Filling up the Japanese Moon

Before, during, and after the Obon holiday, my wonderful parents visited me. We spent a few days in Tokyo, a few in the Kansai region (specifically Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara), and then I brought them back to Matsue at the end. I also sent them on a day trip to Hiroshima.

During this time, we have been out most nights and seen the moon. It started from maybe around a half moon and has filled up and up. It's been a really nice thing to notice together every night.

So, since these wonderful parents of mine are experiencing not only Japan but East Asia for the first time, I thought it would be great to have some guest blog entries!

The first guest entry is from my graceful mother, Jan.


Things my mother never told me (but my daughter did):

Take your fan, a towel for dabbing sweat, and a towel for drying your hands in the public restrooms. It is rare to see paper towels. Often there is no soap either, so keep your Purell handy.

Don't point with your chopsticks.

Watch out for bicycle riders on the sidewalks. Yikes!

Bow to everyone. A head nod for a polite acknowledgement, a low and long bow for deeper respect and appreciation.

"Arigatou gozaimasu" (thank you very much) will work for most everyone for everything.

The onsen is a public bath.  Ladies enter one section, gents another. Remove your shoes as you do nearly everywhere in Japan. Grab a small towel. Strip naked and place your clothing in a basket on the shelf, or in some places, a locker. Enter the bathing area, a hot-spring-fed pool lined by stations with shower sprayers, low stools, a bucket for your towel, and shampoo, conditioner, and soap. Wash yourself before entering the bathing pool. The hot spring water soothes away all the aches and pains. In Tamatsukuri onsen (a ten minute train ride from Matsue) it is said bathe once and you will be more beautiful. Bathe more than once and all manner of illness and disease will be cured. The water is indeed marvelous. Girls with their mothers, old women, young women soak and float in the women's onsen. A mother massages the feet of her daughter. A warm waterfall is great for standing under, letting the water pressure beat out the aches and pains in shoulders and neck. Afterwards, dry off and return to the locker room where hair dryers, combs and brushes in packets are available. Find your clothing and shoes and you are ready to go, refreshed, relaxed, and revitalized.

At the sushi restaurant you can sit in the booth, enter your food order on a tv screen, and in a few minutes you will see it come by on a conveyor belt, like a miniature baggage claim system. Or, if you like the looks of something that passes by randomly you can pick that up, if it isn't perched on a bowl that means it is someone else's order. Cool!

At all food places you receive a damp towel, sometimes warmed and sometimes in a little plastic wrapping, with which to wipe your hands. Nice!  Get used to eating without a napkin in your lap.

At the ryokan, the traditional Japanese hotel, ladies may select a yukata (a light summer kimono) from an array of bright colors and patterns. Choose an obi, the sash, of another color. Men have a gray yukata and a dark blue sash. Guests can wear these as they lounge in their rooms or at dinner. The traditional dinner lasts maybe two hours and you will not believe the variety of dishes and foods placed before you... Squid, steamed sea bass plucked from the river just hours earlier, pickled vegetables and raw vegetables of all colors, a chunk of tofu, rice steamed with chicken in a steamer at your table, wasabi and soy sauce, tempura fried vegetables. Don't forget the sake and the tea. Or the mango pudding for dessert.   A meal fit for a royal family.

Arigatou gozaimasu, Japan.
Arigatou gozaimasu, Vanessa.

~~Here is a continuation of my mother's adventures when my parents stayed in Tokyo for a night before their flight home.

On Friday morning we are in Tokyo and standing at the information center of the
Tsukiji fish market at 4:45am. Our alarm went off at 4am so we could witness
this phenomenon: the tuna auction. The fish market is a ten-minute cab ride
from our hotel. The room is teeming with tourists dressed in green vests (the
earlier group of 60 people) and blue vests (the second group, and the later
arrivals). We are handed blue vests. The green vests get to observe the first
bidding, which starts at 5:25 and we of the blue vests, the second group, leave
the room at 5:45 to observe the second round. So we have awhile to wait. Our
fellow observers are sitting on the floor passing the time with quiet
conversation, waiting for the door to open.

Our group leaves the room on schedule and files out into a vast area of loading
docks, trucks, and smaller vehicles whizzing by, and we are shepherded into a
chilly warehouse where the action is taking place. Dozens of frozen tuna corpses
lie side by side on the floor, ghostly gray but for the tails which are chopped
off to reveal the pink meat inside. They look like torpedoes. Dozens of men
wander about with clipboards, flashlights, and picks, examining the tuna in
close detail. They lift a flap of flesh and shine the light to evaluate
something of the quality of the fish. They hack their picks into the tail end,
and sometimes a chunk falls off which they pick up and squeeze, perhaps for
flakiness? They make notes on pieces of paper. At 6:00am four men stand on
platforms and start ringing bells and calling for the bidding to begin. Each man
puts down the bell and starts shouting and waving his arms, taking bids from the
group, typically signaled by the raising of a couple of fingers. This is largely
a man's world. I see one woman among a hundred. In ten minutes the bidding stops
and the garage doors rise. Small trucks with flat beds arrive and the tuna are
loaded onto the beds, grasped by two hooked chisels and heaved on the bed like
so many sacks of flour. Our line files out and as we walk along the loading area
the traffic of these little trucks is like rush hour. A saw is whirring at the
end of the warehouse, slicing these frozen fish in half lengthwise like
log-splitters.

As we stroll down the narrow street the village of sellers are are coming to
life, laying out their vegetables, spices, pottery, and other wares for the day.
It is 6:30am and as most of the city sleeps, the fish market has been in
business for hours, getting ready for the day.

The tuna in their glory

The next entry is from my ever clever father, Chip. For those who may be confused, this is in the style of the Top Ten List from the Late Show with David Letterman.


From the Home Office in Shimane Prefecture

TOP TEN REASONS TO VISIT JAPAN

10.  Shaved Ice. If you like Houston in July, you’re all ready for Japan in August.

 9.   The people are friendly and charming. They bow to each other routinely.

 8.   The drivers are courteous to pedestrians and there are no pickpocket worries.

 7.   You can get nearly anything in a vending machine. The trains are on time.

 6.   If you’re adventurous—and limber-- you can use a “squatty” rather than a Western-style toilet.

 5.   The food is very tasty, well-prepared and it’s fun to try new things.

 4.   It’s easy to use chopsticks. Just keep the bowl under your chin.

 3.   The gardens are beautiful, the temples and shrines magnificent.

 2.   Baseball is ubiquitous. Infields are all dirt. Yu Darvish is loved.

And the Number One reason to visit Japan...


 1.   Vanessa is in Matsue!