Category: Silently in Japan

Every regular hotel room we’ve stayed in comes with some version of these signs (photo below) on the back of the door. There is also often a small control panel in the wall next to the door with a button to push if you want the room fully cleaned. It turns on a tiny green…

This morning we took a train from Toyama to Takaoka to see the Takaoka Daibutsu, one of the three largest Buddha statues in Japan.  Ella’s photos give you an idea of his enormity.  Below the Buddha there was a shrine which had a semi-circular hallway behind it with paintings of bliss alternating with paintings of demons reminding…

A 20 minute walk from our hotel got us to the Toyama Glass Art Museum where there was a special small exhibition of Chihuly. I love the stuff.  The rest of the exhibit space was devoted to other glass artists, many local. The building itself, designed by Kengo Kuma, was quite spectacular with open spaces…

A short train ride from Kanazawa this morning got us to Toyama where we’ll stay a couple of nights before going to Tokyo.  Toyama which translates as “distant mountains” in Japanese, is a coastal city on the Sea of Japan that starts the Tateyama Karobe Alpine Route leading through the Tateyama mountains to the north. While…

From Kanazawa to Toyama. We are in Toyama for 2 nights only. By Shinkhansen, it was under a 30 minute ride. Toyama is our last stop before Tokyo. Below. Sign in the Kanazawa train station. Japan has a reputation for being very safe. BUT, with the influx of millions of tourists, well, not all tourists…

Claw games are a big deal. We stepped into a claw game arcade to check it out. Each try costs 100 yen (US 70 cents). You can grab anything from a big stuffed animal to a package of cookies to a transformer car. Yeah, I was tempted to try but..oh well I have no excuse….

Saiyoji is a Zen temple In the Utatsuyama district of Kanazawa and is noted for its bell tower which dates to the 1850s. The architecture, the sign said, uses fan raftering where the elements are arranged radially. It seems this is a typical structure for Zen Buddhist temples.  I got a not so great photo…

Utatsuyama is the quietest and oldest of the temple districts in Kanazawa sporting 100 temples. After today, we have 96 to go. You won’t find any crowds in this neck of the woods. No cutesy cafes or souvenir shops. In Utatsuyama, nestled in the foothills of the Japanese Alps, is Shinjoji Temple. A bit of…

Not if you’ve decided to drop by the D.T. Suzuki Museum in Kanazawa. Which we did after hiking up to some wonderful shrines in the hills overlooking the city.  When I was in college my Zen reading included Suzuki along with Alan Watts.  I discovered after we got here that Suzuki was raised in Kanazawa and there…

I believe the sign is honest. There is a guy in the rabbit costume. Made me so sad. Grubb does not believe. He thinks it’s a hoax. What say you?

From the old samurai residence to Kanazawa’s Museum of Contemporary Art was a twenty minute walk.  The museum is a low round building of shaded glass.   Inside, individual artworks are given dimly lit spaces the size of a banquet hall, so there’s plenty of time to circle the pieces you admire as you peer through the…

Yesterday’s roaming took us first to the Nagamchi area, aka the Samurai district where warriors chilled when they weren’t out battling. Our first stop was the restored Nakaya Chinese Pharmacy, established 1579. The pharmacy occupied the first floor of Shinese Memorial Hall. The second floor used to be a residence for the shop owners but…

Grubb talked about the preserved residence of wealthy samurai Nomura in his “Not built for Belushi” post.  Rounding a corner leading to Nomura’s garden, an attendant wrangled us. Reading from his hand held translator he said “ come here to listen to the sound feature”. I was to place a bamboo tube to my ear…

When the Meiji Restoration broke up the last feudal land holdings in Japan, most of the old samurai houses were destroyed.  However, the Nomura house in Kanazawa was bought by an industrialist and preserved.  There are rooms built out of cypress wood with sliding thick paper doors.  It’s a house that has the fragrant smell of the…

Yesterday, Grubb mentioned in his kind way 🤣 that I might be having a “breath issue” 😩. My reaction? “No way, that’s your breath!” And then I snuck into the bathroom to re-floss and re-brush. Okay so maybe my dental hygiene while traveling isn’t stellar. Maybe I needed some extra strength mouthwash. This afternoon after…