Dear Family and friends,
This “trip report” is a
little long and a little late. We have
been so busy we just couldn’t seem to finish writing it! In re-reading the pages below, it reminded us
of just what a wonderful trip we had.
May 23 to
Returning to
Fri-Sat: Travel 20 hours door to door. It was so good to see Kevin and Shokawa
again! We arrived full of energy. Returning to Kevin’s quiet town of
Sun: Rode our bikes to Takao’s Dorayaki (small,
round Japanese sweet red bean-filled pancake) shop. Was so good to see Takow
again. Then we peddled to Kamatzu
(about 15 miles away) and enjoyed our first really fine sushi of this
trip. The road was very narrow and lined
with rice paddies and
picturesque homes – many with flower gardens.
We enjoyed dinner at the
super market. The sushi is better than
anything at the finest US Japanese restaurant.
Monday: We peddled (Kevin was at work this day) to a
huge discount store called “Plant-3” on the other side of the river (about 5
miles away). That store was amazing – a
Japanese version of COSTCO… but much cheaper.
Riding back we got totally lost.
Japanese streets are very contorted through rice paddies and tiny towns…
with none at right angles and few through-streets. We smiled as we watched the herons and egrets
feast on endless frogs among the chartreuse rice in the flooded fields. At a stop-light (at
Monday evening, we were
treated by dear Shoda to an Onsen (hot spring retreat). Our room included a private hot-spring fed
HOT tub (almost too hot to sit in!), private meditation garden, large (eight
tatami mat) living and sleeping room and a 4.5 tatami dining area next to a
private mediation moss garden. All walls
were sliding paper and there were magnificent Japanese paper hangings on the
walls. They provided two Yukata (a
casual kimono): one for daytime and
dinner and the other for sleeping.
Dinner with Shoda, her husband and Kevin was a 14 course dinner of every
imaginable sushi, sashimi and many dishes from crab, abalone, tie fish, tuna,
sea scallops, shrimp, flounder, several soups, many vegetables, warm sake and
Italian red wine. The best was the Tie
which is so tender and mild and caught locally.
We had our own geisha named Madeko who helped us with customs. She understood some English but spoke
none. We were still jet-lagged, so we
awoke at
Tuesday: Breakfast was another 14 course meal with
Madeko cooking on a small hibachi next to our table. We soaked six times all together and felt so
relaxed by the time
Tuesday afternoon, Miho and
her friend Sachiko (Sachi) picked us up to visit the new Kutani pottery museum
in beautiful Kaga by the sea. The museum
was spectacular with both ancient and new works that amaze and inspire. The Kutani technique is to fire the porcelain
at least three times and often many more times than that. The first firing is a
bisque, then at high temperature with just a clear, matt glaze. Then over-glazes are painted on which are
fired rather low (cone 016 or so) to maintain their brilliant colors. The ideal is to show the natural beauty and
serenity of
We rented a car and Sachi rode
back with Bob driving and
The Japanese are very serious
about driving safely. Their streets are
very narrow and people are always walking and children playing in them... so
speed limits are very slow. Typically
city streets are 15 miles per hour and sometimes lower. Country streets are up to 25. It is very pleasant... there also are ditches
with running irrigation water in them immediately at the edge of the roads...
so speed it is very dangerous. If a
person is caught having had just one drink in the day they drive... just one
beer hours before driving – they lose their license. And if a foreigner is caught – they are sent
IMMEDUIATLY back home. They offer cab
rides for people who drink can not drive.
Whenever we went to a place where alcohol was served – we walked or rode
our bikes.
We drove to Kevin’s school
where Karate class was in progress. We
watched as Kevin’s sensei, Takao lead two rows of dedicated students through
rigorous drills. Kevin is also in an
evening Karate club which Takao also teaches.
He is a ball of solid muscle and is absolutely amazing to watch. In one demonstration he JUMPed up into the
air and slowly rotated to horizontal in mid air. He came straight down on his toes and his
fists landing with so much force the floor JUMPED like it was a huge
trampoline. We haven’t felt such
vibrations in the floor since we attended Riverdance!
That evening, we rode our
bikes to one of Kevin’s favorite eating places – the Yakitori bus! This is 50’s vintage pink bus still resting
on its very-flat tires. The front 1/3
has been converted into a kitchen of sorts where the Yakitori are cooked on an open hibachi with his endless cigarette
smoke adding the flavor. We savored at
least six varieties of these juicy (greasy) little shish kabobs made of all
sorts of meats with veggies between.
Little tables have been set up between the original, worn vinyl seats
and the atmosphere was steamy and the beer cold and delicious.
In one day, we were honored
with a traditional Japanese breakfast, visited a pottery museum and ended the
day with a Yakitori in a broken-down old bus!
We sure enjoyed the full range of absolute Japanese culture... with all
seldom experienced by tourists.
Wednesday: We picked up Shoda in our car and returned to
Plant 3. Last time we were on bikes, so
this time we could shop! We picked up
the many fabulous items we saw the first time there including Bonsai scissors,
trimming knives, more Jimbe, paint brushes and kitchen implements.
Shoda guided us to the
Shoda then guided us to the
Kutani pottery village on the outskirts of Terai. Here is a pottery museum we visited last year
– but our goal was the little of pottery stores. We took no less than 100 photographs here of
fabulous Kutani painted vessels of every kind.
So many ideas, we could spend our lifetime being inspired by them: Flowers, birds form all over Japan, bunches
of leaves, fish of every variety, scenes of countryside, scenes of mountains,
scenes of ponds & streams, people fishing, swimming, walking, laughing...
and it goes on endlessly. We picked up
some sushi sets to add to those we purchased last year... but mostly we looked.. and we saw.. and
we learned. In one store in which we
purchased some small plates, an artist was there and offered to paint us a
picture while we watched. Shoda had said
something to him – and we thank her for whatever it was! He created a wonderful scene of flowers and
leaves which we now smile at in our bedroom remembering that magical
morning.
We wore Shoda out running
from store to store. So we went to lunch
at a tiny restaurant which served fabulous eel dishes. We had not enjoyed eel until this meal – it
was cooked in a wonderful sauce and was very delicious. When we travel, we like to try everything
local. A part of the scenery: an important part of the experience is the
flavor of the place. Whether it is
Later, we picked up Takao at
his shop and he guided us to his brother in law’s studio in the nearby
village. He is a very famous painter of
Kutani birds. Later we would recognize
his works in galleries up in Kenazawa.
His style is quite realistic, stressing the energy and free-spirit of
birds of many types. The colors are
vibrant with clear over-glazes to accentuate the primary figure. His work is absolutely beautiful. It was an honor to meet him.
We then asked Takao to show
us where the pottery supply store was.
It took some hand gestures and pointing to tools of the trade to
communicate, but he took us to just the right place. This store was like an old Japanese pharmacy
with little bins full of many-colored powders and unusual clay tools in bins
all over the store. We found the pestle used to
mix over-glazes and bought three and some wonderful little brushes for
Bob.
That evening we walked to
Shokawa and Miho’s home who hosted a party for us. Kevin’s “English” club came to welcome
us. Kevin dreamed up a game in which the
gifts we brought could be passed out (shirts with flags, Harley Davidson
motorcycles and Betty-boop on them among other
Thursday: Miho picked us and Shoda up to take us to her
friend Sachiko’s studio. She lives in a
beautiful home with a kitchen table made from heavy, rough-hewn wood in a
large, high-ceiling room. Her art works
are all around her home (she has won awards for some). She then took us next door, where she has her
studio. There were works in progress in
a back room, both painting and assembling.
There, she showed us how she mixes her paints using the same glass
pestle and flat-bottomed glass mortar we saw the day before and she asked if
Bob would like to try. She did not have
to ask twice! She had just painted a
lovely gold fish on a plate, so on the blank plate she gave Bob, he used one of
her precision brushes to paint a goldfish like hers: following her example, and
she coached him from time to time. She
helped him mix other colors and then helped come up with his name in Japanese
characters for the bottom. It turned out
nice. Two day later, we had the finished
plate in our hands for she fired it immediately and gave it to Shokawa and Miho
to give to us. Everyone was so wonderful
to us....
Miho took us to a “pancake”
house for lunch. These are common in
After lunch, Shoda took us to
Toshi’s Butsudan making shop. These are
Buddhist shrines intend for the home and made from carved wood which is then
lacquered and gold-leafed. The scenes
are timeless stories about nature & serenity and are used for individual or
family meditation.. They are also beautiful works of
art. Toshi showed us pieces in each step
of the process. The wood carving is
amazing to see up close. Like so much in
Japanese artistry, different artisans do individual steps in the work. Then, Toshi invited Bob to try his hand at
gold-leafing! It turned out okay – very
smooth and bright, but with a few little cracks on the side. It was something that will be done on some
future art project we are sure. The
openness we experienced was amazing everywhere we went.
That evening, we drove out to
Kevin’s pottery teacher where
That evening, we took Shoda
and her husband to dinner at a very fine restaurant where we again had at least
12 courses. Like many meals in
Friday: We trained to Kenazawa with Kevin. Trains in
Returning home, we ate at the
little restaurant Shoda had taken us to two years earlier. They remembered us and we remembered the
specific foods we had enjoyed there.
This establishment was wooden and dark and filled with the aromas of
years of cooking. The center was a
cooler area filled with all sorts of fresh sea foods – all caught that
morning. You point to various fish and
they prepare it to your liking.
Saturday: Miho and Shokawa drove us to Kenazawa for
the “Professor Shokawa historical tour”.
Shokawa is one of those remarkably intelligent and gentle people you meet
only rarely in a lifetime. He is
soft-spoken with a wonderful sense of humor.
He comes from a family that has been in the pottery business for
generations (a picture in his traditional home of his father with Hirohito
attests to this). Miho (who you have
read about several times before in this letter) is a lovely woman with a great
sense of humor and grace. She jokes
wonderfully and is always ready with a quip about Kevin. Both of them felt like family since the
beginning of this visit.
On the way to Kenazawa, we
stopped at a wonderful antique shop which was full of fabulous desks and
apothecary cabinets and abacuses and kimono’s and on
and on... but then we spotted an unexpected treasure: in the back room, there were a dozen
enthusiastic potters!!! They were
working in fine porcelain and making interesting shaped drinking glasses, pots
for bonsai with wonderful little feet and table-top curious shaped vases. In another room a fellow was throwing pots on
his wheel. All were happy to show us their
tools and their techniques. We shot lots
of pictures and took notes.
In Kenazawa, we wandered down
the old Geisha streets and visited a merchant’s house now set up as a
museum. Here we saw how those fabulous
many-drawer cabinets we saw in the antique shop were used. In the back room, there was a gold-leaf
making section where the old tools were displayed. Basically, the gold is hammered with HUGE
wooden hammers between sheets of parchment.
As the gold becomes thinner and thinner, they are stacked together like
a book held by what look like two dual tipped chop-sticks tied together at
their ends, pinching the pages together as the hammering continues.
We had mentioned to Shokawa
that we were interested in ancient musical instruments – so he guided us to one
of the very few Shamisen makers left in
We enjoyed lunch at an
“Italian” restaurant that was no more Italian than any of the other wonderful
Japanese restaurants we ate at.. except
they did offer tomato sauce on the roman noodles and had Italian wine on their
menu. The food, being Japanese, was of
course delicious as we ate in the open air courtyard.
In the afternoon we wandered
to the Ohmicho fish market (http://www.bento.com/phgal5.html). This is not like any seafood store in
We returned to Miho and
Shokawa’s lovely home for a sushi hand-rolls dinner of the fish just purchased
in Kenazawa. In
Sunday: The day started with Shoda surprising
For lunch, we returned to
okonomi-yaki “pancake” house for one last delicious treat... Then, sadly, we
drove to the airport after returning the car (unscathed). We enjoyed a snack as we waited for our
plane. Waved goodbye to Kevin and Shoda
and began our journey home.
The people of
As we exited the customs
section of the Atlanta Airport we had with us Soy sauce, Japanese mayonnaise,
crackers, okonomi-yaki sauce, dried bonito powder, special okonomi flower,
pottery, pottery tools, Japanese wardrobes.... and one lost Japanese
grandmother. She was coming to
Since returning, we have
purchased a rice cooker, had hand-rolled sushi many times, wear Jimbe’s most of
the time and both of us have made many pots inspired by our return to one of
the most lovely, friendly and inspiring places we have ever seen.
Love and safe travels to you
all,
Bob and Sharon