AD: I've noticed that Japanese people don't mix their ramen (noodles, pork & vegetables in a soup-like broth) before they start eating.
Aya-san: ?
AD: For example; in Korea they mix a bunch of ingredients into the soup before they eat. The flavour is enhanced by the fusion of the different tastes.
Aya-san: Ah, because if we mixed, maybe the ramen is not beautiful anymore.
Last week was "Golden Week" in Japan.
A combination of two or three national holidays merged with a long weekend, this makes for the longest holiday the average working Japanese gets annually, and most people make arrangements months in advance for sights, flights, accommodations etc.
Being the clueless gaijin (foreigner) that I am, I made no such arrangements, and needless to say, everything worthwhile doing or seeing in Japan was booked solid by the time I caught up with the hype.
With considerable help from my local friends I did manage however, to have a very enjoyable, and highly productive Golden Week.
I have been very lucky, as everyone keeps reminding me, to be in the right place at the right time, on a number of occasions. I was able to catch an intimate glimpse of some truly rare and exclusive events taking place, and to document those on video.
First day of the break we went up to see the glorious Kinkakuji, the iconic, golden temple of Kyoto. I also wanted to see Ryoanji, for its famous rock garden.
On our way there, we spotted a grove of cherry trees, remarkably still in bloom, almost a full month past their season! I've given up long ago on seeing sakura (cherries) this spring, and although the blossoms weren't perfect (we could see green leaves around the blossoms), they were certainly stunning and have pretty much made my day.
A couple of days later, we took the train to Nara, one of Japan's old capitals.
This was my first excursion out of Kyoto since my arrival. Nara was, as we expected, packed with sightseers and tourists. What we didn't know was that on that day Nara also celebrated one of its many annual matsuri or festivals.
While trying to advance towards one of the temple complexes through the crowds, and fending off the deer which roam free in Nara, we were approached by an elderly man in traditional dress.
He introduced himself to me in excellent English, and asked me if I was scared of earthquakes, and where I was from. We started chatting and he told me that he is going to conduct a tea ceremony later that afternoon in Todai temple. I told him that I am interested in tea ceremony tradition and he invited us to come along with him, it was at that point that I noticed the camera people, and that everyone around was staring at us...
Turns out the man was 千玄室 (Sen Genshitsu), a highly renowned tea master, and the guest of honour for the Todaiji matsuri! We later saw him present the Daibutsu (great Buddha) of Todaiji with a ceremonial offering of tea.
Before we parted ways, the tea master told me that the human spirit consists of two complementing elements. In Japanese culture, these aspects are expressed through the practices of Ochado (way of tea), and Bushido (way of the warrior).
Sure enough, the next day, we took the train to Osaka.
There, just outside of Osakajo (Osaka castle), we wandered into a public hall, where a graduation ceremony for a Bushido school was taking place! The celebrations included a demonstration of sword mastery by the graduating students.
I was excited to meet a couple of lady samurai amongst the graduates. One of them had two swords strapped to her belt, a privilege traditionally reserved for the samurai class. She told me that historically there are reports of past female samurai, but they unfortunately never were treated as equal to the men.
She also pointed out that the fencing skills of a samurai are judged not only by their deadliness, but also by their elegance. The samurai who won the highest ranks at the demonstration, were the ones who were able to swing their katana (sword) in a more graceful angle, and make cleaner smoother cuts.
I think this is remarkable.
In my very limited understanding, the common thread between the warrior and the tea master is this emphasize on perfection of form.
When the formal aspects are considered so fully, the content inevitably follows. This principle is apparent in many aspects of Japanese life, it is deeply rooted in religious beliefs and cultural and artistic traditions.
After our visit to Osakajo, we went to the Osaka National Museum of Art.
This rather small museum for contemporary art would have been a bore I suspect, if it wasn't for an exceptional exhibition by a young group of artists - Kaza Anna.
The show is called: Air Hole, Another Form of Conceptualism from Asia.
It's been a long while since the last time I was so deeply impressed by anything I saw at a museum.
The highlight of the show for me was the last exhibit, in which viewers were invited to meet a very very old turtle and spend some time with it.
The piece is called: My Teacher Tortoise.
Before I stepped on the platform to meet my teacher, I was greeted by a Steven Hawking quote, warning that "Humans should avoid contact with alien life forms".
I resisted the urge to shoot video or pictures, because I didn't want to offend my teacher. It also doesn't seem to like it when people touch its head.
Thank you for reading.
Aya-san: ?
AD: For example; in Korea they mix a bunch of ingredients into the soup before they eat. The flavour is enhanced by the fusion of the different tastes.
Aya-san: Ah, because if we mixed, maybe the ramen is not beautiful anymore.
Last week was "Golden Week" in Japan.
A combination of two or three national holidays merged with a long weekend, this makes for the longest holiday the average working Japanese gets annually, and most people make arrangements months in advance for sights, flights, accommodations etc.
Being the clueless gaijin (foreigner) that I am, I made no such arrangements, and needless to say, everything worthwhile doing or seeing in Japan was booked solid by the time I caught up with the hype.
With considerable help from my local friends I did manage however, to have a very enjoyable, and highly productive Golden Week.
I have been very lucky, as everyone keeps reminding me, to be in the right place at the right time, on a number of occasions. I was able to catch an intimate glimpse of some truly rare and exclusive events taking place, and to document those on video.
First day of the break we went up to see the glorious Kinkakuji, the iconic, golden temple of Kyoto. I also wanted to see Ryoanji, for its famous rock garden.
On our way there, we spotted a grove of cherry trees, remarkably still in bloom, almost a full month past their season! I've given up long ago on seeing sakura (cherries) this spring, and although the blossoms weren't perfect (we could see green leaves around the blossoms), they were certainly stunning and have pretty much made my day.
A couple of days later, we took the train to Nara, one of Japan's old capitals.
This was my first excursion out of Kyoto since my arrival. Nara was, as we expected, packed with sightseers and tourists. What we didn't know was that on that day Nara also celebrated one of its many annual matsuri or festivals.
While trying to advance towards one of the temple complexes through the crowds, and fending off the deer which roam free in Nara, we were approached by an elderly man in traditional dress.
He introduced himself to me in excellent English, and asked me if I was scared of earthquakes, and where I was from. We started chatting and he told me that he is going to conduct a tea ceremony later that afternoon in Todai temple. I told him that I am interested in tea ceremony tradition and he invited us to come along with him, it was at that point that I noticed the camera people, and that everyone around was staring at us...
Turns out the man was 千玄室 (Sen Genshitsu), a highly renowned tea master, and the guest of honour for the Todaiji matsuri! We later saw him present the Daibutsu (great Buddha) of Todaiji with a ceremonial offering of tea.
Before we parted ways, the tea master told me that the human spirit consists of two complementing elements. In Japanese culture, these aspects are expressed through the practices of Ochado (way of tea), and Bushido (way of the warrior).
Sure enough, the next day, we took the train to Osaka.
There, just outside of Osakajo (Osaka castle), we wandered into a public hall, where a graduation ceremony for a Bushido school was taking place! The celebrations included a demonstration of sword mastery by the graduating students.
I was excited to meet a couple of lady samurai amongst the graduates. One of them had two swords strapped to her belt, a privilege traditionally reserved for the samurai class. She told me that historically there are reports of past female samurai, but they unfortunately never were treated as equal to the men.
She also pointed out that the fencing skills of a samurai are judged not only by their deadliness, but also by their elegance. The samurai who won the highest ranks at the demonstration, were the ones who were able to swing their katana (sword) in a more graceful angle, and make cleaner smoother cuts.
I think this is remarkable.
In my very limited understanding, the common thread between the warrior and the tea master is this emphasize on perfection of form.
When the formal aspects are considered so fully, the content inevitably follows. This principle is apparent in many aspects of Japanese life, it is deeply rooted in religious beliefs and cultural and artistic traditions.
After our visit to Osakajo, we went to the Osaka National Museum of Art.
This rather small museum for contemporary art would have been a bore I suspect, if it wasn't for an exceptional exhibition by a young group of artists - Kaza Anna.
The show is called: Air Hole, Another Form of Conceptualism from Asia.
It's been a long while since the last time I was so deeply impressed by anything I saw at a museum.
The highlight of the show for me was the last exhibit, in which viewers were invited to meet a very very old turtle and spend some time with it.
The piece is called: My Teacher Tortoise.
Before I stepped on the platform to meet my teacher, I was greeted by a Steven Hawking quote, warning that "Humans should avoid contact with alien life forms".
I resisted the urge to shoot video or pictures, because I didn't want to offend my teacher. It also doesn't seem to like it when people touch its head.
Thank you for reading.
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