Japan

Arrival:  February 21, 1970 at 1300

I exit the ship and follow all the rules through customs appropriately. I’m going to travel with Georgia Heller as she’s the only person from Minnesota other than me. I know her. We walk around gawking at everything – all the sounds, smells, and sights. There are so many people, and they are very close to each other. They don’t require the personal space that we Americans do. We stop someplace and order a cup of tea which comes in a different way than we’ve ever experienced. When it was getting late, we thought we’d better get back to the ship and our rooms as we had no place to stay. BUT…we don’t know how to get there. We don’t know how to find a cab. We don’t speak Japanese other than please and thank you. Suddenly a young man stops in front of us and says, “I speak English.  Can I be of assistance to you?” I could have kissed him I was so relieved. Can you imagine that happening in the United States?  He ordered a cab for us, gave the directions to the driver in Japanese and rode in the front seat with the driver until we were at the ship’s steps. We tried to pay him, but he wanted no money. We had lots and lots of Arigatos (thank yous) for him. It made a lasting difference to me about paying attention to others in need and helping if I could.  

The Japanese people are great; they are so helpful. I wondered if Americans would be as eager to help foreigners as the Japanese. They took us into their homes and treated us like royalty even though they were poor. If you stand on a corner looking lost, they stop on the street and offer to help. At the train depots, everything is in Japanese and they’ll take you, buy your ticket for you, take you to your stop and almost put you on. I wish all people were this helpful. The bathroom facilities…well, they take some getting used to! Not a great picture, but I’m cracking up! This bathroom was at one of the train stations. LESSON LEARNED that was useful for the rest of the journey: BRING YOUR OWN TOILET PAPER!!  We never forgot that afterwards. You kept the end of a roll of toilet paper from the ship’s bathrooms with you at ALL TIMES!

The cherry blossoms by Lake Kawaguchi.  That’s Mt Fuji in the background. Japanese people are extremely polite. They love to make ceremonies of simple tasks like the elaborate tea ceremony – which Georgia Heller and I were blessed to attend.  They are taught to control their feelings and shun compliments.  The women were shy and retiring and the men domineering within a family.  They are great lovers of beauty, particularly in nature as demonstrated by their flower arranging and fabulous gardens.  They admire courage and believe death is better than disgrace.  They are very concerned about cleanliness, and at this time, streets in the city were scrubbed daily.  

Some of the forms of recreation we observed were kite flying (there are male and female kites, and they battle in the sky), and the theater – both Kabuki (no speaking and exaggerated gestures) and No (2 – 3 actors that chant and use masks).  I got to experience them all.  Japanese in 1970 traveled by train, subway, and taxi because few people owned their own car.  We thought taxi drivers were ex-kamikaze pilots. 

Garden of Saho-ji Temple

Garden of Sanbo-in Temple

Hotel in Kobe, Japan.  In our country, you sometimes have a bathrobe in the hotel.  In Japan, you get a type of kimono. The beds are not what you are used to, but they’re very comfortable.

There was a huge tower in Tokyo that you could go up and see a large piece of Tokyo. This is a picture from the Tokyo Tower. See how close together the houses are. Individual yards and gardens were forbidden because of the density of the houses and people.  

In one of the hotels, they had “Western” bathrooms and above the toilet was a sign: “Directions for Use”.  It showed male and female stick persons, and what lids went where to use it. I took it down and saved it because it was so funny. I can’t remember the order of the cities I went to after Yokohama, but I remember the names: Kyoto, Nara, Tokyo, Kobe, Nikko, and Hokkaido. 

The ship came into Yokohama, and docked there for 3 days.  Then it went to Kobe to dock for another 3 days. I went overland by train to the various cities and met the ship in Kobe on February 27, 1970, to depart for Hong Kong (which was still a British colony in 1970). Following are the captioned memories in the marvelous country of Japan from the various cities!

From Tokyo Tower

In the archway over an entrance inside is the Sleeping Cat in the mountain resort and national park of Nikko – 90 miles by train from Tokyo. It was the summer home of the military rules of feudal Japan. This is in the Toshogu Shrine itself. 

This was one of the MOST amazing things! This is in Yoken-in Temple in Kyoto, a city of the past. Kyoto was the cultural, religion and nominal capital of Japan for 1,000 years.  This is located in the largest and longest wooden building in the world. There are 1001 carved wooden statues from the 13th century!!! It is to show that the blessing of Buddha is infinite. That’s because 1000 divided by 3 goes to infinity. The big Buddha is almost 54 feet high. That’s a seated figure. His nose is almost 2 feet long if that gives you any idea

This is the worship hall at the Toshogu Shrine in Nikko.

Hokkaido is on the north end of the island and has a hairpin highway to get you from the bottom of the mountains to the top.  It was a hairy experience because the drivers did not go as slowly as I would have liked.  The 1972 Winter Olympics were held here. It has famous ski slopes. The island of Hokkaido has the city of Nagasaki where one of the atomic bombs was dropped during World War II.

Garden of Dasien-in Temple

In one of the parks, there was a Japanese wedding going on. These two children were dressed in traditional clothing for the wedding.

Nikko, Japan which  is about 20 miles from Tokyo.  Notice how the bushes are trimmed.  

In Kyoto, Japan we saw a 5-story pagoda. Notice how the ends of each roof line ends with an angle going up. That is so the evil spirits who might come down are swooped back up into the universe and can’t land on the building. Often in Japan, the ends are of a dragon. If you count the number of toes, you will know who commissioned it. If there are 5 toes, it was commissioned by the Emperor. If there are less, someone else had it built. If a builder puts 5 toes on their dragon and it is NOT commissioned by the Emperor, it would be punishable by death.

Oike Garden at the Kyoto Imperial Palace

In Nara, there are deer parks. You can pet them as they are free to roam and everyone feeds them. Nara is also home to the Lantern Festival at the Lantern Shrine. Thousands of lanterns are there with donations in pairs. The donator and the year of the donation is on each of them. It is a Shinto shrine so there are no images in it except for a round mirror in the main holy place that symbolizes the sun. Shinto gods sleep in the lanterns and you have to clap to wake them up and call them before you say your prayers. At the Kasuga shrine, there are 2 lions at entrance. One lion has his mouth open indicating “birth” or life. The other lion has his mouth closed indicating “death.”

The Garden of Kikaku-ji Temple. This is the Gold Pavilion and the gold is REAL. It was destroyed by arson in 1950 and restored. This is after survivng World War II intact.

We saw many temples. This is from the Sanju Sangen-do Temple. It’s the image of Sen-up Kanon. It’s all bronze. It’s in Nara which is the oldest capital of Japan – not far from Kyoto. It’s 71 feet high!

At the Toshogu Shrine is a stable. This is the Three Wise Monkeys – the original See No Evil, Speak No Evil, and Hear No Evil monkeys.

Hu-jin.  Look closely!  They used crystal for the eyes.  Sanju Sangen-Do Temple.

Misha-Kongo, Guardian, Sanju Sangen-Do Temple in Kyoto

Kamakura National Treasure Museum

The is the Absolution Pavilion at the Toshogu Shrine where you can come and be absolved of your indiscretions. It reminded me of confessionals at church for its purpose, but wow!!! What an ornate pavilion.

Giant wooden statue of Kanzeon boatsu (Kannon) at the base of Tei.if

God of Thunder in the same temple.

Great Buddha at Kamakura, Japan

On a much calmer note, this is my friend, Georgia Heller, the only other student from Minnesota and she’s the one who found the ad for World Campus Afloat. She’s standing by a Shinto Prayer Tree. Prayers are written and tied to trees to send to the gods.