A Perfect Day

Some days are just amazing, and Monday was one of them. We set out for the northwest of Kyoto, to visit the Golden Pagoda and Ryoan-ji. 

The Golden Pagoda was overwhelming for several reasons. It’s a stunning building covered in gold leaf, and situated on the edge of a beautiful pond. It’s no wonder the tourists flock there, and they come in droves, herds, gaggles, you name it. Tons of bus tours, so we had to keep a close eye on Ren, who definitely found the rock paths and duck ponds the most interesting part of our visit. Oh, and the green tea soft serve ice cream, but we all enjoyed that.

Ryoan-ji was the perfect counterpoint to the chaos of the Golden Pagoda. It’s a landscape garden with a enclosed Zen rock garden at its heart, containing 15 rocks that are carefully placed for no discernible reason. The date of construction and the designer are unknown as well. I like the theory that the garden represents a tiger carrying her cubs across a pond. Sit, contemplate, and find peace. If you can, that is, because I made the fatal error of giving Ren slippers that were too big with Winnie the Pooh, so I had no peace. Oh well! Our visit was still lovely, relaxing and calming. 

We were pointed towards a specific restaurant about 15 minutes away for lunch, and Ren fell asleep in the carrier as we walked so we detoured to a giant complex across the street: Ninna-ji. There was no way to walk past the imposing gate without peeking inside, and it turned out to be a wonderful surprise, sparely decorated with tatami mats and brush paintings on screens. All of the visitors treated it with a bit of reverence, and we enjoyed our hushed visit as Ren napped and I sat by a manicured gravel garden overlooking a landscaped waterfall.

We crossed the street back over to Sakon, the restaurant, and were ushered into a private dining room. We decided to splurge on a multi-course meal, and proceeded to have one of the more memorable meals of my life. 

Delicious food presented artistically, great company, meticulous service, and Ren enjoyed some of each course too – devouring ikura, cooked salmon, raw tuna, beef and oranges. We were stuffed by the time we finished, and basically closed down the restaurant. 

Back onto the train after a detour to a playground, and towards a shrine close to where we were staying called Fushimi Inari.  

The shrine is at the bottom of a mountain, and was very colorful to visit with bright orange, white, and gold buildings and thousands of origami cranes hanging alongside prayer boards. 

A temple brochure called the paint color vermilion, but I’ve always thought of that as a red color. I’d call this bright orange! Thousands of these orange Torii march up the mountain, apparently sponsored by individuals and corporations.

We didn’t make it all the way up, which would have taken hours, because we had other goals for the evening: karaoke! Adam indoctrinated us into the Japanese tradition of renting a private room and belting out some classic hits. Ren liked it too, or at least she was kind to us in our efforts. Late night ramen was a fitting end to a long, terrific day.

 

Memoirs of a Geisha

Remember that book? If you don’t, go read it. I just reread it at the beginning of our trip, and it is mainly set in Kyoto, specifically in the neighborhood of Gion. That’s where we started off on Sunday, and it was a bit of a thrill to step out of the subway station next to the kabuki theater mentioned in the book, and to walk down the street past the red walls of the prominent Ichiriki teahouse where the geishas entertained.

Our destination was Yasaka Shrine, where we strolled through the buildings and continued on to Maruyama Park just behind the shrine. It had been recommended as a good stop for kids, and didn’t disappoint. Ren peered closely into the pond looking for fish, and was thrilled when Adam showed her that if you clap they come. The pigeons were also a big hit, and she chased them in her funny stuttering way back and forth over a little bridge. Luckily, Ren didn’t fall in, and no pigeons or fish were harmed in her delight.

We continued uphill to Chion-in Temple, the head temple of the Jodo sect of Buddhism. I listened to the monks chanting, and we saw the largest temple bell in Japan. We also purchased a goshuin-cho (special shrine book), that many people use to collect stamps and calligraphy from temples. Thus began our quest! It was a lot of fun to seek out the calligraphers at each temple or shrine, and made for a great souvenir. It reminded me of the pilgrim passports from the Camino de Santiago, and apparently Japanese pilgrims use these to record their travels too.

Ren was in need of a nap, so she and I went back to our house, while Adam and Grant kept exploring. They found old Kyoto, and took me back to the narrow shopping streets that evening. This is clearly a touristy area, but was fun to poke around all the little shops, and of course our friend Hello Kitty was well represented. Ren was riding high on our shoulders with her Hello Kitty hat on too, greeting her public.

We saw a few geisha on a side street, which made my trip, and ended our evening with Korean BBQ, watching Ren watching music videos and dancing along from her seat.

 

On to Kyoto

Our last day (for now) in Tokyo was pretty low key. Ren and I went to Yoyogi Park, and just enjoyed being outside. We watched some teenage girls practicing their dance routines, listened to birds who seemed to caw “hello”, and found dozens of preschool kids admiring the few cherry trees in bloom. Ren was fascinated by the groups of kids, who all wear colored caps to identify themselves (blue group, yellow group, pink group, green group, etc). Some of them appeared to have arrived by crib, and we’ve seen local daycare or preschool kids being pushed around as a group of six or so in a crib with large wheels. They all carefully posed for group photos under the blossoms. Kawaii!

After the park, we walked over to the Ota Memorial Museum of Art, which is home to one of the best collections of ukiyo-e (woodblock) prints in Japan. Their collection rotates, and the current exhibit was called “Kawaii: cute girls in Ukiyo-e“. I could have spent much longer here if I was by myself, but Ren did a good job looking quickly at the prints, and describing what she saw, “Mama, baby bath!” or “brush hair!”, with a lot of enthusiasm. 

We hit another playground that evening, and three local girls (maybe ten years old) adopted Ren and took her up and down the slide. Dinner was memorable for Ren, since we met up with Grant and went to a sushi place where you ordered via iPad, and your food zoomed to you on little tracks. If all of her meals could be delivered that way, she’d be in heaven.

The next morning, we packed up and met Adam to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. Great way to travel, and of course a really fast train ride was approved by Ren. Here in Kyoto, we booked a traditional machiya (townhouse) via Airbnb. It’s down a tiny dark passageway, and has plenty of space for all four of us. We’re all sleeping on Japanese futons (floor mattresses), even Ren! Thankfully, she has had no problem adapting to this, although this is the first time she isn’t sleeping in a crib.

The house has a lot of character: tatami flooring, a steep ladder-like staircase that we’re all kind of crawling up and down, sliding doors, and only heaters in two rooms. Luckily, once you snuggle under the blankets it is warm enough, and we’re hanging out in a room with a kotatsu (table with a built in heater underneath, and a comforter draped around it) when we aren’t asleep. 

Our neighborhood is Southern Higashiyama, and every few feet there is another temple or shrine. Perfect location for sightseeing strolls. Kyoto is a great city to walk around, and we’re working off everything we eat!

 

Signs of spring

The sun has appeared, and it feels like spring in Tokyo! Blue skies have been beckoning us outside, and yesterday Ren and I visited the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. It’s the only part of the palace grounds open to the public on a daily basis without a reservation.

We took the train to Tokyo Station, which surprisingly has a very western brick facade and would look perfectly at home in Europe. To prolong our time in the garden, we stopped and picked up some food for a picnic from that classic purveyor, 7-11. That’s right, given all of the food options in Tokyo, we went for 7-11. It’s not just a hot dog and slurpee destination here, but actually has a wide range of choices. Ren, given her choice of everything in the store, chose “bubbles”. After chuckling, and saying that I didn’t think 7-11 would be able to provide that, I noticed she was actually pointing at onigiri (rice balls) with an ikura (“bubbles” to Ren) filling. Go figure! I got a fatty tuna roll, and we picked up a string cheese to balance the toddler picnic out. 7-11 saves the day!

It was about a 15 minute walk to the garden entrance from the station and I feel like I should get a medal in the toting toddler Olympics. We’re using our Beco carrier daily, and I never imagined I’d be carrying a 27 pound toddler in it! Luckily, she loves riding in it and it lets us explore greater distances while not worrying about safety in a hectic city environment. Plus, no toting a stroller up and down subway steps. 

Upon entering we were each handed an admission token, although it was free to enter. I’m not sure exactly what purpose the token served, but we had to hand it back when we left. I think it was the highlight of Ren’s garden tour, and she delighted in showing me she still had it and taking it in and out of her pocket.

We climbed a hill, past samurai guardhouses and through gigantic stone walls, ending up on a flat lawn area surrounded by different garden areas (orchard, tea garden, etc). The highlight of the visit for me, was an early blooming winter cherry tree and we joined the small crowd in taking a gazillion photos of the blooms.  

We picnicked in the sun and played shadow tag across the bleached grass before Ren gave into exhaustion and napped the whole way back to our hotel. She keeps proving how flexible she can be and it’s really a joy to travel with her.

Post nap, we visited a play space in a mall in Roppongi Hills (an area popular for arts and nightlife), and then met up with Grant for yet another ramen dinner. This was our favorite dinner so far, partially because the restaurant was really relaxed with Ren and had a high chair and eating utensils ready for her. This was the first time in a week she’s had a high chair! Much easier on us, and we got to sit at the counter like the locals with her in between us.

Today, we visited the Fire Museum in Shinjuku and it was a big hit with Ren. The entrance hall had lots of different fire trucks to look at (old vs new), and even a fire fighting helicopter suspended overhead! We went upstairs where there were hundreds of buttons that needed to be pushed, a cartoon movie theater that even had English voice overs, and a fire truck and helicopter to climb into. 

The best button pushing experience was in the pretend house, where you pressed buttons next to mirrors which then showed you the danger associated with the scene you were standing next to (baby could fall out of a drop side crib, boy could fall out of an open window). My favorite was this one: child may eat cigarette butts thinking they are candy, and be sad (as translated by Ren).

The cartoons were pretty great too. We caught the end of one in Japanese that was about animal friends who accidentally started a fire, but were saved by the firefighters. They learned to watch out for sparks, and at the end all the male cats and dogs chased a cigarette butt down the street and peed on it triumphantly to put it out. You can’t make this stuff up! The one we chose to watch in English was about a firefighter from the future who is sent back to our time accidentally, and teaches the kids he finds not to play with fire or fireworks without an adult and a bucket of water nearby. There was an evil guy in it too, who kept trying to incite kids to set fires and he was kind of demonic with flames all around and yelling “burn, burn, burn, die everyone”, but luckily it ended on a positive note and Ren didn’t seem too scared. Go figure!

We made some new friends on a local playground this afternoon. The centerpiece of the playground was an octopus, where you climbed up the suckers and slid down his tentacles. I’d import this idea!

 

On our own in Tokyo

Grant is working this week in the Tokyo Amazon office, so Ren and I are on our own. It’s amazing how few photos I can take when wrangling a toddler around a city by myself! Not a single one yesterday, in fact.

We walked Grant part of the way to his office, and stopped off at a playground on the way. It was pretty simple, two regular swings, monkey bars, a slide, and a bouncy riding thing…and a zip line that was basically just a rope hanging down with a knot in it. I thought it looked pretty cool, but most of it was a little too old for Ren so I’m not sure we’ll head back there. Instead, we left when it started raining on us and went to do Ren’s second favorite thing: watch the trains. When that got old, we moved forward to most favorite thing: ride the trains! 

We got on the JR Yamanote line, which does a circular loop through the city, and rode to Shinjuku. Lots of skyscrapers, department stores and a super busy train station. We wandered the streets, and ducked down a tiny alley with fake cherry blossoms overhead. It was an interesting juxtaposition to the busy broader streets, and home to dozens of tiny restaurants with just a few counter seats. Turns out, this area is Omoide Yokocho (literal translation is Memory Lane, colloquially known as Piss Alley). Looked like a fun pre-baby excursion, but probably not in the cards on this trip.

We did a little shopping in the area, and headed back to the hotel where we napped and took it easy. Dinner was bento boxes in the room from the nearby department store food hall, and a late evening return from Grant just in time to tuck Ren in.

Today we woke up to quite the surprise: a view of Mount Fuji from our hotel window! Also, an amazing blue sky and sunshine, a first on this trip. Fuji-san likes to play peekaboo almost as much as Ren, and was hiding in clouds just a few minutes later.

Ren and I set off in the sunshine to ride the subway to the other side of town, our goal being the SkyTree and the aquarium at its base. It’s the world’s tallest free-standing broadcasting tower, and it really was impressive. 

Ren found the dismantling of a temporary ice rink at the base much more interesting and we passed the long ticket lines and followed the other moms and kids to the aquarium. It was a really nice place, sparkling clean and plenty of exhibits at toddler eye level. 

We watched the jellyfish for a while, and then discovered a workshop next to the penguins where for ¥500 (about $5), you could buy a plain white T-shirt, and decorate it with penguin and heart stamps. Right up Ren’s alley, both in subject matter and activity, and it made a great hands on souvenir for us. The penguins were fun to watch, but even better was the diver cleaning up penguin poop. 

 Wrapped up this evening by getting together with Adam, an old friend of Grant’s from Concord who we will be traveling to Kyoto with this weekend! We’re already looking forward to our time with Uncle Adam.