How to Browse the Blog

There are two ways to use this blog.

1. Use the Interactive Table of Contents.  --------->

Click on a title that takes you in a flash to that specific site.  As of November 2021, this Interactive Table of Contents is 15% complete.

2. Normally one browses through a blog by using the Blog Archive in the right column. --------->

Click on a date range and click again on a specific date to pop up the title.  The earliest posts are at the bottom.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

*    A Toto in Your Water Closet
*    Tokyo Car Culture
*    The Giant Wave of Kanazawa
*    Wonder Filled Japanese World Heritage Sites
*    An Unforgettable Journey by train.
*    “This Is The Land Of Your Ancestors.” —Yuji Ishihara
*    Why Get Married in Japan #6
*    Why Get Married in Japan #5
*    For Rochelle’s Family is headed to Tokyo
*    Table of Contents 
*    Can a Foreigner Buy a Home in Japan?
*    May 1, 2019 First Day of the new Japanese Era
*    Finding Japanese Ancestors
*    Space Saver

Tip 34
*    10,000 People: Japan Art Book Project
*    Forging a Katana (Samurai Sword)
Tip 33 The Narita Express (Train)
Tip 32 Book:  Meeting With Japan by Fosco Mariani 
Tai Chi and Mount Fuji

Tip 31 Mobile Passport: breezing through customs.

Tip 30 Jet Lag Part 2
*    How To Get Married In Japan
*    Moon Restaurant: 58th Floor of the Mori Museum Building
*    Senju Shrine: Perfect for an Intimate Shinto Wedding
*    10,000 People Art Book Project:  Misata
*    Discovering Immeasurable Treasures
*    10,000 People Japan Art Book Project:  Milo @ Beer To Go
*    Eyes Open Wide Day In Tokyo

Tip 29 The Thirty Types of Japanese Restaurants

*    The Diaries of Patricia and Tobias 
*    Jim Reed: "What is Shabui and Wabi Sabi?"
*    Chucky Thomas in Asuka Village
*    Shinto Wedding Purification Ritual
*    Tai Chi Wedding Sendoff
*    The Diaries of Patricia and Tobias
*    Patricia's Fan Fold Temple Book
*    Sakura Zensen in Tokyo:  Following the Cherry Blossom Wave
*    Godzilla & Staying at the APA Shinjuku Kabuki-cho Tower 
*    36 of Japan's Most Stunning Places
*    Japanese Phrases for Your First Day
*    First Kimono
*    Calligraphy and Sumi (Japanese Ink Making)

*    10,000 People: Japan Art Book Project # 10

*    10,000 People: Japan Art Book Project begins.  

Tip 28 Cherry Blossom Report: Sakura Zensen Tracking

Tip 27 Nara:  Miwa Mountain of 1,000 Shrines

Tip 26 The Great Buddha of Todai-ji 

Tip 25 Folding steel for Samurai Swords and bringing home a fine folded steel kitchen knife from Nara

Tip 24 Akiko and her new Tour Company (highly recommended)
Tip 23A No need for Electrical adaptors and drinking water

Tip 22 Hiroshima:  Peace Park and ringing the Peace Bell

Tip 21 Using Google Translate

Tip 20 Temples, Shinto Shrines and Japanese Culture

Tip 19 Way Finding in Japan and Restaurant Culture

Tip 18 “Do not hesitate to ask when you need help.

Tip 17 Google Maps: A great way to navigate Japan

Tip 16 Kanji: Japanese Writing

Tip 15B My Friend Yuji Short Documentary

Tip 15A Home Stays: the best way to learn about Japan

Tip 14 Japan Rail Pass

Tip 13 Pasmo card for easier Subway use

Tip 12 Travel Light: Using Roll Aboards

Tip 11 Conversion of $ to Yen

Tip 10 Ghibli Museum: Home of Japan’s greatest director/animator.

Tip 9 Tokyo Subway: A wayfinding introduction.

Tip 8B Copious ideas to build your own Japan Itinerary including World Heritage sites.

Tip 8A Miyabidado Takemine Ryokan in Tokyo, wedding night.
Tip 7 Introduction to Ryokans: Japan’s historic, traditional inns. 

Tip 6 Hotel APA Shinjuku Kabukicho Tower 

Tip 5 Portable charger for you phone and Pocket Wifi

Tip 4 Pocket WiFi across Japan, Google Translate, & Maps

Tip 3 Hitching Rides with Buddha: a first book to read.

Tip 2 b Shinjuku Station, busiest in the world. 3.5 million passengers each day.

Tip 2 a Japan Rail Pass (perfect for beyond the big cities)

Tip 1 Minimizing Jet Lag April 16, 2018

000   In the beginning: Jotaro and Taka Kobayakawa  Nov. 17, 2015

Car Culture

My cousin Albert has a far ranging interest in cars which means he’ll one day visit Tokyo’s Car Culture.

You Can Buy an Akiya Home in Japan

Discover Akiya Homes in Japan in four articles.  Warning: Reading these articles could be a hazard your routine, you might find yourself living in Japan.

1. Dreamers Click HERE for a video about buying a Japanese Home.
About 13.5% of Japanese Homes in the country are abandoned.  Akiya Bank is ready for those who are interested in becoming part of a community under a 5 year contract.

2. Japanese Homes Click HERE

3. Best Article Click Here

https://blog.gaijinpot.com/buy-abandoned-house-in-japan/

4. How to Buy A Japanese Home Article https://www.homes.co.jp/akiyabank/b-5536/


Today’s Puzzle
Enter the location for this photo.

The Reiwa Era begins May 1, 2019 a landmark day as Crown Prince Naruhito becomes the new emperor of Japan. He accedes to the Chrysanthemum Throne on 1 May 2019.
Click HERE for details. Reiwa means Great Harmony.

Crown Princess Masako Owada

www.reuters.com

TOKYO (Reuters) - “Crown Prince Naruhito, set to become Japan’s emperor on May 1, is known as an earnest, studious man who wooed and won his ex-diplomat wife, Crown Princess Masako, with a pledge to protect her."

"...with a pledge to protect her."  Reading this line, I was swept back to the day I met Gassan Sadatoshi whose father made the Samurai sword presented to Naruhito on the day he was born. As we sipped tea with Sadatoshi he taught us:  "Swords are not for fighting."  I've come to understand that the deepest character imbued into a samurai sword is the spirit of "protection." The sword he received the day he was born was meant to protect him (his family and the nation) throughout the journey of his lifetime. Seems the spirit of his birth sword has guided Crown Prince Naruhito in pledging to protect the Crown Princess Masako.

”Naruhito, 59, will be ...
1. the first Japanese emperor born after World War Two 
2. the first to be raised solely by his parents,
3.  and the first to graduate from a university and pursue advanced studies overseas.”

Japanese Ancestors

Charles Thomas and a few of my former students have thought about exploring their Japanese ancestry... these posts are the perfect starting point for anyone considering such a quest.  Thanks to Matthew Mori, my principal advisor when I launched my first journey to walk in the footsteps of my grandparents Jotaro and Taka Ishihara Kobayakawa.  Click HERE to go to Ancestors Chapter 1

Michie Kobayakawa my mother's first cousin from Niimi, Okayama Japan. Photo circa 1919. Below ... 100 years later in Tokyo, April 6, 2019


It looks like my second cousin Michie is standing next Charles Thomas, separated here by only 100 years, the blink of an eye. Makes me wonder if her photo was taken on her wedding day, 100 years ago.

Movies about Japan

Departures, the movie, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Click HERE for the trailer

“Looking into the employment ads, Daigo finds a promising offer [Departures Agent] at what sounds like a travel agency. Daigo applies at a quiet little office, the interview is brief. He gets the job and a cash advance. He discovers the agency handles travel, all right -- to the next world. It is an "encoffinment," or undertaking, business.” --Roger Ebert

                 Click HERE for Roger Ebert’s full review.

From Wikipedia:  a nōkanshi is a Japanese ritual mortician.  Yukan is the ceremonial cleansing of the body prior to encoffenment. Japanese funerals are highly ritualized and generally conducted with Buddhist rites and involves a professional nōkanshi preparing dressing the dead in white.

Other movie recommendations coming soon.

Genki Yo! Chieko Iwase: The Inspiration for 10,000 People

10,000 People    Japan Art Book Project

00,001  Chieko Iwase. Bill and I met Chieko-san at the Ginza Antique Market April 7, 2019. Outgoing, bright and authentic, beaming radiating warmth!

Forging a Katana (A Japanese Samurai Sword )

August 15, 2015 Yoshio, second from the right, arranged for me to visit with Master Swordsmith Gassan Sadatoshi, second from the left and featured in the documentary below. Sadatoshi-san, will one day, like his father, become a Japanese National Human Treasure, an unparalleled honor. His family has been making Samurai Swords for more than 800 years.



Our wedding rings were forged in a manner inspired by the making of traditional samurai swords. Folding red hot forged steel or gold, imparts a beautiful wood grain character to the sword or ring.  Mokumeganea, the kanji Moku, means wood grain.  Personally, moku mirrors the spirits of living trees who leave their mark in wood grain. 




A closer examination of a forge folded samurai sword blade reveals the shabui of its red hot genesis (see below).

 The noh drama, Sanjō Kokaji, features the  10th century swordsmith Munechika forging the tachi (samurai sword) Kogitsune-Maru with the fox spirit Inari-Myōjin, the god of rice, agriculture and fertility, whose messenger is a white fox masterfully wields a heavy hammer, sparks fly and cascade from the scend.

Kitsune. 

I count at least 7 additional fox spirits witnessing the forging of this legendary sword.

Here is where Kitsune inspires a vision where I see a festival in Asuka and Sakurai City... and in Niimi.

The theme:  “Swords are Not For Fighting.” Opens in Gassan’s studio. Two heavy hammer wielding assistants strike glowing steel in showers of sparks, Sadatoshi turns the billet in the age-kitae process, more sparks fly.  Focus is on this forging and the preparation of the furnace, the shinto priests, the sparks flying symbolizing the festivals core, the spirit of the sword, like Inari-Myōjin and the Kogitsune-Maru, the festival runs from opening to closing ceremony absent any sword fighting, without a single sword clash. Here the rules of life are:

harmony 調和, Chōwa

justice 正義感, Masayoshi-kan

honor 名誉, Meiyo

serenity

courage

tranquility

respect

courtesy

kindness

honesty

frugality

modesty

loyalty

and duty.

These together form the future of bushido where swords are not for fighting but represent the 12 faces of new legends, old kitsune, and the new  Kogitsune-Maru’s that come from Gassan Sadatoshi’s studio.

In Asuka, student productions of the Kogitsune-Maru legend premiere in both noh and animation form with calligraphy classes producing banners in sets of three, like the sips of purifying sake that bring the gods and people together as a symbol of the vows we are making.

Tip #33 Narita Express Train for those staying in Shinjuku Kabuki-cho, take N'EX, Narita Express directly from Narita Airport to Shinjuku Station (see the map and additional stations below). From Shinjuku Station, you're a 9 minute walk or short taxi ride away from the APA Shinjuku Kabuki-cho Tower Hotel.  

This is the easiest and fastest way to move from Narita Airport to your hotel.  No train changes for a weary traveler new to Japan.  Remember, you can have your low cost mobile wifi waiting for your arrival at Narita Airport.  I cannot imagine navigating Japan without Google Maps paired with Pocket WiFi. Click HERE for Pocket Wifi

For your return flight you can catch Narita Express right at Shinjuku Station for a direct train to Narita without any transfers, easy peasy! Here's a return schedule:

For example: Narita Express 17 departing Shinjuku 10:08 am, arrives Narita 11:27 am.

... perfect for boarding a 2:30 pm flight home.

Other Tokyo Stations served by the Narita Express:

Afuna

Takako

Ikebukuro and

Yokohama 

Click HERE for the Narita Express Website

The schedule above is for April 2019. After that, the schedule might be different.
Check the N'EX website or the JR Ticket Office at Shinjuku Station before your departure or look for Narita Express on Google Maps after entering Narita.

THE FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS: The Good Luck Flag (寄せ書き日の丸, yosegaki hinomaru)

The Good Luck Flag (寄せ書き日の丸, yosegaki hinomaru)

Names and personal messages are written in calligraphy on a yosegaki hinomaru, a traditional gift for Japanese servicemen before deployment. Signed by family, friends, co-workers and neighbors, who include their communal hopes and wishes which are remembered each time the flag is unfolded.  I wonder if my Uncle Nicholas Manzanares carried letters from his loved ones with him as he stormed the beach at Saipan? I wonder if a Japanese soldier carried them home hoping one day to reunite them with the Manzanares family? 

Patricia and I are returning a yosegaki hinomaru on our next trip to Japan. My friend Kiyoshi Yamauchi English Professor at Niimi University will help us return this heirloom to its family of origin.  “The flags of our fathers.”

BOOKS: Travel, History... ascend into the Japanese mind.

Tip # 32 In his book Meeting With Japan, anthropologist Fosco Maraini explains the complexity of the Japanese with sensitivity and a profound narrative skill for those who admire fine accounts of distant places and wish to learn more about the East part of Eastern thinking. I found a used copy at BetterWorldBooks.com.

Moraini describes on page 23: stopping at a Kabayaki-ya restaurant his first day back in Japan, “the most famous and venerable Kabayaki-ya in Tokyo” at the time.   “Our dinner of eels lasted a long time, we drank more sake, and reached that happy state of vagueness about the exact relations of spacial coordinates that leads to the opening of hearts.”

A desire to read and write the Japanese language has been inspired somewhere along my 9 journeys into the heart of Japan. What I like about Fosco Moraini’s book, seen on the page below is his integration of Kanji characters onto the margin of some pages.  They lend a aesthetic note to his stories, a depth I’ve not seen in other books. Please read the following paragraphs for an example.

Mapping Japan in the 1700's from Meeting With Japan

The Shinto god Daikoku and His Miraculous Mallet

Bill and Alexandra’s Tour

Tai Chi meets Mount Fuji, and other photos. What’s the name of this Tai Chi move?

Are they doing Tai Chi daily on their Japan tour?

Photo by Alexandra Linden

 

Bill finds the Spider of Ripongi

Tip # 30 and 31

#30 Jet Lag Part II. Best Practice:  Book a 7pm return flight when you leave Japan. You get an extra day in Japan and after a full day of Tokyo action, you're tired enough to fall asleep on the return flight.

The votes are rolling in for Argonne National Labs Jet Lag Program
Rating standard: 10 is highest possible score

10  Patricia:  "This jet lag program is golden."
10  Toby       "Combined with the 7pm departure, there were zero symptoms of jet lag the first return day, and very light fatigue the next day."   

We boarded the 7pm flight out of Narita, fell asleep after a light high carb dinner. And 9 hours later awakened for breakfast just before our descent into Los Angeles International Airport. A perfect flight time while using the Argonne Jet Lag program. (A win win situation)  

Other flyers will be surveyed upon their return.


Once upon a time, queuing through Customs was an unwelcome end to any journey. But now there’s Mobile Passport.
Tip # 31 It was a breeze moving through LAX Customs after our return flight using “Mobile Passport”. In place of long lines, there’s an option to step up to a raft of kiosks. If you’ve answered the questions on Mobile Passport (takes about 60 seconds) then you’re golden. The longest line we waited in was.... wait for it... 7 seconds. That’s the way flying ought to be! Download it before you depart. Look for the icon below at your App Store.


#31 If you don’t have it yet, download Mobile Passport as soon as you arrive at LAX on your return trip.

How To Get Married in Japan

Why in Japan #1

We've been asked several times why we got married in Japan of all places?  

1. The answer in a single word: Shibui.  There was an invisible draw, like a strong gravitational force, and a dream with light pink snowflake floating cherry blossoms landing on our shoulders while a Shinto priest chants and we declare our lifetime promises to one-the-other in Japanese.  

2. Then there was a heightened sense of mindfulness and meaning.  

3. Then an epiphany: that the extra complexities, translating wedding documents into Japanese, memorizing Shinto wedding promises in Japanese, that all the complicated steps we took, mirrored the dedication to our relationship. 

4. Then there was a sense of antiquity, a sense that this is truly the way a marriage should begin in full and beautiful kimonos. For reasons, inexplicable, we feel our Shinto wedding reveals who we are and our aspirations for the rest of our lives together.

The steps (in brief) to have your own wedding (or renew your vows) in Japan

1. Download the documents from Japan Embassy Website, and have someone fill them out in Japanese.

2. Gather all your documentation (birth certificates, etc.)

3. Visit the U.S. Embassy nearest you (with the previously mentioned documents).

4. Go to:  TRAVEL.STATE.GOV to make an appointment at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.

5. When you land in Tokyo, visit the U.S. Embassy there to have your documents checked and notarized.       The address is:  1-10-5 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8420 JAPAN

6. Take all your documents to a Japanese City Hall like this one in Shinjuku.  The address is:  1-chōme-4-１ Kabukichō, Shinjuku City, Tōkyō-to 160-8484, Japan. Here you need to fill out forms in Japanese, making it important to have a translator with you.  Practice writing your name in Japanese since you will have to sign in Japanese.

7. Take your official Japanese Wedding document with you to the Shinto priest who will conduct your ceremony.

8. Option: one year in advance: Arrange for Mokumeganea to inscribe your wedding rings in Japanese, with the First Principles of your relationship.

First Principles

Patricia Vining       and      Toby Manzanares

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)  

BACK TO PATRICIA'S JAPAN DAY

Moon Restaurant Blue Sky Floating World Wedding Dinner on the 58th floor of the Mori Museum, Rippongi Hills, Tokyo. Treasured friends and family, some travelling nearly 6,000 miles to help us celebrate!

Note the celebratory sake on the table (white bottle).

Senju Shrine

10,000 People 

Japan Art Book Project

#10 Misata Ehara at Ginza Book Cafe April 7, 2019

We ordered two Cafe Lattes, she wrote congratulations in Kanji on the foam, then recommended a book for us to take home:  Laws of the Sun.

Discovering treasures immeasureble along 
the journey of a meaning filled life.

Thank you for the shibui of your presence during these pink cherry blossom moments of our together journey.

Japan 10,000 People     ...  Art Book Project

00,002 Milo in the Ginza Art Museum’s “Beer To Go” ... “exhibit” made the best hamburgers I’ve ever tasted in Japan.  Oishi!  As Charlie from Sydney would say:  “DeeeeLicious!    "Omeni ka kadete, oreshi." It is my honor to meet you I said to him in Japanese.  He swept out from behind the counter and wrapped me into a Japanese bear hug much to Jim Reed's surprise.  Mine too!

Eyes open wide day in Tokyo!  Patricia discovered the Tokyo Art Book Fair in Ginza.  Inspired by the Art Books Fair, I began my...

Japan 10,000 People 

Art Book Project 

Can you meet 10,000 Japanese people in one Life Time?

00001 Naoko Higashi, Project Manager for the fair.