Japan seems to be an efficient, industrial and busy country (as you would expect), interrupted by moments of exquisite aesthetic contemplation and beauty. Immigration took an irritating three hours in Kobe (not expected, what efficiency??) but Janna and I soon headed off to Osaka with a group to attend a 4 1/2 hour performance at the Bunraku Theatre, where puppeteers train for 30 years before becoming masters of their craft. The main puppeteer remains uncovered (but completely inexpressive); the other two are caped in black, which makes them become "invisible." The two plays we saw were from the traditional eighteenth-century repertory and told stories of love, betrayal, secret identities, and suicide (ie, all the normal stuff of life).
The next day we headed up to Kyoto, one of the only cities not bombed in WWII, so it still contains some of Japan's most beautiful temples and castles. We saw four of them, with their attending gardens. In order: Sanjusangen-do, Nijo Castle, Ryoanji Temple, and the drop-dead gorgeous Golden Pavilion. Below, some views of each.
At the Golden Pavilion, Janna tried to get a 2-year-old to admire pictures of Austin on her iPhone; I don't think the baby was all that impressed, but she sure had fun with the family.
Thank goodness for plastic food. Food, of course, is another attraction (for one of us, at least; Janna seems to have been on the You Want Me to Eat WHAT? Diet since Spain), but since nobody speaks English (nor do we expect them to do so), everything is a challenge. A clever way to negotiate this is to take iPhone pictures of the ubiquitous plastic foods displayed in front of every restaurant, show it to the waiter, bow, mumble "arigato," and pray.
Janna, ever resourceful when ice cream is in the vicinity, found a solution to her culinary woes by making friends with the "right people" on the ship; problem resolved.
We stayed with the ship for the transit from Kobe to Yokohama, then went into Tokyo on the fast train from the port, where we enjoyed the Imperial Palace Gardens with the Toscanos, a yummy sushi lunch (David and I -- Janna was on her normal food strike), and then a view of the gardens from the stunning rooftop bar of the Peninsula Hotel.
The last day we tooled around Yokohama (which contains Japan's tallest building)
before sailing off toward Hawaii, 10 sea days from now. And finally, another peek at Krista and Austin (he's 7 weeks old).
It feels odd to be back on US soil, although one of the wonderful discoveries about Hawaii is that it's a foreign country. Our last two days were particularly meaningful; more below.
The sunset on the eve of arrival in Honolulu suggested good things to come, and of course Ohau is as beautiful as the tourist brochures claim it is. We made the obligatory trek to the moving Pearl Harbor Memorial and sunned with students on Waikiki Beach, but the most fun was seeing Arantxa, our former PhD student who now teaches at U Hawaii, for dinner and late-night drinks on the beach (here with Fernando and Carrie).
After two days on Ohau, we sailed over to Hawaii, the Big Island, where we were treated to two intense days of Hawaiian culture organized by Kaipo Dye, one of the students on board who is passionately into the preservation of native culture and environmental sustainability. He organized a visit for a small group of us to the major monuments, national parks and botanical gardens, tribal sites, macademia nut production facility, black sand beaches, and of course, a luau. I will spare you endless gorgeous shots of Hawaii, which looks exactly as you think it does.
The most extraordinary moment came up in the sacred Waipio Valley (northwest corner), when a native friend of Kaipo's -a "kumu" (teacher) recounted the history of the area, then followed his talk with a chanted/sung prayer/blessing in Hawaiian. One got the sense of another place in the universe where magnetic fields align and energy is produced (something similar to the feeling one gets at Machu Picchu in Peru).
One final faculty meeting, final exams, grading, commencement, meetings, alumni ball, packing, and, alas, San Diego.
It will be difficult to get off the ship. Thanks for coming along on this glorious ride with us.
