Maria's blog entry

Hi Jane's family and friends! First to introduce myself to those of you who don't know me - my name is Maria. Jane and I became friends at Wellesley (as well as being neuroscience colleagues in collaborating labs).

I went to visit Jane for two weeks in the beginning to mid-June and she has asked me to write a blog entry about my impressions of Japan. Although it's quite hard to sum it all up in one entry I'll do my best. I thought I'd try to classify it into the five senses - what I saw, smelt, ate, heard, and touched. So here it goes:

Sight: I was amazed at the cleanliness and orderliness of just about everything - from public bathrooms to subway stations. Even the taxi drivers wore white gloves. When buying things, especially in Kyoto, each item was boxed and then very carefully wrapped in beautiful paper - I was afraid the customs or security officials would make me unwrap them!

There are many beautiful things to see in Japan (I have to agree with Jane that the Fushimi Inari Shrine is one of the best!) I couldn't ever describe the temples and shrines and gardens properly but the landscape made a huge impression on me - I'm not sure exactly what I expected but from the plane you could see valleys full of buildings surrounded by large, steep green hills. On the ground, I really enjoyed staring out the bus or train window at the flat rice paddies against old traditional wooden houses with green hills as a backdrop. Near the end of the two weeks, rainy season began and the tops of the mountains were covered in mist. The closest description I can get is it was like being in a real-life Ansel Adam's photograph - that magnificent.

On a different note, I was surprised how I could ride a bike I borrowed from Jane anywhere in Naruto, leave it outside a shop, and when I came back not only was the unlocked bike still there but so were all my packages in the basket! It was amazing!

Other "sights" was the cash society Japan is - it's very rare to find a place that takes credit cards and finding a post office to withdraw cash can be a big pain as I found out! Finally, I was surprised at the amount of English words - for example, huge "SALE" signs in department stores.

Taste: The food is quite different in texture and flavor from the Western palate. I enjoyed fried food called tempura, thick udon noodles, and okonomiyaki - a cabbage type pancake served with a barbecue-like sauce. The sweets were not sweet enough for me and often filled with a red bean paste which is okay but something I had to get used to. Surprisingly large amounts of fruits and vegetables (that weren't already pickled) seemed really hard to find when eating out and breakfasts left much to be desired - many places actually serve hot dogs for breakfast although apparently the Japanese eat rice and miso soup. Eggs are usually considered a lunch or dinner item.

Jane and I got to try both olive-flavored and soy sauce-flavored soft serve ice cream on Shodoshima which seemed like a real delicacy. :0) One of the best meals I had was something called kaiseki in Kyoto. The closest thing I can compare it to is Spanish tapas - many smaller dishes of different items brought out one at a time. It's a traditional meal and was served while we sat on cushions on tatami floors. The walls had been opened to a garden right outside and we sat and talked and drank sake and ate some really quite delicious and beautiful looking (and tasting!) things.

Touch:My favorite "touch" experience was by far the onsens, or public baths. It's an odd experience at first literally stripping naked and going to bathe with a bunch of strangers but the baths are so warm and inviting. The last time we went, we had hiked up 1346 steps to a Shinto shrine in Kotohira and afterwards found a natural onsen nestled in those Ansel Adams misty green hills. It was amazing and won't soon be forgotten!

Hear:Jane posted about the Takarazuka troupes so you already know a bit about this. I wanted to see a performance of some type but all I really knew about performance arts in Japan was the famous puppet theatre, Bunruku and Kabuki, another type of theatre. Takarazuka is a really interesting type of theatre that I'm thrilled I got to see. It was good we read an English synopsis before because I couldn't understand any of the words but the music together with the rotating stage was a phenomenal performance to experience. The costumes and the ways the women were made up to be their male or female character was fascinating to see.

In addition, I went to see an Awa Odori dance performance that the center in Tokushima puts on for tourists. There's really no way to quite describe the music but I can see how much fun the celebration in August must be - if you didn't look at it - take a look at Jane's videos of the Awa Odori. I guess I really enjoyed this part as well because at the end they invite audience members to go up and dance on the stage with the dancers so I figured - why not? My Rough Guide book says the motto for the celebration is "the dancing fool and the watching fool are equally foolish, so why not dance?"

Smell:On Shodoshima, an island known for its olive trees and fake Grecian ruins, we had a great day running around in a car Jane had borrowed from a friend. Between seeing peacocks and monkeys and the making of noodles, we also went to a great little soy sauce museum and factory. You can smell it as soon as you get into the vicinity. We each got a free bottle of soy sauce with admission and most of the signs in the factory had English translations. It was an amazing little museum for being really out in the middle of nowhere.

The other smell I will miss is the green tea I used to make at Jane's for breakfast. It had this great sweet earthy smell that's hard to describe but it's wonderful to wake up in the morning and drink tea and look outside and think - "I'm in Japan!" So final thoughts - Jane is going to have the best bachelorette pad with neat containers everywhere - she buys these funky containers like an olive drop container from Shodoshima. She will also have the greatest assortment of hand washcloths. In Japan, none of the bathrooms (I didn't come across one!) have paper towels (many don't have soap either!) so each tourist area sells different types of washcloths so that people can carry them around and dry their hands. Jane has quite the collection!

Although I went to school with Jane, I only got to teach in one class. The other classes were practicing for a demonstration class that Jane had to carry out for other English teachers. I was quite impressed by her teaching (and always so proud of her when she would speak Japanese to anyone!). I don't know how I would have handled teaching middle schoolers! So finally LOTS of thanks to Jane for a fabulous experience!