violetismycolor

Japanese-American Historical Plaza, Portland...

Way back on the gorgeous morning of April 7th, I went downtown hoping to get some good photos of the cherry trees blooming at the Japanese Memorial.  I wasn't disappointed. 

A little history (from the Portland Parks website):  On August 3, 1990, the Japanese American Historical Plaza was dedicated to the memory of those who were deported to inland internment camps during World War II. In the memorial garden, artwork tells the story of the Japanese people in the Northwest - of immigration, elderly immigrants, native-born Japanese Americans, soldiers who fought in US military services during the war, and the business people who worked hard and had hope for the children of the future. A sculpture by Jim Gion, Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience, also graces the plaza.

The trees were magnificent, the sun was shining, the Steel Bridge was in the background, and the two glass towers of the Convention Center glowed green in the sun. 

I also took a photo of one of the poems inscribed in rock, that gives some feeling of the sadness of those put into internment camps from the Portland area. 

"Minidoko" refers to the Minidoko Relocation Camp in Idaho, where many Northwest families were sent.

 

There was also a rock inscribed in Japanese kanji.  Anyone want to try to read it for me?

 

Interesting that these trees were blooming about 3 weeks ahead of the ones in my yard.  Must be an early variety.

Cherry Blossoms galore...

This is for all your cherry-blossom-lovers out there.  You know who you are!

Our house looks so nice with all that blue sky, sunshine, clouds, and blossom.

Our three trees out front are gorgeous!  Late (they usually bloom at the beginning of April, not the end), but incredible. 

 

And then, of course, there was Cookie...getting all diva-ish and insisting on getting involved in the photoshoot!  But cute, as always.

tulip festival...

Anyone who knows me, knows that I was raised in a DUTCH family.  So, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I love tulips.  If it isn't the Dutch national flower (do they even have one?), it should be.  Everyone thinks of tulips when they think of Holland. 

But I digress...

I went to the Woodburn Tulip Festival with my mom and two of my sisters (and assorted children) on Wednesday.  My poor niece, Jen, couldn't get near the place this past (sunny) weekend.  No wonder since I heard an employee say that they had 10,000 cars come through over the weekend.  I am trying to wrap my head around that number.  How could one see the tulips for all the tourists, anyway?

Wednesday had very little sun, though I was lucky enough to get a great photo when it did.  Ready?  This is awesome:

 

I took hundreds of shots and that is my absolute best one. 

A couple of other photos...my mom...the cloudy field with violet sky...etc.  Enjoy!

procrastination...

I am supposed to be reading "The Nine" (about the Supreme Court) for our May book group meeting.  It is coming right up, the first weekend in May, and I haven't even started reading yet.  

I could plead 'guests in town'...My niece, along with husband and baby, were here for the weekend.  We now have a favorite friend visiting from the UK, here till Saturday.  But I still have time during the day.

I could say, but I had to plan John's big birthday bash.  But that happened a couple of weeks ago.

I could say that I have been putting mega-time into cleaning up the garden, which I have been. 

But really, I COULD be spending time reading.  I could.  But I am a procrastinator by nature and I always seem to wait till the last few days to read the book.  I would forget lots of what I read if I read it too early in the month anyway.  That happens alot.

So, I am NOW picking up the book and starting to read.  Wish me luck.

Japan redux...Kobe...

We made it back north-west up to Kobe, where we would spend our last day and night.  Bonnie had wanted to end up in either Osaka or Kobe, and I was interested in something a little smaller than Osaka...the second biggest city in Japan and a major commercial center.  We stayed in the b-Kobe Hotel, which was very central.  We went out for lunch and had Chinese food, a first for us on the trip.  Kobe has a big Chinese population and the biggest Chinatown in Japan, which I found interesting. 

We were just blocks from the Ikuta shrine, so that was our first stop.  This shrine was lovely and there was a baby blessing ceremony going on.  The day was March 20th, the first day of spring, which is a very auspicious day in the Japanese culture.  So, we saw several families bringing in babies (everyone very dressed up in traditional costumes) and even a wedding going on.

 

Next we walked to the Chinatown area, which was very crowded.  We stayed awhile and decided to come back there for dinner.  Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent reading, cruising the Internet with our free in-room access, and just vegging.

When we did venture out, we came across this cool area where the buildings looked like they had just been dropped in from Paris.  Compare that to the picture after that, which is of the night-time Chinatown, red lantern district.  Who could imagine that these places were just minutes from each other.  Different as day and night...

 

Finally, the photomontage of night-time Chinatown.  The steam from the cooking buns...the neon signs...the gates at either end...the dragon's head used in their parades...kids perched on the various statues that represented the Chinese years...my favorite Piggy trashcan...Bonnie and John buying steaming pork buns...buns that looked like pandas and pigs...food stalls everywhere...these are all the wonderful things we saw there.  What a great way to end our Japanese idyll.

The next day was to be spent riding trains back to Narita, going through the airport routine, and then flying home. 

I loved this trip.  I have to say it was one of my very favorite vacations ever.  The country was so different from most everything I have seen before.  I loved the food and the trains and the people and the red, red, red everywhere.  Thanks Japan for giving me such a memorable visit.

Japan redux...Huis ten Bosch...

We set off the next morning (our wedding anniversary) for a little bit of Holland on the coast of Kyushu, Japan.  Who would have thought?

Huis ten Bosch is a recreation of 17th century Holland.  The Dutch were the only foreigners allowed to trade with Japan for over 200 years, from 1608 to the mid-1800's, and this theme parks celebrates that special relationship.  Since I am 100% Dutch-American and Bonnie is therefore 50% Dutch-American, this was special. 

This Disney-like theme park was opened in 1992, and is a lot of fun.  The rides were sometimes amazing and sometimes silly.  Our favorite was a space movie, which all the spectators 'starred' in.  On entering, you have a 3-D facemapping and then your face appears as one of the characters in the film.  John was especially prominent as a "Ranger"...you couldn't miss him.

There is even a special train to take one there from Hakata Station in Fukuoka.  You can see my reflection in the train window, as I take the photo:

 

The place is gorgeous!  And we were there for the Tulip Festival.  You walk in and see this!

 

We really enjoyed the incredible floral display.  Can you tell that I adored all the tulips?  Here are some of the things we saw.  You really almost felt like you were in Europe...except for all the Japanese employees, speaking Japanese...

Japan redux...Dazaifu...

We spent the next day at Dazaifu, which was a 30-minute train ride from Hakata.  Dazaifu was one of Japan's major town from about 600 to 1200.  Now it is famous for its series of Temples and Parks. 

I loved the ice cream sign we saw that said "Born in America since 1948"...huh?  I have never heard of Blue Seal Ice Cream.  Is it really supposed to be American?

The various temple buildings were beautiful.  I was sad that we had missed the flowering plum trees.

Oh, and I don't know what the red gourds were supposed to be.  Any ideas?

We also found this man doing a show with his monkey.  He had it doing all sorts of tricks, including jumping through this set of rings.  It was fun to watch.  I did wonder if he had gotten Mr. Monkey from the monkey park in Arashiyama.

Japan redux...Fukuoka and Canal City...

We left Tsuwano at about 11 am and headed back over the mountains to connect with our train...the train that would take us off the island of Honshu and south to the island of Kyushu.  We were headed to Fukuoka, previously known as Hakata.  Once we got off the local train, which stopped at every single little town, and where we unexpectedly met up again with our French/Japanese friend of the night before, we booked it onto the bullet train again.

We got into Hakata station at about 3 pm, found our hotel, and settled into to our modern (!) rooms...meaning no traditional Japanese toilets but the high-tech variety with a heated seat, bidet, shower (?), and other assorted gadgets.

John settled in for a nap and Bonnie and I wandered off with our books to a coffee shop close by.  Where we whiled away the afternoon in supreme caffeinated happiness.

For dinner, our new-friend-from-the-night-before, Jean, had us told that Fukuoka was known for their 'yatai', which are little open trailer stalls where they cook noodle dishes and where you pull up a stool and eat, right there on the sidewalk.  Cool.  As some of these stalls could be found near Canal City...a Japanese super-mall where I wanted to go...I was thrilled.

The pictures below are of John looking into the stalls for food ideas, and of our stall owner/cook (who was a 'big fan of Jack Bauer...bang, bang' as he told us).  Beside him is his assistant cook, and out on the street was his brother, who was like a carnival barker...his job was to stand there and beckon folks in to eat.  You can't tell from the photo, but our cook had a long ponytail and tattoes, and also had a love of Harley Davidsons (once again, his limited English was all he needed to tell us everything he loved about America...Jack Bauer, guns, motorcycles). 

I ordered the 'Many Pork' bowl, while John and Bonnie both had the 'Many Onions' bowl.  Both had noodles, pork broth, pork slices, and green onions, but mine had tons of pork, while theirs had less pork and more green onions.  And they were all delicious.

 

We finished dinner and headed into Canal City, which had about 5 levels.  Entertainers worked an outdoor stage in the center.  Water shows, Vegas-style, came and went.  We were entertained at the Cold Stone Creamery there by 3 enthusiastic female employees, who sang 'Camptown races', including all the doo-da, doo-da's in English (though they didn't speak English).  

   

Really cool. 

Japan redux...Tsuwano...

We ventured from sunny Miyajima inland to sunny Tsuwano.  Tsuwano is the site of the Taikodani Inari Shrine, one of the most important shrines devoted to the Inari, god of grain and protected by the spirit of the Fox.  I wanted to see Tsuwano after seeing photos of the gorgeous main shrine there, with its enormous rice rope hanging across the front. 

One walks up a hill, past a 1000 Torii gates, to the magnificent front gate of the shrine.  It is mid-mountain and the views are spectacular.  We saw monks performing rituals inside the temple.  The day was lovely and bright.  

 

We had gotten into town the afternoon before and wandered about, finding the Catholic Church still standing, where 22 people were martyred for their faith. 

 And there were the town's famous carp, swimming in the canals...put there during WW2 just in case they would be needed to feed the people.  Now the people feed them.  We bought fish food and tried feeding them, but they are very slow and if the food gets behind them, they just don't have any speed to turn.

There were interesting bronze statues of men in crane costumes, doing some sort of dance...or maybe it was combat...who knew?

   

At dinner in our minshuku (inn with Japanese style toilets!), we met the most interesting man.  He was half-Japanese and half-French, and we invited to join us for dinner.  He was raised in France, but had come to Japan most summers growing up.  He is doing a 2-year stint working in Tokyo.  He gave us some great insights into the Japanese character and could answer questions that we hadn't found anyone else to ask.  This was a crazy fun dinner.

Tomorrow, moving on to Fukuoka...

Japan redux...Miyajima...

On Sunday morning, we got on a train and headed west from Kyoto to Hiroshima, where we got a ferry for Miyajima Island.  It is, probably, the most photographed place in Japan.  It is famous for its 'floating' Torii Gate.

This was our view from the ferry.  The tide was a bit low here, but it would get lower.

 

We took all the standard photos of us and the gate:

 

Gorgeous!  And that means both the Gate and the Day!

We wandered around the town.  Tons of cool things to see and the deer here were sane, unlike in Nara:

John wanted some rest so he napped while Bonnie and I went exploring.  The Itsukushima Shrine is just beyond the Torii Gate and is also meant to look as though it floats at high tide, but we were there at low tide and it looks odd when not surrounded by water.  I mean it is up on 'stilts' of sorts.  But there were many interesting things to see and lovely views out to sea.

 

After Bonnie and I got back from our walk, evening was falling and we found a good place for dinner.  The lights were glowing in the streets and the deer were still wandering around, hoping for food.

In the morning, we wandered up to the Daisho-In Temple, which was incredible.  It was a huge temple complex with lots of buildings, and plenty of places to poke around and find little treasures.  There were hundreds of Baby Buddha statues and we took pictures of a fair share of them.

I loved all the interesting faces/statues meant to scare off anyone who would try to come here and do harm.  They'd scare me!  Some various faces are here:

 

The setting was serene, up on the hillside, with lovely garden areas and great views of the Inland Sea.  We stayed as long as we could (we had a ferry to catch) but had to rush a bit.  I think we had about an hour and a half there and it wasn't enough. 

And the surprising thing was that all the guidebooks I have seen only give Daisho-in Temple only glancing one-line references.  And the place is a treasure!

japan redux...Himeji...

  On our next day out, we headed to Himeji, whose wooden castle is one of the few original ones in Japan.  When we arrived at the train station, we saw a gorgeous embroidered carriage on display.  The first photo in the montage has the detailed embroidery work. 

And the sign for the "Renewal Festival" had me mystified.  Are they going to renew themselves into Redheaded, Green-Eyed Westerners?  The fascination with Western looks it pretty apparent, though they don't want to sit next to you on a bus or train, if you're a Gaijin (i.e. Westerner).  What is THAT about?

We just missed the tourist bus that would take us to the castle, but the walk was fine and we saw some interesting tidbits along the way.  First:  why is there a statue of a fat,naked saxophone player?  And then a few steps down, a statue of a naked woman?  Okay, Himeji...what is your fascination with naked Westerners?

The manhole covers all over Japan were pieces of art, but I especially liked this one in Himeji.

We came upon a big marching band, following these guys wearing Japanese cartoon character costumes.  John makes a new BFF. 

And of course, the soft serve ice cream.  It is EVERYWHERE.  And again, note the western features on those ice cream sales-kids.

 

We did finally get to Himeji-jo, the Castle.  The city itself was nearly totally destroyed by bombs during WW2, so it is amazing that the Castle remained intact. 

It is called the White Egret Castle, because of it's white exterior, but I thought it looked like a giant wedding cake perched on its hill.  Gorgeous and with gingerbread trim.  Who knew they did gingerbread in 1581, when this castle was built?

No matter, it was beautiful.

 

It was impressive defensively and was a gorgeous place to live.

We next wandered down to the Koen (Garden) that is attached next door.  Every garden 'room' was exquisite.  At least I thought so.  John was incredibly bored.  Here are 3 of the areas that I photographed.  

      

I would have liked to have lingered but my hubby and the weather conspired against me.  It had gone from full sun to cloudy to sprinkles.  So, off we went.

Oh Himeji, you were beautiful, despite the fat, naked guy...

end of Kyoto area, day three...Nara...

We left the Fushimi Inari Shrine of my last post, and got back on the train to Nara.  We were there to see the 53-foot-tall Buddha (called the Daibutsu) at the gigantic Todai-ji Temple. The statue was dedicated in 749, and is the biggest bronze statue in the world.  

The deer were out and John was foolish enough to buy deer cakes for them.  As he reached for his wallet, all the nearby deer made a beeline for him.  Apparently, they have seen his kind before.  They chased him down the avenue while he threw deercakes hither and yon, trying to divert them from biting his behind.  Didn't he notice the posted sign that showed children crying while deer massed around them like vultures?

Inside the Todai-ji Temple, the Big Boy was surrounded by all sorts of scary statues that were meant to protect ex-Emperor Shomu (701-758), who built the Temple and had the Buddha made and renounced his title to become a monk.  

Almost as scary as all the grimacing giants inside the temple were the trees outside, whose roots could not be contained under the ground (apparently) and looked like snakes.  I can imagine that if you wander around there after dark, those scary, snakey roots will come up and grab you and drag you to who-knows-where.

Probably off to be eaten by some famished deer that didn't get enough cakes the afternoon before.

We wandered back towards the train station, on the wide sidewalks and even in tunnels that went under busy streets.  In one of them, there was this cool panoramic of the evolution of Nara from 1300 to 2010.  

We finally came upon the site of the 5-story Pagoda, part of the Kofukuji Temple grounds.  Unfortunately, any photo I tried to take of the Pagoda was terrible due to backlight and rain.  But I did get some photos of the Nanendo (Southern Octagonal Hall), constructed in 813 and is significant because it is Temple Number Nine in the West Japan 33 Temple Route.  It is only open one day a year.

At last, we got close to the train station. Check the photos below.  The streets were really rainy, but as all over Japan, they have covered shopping everywhere.  And so much really cool stuff.  If John hadn't been there, I might have lingered over these cool pink handmade purses, and bought one.

We actually went into a Pachinko Parlor (found all over Japan) and it would have been fun to stay but they are SO LOUD that we might have gone deaf if we stayed.  Are many Japanese people driven to deafness by their Pachinko habits, I wonder?

later day 3...Fushimi Inari Shrine...

We finally jumped on a train and headed south.  First stop the Fushimi Inari Shrine...The Inari are the gods of Grains and Rices and it is traditional that these shrine are guarded by foxes.  So, instead of Lion-Dogs guarding their entrances, there are Foxes.  There are over 1000 Torii Gates here and you climb up the hill through them.  It was rainy, so even the monks were carrying umbrellas. 

Japan redux...day 3 Kyoto...

John was relaxing that particular rainy morning, so I went out wandering.  I came across Rokkaku-do Temple, one of the oldest temples in Kyoto.  The name means Hexagonal Temple and the hexagonal stone in front of the main building marks the absolute center of Kyoto.