Baffled

August 12-15, 2001-A Glitch
(photos-Todaiji Temple Buddah & Toby at deer park)

It’s not so much that technology failed us, but that we failed technology. We couldn’t get the email sent from Tokyo. It was late when we started trying and nothing worked. We eventually learned that the university has an Internet site that’s free to the public. In Japan computers or their Internet are configured differently than ours. People who come here with foreign computers spend weeks figuring out how to re-configure them. We won’t even try. We might have better luck in Thailand and Viet Nam where they’re happy to just go along with what the rest of the world is using.

Kyoto-Trains and Temples and Toilets, Oh My!

We took the bullet train to Kyoto. It’s like an amusement park ride. The sleek futuristic body and sloped nose look like a dragon bowing down to the tracks. It’s so smooth that overhead luggage racks have no baggage restraints. Uniformed attendants wearing high-heels effortlessly pushed carts and hawked refreshments. Eventually, I needed to use the rest room. Americans delicately call this place of waste management and ablution: ladies’/men’s room, facilities, lavatory, and the ever-descriptive bathroom. British are fond of water closet or loo, but most of the world calls it a “toilet.” I thought the long arm of the Japanese cleanliness mafia would reach out and shame me if I couldn’t figure out how to flush. Luckily, directional hieroglyphics indicated the button was on the wall two feet from the commode.

David noticed that the woman across from us was crocheting what looked like kippot (yarmulkes-Jewish head coverings) or coasters. Since they had a Star of David in the middle, we went for kippot. We pointed at them and asked. She and her husband were from Mexico, so in halting English and some Hebrew we learned that she was making them for their son’s wedding. After listening to their chatter for the 2 1/2 hour trip, I forgot I was in Japan. We keep meeting people from the Americas. There were three young women traveling together two of whom are Japanese Americans and sisters All are from the Sacramento/ San Francisco area. One of the sisters is spending the summer interning here. She’s finding it interesting learning the language.

After we arrived in Kyoto we went on a mission to experience the ungodly clanging of bells, coins, and steel balls of a Pachinko palace filled with games of chance. We survived with hearing intact and stayed long enough to use that bathroom. This toilet flushed by putting a hand in front of a light sensor. Hopefully, my interest in bathrooms hasn’t become an obsession.

Our hotel in Kyoto is right across from the train station. Unlike the U.S that’s a good location. We ate lunch there in the back of some sundries store where there was a display of the always-present plastic food. Our server spoke excellent English. She’d spent a year in New Zealand as part of an exchange program. Most importantly, they had an Internet Cafe. The building is fifteen-stories with two sub-basements and multi-level mall. It’s a modern building with dizzying escalators that appeared to soar through skylights. Japanese women staggered around knock-kneed and pigeon toed on extremely high heels and platform shoes. It reminded me of women we saw in China whose feet had been bound. So much for liberation. We also noticed that in this heat people carry washcloths with them and use them to mop their faces.

We spent the afternoon in Nara, a smaller town an hour away. We toured a Shinto shrine and lovely Buddhist Temple, the largest wood structure in the world. It’s in a heavily forested, serenely tranquil deer park. Yes, they sold food for deer. Stacks of sake barrels were evidence of donations to priests. Happy deer, happy priests!

We had a treat this afternoon. We found soft serve ice cream in a swirl of vanilla and green tea flavors. Very refreshing! Happy tourists!

Laundry

We have a free day tomorrow and thought we’d take the bullet train to Hiroshima. After pricing the tickets ($100/person each way) we decided to stay in Kyoto and visit the food market and look for a laundry. Many of you have mentioned our preoccupation with clean clothes. We travel with very few and need to wash often. I really don’t like the feel of sink washed clothes that dry stiff. Besides, our laundry outings inevitably lead us to new adventures and into residential neighborhoods.

Our guidebook and concierge’s map said Japanese call coin laundries “koin raundaries.” It was spelled like that on the map. When I asked at the hotel desk, she actually said it that way. We packed dirty clothes into our roll aboard and trudged off in 100-degree heat. Indeed, the sign on the building said koin raundary. We used the change machine and were looking for detergent dispensers when a woman offered to help. She spoke mostly Japanese, so I went through some hand rubbing motions and mimed pouring something into the washer. She then pointed into the machine and said, “automatic.” That’s when we noticed the English directions on the wall hidden among all the Japanese characters. Pre-measured soap is automatically dispensed into the machine.

Since Japan is a low theft city, we mimed leaving our roll aboard in the laundry. She indicated it was OK. It was there when we returned after a stroll across the street to see a lovely temple and main campus for the school for one of the many sects of Zen Buddhism. As we wandered around the grounds, I noticed a sign for a toilet. Never being one to pass up an opportunity I headed for it. A sign for a lavatory followed, and thinking they were one and the same, I ended up in a bathhouse for students.

Toby