We are back!

It has been a long time since I last posted anything on this blog. Since I last wrote, we have been to a beautiful wedding in Prague, celebrated Tony's mother's 91st birthday in the UK and his own birthday at our log cabin in the US with Hugo, Henry and Henry's fiancee, Cat. We also had a small engagement party for them in Fairfax. I was away for 7 weeks and Tony bounced back and forth to Tokyo and was in the UK for both the birthday party and Farnborough Air Show. Within two days of our return to Tokyo, Tony's sister Sue arrived for a 12 day visit. Although we missed the rainy season, we returned to a blisteringly hot and humid August. Sightseeing became a trial of endurance and a time of at least 3 showers a day to cool off! We discovered that the Japanese all carry around small or neckscarf-sized towels in order to reduce the 'glow' brought on by the extreme heat. I am sure that they have a name, but will have to find that out for a future posting. We found them in a small store in the north part of Tokyo, when we were visiting a very old cemetery in 100+ degrees of heat.  Sue and I had two days in Kyoto, traveling on the Bullet Train (500 kilometers in 3 hours) and saw numerous temples (Buddhist), shrines (Shinto), palaces and pavilions. We saw Geishas and trainee Geishas, called Maiko, who have different hair and styles of dress and are all really beautiful (sorry about the random tourist in the photo-impossible to get a picture without somebody jumping in).

The Golden Pavilion was particularly striking, not only for the sight of the pavilion covered entirely in gold leaf, but for the beautiful gardens in which it is situated. Moss gardens and stone, zen gardens create a wonderfully peaceful environment. 

We ate in small, local restaurants where we sat on the floor or at a counter and made ourselves understood like a couple of well-rehearsed mimes. In Tokyo we explored more temples and shrines and walked around the Imperial Palace (as close as one can get other than on the Emperor's birthday or on New Year's Day). We visited craft stores to see how to make various items using gloriously colored 'washi' paper and also went to Kappenbashi, the kitchen district, where one can purchase every kind of plate, knife and fork, chopsticks by the dozen and the plastic food that I wrote about in an earlier blog.


On the 52nd floor of Roppongi Hills Mori building we could view the entire city in all its hazy, hot glory and even pinpointed Sakura House, where we currently live. While there, we visited a fascinating contemporary art show. Here you see Sue enjoying one of the intriguing exhibits, with a small companion, who popped up in front of her, just as I was clicking the shutter!

We have learned how to pray at a Shinto shrine. We were told to bow twice, clap twice, introduce yourself, silently ("I am Julie Ennis from Tokyo"), say your prayer then bow one more time. There is a grill for coins to be thrown into and the small 50 yen (about 5 cents) is the luckiest one to throw. I now always make sure that I have one in my purse. What we also discovered is that at the more important shrines one should only pray for important things ie World Peace. At the smaller shrines it is acceptable to pray for more personal concerns or issues, which I undertook to do each time. Also to be found at many shrines are metal canisters with metal strips inside that you can extract by shaking the canister. The strips have the numbers 1-5 on them. If you draw a 5 then you are very lucky, less so for each number towards 1. If you draw a 1 it indicates death. For each number you receive a paper strip. If you have a lucky number, you keep it with you, but if you have the unlucky number 1, you can tie it to a tree in the hopes that the gods will mitigate the circumstances and hopefully remove the chances of a worst case scenario. Since I am of a cautious nature, I decided not to risk taking a number!

The temples and shrines are full of a variety of gods and/or symbols, which I plan to describe in more detail on a later blog, when I have studied it more closely. It is all quite complex and  fascinating. When trying to understand the difference between the Buddhist and Shinto beliefs, one guide we asked put it relatively succinctly. He said that the Japanese regarded Shinto as taking care of them during their lives (births, weddings, day to day prayer) and Buddhism as taking care of them in their afterlife or next lives (death, funerals and beyond). The Buddhist belief is that one's behavior in this life and adherence to the laws of the land affects how one returns in one's next life. This may explain to a great extent the low rate of crime and the feeling of safety in this country.

To me, it is simple and clear and makes particularly good sense.