Short blog today as we had another travel day, so did not do any sightseeing. We did have our visits with local families this morning in Kanazawa. Four of us visited the Nakagawa family, and the husband, Fujio and wife Yoko entertained us for a couple of hours in their home. It was great to see a real family home. He is a retired corporate executive and now does a lot of this work welcoming visitors to his home to give them a taste of Japan. His English was very good so it was easy to engage in conversation with him. Their 2 year old granddaughter lives with them (as does her mother) and the wife showed us photographs of the baby's 100 day naming ceremony, like the ones I observed last Sunday at the Zotoji Temple in Tokyo. She told me that the large cape-like looking garment is actually a kimono for a three year old child. Apparently, when they do the baby dedication at 100 days, the father's mother holds the baby and they are both wrapped in this kimono, and then when the child turns three, the family goes back to the Temple and there is another ceremony. The three year old wears the kimono at that point. Our host did calligraphy for each of us writing the words for the four attributes that are important in a Japanese tea ceremony on the paper - Respect, tranquillity, harmony and I've forgotten the 4th one (and my drawing is in the suitcase of one of my fellow travelers as I did not have a way to transport it since we had sent our large bags ahead of us!). We also did origami, which the wife helped us to do and that was a rather hilarious adventure. We made little men in kimonos and some of us were a bit challenged in the paper-folding department!!
The Nakagawa house was quite modern and yet very traditional. The husband and wife's bedroom is covered with the tatami mats and they sleep on futons, as we did when we visited the ryokan in Hakone. The futons are stored in a closet during the day and the room is used for other activities. Mrs. Nakagawa is a professional flower arranger and she teaches classes in it and uses that room when giving her classes. We sat in a living room on the second floor of their home, which is a very small, condo-like size home by American standards. I was surprised when we walked into the room to see a baby grand piano and an upright piano both in the room, which was not a very big room to begin with. I asked how they got the baby grand in there, and he pointed to the window behind us and said it was lifted in by a crane through the window! We were all amazed at how much stuff they managed to cram into a very small house!
After our family visit we had lunch near the train station and then took the train to Kyoto. We got here about 5 o'clock. Kyoto is much hotter than Kanazawa was, and that's saying something as it was pretty hot there. Temps are expected to be hovering around 102-104 for the next couple of days. Kyoto is surrounded by mountains on three sides which traps the heat in the city. Our trip leader took us on an orientation walk around the neighborhood near the hotel so we could get our bearings and then we went to a wonderful Japanese restaurant for a multi-course dinner, Japanese style. The food was delicious. I am so taken with the artistry with which the Japanese present food. There are separate bowls, and plates and odd shaped dishes for every course served and everyone gets their own set of these items. (They must spend hours doing dishes after these meals!) The portions are very small but completely adequate and the meal is served in a particular order with everything carefully laid out on the serving dishes. At our home visit I noticed that Mrs. Nakagawa's kitchen cabinet was absolutely packed to the gills with little bowls, and dishes and cups and utensils and items we had no idea what they were, but each one has a particular function. Food is really an art form in this culture!
I've included pics of some of the courses at tonight's meal. We had tofu, miso soup, three different pork dishes, a chicken dish, a salmon dish, a tempura plate with fish, shrimp, pepper and eggplant, pickled vegetables and a lemon sorbet at the end. I had my first sake which was really good. It's a local sake, from Nara, which is nearby here.
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