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Daily Journal
Thursday, November 23, 2000 Today is your Thanksgiving Day and coincidentally, it is Labor Thanksgiving Day here in Japan. This holiday means a day off for school children, office workers and also for me. So off we went with Shizu (our translator) and Wakoko (our Osaka Fulbright leader) to Kyoto. They were kind enough to plan our day in Kyoto and be our escorts. This was the time and the place to see beautiful fall foliage in the most beautifully landscaped gardens that I've ever seen. Our itinerary for the day included a Zen rock garden, a Buddhist temple, a Shinto shrine, and a castle with singing floors. Because I am far behind in posting my journal, I will save the descriptions for when I return,but here are some photos from today.     There were gardeners working wherever we looked.  Can you believe I took this with my digital camera? It doesn't look real, does it? It's the Golden Pavillion.  At the Shinto shrine, ringing the bell...  Tying bad fortunes on a tree.  Sweet potato man at the shrine.  Remember Charlie the tuna from the fish market? Here he is in a new disguise- sushi!  Here's a kind of sushi I would not try- raw horse meat! We sat at a counter with sushi revolving around on a conveyor belt. You took the plate off that you wanted to eat. There were little hot water dispensers in front of each person for tea.    Look at how much Wakoko ate! When we were all finished, the waitress counted up all the plates and charges us per plate.   Here is the automatic opening door on the taxi. I asked the driver if I could take a picture of the button that he pushes to open the door. It's the red knob.   It seems as if retired sumo wrestlers open lots of restaurants...here's one. It's in a district called Gion, where you find many Japanese tea houses and geisha girls.   My favorite shop so far was this umbrella shop in Gion...I bought a few umbrellas there.  Thanksgiving dinner was spent with my new make pretend family- no turkey...soba noodles, tempura, and fried rice. We did a lot of laughing that night!    Each restaurant has a cloth covering the entrance to let customers know they are opened. Here are Kathleen and I peeking out. Our waitresses ran out after us to say good-bye. Hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving weekend! |
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