Japan

 

After our return from Miami in early February 2019, I started work on our tax returns.  Then I figured out which movies we wanted to see during the True/False documentary film festival as well as where and when we could see them.  I reserved tickets for Diane, myself and my sister.  The last week of February, Earlene flew into Columbia for her annual visit.   She was able to have lunch with Larry and Carl and attend the annual Democratic chili supper with us before the BOATS (Based On A True Story) conference that preceded the start of the True/False movies.  We never attended the late films but were still able to see twelve movies.

After resting up for a day, we left on a short trip with Earlene.  She was curious about Branson, Missouri.  We could have told her that winter was not the time to find out since there are far fewer shows then.  We spent the night at the Lodge of the Ozarks on the strip and saw a show featuring the family The Haygoods.  It was a lot of light, sound and fury, signifying nothing.  Earlene was amazed at how the people sitting in front of her stood up, raised and waved their hands.  I told her it was probably like what they did in their local church. 

The next day we drove to the American Art Museum at Crystal Bridges, had lunch and met her friend, Sarah, who led the sculpture tour.  The three of us then walked the path to the Frank Lloyd Wright house on the grounds before returning to have dinner at the Eleven restaurant.  The next day, we drove back through the Lake of the Ozarks so we could stop and have lunch with Craig.  After a day for more visiting, Earlene flew back to New Jersey, leaving from the Columbia airport.

The next week, Ellen was in my office working on her taxes when I started feeling “funny,” somewhat dizzy, somewhat weak.  I figured I just needed to go to the bathroom and tried that solution.  The feeling just wouldn’t go away, and Ellen noticed my discomfort.  Each time I got up, I felt weaker and weaker.  Diane and Ellen both felt I should visit the emergency room at Boone Hospital.  They wheeled me down to the car in my office chair, and I got in the back seat.  They parked and brought me into the emergency room.  I was tested, poked and prodded.  The staff seemed to think I might have a urinary tract infection and was dehydrated.  They interpreted my going into the bathroom multiple times as meaning that I must have had diarrhea.  At any rate they felt I should be admitted.   I ended up spending six nights in the hospital! 

They tested my blood, urine and feces for what they believed was the source of an infection which, to my knowledge, they never found.   For the first several days, the nurses wore gloves and gowns when they came into my room.  They did find that I had a low sodium level.  I had graphed my sodium level for the past 20 years.  My values were often on or below the border between normal and low.  I was happy when they finally discharged me.  I did feel well rested despite the constant interruptions to take blood.  Diane stayed at the hospital five of the six nights, and Ellen stayed the other night.  I was glad to have their company.  I had not spent the night in a hospital since my tonsils were removed when I was four years old, and had no memory of that event.  The staff at Boone Hospital was terrific.

Karen and Joe paid us their annual spring visit.  Beth and Shellee were in town to see Ellen.  She brought them to my office to talk about how Shellee might best invest her retirement money.  It was nice to see both of them again.  Diane and I attended the Planned Parenthood Chocolates for Choice event.  Our friend Bob invited us to his house in order to see the renovations he had made, and we had the opportunity to meet more of his family.

Despite my recent hospital stay, I felt ready for our first international trip of the year with Olivia and Windstar Cruises on the Wonders of Japan Luxury Cruise.  On April 21, 2019, we took the shuttle to St. Louis and stayed at the Hampton Inn.  The next day started with a 7:00 a.m. flight to San Francisco and, after 18 hours of traveling, we arrived on time in Osaka, Japan. 

Map showing Japan’s four main islands

 

We were enrolled in a pre-trip in Kyoto and had reserved seats on a shuttle that would drive us the 30 miles there.  After going through immigration, we picked up our luggage to go through customs.  However, we were intercepted by two people, a young man and a young woman.  They told us the sniffer dogs had identified our luggage as containing drugs.  We laughed and told them we had no drugs, we were just two little old ladies, but we would be glad to cooperate.  They took us to a private room, closed the door, and started going through our luggage and backpacks.  Each of us was taken into a smaller room and thoroughly patted down by the woman.  At least they didn’t strip search us! 

I was starting to get worried about getting to our shuttle on time as the meeting place was in a distant part of the airport.  We had seen the dogs at baggage claim, but they were gone by the time our luggage came out on the belt, and we retrieved it.  I remained remarkably calm but kept telling them we had no drugs and we needed to go.  They looked through our luggage again, gave us incredulous looks, but finally let us go.  We ran down the hallways looking for our shuttle company.  We had to stop once and go to the bathroom, and then, finally, we saw a man frantically waving his hands.  We waved, he waved, and there was visible relief on all of our faces.  We boarded our van, which was very full of travelers, and it made its way to Kyoto.  I enjoyed the opportunity to watch the views of Japan, a country we had never visited.  We passed through the big city of Osaka, into the countryside and finally Kyoto where we were delivered to the Brighton Hotel.

We spent our first full day in Kyoto visiting shrines.  In the morning we drove to Nara Park, often referred to as "Deer Park."  These sacred deer greet you soon after entering the park to see whether you have purchased the deer food that is on sale to visitors.  The guide on our van had warned us not to offer them any food as they could become pests.  By the time we reached the Great Southern Gate, the main entrance you passed through to enter the Todai-ji Temple, we were already behind the main group.  It was difficult for Diane and I to manage the steps without help.   The Temple featured two muscular, fierce looking Nio Guardian statues that were almost 30-feet-tall and protected behind an opaque screen.  This temple is famous for housing one of the world’s biggest gilded bronze statues of Buddha at 53 feet, and is the headquarters of the Buddhist Kegon sect.  At the Fushimi Inari shrine there were many paths ornamented symbolically, some with stone lanterns.  It is an important Shinto shrine.

Great Southern Gate (no railings)

 

Nio Guardian statue

 

Statue of Budda

 

Stone lanterns along the path

 

Our first visit the following day was to the Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion), a Zen Buddist temple.  It was set in a beautiful Japanese garden.  The top two floors were completely covered in gold leaf.  The pavilion itself extended over a pond which reflected the gold building.   We then visited the Tenryuji Temple of Zen Buddhism.  The gardens and pond were delightful.  We walked along the path and eventually came to an amazing forest of large bamboo trees.  As we emerged from the forest path, we were greeted by a rickshaw driver who took us on a ride through the small village area, along the river to see the Moon River Bridge, and to our eating location.  We introduced ourselves to our driver as a married couple and he replied that he wished he and his boyfriend could get married.

Golden Pavilion

 

Japanese garden

 

Bamboo forest

 

Diane and I with rickshaw driver

 

We had a tea ceremony and lunch at a nearby restaurant.  We were among the last Olivia guests arriving.  Before going in to eat, we were asked to remove and stow our shoes.  It was difficult for us because there was no place to sit while doing so.  As late arrivals, we sat on pillows and balanced a large tray on our lap.  Making up for any discomfort, the tea and food prepared and served in the Buddist tradition was very good.

After lunch, we went to see the Nijo Castle.   It consists of two concentric rings of fortifications, the Ninomaru Palace, the ruins of the Honmaru Palace, various support buildings and several gardens.   That evening, there was a cocktail party before the welcome dinner.  Waiters with hors d'oeuvres and drinks strolled around until the entertainment started.  Several beautiful Japanese women performed for us in the manner of geisha entertainers.

Olivia women eating lunch

 

Since our cruise started the next day, we checked out and were driven to the port in Osaka.  On the way, we stopped at the Osaka Castle where we had a tour guide. It is one of Japan's most famous landmarks and it played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century.  Lunch was at the Taiko-En residence, where we enjoyed the garden as well as the food.   Then we continued to the port and boarded the Windstar Star Legend.

Osaka Castle

 

Diane and I enjoyed being back on the water and with the women of Olivia.  The waters were busy between the ports of Osaka and Takamatsu.   As we walked around the port area of Takamatsu, the sculpture of the Liminal Air -core- caught our eye.  It is considered to show the gateway to the Seto Inland Sea, a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan.   The large sculpture Beyond the Border - The Ocean by Lin Shuen-Long with its blue boy triggered our imagination.

Liminal Air -core-

 

Beyond the Border - The Ocean

 

The next day we entered the port of Hiroshima.   Americans of my generation remember it as the first city destroyed by an atomic bomb by the United States in an effort to end World War II.   Instead of taking shore excursions that focused on that event, we chose one that would take us to visit the Itsukushima Shrine.  A bus took us along a scenic route to Miyajima-Guchi where we boarded a ferry and cruised to the island of Miyajima.  It has a long history as a holy site of Shinto.  The shrine is known worldwide for its iconic "floating" torii gate.  The shrine and its torii gate are unique for being built over water, seemingly floating in the sea during high tide. The shrine complex consists of multiple buildings, including a prayer hall, a main hall and a noh theater stage, which are connected by boardwalks and supported by pillars above the sea.  To get there from where the ferry docked required a long walk on a hot day through the heavy Sunday crowd.   We made it, and enjoyed the visit.

Torii gate

 

Itsukushima Shrine

 

Busy walkway

 

Our ship’s next port of call was Karatsu, one of the closest Japanese ports to South Korea.  The day we were there we took it easy and just went on land to use the internet for free.  Overnight, the ship sailed across the Korea Strait to Busan, the second largest city in South Korea.  The first stop after boarding our bus for a city tour was at the Songdo Cloud Trails (also called Songdo Skywalk).  It was about 1200 feet long and resembled a dragon in a curved shape.  Walking all the way out on it, I could see the ocean, sculptures of a mermaid, fisherman and dolphins while cable cars passed by overhead. I felt like I was walking over the sea as the flooring was glass.

Songdo Skywalk

 

Mermaid sculpture

 

Next, we stopped at the Modern History Museum.  Busan has a painful history based on the Japanese occupation of the Republic of Korea. The city was a bridgehead for Japan’s invasion of the continent, and still retains the traces of the suffering left by Japan.  The exhibits told the tumultuous history of Busan, making sure the brutal experiences were remembered.  There were also some exhibits about the modern development of Busan.   We visited Yongdusan Park, located below the Busan tower.  It featured a statue of Admiral Yi, a naval hero, and a huge ceremonial bell.  There was also a flower clock beside the bell.  I particularly liked the dragon statue before the entrance to the tower.  We then went into the city and stopped for lunch.  Before returning to the boat, we toured the Ja-Gai-Ch'I fish market to see the variety of live and dried fish products.  I was glad we did this after we ate lunch.

Mural in museum

 

Fish market

 

Overnight, we sailed back to Japan for our next stop at Nagasaki.  This city was the target of the second atomic bomb dropped on Japan by the United States in World War II.  Japan surrendered after this attack.  All the tours were about the bombing.  Since Diane and I know this history well, we just took the opportunity to use the internet free at the port.

Our next port was Kagoshima.  Our tour bus took us to Sengan-en, a lovely Edo Period strolling garden in the Chinese style, using the Sakurajima volcano and Kinko Bay as "borrowed scenery."  It was large, over 500,000 square feet, containing bamboo, camellia, plum trees and early-flowering cherry trees as well as shrines, ponds, running streams and stone bridges.  A profusion of Sago palm was featured as they are the symbol of the Kagoshima Prefecture.  The gardens included a bamboo grove of "Moso Bamboo" from China, which is said to have spread over Japan from this site.  We walked and walked, loving it when we found a bench for a rest.

Garden pathways

 

Waterfall

 

After lunch we toured the Shoko Shuseikan Museum containing a vast collection of Shimazu clan family heirlooms including scrolls, weapons, maps, documents, Satsuma Yaki ceramics, cut glass (kiriko), dolls and tools. The museum showcased the Shimazu clan's efforts to modernize and industrialize their domain.  The Shoko Shuseikan can claim to be Japan's first factory as it was built to manufacture machines in an effort to copy western industrialization.

We spent a day at sea relocating to the coastal city of Shingu on the Eastern side of Japan facing the Pacific Ocean.  There was a long drive to and from where we had a two-hour cruise on a boat passing the scenery of Doro Kyo (Doro Gorge) on the Kitayama-gawa River.  It is famous for its steep cliffs, clear waters and rock formations.  The scenery in the gorge was great, but I most enjoyed watching the countryside from our bus on the way to and from.  We saw all different uses of the land from rice paddies to logging rafts on the river.

Our boats

 

Cliffs

 

Landslide prevention

 

Rice paddies

 

The following day, the guests spent a lot of time on deck taking pictures of Mt. Fuji, Japan’s tallest mountain at 12,389 feet.  It was a clear day, and we had beautiful views as we sailed toward the coastal town of Shimizu.  We used the internet in the port and started packing for our trip home the following day.

Mt. Fuji

 

We woke up the next morning in the port of Yokohama (Tokyo). We departed early for a half-day tour that included the Imperial Palace Plaza.  It was a large park area surrounded by moats and massive stone walls located in the center of Tokyo.  It is the residence of Japan's Imperial Family.  We were then taken to the Hama Rikyu Garden, a large, attractive landscape garden in central Tokyo. Located alongside Tokyo Bay, Hama Rikyu features seawater ponds which change level with the tides.

Me and Diane with the Imperial Palace in background

 

300-year-old Japanese black pine tree in the Hama Rikyu Garden

 

The tour ended at the Haneda airport.  While waiting and waiting in line to get our boarding passes for our flights home, my legs started feeling weak, so I sat down on my big suitcase.  Not only had we spent the morning on our feet in Tokyo at the Imperial Palace and the Hama Rikyu Garden, I also had not fully recovered my strength from my hospital stay the previous month.  A man in an adjacent line noticed I was in distress and asked an attendant to get me a wheelchair.  I ended up using a wheelchair the rest of the trip and ordered one for our next trip leaving in the middle of May.  We were in the air 15 hours on our way to St. Louis and then took a shuttle arriving at our front door at 10:30 p.m. on May 6.  This trip was physically difficult for both of us and we were very glad to be home.