4X

I hit the target four times at kyudo tonight! I was on fire.

Enlightenment

We went to Kyoto on Saturday. This time we went to Ryoan-ji, a temple with a famous rock garden. This garden consists of raked sand, fifteen rocks and some moss growing on the rocks. That's it: no trees, flowers, grass or anything else. The fifteen rocks are placed so that no matter where you stand, at least one is hidden from view. The legend is that the garden is a riddle created by zen masters, and that you will understand the riddle when you obtain enlightenment. Or something like that. I'm not sure I got it on my first try. The garden does look very nice and peaceful, although the tranquility is affected somewhat by the crowds of people trying to see it.
Ryoan-ji also has a bigger lake garden that we walked around. This is a more traditional garden. There's a central pond or lake with lots of trees and plants surrounding it. Since it's spring, most of these were in bloom, which made it very pretty. Even some of the cherry blossom trees were still blooming. When a breeze came along, it blew a lot of the blossoms off the trees and made it seem like it was snowing.
Afterward, we had an enjoyable walk through the shopping area in downtown Kyoto. It was a beautiful day, and it was nice to be able to get out for a daytrip.
-Jason

double-take

I wish that this were my photo -- it's not, I just found it online.
Do you see anything that isn't quite right?
After you examine it, read this article.

bullseye!!

I hit the target!!
Tonight was the first lesson for my second go-round of kyudo and I finally hit the target. Hooray!

Hanami

It's Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) season in Himeji. The cherry trees all over town are in full bloom and it's gorgeous. In the last two weeks we've been to several hanami parties -- where you picnic under the trees and enjoy their beauty and the good weather. The Japanese actually have a word that means "to go cherry blossom viewing". This is a big annual tradition for many Japanese people, and some of the picnic setups are really impressive. We've seen people wheeling in carts of food and, of course, sake. Some groups even brought their own portable karaoke setups.
Last Saturday was Himeji's official cherry blossom festival. The festival was nice. We enjoyed the koto and taiko drum concerts.The castle area was packed. The tour groups have been inundating the castle. Everyone wants to see it before they start the renovation next week. There have been times in last two weeks when the line to get into the castle grounds has been 2-3 hours. Nuts!
This is one of my favorite pictures from our hanami parties. I've put more on the picasa site.

Hiroshima baseball

Friday night we saw our first baseball game in Japan. The weather cleared in Hiroshima and it was actually a pretty nice day, although when the wind picked up at the stadium it was a little chilly in the evening.
We saw the Hiroshima Toyo Carp take on the Yomiuri Giants (based out of Tokyo). The Giants are the dominant team in Japanese baseball history, and the defending Japan Series champions. We had a natural predilection for the Carp, for reasons that should be familiar to anyone who followed OurPragueBlog.
It's a new stadium and it was pretty nice. We had a good view of the game and also of the Shinkansen tracks. We got to see the trains zip by about every five minutes.
We sat in right field, which was the heart of the Carp's cheering section. Actually, the heart was above us, in the upper level, but we were close enough. It started with a pregame rendition of the team song. The fans were fairly quiet when the Carp were in the field, but anytime a Carp was batting there was more or less nonstop chanting. We eventually managed to pick up one of the main chants - it involved the player's name, so we could at least chant along with that part. We got to sing the club song again in the seventh inning, before most of the fans released some balloons they had just blown up (see video). It was fun.

Sadly, the Carp blew a 4-0 lead and lost 5-4. They're not off to a good start; just one win in the first week of the season. The game ran a little long, and Chelsey and I had tickets for the last Shinkansen, so we watched the last half inning from the concourse near the exit so we could bolt for the train station as soon as it was over. As it turned out, several hundred other people had the same idea, and as soon as the last out was made there was a mad dash for the ramp leading to the station.
One sad note before the game was the collapse of a Giants coach as he was hitting fielding practice. I didn't see him collapse but I saw all the players running toward homeplate. According to the newspaper, he suffered bleeding in his brain. It was pretty scary; we read in the paper that he died this morning.
-Jason

Hiroshima

We took advantage of a couple of days on our spring break to head down to Hiroshima. We took advantage of a special train ticket they offer during school holidays to get down there. This meant skipping the Shinkansen for the slow local trains and increased our trip time by about three hours, but the cost savings were worth it. Plus, we got to see some beautiful coastal scenery as we passed through Fukuyama.
We got there at night, so we didn't do any sightseeing immediately, but we did go find some okonomiyaki. This is a type of dish that's popular around Himeji and Osaka, but Hiroshima has their own special version. I'd been told to try it, so we found an okonomiyaki restaurant. It was really good.
The next day was rainy, but after a run in the rain, we headed out to explore the Peace Park and the atomic bomb sites and exhibits. We actually ran up the T-shaped bridge that was the target for the American bombers. We also found the Peace Flame and the monument to Sadako Sasaki, the leukemia victim who tried to fold a thousand paper cranes in an attempt to heal herself. (The information at the sites in Hiroshima was conflicted on whether or not she actually completed her goal). We left a paper crane at the statue, as many visitors do; lacking origami skills ourselves, Chelsey had brought one a student had made for her.
After that we went into the Peace Museum. It was very well done, if rather depressing. It chronicled the rise of Japan's military power and aggression, the development of the bomb, the process behind the decision to drop and where to target, the effects of the bomb and the aftermath. Looking at the models showing the extent of the destruction, I was a little surprised that the city was rebuilt as quickly as it was.
We had planned to cheer ourselves up with a baseball game that night, but since it was raining and the game was canceled, we had to settle for dinner, dessert and a quiet night in the hotel room.
The next day we went back to the A-bomb dome. This is one of the few buildings that wasn't completely leveled by the bomb, although some of it was blown away. The building, which had been an industrial showcase and government office, had a distinctive green dome; after the bomb, the metal supports of the dome were still largely intact, making it recognizable. Because of that, it has been preserved as the memorial site. The dome is a couple of hundred meters away from the hypocenter of the bomb. We found the plaque that marks that spot as well.
Next up: we do get in a baseball game.
-Jason
There are more pictures on the picasa site.