Dear friends and family,

Now for one of the highlights of our trip, the fabulous Miyajima. I have wanted to go here since I first saw pictures of it, decades ago. I tried to get accommodations at Miyajima, but everything was booked. It is peak time to view the autumn colors. Then I read about how many tourists flood in and became apprehensive that it had become a huge tourist site. Miyajima has been a pilgrimage destination site for a long time, but it is far more significant, far more historic, with far more gravitas to ever succumb to the Western, Las Vegas, Disneyland type of tourist site (or so I fervently hope).



That is how we ended up staying in Hiroshima, which is close by. Some of the guide books make it sound rather difficult to get to Miyajima, aka Itsukishima, which is actually its real name. I ended up receiving directions from a non-English speaker at the front desk of our hotel, so it was not difficult at all. He told me in Japanese and circled things on a map. We ended up walking a few blocks up from our hotel, (The Hotel Washington), another comfortable, new hotel, catching a street car, which trundled along for about an hour to a ferry terminal. We followed a small crowd of people to the terminal and caught the ferry for the short ride to Miyajima.

 There was an event going on with many kimono-clad ladies


Don with photographer photographing a class of school children. They are everywhere right now. Just noticed the Japanese businessman in his dark suit and briefcase, seeing the sights at Miyajima. The poor guy looks like he's about to start selling cleaning products. Most of the young businessmen we see are super fashionable with gelled spikey stylish haircuts. 

The class picture.


The 5-tiered pagoda, which we didn't take time to see up close. You are starting to see the colors of the trees in those red splotches. We have not beefed up the color on any of the trees, but you will probably find them hard to believe. We did. The colors are hallucinogenic.


A little rivalry over some food.

We start climbing the slopes of Mt. Misen, the holy mountain. In fact, the whole island is deemed to be holy, ever since Kobo Daishi brought a form of Buddhism to Japan in the 8th century, I think -- anyway, a long time ago, and chose Miyajima as a spiritual center. It does feel spiritual.



Very impressive temple, Daisho-in, which seems to stretch over several structures, and is quite different than other temples I have seen. There is a sand mandala on the floor before the Buddha. There was also a large photograph of the Dalai Lama inside this temple.



Craig Anczelowitz (of Craig and Aya) had told us of stories of one of the lost tribes of Israel making it all the way to Japan, arriving sometime in the 1100's, I believe. They are the Hata clan, and according to the stories had European features and also brought some important innovations to the Japanese culture. Some of the Hata clan to this day are imperial court musicians. This is a Tengu, a Japanese supernatural creature who hangs out in forests and mountains. This one has wings, is carrying a scroll (the Commandments), and holding what could be a menorah, except it has 9 candles, or whatever they are. Craig sent us this interesting link: 
Ancient Jews in Japan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqIiKVPdV1A

Fun!

Dear Friends and Family,


Our best meal in Japan so far, brought to us once again by Fujimori-san and Awagami. We are truly spoiled. In a land of great restaurants the meals we had with Fujimori-san have been the best. In a little over 2 weeks now, we've only had one bad meal here in Japan so far, and it wasn't that bad. They used a bottled sauce which was shocking as none of the other restaurants did such a thing, or if they did, we weren't able to tell. We even went into a fast food restaurant in Osaka. We are in Oasaka now, and our fast food meal there, one a little less than $4 and one a little more than $4 were astonishingly good. 







































They did not hold a candle to this meal, of course, in a restaurant in the little town near Awagami Paper Factory. Sorry, I did not get the name, but if you visit Awagami, perhaps the good folks at the paper mill could tell you.






































Clock-wise, starting at one o'clock, daikon stewed with shiitake, beef and onions; shell fish, probably clams with wasabi and who knows; sashimi in what I think was a miso-based dressing with Japanese green onions, which are more like baby leeks. I should have documented this right after eating, but we had very spotty internet in the Japanese countryside.


Same dish, with dipping sauce and sake.


Beautiful fresh sashimi with sliced raw onions, wasabi and grated ginger


Tempura'ed baby shrimp with gingko nuts


Mushrooms in aspic, but Japanese flavorings. There was some type of potato-like pancake at the bottom


Melt in your mouth beef.



Another fun meal, Era, Don, Craig and Aya (I am having fun, although I look tired). Maybe too much pigging out. Somehow we are managing to lose weight.

Craig took this picture as we are about to get on our toy train. It is 2 cars long. We are sad to leave. What an incredible experience and how well we were hosted at Awagami. Arigato gozaimasu.

Our little toy train went for a few stops, where we transferred to a slightly larger train...and then finally to the mighty Shinkansen. 







The Shinkansen slides into the station exactly on time, looking like a bionic sea creature. We will soon climb on / into it and take a smooth slippery ride within its comfortable gullet. We didn't purchase the Japan Rail pass this trip as we were making a couple stops of several days' length, so we've been purchasing tickets in Japan like the Japanese, or almost like the Japanese. When you buy your ticket they usually give you a train which leaves in the next several minutes. This time we were given reservations on a train which was leaving in 2 minutes. (Later we were given tickets for a train which left in a minute and a half - we barely made it.) Slight freak out as we frantically looked for our track and ended up running downstairs with our suitcases. I was the last one in the door. Those trains arrive and leave exactly on time.

In Hiroshima now; a place both Don and I felt a little nervous about going. My mom spent quite a bit of time here after the war, interviewing Hiroshima victims. And later my (second) cousin, Rahna Rizzuto, interviewed some of the few remaining survivors also and wrote a book about it.


Dozens of 1000 cranes, folded and strung by people, many of them school children, from all over Japan and the world, who probably pray for peace as they fold each one. I remember doing this as a kid myself; the cranes were strung and sent to Hiroshima when we had 1000 of them. This is not the only festooned column at the shrine.





And life goes on as it should, thank the gods. I am happy to report that Hiroshima has managed to repopulate itself and people seem to be thriving.



There was a rap performance with loud music, singing and a break dancing contest, which we could hear, even though we were up about 14 floors. I was a bit concerned that it might go on till late into the night. (Don's comment:) "Yet here in the considerate First World, everything was over at precisely 8:30, and the streets were quiet." The next morning, the streets were again immaculate and you could not tell anything had happened the night before.

Love,

Era and Don

Hi friends and family,

Sorry about the occasional wrong email blog links. Honestly, I don't know how people keep up a constant blog. There is so much to do to get it right. They must stay up all night or devote their entire day to it.



More preparation for Don: Satomi stirring Don's vat (slicing the neri - or the tororo goo, from the root of the hibiscus).







Don and Aya speaking with the cameraman from a Tokyo television station, speaking about the Chuck Close Phil on Awagami paper. If you haven't seen this, it is gorgeous. He also filmed the gaijin making Japanese paper.