NOVEMBER 2024 TRIP IDEAS WORTH SHARING

We just reserved our round trip air travel to Tokyo.

We use Booking.com to make our hotel reservations as it allows free cancellation up to 24-48 hours before arrival. 

JAPAN SUMMARY 

Tokyo 6 days, 

Kyoto/Asuka 6 days

You may choose to fly into Tokyo for extra days before we arrive.

Wed Nov 13 We depart LAX 11am

Th Nov 14-19  We are staying at:

     the APA SHINJUKU KABUKICHO TOWER in Tokyo

Click HERE for reservations

This is our Tokyo home base as it is central to all sites in Tokyo. 

Click HERE for map from Narita to Kabukicho

Nov. 19 Bullet Train to Kyoto 

Nov. 19-26 Stay in Kyoto and/or Asuka at our friend's homestay in Asuka Village. We have sent an email to the Tanaka's (our friends in Asuka. We will update you when we hear back from them. In the mean time we've made a reservation at a hotel designed like a ryokan, a traditional Japanese Inn: Candeo Kyoto Karasuma Rokkaku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan  

You may choose to stay longer.

Our friend Kimiko in Nara is an extraordinary guide, and will make memorable your extra days.

Nov. 26 Train to Narita for return flight home. Stay overnight in Narita

Nov. 27 Tour Narita but head to airport by 7pm

Nov. 28 Return flight to LAX:  our flight departs at 12:50 am. We board just after midnight sleep and awaken more than half way home, making it feel like a shorter flight

THE AUTHENTIC SAMURAI

 Click HERE for the making of Shogun

Click HERE for the video: Chapter 1  Honoring Authenticity

Click HERE for the video: Chapter 2  A Day with Hiroyuki Sanada

FALL COLORS IN JAPAN NOVEMBER 10-30, 2024

Winter, spring, summer in Japan but we've never been there in the fall. Starting today we are actualizing that experience one small step at a time.  First, set the date:  November 10-30, 2024, the rest will follow.
The Japanese have a deep and long enduring relationship with the seasons. This is most profound during the hanami (cherry blossom season in March and April), and so too in the autumn (kōyō or momiji season) before the onset of winter. 

Click HERE for more.

Photo credit: Japan Experience @pat138241, 123RF.com

 Koyo (紅葉)   Foilage with red and yellow colors  

Momiji (紅葉)   Intensily red maple leaves. 

Momijigari, hunting for maples, dates back to the Heian period (794-1195).

For buddhists, this falling-leaves time is a reminder that life is ephemeral. For me this heightened seasonal way of life is a reminder of the great treasure in each and every moment.

Photo credit: Japan Rail Pass

What to visit when you go to Japan.

This link will take you to an excellent resource to begin building your list of places you'd like to visit in Japan.

Click HERE for 34 Tips For Your First Trip to Japan

I am in the process of vetting this homestay link.

Click HERE for HOMESTAY WEB (not yet vetted)

Fall foliage forecast

Where to see autumn leaves in Japan

Another option is simply looking out the window while traveling by train
if visiting the country with a Japan Rail Pass. Between stations, you’ll have
 the opportunity to observe the local countryside in all its autumn glory.
For a truly unique Koyo experience at a relaxed pace, consider a sightseeing train ride on the Sagano Scenic Railway through the picaresque Arashiyama region.
Best places in Kyoto

Kyoto is often considered the best city in Japan to view the impressive fall foliage, thanks in part to the large number of traditional temples with sprawling, forested grounds

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• Arashiyama – An extensive bamboo forest on the outskirts of the city
• Daigo-Ji Gardens – A large green space popular with photographers in the autumn
• Daitoku-Ji – A temple with an impressive tunnel made out of maples at the entrance.
• Eikando Temple – The trees in these temple grounds are impressively lit during the fall
• Kinkaku-Ji – The gold-leaf coating of this famous temple is perfectly complemented by the colours of its surrounding trees in the autumn
• Nanzen-Ji – Made famous by the film Lost in Translation, which shot scenes at this temple during the fall
• Tenryu-Ji – A UNESCO World Heritage Site with an impressive landscape garden
• Tofukuji Temple – The Tsutenkyo Bridge in the temple grounds is one of the most popular leaf viewing spots in the city.

Best places in Tokyo

Although internationally known as a bustling metropolis, Tokyo is also packed with green spaces such as parks and gardens ideal for Momijigari. Some of the most popular include:

• Jingu Gaien Ginkgo Avenue – A famous street lined with ginko trees which turn a bright yellow in the autumn
• Koishikawa Korakuen – A popular garden, close to the Tokyo Dome, which boasts a large number of maple trees
• Mount Takao – Located on the outskirts of the city, this busy weekend destination is ideal for an autumn hike
• Oze National Park – Another popular hiking spot, located around 100 kilometers to the north of the city
• Rikugien Garden – An impressive landscape garden popular for both red leaf and cherry blossom viewing
• Shinjuku Gyoen – A large city park popular for autumn picnics
• Ueno Park – This large green space boasts over 9,000 trees with spectacular colors in the fall
• Yoyogi Park – Located close to the trendy Harajuku neighborhood and offers a mix of both ginkos and maples with spectacular autumn colors.

When to start planning your autumn trip to Japan

Those wishing to experience Momijigari in Japan are advised to start planning their autumn around 6 months in advance of travel, particularly if they wish to visit the major cities for fall leaf viewing.

As during the cherry blossom in the spring, accommodation in Tokyo and Kyoto can fill up quickly for the fall foliage season, so it’s advisable to make reservations as soon as travel dates are known.

GLOSSARY: OMOTENASHI AND BEYOND

 TAKUMI: You become a takumi when as A craftsman with a highly dedicated 60,000 hours of training and experience.

We will put together a takumi pilgrimage across Japan: to include Gassan Sadatoshi, the chef at Miyamasou in Kyoto, ...    ...   

OMOTENASHI @ 22:57 The Japanese form of unparalleled hospitality founded on a sense of gratitude and mindfulness. 

Find your own form of omotenashi.

KIRIE  Click HERE for more about Kirie and handmade Japanese washi paper at 33:27 can last 1,000 years, western paper... 100.
29:31 In class we were asked to draw a flower. My classmates drew flowers looking down, "I was curious see what the underside looked like so I drew the flower as if I was looking up at the sky."

LEXUS 39:29

“genchi genbutsu,” or “go and see for yourself.”

Shu-Ha-Ri: The Wisdom to Achieve Mastery 

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear” — Tao Te Ching

HOW TO GET MARRIED IN JAPAN

Quick links from our Japan Day Salon.  

You will not have to take notes when you hear something interesting, know it will be waiting for you here.

FOUR YEARS EARLIER...

Within a few months after our first date, we were reading together The Log of The Sea of Cortez by Dr. Ed Ricketts and John Steinbeck. Ed was a marine biologist whose business was Pacific Biological Laboratories, 800 Cannery Row, Montery California. Science teachers (like me), university teachers and researchers would order biological specimens from labs like Doc's.  Steinbeck spent a great deal of time in "Doc's Lab". We stopped there on one of our earliest road trips. Doc took Steinbeck on a long specimen collecting trip a long boat trip down the coast line of Baja California. Before they left they sat down and wrote their "First Principles"for traveling together on a tiny boat for a long period of time.  Why this long paragraph?  

Patricia and I would soon be off on our first trip together (to Japan) where we'd share a tiny space at the APA Hotel in Shinjuku Tokyo while on an 11,000 mile journey.

Ask Patricia when we sat together to write our own First Principles that would guide us along our life's journey and to our Shinto wedding four years in the future. Our four guiding  principles:  Honor, respect, nurturing inner growth, and loving one the other.  

THREE YEARS BEFORE OUR TRADITIONAL SHINTO WEDDING those principles would find their way engraved onto Patricia's engagement ring, forged in fire, and folded to produce a "wood grain" pattern in gold, similar to the wood grain pattern found when forging a fine Samurai sword.

FIRST PRINCIPLES engraved inside 

1. How To Get Married in Japan (or celebrate your 20th, 30th, 40th anniversary in Traditional Japanese style).

2. Married in Tokyo! 

3. Wedding Diary .... We meet our Shinto Priest.

4. Travel Tip #1 of 34  (at the very bottom, click on NEWER POST for Travel Tip 2, and so on.

 

第一原理  First Principles     Daiichigenri  

     名誉        Honor                Meiyo   (May yo)

       尊敬        Respect             Sonkei   (Son kay)

       育む       Nurture Inner Growth   Hagukumu

       愛          Love One the Other      Ai (eye e)  

The Japanese Gardens of Kyoto

Video contributed by Bill Steele

We're placing these three temples on our list when visiting Kyoto next year:  

1. Saiho-ji Temple  (Moss Temple) 

 Photo credits this page: Emmanuel Marès

"The devine resides in every wild flower, in every tiny insect."

Shoden-ji Temple

Kennin-ji Temple.

 

JAPANESE WATER STONES

The three best water stone quarry sources are found in Narutaki Japan, Arkansas, and the Ardennes in Belgium. Used for thousands of years, Japanese water stones are softer, wear down faster, but sharpen blades more quickly.

When in use, some water stone particles abrade exposing new stone surface to better sharpen blades. These stone particles make a "slurry," a paste, that  helps sharpen and polish the blade. I use a middle grit (1,000) for basic sharpening, and a high grit (3,000) for a final polish.

Larger particles of a lower grit stone remove more metal when sharpening a dull blade.

Smaller particles of higher grit stones  polish the scratches left by coarser grit stones, leaving a polish.  Sharpening fine steel blades on water stones takes some practice. (Scroll to bottom of page for instructional videos.)  

Most treasured moments in Japan: While I was away visiting Hiroshima, four of my friends arranged for me to visit Gassan upon my return to Nara and Asuka Village. The film reel starts in Hiroshima and ends in Gassan Sadatoshi's samarai sword making studio in Sakuri City, Japan.

 

The sharpest samurai sword blades I've ever seen were in Gassan Sadatoshi's hands. I shot this video in his home while sipping Japanese tea. He taught us:  "Swords are not for fighting." I think in his eyes, samurai swords are treasured works of art.  The Gassan family has been crafting samurai swords for over 800 years. 

Click HERE for more about Gassan Sadatoshi

(Includes a map and directions to his sword making studio.)

Part 1

Part 2