Fall colors at Hanson's Farm

The New England fall colors are spectacular this year. Hanson's Farm is especially beautiful. Here are some scenes from the farm this past week. Qamis has been enjoying the trails and the views behind the farm. (Those are her pointy black ears in some of the frames). How odd that while a couple of wild turkeys send her into a complete panic, she doesn't bat an eyelash at the sight of all the tombstones, ghosts, and spooky shacks that are part of Hanson's Haunted Hay Ride.

Little Big Planet--a Poem by Skylar

A pebble is like a human.
It has a world.
It has a life.
And it has a goal.

It's almost like a sailboat.
It moves swiftly and calmly every time
a gentle breeze comes
to pick it up,
and help it
on its journey
to the unknown.

Its life is like a sad paradise.
It has everything it wants
except a companion
and a longing for a purpose.

A pebble's ancestor was probably a rock.
And the rock's ancestor was a boulder.
If you stare at it long enough
it seems now that it has no life
but it seems so real.
It's indestructible but so fragile
and delicate at the same time.

Pebble.

Back home in New England with scared horses and evil turkeys

This is a picture of my horse Qamis.















This is a picture of a wild New England turkey (a.k.a., Meleagris Gallopavo).

Today, while riding Qamis along the corn fields at Hanson's Farm, we spotted a flock of ten wild turkeys who were peacefully walking from the fields into the woods. Given how rigid Qamis became when she spotted the terrifying spectacle, they might as well have been an army of evil demon birds sent from the gates of hell to take her home.

Note to self: Horses are sweet animals with very little brains. On past rides, the only other objects that have filled her with fear and terror have been piles of neatly stacked logs that randomly appear in the woods. Perhaps they remind her of the time when prehistoric jumbo serpents attacked Equus Complicatus? Go figure.

Anyway, it's good to be home and wonderful to go for (what should have been) a peaceful, leisurely ride through the woods.

Kotooshu is Number One (at least to us)

Just in case we left you hanging. . . Kotooshu did not finish anywhere near the top at the recent Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament. We lit incense, we tossed coins, we said prayers, we threw salt, we even stopped watching when he was on TV. In short, we tried everything to reverse his bad fortune in the dohyo but a Mongolian bulldozer by the name of Hakuho flattened every opponent he met at Nagoya including--on the last day--our Bulgarian cream cake. Kotooshu may not have finished number one at the tournament, or second, or third, or fourth . . ., but let it be known and proclaimed to all that he is "ichiban" to us.

The Profundity of a Rock Garden

Mark, Skylar, and I paid tribute to Ryoanji Temple to see the beautiful zen rock garden once again. (The last time we saw it was seven years ago. Mark remembered that Skylar sat quietly as a three year old gazing at the scene). The Ryoanji rock garden was created over five hundred years ago after the violent Onin wars which leveled this city with fire and destruction. Whoever created the rock garden remains a mystery--as does the ultimate "meaning" of the 15 rocks that are arranged in groups of five, twos, and threes across a sea of white pebbles. If you were to take away even one of the rocks, the entire composition would fall apart.

When you first confront the rock garden, it appears so much smaller than you think it will be given the gargantuan nature of its reputation. It is considered one of the great masterpieces of Japanese culture--a kind of rock garden cultural equivalent of Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel. There are 15 rocks in all--but from any place you sit and look, only 14 rocks are visible at any one time. How the designer accomplished this will leave you mentally spinning. They say that when you reach true enlightenment, the 15th hidden rock will reveal itself to you.

When we arrived, there were relatively few people at the temple (very odd for a late summer morning). So we three sat, gazed, and contemplated the meaning of the rocks and the meaning of life. They say that every individual has his or her own interpretation and experience of the garden.

Afterwards, while sharing my experience of the rocks, I told Skylar that I had a distinct impression of rocks floating on the sea. He responded, "that's so predictable." In fact, he added, "that's what all the brochures say" and defied me to come up with something more original about the 15 rocks he claimed he could see--with perfect vision.

Bad Senryu Poems of the Day

(Elena)
At Ichiriki tea house,
I stalk and gawk at geisha.
Gion geek.




(Elena)
The fish at Kappa Zushi
go round and round and ride
the shinkansen.




(Skylar)
She has lots of gas.
As the time passed,
I sniffed the air and whoa—
a flare!

Melting into the Sun at Nijo-jo Castle

On one of the hottest, muggiest days of the summer so far, Skylar and I decided to put on our matching "grandma sun hats," stockpile the C.C. Lemon soda and iced green tea bottles, and bicycle from Doshisha University to the famous Nijo-jo Castle. The castle is one of the most popular tourist destinations for everyone who has ever traveled through Kyoto--right up there with Kinkakuji (the "Golden Pavillon") and Kiyomizu-dera Temple.

The trick to biking in the hot summer sun here--where there is simply no breeze whatsoever to cool you down--is to keep on moving. The faster you pedal, the cooler you feel. That is, until you stop, and then you melt from head to toe with heat exhaustion.

Nijo-jo Castle was built in 1603, when the shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa moved into its palatial quarters as his home sweet home. It is stunning as a piece of well fortified architecture--a double moat--with both an "inny" and and "outy" as Skylar points out. The castle is perhaps best known for its "uguisu bari"--or creaking floorboards that are engineered to sound like a bunch of singing nightingales should any assassin sneak into the castle on a secret mission to take down the warlord. Everyone who visits Nijo-jo loves walking on these squeaky wooden floorboards and seeing the "secret" compartments where the shogun's personal bodyguards would hide out ready to attack at a moment's notice.

When I told Skylar this story, he said it was the dumbest thing he ever heard of. He said he thought it was a total waste of a ninja to send one inside the castle on an assassination "hit." If it had been up to him, he would have sent a pack of ninjas across the moat by the main entrance to create a diversion. Then, he would have simply shot some flaming arrows directly into the highly combustible rice paper shoji screens in the castle's windows and burned the whole place to the ground.

I used to think that my 10 year old son might be the reincarnated soul of some wise old Buddist monk from Enrakuji Temple on Mt. Hiei. After eight weeks in Japan, I'm beginning to think he might instead be the reincarnated soul of one of Oda Nobunaga's craftiest tactical warriors--one of those guys who made mincemeat out of places like Enrakuji. When it comes to envisioning some of the dirtiest tactics for how warfare in old Kyoto might have been improved, Skylar rules.

More Kotooshu

Yesterday, Kotooshu went down for the count. Skylar says I am jinxing our favorite sumo wrestler. Whenever I watch him compete, he loses. If I miss his 3 minutes on television, he wins. I made the great mistake yesterday of lingering at home just long enough to watch him take on his arch rival, Toyonoshima. The latter twirled and tossed our favorite Bulgarian down into the dohyo in what the sumo pundits described as a "perfectly timed beltless arm throw." Is it too late for Kotooshu to turn things around? The Japanese press is mad at him and likes to remind everyone that as a little boy, Kotooshu had a powder puff predilection for baking (and eating?) too many caramel filled cakes. So what is he in 2008? A wimpy caramel cake baker? Or a powerful wannabee Yokozuna? I will shun the TV today and keep my fingers crossed for his fourth match.

Last night I had a dream: I was pinned down by a 340lb Bulgarian caramel cake and could not move. Skylar says I really need to stop watching so much television.

The Return of Kotooshu

The two best things about July in Japan (in this order):
The return of Kotooshu, our favorite 340lb Bulgarian sumo wrestler, to late afternoon television and the colorful festivities of the Gion Matsuri Festival in downtown Kyoto.

The Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament began just two days ago and our Bulgarian boy got off to a rocky start. The gods did not favor him on Day One (Skylar thinks it's because Kotooshu did not throw enough salt into the dohyo and didn't look fiercely enough into his opponent's eyes during the "cold warrior" stare-down before they smashed into one another). At any rate, before you could blink, Kotooshu was tossed out. But yesterday, was a different story. Yesterday, he was, according to Skylar, "in the zone" and was able to use the classic sumo wrestler move "oshidashi" and pushed his hefty opponet Hokutoriki right out of the ring. If Kotooshu can remain focused, and if he can keep the evil spirits away, he has a shot at reaching the title of Yokozuna--which is a Japanese way of saying the "Big Kahuna" of Sumo. To us though, whether or not he wins in Nagoya, he is just a hunka hunka burning Bulgarian love.

Link to beautiful Kyoto photo blog

Check out this lovely blog by a Doshisha colleague who posts gorgeous daily photos taken in and around Kyoto.

http://yakumosworld.aminus3.com/

Iwatayama Monkey Park

There's a good reason why there are warning signs that say, “do not feed the monkeys," posted all over the walkway leading up to the Iwatayama Monkey Park. Those things have gigantic canine teeth—razors in fact that they do not hesitate to use on a daily basis.

Skylar and I thought that the macaques at Kyoto's monkey park were a little terrifying. (Personally, I’ve spent too much time as an undergraduate watching how macaques interact with one another to know that they can get ugly really fast). After climbing up the trail to the park, where some 200 Japanese macaques live in the open as one big happy extended monkey family, you can go into the safety of an enclosed human retreat that looks suspiciously like the primitive human cage in Episode 1 of "Planet of the Apes."

For 100 yen you can then offer the monkeys treats in the form of sliced apples, chestnuts, or sweet potatoes. They know the drill. When they see that you have purchased a plastic bag of goodies, they swarm around the caged windows with their hands thrust through, palms outstretched, in a kind of “Brother, can you spare a dime?” gesture. This is when the alpha male gets busy. The alpha monkey tries to hog all the handouts for himself. If other monkeys dare to stretch their hands towards you, he grabs them by the head--or any convenient wound--and twists, pulls, and bites until the lower ranking brethren run away screaming for their lives.

I tried to outwit the Alpha by surreptitiously bypassing him and slipping a sweet potato on the sly to some of the monkey mothers who were holding their babies while muttering under my breath, “sorry, I don’t feed alphas.”

Skylar was too nervous to feed any of the monkeys directly (probably because I had already traumatized him on the hike up the hill with tale after tale of “The World’s Worst Monkey on Human Attacks"). Or maybe, because ever since I made him sit through all five parts of the "Planet of the Apes," he just can't bring himself to trust our simian friends. After all, look where it got Charlton Heston.

Geisha Celebrity Sightings

If you judge by our growing collection of photos of the back of various maikos that we have spotted in Kyoto, one thing is clear: we have become shameless "geisha" stalkers. How embarrassing. But what is perhaps more embarrassing is that there is a mini-industry in Kyoto for women who harbor geisha fantasies and pay to dress up and walk through the Gion district wearing full kimono, makeup, and wigs. Here's the cultural challenge for tourists: Can you spot the "real" geisha from the "fake"? It's entirely possible that we've been stalking fake geishas all along.

Attack of the deer at Nara & Skylar declines enlightenment

Skylar, Grandma Chiyohi, and I joined our neighbor Y for a Saturday outing to the famous and nearby historical city of Nara. Our destination: The magnificent Todai-ji temple (which includes the Daibutsuden, a.k.a., "the Great
Buddha Hall"--the largest wooden structure in the world--which houses the largest bronze statue of Buddha in Japan--created in 752AD).

Nara is also famous both as the "birth place" of Japanese culture and for the hundreds of deer which roam freely and under protection as a sacred animal in this ancient city.The sacred deer, however, are so badly spoiled by all the tourists who feed them sacred biscuits (which you can conveniently purchase on the spot for 150 yen) as well as anything else people might be munching on from the many vendors surrounding the temple. As a result, the deer act more like badly behaved ponies with antlers as they beg, follow, and dive bomb anything that looks remotely like food in your hand. One deer ate grandma's paper admission ticket to the temple (right out of her handbag when she wasn't looking), another clenched my teeshirt between its teeth in a vicious tug-of-war, and another nipped me in the stomach. Skylar thought all of this was quite hilarious and definitely more entertaining than anything going in inside the temple.


Speaking of which, behind the great bronze Buddha, there is a famous wooden support column with a small hole carved into its base. It is said that whoever can squeeze through the hole will receive enlightenment. After watching countless toddlers shimmy through the hole (and at least one very skinny female high school student do the same), Skylar declined the invitation to crawl through. Besides, he reminded us, he already squeezed through the opening seven years ago and has been receiving the benefits every since.
Outside the Daibutsuden there is also an 18th century wooden statue of Binzuru (one of the disciples of Buddha). Many believe that if you rub any part of Binzuru's body and then touch the corresponding ailing part on your own, you will be healed. I tried to persuade Grandma to rub Binzuru's aching legs and then touch her own, but she said there was no way she was going to touch something that one million people had already rubbed this year. It just wasn't sanitary.

Believe it: May Pole Dance on Unicycles

Skylar's class at the Kyoto International School said they were going to perform the English May Pole dance while riding unicycles and by golly they did just that. Every year, the K.I.S. May Pole dance becomes more ambitious.

Question: What will they do next year?

All aboard the sushi train

Last night, Skylar and I made our way to Kappa Zushi--a "kaiten sushi" bar that my students recommended. Kaiten sushi bars are famous for their conveyor belt delivery of sushi to all the tables in the sushi bar. At Y100 a piece, it's cheap too. We happily stuffed ourselves on rotating sashimi and rolls. The best part though is if you order any "special dishes" on your personal electronic video screen, a cute little shinkansen train zooms up to your table to make the delivery. Dinner for two (including one chocolate mousse cake): $9. Kappa Zushi is on Sanjo-dori near the Ponto-cho--the beautiful, narrow alley in the heart of the old "floating world." It was wonderful to get out on a Saturday night to see all the revelers: street performers, folk singers, sidewalk artists, and young couples hanging out by the Kamo river.


Here is a short clip from Youtube of the shinkansen at Kappa Zushi

How many Japanese hairdressers does it take to do one's hair?

In my case: Four. One to spray water on my head, one to cover me up with towels and put mini-shower caps on my ears, one to mix my color, and one to stand around and watch in horror at my double-wide load of hair (Kyoto rain and humidity will give you big hair whether you want it or not).

My colleague sent me to her favorite salon--where no one speaks a word of English. She was supposed to tell them I wanted a simple color and a trim. At the salon, I tried to tell all four of my stylists that I didn't want them to make me a redhead ("Iie, chapatsu dozo") and that I didn't want a haircut that made me look like one of the Bay City Rollers--a Scottish pop band in the 1980s known for their bad shaggy hairdos--"Iie, Bay City Rollers karikomi." Towards the end of my makeover, one of the four made me lie back in a chair with my head in his sink, and then proceeded to put a towel over my face. My first thought was that he did this so he wouldn't have to look at my unsightly mug. Or perhaps this was a Japanese salon technique to make your tense client relax during the process?

My guy then lathered, rinsed, and slapped my wet hair the way you'd spank a baby's bottom. Afterwards, he threw in a head and neck massage. While not exactly relaxing, I was grateful that my face was covered so he couldn't see all the faces I ended up making.

Three favorite things about Japan

1. We love Ozeki Kootooshu. He is the hairy 25 year old, 270lb Bulgarian sumo wrestler who just won the Emperor's Cup. He is the first westerner to achieve this honor. We adore him.


2. We love all the vending machines that sell drinks with funny names like "Pocari Sweat" and "Cal Pis." [Skylar says, "it's a good thing 'Pocari' doesn't have an apostrophe 's' at the end"]

3. From the land that gave us, "Everyone Poops," we now have the totally adorable "unchi." Unchis are cute little poops that adorn everything from stickers, key chains, to silly hats.

Takaragaike Children's Park

"Everything looks smaller when you get older."

This is Skylar's critical observation. The Kyoto International School spent last Saturday engaged in a fierce competition of tug-of-war, the human chain, and everyone's perennial favorite, the ping-pong ball in a spoon race. All this took place at Takaragaike Children's Park--which is about 10 minutes from our house. This is the very same playground we dubbed "the playground of death" in 2001 when Skylar was three--and the slides looked like they were 30 feet off the ground (without rails), and the climbing structures all looked like personal invitations to broken bones, and the wooden maze felt like it had no exit. Seven years later, Skylar can't believe how much smaller (not to mention harmless) the "playground of death" now seems. Judge for yourself.

Unable to decide upon a team name, Skylar's team dubbed themselves the "Unknowns." The Unknowns included kids from the 1st grade all the way to the 8th and should have been unbeatable during the competition because of their secret weapon: They had the biggest, strongest kid in the 8th grade. Alas, during the human chain race visualize ten kids running around with linked arms trying to scoop up teammates into the "chain." Now visualize excessive speed, gravity, and the biggest 8th grader slipping on the wet grass and taking down all his younger, smaller teammates and you can see how The Unknowns ended up in 4th place.

Ode to the Musubi

Musubi. (moose-a-bee. Noun). A sticky triangle of rice filled with either a plum pickle, cooked salmon, or any other favorite stuffing, then wrapped with dark green seaweed.

Musubis for breakfast,
lunch and dinner too.
My mom can't cook in Kyoto,
so what's a boy to do?

Outing to Kiyomizu Temple

We made our first adventurous outing yesterday to Kiyomizu-dera Temple--one of the most recognizable and beautiful sites in Kyoto. The pagoda roof is world famous. Kiyomizu means "pure water." Drinking the water at this temple is said to have powerful healing qualities.
Skylar though was skeptical about taking "healthy" sips out of the same metal cup that thousands had also sipped from. Walking up the narrow, steep path to Kiyomizu, we spotted our first geisha. (see her beautiful but blurred kimono back as she swept past us). While I was excited at this "celebrity" sighting, Skylar was definitely more enthusiastic about spotting soft chocolate ice cream cone vendors on the same path.
Inside the main temple, we took a tour through the pitch black basement: It's so dark down there you cannot see a thing and must hold on to large wooden prayer beads on your left as you slide your feet down the stairs and along the smooth wooden floors. As you shuffle through the blackness, and turn each corner, a large granite stone suddenly appears bathed in its own light and seems to be floating in space. We each touched the stone, and pushed it counter-clockwise, and made a wish.


The streets that lead up to both sides of Kiyomizu are famous for their vendors--who sell everything from world-famous blue and white Kiyomizu pottery, to tacky Japanese chotzky, snacks, and little statues of tanukis. Skylar says I'm obsessed with these cute "tanuki" statues. Tanukis are a small brown badger like creature with a pointed nose. These statues are everywhere and are like the Japanese equivalent of plastic garden gnomes.

There are so many famous temples and shrines in Kyoto, it's hard to decide which ones we must see next. Stay tuned.

Bicycling Fools & Skylar's New School

Skylar and I have nabbed two bikes for the entire summer thanks to the AKP (Associated Kyoto Program). Our soft suburban feet are so tired from all the walking on pavement--but life is looking up now that we have wheels!

Yesterday, we practiced navigating the crowded city streets on our bikes (old-fashioned one speeds with bells but no whistles). We looked like a Laurel & Hardy mother/son duo weaving in and out of the crowds & narrow sidewalks. By some miracle, we didn't run anyone over, and no one mowed us down. We kept passing the same group of high school students though who thought we were such oddballs they screamed everytime they saw us.

Today, Skylar visited the Kyoto International School for his official interview. The school is 50 years old and is a 15 minute walk from Doshisha University. The 4th and 5th grades are combined into one classroom. There are 11 girls in this class, and 1 boy--a fellow soccer player who was, as you can imagine, extremely happy to see Skylar today. The program at the school is so mouth-watering rich in creativity that we were blown away. The 4th & 5th graders have been practicing for the past few months to perform the Maypole Dance this week--on unicycles. Apparently, all the kids have now mastered this double art form--and Skylar's challenge will be to ride a unicycle by the end of his summer program. It looks like he will be able to enroll starting Monday. As far as he is concerned, he thinks he has "hit the Ivy League jackpot of elementary schools" and couldn't be more thrilled.

Tomorrow, we will pick one fun place to visit and explore in the city. . . .

Kyoto Arrival

We made it!!! After 17 hours of flying between Boston, Detroit, and Osaka, we arrived last night. We are back at Guin House, Doshisha University's guest residence in Iwakura (North Kyoto). This is exactly where we were seven years ago: Since then, Skylar has gotten bigger and Guin House has gotten smaller. Skylar's Pine Hill teacher would be proud of him: He read "The Lightening Thief" cover to cover on the plane---while I made a dent in a Japanese women's murder mystery. Neither one of us could put our books down.

Here is Skylar's first cultural observation about Japan: Why is it that for a country that is so technologically advanced, everyone rides on such old-fashioned, single-gear bicycles?

This morning, we decided to explore the neighborhood in search of breakfast and are happy to report that there is a MacDonald's just up the road. Cultural Observation No. 2: Pancakes and Egg McMuffins taste the same no matter where you order and eat them.

Our neighborhood is in north Kyoto, right up against the surrounding ring of mountains. It has a very "small village" feel and our nextdoor neighbor is the tennis court from Doshisha High School. The houses are crowded together, but then there are rice paddies squeezed between some of the streets as well as a stone cutter's yard where they make gorgeous and gigantic stone lanterns for one's garden.

We look forward to visiting the Doshisha University campus today--and trying to remember our way around the city. Stay tuned for more. . .