Return to Japan by Steve Solomon

Return to Japan

ÂŠ 2012 Steve Solomon

     Japan after the 3/11 Disaster A friend and I were walking along near the calm ocean waters of the Pacific coast of Japan near the city of Yokosuka. Having enjoyed a pleasant afternoon at the city art museum, we watched fishermen cast their lines from the rocks. “What would we do if a tsunami hit right now?” she asked. What indeed, with the ocean on one side and a high fence on the other. We discussed it for a while, I assuring her that I was a former lifeguard and pointing to a large plastic can that might buoy her to the surface, trying without much luck to imagine some way out. A year before, on March 11, 2011, the Big One had hit, a horrible earthquake that struck the East coast of Japan and sent tsunami waves up to over 100 feet high through towns and cities, devastating much of the Tohoku region from just north of Tokyo to the top of Japan’s main island, Honshu. Over 20,000 people had perished and hundreds of thousands were still displaced from their homes, search-

ing for jobs in other areas or waiting to find permanent housing once more in their own towns, if those towns had not been washed out to sea. To make matters worse, the large nuclear power plant at Fukushima had seen most of its reactors melted down and spewing radioactive clouds over the region, hot radioactive materials settling on rooftops and schoolyards and forcing parents and teachers to keep their children indoors with the windows shut tight.

   

All the nuclear power plants in the country, which had supplied about a third of the nation’s electricity, were shut down for safety checks, and the air conditioning was off in many of these homes and schools. Frequently in the U.S. it was remarked that, had this not been Japan, there would have been riots and revolution. Instead, we saw the people’s unflagging patience and perseverance. In May 2012 I went to check on the health and welfare of my Japanese friends.

     Setagaya Neighborhood I arrived on the last day of Golden Week, one of the major holiday weeks in Japan, on Children’s Day, when families fly large colorful carp-shaped paper streamers from their rooftops. My plane had arrived so late that a desperate rush to get to my friend’s house before the trains stopped for the night had led me through crowds of teenagers and young adults eager to finish the holidays in good cheer. The Shimokitazawa Station area of Tokyo reminds me of Berkeley or Haight-Ashbury in the 60's, with its little shops displaying old-fashioned clothes on racks out front, CD and book shops, an old fashioned dimestore like we frequented back in the 40's, curry shops, noodle shops, a McDonalds, young men and women hawking merchandise, and even a used kimono shop.

My map said to go one way, but I trusted more the memory in my feet that walked me in the opposite direction past a reassuringly familiar flower shop, and soon the nice little street wide enough for only one vehicle—typical of our neighborhood—carried me to a quieter area of nice two story houses with little gardens.

   

Near the house was a road that has a park with a stream running through the middle, a welcome change from the stressful streets of the major metropolis I had just passed through. There is a relaxed feel to this little bit of Tokyo, a city made up of a thousand small communities. There are few chain stores, but countless mom and pop restaurants, as well as bike shops, junk shops, stores of every kind.

    

Shimokitazawa Station Area Bicycles everywhere. The little streets usually have a small lane marked off on each side for pedestrians, but it’s important to keep your eyes open in front and behind. If you veer suddenly from your path without looking, you might be run over by a motor vehicle or one of hundreds of bicyclists. Bicyclists include men and women in their 70’s and 80’s, many mothers with one or two babies on board, and salary men and women in business suits. One can buy a good bicycle with all the fixings for about $200, and many people here spend only a bit more for a partially motorized bike. In the morning the station area has hardly awakened. Householders and shopkeepers sweep up the street in front, and folks make their way to the train.

The morning rush hour on the platform however is a rather wild sight. Once, in order to make it across town, I decided to get to the station early at 9:00 am so that I would have plenty of time to transfer at two other stations for a bullet train to the north.

   

My friend had earlier advised me to not leave until 10:00, but with my suitcase on the platform beside me I waited. Eight and ten car trains stopped every three minutes, and in every train there was not an inch free. People were packed up to the doors, while still more tried to push on in and doors tried to close on shoes and handbags. Not wanting to cause extra problems with my suitcase, I waited about an hour and watched a thousand people calmly accept one another’s polite company as though members of a tight-knit family.

    

Space On a Shinkansen train returning to Tokyo from Osaka, a German family sat in my row. The father remarked that we didn’t see small towns surrounded by thick woods like in Germany or rural Ohio. Instead, from the tracks we saw one little city after another nestled among the mountains with buildings pressed one against the other. I suggested that such cities generally congregate around railroad tracks, but had to admit that Japan was a small country with lots of people and little wasted space.

This little store near our station illustrates the desire to use any land available. While the father and I made a game of counting from the train what few trees we could spot within a town, homeowners made use of whatever little space they had, to plant pretty flower beds and small, carefully tended trees and shrubs.

   

This shop, apparently lacking floor space, when open generally hung its dresses on the outside, facing the road.

    

Shimokitazawa Station Ticket Gate After arriving home with the camera, I realized that among the crowd had been a western face. From Europe, the U.S., South America, Australia, who knows? It was rare to spot a westerner in Japan or to ever hear any English spoken. Most of my conversations were in Japanese, and not too many people I talked with seemed to understand much spoken English. It’s possible in some cases that, because I began conversations in Japanese, they didn’t bother to try speaking English, and they wouldn’t have known whether to talk to me in another language such as French, German, or Spanish. I would advise that if you plan a trip to Japan, either have a Japanese speaking friend help you along, or do one of their many nice package tours with English-speaking guides who will smooth your way through.

All Japanese people are incredibly hospitable by nature, and will try their best to figure out what you need and help you out. If you find that one is avoiding you, it’s not that they are rude or don’t like you. It’s simply that they are shy and ashamed that they have forgotten what little high school English they may have learned many years before.

   

It helps a lot to learn at least some simple Japanese phrases to use to greet someone, ask for directions, or start a conversation which may rely on lots of universal gestures. On the other hand, taking the time to learn conversational Japanese before your journey can make a huge difference in making friends and entering into a whole world that would have been invisible to you otherwise.

Next Chapter

     

      Sendai The large Northeast city Sendai was the closest metropolis to the epicenter of the 3/11 quake, and around the world we watched in disbelief as their airport terminal became an island amidst a flotilla of floating cars. Thousands of people from worse-hit areas had fled to this coastal city after their homes and factories were washed out to sea.

people going about their usual headlong rush into the future.

For a year the great effort to rebuild had kept people’s minds busy and held back the worst feelings of depression, but now a year later how were they doing? I wanted to spend as much of my tourist dollars as possible there to help them rebuild. At the same time I wondered if there was anything I could do to help. Were there folks who needed a fresh face with a smile as well?

Upon arriving I went immediately to the tourist information area in a glass enclosed room and had a nice talk with one of the ladies. She gave me lots of great maps, train schedules, and excellent advice, and when I explained that the internet had declared all the good hotels full, she pointed me to another room across the hall.

Before arriving I had expected to find a rainy town filled with a depressed population. Instead, I found a large vibrant bustling metropolis with

While Tokyo hosted many enormous train terminals, Sendai had one very large station occupying one long block. On the main floor shops sold the famous Sendai packaged beef, confections and souvenirs, and below that lay a large underground mall with restaurants, groceries, and shops.

There another helpful woman got me reservations at the hotel I wanted but had thought full, and it was only five minutes by foot from the station.

Commuters In the morning waves of business people flood out of the trains and onto platforms at station level, but above the main street. They move quickly on numerous footbridges over and across the main streets, men and women dressed for business. The rush lasts over an hour until they have sorted themselves out to their places of employment. Then, in the evening, this happens in reverse.

And there were businesses from other regions. I met a young kitchenware designer whose Tokyo company had sent him to work in Sendai, and it turned out he was from my Tokyo neighborhood in Setagaya.

     

My hotel was filled with business folk from all over, for Sendai is one of Japan’s seven largest cities. Yet the place feels slightly less hectic than Tokyo, and people know how to have fun.

      The Arcade One place they have a lot of fun is in the arcade, which continues for many blocks, and then when you figure it couldn’t possibly go any farther, it continues for another whole bunch of blocks. While the classic old Cleveland Arcade has been converted into condominiums, and the fine Nashville arcade is often unfairly forgotten, Sendai does more than its share to bring back the glory of the old arcade of Milan. This picture shows a few workers crossing through before its shops have opened in the morning, but in the evening crowds of happy youth stream in and out in large

numbers along with business people following the shortest and most lively route back to the train station. In the morning students and men down on their luck wait in line for one of the many pachinko game areas to open. Then, several banks and drugstores, flower shops, and multitudes of dollar stores open to the filtered light of a new day. Famous festivals are held in the large arcades, and they serve as convenient and interesting routes between major avenues.

      Other Commuters Here also, many people use their bicycles to get to and from work and to taxi their children around town. This is not to say that automobiles are non-existent. There are also broad and sometimes tree-lined

avenues which run beneath our feet, and the footbridges are a handy way to escape the dangerous crosswalk traffic in the street below.

      Front of the Station The platform walk in front of the station is like a long park, and I have often found a home among the many people who sit to rest and talk outside the busy station and above the crowded street. In Tokyo you would be hard pressed to find a chair or a bench anywhere inside or outside of a station. Folks there never stop while inside, and when emerging from a Tokyo station, run as quickly as they can into another building. In Tokyo they don’t even need to go out, for giant department stores merge with the station, and that is also the case in Sendai.

But out here in front of the station people can simply sit and watch everyone else go buy. Businessmen in their suits will meet and exchange business cards and deep bows. One day a lady who looked like she had seen the worst sides of life sat next to me, and after taking a few drags on a cigarette began to sing some very old songs to herself. A tired worker came by to clean tobacco butts out of the shrubbery, and a gentleman got a guitar out of his case and began playing. Sendai is quite a different place.

     

The Subway With the nuclear plants shut down I had expected to see fewer lights on around the cities, but it was noticeable only in some areas. Sometimes a little used passageway in a station might have only half its lights on.

water to sit in a tank all day, a flash heater produces your bath water within a minute of pressing a button on the wall.

In the ticket area above, perhaps the ceiling lights were allowed to be dimmer because the subway maps were so well lit.

The signs above the students in this photo detail the list of stations. You look for the station to which you’d like to go and the sign tells you how much to pay the machine for a ticket. When the sign also lists the stops in English it’s easy, but otherwise you might sometimes need to remember the Japanese character for your destination.

Businesses were so desperate to draw customers that large video signs on buildings presented themselves as flashy as before. But it was on the home front that the Japanese were trying even more than usual to not waste energy. They had always used flash heaters for hot water. Rather than allow hot

And some new energy saving device is added to modern and traditional Japanese households daily.

      Fukushima Middle School Friends Apart from natural disasters, Japan is a safe country for kids. Often I found myself sitting on a train next to a little girl in a white cap and elementary school uniform unaccompanied by any adult except all of us. Soon she would hop off at her stop, and I would marvel at how healthy a country this is, where all adults take responsibility for all the children. The “Loople Sendai” bus ticket costs only about $6.00 and you can ride all day, getting off at many of the city’s major points of interest and back on whenever you’re ready. Standing in line for the bus, I met three girls who told me they were on tour from a junior high school in Fukushima. They were very intelligent and, in spite of all they had been through, remained

cheerful and inquisitive. We had already become friends by the time we got onto a bus so crowded that I nearly lost shoes, camera, and shoulder bag in the door on several occasions. We got off at a bus stop leading to the famous mausoleum for Sendai’s founder and began our ascent of the many stone steps, encouraging one another up several mountainous hills. One of the boys loaned me his cane, similar to those used by hikers up Mount Fuji. But the climb was not in vain, for towering cedar trees dating back nearly 400 years surrounded the steps, and at the top were a museum and several mausoleums of incredible beauty.

      Zuihoden: Mausoleum of Date Masamune The first feudal lord of the region, Date Masamune lived at the beginning of the Edo period (1603–1867). He and those who succeeded him promoted culture and industry, a lawful and stable social system and many improvements to rice cultivation and fishing ports. Modern Sendai still honors him today in many ways, including little armored and helmeted

doll souvenirs sold at the confectionary shops. The original structure was burnt down during the war, but painstakingly rebuilt to its former beauty. On the site stand several other gorgeous mausoleums of his artsminded successors.

      Other Groups We were not the only group of visitors to the site. Others included an elementary school class [above] and touring men and women.

mothers who were filled with fear of radioactive iodine spewing out of the melted nuclear plants and into their children's air and food.

I was surprised to learn that the students in my group were not under direct supervision of a teacher, but were free to roam through Loople’s many stops, and my three friends filed off at the art museum and skipped into a convenience store. I missed them immediately and for a long time.

One good bit of news she had for them was that the uncontaminated seaweeds, an integral part of the Japanese diet, supply such a large amount of good iodine, that the radioactive iodine’s lethal role was seriously diminished.

It seems to me that their school had done a very smart, very good thing to let them travel, set free from the fears of their parents in their hometown, where radioactive contamination forbade the use of playgrounds and parks and sometimes a room or two of one’s own house.

Although there were reasons enough to worry about the effects of the nuclear disaster, any good information which could replace false rumors was welcome news to these families, ready to flee for their lives.

One of my friends, a thyroid doctor, had just returned from Fukushima, where she had given lectures to

Our Future With amazing good cheer and the eternal optimism of youth, kids help keep alive our hopes for the future.

     

Next Chapter

Matsushima Bay The famous Haiku poet Basho sent more letters home about beautiful Matsushima Bay than any other spot when he wrote about his travels to the deep north, and among Japanese it is considered one of the three most scenic spots. It is only a half-hour train ride from Sendai, and schedules are available at the tourist office in the station. Although the cloudy weather did not help make it a very photogenic trip, boarding a ferry boat around the many islands was an interesting introduction to the area, which included one of the largest fishing ports in Japan and historic populated islands as well as those with some of the oddest shapes.

tsunami waves and saved one of Japan’s most historic places. I could see signs of the waves’ strength in the gnarled nets stretched out under the waters, and the 825 foot long red footbridge to the garden island of Fukuurajima had just been rebuilt.

         

Families sighed as the boat weaved its way out among the most interesting looking sculptures of islands that had caught the attention of early poets and travelers. I asked the young designer I had met on the way to the ferry what some of the interesting structures were that we had passed on shore, and we decided to explore them.

These many islands with their wind breaking pines slowed down the

          Godaido “Wear comfortable shoes,” should be the motto of tourists to Japan. Although some fashionable young women in Tokyo execute the daring feats of traversing crowded, fast escalators, stairs, bridges and fast moving packs of frenzied commuters on large tiled floors—all in high heels—most folks take the practical approach of wearing comfortable footwear. Even those with heels tend to buy them low and thick.

Godaido is a tiny twelve hundred year old Buddhist temple on a little island hardly much larger than the structure itself. The see-through footbridge to this scenic spot near the ferry pier, required a degree of attention, but the open planks allowed careful visitors to enjoy the waters below without many casualties.

As a tourist you’ll probably be doing a lot of walking on a lot of surfaces.

          Path to Zuiganji Built in 828 and rebuilt by the founder of Sendai, Date Masamune, in 1609, Zuiganji is the most famous Zen temple in Tohoku. While much of it is being restored after the earthquake, artworks and rooms not normally open were now available for public viewing while things were being moved around. You can stare at statues of ancient Zen priests holding the sticks they used to keep their charges awake during meditation or marvel slackjawed at the large, fully colored image of Kannon (Gwanyin in China),

the aspect of Buddha that is usually shown as feminine in character. She is quite commonly known to us in the West as the Goddess of compassion and mercy. In fact, this temple is dedicated to Kannon, and in the marvelous and fairly new museum building, in a surprising and unusual way, several old artists did not hold back in portraying Kannon as a decidedly buxom and beautiful woman.

         

Hougeden This is the pretty mausoleum of Masamune’s wife Megohime. With black lacquer and a golden door, it draws even the weakest of us up thick stone stairs just to take a peek. Another reason for comfortable shoes!

Zuiganji Caves Used for funeral ceremonies and storing the ashes, the temple grounds hold numerous caves carved into the hillsides.

         

Next Chapter

Along the Tohoku Shinkansen Route Travel throughout Japan on the Shinkansen “Bullet trains” is a great pleasure and often a more fun and convenient way to travel alone or with your family than by plane.

Onboard announcements are in Japanese and English, seats are comfortable, bathrooms are clean, snacks can be purchased on board, and the view is spectacular.

A foreign tourist on a sight-seeing visit to Japan can obtain one to three week JR Rail Passes which allow free travel on most Japan National Railway trains, which includes many local trains and subways as well as the Shinkansen trains. This can save you hundreds of dollars in fares, but you must purchase the voucher before arriving in Japan. Talk to your travel agent about it or consult the JR web sites online.

Major stations have special tracks for Shinkansen trains, and because the large stations can be a confusing maze even for Japanese people, it’s always wise to arrive early and assume that you’ll be lost for a while. That will give you time to buy a bento meal to eat onboard, for while on local trains it is inappropriate to eat or drink, on long distance trains of this sort it is fine, and necessary.

The trains travel at up to 200 miles per hour and traverse almost the entire country now except for Hokkaido.

          

The very fastest Shinkansen cannot be used with a rail pass, but one can still travel from Tokyo to Osaka in six hours, so who’s complaining?

Rice Paddies come right up to the houses, even in town, and there is little space wasted. The northeast is a good

region for rice production; rice is still the staple of any traditional Japanese breakfast, lunch or dinner.

          

Graveyards Cities along the tracks are nestled between hills and mountains. With so little space, massive graveyards of the sort we are used to in the States would be impossible. Japanese dead are cremated, and their ashes are buried alongside those of the rest of their family in tidy little plots, often as close to their houses as their fields.

shrine, and family members return frequently to the graveyard to wash the stones, pray, and leave small items such as bottles of tea or sake to comfort their departed in the afterlife. Each year in August families return from the big cities to their home towns for the Bon Festival and invite the souls back to join in as well.

The souls of the departed are honored in the home daily at each family’s

Urban Sketchers There is a community of artists worldwide who like to wander around their towns, cities, and countryside and sketch what they see in order to put it up on the internet for the world to enjoy. They use crayons, ink, pencils, watercolor—whatever they choose— to tell the stories of the places where they live or travel, and to record their times in color and line. Many of them are the best in the world.

On the original “Urban Sketchers” site you can watch some of the best sketchers one after another upload their impressions from every corner of the globe—every day.

“Sketchcrawl” is one of the Web sites where anyone in any town on earth can join them, and they welcome anyone who wants to draw simply for the joy of drawing. Vanished are the academic critiques, absent is the quest for fame through applying or breaking with a trend. In place of those stressful and often strange pursuits, these folks simply enjoy drawing together and supporting one another.

Meeting with one of my heroes, we sat in a small Tokyo restaurant, ate a delicious lunch and sketched the piano player, who was really good. As it turned out, this was his first recital, and when he finished and we showed him our sketches, he expressed his thanks by bringing out his phone and photographing them.

          

Several of those artists have started local sketching groups, and I was both honored and thrilled to receive an invitation to join the Japan group for those who lived in or visited Japan.

Restaurants A week later we met with another great sketcher on a day which rained throughout. So we made the most of it and sketched indoors. After lunch in a modern informal little restaurant, we remained at the table and painted each other and the waitress, who was kept busy due to their policy of free juice and coffee refills. You can find every type of restaurant you might ever dream of in Tokyo, but their adaptations of foreign cuisine will most often have a distinctly Japanese flair. One franchise popular in major cities offers fast food versions of traditional Japanese rice, miso soup, and fish. But their main attraction seems to be large hot bowls of beef with rice curry. The sauce is much milder than curry elsewhere, and also much sweeter. Other restaurants concentrate on noodle dishes or tempura, and still others are known for their abilities in cooking one type of fish, or because

they do not cook their fish at all. At times amid this bewildering variety of eateries, a friend will introduce you to a place down a busy narrow street and up a stairwell. When seated you’ll be welcomed with the customary warmed wet cloth to wipe your hands, and then presented with a handwritten —and for you undecipherable—menu which has been composed anew for each season’s fresh ingredients. You’re possibly in a very traditional Japanese restaurant. Fresh from the restaurant sketching, we looked around a dollar store on one of the higher floors overlooking the town, and not finding any seats, stood by a large window and sketched the city. For dessert we walked to a donut shop, where they were offering flat pastries with thick frosting upon which customers could sketch with chocolate filled pens, and we sketched on the donuts.

          

Shoto Museum Tokyo has countless galleries and great museums. The Shoto Museum in the Shibuya area was holding an exhibit of Royal Copenhagen Glass, which was exquisite, but the building’s own architecture was a sight itself.

Shibuya

          

One of the districts famous for fashion of the latest design, Shibuya attracts young and old rain or shine.

NHK Studio Park NHK, Japanese pubic television, which broadcasts on several channels locally and in many languages throughout the world, has an entertainment center in the Shibuya area of Tokyo.

above about a family’s life just after the war in difficult times.

          

But there is lots more there for the kids, including booths in which you can record your own voices for short animated films [below].

You can see sets that were used for TV drama series such as this one

Practice Newsroom There’s also a complete newsroom broadcast set with real video cameras and weather map green screen. How could I resist? Having watched NHK for so long, it had been a dream of mine to do the weather forecast. Another visitor wanted to be the news anchor woman, so we formed a team. The crew had placed a script in front of me to practice, but at first I wasn’t confident of reading all the

kanji Japanese characters, so a crewman replaced it with an English version. Nevertheless, I had become so used to speaking only Japanese that I found myself automatically coming out with a Japanese translation of what I was reading. So they decided to put back the original script.

PHOTO: COURTESY NHK STUdIO PARK STAFF

          

Next Chapter

     

         

Women of Miyajidake Shrine As with Native Americans, the reaction of Japanese to Nature around them is profound. That Spirit which inhabits trees, water and rocks as well as humans is seen to manifest itself in many forms as gods (“kamis”).

a shrine can be a worker from the community who helps with daily shrine tasks such as preparation of healing teas and amulets, and she has periodic duties like performances of ceremonial dances at festivals.

But Shinto is not a religion in the Western sense with founder, hierarchy, theology, or sermons. It is more an expression of the deep love and awe of Nature held by the people.

Miyajidake is a famous large shrine complex in Fukuoka, and like other Shinto shrines is entered through a red Torii gate. After that, visitors are expected to purify themselves at a ritual basin through which clean fresh water is flowing, to rinse mouth and hands.

Religious activities in Japan are not mutually exclusive. Couples are often married in Shinto, Christian or Buddhist ceremonies, but they nearly always use Buddhist venues for their funerals. Not necessarily like a religious sister of a Christian order, a woman who serves

Japanese are among the most fastidious about cleanliness, and in Shinto, purity and cleanliness are essential elements.

Sisters’ Prayers Japanese are mostly Buddhist, worshipping the One Divine Presence as do followers of the Abrahamic religions of the West. But religion, as everywhere else, is local, and many folks also like to keep their Saints close by, in order to ask them for help as intermediaries. The traditional Lucky Gods of China such as Benten, the muse of learning, arts and beauty, or Hotei, who can help with money and health matters, are good people to see when you don’t want to bother God with your humble trivial struggles. While a Catholic might leave money for the Church and petition a Saint to intercede for him, Japanese will toss a coin for the upkeep of a shrine and ask for just a little assistance (please) from one close to heaven.

Who among us has not found ourself engaged in dialogue with that presence with Whom we were so intimate as children, and with Whom Yiddish stories portray old men joking, cajoling, and asking for one simple blessing?

         

Japanese folk religion lacks the adolescent cynicism by which we grow accustomed to insist on one approach or another—or even outright refusal!—to communication with the Eternal. And it’s one of many things that makes us feel how the Japanese are like us—childlike, simple and practical folk who know that in tough times it’s always nice to have friends in high places.

         

Lucky Gods Among the knick-knacks found in Western homes we’ll often find small souvenir figures with big bellies and happy smiles. Americans usually refer to them as “Little Buddhas” but they are not related at all to Buddha. They represent one of the Lucky Gods imported centuries ago from India and China. Like a whole group of Santa Clauses they all pile into their Treasure Boat on the New Year to give well-behaved children red envelopes of cash.

Praying at all shrines throughout Japan follows a set pattern of bowing and clapping similar to the way one prays at a family’s own shrine for its ancestors. On this table have been placed a bell with mallet like you’d find at a household shrine. It’s good to visit the shrine of a Lucky God once in a while, but it is essential to open your household shrine every day to honor your parents and ancestors.

This photo shows the usual coin box for donations, which in this case permit you to light a candle and pray.

          Wood and Straw In the West we cut down a forest and build a great stone cathedral and a parking lot. In Japan temple buildings of wood and straw live among the trees they came from. In Kyoto we still find the some of the largest wood structures in the world in the form of these ancient wooden temples. In Fukuoka, shrine complexes hold many smaller structures as well as gardens donated by community members. Visitors can weave in and around the shrines and pay their respects to each.

Thatched Roofs Near the Miyajidake shrine several old structures were being restored. Fresh vegetation for roof thatching was being dried in one, and in another an open door revealed well worn tatami floor mats and an old cooking hearth.

         

Shrine Torii Gates The fact of the shrines as centers of religious and community life is made clear by their locations, often on hills high above cities, as in this photo where shrine gates and city streets merge as they lead directly to the sea.

Next Chapter

      Shrine by the Sea In a significantly smaller, but quite pleasant shrine near the ocean, I sat on a stone sketching the beautifully molded statue of a horse when a man emerged from a torii a short distance away. He was hollering and telling me that this was the greatest shrine in the world and explaining what sort of excellent people were enshrined there.

There are homeless people even in Japan, and though nowadays many more are displaced after the great earthquake and tsunami, this man had the look of someone long accustomed to such a life. I fled down toward the ocean.

    

He did not sound at all friendly, and through a tan his face was a bit flushed. I thanked him for his kind words and made quick preparations to flee, but he disappeared. Looking around I discovered the motivation of his loud lecture, for he had pulled aside a curtain from one of the small shrines and seemed to be searching for a bottle of sake which may have been left for some departed soul.

Fishermen One man practiced his golf swing in the sand and a lady read a book in a patio chair she had set up. Otherwise the beach was deserted except for a young fisherman who said he was angling for several common types of small fish. On a pier nearby more men waited patiently for a bite on the line, sometimes moving to try one side of the pier and then returning to the first spot to try again.

          

     

East Coast: rainfall in Shibuya

Two Coasts

    

The Japan Sea side of Western Japan causes much less concern for tsunamis than the Pacific Ocean on the eastern coasts of this large archipelago. After the Great Tohoko Earthquake and Tsunami, frightened residents of eastern cities were warned that a similar giant wave could eventually hit the Tokyo coastline. Some nervous businesses had begun moving to Kyushu to escape such an event, and some Easterners had started to save their money for future flight. This was resulting in a spurt of growth in Kyushu’s population, and Chinese investors, seeing a good opportunity, were buying up land. But Fukuoka still offered a far more relaxed atmosphere than Mega-giant Metropolis Tokyo, and its palm trees and sea air were reminiscent of California at its best.

Kyushu: palms near Miyajidake

      Mama’s Hands Shop Two of our Nashville State Community College graduates are from Fukuoka. Their family has a great four-sister bluegrass band and a wonderful little hand-made items shop. Customers are local and international, and service is always with a welcoming smile, a ready ear, and readiness to sew to a customer’s own specifications. Mother and daughters cut, sew and stitch most of the items themselves, sometimes out of unusual material such as old patterned “feedsack” cloth, which gives a unique look and appeal to things as simple and useful as toothbrush cases. I could not resist buying a whole lot of neat things.

    

http://www.etsy.com/people/SoundOfHome http://www.nakashimafamilyband.com/english.html

      Wajiro Station One day I wanted to go to Fukuoka University to present some precious old Yiddish music CDs which my father had left me to a retired Professor from the school who had spent the last twenty years creating a Yiddish-toJapanese dictionary. It moved me that someone would do such a labor of love in their spare time for a language which many had thought nearly extinct. They were wrong, for there are still lots of Jews who speak Yiddish. Moreover, such a dictionary now allowed for direct translation of a world of great literature. This little railroad line was a real luxury after the Tokyo trains, for, in spite of the humble platforms and old railroad cars, there was room to stand, and— mercy sakes!—plenty of room to sit. Passengers seemed more relaxed too. It landed me at the first of three interconnected subway lines, all payable with the swipe of a universal access ticket at the turnstiles. There was even

a subway stop that led us up to ground level just a short distance from the Humanities and Languages Building. Professor Ueda had just retired because of ill health, but another German professor graciously agreed to keep the CDs for him, and we called him from her office. He was very grateful and sounded very “down home” as we like to say in Nashville about family-like friendship and tone. While there I had lunch at the school cafeteria, where for about five dollars one could get the meal of one’s dreams with all the fixin’s.

    

Wave after wave of students poured out of the station for each class period morning and afternoon, but I bucked the waves to head back down for the ride back to Wajiro Station.

Next Chapter

Tenmangu Shrine Eleven hundred years ago during a time of political intrigue, a high-ranking scholar and famous poet was unjustly exiled to Dazaifu, where he died two years later. Near his grave loyal followers built a shrine, and over the years he became known as Tenjin, the god of scholarship. Students arrive at this and other Tenjin shrines around Japan to pray for help on their exams. Others visit to pray, visit historic architectural masterpieces, view Tenmangu Museum’s scary armor and exquisite arts, simply stroll under the giant camphor trees, whose enormous bases seem to spread beyond any rational limits, or relax under the 6000 Asian plum trees, a type loved by that scholar-poet and planted in his memory.

      

They also come by the thousands to visit the beautiful modern Kyushu National Museum, which was too large for me to capture in photos. Exhibits are very well thought out. The day we visited, the major attraction was the art of a man who had traveled extensively throughout Asia, painting as he went. Along with his works the museum had brought out its own sculptural treasures related to each stage of his journeys.

       Shrine Street On the other hand, maybe the main attraction in Dazaifu is the little street between the station and the shrine. A friend waited patiently in line to buy us hot mochi cakes. Mochi is pounded glutenous rice, and into the middle is inserted a sweet bean spread. The women [right] wrapped half a dozen into packages while still hot and that’s when they’re best, but they can still be a handy snack on the train days later.

Food Tickets If you can’t read a Japanese menu and the restaurant has no plastic sample dishes outside to which you can drag the waiter to point at your choice, restaurants with ticket machines might be your salvation. The main dishes are shown in pictures, and buttons for many common side dishes are written in an easy to read and learn Japanese phonetic script. Press the button of your choice and take the ticket inside to give to the counter person. She’ll call it out to the cook, and you can relax and wait for a piping hot meal. After eating, there are plenty more shops to visit, including one in which a potter is crafting unique bowls, and a store selling old-fashioned Japanese toys.

      

Marriage The courtyards amidst the shrines and greenery of Dazaifu are popular places to get married, and dancers and singers are hired to entertain the public. Because it may be a while before women can have the hair styled so meticulously and their complex outfits fitted so perfectly, couples are happy to pose for many photos, including those by children and even a passerby like me. In fact they were so absorbed in the moment, it didn’t seem like they even noticed us.

      

Heading Back It was time to leave for Tokyo for a few days before returning home to Nashville. After being with such great friends it was a bit lonely, but there is a cure for that: a station bento meal for the train. On the way back from Sendai my bento box had samples from each of the Tohoku Prefectures,

a very nice way for them to say goodbye with a taste of all they produced. This one was named for the women’s soccer team, and the chopsticks were labeled with one of my father’s favorite words...and I still had some mochi left..

PhOTO:

MIKA NAKAShIMA

I teach English as a Second Language and run the print shop at Nashville State Community College in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A. This travel diary was created to help our students, faculty, and staff understand more about Japanese culture and current events. —Steve Solomon

Useful Links For more information about Japanese history and culture please download a free copy of Professor Solomon’s “Japan in a Nutshell”: http://www.professorsolomon.com/japanbookpage.html

      

Urban Sketchers Japan: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1937309@N23/ Urban Sketchers: http://www.urbansketchers.org/ Sketchcrawl: http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/ Accessibility site for three Japanese cities: http://accessible.jp.org/tokyo/en/index.html Japan National Tourist Organization: http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/ English version of NhK online with news, TV programs, and Japanese lessons: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/index.html Japan Rail Pass: http://www.jtbusa.com/en/jr/j-all-1.asp Eastern Japan National Railroad lines, maps, and station information: http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/

Thanks!