How I know that I am not in greater DC

I have only seen two escalators out of order in 6 weeks (and one looked like routine maintenance with a vacuum cleaner).

Almost no one is overweight.

Most people get around by public transportation or bicycle.

The fireworks that Nick and I went to lasted an HOUR.  There were a few pauses of 3 to 4 minutes, but still....  And they were spectacular with many multiple deployments and interesting shapes like the dragon flies and smiley faces.

Police officers ride scooters.

The taxi cars are clean, with white fabric covers on the seats and white gloved drivers.  No smoke smell, no phone calls, no radio.  The driver opens the doors some secret way from the inside.  A couple of times a cab has signaled that it would stop, then has driven on by when it saw who we were.  (That might not be so different from some people's experiences in DC.)

Wire transfer

In order to have more of a financial cushion, I initiated a wire transfer of money from my Credit Union to my Japanese bank.  Quite an ordeal.

1.  I went on-line to get the Credit Union form.

2.  I took it to my bank here to get the routing numbers and codes.

3.  I brought it to the office here at the university, and asked if they could FAX it for me.  They did, and indicated that I should check back in a few hours for confirmation that it had been received.  It was received.

4.  I used Google Voice (at one cent a minute) to phone the Credit Union and answer all their security questions.  They had the FAX, and made the transfer.

5.  When I finally got my cash card yesterday, I looked at the balance to see if the funds had been credited.  No.

6.  This morning I went to the bank to enquire (in Japanese).  They showed me the wire transfer form -- it had only "Marguerite Barratt" on it, thus not matching my bank book, "Barratt Marguerite Elizabeth".  I had to fill out a form, in my own writing, attesting to the fact that this was one in the same person.  I made an error as I completed the form, crossed it out with a straight line drawn by ruler, and marked the strike-out with a stamp from my hanko (seal).

At this point they went into Japanese that I could not understand.  I asked them to repeat slowly. I still did not get it, so they had someone in back write it out in English.  They wanted to know what I was going to do with the money?????  I indicated (in Japanese) that I would buy food and drink, and do usual things.  That seemed to be a satisfactory explanation.

After 45 minutes at the bank, they indicated that the funds would be deposited later in the day today!

Cash card (and the ceramics festival)

About 10 days after I arrived, my host professor took me to open a bank account.  This was a moment of great relief for me because I had in my possession over $12,000 worth of cash from Fulbright.  Yes, a huge stack of 10,000 bills ($100) worth over 12,000 dollars.

We ordered a cash card (debit card).  I kept thinking it would come into the mail slot on my door. But it did not.  After maybe 2 or 3 weeks,  nothing had come, so I searched for another mailbox. Turns out there was one on the side of the building that held a lot of junk mail, PLUS a postcard addressed to me and written in Japanese.

One of the support staff at work helped me realize that this was an attempted delivery notice, and it had taken so long for me to find it that the mailed item had been returned to the sender (presumably the bank).

So I went to the bank with the notice and asked if it might be possible to pick up the card at the bank.  They indicated that was not possible, but that they would try to send the the card again.  They emphasized the importance of putting my name on my mailbox.  Unaccompanied women everywhere are reluctant to announce their presence, but I cut the name off my name card (in katakana) and taped it on the mailbox.

Monday I discovered an item with my name on it in the mailbox on my door.  Since this door is inside a locked lobby, I thought it might have to do with my rental.  I was paying the rest of the rent that day, so shared the notice with the rental agent.  He indicated that it was an attempted delivery notice, phoned the post office, and asked me to choose from several time slots.  I thought that it would be re-delivered in that time slot.

But nothing happened during that time slot.  So Wed. I went to the nearest post office.  The clerk kindly showed me on my map where my main post office was, and I went there, was shown to the right window, and got my card!

My first attempt at using the card was at a combini (convenience store).  I pushed the button for English, it lead me on a couple of steps, then it said it could not provide guidance in English, and this I must press cancel.  Finally, the machine at the post office gave me cash!  And, I noticed, I could have put in my bank book at any time to get cash........

Wait, I said above that I paid the rest of my rent.  What this means was that I paid $5000 cash (in yen) to complete the payment for the entire 6 months that we will be in the larger apartment. Yes, I have not moved in yet, and have paid the entire rental amount in cash.

As I was walking from the small post office to the main post office for my neighborhood, I saw a multilingual sign like they use at historical sites.  It said that this was a neighborhood famous for potters, and that they had a pottery festival every year from from August 6 to 10.  Darned if it was not the morning of August 6, and tons of vendors were setting up for the pottery festival!  And I now have some interesting small items.

U Vou tex

U Vou tex is the tag on my new umbrella.  This umbrella is made in China, and labeled only for sale in Japan. 

This one is for the sun -- which is terribly hot and oppressive.  Rather than use my basic rain umbrella for the sun, I now have a sun umbrella which is edged in a bit of lace like the ones carried by the  Japanese women.  For the grand sum of 525 yen, about $5.00, I have an umbrella complete with instructions: 

Precautions for use

*This product has a  pointed end.  Be sure to check the safety of your surroundings before using this umbrella.
* Do not use this umbrella as a walking stick
*Do not use the umbrella if the handle or the rip tips are damaged
*Do not swing or throw the umbrella around
*Do not use the umbrella against gale force wind and downpours as it may break
*Do not touch the rib structure fo the umbrella
*When the umbrella is not completely dry, keep it away from clothing and other itmes as it may cause color transfer.
*PLEASE WATCH YOUNG CHILDREN WHEN THEY USE THE UMBRELLA

Climbing Mount Fuji

Peg, Nick and Nick’s friend Derek set out yesterday morning from Kyoto for Mount Fuji. Preparations included assembling and sharing all the warm clothes that we had. A trip to the hundred yen store helped out with extra rain gear, batteries for the flashlights, and as recommended by the guidebook, a small towel for each of us. We also accumulated a number of ¥100 coins, as suggested, for the pay toilets. The outfitting process also including finding a replacement backpack for Derek -- his backpack blew out earlier on the trip.

We took a taxi to the station, and the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Shin-Fuji.  A very helpful person at the information desk got us onto the right bus for the Fujinomiya trailhead.  Kyoto is at an elevation of near sea level, and the bus took us to the 5th station at an elevation of 2,400 meters.  The bus stopped for about 10 min. at a shrine on the way up so that we could pray for a successful ascent of Mount Fuji.

We started hiking at a little before 2 PM with the goal of reaching the 8th station, where we had a reservation for the night, by 6 PM for dinner. Clearly Nick and Derek hiked faster than I did, but they waited at each of the stations for me to catch up. This is not a wilderness experience. As far as the eye can see in all directions is volcanic rubble, with a very few flowering plants. There are lots of other hikers taking the same route, so we were constantly greeting and greeted by people coming down, “Konichi-wa.”

6^th station 2,490 meters

new 7^th station 2,780 meters

old 7^th station 3,010 meters

8^th station 3,250 meters

top 3,776 meters

The map actually gives the times traveling between the stations instead of distances because the distances are so deceptively short.  We stayed fairly close to the time estimates, even with me walking somewhat deliberately.

I was following along with the family with 3 children, one of them are girl quite young, so I asked how old she was. Dad indicated that she was 7, and the other 2 kids were about 10 and 12. Dad added that he was 44.  This family had a guide, and we saw other guided groups.  We also saw quite a few other children, with families, with one parent, or with one grandparent.  And we saw a school group of about 125 middle school girls, attended to by about 5 adults.  Mostly we saw young adults, but there were certainly elderly people too.

The estimated time between the old 7th station and the 8th station was listed as 40 minutes.  But I was clearly lagging on this leg. It wasn't until I was fully at the 8th station that I realized that I was experiencing a mild level of altitude sickness. This feels approximately like a combination of the flu, morning sickness, and car sickness, but without the fever. Dinner was served at the station, but I was only deep able to eat a couple bites of white rice.  Derek and Nick were pleased to help eat the rest of my dinner.  I was trying to figure out what to eat when I remembered the value of crackers in morning sickness, so I bought Ritz crackers. The sports drink Aquarius that I had carried up, and Ritz crackers got me through till morning, when I was feeling quite a bit better.  I felt better sitting up, so slept part of the night sitting up – I have had a lot of practice sleeping sitting up in semi-darkened rooms with Power Point presentations and on economy flights. 

For sleeping accommodations, we climbed up a ladder to a space for the 3 of us that was about the size of a queen bed.  Walls of about 15 inches height separated us from the other groups.  There was a very thin mattress on the bottom and 2 thick quilts for the top. Very cozy.  And not terribly sanitary.  There was room to sit up, and for the people below us to sit up. There were hooks for hanging the backpacks, but once the backpacks were hung, it was hard to sit up.

They explained to us that there would be to wake up calls at 2 AM and 4:30 AM. The 2 AM wake-up call was for people like Nick and Derek who were going to climb to the top to watch the sunrise from the top of Mount Fuji. The 4:30 wake-up call was for those of us who were going to watch the sun rise from station 8.

Needless to say everyone went right to sleep after dinner. In fact, most people were asleep before 8 o'clock lights out.   I looked outside a couple of times in the night, and you could see dots of light from people's headlamps as they were climbing Fuji at night.

Nick and Derek made to the top, with about 20 cold minutes to spare before the time for the sun to come up. Unfortunately the top was in the clouds. They did walk by some patches of snow. Because the clouds were close in and visibility was low, they did not walk all the way around the caldera before descending. We met up at station 8 and ascended more or less together.  Because it was now morning, “Ohio Gozaimasu” was the greeting.

The whole thing felt like a cultural experience. Most of the hikers were Japanese, many were carrying wooden hiking sticks that they had branded, ¥100, at each of the stations as they went up.  We saw the towels tied on people’s backpack, draped around their neck to keep off the sun, and tied around their heads.

Not surprisingly, we slept most of the bus trip down to the station, and train trip back to Kyoto. Seems incredible that we did so much in so little time.  People suggested that it was disappointing that it was cloudy, but the clouds were visually interesting, and with only intermittent sun, we did not need to worry about sunburn.  We felt very fortunate that we did not have the harsh rainy windy weather that can come to Mount Fuji, even this time of year.

Japanese class

At the Kyoto International Community Center I am taking a second level Japanese class twice a week for 2 hours at a time.  The other students are from China (2), Korea (2), France, and Canada.  The teacher is doing a good job -- Japanese only.  We have to stand in front of the class with a classmate and present dialogues, write answers on the board in hiragana (one of the phonetic alphabets), and complete written homework.  What is amazing is that it is working!  Each of us is getting better with our Japanese.

Volcanologists, Peg as tour guide

Volcanologists, Peg as tour guide

After the volcanology conference in southwestern Japan, I had a visit from 3 researchers who were sent my direction by daughter-in-law Liz.  They had a short stop in Kyoto between their conference and the old capital Nara.  We had a really nice several course lunch at a low table in a tatami mat room.  Featured was a warmed soft tofu dish served with a soy sauce-type sauce that is typical of Kyoto.

Then we went to the Kyoto food market – maybe more like Eastern Market in DC than a farmer’s market.  Lots of pickled things, strange seafood, dried fish, and other oddities.  One of the more strange items was a small octopus on a stick, with a note that the head had been stuffed with a quail egg.  I did not try it. 

They were also able to find a good assortment of souvenirs – hand painted fans with bamboo stands and chopsticks engraved with their names and those of their friends. They selected katakana – the writing system for foreign words – for the engraving.  And there is an awesome knife shop where they got a handmade fish knife.  It was sharpened right as they bought it  -- with the front 4 inches very sharp, then the back of the blade not so sharp – so that the back would be stronger for cutting the bones as needed. 

The flier from the knife shop says, “For over 4 centuries, the Aritsugu family has been creating Japan’s finest quality cutlery and cookware.  Since 1560, 18 generations of the Aritsugu family have continued to pass along the forging techniques preferred by the Imperial family.  Located on nishiki Market, known as ‘Kyoto’s Kitchen’, Aritsugu provides Japan’s leading chefs with hand-crafter knives and cooking utensils, especially those used in preparing traditional Kyoto cuisine.”