glad to have had the opportunity to visit Korea and hope to return.

In Seoul, our friend and host (a Sogang professor) took us to visit the main headquarters of Buddhism, where he walked us through the main hall during morning prayers. We also got to see some parts of the temple we wouldn't have wandered into, such as the cafeteria. Korean temples offer free lunch to anyone who asks (usually vegetarian noodles or bebimbop), and the "church ladies" there invited us to eat and offered a quiet room for feeding the baby. This is much different than visiting a Japanese temple, which has a more museum-like atmosphere. We found out during lunch that our host loves babies, and this was the first meal of many where both S and I were able to eat lunch without little fingers trying to grab at chopsticks and bowls.

We also visited a Catholic mission community house and had lunch again (two big lunches in one day!). Christianity is fairly well established in Korea, and it was interesting to visit both a temple and a Catholic house with our host who is a scholar of religions and is himself Protestant. We learned a lot about Korean religions and hope to continue exploring differences between Japan and Korea regarding spirituality.

In Seoul, we also visted the Namdaemun Market and the site of the former large gate which was recently burned down by a fanatic. It's being rebuilt in it's former location, right in the middle of a giant intersection. The market was quite interesting, and jam-packed with people.

The Korean coast is also interesting. Naksan Beach is the best of both kinds of coastline that I love--sandy beach and rocky shoreline. Though we were quite busy at the conference, we had a little time to walk on the beach and a walkway next to the rocky part of the coastline (it looked much like the Maine coast around Acadia), and toured a temple built right next to the ocean. Of course, the beach in Sokcho has some things the New England coast doesn't--barbed wire and spotlights to keep out North Korean spies.

The artwork of the Goryeo Institute (the nun Heydam's work) added substantial cultural flavor to our trip and to the conference. This distinctly Korean style of Buddhist painting was mostly lost after Japanese colonization, and has been recovered largely through the work of this famous artist. She was also a lively and generous person who enjoyed holding the baby and called him "Little Buddha" (and secretly put a bunch of money in his pocket when we left).

On that note, Koreans LOVE babies, even more than Japanese people do (we didn't think that was possible). The staff, both women and men, of the Goryeo Painting institute (as well as the other conference goers) were constantly taking the baby from us and walking him around, playing on the floor with him, and otherwise entertaining him. This was great, though he had a stomach illness for much of the trip and I suspect he was occasionally fed things that made it a little worse (he's much better now). This was an interesting cultural difference. For example, at times at the conference, we'd be eating and someone would offer to take the baby. We'd later find him on a different floor of the hotel, in the conference room, or even in another hotel room. This stretched our comfort level a little, which is probably a good thing, and gave J a chance to interact with a lot of different people (and hear several languages), which I think he really enjoyed. Even a jeepload of Korean army guys on the street and an otherwise grim looking customs agent at the airport waved and fawned over the baby. We'll miss the attention paid to the happiness of babies in Korea and here in Japan when we return to the States.

We enjoyed the trip, but are happy to be back home in Kyoto, where suddenly it seems like we understand how things work (and how to communicate) much better than we thought after being in a country where we understood so little.

Our next Jaybird post will likely be from or about Tokyo, where we head in a couple of days.

Here are some pictures of Seoul and Naksan Beach, and of little J enjoying the train ride to the airport.

Tatami

During our weekend in Nara, we stayed at a traditional ryokan (inn)--the Ryokan Mitsubae, which I highly recommend. We've always sought out this kind of lodging while in Japan, but had written it off for this summer because we were apprehensive about staying with the baby. Paper doors, thin walls, and expensive tatami floors just don't sound like a good idea with an 8 month old.

However, after reading a few reviews of this place in Nara, we began to feel more confident about staying with little J. Via e-mail the owners noted that while they didn't have any baby beds, other visitors had stayed with babies previously. We took this as an affirmative response to our question "akachan wa, ii desu ka?" (we ask this a lot). Not having a crib was fine with us--we don't use one anyway, and ryokans offer futons on the floor rather than beds, which worked quite well.

We had a great time. The owner told us about her own kids and held the baby, and little J hardly made a peep the whole night (our adult neighbors made more noise than we did). One of us played with the baby while the other used the ofuro (public bath). We only brought two books, which was a mistake (we had to read them over and over again--J is an avid reader in the evening), but we did bring his bear, which he thought was funny (it's always a surprise when the bear turns up in odd places).

We're looking forward to returning to the Mitsubae, and Nara, later this summer.

Slippers await weary travelers.

No shoes or slippers on the tatami!

We made it an entire night without spitting up on the floor or damaging the shoji windows.

Traveling is more fun with Fuzzy Bee.J got his own zabuton cushion at breakfast.

Big Buddha

We braved the pandemic and spent the weekend in Nara, about an hour or so away by train from Kyoto. We've been there before, including a day trip a few weeks ago, but there's still much we haven't seen in the (older) old capital, so we thought it merited an overnight excursion. Also, last time we were there was before swine flu swept the nation, and so it was swamped with school trips and other tourists. We thought, correctly, that it might be a little quieter this time, what with all the sick people. We also thought it might make good practice for our upcoming Korea trip, too, if we stayed overnight somewhere. By now, little J probably doesn't remember sleeping anywhere other than our Kyoto apartment. More on the overnight part of the adventure coming soon.

Nara was capital of Japan for just 70-some years in the 8th century, but it, with the surrounding region, is thought to be the root of much of Japanese civilization as it's known today. We enjoyed all the posters in the train stations advertising Nara's 1300th birthday, coming next year. Today, Nara is a bustling tourist and commercial city, and the Nara plain contains both the world's oldest and the world's largest wooden buildings. It also contains Nara Koen--a large park that is home to thousands of small deer (the messengers of the kami) who, for a cookie (sold by venders on every corner), will politely bow to you (before they rip the cookie out of your fingers). Kawaii!

Nara's reign as capital was shortlived. Why did the capital move to Kyoto? You guessed it--warrior monks! The Todaiji monks became too politically powerful, and the imperials thought that building a new capital (and commissioning some Enryakuji warrior monks of their own--who of course turned on them later) would be easier than getting the Nara monks under control. The monks don't seem any wilder than the deer today.

Though we've been there before, we wanted J to see the big Buddha in Todaiji temple. This is the world's largest indoor statue in the world's largest wooden building. Both really are giant, and we took several pictures with little J as the scale model. The Daibutsuden (Great Buddha hall) burned down a couple of times, and the current building was reconstructed in 1709. Amazingly, the original was half again as big.

This giant guy guards the temple from evil spirits (tell it to the hand!).

The Great Buddha Hall. Look at the tiny people!

Such a big Buddha needs a big house.

On our second day, we hiked up behind the Daibutsuden to Nigatsudo (February temple). I kept thinking things like "super-cool" and "totally awesome" about this temple, though I'd never say such things on this blog. It had old walls, giant lanterns, lots of incense in the air, carved stones in the surrounding woods, chanting monks, an expansive view of the Nara plain, and a main hall on stilts on the mountainside. It also had a little noodle shop with delicious kitsune donburi (tofu/egg rice) and sansai udon (mountain vegetable noodle soup).

(Not where I'd stand in case of earthquake...)

Finally we ended our Nara adventure at Horyuji, which contains the world's oldest wooden buildings. We'd seen the treasures of this temple previously at a special exhibit at the Tokyo National Museum, and we only had time to see the grounds this time. Some buildings are from the Asuka period (just before Nara)--over 1300 years old!

Little Jaybird learned to wave at people this weekend. We don't know how this happened--it's not something we tried to teach him or anything. We just noticed that he seemed to be waving back to people when they waved at him. Once we started encouraging this behavior, he became a waving fool--greeting each of the hundreds of tourists we saw.