Geo, great to hear from you. Remind me to pick your brain on cloisonne, to add to my other list of stuff to get with you about! Enjoy this time away, and be safe.
I am waiting for you to play catch up .......... I am already on Mt. Fuji ............. Sike
You left without me ............ you really did ................... take lots of pics from up on top of Fuji for me and have a great time.
Check out the price of a real Kimono for me if you get the chance ......... last time I checked they were in the thousands of dollars range ......... for a real one ....... I think they still sell the touristy cotton ones for much less. Although come to think of it you probably won't be looking at kimonos in that fashion anyway LOL.
Enjoy the week and the friends and the time. :) It's nice to have a special place to visit, relax, renew and refresh. I think yours is one of the coolest!
Been a full week, Kyoto, Kobe, Hiroshima, Fuchu. then went to the Kintai Kyo (a very famous bridge near Hiroshima), Miyajima, and back to Kobe.
I spent Kayobi (Tuesday) looking for a guru. No, I wasn:t on a spiritual quest, I was looking for a particular adhesive at the hahdowayah no shoten (hardware store). Then Suiyobi (Wednesday) I got to use a few more words from my vocabulary - ahmburansu, byooin, sensei (ambulance, hospital, doctor), My firiend still thiinks I drank too much, but I:m pretty sure I had a fugu reaction. I passed out colder than a mackeral in a Sushiya. Big fun that. And for reasons totally understood only by the Japanese, the host of the dinner paid for my hospitcal bill and wouldn:t hear differentlyof it. Amazing hospitality. Anyway, kyo wa genki desu (today I feel fine).
So today Ahmedika kaerimasu (I return to America). I*ll miss all the schoolgirls with their slavish addiction to absurd fashions, the scenery, but mostly my friends here. Tjey:re really sweet people.
Sayonara,
Joji
BTW, Digi, you can get a good quality, silk kimono, used, at ANY flea marketo for about 1000 en (10 dollars U.S.)
I'm safe back at home. Just got back from the airport a few minutes ago.
I brought my mother some cheezu kaki from Kintai Kyo for her 86th birthday and dropped them off to her, caught up on my phone and email messages, looked through the mail. Damn, but I'm whupped.
Jet lag is always the worst flying east, I don't know why. The flight's shorter, but, no, the adjustment takes forever, ugh.
Anyway, a good trip. I got a sizeable downpayment check from a client in Osaka to start a remodel project on a home he owns near here (he owns several homes), met some good contacts in Fuchu in the furniture and home fixture manufacturing business (even if I did pass out at their dinner), and met with an antique dealer friend of mine in Kyoto and bought a No mask and a Makie-urushi tea caddy (a gold lacquered container for powered green tea). No hanga this time, but I did sort of make a commitment to buy a Momoyama period Kakejiku (a hanging scroll painting). It's a really stunning picture of a hawk on a snow-covered tree from the late 16th century. Cheap for what it is ($1600. U.S.). This is the sort of stuff I've dreamed of doing all my life, but now that I'm doing it, I dunno, it's odd. Maybe it's just the jetlag, but I'm feeling a little stressed and overwrought right now.
I guess there's nothing in the U.S. news of the scandals in Japan. All that's on the news is about "ribu doa" (live door) and a few other scams. They do tend to be pretty internally fixated though. Not much in the way of international news makes it to the headlines. They're pretty *%^#*ed about the BSE scare with American beef again though. God, who's running THAT ship aground again?
Well, on a lighter note, Mt. Fuji was beautiful this morning (yesterday morning? I dunno, time travel always confuses the hell outta me), and Tokyo was resplendant in a layer of freshly fallen snow, but as usual, takeoff wasn't until after sundown so I didn't get to see anything except the city lights from the air. The flight was uneventful and the movies extraordinarily poor, but, I made it back in one piece. Now if I could just get to sleep...
I really enjoyed the travelogue, Geo. Nice that all the enjoyment and pursuing of personal interests can be parlayed into a bit of business. Even without it, "cultural travel" is its own reward.
I'm just a nail bender. I do little remodeling jobs, kitchens, baths, and very ocassionally an addition.
It just so happened that a client of mine lives in the area where I was going anyway, so I dropped by to show him the blueprints for his addition project, and he decided to write me a check for a downpayment. I didn't plan it that way, but it worked out well. The antiques and woodblock prints is just a hobby (that gets a little carried away at times).
Sorry Evan, no pictures. I don't even own a camera anymore. About all you'd have seen of the schoolgirls though, would have been the look of terror on their faces as they were fleeing from the gaijin. I guess that's a reasonable reaction, considering...
Oh, and the "fugu reaction" I mentioned was sort of a joke. "Fugu" is blowfish. Blowfish are considered a real delicacy in Japan. The entire fish (except for the liver) is served in a somewhat elaborate dinner. In the nicer restaurants they have tanks of live fugu in the lobby and they harvest them as the need arises for dinner. The skin is cooked, the fins and bones are fried, the flesh is served raw (cut into cut little paper-thin, porkchop-shaped slices and arranged in a decorative pattern with sliced onion, daikon (radish), and some pickled something or other (normally bright red or orange for a bit of color), and the internal organs are served raw as well, (the testes are supposed to be the "best" part but one has to be very careful as the liver and testes are quite similar in appearance and one fugu liver has enough toxin to kill off everybody in the resutoran).
A lengthy schooling and government exam (and license) are required before anyone is allowed to prepare fugu for the public.
The net result of all of that, though, is a really bland meal. Even my Nihonjin friend admitted that he cannot detect any flavor in fugu. The whole cachet surrounding it - I believe - is entirely due to the potential danger it poses. It gives new excitement to the dining experience if you're not sure you're going to live through it. But the actual flavor? ehh...
But fugu wasn't what really got me in trouble. I had a sashimi dinner at "Gonko", a famous, 500 year-old restaurant and teahouse in the Gion district of Kyoto. It's a very good restaurant, but a few hours after eating there I wasn't feeling right, and it only got worse the next day. My friend thought I'd simply drunk too much at dinner (always a distinct possibility in Japan), but I'd only had a single glass of sake with dinner, so I know that wasn't it. Anyway, I felt a little better by evening and went out to dinner with all the execs of a furniture company and the head of the local chamber of commerce in Fuchu. An hour or so into dinner and I passed out and smacked my head on the floor. They got me to come to, and I assured everyone that I was "daijobu" - fine (only me and my friend spoke any English) and promptly passed out again. At that point they called the ahmburansu, and the evening sort of went down hill from there. But, I did get a snappy little credit-card-like thingy from the hospital with my name on it - Joji Aaa - (sorry, you're not allowed to have a name that ends in a consonant) for a souvenir.
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coolchef1248 @adelphia.net
aloha geoge
my son is stationed there some where
okanowa
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Sudo
Hi George!
Aren't YOU the world traveler?? I'm envious I'll have you know so enjoy yourself and don't drink too much sake.
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dmiller
Hiya Joji. :)
Enjoy your week there.
(DANG!! ~~
fer a minute there, I thought you were speaking in tongues and interpreting!)
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markomalley
Have a great visit, George!
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HAPe4me
Geo, great to hear from you. Remind me to pick your brain on cloisonne, to add to my other list of stuff to get with you about! Enjoy this time away, and be safe.
HAP
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satori001
A little early for the cherry blossoms, George? Maybe not.
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Digitalis
Uhiyo sp? George
I am waiting for you to play catch up .......... I am already on Mt. Fuji ............. Sike
You left without me ............ you really did ................... take lots of pics from up on top of Fuji for me and have a great time.
Check out the price of a real Kimono for me if you get the chance ......... last time I checked they were in the thousands of dollars range ......... for a real one ....... I think they still sell the touristy cotton ones for much less. Although come to think of it you probably won't be looking at kimonos in that fashion anyway LOL.
Have Fun,
Digi
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excathedra
hope you have the greatest time
tell you friends hi !
love,ex
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Belle
Hola!
Enjoy the week and the friends and the time. :) It's nice to have a special place to visit, relax, renew and refresh. I think yours is one of the coolest!
Namaste
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Wacky Funster
Koniti wa....Ogenki desu ka?
Have a blast George...Japan is a dream of mine...someday, perhaps....
Sayooooonara
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jardinero
Arigatou for the Japan trip report, George san~
Have fun!
Ja mata backatcha!
J.
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dmiller
Digi ~~~ here is one for you.
(is that White Dove interferring???)
:D
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OnionEater
Say "HI" to my daughter, she lives in Oita Japan. She attends grad school there.
http://www.apu.ac.jp/home/index.php?sel_lang=english
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oilfieldmedic
Have a wonderful visit George...come back safe
pardon the pun, but how is the sushi?
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WhiteDove
ahhhh David I see you found the new line of the Digidove Kimono's
Enjoy yourself George!
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George Aar
Ohayo gozaimasu!
Been a full week, Kyoto, Kobe, Hiroshima, Fuchu. then went to the Kintai Kyo (a very famous bridge near Hiroshima), Miyajima, and back to Kobe.
I spent Kayobi (Tuesday) looking for a guru. No, I wasn:t on a spiritual quest, I was looking for a particular adhesive at the hahdowayah no shoten (hardware store). Then Suiyobi (Wednesday) I got to use a few more words from my vocabulary - ahmburansu, byooin, sensei (ambulance, hospital, doctor), My firiend still thiinks I drank too much, but I:m pretty sure I had a fugu reaction. I passed out colder than a mackeral in a Sushiya. Big fun that. And for reasons totally understood only by the Japanese, the host of the dinner paid for my hospitcal bill and wouldn:t hear differentlyof it. Amazing hospitality. Anyway, kyo wa genki desu (today I feel fine).
So today Ahmedika kaerimasu (I return to America). I*ll miss all the schoolgirls with their slavish addiction to absurd fashions, the scenery, but mostly my friends here. Tjey:re really sweet people.
Sayonara,
Joji
BTW, Digi, you can get a good quality, silk kimono, used, at ANY flea marketo for about 1000 en (10 dollars U.S.)
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laleo
What's a fugu reaction? Sounds truly awful.
Glad you enjoyed your visit. Sure sounds like you fit a lot into a short period of time. I hope you post some photographs when you get home.
Also, did you have time to shop for any more Shin Hanga prints from the Edo period?
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Abigail
Hope you have a safe trip home. I'm really glad you had a "mostly" great time!
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George Aar
O.K.,
I'm safe back at home. Just got back from the airport a few minutes ago.
I brought my mother some cheezu kaki from Kintai Kyo for her 86th birthday and dropped them off to her, caught up on my phone and email messages, looked through the mail. Damn, but I'm whupped.
Jet lag is always the worst flying east, I don't know why. The flight's shorter, but, no, the adjustment takes forever, ugh.
Anyway, a good trip. I got a sizeable downpayment check from a client in Osaka to start a remodel project on a home he owns near here (he owns several homes), met some good contacts in Fuchu in the furniture and home fixture manufacturing business (even if I did pass out at their dinner), and met with an antique dealer friend of mine in Kyoto and bought a No mask and a Makie-urushi tea caddy (a gold lacquered container for powered green tea). No hanga this time, but I did sort of make a commitment to buy a Momoyama period Kakejiku (a hanging scroll painting). It's a really stunning picture of a hawk on a snow-covered tree from the late 16th century. Cheap for what it is ($1600. U.S.). This is the sort of stuff I've dreamed of doing all my life, but now that I'm doing it, I dunno, it's odd. Maybe it's just the jetlag, but I'm feeling a little stressed and overwrought right now.
I guess there's nothing in the U.S. news of the scandals in Japan. All that's on the news is about "ribu doa" (live door) and a few other scams. They do tend to be pretty internally fixated though. Not much in the way of international news makes it to the headlines. They're pretty *%^#*ed about the BSE scare with American beef again though. God, who's running THAT ship aground again?
Well, on a lighter note, Mt. Fuji was beautiful this morning (yesterday morning? I dunno, time travel always confuses the hell outta me), and Tokyo was resplendant in a layer of freshly fallen snow, but as usual, takeoff wasn't until after sundown so I didn't get to see anything except the city lights from the air. The flight was uneventful and the movies extraordinarily poor, but, I made it back in one piece. Now if I could just get to sleep...
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Sushi
Glad you made it home safely, George.
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lindyhopper
Welcome back,
what is it you do? If you don't mind me asking.
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TheEvan
I really enjoyed the travelogue, Geo. Nice that all the enjoyment and pursuing of personal interests can be parlayed into a bit of business. Even without it, "cultural travel" is its own reward.
Now we need pictures.
Of the schoolgirls, hehe.
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coolchef1248 @adelphia.net
welcome home g
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George Aar
Lindy,
I'm just a nail bender. I do little remodeling jobs, kitchens, baths, and very ocassionally an addition.
It just so happened that a client of mine lives in the area where I was going anyway, so I dropped by to show him the blueprints for his addition project, and he decided to write me a check for a downpayment. I didn't plan it that way, but it worked out well. The antiques and woodblock prints is just a hobby (that gets a little carried away at times).
Sorry Evan, no pictures. I don't even own a camera anymore. About all you'd have seen of the schoolgirls though, would have been the look of terror on their faces as they were fleeing from the gaijin. I guess that's a reasonable reaction, considering...
Oh, and the "fugu reaction" I mentioned was sort of a joke. "Fugu" is blowfish. Blowfish are considered a real delicacy in Japan. The entire fish (except for the liver) is served in a somewhat elaborate dinner. In the nicer restaurants they have tanks of live fugu in the lobby and they harvest them as the need arises for dinner. The skin is cooked, the fins and bones are fried, the flesh is served raw (cut into cut little paper-thin, porkchop-shaped slices and arranged in a decorative pattern with sliced onion, daikon (radish), and some pickled something or other (normally bright red or orange for a bit of color), and the internal organs are served raw as well, (the testes are supposed to be the "best" part but one has to be very careful as the liver and testes are quite similar in appearance and one fugu liver has enough toxin to kill off everybody in the resutoran).
A lengthy schooling and government exam (and license) are required before anyone is allowed to prepare fugu for the public.
The net result of all of that, though, is a really bland meal. Even my Nihonjin friend admitted that he cannot detect any flavor in fugu. The whole cachet surrounding it - I believe - is entirely due to the potential danger it poses. It gives new excitement to the dining experience if you're not sure you're going to live through it. But the actual flavor? ehh...
But fugu wasn't what really got me in trouble. I had a sashimi dinner at "Gonko", a famous, 500 year-old restaurant and teahouse in the Gion district of Kyoto. It's a very good restaurant, but a few hours after eating there I wasn't feeling right, and it only got worse the next day. My friend thought I'd simply drunk too much at dinner (always a distinct possibility in Japan), but I'd only had a single glass of sake with dinner, so I know that wasn't it. Anyway, I felt a little better by evening and went out to dinner with all the execs of a furniture company and the head of the local chamber of commerce in Fuchu. An hour or so into dinner and I passed out and smacked my head on the floor. They got me to come to, and I assured everyone that I was "daijobu" - fine (only me and my friend spoke any English) and promptly passed out again. At that point they called the ahmburansu, and the evening sort of went down hill from there. But, I did get a snappy little credit-card-like thingy from the hospital with my name on it - Joji Aaa - (sorry, you're not allowed to have a name that ends in a consonant) for a souvenir.
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