Monday, April 26, 2010

Trip to Hiroshima Part II: the Itsukushima Shrine and the Peace Park






On Sunday morning we headed out to the Itsukushima Shrine on the island of Miyajima just outside of Hiroshima. It was a glorious sunny morning (thankfully—the night before was rainy and yucky) and we had a beautiful ferry ride out to the island. We immediately noticed that deer were littering the streets—and around each deer were people taking pictures with them. I was annoyed by how close people were getting to these “wild animals”—until one deer interrupted my picture taking by walking up to me and licking my hand. Another deer seemed to enjoy getting scratched on the head. Wild animals, ha! They were more like dogs, especially since they were much smaller North American deer; their backs only reached my waist. Japanese sized… ;)

The licking deer interrupted me as I attempted to take a picture of one of the most photographed sites in Japan: the floating torii (gate) in front of the Itsukushima shrine. Apparently at low tide this torii is surrounded by mud, so it was serendipitous that our visit coincided with high tide. The shrine itself was completely built over water since apparently the island was once considered holy and commoners back in the day couldn’t walk on it. Instead they approached the shrine by boat through the torii. Now the island is overrun with tourists arriving by the ferry load every few minutes, and vendors and cafes sell souvenirs, meals, and steamed oysters, so the modern atmosphere is a little different!

After returning to the mainland, we took a street car (there is an extensive and heavily frequented light rail system in Hiroshima) back to the city center to tour the Peace Museum and park. I was impressed that a city with such a tragic history has completely rebuilt itself: the only shadows of the tragedy are the Peace park, museum and the A-bomb dome. (The A-bomb dome is the ruin of a once gorgeous domed building that was completely gutted and almost obliterated in the bombing. The ruin has been kept up to its post-bombing state and remains as a strong visual reminder of the tragedy.)

The Peace Museum was built on the site of the epicenter of the Atomic bomb and is surrounded by the Peace Park. The Peace Park, with its multiple monuments commemorating various groups (children, mothers, school children, the general deceased), reminded me a lot of Washington DC’s mall area. The Peace Park is in the center of the city and is nestled between river forks. The monuments are very poignant: from a clock sculpture that is perpetually positioned at 8:15a (the time of the bombing), to a fire that remains lit as long as nuclear weapons exist, to a hall with the names of those killed etched in the walls, to a bronze statue of a mother shielding her babies from the blast, to a clock tower that keeps time but recognizes 8:15am each morning with chimes.

I was especially eager to see the children’s memorial since I had heard the story of the little girl who inspired it in high school. Sadako Sasaki was 2 years old when Hiroshima was attacked and came down with leukemia as a result of the radiation exposure when she was 10 years old. She believed that if she made 1000 paper cranes, she would get a wish so she folded crane after crane from her hospital bed. Accounts vary as to whether she met her goal, but she died that year and has since become a famous figure. The children’s memorial contains thousands of paper cranes sent from all over the world and while we were there, a group of students from the US was adding more cranes to the collection. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Sasaki

The Peace Museum is very moving and makes understanding the tragedy much more palpable. It begins with a description of the history behind WWII and the creation of the atomic bomb by notable American scientists. There was a letter to an American president written by Albert Einstein explaining that a new atomic technology could be used to create very destructive weapons. I’ve always greatly admired Einstein; not only was he a genius scientist but he was a violinist and the source of many great insights. Seeing this letter from him urging that this dangerous technology be explored was a bit upsetting and was incongruent with my picture of this man. However, I suppose times of war cause even the most accomplished and sensitive humans to do surprising things. In the course of writing this entry, I read online that some of the scientists on the Manhattan Project actually disagreed with its use on cities and instead urged for it to be dropped in unpopulated areas as a demonstration of its power. Would history have been different if that had happened? Would Japan have surrendered unconditionally? It does not surprise me that, according to the DOE, “There is probably no more controversial issue in 20th-century American history than President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.”

Many historians argue that it was necessary to end the war and that in fact it saved lives, both Japanese and American, by avoiding a land invasion of Japan that might have cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Other historians argue that Japan would have surrendered even without the use of the atomic bomb and that in fact Truman and his advisors used the bomb only in an effort to intimidate the Soviet Union. The United States did know from intercepted messages between Tokyo and Moscow that the Japanese were seeking a conditional surrender. American policy-makers, however, were not inclined to accept a Japanese "surrender" that left its military dictatorship intact and even possibly allowed it to retain some of its wartime conquests. http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/potsdam_decision.htm

I have to admit that after spending so much time in Japan and seeing Hiroshima and the memorial, I would be in the camp of historians that question the use of the bomb. I would like to imagine myself as a scientist who would have urged dropping the bomb on an unpopulated place. Perhaps one of the most shocking things I learned at the museum was that Kyoto was one of four cities on the original bomb list. I can’t imagine Kyoto, with its thousands of shrines, temples and cherry trees, being destroyed…it’s unthinkable really. Another jarring piece of information in the museum was the suggestion that because the US had spent so much money developing the bomb, it needed to justify the expense. I really hope that money that never figured in to Truman’s decision. In the face of so many lost lives, money truly pales in comparison.

The museum had two miniature models of what Hiroshima looked like before and after bomb and on the wall behind them was a giant photo of the destroyed city. All the little houses that neatly lined the streets in the ”before” model were nothing but ash in the post-bomb model. So tragic. Perhaps the saddest part to me was that at 8:15am on a Monday morning there were many groups of school children who were working on the streets to clear buildings for firebreaks. An early morning air raid warning had been lifted and children, men, and women were in the streets, going about their daily lives on a beautiful August morning. (Ironically, it was the fair-weather that fixed Hiroshima’s fate as the final bomb target.)

The later part of the museum was the most disturbing because it contained personal stories, images and artifacts from those who perished in the bombing. I had known that as many as 50,000 died over a period of several years from complications of radiation poisoning such as cancers, leukemia, etc. What I didn’t realize is that, of those who died immediately as a result of the bomb, many were alive and suffering for hours and even days before they died. Harrowing eyewitness accounts recall the masses of people (including schoolchildren) walking the streets with their arms in front of them, unable to see, with skin hanging off their limbs. There were models and sketches of what this looked like and the images, seemingly straight out of a horror film, still haunt me. The final tally of deaths from the Hiroshima bomb is estimated at 200,000: a sobering statistic.

In the earlier part of the museum was a large globe with miniature warheads representing the numbers of nuclear weapons possessed today by each country around the world. It struck me that so few countries have nuclear weapons (that we know of anyway) and that the US and Russia have vastly more weapons than anyone else. Since I was alive to remember the Cold War, it seems odd that the now struggling Russia still possesses such nuclear capacity. [I was encouraged to hear recently that the US and the Russia have agreed to reduce their nuclear arsenals.]

As an American visiting this city, I expected to find resentment but instead found warm welcome and kindness so typical of everywhere we’ve been in Japan. Thank goodness that our countries are on so much better terms these days. We had to rush through the last part of the museum because we were late meeting a Japanese friend of ours who had recently moved to Hiroshima. (She sweetly and patiently waited for us and then took us to have Hiroshima okonomiyaki (a cabbage pancake), which is a specialty of the city.)

Hiroshima has rebuilt itself as a city that advocates for peace. Having seen in the museum how horribly destructive and traumatic it is to a city to experience nuclear warfare I have an increased desire to see non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. May our countries always have peace between each other and the rest of the world…

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Busy with everything but blogging!!

It seems keeping a blog is a bit like having a pet: it needs to be cared for and fed regularly or it will die. Hopefully my lapse in feeding hasn't completely killed my blog (and my dear readers)! I vow to get back on the horse and blog faithfully these last few weeks we are in Japan.

Here is what has kept me from blogging:

1. English teaching and babysitting hit highs Feb-March and I found myself busy nearly all day every day! I was babysitting nearly 15 hours a week, and had about 10 weekly English students. I also started teaching on Friday afternoons for Japanese 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders at an English school. Recently one of my babysitting charges started Japanese preschool, so I now have a bit more time.

2. We initiated a spurt of weekend excursions! Since we found cheap rail tickets which were only good through the school vacation period ending on April 10, we tried to maximize our traveling during this time. The weather has also been a little more amenable to traveling and we realized that our time in Japan is fleeting, so we got moving!

Here is where we've gone:

March/April:
Weekend 1: three day trip to Hiroshima
Weekend 2: overnight trip to Koya-san, birthplace and mecca of the Shingon Buddhist sect, to spend the night in a temple
Weekend 3: hanami (cherry blossom viewing) picnics with friends in Kyoto since the blossoms were at their peak
Weekend 4: day trip to Kanazawa, a city with one of the top 3 gardens in Japan followed by a day trip to Ohara, in the hilly outskirts of Kyoto, to see another temple with Jim's coworker
Weekend 5: day trip to Osaka (nearby city) with Jim's coworkers followed by a day trip to surrounding countryside and a small castle/town on Lake Biwa with two of my students
Weekend 6: day visit to a sake brewery and tasting in south Kyoto with Jim’s coworkers, lunches and dinner with Japanese friends, visit to Roan-ji, a famous zen garden in Kyoto

Whew. Jim and I joke that we need Mondays to recover from our busy weekends these days!

3. Finally, the remainder of my mental energy has been devoted to trying to make a decision about graduate school. After lots of consideration, I have finally decided to accept an offer from Rutgers University Graduate School of Education. Starting in September, I will be a PhD student and Teaching Assistant in the learning sciences with a focus on environmental education. It is a relief to finally have made a decision about where we will be living for the next few years (probably five) though it is not without a little sadness for it means we must move from the San Francisco bay area where I have lived for 4.5 years and Jim for most of his life. Thankfully, Jim has been incredibly supportive and we are both looking forward to yet another new adventure. This new adventure will begin with shipping stuff from Japan, packing up stuff in California, and then moving it and two cats across the country…At least our life isn’t boring! Stay tuned…

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Sakura Fever

That's right, it's just about sakura fever (cherry blossom not scarlet fever) time in Kyoto! Since hanami (picnic with blossoms) time is almost upon us, I thought I'd put this blog in sakura mode. So enjoy the new background... :)

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Our First Rail Trip in Japan: Part I




It only took us five months, but we finally took an overnight trip away from Kyoto. Why did it take us so long? First of all, we wanted to get a little bit better at Japanese before we started traveling around. Second, in the cold of winter, the last thing we wanted to do was go out. Third, it is incredibly expensive to travel within Japan and we finally figured out a cheaper way to go. Last of all, we unexpectedly had a three day weekend (my Monday students cancelled because of a national holiday in honor of the spring equinox). So, we were off!

Travel within Japan is expensive. Of course, being a highly developed country means that hotels and ryokans (Japanese inns) are pricey. But the most expensive part of travel in Japan is the rail tickets. I am extremely jealous of people who come to Japan as tourists because they can do something we, as foreign residents, can’t: buy extraordinarily discounted seven day rail passes. As a foreign tourist, one can buy passes for seven consecutive days of unlimited travel, including bullet trains, for around $300. If this sounds like a lot, consider this: for us to take the shinkansen (bullet train) from Kyoto to Tokyo costs $150 each way! I think folks back home tend to think we zoom over to Tokyo for weekends since it’s only 3 hours by shinkansen, but at those prices, for Jim and I to go to Tokyo would cost $600. That’s a pricey weekend trip.

[How about renting a car? It turns out that even if you own a car, it is incredibly expensive to drive because not only is gas very expensive, but nearly every road is a toll road incurring costs of $1 per kilometer. This is a great incentive for people to take trains since if the entire population of Japan were to travel by car, the roads would be impassably jammed. So, happily for the environment, most people in Japan travel by train, the train system is extensive and, like the Japanese, nearly always on time. I just learned from a student today that this year the Japanese govt has discounted the tolls on the weekends to encourage people to travel and therefore stimulate the economy. I wish they would stimulate the economy through trains!]

We have wanted to go to Hiroshima because of its historical significance (site of the first atomic bomb attack by the US in WWII). Also, we felt that, as Americans, it was our duty to visit. Shinkansen tickets are about $100 each way to Hiroshima which is why we were excited to learn about a pass called the seishun ju hachi kippu (18 year old ticket). This ticket, available to folks even if they’re not 18, is valid during school holidays (1 March-10 April) and allows five days of travel (not consecutive) for just over $100. The catch: these passes are only valid for slow trains. As one of my students described, they are for people with more time than money: 18 year olds and us. 

We loaded up on books and snacks and headed out at 7:30am on Saturday morning to begin our long train journey. On the way, we stopped at Himeji castle, aka the Castle of the White Egret, Japan’s most popular castle and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was impressive and so different, with its towers and gables, from the European variety of castles. It did have a lot of stairs and we felt like we needed to get “I survived” shirts since we had to wait in throngs of people both inside and outside the castle and could only move as fast as the line did through the entire six-floor journey. Furthermore, upon reaching the top floor I managed to whack my head on one of the low clearances above the stairs and the sound was so loud that the woman behind me exclaimed, “Dijoubou?” (Are you okay?) Fortunately I am pretty hard headed but I did worry that I might have damaged the castle…

We were pretty impressed by the large numbers of older people touring the castle since it was riddled with steep steps and lacked elevators. We imagined that a similar tourist attraction in the US might have warning signs with numbers of steps and health advisories posted. Ah, so refreshing to be in a non-litigious and non-overweight country!!

It was a beautiful day and appropriately there were bento sellers all around the large park outside the castle grounds. (Bento are scrumptious Japanese boxed lunches containing fish or chicken/pork cutlet, rice and some variety of veggies and pickles.) We ate our bento lunch in the park and then headed back to the train station. I have to mention this next part because it astounds me. After eating our lunches we couldn’t find a trash can anywhere. We walked and walked, searching for a recycling container or trash bin but could find nothing. There were many other people eating bento lunches, ice cream and other foods from vendors in the park and no doubt they were accumulating trash, too. But we saw not a drop of it on the ground. In the West, there are garbage cans everywhere but still people throw their trash mere meters away from a bin because—well, I don’t really know why—maybe walking a few extra feet is too much trouble? Anyway, we had to carry our bento box trash for about 10 blocks before we reached a trash can. (This situation is common in Japan. It is often difficult to find a trash can in Kyoto, but nonetheless, very little trash finds its way to the streets.)

After lots of train changes from one local train to another, pausing at every little station along the way, we finally pulled in to Hiroshima station at about 9pm. It was a long day but we enjoyed riding the slow trains since they gave us a chance to see the countryside. (The bullet train must whip by so fast you hardly see the scenery.) Of course, I learned that my enjoyment of the train is inversely proportional to how crowded it is. When people are crammed in, I can’t wait to get off no matter how brief the trip. On the other hand, when there are few people, I can stretch out, read a book and settle in to the rhythm of the rails.

All was well until we reached Hiroshima and began to look for hotels. This trip was last minute but why in the world we hadn’t made a reservation at a hotel is something to ponder. I guess we like to be spur of moment and assume that we’ll find something, but what we didn’t take into account is that there is a huge amount of tourism within Japan (by Japanese) and when things get crowded, they get CROWDED. So, at 9p on a Saturday night of a three day weekend (and in the rain), we ventured out into downtown Hiroshima in search of a hotel. After stopping at three or four hotels in our guide book and finding them all booked, we were given a list of hotels and Jim began the daunting task of speaking on the phone in a language you barely speak. He did a commendable job, but after calling twenty hotels and finding not one room available, we were getting worried that we might be sleeping at the train station. Finally, he called a hotel a bit out of town, near the shrine we were planning to visit in the morning and, wahoo, they had a room!! It was about twice what we were planning to pay, but under the circumstances, we agreed that beggars couldn’t be choosers.

We hiked back to the station and got on yet another train, then had a 15 minute walk in very blustery conditions before we finally dragged up to the hotel at midnight. The hotel seemed pretty fancy and when the woman completed our check-in and showed us the bill we gulped. Apparently Jim had misunderstood the guy on the phone (he was speaking Japanese after all) and the price the man quoted was for one person, not two. Ahh! But what could we do? It was midnight and we had no other options.

To be honest, this was not my shining moment of the trip and Jim had to put up with a bit of a temper tantrum from me. We had endured 8 hours of local trains in order to save money only to blow it all on a ridiculously expensive hotel room. To make matters worse, we hardly got to enjoy it since we checked in after midnight! We did try to make the most of the extravagance and got up as early as we could to take a hot bath in the hotel’s sento (which was quite luxurious) followed by a Japanese breakfast. (Believe it or not, the traditional Japanese breakfast is a big meal with rice, miso soup, fish, pickled vegetables, etc.) The hotel did also have some breads, juice, and coffee, too, for the Western palate.

Fortunately, the following night we secured a room in a Comfort Hotel (the same Comfort Inn chain as in the US) for 1/3 of the price. The room was smaller and there was no communal fancy bath, but the breakfast was more suited to Western tastes and big, so next time, we’ll definitely opt for the budget hotel!

Lesson learned: when in Japan, slow trains are okay but always make hotel reservations in advance.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Valentine’s Day and White Day in Japan










I held off writing about Valentine’s Day in February because I wanted to experience the partner day of White Day and reflect on them together.

Get ready for a shock: in Japan Valentine’s Day is for men. I repeat, Valentine’s Day is a day to give men, yes, MEN, chocolates and dinners. One of my younger male students was explaining to me that during his school days, Valentine’s Day made all the boys hold their breath…and hope that a desirable girl presented them with chocolates. For some reason that I cannot possibly understand, in Japan the woman has to make the brave first move on Valentine’s Day. Apparently sometimes it works out great, but my student told me that somehow he always received chocolate from girls who did not capture his interest. Que sera. (He did confess that he would happily eat the chocolate anyway.) He also explained that sometimes his friends would explain a lack of gift receiving by saying that, ‘I’m not Christian, so I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day.” (Naturally this surprised me since in the West we don’t exactly associate Valentine’s Day with religion. I believe this belief in Japan stems from the fact that Valentine’s Day is often referred to as “St. Valentine’s Day” and perhaps as a Western holiday it seems Christian by default.)

Around Valentine’s Day, displays popped up in stores with “Valentine’s Day” (or “St Valentine’s Day) written in English on banners. The displays contained lots of boxes of varying quality chocolates, some very expensive, some not. Also, to my delight, baking supplies, like chocolate chips, powdered sugar, and decorative candies, suddenly exploded. I was finally able to buy a Japanese cake mix and I could have even bought truffle mixes, muffin mixes, and chocolate dip mixes. It seems that Japanese women can bake, but don’t do it with the same year-round fervor that we do back home. (Like most Japanese households, we lack an oven, but fortunately our microwave has a “caki” (cake) setting that bakes. I am a happy girl now that I can bake brownies, cookies, and casseroles!) I think that normally in Japan most baked goods, including beautiful--but tiny--birthday cakes, are purchased from one of the million French patisseries.

Although only men in Japan receive gifts on Valentine’s Day, several of my students, knowing that Valentine’s Day is for “everyone” in the US, gave me chocolates. My little 8 year old girl student gave me a lovely assortment of butter cookies and chocolate almonds from a bakery, perfectly packaged in a lovely red box. Female coworkers very commonly give chocolates to the men they work with, but Jim only got one chocolate. Hee, hee. He didn’t suffer too much, though, because I treated him on Valentine’s Day to a special homemade dinner of paella and chocolate mousse. (Of course, he had to whip the cream for the mousse which is no small feat given that we don’t have a mixer!)

So what about the women? That’s where White Day, exactly one month later on March 14, comes in. None of my students were able to explain the origin of White Day or why it is called “White Day” (in English). Certainly everyone I’ve talked to about this has been surprised that we don’t have White Day in the US. The importance of White Day is that women finally get a treat. According to some of my students, the typical gift on white day is marshmallows. However, since many people apparently don’t care for marshmallows, chocolate is becoming increasingly popular. Also I am told that women often receive larger gifts like jewelry or clothes on White Day. (But all the women I’ve talked to so far didn’t seem to get anything special.) I teach a pair of housewives and when I asked last week what their husbands were going to do for them on White Day, they laughed and said “Nothing!” (They did say that they’re husbands said they could buy something for themselves. Humph. Come on men.)

Interestingly, Jim discovered that White Day was started by Confectioner’s companies-- namely marshmallow companies. It is apparently celebrated in several Asian countries including South Korea, Taiwan and China.

Here is what Wikipedia says about White day in Japan:
In Japan, Valentine's Day is observed by females who present chocolate gifts (either store-bought or handmade), usually to a male, as an expression of love, courtesy or social obligation. The handmade chocolate is usually preferred by the receiver, because it is a sign that the receiving male is the girl's "only one". On White Day, the converse happens: males who received a honmei-choco (本命チョコ?, "chocolate of love") or giri-choco (義理チョコ?, "courtesy chocolate") on Valentine's Day are expected to return the favor by giving gifts, usually more expensive. Traditionally, popular White Day gifts are cookies, jewellery, white chocolate, white lingerie and marshmallows.[1] Sometimes the term sanbai gaeshi (三倍返し?, literally, "thrice the return") is used to describe the generally recited rule that the return gift should be two to three times the cost of the Valentine's gift.[2]

Reading this passage about obligatory gifts reminds me of one of my student’s complaints that because several co-workers bought expensive chocolates for her husband for Valentine’s day, she now had to buy them Godiva chocolate (which is very expensive here). She knew how much they had spent and had to spend more and felt annoyed by this. Whew. I’m glad I don’t have to keep up with such strict social obligations!

After feigned indifference about White Day Jim actually did take me to a French restaurant we love here, but, alas, it was booked out on Saturday night. We instead took a chance on a Mexican restaurant and learned the hard lesson that when not in California, Mexico, the South, or Southwest of the US, steer clear of so called Mexican food! Ugh. My only comment here is that cream cheese is no substitute for sour cream!

White Day was on a Sunday and we planned a little outing to Kurama, an onsen (hot spring), in the Northern outskirts of Kyoto. Our friends, Jeff and Mery, joined us and we all rode the train to Kibune, a stop just south of Kurama, and enjoyed touring a shrine in the woods of Kibune. We also had a lovely lunch of soba (buckwheat noodles) and yuba (a Kansai region special and delicious tofu dish).

After lunch, we followed a hiking trail over a hill and through a wooded temple. The path was a couple of miles long and involved lots of stairs. I really enjoyed our hike because I haven’t gotten to see much nature since we’ve been in Japan. (Kyoto does have lots of gardens, thankfully, but it’s still a city.) The trail was through old growth that reminded me a bit of redwoods, though our guide book describes them as cryptomeria trees. (According to Wikipedia, these trees are called sugi, or Japanese cedar, but are actually related to cypress.)

Oddly, hiking conditions didn’t discourage many Japanese women from wearing their miniskirts and stiletto heeled boots. (We were so astonished that women would dress in this way for going to the woods that we started clandestinely taking pictures of footwear sported on the trip.) I know it was White Day, but it seems there is no limit to the lengths Japanese women will go for fashion!!

After hiking up to the mountain temple of Kurama, we hit the onsen for a nice hot soak. This was my first onsen, but I have been to our neighborhood sento (public bath) several times, and am familiar with the routine of washing at the shower before getting in the communal bath. (This is all done with no clothes on, btw, which sometimes is a little awkward for Westerners to get used to. The baths are always divided by gender, so it’s really not so bad.) Actually, it was funny, I have become so accustomed to scrubbing every inch of my body very thoroughly and slowly as everyone else does, but at the onsen I think I scrubbed more than anyone which was a first for me. Normally at the sento, I will scrub everywhere, wash my hair twice and condition it only to discover that a woman beginning her shower at the same time is still on her first limb. I never knew that the ability to deep clean was an acquired skill. Anyway, the onsen was great because it was outdoor and featured a view of the mountain. Nothing like relaxing in hot springs in the nude while gazing at nature. Ahh.

Best. White Day. Ever. :)

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

San Kan Shi On…“Four days cold, three warm…”

Naturally, after I wrote the long winter entry, the weather made me a liar and for one full week immediately following we had almost summer-like warmth. Kyoto inhabitants swarmed the edges of the rivers that transect the city, walking their dogs, reading books, jogging or just sitting and watching the ducks, egrets and cranes. I even took one of the toddlers I babysit out on a bike ride to the river and she and I watched a grey heron along with an elderly couple. The elderly woman sat in a wheelchair enjoying a final break in the cold to rejoin the outside world. There was something very touching in the moment we all shared together—two caretakers with two dependents at opposite ends of life.

Of course, since it was still February, the warm weather was not to stay and the past week was nearly as cold as deepest winter-and very rainy. Yuck. One of my favorite things about living in Kyoto is that we bike nearly everywhere we go. However, biking in the rain is a total drag. I have rain pants and a rain coat and I have also slowly gained proficiency in biking with an umbrella (as most bikers do here). But, still, ugh. To add insult to injury, last week, while riding in the rain, my umbrella flipped inside out and later the same day my rain pants ripped at the crotch. Lovely.

Several of my students have taught me the Japanese expression san kan shi on. This phrase is roughly translated as “four days of warm weather followed by three days of cold” and aptly describes the early spring season. I find myself rotating between my light jacket and my heaviest winter one on a daily basis which makes getting ready in the morning a little extra challenging. Many days have found me walking toward my bike, only to turn around to rethink my wardrobe choices for the day.

At least we have had some reprieve to the cold weather and I can begin to imagine how nice it will be to not ever see our breath inside again!! I definitely feel like we earn the splendor of sakura, or cherry blossoms, after freezing inside for months. We still have a few more weeks until the pink profusion begins but until then I can enjoy my sakura mochi (special seasonal wagashi—Japanese rice and bean sweet), and even the sakura steamer and sakura hot bun at Starbucks.

Blossom fever is starting though…some Japanese friends of ours showed us a picture on their digital camera of a cherry tree in bloom they had just seen and it was clear that they were elated. Later while sharing a taxi with them, we all saw the tree and the taxi driver nearly drove off the road in his excitement. We have begun to reserve upcoming weekends for sakura viewing and I feel very lucky to live in what is possibly Japan’s most cherished sakura-endowed city. 

Today I was babysitting and my toddler and I walked around looking at all the buds on the trees and bushes and the few flowers like the daffodils who are heralding the upcoming show. The entire natural world is just getting ready to spring into life. Is that why we call this season “spring”?

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Tales of Chilblains and Long Underwear: The Long Winter in Kyoto

I used to like winter. I love snow, hot chocolate, fires in fireplaces. I especially love to experience four seasons. Fall in Kyoto was amazing because each day the leaves looked slightly different, giving the whole precious season an ephemeral feel. When we arrived November 1, the trees were just starting to consider changing color and by the end of the month, the colors of the maples (the Japanese variety with delicate tiny leaves) were brilliant reds and golds. Then, one by one the leaves fell and the air grew sharper…winter had come.

I realize that I really shouldn’t complain about winter here given how the East coast of the US has been deluged with snow. In Kyoto, we actually haven’t had any snow that has stuck and have only had two or three days of flurries. Many Japanese have told me that over the last 20-30 years, the winters have become much milder in Kyoto. They do not immediately mention climate change as Americans might, but when I probe further, they usually credit it to global warming in a very matter-of-fact way. Though the ability of people to accurately report long term changes in weather is questionable, the winter temperatures in Kyoto hover just around freezing much of the time and therefore snowfall is a very clear and obvious indicator of temperature. I have been told repeatedly that in years past, there was always at least one or two big snowfalls before February but that in recent years this trend has been changing. Indeed, there are many older pictures with depictions of Kyoto temples in the snow, but we have yet to see this scene. The environmental science teacher in me cannot resist the chance to remind everyone that “weather” (such as this year’s abnormally large snowfall in the US) is not the same as “climate”. Climate is much longer term, so we must be careful about making quick assumptions about climate change based on a one or two year occurrence. According to my sources, Kyoto winters have been steadily warmer over the last few decades.

Though it is not terribly cold, I have felt the cold here far more than any place I have ever lived. (Keep in mind I have lived in Boston!) Why does it feel so cold here? I attribute it to no central heat or insulation in homes (also traveling everywhere by bicycle not doubt has a big contribution). I’m not sure if I mentioned this fact in my blog; it is certainly a regular topic of conversation among foreigners here. I can understand no central heat/insulation in places that aren’t very cold (such as the bay area) but Kyoto stays around 40 degrees Fahrenheit all winter and when you add in the considerable moisture in the air, it feels much colder. The moist cold really eats right into your bones…brrrr.

Every home I have visited in Kyoto has the same high wall unit for heating. The unit supposedly has a thermostat, but in actuality the set temperature is never really reached because a lack of insulation means that you are constantly balancing indoor and outdoor temps. Not only is this a terrible waste of energy (hello climate change) it is also terribly expensive. Our electricity is 30 yen per kilowatt hour which is around $0.35 per kilowatt hour. According to the DOE, the average cost of electricity in the US is $0.12 per kilowatt hour. (I know that coal burning states are cheaper averaging around $0.07, while CA and NY top the scales at around $0.13. Hawaii is crazy pricey at $0.22, but the climate is pretty nice…) Given the cost of electricity here, not surprisingly, all of our foreign friends (who have larger apartments than we do) spend over $200/month on electricity in the winter. Shockingly, even with a tiny one room studio and very frugal use of electricity, our bill was over $100 for January. Yikes.

People here are certainly incentivized to be frugal with heating. Then again, all the more reason to use insulation since it’s cheap and really helps with saving energy. I think the US needs to export LEED (for green building standards) to Japan!
(I have tried to ask many Japanese acquaintances about the lack of insulation and I receive mixed reports ranging from utter confusion, to excuses that old buildings do not have it, to mention of how hot it is in the summer. But surely insulation would help with keeping the hot out in the summer, too, right? Anyway, concerning insulation I cannot understand their reasoning…I just met a gaijin from the Czech Republic who has just starting working in an architecture firm and he also cannot understand the lack of insulation. He confirmed that, oddly enough, even new buildings do not have it. Despite this fact, Japanese architects are supposedly world renowned.)

Okay, so now let me reframe how cold it is in our humble abode. We put up with it being quite cold, but our indicator to turn on the heat is when we can see our breath. (Remember, this is inside.) Until then, if I am home during the day, I will turn on a space heater and huddle near it (guess what I am doing currently), wear long underwear, two pairs of socks, slippers, and arm warmers that I can pull over my hands.
[Ah, long underwear…for years my mom used to sing the praises of long underwear to me but somehow I never got into it. Literally. Perhaps it was because all my previous pairs of long underwear were so thick they made my pants uncomfortably tight. Or maybe it was because I didn’t live in a place where it was cold enough either outside (as in California) or inside (as in the super heated indoor conditions of Boston). In any case, I have become unceasingly thankful for my long underwear here. It has become my second skin and sometimes I wonder if I actually do have skin under all those layers. Fortunately, I have also purchased quite a few pairs here that are thin enough to fit under even my form-fitting jeans, and fortunately they are quite inexpensive. Ah, long underwear, domo arigato gozaimasu!]

Last but not least, a description of my Kyoto winter experience would not be complete without mentioning my reoccurring outbreaks of chilblains. Several years ago, after wearing some waterproof shoes, I experienced red, itchy toes. Since they went away after changing footwear, I assumed it was some sort of allergy to the shoes. However, this winter after my toes grew increasingly red, painful and swollen, an internet search finally solved the mystery: I had chilblains. Chilblains are an abnormal response to cold that can occur most commonly in the toes and fingers. Aside from being terribly annoying and surprisingly painful, they are harmless. Many articles report that chilblains occur most frequently in cold, damp conditions and especially in environments where it is cold but not extremely cold. (Apparently when it is extremely cold—think New England or Scandinavia—people dress more protectively.) I nursed my toes through several bouts of swollen discomfort until I figured out that I needed to wear two pairs of socks at all times. Now my toes are better but the chilblains have migrated to the pointer finger on my right hand. Wearing two pairs of socks on your hands proves to be a little less practical…Sigh.

To recount the things I love about winter, this year I have consumed more than my weight in hot chocolate, but fireplaces are nonexistent here and the snow has been disappointingly absent. Thanks to Kyoto, I now associate winter with chilblains, long underwear, expensive heating bills, and cold bike rides. I am so ready for spring!!!