October 21

By Al

Today we started by going to an early service at Christ Church.  This is a United Methodist Church in mid-town.  It is a beautiful church.  Sally had visited here once before and enjoyed the early service.  However, this time the homily was given by the senior pastor who had just been honored for his years of service at the church.  He talked about the honor and his history at the church, but it was more a personal story than a homily.  I am sure for people who knew him, it was interesting.  However, it was not so much for us.  But, it is a beautiful church to see, as a most mid-town churches.  With the cost of land, I am sure that churches in this area are either rich or sold.

The sanctuary.

After church we went to see the Intrepid Air and Space Museum.  The main part of this museum is the World War II aircraft carrier.  It is at a pier on the Hudson River.  It has several different planes on its flight deck and on the inside.  It also has several exhibits about life on an aircraft carrier and navel warfare.  It also has a submarine docked next to it, the USS Growler.  This was a sub that had missiles, but which had to be on the surface to launch the missiles.  It has a Concorde Supersonic Transport that you can go on.  It also has the Space Shuttle Enterprise in a special structure on the flight deck.  It is more than a half day trip, but we thought we would give as much of it a try as we could.  It was very interesting.  We went on the submarine but did not go on the Concorde or go to see the Enterprise.  We will do that another day.

The Intrepid.  The pier is on the other side.

This is the pier.  The Intrepid is to the left.  The bump at the end of the Intrepid is the housing for the Enterprise Space Shuttle.  You can see the Concorde at the end of the pier.

A closer look at the Concorde.

Planes on the flight deck.  Manhattan in the background.

More flight deck.

A MiG-17 as flown by the North Vietnamese Air Force during the Vietnam war.

The Growler submarine alongside the pier.

One of the missiles on deck in the launch position.

Looking south from the flight deck.  The buildings in the far distance are New Jersey.


That evening we ventured to the Bronx to the Lehman Center at Lehman College to see the Royal Drummers and Dancers of Burundi.  This was a new part of the Bronx for us.  It was an easy train ride and about a half mile walk to the college.  The campus is kid of set aside from the neighborhood and is quite nice.  The performance was very interesting, although it got a bit repetitive after a while.  But, the drummers danced and drummed.  Sometimes, they danced with drums on their heads.  It is an art form that has been passed down from father to son for centuries.  It is also considered a sacred art form.  It was impressive and fun.

The drummers enter drumming.

And they dance and drum.  At a point they put the drums in a semi-circle and then take turns dancing while the rest of the drummer drum.

Day 138- September 28

By Al

We met  a good friend, Keiko Doi, who lives in Minneapolis but who happened to be in Kyoto visiting a friend. She went to Kinkakuji with us, also known as the Golden Temple.  The temple itself is  more spectacular than Ginkakuji. It was also extremely crowded with school children. They just kept arriving in bus loads.  We were again asked by school children if they could ask us questions. They had the same questions and it was obviously an exercise to practice their English. It was fun.    

Kinkaku-ji

Closer

 

School children with yellow hats.  Each class was wearing the same color hat.  It made it easy to keep the class together.



 

A red hat class.

We next went to Iwatayama Monkey Park. This is a large hill, almost a mountain, just west of Kyoto which has wild monkeys on it. You pay to go in and then walk up a long path to the top. I was reminded that Japan, like most of the world, doesn't have a lot of personal injury lawyers. There were no guard rails on the path and it wasn't paved. There were  not warning signs all over. Except, you had frequent warnings about not starting the monkeys in the eye, not feeding them, and not approaching them. That might have been more for the monkeys than the people.

It was really interesting. The monkeys seemed not afraid of the people and if you stood still they would walk right by you. But, if you approached to close, they would move away or let their hair bristle as a warning.

 

Monkey on a slide.

 

Amy on a slide.

 

 

 

Kyoyo from Iwatayama Monkey Park.

 

 

Monkey

At the base of Iwatayama Monkey Park.

 

River at the base of Iwatayama Monkey Park.

 

There is a nice little town at the base of the park by this river.  While we were waiting for a friend to pick us up(see later) we listened to three young sisters perform music.  They were very good.

 

 

 

 

The younger of the three sisters.

 

 

The three sisters.

 



Statue near a Bamboo Forest West of Kyoto.

We also met Jay Klaphake and his wife, Miyuki. We first met Jay over 20 years ago when we were both working on a campaign for Bob Long. Since then we have run into them a few times and knew they were in Japan. However, I didn't know where for sure. A couple of weeks before we left for Japan, I got an email from Jay announcing that he was a sponsor of a Ted event at Kyoto University. The event was a few days before we got to Kyoto, so we wouldn't be able to attend. But, since he was in Kyoto, I emailed him that we would be there.

Our families got together for dinner. It was a lot of fun to see them again and learn more about Kyoto. They have a daughter and son, and it was fun to meet them also.

October 4

By Al

Today was our last full day in Osaka.  We decided that since the typhoon had robbed us of our chance to experience wild Japan, we at least wanted to get away from the city to the countryside.  We weren't sure where to go.  We thought of going to Koyosan, but when we got to the station we found that it would cost about $100 per person to go there.  That seemed a little steep for a day trip.  We had unlimited JR passes, so we asked the people at the station if they had a suggestion.  They were extremely helpful.  They consulted with each other, looked at map and schedules and came to the recommendation that we should take the JR train up the west coast of Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan.  It is north east of Osaka.

We decided to take the train to the end of the line, since this would be less populated than some of the towns on the south end of the lake.  That was a correct assumption.  The train ended at Adogawa, a small town.  We were the only gaijin around.  We had a very nice dinner and walked about three blocks to the lake.  It was very pleasant. 

Lunch.

Drew looking at Lake Biwa.

Houses along Lake Biwa.

On the way up to Adogawa, we noticed a town with a very picturesque temple near the tracks.  The town was Kitakamatsu. We decided to stop there on the way back.  We say that when we travel the best things that happen are serendipity.  This is one of those times.  We walked about a block from the train station to the temple.  There was an older man and woman working in a garden near the temple.  We said hello to them as we walked by.  It was our intention only look at the temple from the road and the go further up the hill to where there were supposed to be some waterfalls. 

However, as we were looking at the temple, the older man approached us and invited us into the temple.  He was the former priest.  His son was the current priest. But, the old priest and his wife still lived at the temple and take care of it.  He invited us into the temple, gave us a brochure about it, gave us something to drink, gave us prayer bracelets and then showed us around the temple grounds. As we were preparing to leave, he went into the house, and got a bag of sweets to give us.  His wife came and joined us and also showed us some things. The two of them exchanged some conversation.  (Sally's comment- I think that she was telling him that he should have given us more things- whereupon she went back into the house.) She returned with a bag full of many crackers and snacks.  It made us realize that we really need to carry gifts with us wherever we go so that if something like this happens, we can reciprocate.

The temple from the train track.

The main temple building is with the grass roof to the right.

Lake Biwa from the temple.  The train track is in the middle of the picture.

Amy and the former priest.  Statue of Hotei in the background.  We all rubbed his tummy for good luck.

Jizo, a Bodhisattva,  is the protector of children, expectant mothers, firemen, and travelers.  He is reported to have refused to become a Buddha until everybody is saved and hell is emptied.

A bicycle junkyard near the station. It is nothing but bicycles and bicycle parts.

The waiting area on the train platform.  These are knit pads supplied by the local people. (Sally's comment- the waiting area is a non-smoking area- the opposite of what we find in the U.S.)

It was night when we got back to Osaka, so we rested and packed for the next day and our trip to Nagasaki.

June 2, 2012

Yesterday I attended the New York Modern Quilt Guild.  It met at a loft in the fashion district where the president lives.  About 45 women and 3 men.  An intimindating experience for me- to walk into a room of strangers and need to mingle.  I met lots of lovely people- including several women from Minnesota (the president grew up in Melrose). Plus there was a table of  free fabric (having left 95% of my fabric in MN, it was a treat to get scraps to play with).  We also received 6 fat quarters of a new fabric line to make a baby quilt.

Lots of wonderful show and tell- pictures below.

Unfortunately, the quilt groups here don't meet in the summer, so I will get to attend one more meeting in October before we leave.

As to living here- my comments today are on the trash.  With 27,000 people per square mile (I also read a figure of 8 people per 5,000 sq feet of living space- which means that someone else has about 400 square feet of our space), there are huge amounts of trash.  We have a trash chute right outside our door, and recycling bins at the bottom of our stairs in the basement- so trash disposal is very easy (it will seem a burden to have to walk to the alley with trash, and collect our recycling for the week, and put it on the curb on Friday). 

Everyday, I see trash bags piled on the sidewalk. It appears that trash is collected from each building about three times a week.  If the trash collectors ever go on strike, I think it will immobilize the city.  It appears that those living on 5th Avenue may actually ship their trash to Florida (see picture below).

The other thing about the trash is all the stuff that people that people throw out is amazing.  I am confident I would furnish an apartment by simply picking up stuff on the street.  I have retrieved a plastic basket to store things under the sink and a bread basket.  We also got a chair for the living room (thoroughly checked for critters and bugs before bringing it in). I have left behind three book cases, a headboard, three more chairs, and lots of other stuff. 

Al has obtained tickets for us to see the Daily Show on the 28th-  I am very excited!! We are on the ticket pool for Late Show tickets.  They collect names at certain times, and then call you if/when you get tickets.

Sally