Kyoto blog

A few mysteries remain

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:45:56 -0400

Since February I have answered a lot of questions, solved quite a few mysteries, and found delights beyond what I could have imagined, but I’m glad that a few mysteries remain to entice me back to this fair city someday. Thank you Kyoto, I return to New York with a full heart and mind, ready to make paintings . . .

Saying goodbyes

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:47:11 -0400

It’s hard to believe three months have almost passed. For the last week we have been visiting favorites places and still finding a few new ones to explore. We’ve also been packing boxes, making a nuisance of ourselves at our local post office and saying goodbyes. In a short time we have put down a few roots and become regulars at neighborhood businesses, coffee houses and restaurants. Last night we said goodbye at our neighborhood Yakitori and received hugs, handshakes and wishes for a return trip someday. As we walked home I remembered our first visit in February. . .

We entered the Yakitori by bowing slightly and parting the noren. Like many neighborhood restaurants, it was a small one-room establishment with rustic decor, subdued lighting, and counter seating. The eight-seat counter ringed two sides of the kitchen, and there was a large auxiliary table for 10-12 more diners. The owner sized us up with a slightly surprised and wary expression, then greeted us, not with the standard deferential bow and welcoming announcement, but with direct eye contact and an informal Japanese hello. Returning his directness, we chose counter seats and ordered beer, “Beiru” in Japanese. We received our drinks and surveyed the menu which was all in Kanji except for a drawing of a chicken.

US food network programming did a Yakitori episode last year, so I was aware that a Yakitori is a specialty restaurant that serves beer and sake and a variety of skewered chicken parts cooked on a charcoal grill. The episode featured many of the “delicacies” of Yakiyori cooking -- parts of the chicken that we routinely throw away -- cartilage, skin, heart, liver . . .

We did our best to order with language to no avail and then began pointing at the chicken drawing. Finally we resorted to using the phrasebook classic, “please choose for me”. I’m not sure, but I think the response was something like - “well what do you like?” We remained persistent and good-humored seeming to make no progress. Then with a playful twinkle in his eye, the owner began patting parts of his body and asked if we wanted “hip” or “chest”. We all had a good laugh and dinner progressed.

Other customers came in and sat at the counter, and while the skewers were sizzling, and they were chatting i had a chance to size up our host. He was relatively tall and wiry,with silver hair pulled back in a tight queue. His manner was self-possessed and as he took orders, prepared, cooked and cleared, he presided over the tiny restaurant with a manner befitting both a Lord and a rebel. Before the evening concluded we were talking with the other guests using English, Japanese and my city map to tell about our adventures thus far. In Japanese fashion we bought a round of hot sake for guests and owner, and from that point on we were welcomed as regulars.

Every few weeks we spend an evening at the Yakitori. The counter holds eight, but squeezes ten, and everyone visits as a group while dinner is cooked on the 10x18 charcoal brazier. We have learned to order favorites, but we are always introduced to something new, that arrives with a “try this”. Like guests in his house, the owner introduces us to new customers, telling our story and helping start conversation. So even with so little language in common we manage to share jokes and stories with the group. We’ve met people of all ages from Kyoto and visitors from other parts of Japan. During our last evening we stayed until the charcoal was emptied from the brazier. We toasted two happy birthdays, shared our ages, professions, favorite places in the city, best hanami spots, a few beauty tips, and enjoyed lots of good-hearted joking and humor.

Sweetness

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:29:47 -0400

There is a quality present in Kyoto that I’ve noticed since arriving in February. It’s not wholly unfamiliar, but the extent of its presence has made it ever more visible and intriguing. For lack of a better descriptor I will call the quality sweetness. Every day little images of smiling faces peek out at me from store windows, pocket gardens and car dashboards, and hang from from cell phones, backpacks and purses. Cartoon characters act as envoys for all types of businesses, products and services. Words such as “smile”, “happiness” and “joy” appear frequently in names and slogans. There seems to be a genuine belief in the value of beauty, graciousness and politeness in a way that is very different than in most major US cities. To complement this strong presence there is an almost complete absence of the various types of edginess that characterize much of our urban art and culture.

“Hair and Make” and the poetic use of language

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:08:35 -0400

Hair fashion and English language usage may seem like a strange mix for a blog topic, but bear with me . . . . . Kyotoites are among the most fashion conscious people I have met. But since my standard ensemble is an all too casual mix of Lands End, Eddie Bauer and L.L. Bean, I am clearly out of my depth as a fashion commentator. Nevertheless, it is easy to see the emphasis on fashion just in terms of the number of beauty or “hair and make” salons. Second only to restaurants in terms of frequency there are at least two per block, all over the city. From middle school on, most young women and many young men have dyed and cut and elaborately styled hair. The fashion hair models and samples below show daytime styles and colors. Women’s evening, kimono, or special occasion hair styles are quite a bit more elaborate and often remind me of 1950’s US styles piled high, curled and teased. Post college age fashions are similar but a bit more reserved. As in the US, middle aged to older men prefer the standard barber cut, but I’ve also seen some splendid samurai inspired queues. Despite the availability of crazy colors on the chart below hair colors are mostly dark browns, red-brown and blond brown, with an occasional robins’ egg blue, lilac purple or soft green on women 70-80 ish.

Like other businesses in the city, many hair salons have English names and slogans, though no further English is used in listings or to describe products or services. Menus have English headings, but no English text, magazines and books have English titles and headings but no English text. And thousands upon thousands of T-shirts sport unique combinations of English words. The frequent and yet unfamiliar use of English seemed strange to me at first, but I started to understand it in terms of our own cultural borrowings.

I grew up in an era when a motel or set of apartments were considered more fashionable if they were named “Buena Vista” rather than “Good View”, and when menus headed with “hors d’oeuvres” instead of “appetizers” were considered more elegant. I have to say though, that the Japanese use of English shows an enthusiasm and love of the language that far surpasses any attention that US culture has shown for other languages.

Another possible explanation for the prominence and free use of English in popular culture is early and frequent exposure. Children are taught English at very young ages. In our local bookstore, there are pre-school interactive audio play books that teach English and Japanese words simultaneously. There are Sesame Street equivalent TV programs that teach English -- and English instruction continues in school. Additionally there are businesses that supplement school instruction such as “Let’s have fun with English”. Even with all of that exposure there are very few daily situations where English is spoken. It would seem that the constant exposure has actually made people more timid of speaking, for fear that they might fumble. When we fumble, or have no Japanese words, we are always met with kind and accommodating efforts to communicate, but the only Kyotoites that seem genuinely anxious to speak English to us are colleagues within business situations and high school girls. During the three months, we have been approached frequently by small groups of high school girls that want to know where we are from and who get very excited to talk about New York . . .

My last thought on the subject is that poets work very hard to achieve the sort of freedom with language that seems to be conjured easily and joyfully from the unique mix of familiarity and lack of context that exists here -- So, would-be poets - come to Kyoto for inspiration!

Historic reenactment

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:38:04 -0400

Historic reenactments take all forms . . . not a civil war battle, not an Elizabethan era fair, but a a 400 year old cherry blossom viewing party originally hosted by the 16th century War Lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. One hundred and fifty people dressed in Momoyama period costume (1576-1603) were involved in the reenactment. And actually it was a reenactment of a reenactment -- the 1920’s era music indicating the era of the first reenactment. The festivities began with the dance of the flower pickers, followed by various priests, guards, musicians, the War Lord on palanquin, and the ladies of the court with attendants carrying parasols.

The flower pickers’ dance had a slightly sureal quality. The whole troop of ladies waited for half an hour in the blazing 80+ degree sun for the crowd to assemble, and then danced on a rough unpaved surface with traditional footwear, to the 1920’s music. By the third circuit many seemed to be weaving as well as dancing.