On Tuesday, the day after the one we spent with Tamae, we had a leisurely stroll around Asakusa. This is the same area we visited last year so I’m not going to try to describe it all again. You can search on my site for “Asakusa” to find last year’s entry.

Our main destination for the day was a washi (handmade paper) store near Kaminarimon Gate. We weren’t able to visit this store last year; it was closed on the day that we went to it. It was again closed on Tuesday morning but after awhile I approached a couple of locals and learned from them that it opens at 11:00. [Mental note for preparations for next visit to Japan: learn how to read numbers well enough to read hours of operation posted on storefronts.] 20 minutes before 11:00 the staff arrived and we watched them open the store, wash down the sidewalk in front of the store, sweep the floors, etc. read more

We have arrived in Kamkura. It’s about 4:30PM. We’ve done a little shopping and sight-seeing. The highlight of the day was taking an hour-long ricksaw ride around town, stopping at a temple nestled in a spectacular bamboo forest. I’ll say more about that later (although that pretty well sums it up for the day); first I’ll finish off our day with Tamae-san.

After lunch we went to the Sengaku-ji Temple. It’s a medium-sized Buddhist temple with a quiet, peaceful courtyard. One unusual feature was a vending machine which dispensed incense for the burner in front of the temple. Most temples and shrines have a little booth or window from which someone sells incense; Tamae seemed somewhat put out by the very concept of an incense vending machine. There are small but rather pretty planted areas and small gardens surrounding the temple, and an entrancing ceramic barrel that makes plinky, echoey sounds when you pour water into it. There is also another well in which Kira’s head was bathed again. (Yes, they bathed it outside his dwelling also. Maybe it got a little dirty during the 10-mile walk through a snowstorm.) read more

After watching the sumo for about 30 minutes Tamae proposed we stop at a museum of sumo history. Before heading in that direction, however, she revealed (with a faint air of “watch, I’m about to pull a rabbit out of my hat”) that we were standing within sight of Lord Kira’s house. You can probably find a detailed account of Lord Kira and the 47 ronin (samurai without a master) that slew him in Wikipedia, but here’s a condensed version: Asano, the master of the 47 ronin, attempted to slay Lord Kira but failed. Because of the dishonor of his failure, he committed seppuku (ritual suicide) leaving his 47 followers without a master. About a year later, the 47 stormed Lord Kira’s house, found him in hiding, and beheaded him. They carried his head back to their master’s grave at the Sengaku-ji temple, and subsequently all committed seppuku as well. It’s a story of legendary status in Japan, and also one of Tracie’s favorite stories. (It’s also mentioned in the excellent movie “Ronin”, starring Robert De Niro, shortly after he digs the bullet out of his side while Jean Reno helpfully holds the mirror for him.) read more

It’s early Tuesday morning. I’m deliberately skipping over about a day and half; if I don’t catch up soon I never will. Aside from the connectivity issues, my blogging has been impaired because we’ve been putting in some pretty long days and I’m so tired in the evenings that I don’t have the energy to do any writing. I’m pretty sure that the connectivity problem is actually a problem with my blogging software, BlogDesk: it seems to become impatient when I ask it to upload photos over a slow dial-up connection. So, until we reach Kyoto and the fast internet connection in our hotel, I’m probably not going to be able to post any photos here. read more

I’m having trouble with my dial-up connection. We’re fine and having a good time but I wasn’t able to post at all yesterday. The intent of this post is twofold: one, to see whether I can post at all this morning; two, to let everyone know not to panic if nothing new appears here for days on end. (If something were to go drastically wrong, we’d phone.)

It’s 8:25AM on Sunday. We’re back from eating breakfast. Tracie is writing a few postcards while I catch up on blogging. Sorry that I didn’t post more last night but I was so sleepy that I could hardly see straight.

Yesterday started with something of a surprise. The normally quiet restaurant in the hotel where we have breakfast was completely overrun by Chinese tourists. I’m going to try very hard to not be too judgemental here, but there’s no easy way to get around what we observed. I’ve always felt that one is a representative of ones country when one is traveling abroad. You are, in a very real sense, presenting an example of Americans (e.g.) in general if you’re an American visiting Japan, whether or not you think of yourself that way. You’re conveying something about your country to the local residents of another country. I take this aspect of travel fairly seriously, and do my best to represent my country in a positive manner. I hope to leave a positive impression upon people I interact with in other countries because part of how they think about my country will be influenced in at least a tiny measure by what they think of me. read more

I’m sorry to follow my first brief post with another brief post, but it’s 10:00PM and we’re quite tired. I should be able to write more tomorrow morning but right now I’m practically falling asleep at keyboard.

We spent the day seeing sights in Tokyo with Richard and Rafael. We saw the Tokyo International Forum, a spectacular modern building, walked through a posh mall, traveled by river boat from one part of town to another, and had a fantastic dinner of shabu-shabu beef. I have a number of photos to post but those will have to wait ’til tomorrow because I’m only barely awake. We had a lovely day but now I simply must go to sleep. read more

We made it. We’ve now been traveling and waiting in airports for over 24 hours straight, so this will be a brief post, and a possibly somewhat incoherent one.

We are now comfortably ensconced in the Asakusa View hotel in Tokyo. Our room is on the side of the building opposite the one we stayed in last year, so we have a different view. This view includes the large temple whose name I’m too tired to remember even though the bellhop told it to us a little while ago, a five-story pagoda which houses some of the remains of Buddha, and the Asahi corporate HQ building which is famous in part for an odd decoration that was supposed to be a flame but looks more like a golden tadpole. I’ll post a photo of the view when I can take one; it’s raining and in the evening now so I don’t think a photo would come out well. read more

Yes, we enjoyed our time in Japan so much that we’re going back. I will again post regular entries (hopefully daily) and photos describing our adventures. We leave in the tiny hours of the morning on April 17; the first posting from Japan should appear here early the morning of the 18th.

Here’s an itinerary showing where we’ll be when:

Many thanks to all of you who wrote or spoke to me about my blogs from our previous vacation. I will remember your encouragement on the evenings after we’ve been stomping around Japan all day and I’m considering shirking my duties as a travel commentator. 🙂 read more