Karma

Today we left Toyama for Kanazawa. We caught an early train and left our bags at the hotel. We decided to head for the Castle and the Kenrokuen. We did take our umbrellas since it had clouded over during the night.

Along the way we turned into the Omi-cho market.

We saw more different kinds of fish there than I expected. Including one that was about 5' long with a 2' head. Weird looking sucker. Looked like a huge pipe fish. Jo said that it's the most fish she's seen since she was on Fishermans wharf in San Francisco. I saw at least 20 different fish and more than 10 different molluscs for sale. It really was a pretty neat place. Becky complained that our hotel didn't have a stove :) I can't blame her because I was thinking the same thing.

The first thing we noticed about the Kenrokuen was that it was crowded. Since it is one of the final days of a holiday weekend we shouldn't have been surprised. We decided to take an hour and a half and wander separately through the garden and get lunch after.

The garden is as beautiful as ever. It's rated as one of the top 3 in Japan. Personally I rate it in the top 10. I can easily think of half a dozen that are better. Himeji Kokoen, Okayama kokoen, Nomura Samurai house, Heian jingu, well, you get the point. Still, even with the crowd it was worth going to.





After lunch near the bridge at the entrance, we headed over to the castle. Everything was open today. We wandered through the gate and over to the reconstructed gate and wall. We went all through there. They did a fantastic job of the reconstruction. What really impressed me was the way that they managed to fit modern necessities into the old plans.




While talking to one of the Docents I asked about an large area of construction. it seems that they are slowly reconstructing portions of the old complex from the original plans. This time it is the second gate (I think that's what it was called). She said it would be done in 2 years.

Now comes the explanation of the title. When we were finally ready to leave for the Ashigaru house, it started to rain.

I guess some of you may not know the story. Last time we were in Japan. A group of us came to Kanazawa for a day trip out of Kyoto. The closer we got to Kanazawa the heavier it rained. It was clear when we left Kyoto. So once at the station most of us opted to buy umbrellas from a stand Erik found. Except for Mark. He decided to spend the last of his cash on hard cider.

Needless to say we were a bit hard on him. But we did let him share...mostly. At one point we separated and agreed to meet outside the castle. Marks group wandered about a bit. Then it happened. A nice lady took pity on our bedraggled compatriot and graciously gave him her umbrella. It was a pretty blue with pink flowers. You can imagine what happened after that. I'll cut the story a bit short and say that Mark tried to abandon the umbrella in Hiroshima. Didn't work. It followed him to the states where it reside until this trip. Karma demanded that he return the umbrella to a lady in need, in Kanazawa, in the rain.

Funny thing was, no one at the castle wanted it :) Mark couldn't get anyone to take it.

Finally we headed out to Ashigaru house. And lo and behold, Jo needed an umbrella. So Mark lent her the umbrella to get where we where going.

(On a side note, Ashigaru house had both buildings open this time. It still amazes me that they're so small)

Finally we headed back through the city to the hotel. As we reached the station we looked behind us to see Jo holding the umbrella...turned inside out. A swirling gust had caught the umbrella and turned it inside out. Completely destroying it.

Karma. Has an odd sense of humor ;)

Lastly for dinner tonight. Mark, Becky and I went out and had sushi at a local restaurant. It was as good as Sushi Ota. May even have been better. Mark found a new dish. Raw squid.



Well, that's pretty much it for now. Tomorrow is back to Kyoto for the rest of our stay. See you then.

Takayama still...

Earlier I spoke about our bit of miss timing this morning. It ended up being pretty cool. We couldn't take the express train so we hopped the local. Jo and Mark got a real blast from it. It was their first time :) It ended up being crowded. Took about 2 hours to get there with 1 change.



Once there we decided to grab a quick lunch so we headed across the street to a curry shop. We walked in and I noticed that it was a bit different from everywhere else we'd eaten so far. It seems there are restaurants where you walk in, buy a ticket, give it to the waitress, and then get what you paid for.

Kinda like the old automats (for you old timers out there).

I'd heard about them from some of the Japanese students at the dojo. This was my first time seeing one.



After lunch we planned on going to the Hida Folk village and the Tea ceremony museum. Long story short, we only made the Folk village. We ended up spending about 3 hours there and I think we could have easily spent all day.



Hida village is a cluster of 12 farmhouses from the Hida region. All of them were brought here to save the cultural value of the properties. It seems that once electricity became common, lots of folks left for the cities. At the same time, entire villages where being submerged under reservoirs. So, in an effort to preserve the fast vanishing houses, the village was formed. About 35 buildings where moved here from various areas. The oldest ones are from the 1600's.



When I come back I think I'll be spending a lot more time here :)



I think it's time for a bit of a personal update. Everyone is doing well. Other than missing fresh veggies that is. Both Mark and I are nursing injuries from the Butokusai. Somehow I ended up with 2 high ankle sprains and both knees where tortured on the first day because I forgot my kneepads (hardwood floors everywhere). All the walking and moving around really slowed down the healing process. But the swelling has resided and both Mark and I are moving easier.


Oh, before I forget. Becky wasn't with us today. She was out playing with her cousins :)

Thats it for now. tomorrow - Kanazawa.

P.S. Looks like rain tomorrow. Maybe Mark can fulfill his karma from the last trip :)

P.P.S. I've started to add photos to the old posts. Check them out :)

Suprise

Well, I've got an hour to kill so I figured I might as well post again. It seems that the last morning express train from here left at 8 and the next local train leaves at 10:20.



So, when I last left you we were in Takayama. The trip here required us to take the Shinkansen to Nagoya and to then catch a local express. The local train runs next to a river gorge (the name escapes me) and is very scenic.



Yesterday we spent the whole day wandering the town. We hit the morning markets, Takayama Jinya, The City Museum, Yoshijima Heritage house, Sakurayama Nikko Hall, and the Festival Floats hall.




As we went back and forth we wandered through the Sanmachi and Shimoninomachi Preservation areas. Imagine, if you will, streets as they were 200 years ago. The only real difference was the cars and the blacktop roads (instead of dirt).



I wish we could have gotten rooms here over the weekend. But since it's Golden week, and Takayama is a resort town, we were forced to Toyama. Still, we're going back in a bit :)

That's it for now. I'm going to try to get some photos uploaded before we have to leave.

To continue....

We arrived in Takayama today. But I'll get to that shortly :)

First we need to go back to the dinner on day 3. We met at the Westin Miyako at 6 for dinner and the Official opening for the Butokusai (the name for the whole event). The opening ceremony was rather brief at about a half hour. several dignitaries spoke. They included Sosai, the current President of DNBK Hombu, the Deputy Governor of Kyoto Prefecture, and the Mayor of Kyoto.

After the opening we sat down for dinner. The banquet consisted of 12 courses. I don't think we even managed to finish off the roast beef. There was really that much food. And it was a fantastic meal.

So on to day 5:

Today was the Rensei Taikai. A bit of explanation for the non-Budoka. A Taikai is a competition. However, it is more of a friendly exhibition that a competition. Awards are more like most enthusiastic and best spirit rather than first, second, and third. The demonstrations that we saw today were a lot more varied. Yesterdays were from the Ryus main style. Today they did secondary arts and subsets of their main curriculum. The demos included things such as Sojutsu (long spear) and Naginata (polearm). Since it was just International participants it was over a bit quicker. But it was still an incredible experience.

After the Taikai and the presentation of awards, (We got several individual and the team award for Iai) we had a final banquet. This time it was held at the ANA Hotel. The food was as good as the Westin Miyako. There were 9 courses this time. Then there was the presentation of even more awards. And the kicker was that every participant in the Butokusai received a handmade doll. They're really nice. And unfortunately a bit of trouble to cart around Japan for 2 weeks. But I'll manage :)

I do want to complement the volunteers. The folks who did all the work to put this together and make it happen did an utterly fantastic job. I can't praise them enough for the job they did. Way to go guys. Domo arigato gozaimashita.

Shin-Fuji:

The 1st of May is our first day of vacation. Mark and I traveled from Kyoto to Tokyo where we met Jolinda and Becky. Boy am I glad Becky and I had cells. It made it a lot easier to find each other in the station. After the ladies said goodbye to Beckys cousins we took the Shinkansen to Shin-Fuji. We got to the station and walked to our Hotel.

The place we stayed was a no frills business hotel called Amus. It really was no frills. But I gotta admit, it had an internet connection and a view of Mt Fuji from our window. So all in all it was a pretty decent place. And at $80 a night for 2 it was really cheap :)

Once we checked in we decided to go to Odawara and see if we could get to Mt Fuji. Not a chance. So we went to see Odawara castle and park and we wandered around and got dinner after. I even found a special present I was looking for. After that we went back to the hotel.



The one really cool thing was that we got to see Mt Fuji.



That'll be it for this post. I'll post on the trip here to Takayama in a bit. But I think I should do some photo sorting first :)

Time for another post.

Back to Kyoto :)

Day 4:

The day started out with a trip to Heian shrine for the opening and blessing.



I figured that the participants would stand in the outer courtyard while the Sensei who where part of the ceremony would be inside the shrine. I was wrong. When we got there, we all filed into the inner courtyard where seating had been arranged. We then were privileged to be part of the ceremony and to be blessed by the priest. This is a pretty big deal. The only ones other than the priests and attendants who are allowed there are worshipers for special ceremonies.

After that came Enbu. I could take all day to write up the highlights. But I'll be brief here. It started with us taking our place in the Butokuden. Sosai (the Prince, and yes I do mean Royal family) started out the ceremony and was followed by a couple of other short speeches. Then came the opening performances to chase away then Demons.

At this point we exited the hall as a group (just JKI) and reentered in the back. We were the first group to participate in the Taikai. It was a great honor to be the first. I couldn't see it, but I was told we did extremely well.

From there we went back to our seats and sat quietly while the rest of the 600 participants performed as well. Guys, It was incredible. The level of most of the groups was astounding. We saw Iai, Aikido, Karate, Judo, Juijutsu, Aikijutsu, Jodo and more. I can't even begin to name all of the styles, much less their Ryu. It was humbling as well. I saw Budo that puts mine to shame. I now have an idea how little I really know about budo, and how far I'll always have to go.

We continued from around 9am until around 3:30 with a short break for lunch. After we closed for the day we scurried back to the hotel for a quick change and went to our second dinner. It was much more casual than Last nights.

Oh, I see I forgot about to tell you about that. I'll correct that tonight :)

Dinner was a 7 course meal served as a single dish to be passed around. Kind of like a Chinese restaurant, but a bit more formal. The menus from all of the banquets blurs a bit so I can't remember the menu. But I do remember that they all were excellent.

Well, that's it for now. I'll post again tonight after we get to Takayama. Oh,before I forget. We have a view of Mt Fuji from our hotel window here in Shin-Fuji. It's shrouded by clouds at the top today, but we got to see it yesterday through the light haze.

See you all tonight.

Finally...

Hi-tech again. I'm not fixing the last post. I was in the middle of typing, on a Japanese keyboard, on a pay computer, when my time ran out. That was a bit frustrating. I'm in a country where the electronics are 5-7 years ahead of ours and my hotel has 2 pay computers in the lobby. And that's it. There was also no easy access to a WiFi spot. However that looks to change now that we're on the road. I'll add pictures as I get them edited and posted on Flickr.

BTW, it's good to hear from you all :)

So where should I start. Ah, back in Fushimi-Inari shrine. If you saw memoirs of a Geisha. There was a scene where the lead actress is running through a series of Tori (or gates). That is what the paths in the shrine where like. It was pretty awesome.





That evening we met those who made it in. As always there was a problem. It seems that Lori's bag was mistakenly grabbed by another passenger. She finally got it back and everyone arrived safe. Dinner was at an Okonomiyaki bar in a subsurface mall. Good food and a good start to the week.

Day 1 of the 3rd World Butokusai:

It consisted of major organizing and set up for Enbu and Taikai. Mostly learning where when and what to do to make things flow well. All that practice really paid off in the end. The best part was that we got to practice in the Butokuden (really cool). To put it in perspective a bit. Every Grandmaster of our style since Oe Masamichi has either trained or taught there. The Emperor of Japan has been there. The place is steeped in history. The floor is so worn that the grain from the pine boards stands out and is polished smooth. It was incredible.

After the training day ended we went to dinner W/Carl Sensei and Shima Sensei at a Yakitori place and talked about the history of the DNBK and the Butokuden.

Day 2:

We started the morning by lining up by school. This was to become a common ritual for us :)
For most of the morning we had open floor practice. Unfortunately for me I had forgotten both my obi and knee pads. The lack of kneepads means that my knees are in pretty bad shape at the moment.
After lunch we set up mats. Imagine 600+ Budoka each grabbing a 3'x5'x4" mat and laying it out in a HUGE training hall. It was an interesting exercise in chaos theory and team building. All together it took about 12 minutes.
As a surprise we were given our first certification test in a side hall at the start of the afternoon training session. This was also a practice for our Enbu in the Butokuden.

I think I need to clarify something here. The place we were at is the Kyoto Budo center. We did our practice in the main Budo hall. Basically a huge Gym floor. The Butokuden is a large wooden structure just outside the training hall. General practice and such is not allowed in the Butokuden. Kind of like playing football in a Cathedral. Other training facilities include a Sumo stable and a Kyudo area. The whole center is also a part of Heian shrine.

That evening Mark, Lori, Karen and I went to a Hiroshimayaki place in a side alley near the Teramatchi shopping district. Very good food. And there was a lot of it.

Day 3:

This was our seminar day. Erik, Mark, Ron, Brandon and I took Hoki Ryu with Kumai Sensei. He spoke only Italian and Japanese. It was still a really good class. I don't know how much I'll retain. Since the afternoon was for Judo and Jiujutsu some of us went to Heian shrine in our monsuki.



While we were gone there was an accident. One of the French participants was doing Jiujutsu and had a series of 3 heart attacks. Luckily one of the Senseis was an EMT. They worked on the gent for nearly 30 minutes. We later found out that he was clinically dead for about 20 minutes. The last night we were informed that he had woken up and was able to write. Good news :)

For dinner a bunch of us went to the Teramatchi and wandered around until we found a place. The highlight of the evening was the Colonel in an Ebi hat!



Well, it's late and I still have photos to screen. I'll post more tomorrow.

Lack of tech...

Weel, the Fujita　HOTEL has a positive lack of net connection. So I`ll update photos if I find a Intenet cafe somewhere.

So, yesterday. Scott and I had a free day so we decided to go to Motomoyama Mausoleum and to Fushima-Inari shrine.

It was raining when we left to go to the local train.
Once we got to Motomoyama we started to walk toward the site. As we got closer we entered a wood. The trip through the rain and mist shrouded forest was quite a treat. We passed few people. Eventually we arrived at the site. There were 2 main buildings and a small garden around it. It was obvious from the lack of care that only the buildings were being cared for. A shame, it was a nice place.



Our next stop was Fus