Japanese Adventures with Elena 2019

Second Set of Adventures with Elena in Japan
24-30 Oct 2019

The first set of adventures with Elena in Japan was centered in Kyoto.  These adventures included the supreme cleanliness of Japan, its variety of foods, its home shrines, and the history leading up to the official declaration that the Emperor was not “divine.”  Click here to examine our 2017 adventures in Kyoto.

Our second set of adventures centers upon hiking in the Japanese Alps, autumn Japanese maples (shown in the pic above), various communal bathhouses, eating eel and soba, observing a Shinto wedding, examining the Japanese education system, and fascinating bits of history and folklore that add spice to our adventures.  Ready?  If so, let’s get started.    

Oct 24^th

We flew from Shanghai to Nagoya using Juneyao Airlines.  It was a two hour trip followed by a 30 minute train trip.  Since the train station is right in the airport, it was super easy to get to the train we needed. Then we took a metro line that placed us just ten minutes away from our hotel.

Be prepared!  All the trains and buses in Japan depart and arrive ON TIME.  If you miss a metro, no sweat.  The next one arrives in less than five minutes.

As usual, Elena is a master organizer and going from place to place comes off without a hitch every time.  And, since written Japanese uses about 60% of the characters that Elena knows due to her skills in Mandarin, Elena can read street signs, alerts, and menus like a pro.  Since the Japanese make their distinctive sounds for familiar Mandarin characters, Elena has no advantage when it comes to spoken Japanese.

Nagoya is a large manufacturing city of 2 million and is a major port in the south of Japan.  It is the ideal city for moving directly north into the Japanese Alps.

Nagoya is the birthplace of Toyota cars.  We tried to get passes for a company tour but all the places were taken two weeks before we arrived.

Nagoya is also the birthplace for pachinko—a complex pinball machine that has fabulous prizes and rows upon rows of players (as in the case of slot machines in Las Vegas).  Note well: Pachinko, unlike the slots, takes skill to win.

Our hotel room follows the Japanese format: tatami mats for flooring, shoji sliding doors, beds 15 cm high, no shoes in the bedroom (or no shoes anywhere inside the hotel), everything is compact, very tidy, and immaculately clean.

Ten minutes after arriving at our hotel, we are out the door and heading for an exciting meal of eel.  Unagi, or soft water eel, is a Japanese delicacy that you must try. Tenderized and grilled with a soy-based sauce, it is truly delectable when served over a layer of hot rice (as shown).

The Japanese eat sea food much more often than they eat beef or pork.  They also serve smaller portions.  Most Japanese leave the table still mildly hungry.  “Hara hachi bu” is what parents teach their children.  Obesity here is practically unknown.  According to the 2017 survey done by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the obesity rate for American adults (aged 15 and over) came in at a whopping 38.2%, which puts the birthplace of the hamburger and the Cronut as the achievement of the #1 heftiest-nation-in-the-world.  The skinniest nations are Japan, with a tiny 3.7% of the population tipping the scales, followed by India, Korea, Indonesia and China.

If you visit a McDonald’s in Japan, you’ll be amazed how the greatest burger joint in the world had to do some big-time cross-cultural adaptation before it was able to attract Asiatics.  Have any hunches?  To find out, click here and discover the unique Ebi-Fillet.  And, just for the record, let it be known that McDonald’s has more burger joints in Japan [3000] than any other country, save for the USA [14,000].

Oct 25^th, Saturday

Atsuta Jingu Shrine

We visit the Atsuta Jingu Shrine, one of the oldest and most important Shinto shrines for 1900 years.  The shrine is surrounded by a large wooded area.  Visitors pass under a large torii which marks the hallowed ground of the shrine.  Before offering incense or prayers, one washes the right and left hand and one’s throat with spring water.

Shinto Wedding

At 9:00, a wedding begins.  The wedding party includes about fifty people.  Men are dressed in black suits.  Women wear traditional Japanese dress.  The bride (pic left) wears the traditional white dress and head covering.  All in all, the wedding lasts about 45 minutes.

A common description of Japan’s religious syncretism says: “[I am] born [according to the rites of] Shinto, married Christian, die Buddhist.”  This is very curious.  Less than 1% of Japanese are Christian; yet, the vast majority of weddings take place in churches using the Christian rites.  Thus, most Japanese have to wait for their wedding day before they hear hymns, benedictions, prayers, and bible readings.  What the Japanese love most, however, is the exchange of rings, the wedding kiss, and the making of vows before God. It is typical for a bride to enter with her father and then be “given away” to her husband—an exchange that usually involves both bowing [a Japanese requirement] and shaking hands [a Western practice].  This latter practice fits well into the current wedding climate in Japan, since, hardly any Japanese girl would marry someone without the blessing of her father.  For all the details on how this happens, click here.

Traditional Shinto ceremonies (神前式, ‘shinzen shiki’ shown in pic above), which account for around one in six of Japanese weddings, are held in the main building of a shrine. A priest performs a ritual purification for the couple, then announces their marriage to the kami (神, “gods” or “spirits”) of the shrine and asks the kami for their marriage blessing. The bride and groom take three sips each from three cups of sake.  No kissing!  No rings!

Almost 90% of unmarried Japanese intend to marry, and yet the percentage of people who don’t continues to rise. Between 1990 and 2010, the percentage of 50-year-old people who had never married roughly quadrupled for men to 20.1% and doubled for women to 10.6%   Click here to discover why live births in Japan are on a steady decline.

Shinto Made Simple

The essence of Shinto is the Japanese devotion to invisible spiritual beings/powers called kami. Their presence is seen in natural forces such as the wind, rain, fire, natural springs, and sunshine, and in Japanese the term kami is often applied to the power of phenomena that inspire a sense of wonder and awe in the beholder.

The local kami are concerned with human beings — they appreciate our interest in them and want us to be happy — and if they are treated properly they will intervene in our lives to bring benefits like health, business success, and good exam results.  So, in effect, the kami are a bit like the veneration of Saints in Roman Catholicism.  For an exceptional half-hour explanation provided by a Shinto priest, click here.

Shinto shrines exist everywhere in Japan.  They exist in the city and in the countryside.  There are roughly 80,000 such shrines in Japan.  Shrines may be cared for by priests known as Kannushi, by local communities, or by families on whose property the shrine is found. Many priests take on the role in a line of hereditary succession traced down specific families. In contemporary Japan, there are two main training universities for those wishing to become Shinto priests, at Kokugakuin University in Tokyo and at Kogakkan University.  Historically, there were female priests although they were largely pushed out of their positions in 1868.  During the Second World War, women were again allowed to become priests to fill the void caused by large numbers of men being enlisted in the military.

The Japanese that I talked to at the Youth Hostel had a Shinto shrine in their home and, at the start of each day, they acknowledged the kami, offered fresh water and fruit, and clapped their hands twice.  Four times each year, however, they went to one of the government-maintained Shinto shrines.  This was especially the case during the two-week celebration of the lunar New Year.

Upon entering a shrine, the Japanese first practice a washing with cold water.  In some places, the person immerses himself in a river or waterfall, or pours cold water over himself several times. In the abbreviated form, called chouzu, only the hands and mouth are cleansed with water.  Click here to see my video showing this. Later, a visitor might also cleanse other parts of their body with the smoke of incense.  Click here to see my video showing this.

Since the Japanese believe in reincarnation due to their respect for Buddhism, this chouzu is sometimes explained as washing away bad karma.  In practice, however, the water purification enables one to approach the kami.  Lay visitors usually give gifts of small coins to the kami while priests generally offer them food, drink, and sprigs of the sacred sakaki tree.  After making their offering, visitors ring a bell to alert the kami. Then, they bow, clap twice, and stand while silently offering a prayer of petition or thanksgiving.  On important occasions, a feast may be held inside a banquet hall attached to the shrine complex.  This banquet brings those invited into a closer communion with the kami of that particular shrine.

While at the Atsuta Shrine, we saw good luck amulets being sold (as in pic).  Fortunes were also being “divinely guided” by a process whereby the visitor shakes a cylinder until a chopstick emerges from a small hole.  This stick has a number painted on its side that corresponds to the drawer where the specifics of one’s fortune are printed on one side of a sheet of paper.  Visitors read “their fortunes” and then, if they accepted them, they tie them to a special rack within the compound.  Click here to see a visitor reading her fortune and deciding whether to accept it.  As in the case of astrological divination popular in the USA, I assume that “fortunes” contain promises and admonitions that the visitor applied to their own lives.

After 1868, the priests appointed to the major Shinto shrines were officially nominated and organized by the state, and they instructed the youth in a form of imperialist ideology based on the dogma of the divinity of Japan’s national origins and its Emperor.  All this came to an abrupt halt with the defeat of Japan in 1945.  In the post-war decades, many Japanese blamed Shinto for encouraging the militaristic policy which had resulted in defeat and occupation.

The Fate of Mixed Bathing in Japan

In the afternoon, we did a little shopping and then visited the Tokugawa Art Museum.  Then we went to a communal bathhouse that allowed us to relax in an indoor hot pool with water jets for a half-hour. In Japan, hundreds of bathhouses [onsen] were integrated.  As Japan became open to foreigners, this practice was harshly criticized.  George Smith, the bishop of Hong Kong, offered a biased account of this in his 1861 book, “Ten Weeks in Japan”:

Towards the latter part of the afternoon or at an early hour of the evening, all ages and both sexes are intermingled in one shameless throng of bathers without signs of modesty or of any apparent sense of moral indecorum.

As a result, this practice was gradually frowned upon and later officially prohibited.  From the viewpoint of the Japanese, it’s not the mixed bathing but the sporting of tattoos in the baths that is their strongest concern.  I asked our innkeeper about this.  He said that Japanese who have tattoos are often members of the Japanese mafia [yakusa] and their presence in the baths makes ordinary Japanese so uncomfortable and fearful that they leave and stay away.  Many of these yakusa had been to prison where they had been tattooed by authorities to mark them as criminals. As a result, early yakuza members began to incorporate tattoo art into the customs and traditions of their group, adding to existing prison tattoos and creating new tattoos as a symbol of status within the organization.

Since Elena has some large and attractive tattoos, she had to ask in each case whether she would be allowed to use the baths.  Given the size of her tattoos, the response was normally “no.”  When she did receive a “yes,” she was befriended by a Japanese woman who showed her how to massage the skin between baths.  A new-comer arrived and immediately objected to Elena’s presence in the baths with her tattoos.  The woman who befriended her spoke out in her favor, “This woman is not a member of the yakusa.  Besides, the management said that, as a foreigner, she is allowed to use the baths.”

Following the hot bath, we had supper upstairs with a traditional Japanese treat = hot soba [buck wheat] noodles.  Yum-yum-yummy!

Oct. 25th

On Sunday, we took a train to Magome, a small farming town.  This town was one of sixty-nine stops on the ancient postal route (the Nakasendo Highway) that stretched from Nagoya to Edo (old name for Tokyo).  We stay at a grade school that, due to a declining student population, has been partially refurbished so as to double as a Hostel.  This is a very popular spot for trekking in the mountains at this time of the year.  The Japanese like it due to the changing colors of the Japanese maples (as shown in the pic at the top of this page).  Hence, Elena was fortunate to find this place as such a low price.

We will sleep in a mixed dorm and then, on Monday morning, we will hike 18 km. to Tsumago, the next stop on the postal route.  The dorm consists of a dozen upper and lower bunks that are constructed in wood on three sides with a privacy curtain in front.  I was amazed at the quiet in the dorms at all hours.  This was taken for granted by the Japanese.  For foreigners, however, no such tradition exists.  Nonetheless, we were surrounded by very considerate foreigners.

We hiked on country roads lines with farm houses, vegetable gardens, and an occasional rice field.  We observed that the houses here are quite large.  In the cities, the high cost of land dictates that houses are composed of a family room, bath room, and kitchen.  During the day, the family room doubles as the eating space.  At night, furniture is moved aside, and Futons are laid out for sleeping.  In the countryside, where land is inexpensive, separate rooms are available for relaxation, eating, and sleeping (much as found in Western homes).

Outside of town, we visited a cemetery and a Shinto shrine (that is shown and explained below).  The shrine was 100 meters off the country road and consisted of two large buildings.  One would have thought that the shrine was abandoned.  When we examined the money box for offerings, however, we noticed that it contained nearly a hundred coins.  On the way home, we found a wild fig tree that was loaded with ripe figs.  We treated ourselves with two or three delicious figs each.

Oct.  26^th

In the morning, we packed our bags and sent them by train to Tsumago, our destination.  Elena found a small store and bought cherry tomatoes, Muscatel grapes, and sweet dried sardines for our lunch on the trail.

The first hour of trekking was a steep climb from 600 to 800 meters elevation.  We had only gone a single km; hence, I was afraid that we would not be able to get to Tsumago by nightfall.  The trail was well maintained and it took us through farmlands and forests.  Cold mountain streams crossed our path every half hour.  More often than not, we saw waterwheels being turned by the moving water.  I inspected the interior of one such waterwheel and found that it was connected to grinding stones that were well-maintained and undoubtedly used by the local farmers.

We passed through a grove of cypress trees that soared straight up into the sky 20-25 meters.  I had misidentified these trees as cedars but later I read that these were the famous cypress trees that were used for shrine and castle construction all over Japan.  We also saw groves of bamboo trees that waved in the breezes.  This reminded me of the bamboo forests that we had already visited in various parts of China.   Here are some pics taken on the route:

I was wearing my sweater and my hoodie.  This provided me with just the right amount of protection from the cool air of the mountains.  I carried my rain jacket in my white shoulder sack in case of rain.  Elena had packed her rain jacket and food in her small knapsack that she uses everyday when going to yoga classes or her office in downtown Shanghai.  Elena wore her black hiking boots.  Good for her!  I, on the other hand, wore my Puma athletic shoes that I had bought in Columbus.  This was a mistake.  The sole did not provide the protection needed when hiking over uneven ground.

At the half-way point, we came upon an old farm house that was being maintained as a Tatebachaya—a rest station that served free tea and snacks.  These are found throughout Japan wherever hikers are known to travel.  Three elderly gentlemen from the local area served as volunteers.  We chatted with them and enjoyed the pickled plums that were served with the tea.  When we later visited a grocery store and  discovered that these umeboshi are a specialty and cost an arm and a leg.

After taking our tea, we went to the outside picnic area and shared our lunch with four retired Aussies who were also hiking the trail and enjoying the Japanese Alps.  I asked them what “most astonished them about the Japanese” and got some very interesting replies.  One Aussie was a home constructor.  He was amazed how Japanese craftsmen were able to bend the railings used for ascending staircases on the job site.  These Aussies later pointed out a meter-long black snake that we might otherwise have entirely missed.  Here is a notice:

It’s a good idea to always wear appropriate footwear, such as hiking boots, when walking in rural areas, just in case you come across some of the less pleasant fauna. There are a few things to watch out for, including giant centipedes, poisonous snakes and the denki mushi – a little green caterpillar that will make you feel like you’ve been electrocuted if you touch it!

Beware of bears

There were frequent notices on how to act when approached by a black bear.  At the shops in Mangome, they sold little copper bells that claimed to have the power to dispel such bears.  To counter the mindless fear of bears, rangers have organized special hikes that have for purpose to spot bears:

If you’d like to see a bear for yourself or maybe just enjoy the cooler weather and beautiful views in the Alps, three weekly hikes will take place this summer, starting on July 25 and continuing into August. Chances are good that you will be able to see an Asiatic black bear in the flesh. Just leave your jingle bells at home.

The last line made me laugh.  Along the trail, there are four-inch cow bells that hikers were invited to strike to ward off any bears.  I was joking with the Aussies that the ringing of these bells was a deliberate ploy by the black bears to regard these bells as “diner bells.”  In any case, my suspicion is that the ringing of bells is a placebo that has no factual verification.  Here are two posts coming from Yellowstone National Park:

Re: bear bells on hikes? #1 post

Well, there’s different opinions about those bells, but some folks say they actually attract curious bears. And I’m not aware of any studies that show bells actually work to deter bears. Certainly they’re no substitute for bear spray. And yes, they are really annoying.

Re: bear bells on hikes?  #2 post

Yes, there is no substitute for bear spray.  Do you know how to tell the difference between black bear scat and grizzly bear scat? Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur. Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper LOL.

The Muscatel grapes that Elena had purchased were an unexpected treat for me.  Eating them brought me back to the time when I, as a young boy, would eat these grapes off the vine at the back of our property in Euclid. I haven’t eaten these grapes for fifty years.  But my taste memory is alive and well.

The semi-sweet dry sardines [Tazukuri] were also a treat.  I made my mind up then and there to bring some of these back to Shanghai with me.  Tazukuri are made by frying the dried sardines and then adding a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and roasted white sesame seeds.

Here are more pics taken during our trekking:

Oct. 27^th

This morning we take all our belongings to the bus station and take the 9:20 bus to the train station.  There we wait an hour for our train.  In a small restaurant across the street from the station, we have a hot breakfast.  I choose the red-bean soup with six small dumplings (the smallest dumplings that I have ever seen or eaten).  It’s there that I bought this tea pot exquisitely made by a Japanese potter.

We board the train at 10:30.  I am fascinated by the systematic gestures that the conductor goes through before the train moves forward.  I can only surmise that these gestures serve to make certain that everything is in place for moving forward: the list of stations with times of departure, the gauges, the clock showing the time, the track is clear [which is used three times].  These gestures are repeated in the same order at every station.

The conductor wears a neat uniform, cap, and white gloves.  He is all alone yet he is engaged in animated conversation while making vigorous gesticulations. It is indeed a spectacle, and anyone witnessing it for the first time might well wonder if there’s a madman at the controls.

Fortunately, there’s method to the madness. Those odd vocalizations and gestures help keep us safe by heightening workers’ mental focus at key points on the job where accidents are likely to occur. This technique for error-prevention is called shisa kanko. It’s hardly known outside of Japan, but those who do talk about it in English use the term “pointing and calling.”  Look at the video again.

Japanese railway employees have been using this technique for more than 100 years, but the exact origin is a little unclear. To give an example with English calls, let’s say your task is to make sure a valve is open. You look directly at the valve and confirm it’s open. You call out in a clear voice, “Valve open!” Then, still looking at the valve, you draw your right hand back, point to the valve in an exaggerated way and call out, “OK!” The theory is that hearing your own voice, and engaging the muscles of the mouth and arm, stimulates your brain so that the valve is in the right position.

But does it actually work? I posed that question to Kazumi Tabata of the Japan Industrial Safety and Health Association, who showed me research conducted in 1994 by the Railway Technical Research Institute. Workers asked to complete a simple set of tasks made 2.38 errors per 100 actions when no special steps were taken to prevent errors. When told to add just calling or just pointing, their error rate dropped significantly. But the greatest reduction in error — to just 0.38 mistakes per 100 actions — was achieved when workers used both steps together. The combination of pointing and calling reduced mistakes by almost 85 percent.

At 12:30, we arrive at Matsumoto.  We store our baggage in a locker at the station and go to visit the Yayoi Art Museum.  The best display was the rotating crystal chandelier encased in a hexagonal case made of partially mirrored glass.  This creates a magnificent kaleidoscope with hundreds of chandeliers radiating in all directions along the x, y, and z axis.

Art of Yayoi Kusama

Both Elena and I are admirers of the art of Yayoi Kusama due to her playful and fantasy figures.  Yayoi’s pic is shown to the left. Now that we are in the city of her birth, Matsumoto, we decided to treat ourselves by visiting the museum dedicated to making her and her art known.  See her three pics to the right below.  Want to see more, then click and see ten more of her works.

On the street, an old lady sold me a super delicious pear for $2.50.  It was pricy but well worth it!

Then we had an early (17h00) supper of Japanese fried chicken (5 pc. boneless with curry soup).  Yummy!  Before every meal restaurants serve some pickled veggies and after every meal they serve miso soup.  You don’t have to order these.  They’re automatic parts of the “set” served at restaurants and at home cooked meals.  The cost was nearly $10 each.  No tipping.  The Japanese regard a tip as an insensitive insult since you appear, in their eyes, to be saying, “You’re not being paid enough.”

Everywhere that we have eaten, great care was used to present the food in such way that it pleased the eye as well as the palate.  Elena is the top-notch expert in this arena, and watching her enjoy a great meal was always an additional treat for me.  Here is an assortment of our meals.  Note the glazing on the pottery and how this harmonizes with the colors of the food:

At 18h00, we show up at Hostel Tabishiro which is 7 minutes from the train station where we stored our luggage.  We refresh ourselves in our room and then go out to take the best photographs of our trip = Matsumoto Castle light up at night.  My sleep was interrupted by some electronics going “beep beep” in the silence of our room every 8 minutes.  Grrrrrrr!

Oct 28^th

From 9 to 10 a.m. we visit Matsumoto Castle in the day.   It takes me a while to use the term “castle” for a wooden structure used by the Samurai.  The building itself is not so interesting in the daylight.  The only point of interest is that, seen from the outside, there are six levels.  Inside, however, these is an extra level where aristocrats could be concealed should the castle itself ever be invaded.

Here is the magnificent photo that Elena took the previous night:

Kaichi School in Matsumoto 1873+

The Kaichi Grade School represents the first public school in Japan that brought together boys and girls from the aristocracy, the samurai, the merchants, and the farmers.  The school architectural design and the curriculum were modeled upon the grade school system practiced in the USA.  It was a real thrill to notice that the two floor structure was nearly exactly like that of Holy Cross Grade School where I had received my primary schooling in Euclid, Ohio.  Large double-doors at the entrance lead to a broad central corridor with classrooms placed on both sides.  Staircases at the ends of the building gave access to the second floor.  A pot-belly stove served to heat each classroom.  This had been replaced by central heating by the time that I began the first grade.  Here are some pictures of pictures taken in the school.

Education in Japan

Education in Japan goes back over 1500 years.  During most of this period, only those who belonged to the aristocracy and those who joined the samurai (military) received a systematic formation based upon the writings of Confucius.  Boys normally followed the profession of their father and girls learned the art of homemaking and etiquette from their mothers.  There were no public or private schools.  As a result, only roughly 10% of the population was literate.

In the 1850s, Great Britain changed its foreign policy with respect to China in order to solve a trade deficit.  This foreign policy change indirectly led to the dismantling of the local armies within Japan and the formation of a central government in Japan.  The central government, in turn, would initiate a system of public education that began with the Kaichi School that we visited.

How could events in London lead to such massive changes in Japan?

In 1820, China’s economy was the largest in the world, according to British economist Angus Maddison. The British had become addicted to the tea, the porcelain, the silk, and the gunpowder of China, and this caused a substantial trade deficit. Queen Victoria was alarmed that the gold drain might unsettle the value of the British Pound; hence, she looked for a way to address the trade deficit.

Meanwhile, Great Britain occupied India and collected taxes.  In northern India, farmers were accustomed to pay taxes in ounces of opium; hence, the government had accumulated thousands of chests of pure opium.  Britain certainly did not want to ship this opium back to England; hence, the British government authorized the British East India Company or EIC to smuggle Indian opium into China bypassing the strict control of opium as mandated by the Emperor.  By 1833, the number of chests of opium illegally trafficked into China soared to 30,000 per year.

After China declared a war on drugs in 1839, the Chinese police confiscating well over 20,000 chests of opium illegally stored in EIC warehouses in Canton (modern Guangzhou).   The drug importers demanded that the Chinese government repay the full street value of the confiscated narcotics. When the emperor refused, a squadron of Britain’s most up-to-date warships arrived in 1840 to brush aside the Celestial Empire’s junks and blast its coastal towns into ruins. British troops slaughtered civilians up and down China’s coast.  As a result, the emperor was forced to pay steep reparations and to give drug dealers full protection.  This use of gunboat diplomacy by the British led to a century of Chinese humiliations at Western hands. This is why the Chinese today regard foreigners with suspicion. Do you think that President Trump knows anything about this?

Some of the samurai of Japan were painfully aware of the inability of China to defend itself.  In order to secure its future, Japan introduced these measures in the 1840s:  (a) The samurai made their oath of allegiance to the emperor of Japan and dismantled the private armies of the shoguns [regional rulers]; (b) Japan moved from hundreds of autonomous shoguns to a constitutional monarchy centered upon a hereditary emperor; (c) A centralized public educational system was introduced beginning with the Kaichi School of Motsumoto.  For the first time, the children of aristocratic, samurai, and peasant families were learning under the same roof.

Sad to say, it was the imperial system that was design to protect Japan from the gunboat diplomacy of Great Britain that later turned Japan toward a colonizing policy that brought WWII into Asia.  Thus, a trade imbalance that led to Britain’s gunboat diplomacy eventually led Japan to become an imperial power that attacked Pearl Harbor on 07 Dec 1941.  WHAT A STORY!

Here is the BNB where we stayed for two nights.  They served meals since the small village had no restaurants.   While lodging in the big cities, private homes are small and smaller and still smaller; here, in the mountains, land is cheap and bigger homes are found everywhere.  Our BNB is one such large private home:

The large pic is our dining room looking out on a small classical garden.  The smaller pics show the half-bath next to our bedroom, the family’s Shinto shrine, and the full bath.  Note that the small, metal bath area is very deep and makes possible to fill it with hot water (1 meter deep) in order to get a hot tub experience.  If you wish, click here to tour a modern Japanese home in Tokyo.  Click here to tour a classic Japanese home near Kyoto.  What did you discover?

Japanese Style Cemeteries

I find that cemeteries express aspects of a culture that cannot be appreciated otherwise.  In the Kyoto home that you may have visited above, for example, the family shrine is where “the spirits of my ancestors live.”  “Every morning,” the home owner says, “I serve my ancestors coffee [not tea?] and chant for a few minutes to please them.”  She also recalls, “When I moved from our village to here, I had to carry my ancestors here to be with me.”

Here is a village cemetery that we visited:

The Chinese associate burial plots with evil spirits (kami); hence, they make sure that no home is built within a good distance of such plots.  On the anniversary of family members, the Chinese set off a barrage of roman candles to scare away evil spirits and to make it safe to visit the remains of their ancestors.  In Japan, no such tradition prevails.  Hence this small cemetery is built on the edge of town.  The upper-right pic marks the entrance to the cemetery and it features a shrine to a resident kami.  The upper-left shows the cleaning station with bucket and brushes that are used to keep the grave stones in superb shape.  97% of Japanese are cremated; hence the burial urns which are buried do not require much space.  You will note that many of grave markers have fresh cut flowers.  This is not the practice in China.  There they leave a half-empty liquor bottle and three of four half-filled glasses [barely visible at the foot of the Chinese burial site built in an isolated bamboo grove shown in the small pic].  Different places; different traditions.

In August of every year, three days are set aside [known as obon] for washing the grave markers and for inviting the spirits of their dead to revisit them.  In this video, a wife mourns her dead husband and even invites a Buddhist monk to welcome the return of her husband in her home shrine.  Note: In Japan, Shinto has nothing to say about death or an afterlife.  Buddhism, however, specializes in this area.  Hence all near-death and burial rituals are in the hands of Buddhist monks.

Trekking and Hot Mineral Baths in the Japanese Alts

We are enjoying the hot public baths wherever we go. The Japanese have traditionally given great importance to cleaning their homes, cleaning the sidewalks and street in front of their homes, and cleaning their bodies.  Hence, Japanese traditionally gave first importance to building bath houses.

In the Alps where we were trekking, we found a hotel with its own hot bath fed by hot mineral springs [=onsen].  The mineral water has a milky appearance.  On our second day, we used the outdoor onsen even though there was a slow, steady rain.  Yes, it was shockingly cold getting in and getting out, but when sitting in the water up to our necks, we were incredibly relaxed and warm.  Here are our still pics below.  I had to take them when no one was present.  If you want to see a detailed video of the experience of visiting an onsen, click here.
hot springs outdoors, inside, and changing room

Here are some pics taken in the Japanese Alps that gave us the juugen experience of itadakimasu:

Veteran’s Day in Japan

There are two memorials to the dead of WWII in Japan: (1) Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery and (2) the Yasukuni Shrine.  The U.S. prefers the first and, at one point, was ready to burn down the second.  Here is the story:

• (千鳥ケ淵戦没者墓苑 Chidorigafuchi Senbotsusha Boen) is a national Japanese cemetery and memorial for 352,297 unidentified war dead (including civilians) of the Second World War, located near the outer moat of the Imperial Palace and Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan. S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (shown on right) were able to officially mourn these deaths (due largely to US bombing of Japanese cities) and to lay wreaths October 3, 2013.  They did not visit the Yasukuni Shrine (below) however for it includes the souls of those who were convicted of war crimes perpetrated during WWII.
• Yasukuni Shrine, originally named Tōkyō Shōkonsha (東京招魂社 “shrine to summon the souls [of the dead war heroes]”), has been controversial. The shrine was established in 1869, in the wake of the Boshin War, in order to honor the souls of those who died fighting for the Emperor.

During the 1930s, the military government sought centralized state control over memorialization of the war dead, giving Yasukuni a central role. Enshrinements at Yasukuni were originally announced in the government’s Official Gazette so that the souls could be treated as national heroes, but this practice ended in April 1944, and the identities of the spirits were subsequently concealed from the general public.  The shrine had a critical role in military and civilian morale during the war era as a symbol of dedication to the Emperor.  During the final days of the war, it was common for soldiers sent on kamikaze suicide missions to say that they would “meet again at Yasukuni” following their death.

After World War II, the US-led Occupation Authorities issued the Shinto Directive, which ordered the separation of church and state and forced Yasukuni Shrine to become either a secular war memorial. Yasukuni Shrine has been privately funded and operated since 1946, when it was elected to become an individual religious corporation independent of the Association of Shinto Shrines. In 1946, the US-led Occupation Authorities planned to burn down the Yasukuni Shrine because of the vital role it played in sustaining Japanese morale during WWII.  However, Father Bruno Bitter of the Roman Curia and Father Patrick Byrne of Maryknoll insisted that honoring their war dead is the right and duty of citizens everywhere; hence, the US military decided to allow Shinto rites to be performed at the shrine.

The American film, “The Last Samurai”

The film, The Last Samurai, depicts the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877.  Samurai who fought against the Emperor (and who are the heroes in this film) were denied the right to be remembered at the Yasukuni Shrine.  In the movie, Omura was the principal antagonist to the traditional samurai.  In 1893, Okuma Ujihiro designed a statue honoring Ōmura Masujirō as the “Father of the Modern Japanese Army.”  This statue sits on a 10 meter tall pillar within the Yasukuni Shrine.  It is ironic that Omura is depicted as robed and armed as a samurai since he, in his life, sought to destroy the honor given to samurai warriors.  This causes me to doubt very much the last eight minutes of the film wherein soldiers of the Emperor honor the dying samurai and the Emperor dishonors Omura.  My suspicion is that the key role played by Tom Cruise is also a historical fiction.  Click here for a thoughtful film review .  Click here for an analysis of the historical inaccuracy of the film.  The film “The Last Samurai” achieved higher box-office receipts in Japan than in the United States.

Discovery at the Local Library

I wanted to visit a public library; hence, when we found one, we dropped in for a quick visit.  In examining a few books, I noticed that Japanese books begin at the back and work toward the front.  Modern books are printed left to right in rows on a page [due to the invention of the typewriter]; older books are printed in vertical columns.  The front cover of books is the “back cover” in our system.

Then I noticed that books are cataloged with numbers from 000 to 999.  This immediately triggered the possibility that the Dewey Decimal System was being used.  I asked a reference librarian about this possibility.  She did a two-minute internet search and confirmed my suspicion.  In 1956, Japanese librarians modified the Dewey Decimal System used in US libraries since 1905.  It became known as the Nippon Decimal Classification.  Bingo!  Another spinoff of the fact that the reconstruction of Japan following WWII was under the direction of the US Occupational Forces under General MacArthur.

Prior to WWII, there were very few libraries in Japan, and they all operated using subscription fees.  The US Occupational Forces introduced the practice of having “public libraries” in Japan.  Thus, after 1950,  public libraries were established in every city as a place “to guard the people’s right to know” and “to ensure free [no fees] and equal access to information for all people.”

In the 70s and 80s, the number of libraries and librarians in Japan increased two-fold.  At the very time when the internet was expanding giving access to printed resources, the use of libraries went up instead of down. In 1970, the number of books loaned out was 2.5 per capita.  In 1990, this jumped to 13.4. [For further info, go to http://origin-archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla62/62-kawy.htm and How Innovation Has Transformed Japanese Public Libraries]

Oct 29^th

Today we travel to Toyko.  We almost missed our bus.  We left for the bus station with plenty of time.  Then, when Elena gets info on where the bus leaves, she discovers that the bus to Tokyo requires that we take a 20-minute train to the bus station.  Yipes!   We rush like two frenzied travelers to get to the train station (200 meters away).  We make it by the skin of our teeth!

The bus takes us north-east and requires three hours before we finally arrive.  At one magical moment, our bus mounts a hill and there, right in front of us, is the majesty of Mount Fuji.  I then discovered why this single mountain holds such an importance for the Japanese people.  Mount Fuji is incredibly large and it stands alone without any other mountains visible nearby.

Mount Fuji (Fuji-san) is the highest mountain in Japan, rising to 12,388 feet. Visible from Tokyo on a clear day, the beautiful cone-shaped mountain is located west of Tokyo and it’s surrounded by lakes in a national park.  Mount Fuji is a volcano that last erupted in 1707 and is now dormant.

Mt. Fuji is named for the Buddhist fire goddess Fuchi and is sacred to the Shinto goddess Sengen-Sama, whose shrine is found at the summit. It is the holiest of Japan’s “Three Holy Mountains.” Every summer, thousands of pilgrims and tourists climb to the summit, many of them hiking throughout the night to witness the sunrise from the summit.

Tokyo [earlier known as Ido] – Capital City for two thousand years

Now Elena begins her work for two days.  On our free day, she takes me to see the oldest garden in all of Japan, and she manages to get tickets for the spectacular art exhibit of the “planets” produced by Team Lab.

On the morning of our free day, Elena takes me to the oldest garden in Tokyo which, due to her diligence, is only a ten-minute walk from our hotel.  In Japanese culture, garden-making is a high art, equal to the arts of calligraphy and ink painting.  Unlike the classical gardens of France and England, Japanese gardens avoid fancy hedges and intricate designs in flowers.  There purpose is to  bring the visitor into a contemplation of the harmony within the natural world and our place within it.  Thus, gardens are not used for picnics, for jogging, for extended conversations, or for playing games.  Rather, Japanese gardens invite the visitor to slow down and to find rest.  I have tried to capture this in the pics below:

In the places where we stayed in private homes, most had a Japanese garden for themselves.  Here are some pics of their gardens.  Maybe you’d like to make a hunch why these gardens were created and how they enhance the way of life of those who live within them.   How do they differ from the gardens that you have known and loved?

 

teamLab Planets is a museum where you walk through water. It consists of 4 vast exhibition spaces with 7 distinct light shows. By immersing the entire body with other people in these massive “Body Immersive” artworks, the boundary between the body and the artwork dissolves, the boundaries between the self, others, and the world become something continuous, and we explore a new relationship without boundaries between ourselves and the world.

Visitors enter the museum by taking off their shoes and socks and storing them in a locker.  One enters into a dimly lit hallway that leads to a room where one has to struggle to walk forward on a canvas that has been placed over 40 cm. of sand.  Moving forward means sinking into the sand.  One has to struggle to move forward while falling many times in the 20 meter stretch of fabric.  Endurance is the theme of this first room.

After following another dimly lit hallway, one enters a 30m x 30m room where strings of LEDs are suspended from the ceiling.  Floors, wall, and ceiling are covered with mirrors. Thus, the lines of LEDs appear to go to infinity in every direction.  Moreover the lights change intensity and color in harmony with some wordless music.  Click here to experience Elena immersing herself in this artwork.  Some sit on the floor; others lie on the floor and look up; others dance through the corridors created by the strings of LEDs.  I’m in the last group.  How could anyone be there and not dance for 20 minutes?

When ready, visitors move into another set of dimly lit corridors that brings one to a warm water pond about 30 cm. deep.  In the water, koi [giant gold fish] are swimming.  The fish interact with their companions and with the waders (us).  Slowly one discovers that the koi are not real but are a holographic projection.  Then, one slowly discovers that, if anyone hovers over a koi, it turns into a chrysanthemum whose petals detach and slowly disappear.

Erik Archer, an East Asian Studies Major in College, went to live in Japan for 7 years.  He said this:

Well, there may be other meanings, but the one I learned was about the Koi’s relationship to Bushido. (way of the warrior) In this respect, Koi are revered for their strength and are famous for fighting their way upstream.  From a warrior spirit point of view, this symbolizes fighting against all odds even when on a fishing line.

On the other end of the spectrum a Koi is said to lie still when caught and is peaceful at death.  This symbolizes the warriors acceptance of death and facing it bravely and stoically.

I’ve always really liked this legend and think about it in my own life when to inspire me to fight against life struggles, and to peacefully accept the result once it’s no longer in my control.

Elena and I agreed that the teamLab interactive light displays offer young Japanese a unique experience of art that satisfies their hunger for meaningful experiences of art.  My description here only partially explores the exhibit.  Should you ever have an opportunity to take part in such an exhibit, please don’t miss it.  We stayed 2.5 hours.

After returning home, I discovered that the Chrysanthemum, or Kiku in Japanese, is a symbol that represents longevity and rejuvenation. The Chrysanthemum was also used as symbol of the Throne of the Emperor of Japan or Chrysanthemum Throne (皇位).   Here are two varieties of Chrysanthemums symbolizing the throne of the emperor at the Yasukuni Shrine.   Magnificent!

Elena and I agreed that the teamLab light displays offer young Japanese a unique experience of art that fits nicely into their hunger for meaningful experiences of art.  My description here only partially explores the exhibit.  Should you ever have an opportunity to take part in such an exhibit, please don’t miss it.  We stayed 2.5 hours.

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What important discovery did you make while following our adventures?
Why do you suppose this attracted your attention?
Please page down to the “Comment” box below and share your impressions.

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Appendix 1: Unique Thoughts/Words in Japanese

As a language gets created, you can bet that experiences and things that are important “get named.”  Here are three examples from the Japanese language:

1. ikigai = the reason you get up in the morning
2. yuugen = inexpressible in words
3. shinrinyoku = the peace and serenity that comes from spending time in the woods

Click here to learn eight Japanese hand gestures.

Appendix 2: Halloween

So much of Japanese culture is directed toward harmony, fitting-in, and rule-keeping.  My hunch is that Halloween appeals to children and young adults because it gives them permission to act out and to become (at least for a short time) a fantasy character that breaks the habits of harmony that fences them in.  Here are some pics.  You decide for yourself what is going on.

Appendix 3: Strange Translations Prepared for English-Speakers

Appendix 4: More Details on Shinto

Shinto (Japanese, “the way of the gods”), Japanese cult and religion, originating in prehistoric times, and occupying an important national position for long periods in the history of Japan, particularly in recent times. During its early period, the body of religious belief and practice called Shinto was without a name and had no fixed dogma, moral precepts, or sacred writings. Worship centered on a vast pantheon of spirits, or kami, mainly divinities personifying aspects of the natural world, such as the sky, the earth, heavenly bodies, and storms. Rites included prayers of thanksgiving; offerings of valuables, such as swords and armor and, especially, cloth; and ablutionary purification from crime and defilement.

Early History

In the late 6th century AD the name Shinto was created for the native religion to distinguish it from Buddhism and Confucianism, which had been introduced from China. Shinto was rapidly overshadowed by Buddhism, and the native gods were generally regarded as manifestations of Buddha in a previous state of existence. Buddhist priests became the custodians of Shinto shrines and introduced their own ornaments, images, and ritual. At the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 9th centuries, the celebrated Japanese teacher Kukai, or (posthumously) Kobo Daishi, established a doctrine uniting Buddhism and Shinto under the name of Ryobu Shinto (Japanese, “the Shinto of two kinds”). In the new religion, Buddhism dominated Shinto, and elements were adopted from Confucianism. The ancient practice of Shinto proper virtually disappeared and was maintained only at a few great shrines and in the imperial palace, although the emperors themselves had become Buddhists. The distinctively Shinto priests became fortune-tellers and magicians.

Beginning in the 18th century, Shinto was revived as an important national religion through the writings and teachings of a succession of notable scholars, including Mabuchi, Motoori Norinaga, and Hirata Atsutane. Motivated by nationalistic sentiments that took the form of reverence for Japanese antiquity and hatred for ideas and practices of foreign origin, these men prepared the way for the disestablishment of Buddhism and the adoption of Shinto as the state religion. In 1867 the shogunate was overthrown, and the emperor was restored to the head of the government. According to revived Shinto doctrine, the sovereignty of the emperor was exercised by divine right through his reputed descent from the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami, who is considered the founder of the Japanese nation. Related beliefs included the doctrines that the Japanese were superior to other peoples because of their descent from the gods, and that the emperor was destined to rule over the entire world. Until the defeat of Japan in World War II, these beliefs were of utmost importance in assuring popular support for the military expansion of the Japanese Empire.

Contemporary Shinto

Before 1946 Shinto took two forms: State, or Shrine, Shinto, a patriotic nationalistic cult, identified with and financially supported by the imperial Government; and Sectarian Shinto, a general term for a number of sects founded by private persons and based on various interpretations of traditional Shinto. State Shinto, as the official government cult, theoretically embodied the religious beliefs of the entire Japanese people, and the number of its adherents was counted as the total population of the empire. The cult centered on a great profusion of shrines in all parts of the country, ranging from small wayside chapels commemorating local spirits and families to great national sanctuaries, such as the Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo, dedicated to the spirits of soldiers who had died in battle for Japan. In 1946, during the American occupation of Japan following World War II, the cult was completely separated from the state by order of General Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander for the Allied powers. Government financial support of State Shinto was eliminated, the former practice of teaching cult doctrines in the schools was abolished, and the use of Shinto symbols for nationalistic purposes was forbidden. At the same time the emperor issued a statement renouncing all claims to divinity.  The full text of this document along with its translation can be found at the end of our 2017 journal.

Sectarian Shinto, a religion with the same status as Buddhism and Christianity, was unaffected by these changes. At the present time it comprises 13 major and numerous minor sects. The principal sects are divided into 5 main groups: those that continue with little modification the traditions of ancient Shinto; those that emphasize adherence to Confucian ethics; those that are predominantly devoted to faith healing; those that practice the worship of mountains; and those that are primarily devoted to purification rites. In the early 1990s more than 110 million Japanese participated in the various Shinto sects, but those who professed Shinto as their sole or major religion numbered only about 3.4 million. The Shinto sects have approximately 101,000 priests and about 81,000 shrines.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Meiji-Restoration

https://www.nihongo.cc/guide/nagano/kyuu-kaichi-school

Appendix 5:  Zen

Zen is a Japanese sect of Buddhism that aims at enlightenment by direct intuition through meditation.  Zen is forwarded by gardens and flower arrangements such as those shown here: