This blog entry may take a bit of time to fill in. Right now, the photos are all uploaded, but I need to work on the text. As usual, click on a slideshow if you want to go to the Picasa album. From there, you can access my other albums, too.
Arrival and Our First Day, March 22 and 23After landing at Narita Airport and taking a two or three hour bus ride, it was late (23:00?), and we were very tired. We met the Hiroses (our Tea sensei Yoshiko-san and her husband Kazukio-san) at Ikebukuro Station. We then took a train to Hoya Station and caught taxis to our respective lodgings. It was a good thing they were there to guide us, because our brains were fried, and no good for further naviation. Yoshiko-san took Harvey and Holly home with her, and Kazukio-san helped Kristin and me to Tatami Guesthouse. It is also known as Hibari House, which is possibly its old name that is still over the door. We tolerated a rather long introduction to the features of the guesthouse, took our room key, and promptly landed in bed.
Hibari House is very inexpensive long-term lodging. I think we paid a total of $700 for three weeks. It is bare-bones dormitory-style, with toilets and a trough sink down the hall. The small common room with kitchen, coin-op showers and laundry are on the first floor. Most tenants are college-age, and stay out late, often returning after midnight to have a loud conversation in the echoey hall before retiring for a noisy nightcap in their tissue-thin walled room. Even the hosts seemed oblivious to normal sleep patterns. One night, at 3:00, I had to yell at the otherwise thoughtful Mokoto-san, who was flinging recycling into a bin outside our window. The white noise application on my iPod got a workout every night. The money savings on the room was great, but was not worth the loss of sleep.
The next morning, Mokoto-san kindly gave us a street map of the western part of Tokyo, which supplemented the copies of Google Maps that I had brought. We easily made the ten minute walk to Hibarigaoke Station, got transportation passes, and hopped on the train to the next station at Hoya. Then we fumbled our way along toward the Hiroses' house, getting some friendly help from a shop keeper who spoke as much English as we did Japanese. Harvey and Holly met us along the main road, and guided us the rest of the way. This saved us from getting lost, because precious few Japanese streets actually have signs, or even names. I'm not sure there are any streets in Tokyo that actually run on a grid, so it is easy to get lost once one leaves the safety of a known street. I still haven't quite deciphered their district, block, street and house numbering system, and am not sure how anyone can find a house without a seasoned guide.
All in all, the trip from Hibari House to the Hiroses' home took us about 45 minutes, which on one hand was great for exercise, but on the other hand was annoyingly inconvenient, especially when we happened to be carrying lots of loot. ...Especially in the rain. ...At night. ...When it was often already way past my bedtime after a long day of running around.
On that first morning, we visited with Sensei for a while. She showed us her Tea room, and we helped get the sunken hearth ready for the summer season. In the afternoon the Hiroses' daughter, Yumiko-san, showed us around Kichijoji, a district where she has her massage studio. After seeing her cozy studio (with a wee garden), we went to a beautiful park called Inokashira-koen. The centerpiece of the park is a lake surrounded by sakura trees. I think that this is the park depicted in the German film "Hanami" (or "Cherry Blossoms" in American versions).
On a small island in the lake is a shrine to Benzaiten (a.k.a. Benten), the goddess of music and art. Yumiko-san told us that Benziaten is said to be jealous of couples who go boating on the lake, and will cause them to break up. There is also a small shrine on the island dedicated to a white snake (Ugajin) that protects the island. The sakura were barely beginning to bloom, but delicate white magnolias were blooming and maple leaves were opening. We began our birdwatching here, greedily spotting large-billed crows, bulbuls, great tits and other birds that enjoy the park.
In the evening, we met Yoshiko- and Kazukio-san at Kichijoji Station, and went out for a delicious dinner. As with most (if not all) train stations in Tokyo, Kichijoji Station has a large shopping mall with many enticing restaurants. I could have happily eaten my way through this station, and then moved on to the next. I should have followed Holly's example (learned from experience), to photograph my meals. Not only were they delicious, but even the simples noodle dish was lovely. I think I had fish for this this first dinner. Afterward, Kazukio-san made sure Kristin and I got onto the correct bus to a train station. The others took a cab home, in deference to the Hiroses' age. Then with help from some kind strangers Kristin & I got to Hibarogaoke Station, whence we retraced our steps to our room at Hibari House.
Our lodgings in Hibarigaoke and the Hiroses' home southeast of Hoya are approximately nine miles from Tokyo Harbor, and are out in the Tokyo suburbs. I had thought of Tokyo as being a huge crush of concrete and humanity, but found that the suburbs have room for modest gardens, and even sizable market gardens. Across from the Hiroses' home there is what appears to be a family farmhouse surrounded by a couple of acres of cabbages. On that first morning, we met one of these family members planting cabbages on another plot down the road. Eriko-san told us that her family farmed many plots in the neighborhood, supplying nearby supermarkets with fresh produce. Later, on our walk with Yumiko-san, we came across a vegetable stand with a coin locker "vending machine" for vegetables. The doors were plexiglass, so one could see the veggies in question. It seemed a perfect solution for market gardeners who could not quite rely on the honor of others to leave, rather than take, money in an honor box.
On this day, I began my photographic collection of manhole and other utility covers. I'd become interested in such things in New Orleans, where I took a couple of crayon rubbings of decorative utility covers. It seems that each city or district in Japan has their own distinctive artwork, and it was a delight to find new ones. Some are even painted. In the Hiroses' neighborhood, most of the manhole covers bear sakura (cherry) blossoms. In Hibarigaoke ("Skylark Hill"), the covers bear a plump little hibari with a spray of fruit blossoms.
March 24: Chaji at Rieko-sensei'sThis trip was partly about doing tea, and we didn't waste much time starting. On our second day, Yoshiko-san sent us to study with another Tea master, Rieko-sensei. To get there, we met up with another Tea student, Chieko, at Shibuya Station. This station is huge, and fortunately we had an excellent landmark at which to meet. There is a statue of a dog named Hachiko, who in the 1920s would accompany his human to the station in the morning, and wait for him to return in the evening. When his human died, Hachiko continued to wait at the station for many years. His loyalty touched many people, and was thus memorialized with a statue.
From Shibuya, Chieko took us to Shinjuku Station, switched trains, and arrived at another station. I was getting quite turned around, and have no idea where in Tokyo we wound up. On the way, we acquired some other Tea students, and we walked the remaining distance to Rieko-san's house.
Yoshiko-san had told us that a "light lunch" was planned before Tea practice. We soon discovered that this is code for a full-blown chaji: a formal meal followed by koicha (thick tea) and then usucha (thin tea). See my February entry about my birthday chaji for more details.
Fortunately, Rieko-sensei anticipated our still travel-weary bodies and Harvey's difficulty with extended sitting on mats. She provided all of us with comfortable low stools. This conveniently gave her the chance to introduce us to her new Tea table, which allowed her to sit on a stool and make tea. Rieko-san is in her 80's, and she said her hips were getting bad. But she wanted to continue doing Tea. This table was the solution. For usucha, she invited Harvey to begin as host. Then many others of us took the opportunity to try out the table. It was also my first experience with a sunken hearth and a Tea stand.
Rieko-san knew that Holly, Kristin and I enjoyed birding, so many items in the Tea room were selected for us. The scroll in the tokonoma (art alcove) read "Birds Play Naturally", the natsume (thin tea container) was decorated with a flock of birds, and the shifuku (cloth bag around the thick tea container) had a bird and flowers in brocade. The incense holder in the tokonoma was shaped like a closed umbrella, to commemorate the rain. It was wonderful to see new styles of dogu (Tea utensils), and to see how they can be utilized for a specific occasion. After using the same ones for practice for so long, it is easy to think that there is little variation.
Everyone was very nice, and we had a lovely time. Because many of these people are students of Yoshiko-sensei's, we got to meet several of them again at following Tea practices.
March 25: birding near Seibukyujomae (Seibu Dome baseball park).
