Dr. and Mrs. Hofeditz in Japan, Part 2

Photo issue (partially) resolved.

My parents on the most photographed street in Japan.  In the omnipresent rain.

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Some Japanese sweets we had with matcha green tea.

My mama with her new enormous Japanese umbrella.

Some of the first sakura (cherry blossoms) of the season in Kanazawa.

I finished up the last few days of the school year as my parents looked around Kanazawa, then we got ready to head to Kyoto.  The day we left I had my eikaiwa (English conversation club), a group of adults with whom I have two-hour classes two Saturdays a month.  They were very excited to meet my parents, and to my astonishment, they marked this excitement with a huge assortment of gifts, from a nice furoshiki (cloth used to tie up several items, like a hobo bag but of decorative material) to cookies to flyfishing flies made in Kanazawa to charms made by one woman's daughter.  Their generosity was impressive to say the least.

My lovely eikaiwa.

And so we set off for Kyoto.  The end of March and beginning of April is cherry blossom season in Japan, and the whole country more or less turns inside out for it.  I asked some of my eikaiwa students why the sakura are so important to the Japanese.  A few said that it was because they are pretty and they signify the beginning of spring, then one said "They are the spirit of the warrior".  I thought that was interesting, then another said "Transient existence."  I didn't teach her either of those words, in case you're wondering....

That explanation makes more sense to me than anything else, though, because the Japanese connection to the sakura goes far beyond a pretty mark of spring.  People mark their calendars for them, file news reports on them, take endless pictures of them when the trees are in full bloom, and then quite suddenly they're gone.  In fact, as I type this the luster of the sakura has suddenly and dramatically dimmed.  We had a rainstorm a couple days ago, and many of the already weak blossoms fell.  It's pretty striking, and while I've had a chance to see tons of sakura, I already regret I didn't do more.  The whole thing is chock full of metaphors for, yes, the transient nature of existence and what we take for granted.

But like I said, I got quite my fill of sakura.  Kyoto was swimming with people, most Japanese tourists drawn by the onset of the sakura in a picturesque setting.  Some of these pictures will look familiar to frequent blog visitors, because we spent two days touring Kyoto's temples and shrines and spent one day in Nara.

 First taste of a traditional Japanese hotel.

The base of Fushimi Inari shrine.

 Fushimi Inari identifies itself with foxes, and there are many statues dotted through the...

 ...endless tunnel of torii gates.  Eat your heart out, Christo, you big plagiarist.  Thousands of wooden gates create tunnels around paths that go all around one of the hills outside Kyoto and give the shrine a unique character.

The Hofeditzes in the bamboo forest.  Sounds like a wacky children's adventure novel.

 We wandered through the forest to an extensive and deserted graveyard.

 

 Not a small hill.

 Even the fox is checking you guys out.

Bikes: hands-down the best way to see Kyoto.

 Sakura photography: what the entire country of Japan does for three weeks.

 My father's first and possibly only squid-on-a-stick.

 A famous giant tree in the center of Maruyama Park.  It was cloudy so it looks more satanic than usual...

 

Look familiar, Jonathan and Carrie?

Todaiji again.

 

 Isuien Gardens in Nara.  This may have been a bit posed.

 Up above the main area of Nara park.

This is currently my desktop background. The template cuts off extra large pictures a bit, click for full size.

Our last night in Kyoto we were planning to go to the light-up at Kiyomizu Temple, where I spent New Year's Eve.  During sakura season they have light-ups of some of the major temples and shrines so you can visit at night.  This is much preferable at Kiyomizu because it's disgustingly packed during the day.  

Somehow there was a bit of a snowstorm.  My dad accurately remarked that we saw something that night that not many have ever seen.  The cab driver who took us up to the temple said (I think) it was the third time this year it had snowed in Kyoto, and it was snowing on sakura in full bloom lit up at night.  

Smiles all around.

The thing that looks like a laser beam is a spotlight shining into the city below.

Definitely click through the full image on this one.  You can zoom in on it, too.

Because of a strange camera situation that is too complicated and mundane to go into here, I only have half the pictures from our trip for now.  I should have the rest soon, so I'll be able to add the post-Kiyomizu stuff.  Our last day in Kyoto was sunny and beautiful, and we did some more sightseeing before getting on the train to Hiroshima, where we'd have one of the more impactful and surreal days of my life.

More pictures coming in this post when I get them.