We’ve been talking about how different it is to travel with Friendship Force, and stay in people’s homes, than it is to travel as a regular tourist.  We feel we’ve experienced so much more of the culture and have had such deep and meaningful experiences here.  Today was a good example.

Our host Yoshi’s brother-in-law Kimi, in his retirement, took up the hobby of making soba noodles.  He became so good at it that he now teaches at a cooking school.  (He also does amazing woodworking and wood carvings — another example of how the Japanese seem to never stop learning and exploring.)  Today he came to Yoshie’s house to teach us.  His wife, also an excellent cook, came to demonstrate making tempura (battered and deep-fried vegetables, fish, or meat).  We’ve had a fair amount of tempura here, and have been amazed at the light yet crunchy texture — never heavy or greasy.  No matter what’s inside the batter, it’s invariably delicious.

We were also joined by Debbie and Caroline, while the other half of the group went to a Japanese drumming show.  Kimi arrived with a large pile of gear, including a chef’s outfit, a big wooden surface, a long skinny wooden rolling pin, a beautiful homemade box for holding the noodles before they were cooked, a wooden plank for holding the dough steady while cutting it, and a big-ass knife.  He and his wife didn’t speak much English, but we were able to communicate through Yoshie and with Google Translate.

Kimi followed a very precise process of mixing, kneading, and rolling the dough, with us attempting to follow him.  We added water to the flour in four separate steps, mixing after each.  Then it was time for a LOT of kneading.  Once the dough because a smooth spherical ball, we shaped it into a round disc, then used a special rolling technique to transform this into a large, very thin square.  When he thought it was ready, Kimi brought out two metal sticks 2 mm thick and set them on either side of the dough, then used the rolling pin to ensure that the dough was thinner than the sticks.

Kan pai!

The square of dough was then folded three times to form a stack of dough, and then it was time to cut.  The trick is to make the noodles very thin.  A wooden plank holds the dough steady, and you want just a little to peek out the edge to be cut with a very large knife.  Then you tilt the knife very slightly against the plant to move it over just a tiny bit, and cut again, proceeding this way until all the noodles are cut.  Our noodles weren’t quite as thin and uniform as Kimi’s, but we comforted ourselves that Yoshie and Misora didn’t really do any better.

Meanwhile, Kimi’s wife had been in the kitchen making tempura for hours.  She cooked at least seven different types of vegetables — corn, carrots, eggplant, mushrooms, lotus, sweet potato, pea pods — and I’m probably forgetting some.  Once the soba noodles were cooked, it was time for a feast.  We each had a bowl of broth/sauce that we used for dipping our tempura and noodles in.  Everything was delicious and as usual we ate way too much — especially when dessert came out.  There was a fruit salad, and Yoshie (who’s taking an international cooking class) had made a tiramisu.  Margaret and I had to go for a walk after lunch to work some of it off.

After what seemed no time at all, we were told that it was time to head off — for dinner.  We’d been invited to another hosts’ home — the Togasakis’, where Joan and Annie were staying.  There was not parking at their apartment, so we had to park at a nearby supermarket.  Yoshie was kind enough to let us make a quick run in there, as I’ve been on a mission to find and buy Japanese KitKats, which come in myriad different flavors.  (Why does the US have to

Toga was also an aspiring magician

survive on one measly KitKat variety?)  This was Nadia’s particular request, as she remembered the ones I’d bought as stocking stuffers in an Asian store in New York City a few years back.  I’d already bought some special edition Mount Fuji ones in Hakone that were blueberry cheesecake flavor (and declined to buy the sake and wasabi flavors).  In the grocery store I found FIVE more varieties — matcha, caramel, milk tea, chocolate orange, and strawberry.  I’d later find cookies and cream ones in the train station, bringing my haul to a total of seven flavors.  (The airport also had cherry and banana, but at exorbitant prices.)

The party was lovely.  In addition to us and the Togasaki’s, several other members came by.  One of them brought his daughter, her niece, and grandchildren, so their was a big, cheerful crowd.  The Togasakis had a grand piano (that I would estimate took up about 25% of the floor space in the apartment), and Toga and Mitch played throughout the evening.  There was also an encore performance of the ukelele club, with everyone singing along.  The member’s daughter performed a mini tea ceremony for us — her family has been doing them for generations — and people told funny stories.  It was a great way to spend our second-to-last evening.

We’ve been pretty lucky weather-wise on this trip.  We had a little rain on our second day in Kyoto, but since then, the skies have been clear.  If anything, most days we’re feeling overheated.  But today our luck ran out.  We awoke to a steady drizzle, and things went downhill from there.

Undaunted, after breakfast we headed to our first stop, the Hakone Open Air Museum.  This was an amazing place, even in the rain.  The setting (nestled into the mountains), the landscaping (precisely designed and meticulously maintained, as only the Japanese can do), and the sculpture dotting the grounds combined to make this one of the most stunning places I’ve ever visited.  It was so stunning that we decided to spent our allotted time outside in the rain, exploring the gardens, rather than retreating into the two small indoor museums on site.

It seemed that every time you turned a corner (or turned your head), you would see an interesting new view.  We particularly loved a tall stained glass tower that you could climb, with views across the park from the top.  (On a clear day we probably would have seen Mt. Fuji, but this day was definitely not clear.)  By the time we left we were pretty thoroughly wet, our sneakers sloshing with every step.  (One unfortunate aspect of this trip was that

we had our overnight bags with us, and of course those bags, and everything in them, got pretty thoroughly wet as well.)

I’m not sure exactly what we were supposed to do after the open-air museum, but I know it was supposed to be outdoors, and the Japanese hosts called an audible and decided to head to the nearby art museum instead.  The first floor contained pottery from centuries ago, and we spent way too long looking at it, not realizing the museum had three other floors.  By the time we had to leave we only had a few moments to breeze past some beautiful tapestries and painted wooden screens, and quickly check out the gift shop.  (I’m not usually much of a vacation shopper, but we’ve

seen so many unique and beautiful things here that we’ve all been buying more than we intended and are becoming very concerned about how we’ll fit everything in our suitcases — especially since we’ve also received many gifts from our generous hosts.)

At the restaurant

There was a bit of confusion about where we were going to have lunch, but we eventually headed up a very steep hill to a restaurant behind the museum, located in a beautiful garden with glass walls all around.  It was raining quite hard by now.  The restaurant was a pretty small place and we had to wait a while to get in, removing any last traces of dryness from our bodies and clothing.  But it was a delicious lunch, served with cups of hot tea that we sorely needed.

After lunch it was time to head back to the city.  We slid very, very carefully back down the wet cobblestones to the bus stop.  By this point we were in a full-blown monsoon.  The rain was pouring down and the wind was whipping it into every crevice.  Rivers ran down the street and people were shrieking as their umbrellas turned inside our and they were instantly soaked.  We all heaved a sigh of relief when the bus finally appeared.

Debbie broke the machine! After this they collected our tickets by hand.

Our trip back involved several legs, though interestingly it was a different route than we’d taken to get up.  After the bus we took a local train to the main station, and then another train back down the mountain (instead of the bus we’d taken up).  The loudspeaker on the train informed us that it had the second steepest grade in the world, and that we’d be traversing a series of switchbacks.  We weren’t sure exactly how that was supposed to work, but it was fascinating.  The train went down and across the hill for a ways, then stopped.  It then reversed course and traveled backwards down another downhill path.  It repeated this series of moves a couple more times and thus was able to zig zag back and forth down the mountain.

After two more train rides, we were finally back in west Tokyo.  (When you take a train here, you have to feed your ticket through a machine both entering and leaving the station.  Our tickets were so wet that they broke the machine.  Fortunately Japanese stations always have someone who instantly appears when any sort of problem occurs.)

Margaret and I were very happy to see Yoshie waiting for us at the station, as we were not sure about navigating the extremely complex train system on our own.  Yoshie and Misora (Debbie and Carolyn’s host) had decided to take us to dinner near the station, to what Yoshie called a “typical Japanese pub”.  This place was quite a scene.  Like many Japanese restaurants, it had tables that made it look like you were sitting on the floor (but in reality had benches that were sunken into the floor).  People were actually smoking, which was a real throwback to the eighties.  And we saw groups of partying Japanese businessmen in their suits and ties.  We got several dishes to share and sample — we generally make Yoshie order for us because the menus are too confusing.  And then finally, we were able to get home, change into dry clothes, and hang everything we were wearing or carrying up to dry.

What a treat we had in store for us today!  The Tokyo group had arranged for us to spend two days outside the city in Hakone — an area of mountains, lake, and natural hot springs.  We got up bright and early and Yoshie (who didn’t go on this trip) kindly brought us by train to our meeting point at Machida Station.  From there we took another train (called the “Romance Car” for some reason) into the Hakone region, then a bus that wound up into the mountains, climbing steep switchbacks on a narrow road.  (It reminded me a bit of our trip into the cloud forest of Nicaragua, except that both the bus and the road were in considerably better condition.)  The Tokyo group had procured us a magical ticket called the “Hakone Free Pass”, which covered all of our transportation and several other things as well.

Our day covered a lot of ground and was so well planned.  We used several forms of transportation to explore all over the Hakone area, never retracing our steps.  Our first stop was the Old Tōkaidō Road Ancient Cedar Avenue.  This was a forest footpath that used to be the main route all the way from Tokyo to Kyoto, and a small section has been preserved here.  It’s lined with giant, ancient cedar trees that were supposedly planted in 1618.  It was amazing to think that this same route had been walked by countless Samurai soldiers several centuries earlier.

At the end of this section of the path was a reconstruction of an ancient checkpoint that used to control the movement of people and goods into and out of Tokyo.  In addition to the historical exhibits, there are some fascinating shops lining the streets.  We went into one and saw a demonstration of a craft called Yosegi Zaiku that’s been practiced here for centuries.  It involves combining different types of wood into elaborate patterns, then using a special blade to shave off thin slices of the design.  The result looks like thick paper and can be glued into furniture, boxes, wall hangings, etc.  The shop specialized in Japanese puzzle boxes, which use Yosegi Zaiku to create beautiful boxes that require an elaborate series of steps, or other clever mechanisms, in order to be opened.  We saw a demonstration of several, including one that involved 54 steps (the craftsman demonstrating got through it in a matter of seconds), and one that started out as an oval and had to be twisted into a heart shape in order to be opened.  The craftsmanship was amazing.

We had another delicious lunch in the same area — I had tonkatsu, a Japanese fried pork cutlet, and others who had the fish option gave it a big thumbs up as well.  Then it was time for a cruise on Lake Ashi in a pirate boat.  One of the big draws here is the ability to see Mt. Fuji looming over the lake, but unfortunately it was too cloudy at the time we were there.  The boat functioned as both cruise and transportation, as we were able to get out of the other side of the lake to continue our tour of the area.

The boat dropped us off near one of the stations of the Hakone Ropeway, a series of cable cars that traverses the mountains and allows you to get from place to place without relying on roads (while also offering spectacular views in the process).  During the ride, one of our hosts cried out “Fuji!” and we all turned around to see that the famous mountain had emerged from the clouds and was looming dramatically off to the side of the car.  Never have I seen such a dramatic

There was a small shrine with the usual hand-washing purification station — but in this one, the water was warm from the hot springs!

mountain.  Photos don’t entirely do it justice, but in person it seems impossibly large, floating in the sky above the layers of clouds that always seem to ring the base.

The cable car took us to Owakudani, a volcanic area reminiscent of Yellowstone.  There were large terraces overlooking the steaming landscape and a strong smell of sulphur in the air.  Far below we could see boiling pools in the barren landscape.  We also discovered that from here we could see even more dramatic views of Mt. Fuji.  (This is where Margaret took the amazing photo at the top of this post.)

We continued further along the ropeway and stopped at a mountain terrace with another populate feature of the area — a hot foot bath.  You could soak your feet in the mineral water while overlooking a view of the mountains, wisps of clouds floating in the foreground.

Our last transit on the ropeway brought us to our hotel.  This hotel features an “onsen”, Japanese hot baths.  At the hotel’s dinner buffet, many guests were wearing their spa kimonos and slippers.  One of our hosts told us that traditionally, people changed into their spa wear as soon as they arrived, so they could immediately switch into relaxation mode.

After dinner, most of us decided it was time to try out the baths.  It was a bit of a strange experience for us Americans, because no clothing is worn (though men and women are segregated)!  We first had to shower thoroughly and scrub with a special towel, to ensure everyone entering the baths is clean.  Initially we waded into the indoor tub, and it was HOT.  Most of us did not last long in water that temperature.  Fortunately, someone figured out that there was another bath in a sheltered area outside.  This one was much more bearable, with somewhat lower temperatures and the cool night air providing relief from the heat.  Afterward was another shower, and then we had to sit in the lounge area for a while guzzling cold water.  It was an amazing way to relax before heading, exhausted, to bed.

This morning we set out to explore Yokohama, the city where Yoshie lives. Though a suburb of Tokyo, it’s also the third-largest city in Japan. We set off on the train with just Margaret, Yoshie, and I, but over the course of the day we gradually met up with other group members.

Yoshie had told us we were in luck, because Yokohama is known for its roses, and we were here in prime rose season. We went to an amazing garden, all free and maintained by volunteers, where we were surrounded by bursting blooms on all sides. Photos don’t really do it justice, but it was lovely strolling along with lush paths and under the rose-laden arbors. We came across a whole procession of people with tiny, elaborately-styled dogs in baby carriages, lined up waiting for professional photographs to be taken. The garden was also along the coastline, so we could see the harbor and the Yokohama skyline on the far side. The harbor breeze was a relief, because the day was quite hot. (Most Japanese women carry double-layer umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun — maybe that’s why they all look so young.)

By lunchtime most of our group was back together, and we headed to lunch. Yokohama

Creepy dogs

has Japan’s largest Chinatown, and it was a great place for both a meal and a stroll. We went through the elaborate gatemarking the entrance, and walked down narrow streets lined with Chinese shops and restaurants, paper lanterns hanging overhead. We had an excellent “lunch set” meal, containing soup, dumplings, an entree, rice, and dessert for about $6, in our own private room in the restaurant. Afterward we went around the corner to see an elaborate temple, with colorful dragons carved into every corner of the exterior. We came across a group of Japanese middle school students who chatted with us for a bit (they were just starting to learn English) and posed for a photo.

Right down the street was yet another beautiful rose garden, bursting with blooms. We took a quick stroll through then went to the nearby ship terminal. The top of the building is a small park where you can see nice views of the harbor. This is a major stop for cruises, and is built to accommodate large ships, but there were none here today.

In the afternoon we traveled to the government offices of nearby Machida. We were introduced to a few of the government officers (I can’t remember what their title was), and sat in the room where their city council meets. It felt more like a visit to Congress, with a room full of desks for each member with microphones and voting buttons. We were able to ask questions about how their system works and what challenges they’re facing. Apparently the biggest problem right now is drastic population decline. The man speaking to us said that in his birth year, 70 years ago, there were 7500 babies born in the city — and last year it was under 3000. Young people are not getting married at very high rates. Based on what we’ve gathered about the system here (men are required to goout drinking with their boss until all hours, while women go home after work to take care of children and the house), it’s somewhat understandable to us why more of the women aren’t signing up! Machida, like everywhere in Japan, is having to close and consolidate schools. (This was somewhat counterintuitive to us, because we saw hordes of schoolchilden EVERYWHERE. If there were three times as many, I’m not sure how the trains and streets could accommodate them!)

It was then time for the welcome party, a dinner buffet in the same building. We met many more of the West Tokyo Friendship Force members, and enjoyed delicious food and drink. This club has a ukelele group who have been meeting together for the past couple of years. About 13 members gave us a lovely concert of ukelele music and singing. As in Nara, they had learned a mixture of Japanese and American music. (Edelweiss is a big hit here! Everyone can sing along.) As with Nara, we’re so impressed by the spirit of the people in this club — even those at pretty advanced ages cheerfully took on the challenge of learning a new musical instrument.

Bridge to the Nara neighborhood shrine

We had a bit of time in the morning, and Non had one more treat in store for me.  She took me on a walk in her neighborhood to visit her “local shrine”.  I was expecting something small and modest, but the shrine was absolutely beautiful.  Best of all, we had it all to ourselves.  Frequently when looking at these beautiful places in Kyoto, I was sighing to myself about how the crowds took away from the experience, and thinking how wonderful it would be to visit in peace and stillness.  Today I got my wish.  The only other person around was a monk, chanting and beating a drum from within the shrine.  Non explained the significance of the various statues and writings around the shrine, and showed me a round marble ball engraved with good wishes for various aspects of life (including one for successful travel).  (I thought it would be easy to look up the name of this shrine, but I have been foiled — so I’ll need to ask Non and update this later.)

Soon it was time to say goodbye.  We met the other members of the Nara club at the station.  As always, they demonstrated their kindness and generosity by sending us off with individually packed lunch bags for the train.  We very much hope that they’ll take us up on our offer to visit us in New Hampshire soon.

We had to take one train from Nara back to Kyoto, then get on the bullet train (Shinkansen) bound for Tokyo.  We had a bit of a snag because we’d lined up in the wrong place for our assigned seats, and had to race to get everyone on the train in time.  (Japan trains are extremely reliable — even one minute late is considered unacceptable — so there is no wiggle room if you’re too slow to get on.)  We were still on the wrong car, so we had to traipse through several cars full of curious school children, hauling our luggage behind us and probably bumping into people left and right.  Despite some trepidation we managed to navigate Kyoto Station successfully, figure out where to line up, and get onto the right train car.  (In Japan, people line up in neat queues when waiting for a bus or train.)

Robot assistant at Kyoto Station

The bullet train was a fun experience — clean, fast, and comfortable (like all the trains here).  Our Nara hosts had told us what time to look out the window, and we were very excited to catch a glimpse of the top of Mt. Fuji, emerging dramatically above the clouds, seemingly impossibly high up.  It was also very interesting watching the conductors.  First off, there were multiple train staff walking through the carriage throughout the journey, ensuring that everything was clean and in order.  We were sitting at the front of the carriage and saw that they would stop and bow before entering each time.  They also performed a set sequence of movements — with a sort of military precision — where they would point to each item on their checklist (bathroom, trash bin, etc). as they went through their checks.  We’ve noticed that people seem to really take pride in their work here, even jobs that we would consider fairly menial.

Peak of Mt. Fuji above the clouds!

In under three hours, we had arrived at our destination west of Tokyo.  Our hosts are the “West Tokyo” group, and we found that this is not centered in a specific town, but rather a collection of people who live in the western suburbs of Tokyo.  We got off the train to find an enthusiastic welcome committee smiling and waving.  From there we dispersed with our hosts to various train lines leading to the different cities and towns in the area.  I’m very glad we didn’t have to figure out the train system on our own — it was extremely efficient and brought you anywhere you wanted to go, but also seemed fearsomely complicated.

Margaret and I are staying together, with a host named Yoshie.  She is a very interesting woman who has traveled all over the world and lived in Qatar for a time when her husband was a diplomat there.  We took the train to nearby Yokohama, where Yoshie lives.  Yokohama is a major city in its own right — the third-largest in Japan.  Yoshie was a wonderful host.  Despite being in a more urban area where space is at a premium, we each had our own comfortable room.  Yoshie took us for a walk around her neighborhood and to a cool, tree-lined park, which was just the right antidote to a day of travel.

A little later on Yoshie’s daughter came over to help prepare dinner for us.  She made okonomiyaki — Japanese pancakes with cabbage, egg, yam, and seafood (which Yoshie calls “Japanese soul food”) — similar to what we’d had in Nara.  It was delicious, just as before. Yoshie’s daughter was also very kind and welcoming (and as seems to be the norm, looked far younger than her age of 38).  Later on Yoshie’s granddaughter, age 12, joined us as well, after completing her school day.  She goes to a private school, and has class 6 days a week — plus long days and homework.

We loved the hustle and bustle of our time in Nara, but it was also nice to have a more laid-back day today as well.  We’re resting up for more exploration tomorrow.

Joan and Annie under attack

The Nara group has planned our trip so well, starting from the more simple activities and working up from there.  Today was our last day in Nara, and we went to Nara’s headline attraction — Nara Park.  Nara Park is huge — about 1.5 times as large as Central Park — and has much to see.  We barely scratched the surface in our day here, so it’s on the list to return to someday.

The park is perhaps most famous for its many, many deer.  There is also a shrine in the park, and based on an ancient legend, the deer are seen as divine messengers.  They have been protected in this park for over 1300 years, and have become very tame.  Yoshi, the club member who was our guide in the park, told us that the deer have been studied, and have different DNA than regular wild deer.  Tourists come to the park to feed the deer special deer crackers, but one of our hosts kindly took the time to gather each of us a large bag of acorns to use as deer food.  Amazingly, the deer have learned to bow to you when asking for food.  It’s very cute — until you come upon one of the few aggressive deer who doesn’t want to take no for an answer.  Then you have to make a quick retreat before your acorn bag is snatched from your hand.

The park is also home to multiple World Heritage sites, including the amazing Todaiji Temple.  As you approach the temple, there is a central stone path, flanked by a

Todaiji Temple with striped stone path

strip of different stone on either size, with another strip beyond that, then the stone of the main plaza.  Yoshi told us that the stone was designed to represent the spread of Buddhism.  The central path is stone from India; the next layer is from China; the one beyond that Korea; and the main plaza stone is from Japan.

The main building is huge, with soaring ceilings, to accommodate multiple enormous statues, including a huge golden Buddha. Until recently it was the largest wooden building in the world — but prior to its destruction by fire a few hundred years ago, it was 1.5 times larger!  Yoshi led us through and explained the significance of all the different elements.  At the base of one of the pillars is a hole that is the same size as the giant Buddha’s nostril.  You can squeeze through it for good luck.  None of us attempted this feat, but we saw many schoolchildren doing it.

Like many of the temples and shrines we’ve visited, the pathways of the park are lined with old stone lanterns, statues, and attractive vegetation.  It was funny to see the omnipresent deer wandering freely amongst the lanterns and Torii gates.  We were lucky enough to see one wobbly newborn deer, possibly born that day.  The deer here are fairly small already, so this baby was very tiny.

For lunch we were provided with another classic Japanese experience — the bento box. In the kind of

attention to detail that is common here, the chopsticks were wrapped in a piece of beautiful folded origami paper.  (We’re all getting quite good at using chopsticks!  No forks here.) It was quite a feast and most of us couldn’t finish them.

After the park we did a little shopping then refreshed ourselves with lemonade and iced lattes at a nearby cafe.  (It was a pretty hot day.  Even though the thermometer only registers in the seventies, we’ve found the “real feel” to be much hotter here.)  When we got home, Non said we had 30 minutes until leaving for dinner.  I was thinking about a bit of a rest and cleaning up from the day, but not five minutes later she was calling me to head out.  Toko and her husband had arrived in a bright pink car to ferry us to the farewell dinner.

At the house where the dinner was being held, preparations were in full swing by those members who hadn’t gone to the park.  They had set up stations so we could try rolling our own sushi, and also making some kind of fried balls involving octopus.  (At least, they were supposed to involve octopus.  Apparently the store was out of octopus, so some other kind of fish was substituted instead.  There was much eating and drinking, a few tears, and gratitude and invitations for the Japanese to visit New Hampshire.  We would love to be able to show them a fraction of the hospitality they’ve shown us.

Today began with a hike and picnic in a nearby park.  We walked along a path around a pond, and up quite a lot of stairs to get to a viewpoint across Nara.  Many of the Japan club members hiked with us, including their oldest member — who we think we heard was 85.  It was amazing seeing her climb all those steps.

For lunch the Nara club had packed us our own separate little lunch bags, complete with ice packs.  (This was emblematic of the care they provided for us every moment of this trip.)  We each had yogurt, a banana, cheese, and crackers — and then they handed out hamburgers from Japan McDonald’s!  Some people got teriyaki burgers, and some had fish.  They also brought each picnic table a plate of more traditional Japanese food (totally unidentifiable to those of us at our table, but we gamely each tried a bit of each item).

After lunch we traveled to a Japanese cultural center.  It was a traditional Japanese building with tatami mats on the floor and Japanese paper walls.  As we moved down the hallway, we were enthusiastically welcomed by other club members who hadn’t been on the hike.  They were dressed in beautiful kimono, and whisked us into a dressing room to be prepared for a Japanese tea ceremony.

The members had brought their own kimono to share with us, which made the event even more special.  Non’s friend Toko brought me a kimono to wear that had been hers when she was 20 years old — over 50 years ago!  It was still in perfect condition.  Toko used to work in a kimono shop, so I had a real professional taking care of me.  I have no idea how women manage to put on a kimono by themselves — both Toko and Non were working hard, one in front and one in back, to get me strapped in.  There were innumerable belts and ties to hold the kimono (and your ribcage) tightly in place, and many many different layers of fabrics.  We felt a bit like the women in the old movies who had to hold on to the bedpost while their maids laced them into corsets.  My kimono fit me reasonably well, but I couldn’t take a very deep breath and had to take very small steps.

I’m not sure what kind of shoes were traditionally worn with kimono, but nowadays it seems to be flip flops.  We were given special flip-flop socks with a division between the big toe and the other toes.  Unfortunately, the Japanese flip flops are not designed for our big American feet, and most of us were hanging off the back by multiple inches.  (We only wore the flip flops when walking in the hallway or on the pathway to the outdoor garden — we had to take them off when entering any of the rooms.)

The building featured a beautiful Zen garden with lovely landscaping and the ground covered with stone raked into a spiral pattern.  The traditional tea ceremony room looked out onto the garden.  One of the members led a traditional tea ceremony, with others helping to serve.  We had the customary sweet Ichigo Daifuku, which is mochi (a rice dough) stuffed with sweet bean paste and a whole strawberry inside.  This was meant to counteract the bitterness of the bright green matcha tea that was served next.  We all really enjoyed the whole experience and were so grateful to the Nara club members who worked so hard to make it happen.  (We were also grateful to get out of our kimono and back into our own comfortable clothing after a few more pictures!  It was amazing to watch the Japanese ladies pack up the kimonos so efficiently and yet with such precision — it was almost like they were doing origami.)

For dinner, I went out with Non and Toku to a yakiniku restaurant walking distance from their houses.  At this restaurant, there is a small charcoal grill at your table when you arrive (with coals in just the right state; you have to reserve ahead).  You order various kinds of meat, fish, and vegetables, and grill them yourself right at your table.  Non and Toko ordered us a nice variety of things to try and everything was delicious.  We’ve also been sampling sake at each of our dinners — this time we had sweet sake, served warm, at the end of the meai.  As a special treat, on the way home we stopped for tea and to check out the house that Toko rents out on airbnb — highly recommend if you are coming to Nara!

My day began bright and early with a delicious and substantial breakfast, excellently prepared and meticulously presented.  It was a lot more food than I usually eat in the morning, but my inner clock is 13 hours off, so I was actually somewhat hungry.  Soon, Kazumi and Margaret picked us up for the day’s activities.

We headed to the community center, where the non-hosts in the group had been hard at work preparing stations for us to learn traditional Japanese crafts.  The Friendship Force group is so talented — they had at least a couple of people who were expert in each activity, and many more who were capable — so they didn’t need to bring in any outside instructors.

Carolyn and Judy try necklace-making

Annie and Joan

My first stop was calligraphy.  An older woman in the club had made us all lovely depictions of our names, with the translation written on them.  We were told to choose a word to learn from the samples provided.  A man there suggested that I choose “love”, but once I did he laughed and said, “very hard!  very hard!” so this was probably a mistake.  The instructor would grab our hand firmly and walk us through how to make the characters, but once through wasn’t enough to cement the sequence in my brain.  Luckily a lovely and patient woman who I’d met the previous night was willing to sit by my side and walk through it step by step with me, so I could copy each of her movements.  This still wasn’t enough — the expert at one point looked at my attempts, laughed loudly, then grabbed my hand for another practice round — but eventually, I think due to time constraints, they declared me ready to move on to making the final piece.  This also involved copying my name, which necessitated another long round of painstaking

Carolyn and Judy making necklaces with help from Non

practice with my new friend.  In the end everyone was complimenting my work, but they are very polite here.

I was finally ready to move on to the next round, which was making a necklace out of some beads and a fabric tube sewn out of an old necktie.  (They are very skilled at reusing things here.  You can buy many products made from repurposed kimono, and the tie-necklaces were similar.  The women had used old ties previously worn by their now-retired husbands.)  This one was more appropriate to my skill level, as it just involved stringing beads inside and outside the fabric strip to make an alternating pattern.  It was very clever and the necklaces came out much nicer than you’d expect.

Here I am wearing my newly-constructed necklace

Finally, I moved to the origami table.  Luckily my friend joined me again, and walked me through the process of making a crane.  Next up we tried out a peacock, although even she needed a little help with that one.  Some others made deer in honor of Nara’s famous deer park (which we’ll visit later in the week).  We’ve noticed that origami is incorporated into a lot of things here, like a wrapper that comes around chopsticks.

A light lunch

All this time, the non-crafters in the group had been getting ready for lunch.  It was a potluck and each member had brought some kind of Japanese delicacy.  The buffet table was loaded down with all manner of foods.  We wanted to try a little of everything, so it was another large meal.  I liked almost everything, except for a couple of jello-like substances that seemed to be fish- or vegetable-related.

After lunch our hosts formally welcomed us.  After some speeches most of the group got up to sing for us.  They were conducted by one of their oldest members, and accompanied by a woman who played the piano beautifully.  (We later found out that she’s performed in Carnegie Hall!)  They sang some Japanese songs, as well as some sing-a-longs like Edelweiss and It’s a Small World.  They brought down the house with a sing-and-dance-along tune called “Oh, Champs-Elysee”, which I remember learning in high school French class.

Next up they had a game planned that definitely destroyed the stereotype that Japanese people are always very formal.  Four men got up — two sat in chairs and the other two got under large kimono coats with their hands sticking out.  They had to sit behind the other and be their “arms” — trying to feed them a piece of cake while not being able to see.  Then it was our turn.  First the couples went up (with the women immediately volunteering to be under the kimono rather than eating the cake), but then we’d run out of men.  Margaret and I, and Joan and Annie from Florida, were brought up next.  Margaret kindly agreed to eat the cake, even though both of us were very full by this point.  It was difficult work under the kimono but we managed to get the job done with minimal mess.  The activity was such a good ice-breaker and had everyone laughing together immediately (though none of the Japanese women volunteered!)

Later, my host Non and I walked to her friend Toko’s house for dinner.  Toko and her husband were wonderful hosts.  The main portion of the meal was okonomiyaki, a specialty of the area that is cooked on a griddle right on the table.  There is a batter containing eggs, flour, cabbage, and probably other things that is put on the griddle like a pancake.  Then Toko’s husband topped the pancakes with pork, shrimp, and scallops.  When ready they were flipped and cooked on the other side.  To eat, we topped them with mayonnaise, a special okonomiyaki sauce, bonito flakes, and nori flakes.  Then there was a second round of pancakes with leeks and potato.  (They made one with fermented soybeans also.  They gave me a bit to try but told me I probably wouldn’t like it and that I didn’t have to eat it.  I guess it is an acquired taste.)  Everything was delicious, but I felt like I’d have to roll home (especially after we then had dessert).

This was another product we found in our hotel closet. Margaret and I decided to try it out since we were afraid we might have the “anxious smell”.

Saturday morning it was time to end our stay in Kyoto and move on to our first stay with Friendship Force in the town of Nara.  After one last 7-11 breakfast (black pepper fried chicken, rice ball with egg, latte), Margaret and I took a short walk on the path that runs along a stream right next to our hotel.  We’ve seen paths like this throughout the city, making it a wonderful place for running or biking.  We enjoyed watching all the locals walking their perfectly manicured dogs along the path.

After that we headed to the station.  Two of our Nara hosts, Keiko and Kazumi, were kind enough to take the train down to meet us in Kyoto, presumably to ensure that we didn’t get lost on the way.  This was just as well, because I think we may well have done something wrong if waiting for the train ourselves.  First off, when our train arrived, the doors opened on the opposite side (next platform over) to let off the passengers.  On my own, I would have probably been frantically running around the train trying to get on.  But no, this was just an excellent Japanese system that avoided collisions between outgoing and

Morning walk in Kyoto

incoming passengers.  (Not that there would have likely been collisions anyway.  For both buses and trains, the Japanese line up neatly in a straight line while waiting to get on.)  Also, there was a delay before the doors on our side opened.  During that time, we saw a train attendant go through and spin around all the seats on the train, so that passengers would face forward.  Then a man came through with a vaccuum cleaner.  Only once the train was completely clean and ready did the doors open.

We’d gotten onto the platform by scanning our credit cards at the turnstile, as instructed by Kei and Kazumi– then grabbed a group of seats together.  After we got onto the train, there was a series of announcements indicating that on this train, you needed both a reservation and a ticket to ride, and if you didn’t have a reservation, you must exit the train immediately.  Again, on our own we probably would have panicked at this point, but Kei and Kuzomi seemed unmoved, so we stayed put.  No one ever checked our tickets, so I’m not actually sure if we somehow had a reservation, or if we were being scofflaws.

After a short train journey to Nara, we arrived and met our hosts, who brought us to a welcome lunch at a nearby restaurant.  It’s hard to capture how kind and welcoming everyone has been.  We’ve been fed, made comfortable, and entertained in every way.  Most of the group is older people, and many of them didn’t start learning English until they were in their fifties or older — but by practicing diligently through weekly lessons and conversation groups, they’ve become more fluent that I would have though possible.  They have so much energy, even those that are in their 80s.  I think of them like hummingbirds — beautiful, dainty, and in constant motion.  (We Americans are more like Golden Retriever puppies —we mean well and try to please, but tend to bumble around and knock things over )

We’re getting to try lots of interesting food, even if we often don’t know what it is.  Our welcome lunch today featured several different dishes, from miso soup to steamed egg to a kind of salad with rice, raw tuna, vegetables, and salmon roe.  Some things are a challenge to eat with chopsticks, but I surreptitiously watch our Japanese hosts to see how they approach it.

Nobuko (Non) and me

After lunch we went back to our individual home stay homes to settle in.  My host Nobuko and her husband Yoshio have a lovely home in a quiet residential neighborhood.  Margaret and her host, Kazumi, came by for coffee and conversation, and two other members who live nearby stopped by as well.  Yoshio

loves American music from the seventies (the Eagles are his favorite), and eventually showed us his hobby area.  We climbed a ladder up into a loft, which was full of speakers, record players, records, and other sound equipment.  Yoshio builds many of his own speakers and loves to come up here to listen to music.

Dinner was a delicious Japanese curry — similar to, but a little different from, curries that I’ve had at home.  They brought out sake for me to try as well, and presented me with gifts from Japan.  (They seemed to enjoy the maple sugar candy that we’d brought from the US, but it’s possible they were just being polite — they don’t seem to eat a lot of sweets here.)  Then, it was time for an early bedtime after a tiring day.

Non and Kazumi

Today we planned a day-long tour to get the most our of our last day in Kyoto.  We had to catch the 7:20am shuttle from our hotel to Kyoto Station to meet our tour guide, so Margaret and I had to get out to the 7-11 pretty early.  We found the selection to be even better.  Today for breakfast I had Japanese-style spicy fried chicken and an egg roll.  Margaret had some salmon sushi.  Once again, a quality breakfast.

Purification ritual

The tour, which was just for our group, covered several sights around Kyoto that it would have been hard to get to on our own.  The first stop had us heading up into the mountains that ring the city, to visit the Buddhist Kiyomizu-dera Temple.  It features a huge terrace built out of the mountainside, constructed entirely without nails.  The views from the terrace, looking out over the forest and the city beyond, were beautiful.  To enter the viewing area for the temple itself, we had to remove our shoes and purify ourselves by washing our hands.  We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the temple itself, but everything was very ornate and impeccably maintained.  Our guide Emiko taught us how to throw a coin offering, then perform the correct series of bows and claps while making a wish.  (Reflecting on how things are going in the US right now, I think many of us shared a similar wish.)  Here we also saw what was to be a constant for the day: huge crowds of tourists.  Much like Florence, we were surrounded by people from all over the world come to see the sights of Kyoto.

Our next stop was a Shinto shrine, Fushimi Inari-taisha.  It features ten thousand red torii gates that have been erected along a path that winds up and down a small mountain.  (Our guide told us that long ago, a businessman who was struggling built the first gate as an offering, and his business then succeeded.  Since then, thousands of businesses have constructed their own gates.)  You can walk through the gates and see the names of those that constructed them. Most were in Japanese characters, but we saw a few more modern company names sprinkled in.  Here and there we saw gates that were falling into disrepair, and were wondering what effect that had on the luck of the business that had built them.

Golden Pavilion

We then went to a restaurant by the river for a buffet lunch.  Many of us ate way too much in an effort to taste everything.  In many cases I wasn’t sure what I was eating, but most of the time it was very good.  The huge restaurant, as well as all the sights we saw, were mobbed with crowds of schoolchildren in uniforms, visiting on field trips.

From the restaurant we walked to the nearby Tenryuji Temple.  The best part of this area was the beautifully landscaped gardens.  The attention to detail was stunning.  We saw several gardeners working on different patches of land, literally pulling out blades of grass one at a time in order to create the perfect effect.  Judy, Margaret, and I spent a fair amount of time wandering the various paths around a pond and across a hillside, even though by then it was raining.  The many paths of the garden, and the rain, also allowed us to escape the crowds for a bit!

Next up was maybe my favorite part of the day — the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest.  Walking up the path felt like entering a tunnel, with densely-packed, ramrod-straight bamboo trees surrounding us, the background a constant whisper of rustling leaves far above.  I would have loved to walk through here alone, but alas, many others clearly felt the same way.

Our final stop was one more temple — the Kinkakuji Temple, known as the Golden Pavilion.  This temple is covered in gold-plating, and shines out dramatically behind a large pond.  We weren’t able to go inside, but the grounds around the temple again were stunningly beautiful and meticulously cared for.

By this time we were pretty wet and very tired, so we unanimously decided to skip the souvenir shop that was supposed to be our last stop of the day.  In exchange, we were able to negotiate a drop-off at our hotel, rather than at the Kyoto station.  This was a great relief to everyone, as we were ready for a quick dinner and bed.  We found our quick dinner at a nearby ramen restaurant — very small and casual, but delicous.  Large bowls of ramen cost about $5!

Margaret and I have been gradually making our way through the many amenities provided by our hotel.  In addition to the heated toilet seat, robe, and slippers, today we discovered that we have a shoe dryer!  This came in very handy after today’s rain.