Tokyo!

The trip to Tokyo was a blast! It was nothing like I expected and always interesting. There was little English spoken there and few signs were Romanized. This led to much confusion on the part of Colleen and Jeff. We typically planned our outing, made some attempt to follow said plan, failed, watched what others did, emulated until successful. The subway was our greatest challenge and I say with great pride that by day 7 we were buying tickets in Japanese and getting to the actual desired destination. The guide books were completely wrong. They were apparently written by people who had only talked to people who had visited Japan. They misled us on every step. The city is gray, the people are quiet and respectful, and it rains a lot in August.

Step step step temple step step temple (repeat)

It seems there are pretty much temples on every block in the city. We traveled to Nekko (outside the city to the south) for a visit to a Unesco World Heritage site. It was situated in a cedar forest and was quite breathtaking. We burned incense, refrained from photographs, took off our shoes, and offended only one person (although the admonishment is somewhat lessened when one doesn't understand the language).

Celebrating the dead

What vacation is complete without a visit to a cemetery? Not much to say but large, old, beautiful.

Art

We explored a bit of Japanese art. We visited the Museum of Modern Art which showcases Japanese art from the 20th century. It was okay, no great moments. The art is heavily influenced by foreigners and one gets the sense of looking at European art (Picasso, Gris, Braque, Monet, Seurat). Much of it was good, but not very original. We then hit the HARA Contemporary Art museum and saw some more cutting edge presentations. There was a wonderful Yasumasa Morimura installation of a man as toilet that I can't find an online image of to share; there was a great installation of Yuken Teruya who cuts tiny delicate designs out of toilet paper rolls, books, and wrote some text from a book on the wall using pine branches; finally there was a nice exhibit by Izuma Kato of paintings and new sculpture (see above). They served wine and it was very lovely. Yay contemporary art!

The quest for the big Buddha (Part 1)

On Thursday I took a short daytrip to the Boso Peninsula to pay homage to the big Buddha. The guide book tells me to take the subway train to xx stop, go up the short ropeway and find the country's largest Buddha statue down a small set of steps.

1. Train--required 2 transfers and because of getting on wrong train, I had to backtrack twice. I bought a can of coffee from the machine vowing to not give up! Four hours later, I arrived at my destination. I stepped off the train, looked around (assuming I'd see the big Buddha) and found myself on the edge of a small fishing village on the bay. No one (and by no one I mean not a living soul) spoke a word of English in the village. I pointed at my picture of the Buddha and with recognition in their eyes, they pointed and told me in detailed Japanese how to find him.

2. Wandering lost through the village--for the next hour I wandered through the village climbing up and down fairly steep hills looking. It was 90 degrees and 90% humidity and I was SWEATING. And by sweating I do mean so wet that water was running off my jean cuffs. I kept finding villagers, pointing to the picture, and following their detailed plans for my trip.

3. Wild animals--on my last possible path into the woods, I almost stepped on a brown and black snake that was approximately 30 inches long. It raised my heart rate by at least 25% in 1 second. The first thing one notices in the village is the plethora of large brown hawks flying around. I have zero against hawks and thought it was interesting. I then saw a sign in Japanese with a picture of a hawk--I assume a warning that these are blood seeking attack birds. So with hawks flying around my head, snakes moving around my feet, I walked by the 10 foot high by 20 foot long wall of spiderweb covered in spiders looking for Buddha. It was at this point I finally gave up.

4. Tourist--On my way back to the train, I noticed a tour bus and stopped for help. They told me to take the cable car halfway up the mountain and follow the path. They even gave me a map (Japanese maps are not the equivalent of US maps; they are not to scale and not really to shape, but basically just show one what elements are in the general area). I take the cable car up the mountain (the cable car is also known at "the ropeway" from the guidebook). I then have to trek about 500 meters up the mountain on stone steps in the humidity which is finally turning to rain.

5. Goddess of (no) Mercy--I find the Goddess of Mercy. I didn't feel like she had much but took the opportunity to sit in the rain and let my heart rate lower (for about 30 minutes).

The quest for the big Buddha (Part 2)

6. After catching my breath I climbed down about 250 meters, visiting with monk warriors along the route. The mountain top was incredible and the trek through bamboo forest was gorgeous. Unfortunately, my heart was pounding and my high volume of water loss through sweat was affecting me.

7. One now climbs 250 meters back to the top to catch the next path down (which it turns out is the "small set of steps" referred to in the guide) 250 meters more and voila! It is the big Buddha. He is in deed big and beautiful. I sat for another 30 minutes trying to catch my breath. I even took my shirt off to try and let it dry a bit. Luckily there was a Coke machine by big Buddha so I was able to revive a bit.


8. Return--unfortunately involved retracing all steps, including 30 minute rest to catch my breath and offer thanks for still being alive. It is now POURING which does not make it cooler out, only wetter.