Chester & Greta | July 1998

Chester & Greta

07/02/98

What a beautiful day! It's our day off and the weather is georgeous. So Greta and I went to Narita to visit Narita-san, the Buddhist temple there, and the Narita-san gardens.

It was well worth it. Narita-san is beautiful, spectacular. From the Keisei Station you follow the winding Omotesando Road to the temple. Along the way are dozens of stores and restaurants catering to the temple visitors. Senbei shops (Japanese crackers), trinket shops, fruit and vegetable shops, and much more. The restaurants all seem to be displaying unagi dishes but that may be because of the season. Unagi (a sea eel) is usually eaten in early Summer to "fortify" you against the Summer heat.

So after meandering through all the souvenir shops and around the temple grounds we stopped in a restaurant to have unagi. The dish the waitress brought us she called unaju and was (I think) grilled unagi eel on top of rice, with a few pickled vegetables on the side. It was quite delicious though not as good as some anago (another eel) I had in a sushi restaurant a month ago. So I think we both want to try it again at another restaurant just to see.

Narita-san is quite impressive. The main hall was built in the early 20th century but the previous main hall and several other pagodas date from the early 1700s. The old main hall was the most impressive structure, I thought, because it was covered in carved wood tableaus that featured several hundred monks doing various things. These carvings were attached to the outside of the structure and circled the building. Each was about 8-10 feet long and 4-5 feet high. Then the outer doors had smaller carvings by the same artist. Supposedly no two monks have the same facial features.

The most beautiful were two carvings that featured a brigade of monks wrapped in smoke (or sitting in clouds ... it was hard to tell) and monks at a temple braving a typhoon.

After lunch we wandered through the gardens. They center around three ponds that are well stocked with friendly (and gigantic) koi and one hungry swan. I moved down to the waters edge to look at the fish and Greta noticed that several large koi and the swan made a beeline for me. Probably hoping for some popcorn or senbei. The swan followed us around the pond until we headed off away from the water. Perhaps they were homing koi.

Next Sunday we are taking a bus tour of Sakura City for foreigners. Three of the other new teachers will also be taking the tour so we should have a grand time. The itinerary is:

- have a taste of sake at a brewery in Mawatashi
- learn about the Sakura Castle ruins and the legend of the pond
- participate at a tea ceremony at Sankeitei
- have a picnic lunch at Sakura Castle Park
- visit three old samurai houses at Miyakojimachi
- then proceed to the Juntendo Memorial Hall (medical museum)

I'm really looking forward to the tea ceremony. Most of the other things we could do on our own (of course it's more fun with friends). But a tea ceremony would be hard to arrange, I think. Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.

07/05/98

We went on a bus tour of Sakura City today. It was organized by city hall and included translators to explain the sights. We joined three other teachers from M.I.L. and about 20 other people for a tour of:

- Tanaka Sake Brewery
- Sakura Castle Park
- Sankei Tei (tea ceremony)
- Bukeyashiki (samurai houses)
- Juntento (medical museum)

First we stopped at the Tanaka Sake Brewery. Sake is only made during the fall and winter months so there wasn't much going on this day. The president of the brewery met us and gave us a short tour of the 130-year-old building. We then watched a video produced by a local cable station about the brewery. After the video the president invited us to sample his product. It was quite delicious. Here's some information on sake given to us by the guide (from "Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia"):

"Sake is made with yeast of rice, malted rice, and water. This is placed in a vat, additional amounts of the three yeast ingredients are added, and the mixture is left to ferment for 20 days (the drained solids of the mixture, called sakekasu or dregs, are used in cooking and in preperation of tsukemono or pickles).
After fermentation the mixture is ready for pressing, filtration and blending. The sake is then pasteurized, bottled and stored.

The alcohol content of crude sake is about 40% proof; sake on the market is about 32% proof.

A good-quality sake has a subtle blend of the so-called five flavors (sweetness, sourness, pungentcy, bitterness and astringency) and a mellow fragrance. Older sake has a soft, mellow taste, but sake is rarely stored for more than a year."

Next was a walk through Sakura Castle Park. Nothing of the castle remains except some low walls and parts of the moats. They are quite deep. The castle, during its heyday, was quite large. But the grounds were used as a training camp for the military during World War II and it was subsequently destroyed. There is a contingency in Sakura that wants to rebuild the castle but apparently that has been on the table for quite some time. And considering the state of the economy I doubt it will happen any time soon.

In Sakura Castle Park is Sankei Tei, a tea ceremony house in which anyone can enjoy the tea ceremony every Sunday for a mere 400Ą. The tour group shared the ceremony together which means that about 35 of us were crammed into two tatami rooms. What little I know of the ceremony having 35 people in the room during it destroys the whole purpose. I intend to return one Sunday to enjoy the ceremony properly. Here's some information provided by the guide (translated by Teresa H):

"Sankei Tei is a tea ceremony house that was taken from the Nogi Shrine in Tokyo and reconstructed in Sakura, at the Sakura Castle Park. Its design was copied from the Daitokuji, a famous tea ceremony house in Kyoto.
Hotta Masatoshi, a fuedal lord of Sakura who died about 300 years ago liked the poems of a famous Chinese literary writer. This writer was a government official who resigned from his position to go back to his hometown. In one of his poems, he wrote about what he saw on his way home, "evergreen pine trees, chrysanthemums still in bloom on three pathways, rough and untaken." Sankei means three pathways, and it was taken from this writer's poem. The tea ceremony house (tei) was named Sankei Tei because of its location, beside three pathways."

While walking through Sakura Castle Park we stopped at a stunning pond called Uba-ga-Ike. It was half covered by water lillies and well populated with carp. The pond itself has a legend behind it. Here it is as provided by the guide (translated by Teresa H):

"Once upon a time during the rule of one of the fuedal lords of Sakura, there lived a wet nurse who took care of the baby princess. One day, cuddling the baby princess, she went out for a walk on the castle grounds. The castle's pond was so beautiful that she stopped to admire the waterlilies. Then all of a sudden, as the wet nurse tried to reach for a lily that was a little off the edge of the pond; the baby princess fell into the water and drowned. The wet nurse was so distressed about what she had done and how she could face her lord; that she threw herself into the pond, and was never seen again.
It was said that later when someone called, "Uba koishii ka?", bubbles came from the bottom of the pond and disappeared into the reeds. And from that time on, the pond came to be known as Uba-ga-Ike: pond with the wet nurse."

We gave it a try and sure enough there were bubbles. But, then again, there always are bubbles.

Next stop was the samurai houses just outside of the Castle Park. First, here's some information provided by the guide (translated by Teresa H):

"During the Edo Period, all the samurai houses (bukeyashiki) were owned by clans. And the clans allowed their samurais to use the houses for free. The houses of the local clans were very simple in structure, and the samurais frequently moved in and out, as they change their job or status.
The Sakura Clan, in 1833 passed a law stating that to economize, a samurai's house must show his status by the size of his house, gate, porch, by the type of tatami mats used, and by the size of its drawing room. It also stated that a house must not show more than the status of the samurai who dwelt in it.

Sakura City has three samurai houses, the biggest and oldest of which is the Kawara Family Residence. This house is a cultural asset of Chiba Prefecture. Next in size is the Tajima Family Residence which is considered Sakura City's cultural asset; and the third one is the Takei Family Residence.

These houses clearly shows that the people then, tried to be self-sufficient by planting vegetables, fruit trees and tea. They dug wells. They planted trees that served as boundaries, and protections against fire. And they also planted high hedges to keep samurais on horseback from looking into their houses."

In one house was kept two suits of samurai armor (the tourist version) for people to try on. No, I didn't. But Greta did. She looked quite fierce. In another house was photos of the last resident samurai and artifacts found under the house when it was moved. The artifacts included money, dishes and afterbirth pots. It was tradition that when a child was born the afterbirth was placed in a pot and buried under the entranceway. When this house was moved nine pots were recovered.

The third house couldn't be entered, but as typical of the other three, all the rooms were visible from the open doorways and windows around the house. This house was decorated with furniture and objects typical of the time. Including a pike hanging above a doorway. The guide stated that this was typical of samurai houses as they were useful in repelling troublesome samurai with sharp swords. It was also pointed out that only the guest rooms were floored with tatami mats. Guests alone reserved the honor of that comfort.

Lastly, we visited Juntendo. Unfortunately, only the entrance hall remains of the buildings so there was not much to see except for a model of the grounds based on a aerial drawing of the facility (which was there as well). There was also price list of services available. The most expensive was a nose replacement for syphillis sufferers. Here's some information from the guide (translated by Teresa H):

"Taizen Sato owned a medical school in Tokyo during the Edo Period. He was asked by the fuedel lord Masayoshi Hotta to build a hospital in Sakura. Taizen therefore founded Juntendo in 1843 as a hospital and medical school using Dutch in studying the European ways of medical treatment.
Operations were performed at Juntendo for breast cancer, cesarean births, bladder ailments, and otheres; but they were done without the use of anesthesias. These surgeries performed however, were very advanced for the Edo Period; because during that time, illnesses were merely treated with herbs, and people preferred going to the temples or shrines to pray for relief from their ailments.

Doctors all over the country came to Sakura to learn the western way of medicine, and by the early Meiji Period, Juntendo have had about several hundreds to about a thousand students. These doctors later returned to their practices and became leaders in different fields of medecine which became the foundation for Japanese Modern Medecine."

07/14/98

The weather here is just incredible. It is now the middle of July and the temperature outside is in the mid-60s. Just when everyone was whining about the heat (and it has been quite sticky) we have to sleep under blankets.

Of course, it won't last. Yesterday was election day and the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) which was in the majority lost enough seats in the legislature that Prime Minister Hashimoto (also LDP Chairman) has resigned from both positions. It really seems a shame, though the majority of my students don't care for him.

I still don't really understand Japanese politics so I'd better keep my mouth shut.

We received a blender in the mail from my mom. Just in time for smoothie season. I also received a package from Bich. She sent us an Austin Chronicle which has come in quite useful in my classes. Many of my adult students like to talk about food and restaurants and so I used the restaurant ads to generate some lively discussion. They were quite surprised that one restaurant would serve both Korean barbecue and sushi!

Chester & Greta
07/02/98 What a beautiful day! It's our day off and the weather is georgeous. So Greta and I went to Narita to visit Narita-san, the Buddhist temple there, and the Narita-san gardens. It was well worth it. Narita-san is beautiful, spectacular. From the Keisei Station you follow the winding Omotesando Road to the temple. Along the way are dozens of stores and restaurants catering to the temple visitors. Senbei shops (Japanese crackers), trinket shops, fruit and vegetable shops, and much more. The restaurants all seem to be displaying unagi dishes but that may be because of the season. Unagi (a sea eel) is usually eaten in early Summer to "fortify" you against the Summer heat. So after meandering through all the souvenir shops and around the temple grounds we stopped in a restaurant to have unagi. The dish the waitress brought us she called unaju and was (I think) grilled unagi eel on top of rice, with a few pickled vegetables on the side. It was quite delicious though not as good as some anago (another eel) I had in a sushi restaurant a month ago. So I think we both want to try it again at another restaurant just to see. Narita-san is quite impressive. The main hall was built in the early 20th century but the previous main hall and several other pagodas date from the early 1700s. The old main hall was the most impressive structure, I thought, because it was covered in carved wood tableaus that featured several hundred monks doing various things. These carvings were attached to the outside of the structure and circled the building. Each was about 8-10 feet long and 4-5 feet high. Then the outer doors had smaller carvings by the same artist. Supposedly no two monks have the same facial features. The most beautiful were two carvings that featured a brigade of monks wrapped in smoke (or sitting in clouds ... it was hard to tell) and monks at a temple braving a typhoon. After lunch we wandered through the gardens. They center around three ponds that are well stocked with friendly (and gigantic) koi and one hungry swan. I moved down to the waters edge to look at the fish and Greta noticed that several large koi and the swan made a beeline for me. Probably hoping for some popcorn or senbei. The swan followed us around the pond until we headed off away from the water. Perhaps they were homing koi. Next Sunday we are taking a bus tour of Sakura City for foreigners. Three of the other new teachers will also be taking the tour so we should have a grand time. The itinerary is: - have a taste of sake at a brewery in Mawatashi - learn about the Sakura Castle ruins and the legend of the pond - participate at a tea ceremony at Sankeitei - have a picnic lunch at Sakura Castle Park - visit three old samurai houses at Miyakojimachi - then proceed to the Juntendo Memorial Hall (medical museum) I'm really looking forward to the tea ceremony. Most of the other things we could do on our own (of course it's more fun with friends). But a tea ceremony would be hard to arrange, I think. Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.
07/05/98 We went on a bus tour of Sakura City today. It was organized by city hall and included translators to explain the sights. We joined three other teachers from M.I.L. and about 20 other people for a tour of: - Tanaka Sake Brewery - Sakura Castle Park - Sankei Tei (tea ceremony) - Bukeyashiki (samurai houses) - Juntento (medical museum) First we stopped at the Tanaka Sake Brewery. Sake is only made during the fall and winter months so there wasn't much going on this day. The president of the brewery met us and gave us a short tour of the 130-year-old building. We then watched a video produced by a local cable station about the brewery. After the video the president invited us to sample his product. It was quite delicious. Here's some information on sake given to us by the guide (from "Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia"): "Sake is made with yeast of rice, malted rice, and water. This is placed in a vat, additional amounts of the three yeast ingredients are added, and the mixture is left to ferment for 20 days (the drained solids of the mixture, called sakekasu or dregs, are used in cooking and in preperation of tsukemono or pickles). After fermentation the mixture is ready for pressing, filtration and blending. The sake is then pasteurized, bottled and stored. The alcohol content of crude sake is about 40% proof; sake on the market is about 32% proof. A good-quality sake has a subtle blend of the so-called five flavors (sweetness, sourness, pungentcy, bitterness and astringency) and a mellow fragrance. Older sake has a soft, mellow taste, but sake is rarely stored for more than a year." Next was a walk through Sakura Castle Park. Nothing of the castle remains except some low walls and parts of the moats. They are quite deep. The castle, during its heyday, was quite large. But the grounds were used as a training camp for the military during World War II and it was subsequently destroyed. There is a contingency in Sakura that wants to rebuild the castle but apparently that has been on the table for quite some time. And considering the state of the economy I doubt it will happen any time soon. In Sakura Castle Park is Sankei Tei, a tea ceremony house in which anyone can enjoy the tea ceremony every Sunday for a mere 400Ą. The tour group shared the ceremony together which means that about 35 of us were crammed into two tatami rooms. What little I know of the ceremony having 35 people in the room during it destroys the whole purpose. I intend to return one Sunday to enjoy the ceremony properly. Here's some information provided by the guide (translated by Teresa H): "Sankei Tei is a tea ceremony house that was taken from the Nogi Shrine in Tokyo and reconstructed in Sakura, at the Sakura Castle Park. Its design was copied from the Daitokuji, a famous tea ceremony house in Kyoto. Hotta Masatoshi, a fuedal lord of Sakura who died about 300 years ago liked the poems of a famous Chinese literary writer. This writer was a government official who resigned from his position to go back to his hometown. In one of his poems, he wrote about what he saw on his way home, "evergreen pine trees, chrysanthemums still in bloom on three pathways, rough and untaken." Sankei means three pathways, and it was taken from this writer's poem. The tea ceremony house (tei) was named Sankei Tei because of its location, beside three pathways." While walking through Sakura Castle Park we stopped at a stunning pond called Uba-ga-Ike. It was half covered by water lillies and well populated with carp. The pond itself has a legend behind it. Here it is as provided by the guide (translated by Teresa H): "Once upon a time during the rule of one of the fuedal lords of Sakura, there lived a wet nurse who took care of the baby princess. One day, cuddling the baby princess, she went out for a walk on the castle grounds. The castle's pond was so beautiful that she stopped to admire the waterlilies. Then all of a sudden, as the wet nurse tried to reach for a lily that was a little off the edge of the pond; the baby princess fell into the water and drowned. The wet nurse was so distressed about what she had done and how she could face her lord; that she threw herself into the pond, and was never seen again. It was said that later when someone called, "Uba koishii ka?", bubbles came from the bottom of the pond and disappeared into the reeds. And from that time on, the pond came to be known as Uba-ga-Ike: pond with the wet nurse." We gave it a try and sure enough there were bubbles. But, then again, there always are bubbles. Next stop was the samurai houses just outside of the Castle Park. First, here's some information provided by the guide (translated by Teresa H): "During the Edo Period, all the samurai houses (bukeyashiki) were owned by clans. And the clans allowed their samurais to use the houses for free. The houses of the local clans were very simple in structure, and the samurais frequently moved in and out, as they change their job or status. The Sakura Clan, in 1833 passed a law stating that to economize, a samurai's house must show his status by the size of his house, gate, porch, by the type of tatami mats used, and by the size of its drawing room. It also stated that a house must not show more than the status of the samurai who dwelt in it. Sakura City has three samurai houses, the biggest and oldest of which is the Kawara Family Residence. This house is a cultural asset of Chiba Prefecture. Next in size is the Tajima Family Residence which is considered Sakura City's cultural asset; and the third one is the Takei Family Residence. These houses clearly shows that the people then, tried to be self-sufficient by planting vegetables, fruit trees and tea. They dug wells. They planted trees that served as boundaries, and protections against fire. And they also planted high hedges to keep samurais on horseback from looking into their houses." In one house was kept two suits of samurai armor (the tourist version) for people to try on. No, I didn't. But Greta did. She looked quite fierce. In another house was photos of the last resident samurai and artifacts found under the house when it was moved. The artifacts included money, dishes and afterbirth pots. It was tradition that when a child was born the afterbirth was placed in a pot and buried under the entranceway. When this house was moved nine pots were recovered. The third house couldn't be entered, but as typical of the other three, all the rooms were visible from the open doorways and windows around the house. This house was decorated with furniture and objects typical of the time. Including a pike hanging above a doorway. The guide stated that this was typical of samurai houses as they were useful in repelling troublesome samurai with sharp swords. It was also pointed out that only the guest rooms were floored with tatami mats. Guests alone reserved the honor of that comfort. Lastly, we visited Juntendo. Unfortunately, only the entrance hall remains of the buildings so there was not much to see except for a model of the grounds based on a aerial drawing of the facility (which was there as well). There was also price list of services available. The most expensive was a nose replacement for syphillis sufferers. Here's some information from the guide (translated by Teresa H): "Taizen Sato owned a medical school in Tokyo during the Edo Period. He was asked by the fuedel lord Masayoshi Hotta to build a hospital in Sakura. Taizen therefore founded Juntendo in 1843 as a hospital and medical school using Dutch in studying the European ways of medical treatment. Operations were performed at Juntendo for breast cancer, cesarean births, bladder ailments, and otheres; but they were done without the use of anesthesias. These surgeries performed however, were very advanced for the Edo Period; because during that time, illnesses were merely treated with herbs, and people preferred going to the temples or shrines to pray for relief from their ailments. Doctors all over the country came to Sakura to learn the western way of medicine, and by the early Meiji Period, Juntendo have had about several hundreds to about a thousand students. These doctors later returned to their practices and became leaders in different fields of medecine which became the foundation for Japanese Modern Medecine."
07/14/98 The weather here is just incredible. It is now the middle of July and the temperature outside is in the mid-60s. Just when everyone was whining about the heat (and it has been quite sticky) we have to sleep under blankets. Of course, it won't last. Yesterday was election day and the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) which was in the majority lost enough seats in the legislature that Prime Minister Hashimoto (also LDP Chairman) has resigned from both positions. It really seems a shame, though the majority of my students don't care for him. I still don't really understand Japanese politics so I'd better keep my mouth shut. We received a blender in the mail from my mom. Just in time for smoothie season. I also received a package from Bich. She sent us an Austin Chronicle which has come in quite useful in my classes. Many of my adult students like to talk about food and restaurants and so I used the restaurant ads to generate some lively discussion. They were quite surprised that one restaurant would serve both Korean barbecue and sushi!