Kyoto, you have my heart. Debussy, my ears.

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Sept. 6-9, 2007

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I awoke at 5:54 in the morning at Koyasan to attend the morning service. It consisted of a monk chanting along with a woman (surprising!) in a beautifully adorned room full of golden lotuses and what I believe were urns of previous Shojoshin-in monks. It was refreshing and nice, as was the light breakfast that followed. With rain drizzling, we decided just to head to Osaka, the last stop on my journey. We rode the bus, then the steep cable car, and finally a long train to Osaka. After getting utterly lost and confused in the underground mazes of shopping malls that surround the Osaka station (and most others in Japan), we finally found our hotel, which was actually very close! Before checking in, though, we simply dropped off our bags and then headed up to Kyoto, where I had been storing two more big bags! It is simply ridiculous how much stuff we have amassed. I feel so sorry for the hotel clerks, often tiny young women, who check your bags in. One insisted on taking even the h
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Down South...

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I write now from Hiroshima, a city infamous for its WWII history as the first city to ever be hit with a nuclear weapon. After a short flight and a long bus ride (with no leg room - I am too tall for Japan!!) we arrived in Hiroshima. The plane ride was quite nice, with a view of the coastline and the Japanese alps on my right and Fuji-san looming to my left. The air hangs heavy here down south with humidity and also the memories of lives lost and needless destruction wrought on a peaceful community. I am still fanning myself at 10:48 pm in an air conditioned room while the cicadas (Jpn. semi) take their rest so they can be loud as hell in the morning, escorting my every move near any sort of tree. Our hotel faces the Memorial Peace Park, with my window allowing for a spectacular view of the river and also the A-bomb dome. I cannot yet express my feelings about this place; I can only reel at the extraordinary sadness that is hidden by this bustling, modern city. We spent all day today s
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Goodbye Tokyo!

August 2, 2007 Today was chock full of military madness! We spent most of the day at Yokosuka base, south of Tokyo. It is pretty much the central HQ of the US navy in Japan. I had never really been to a big navy base, and I was surprised at the sheer size of things. Being that my conference is actually a big deal, we were greeted by the Admiral of the entire Japan fleet, Jim something. He is in charge of something like 12 bases over 9 time zones and 52 million sq miles of ocean!! Pretty huge. The US Ambassador to Japan, Amb. Schieffer, also joined us. He was very nice as well, but reminded me far too much of a mini Dick Cheney, considering all the neo-con rhetoric that came out of his mouth (democracy this, war spending that, etc.) It was a big change from our previous adventures, and some of the delegates were upset that we spent an entire day looking at military stuff. By that I mean we were reminded by the Navy about how powerful the US is and how great they are. I am impressed by w
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