Category: Silently in Japan

Ikigai生きがい The short translation: “The purpose of living.” More nuance: What gets you out of bed in the morning. What you are good at that you love and is needed by the world.  Embedded in the word is the belief that everyone has an ikigai. You just need to find it. Ichi go ichi e一期一会…

Yesterday I checked the weather for today. 100% chance of rain. Radar showed a huge mass moving in and sitting right on top of us. No stinkin’ rain would keep us from enjoying the day. But obviously we didn’t want outdoor expeditions.  After breakfast we headed to the front desk to inquire about umbrellas. The…

Wet day in Tokyo.  It started to rain about the time we left our hotel and now that we’re back it’s still coming down.  So we went with the big indoor option, the Tokyo National Museum.  The permanent collection had a thousand-year-old Buddhist guardian statues carved out of wood. Then there was Wisdom King Fudo.  The exhibit card read:…

Late Thursday afternoon we took part in a ritual of post-modern madness after surfacing from the Shibuya subway exit.  I felt it was a way of balancing Japanese extremes.  A few days into our trip we hiked to a deserted mountain temple and yesterday, towards the end of our journey, we joined the welter of humanity piling…

Grubb has mentioned how phenomenal public transportation is in Tokyo. Before we realized the ease with which we’d be able to zip around, we started mapping all the places we thought we’d like to go and organize our day around places that were relatively close to each other. Threw that idea out the window. Here…

The interior of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo is off limits to the public, The inner grounds can be visited by joining the official tour. Only offered twice a day in Japanese with English audioguides available. The application process for the tour must be completed at least four days ahead but you’ll be lucky to…

Today we tubed all four points of the compass in our Tokyo circuit without missing a beat.  It seemed like every time we figured out which subway line to take to our destination we were barely finished descending the stairs before the train appeared.  In one instance the doors were closed as we approached and the conductor…

Yesterday we concurred that we’d both love a bowl of udon as our big meal of the day. We sat in comfy chairs in the National Art Center and googled for udon restaurants in the area. TsuruTonTan popped up and was only an 11 minute walk away. Google maps led us to the location and…

Part of the Rippongi Art Triangle, a twelve minute walk from the Mori Art Museum, is The National Art Center in Tokyo. The big exhibit was “Living Modernity” which featured models of houses built by 20th century architects that were the fantasies which, when built, changed the ideal structure of the home environment.  Functional, linear, and…

At the National Art Center, this robot rolled along, stopping as it passed people to wink its lights. Maybe take a sniff looking for illegal substances or weapons.  Its head swiveled continuously and I suppose it was producing a continuous live stream feed to whomever was monitoring the cameras. Or, maybe it had no need for…

Our first foray into the gigaplex that is Tokyo was for the Mori Art Museum located on the 53rd floor of the Mori building in the Roppongi neighborhood.  We realized today that in Tokyo, we had to be a little more clever with Google maps. Or maybe Google maps needs to get more clever. Tokyo…

We are in Tokyo now but I thought I’d share some last photos from Toyama and Takaoka Most of the manhole covers in Toyama were painted. Is there a more generic name these days? Where did “manhole” come from anyway? School zone. Beware of speedy kids. A typical street in Toyama.  What to drink? Why…

A massive city. The largest city on earth. Could be its own country. Bustling, busy, lots of people looking trendy. Big City, Earth. That was our last ride on. Shinkansen (from Toyama to Tokyo). Last stop on our 6 six week blitz through Japan. First day of Golden Week. Kind of a spring break for…

The train we got on in Toyama this morning was full by the time we hit Tokyo Station.  And then it emptied.  I expected the worst at the station: a rush of people coming  from every direction aggravated at me for getting in the way.  Instead, although plentiful with people, the exit signs were clear and it didn’t seem…

Having become fascinated with the notion of infinite Buddhas, I couldn’t resist suggesting an outing to one of the great bronze Buddha statues in Japan. Located in Takaoka, a mere 20 minute train ride from Toyama station, this giant 16 meter high bronze statue of Amithaba Buddha was quite a sight. The statue originated in…