Saturday, September 30, 2006
Yup, I`m a temple junkie.
On Friday I went to Ueno Kouen Park with a few of the other Nova teachers. The pond there is covered by lily pads two feet long! I`ve never seen lily pads that size before! On the bank was a temple to Benzaiten, the goddess of words, knowledge, and music. I wasn`t too impressed with it--it was a fairly small and run-down neighborhood shrine. A few hundred feet away, though, hidden in a small grove of trees, we stumbled across the most delightful little shrine dedicated to Hanazono, a former emperor, and Inari, the god of rice and agriculture. We almost missed Inari`s shrine because it looked like it was simply a gap between two of the larger temple buildings, ending in the stone wall that surrounds the temple. But the opening of the gap was guarded by two kitsune fox spirit statues and a red torii gate, so I slipped through to see what was inside. Apparently the building on the left had a secret back room, lit only by candlelight, filled with the smoke of burning incense, and holding a small prayer shrine and mandala. It was wonderfully restful and peaceful back there.
After that we stopped at a noodle shop for lunch. I tried tanuki udon, `badger noodles,` which turned out to be noodle soup covered with seaweed and little bits of tempura batter. No complaints about that!
One of the girls with us, Liz, worries me a little. She doesn`t speak a word of Japanese, she hasn`t watched anime, and she`d never eaten Japanese food before this trip. When we were recommending food at lunch, she completely floored us by asking, "What`s miso soup?" ::blink:: I`m still not sure what made her decide to move to a country she knew nothing about. When asked, she said she has a relative that works for a magazine over here, and she wanted to experience a culture that was completely different from America`s. But I don`t think she`s going to last very long. Every time we eat, she takes about three bites of her food, then puts her chopsticks down and waits for the rest of us to finish. If yakisoba and ramen are too adventurous for her, I don`t know how she`s going to avoid starving over here.
She really freaked out yesterday about having to travel all the way from the hotel to her apartment. We showed her which train to take, pointed out the English signs directing her the right way, and wrote out directions in Japanese in case she needed to ask someone for help, but she was still really, really worried. I don`t think she`s at all comfortable here. It`s sad, because she`s really the sweetest girl, and she`s going to be living about 10 minutes away from me, but I wonder sometimes if she`s completely nuts.
So after lunch we went to the Tokyo National Museum. Some of the exhibits were more interesting than others--I`m sorry, Erin, but I just can`t find it within me to get excited about 3,000-year-old pots--but the Edo-period exhibits were fascinating. They had GORGEOUS antique kimono, samurai armor and swords, pottery and hairpins and wallscrolls and paintings and silverwork and all kinds of wonderful pieces from the 16th-18th centuries.
There`s tons more to see in Ueno Kouen--about five more museums, a couple more shrines and temples, a famous graveyard, several well-known statues, etc. And in an area covering a couple of square miles around the park there are about 15-20 little neighborhood shrines, according to my map. I`ll have to come back sometime.
After that our feet were killing us, so we went back to the hotel and rested. That afternoon I walked down the street to the Tokyo Municipal Government Building, which has a free observation tower where you can look down and see the most BEAUTIFUL view of Tokyo. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day so I could only see a few miles, but in clear weather apparently you can see all the way to Mt. Fuji.
So after all that I decided to count Friday as a success, and went to sleep, feet aching and blistered all over, and a smile on my face.
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After that we stopped at a noodle shop for lunch. I tried tanuki udon, `badger noodles,` which turned out to be noodle soup covered with seaweed and little bits of tempura batter. No complaints about that!
One of the girls with us, Liz, worries me a little. She doesn`t speak a word of Japanese, she hasn`t watched anime, and she`d never eaten Japanese food before this trip. When we were recommending food at lunch, she completely floored us by asking, "What`s miso soup?" ::blink:: I`m still not sure what made her decide to move to a country she knew nothing about. When asked, she said she has a relative that works for a magazine over here, and she wanted to experience a culture that was completely different from America`s. But I don`t think she`s going to last very long. Every time we eat, she takes about three bites of her food, then puts her chopsticks down and waits for the rest of us to finish. If yakisoba and ramen are too adventurous for her, I don`t know how she`s going to avoid starving over here.
She really freaked out yesterday about having to travel all the way from the hotel to her apartment. We showed her which train to take, pointed out the English signs directing her the right way, and wrote out directions in Japanese in case she needed to ask someone for help, but she was still really, really worried. I don`t think she`s at all comfortable here. It`s sad, because she`s really the sweetest girl, and she`s going to be living about 10 minutes away from me, but I wonder sometimes if she`s completely nuts.
So after lunch we went to the Tokyo National Museum. Some of the exhibits were more interesting than others--I`m sorry, Erin, but I just can`t find it within me to get excited about 3,000-year-old pots--but the Edo-period exhibits were fascinating. They had GORGEOUS antique kimono, samurai armor and swords, pottery and hairpins and wallscrolls and paintings and silverwork and all kinds of wonderful pieces from the 16th-18th centuries.
There`s tons more to see in Ueno Kouen--about five more museums, a couple more shrines and temples, a famous graveyard, several well-known statues, etc. And in an area covering a couple of square miles around the park there are about 15-20 little neighborhood shrines, according to my map. I`ll have to come back sometime.
After that our feet were killing us, so we went back to the hotel and rested. That afternoon I walked down the street to the Tokyo Municipal Government Building, which has a free observation tower where you can look down and see the most BEAUTIFUL view of Tokyo. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day so I could only see a few miles, but in clear weather apparently you can see all the way to Mt. Fuji.
So after all that I decided to count Friday as a success, and went to sleep, feet aching and blistered all over, and a smile on my face.
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