Hiyoshiya Wagasa: Traditional Japanese Umbrellas

Today, I visited Hiyoshi Wagasa, a maker of wagasa (traditional Japanese umbrellas). I had a nice chat with the president of the company, Mr. Nishibori Kotaro. Mr. Nishibori is representative of an interesting group of young Japanese people who are trying to find new uses for traditional techniques. His company is now making wonderful lamps with traditional wagasa-making techniques. Mr. Nishibori said, "Tradition is continuing innovation. What we now call `traditional' was once new.'"

Osaka's Tenjin Matsuri

Last night I hopped on a train to Osaka to catch the famous Tenjin Matsuri. There were raucous festival barges on the O-kawa River and teams heaving gaudy mikoshi (portable shrines) around the streets. I was struck once again by the contrast between Osaka and Kyoto. The Osakans I saw seemed almost like a different species from the Kyotoites I'm used to - they were rough, ready and speaking an incredibly thick Osaka-ben dialect. I recommend this festival to anyone in Kansai in late July.

Solar Eclipse in Japan

The decade's longest solar eclipse happened over southern Japan and other parts of Asia this morning. Here in Kyoto, the eclipse did not reach totality - it was about 80%. There was just enough cloud about to watch the eclipse without eye protection. My wife Hiroe and I watched the eclipse from Shinyodo Temple, near our house. It was much better than we had expected. While we were watching, an airliner flew right in front of the sun, creating a double artificial/natural eclipse. We liked that. This was my fourth solar eclipse: I've seen previous partial eclipses in New York City as a child, and in Paris and Thailand as an adult. Now, we're keen to see a total eclipse and we're looking at one that's going to take place in Borneo in 2013.

Gion Matsuri 2009

Kyoto's biggest festival, Gion Matsuri, was held today. I checked out the parade of floats on Oike-dori around noon. There were several gaijin in the team pulling this float, including one of the guys sitting on top.

Jewels in the Lotus Flower

I am very lucky to live right below Shinnyodo Temple in Kyoto. There's almost always something in bloom. I took a walk around the temple grounds yesterday to enjoy the rich green of early summer.

First, I stopped by the bell tower, where there are some great ajisai (hydrangea) in bloom. They form a nice backdrop to this Kannon figure.


Next door to Shinnyodo is Kurodani Temple, which is home to Saiun-in subtemple. Saiun-in has a nice collection of lotus plants growing in front of the main hall. The lotus plant, of course, is a significant figure in Buddhism and the central mantra of Buddhism proclaims that the Buddha is the jewel in the lotus flower.


The jewel in the lotus flower:


The jewel in the lotus leaf:


Another flower in bloom at Shinnyodo:

The Good Garden

It's rainy season here in Japan and things are growing like mad.

The other morning we woke to find an incredible kinugasa mushroom behind our house.


Also, we have a few ajisai (hydrangeas) growing behind the house.


In front of the house, my wife is growing an incredible garden. We've already enjoyed cucumbers, tomatoes and rosemary from the garden.

Inside Kyoto New Haven Edition

New Haven, Connecticut is a long way from Kyoto, Japan, but it's where I grew up (okay, I grew up in Hamden, next door, but I spent a lot of time in New Haven). Something is wrong with New Haven. There's no getting around it. People in other parts of the United States don't dream of someday moving to New Haven (unless they're 17 years old and applying to Yale University). Still, the city is lovable in its own peculiar way. New Haven is home to several monuments of American culture: Yankee Doodle, one of America's cheapest and coolest breakfast joints, Rudy's bar, which Steely Dan referenced in "Black Cow" (I don't care what anyone else says about it), and the Educated Burgher, where I consumed several hundred gallons of really bad coffee while I planned my escape.

But, real New Havenites will remember cultural monuments that go beyond even these classics. One of America's all-time greatest bars is the dreaded Anchor Bar (also known as The Wanker). In the nicotine-infused banquettes along the walls of the Anchor, we were served bottles of Schaefer beer by Dee - the Platonic form of gravel-voiced-bouffant-hairstyle-wearing-kind-hearted-old-waitress. We once asked Dee her opinion of New Haven. Her comment was terse and to the point: "New Haven sucks!" she said. Here is a fine painting of The Anchor by Connecticut artist Charles Santarpia.



But to get to the real heart of New Haven, it was necessary to take Dixwell Avenue and drive north toward Hamden. Here you would find the Monterey Cafe, the Unique Boutique, Church's Fried Chicken and liquor stores that would serve booze to young whiteboys from Hamden with fake IDs - Lamont's, Reliable Liquors and Basque's Liquor Cabinet. If you really kept your eyes peeled as you made your way past the storefront gospel churches and ads for menthol cigarettes, you'd spot the true epicenter of Old School New Haven Culture: The Disco Laundromat. I snapped a picture of it in 1989. I believe this is the only picture of the Disco Laundromat in existence.



If you took all the funkiness of that stretch of Dixwell Avenue and distilled it down into human form, you'd have the band Blind Justice. This band was a miracle that took place in New Haven in the late 80s and early 90s. During this time of crack wars and interracial strife, Blind Justice brought everyone together. Rocking funk-rap before the Chili Peppers blew up, this band was the best live act I've seen (and that includes Trouble Funk and the Grateful Dead). The lead singer, Kris Keyes, could magnetize a crowd and rock a mic unlike anyone I've ever seen - most New Havenites actually believed he was supernatural. We all assumed that they would go all the way. The fact that they didn't is proof that there is No Justice in the world. Their anthem was the song Checkmate. Check out the 1min 45sec point - note how black folks and white folks were digging it together. Then check out how they hit the groove at 1min 53sec. Another ripping jam was Carry the Load. Check it out when they hit the 2min mark. If you were in New Haven in 1990, you were probably there. And you probably wound up at The Anchor when it was all done.