On Saturday, Jon and I started the day slowly, catching up on the blog and writing postcards, and making our breakfast and lunch at the hostel. We used up most of the food we'd bought from the grocery store, and the rest we left in the free-to-use boxes in the fridge.
We initially were feeling pretty ambitious, and planned to go to the manga museum, and then to the imperial palace or to a tea ceremony, before going to Yoshiko's dinner party at 6pm. Then we decided tha the palace and the tea ceremony were too far away from the manga museum, and our feet were pretty sore from all the stair climbing the day before, plus we had a timeline to stick to. Also, one of the hostel staff told us the palace was boring and we knew that the tea ceremony was a bit expensive. So, we decided to go to an Edo castle close to the manga museum instead. In the end, however, the meandering walk we took to the manga museum, as well as our time there and ice cream on the way back took up the remainder of our afternoon (we didn't set out until about 1 pm).
On our way to the manga museum, we stopped in at an imports store. It was neat to see foods and alcohol from home (small bottle of maple syrup for 1700 yen!) and from afar for sale. I initially went in because I was trying to find a tea we sampled at the vegetarian restaurant in Kurama. The tea is called Hoji Buncha, and it is smoked green tea. I really liked it and wanted to bring some home. I asked a guy stocking shelves if they carried it, and after looking at the tea packages uncertainly, he handed me one. I haven't opened the tea yet, so I'm not sure if it is the right thing or not.
The manga (comic) museum itself was excellent. I was a bit dubious as to how much I'd get out of it because manga isn't really my thing (I like what I've seen well enough, but I don't really share Jon's passion) and also because most of the museum, the guidebook told us, is not in English. I was, however, enchanted by the museum. It was really well organized chronologically, with a time-line in English showing the development of manga and anime alongside major events in Japan. All of the manga books were also organized into sections by date and genre. The museum, which is build inside an old public school, and owned by one of Kyoto's universities, which specializes in manga research, is also a vibrant community space and library. It was quite busy when we were there, filled with people of all ages lounging about and reading manga. There were also workshops, places to watch manga artists at work, and a storyteller performing for children in the style of the Japanese moving picture tradition (using a series of drawings in succession to tell a story) that is the root of manga & anime (I forget what it's called!) Neither of us could really read any of the manga (they have a very small international section, but in English, there were mostly American comics: Superman, Batman etc.) There were also special exhibits by particular manga artists, one of whom was local to Kyoto. So, we got to see some manga art (and manga) unavailable in North America. The gift shop was also lovely, and Jon managed to pick up a copy of the first Ghost in the Shell book which is written in both Japanese and English, one under the other. He hopes it'll help him with his Japanese reading skills. I also picked up Yokai Attack!: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide by Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda. Matt Alt is an American expat writer living in Japan, and Hiroko Yoda is his Japanese wife, who is an art photographer primarily. Jon's been in contact with Matt Alt, and we're going to meet him when we go back to Tokyo. The monster survival guide is kind of neat, and I think it will be fun plane reading. It's sort of like a field guide to the mosters of Japanese folk lore, and I'll get to learn about many of the creatures I've seen around in statue form!
After the manga museum, Jon and I stopped for ice cream. Jon had green tea/vanilla softserve, and I went to Starbucks for a matcha soy frappucino. Surprisingly, it's really hard to find soy products here, other than tofu. Soy milk, soy ice cream and mock meats are all rare. We think soy milk is probably fairly easily found, we're just not sure where to look. We know there is one soy ice cream place, called Mr. Bean, because we saw it in a JR station, but we didn't have time to stop and try it. It seemed like a health food specialty place, though. Mock meat, other than the soy puffs we had in Kyoto, is apparently next-to non-existant here. We don't eat a lot of mock meat at home (and when we do we often make our own) but it is handy when you want a quick meal.
After our ice cream, Jon and I went back to the hostel for a quick shower before going over to Yoshiko's. It has actually been quite warm and sunny the last few days (I guess the rainy season isn't all rain) and so we have been pretty sweaty at the end of the day. When we got to Yoshiko's, she showed us which of the foods she'd prepared were vegetarian. Then, she shooed us out onto the balcony while she finished preparing food. When she was ready, she called us back in, and soon after, the other guests arrived. There were about 13 of us total, including three little kids. Most of the guests didn't speak much English, so they only spoke to us a little, but one of the guests, Ana, who was just meeting Yoshiko for the first time, spoke a fair amount, so we spent most of the evening talking to her, and to the friend she had come with, whose name we unfortunately forget. Her friend, a rather boisterous man, didn't speak too mulych English, but once the “alcohol heated his brain” as he put it, he was quite willing to give it a go. I think he is actually better at the language than he thinks he is, because we didn't have too much trouble understanding him, with a little help from Ana thrown in. We talked about all sorts of things, including differences between Canada and Japan. It was interesting to find out that their impression of Canada was that people carry guns. I said that in Canada, there are quite a few guns, but that most of them are used for hunting, or by farmers to defend their crops and herds. I told them that people can't carry around handguns in Canada, and they also have to fill out all sorts of paperwork to own a gun (I know there are various arguments around this, and that there are plenty of unregistered firearms about, but it seemed best to simplify, particularly since I've never owned a gun, or used anything other than a bb-gun, and truthfully, don't know that much about them or the laws).
At first I was a bit nervous that we wouldn't have enough to eat, because there were only a few dishes for a large number of people; however, it turned out that that was only the first course. In the first course, we had salad with fresh organic greens, radish and tomato, a hajiki (a type of seaweed), atsageh (fried tofu) and carrot salad, a mushroom, veggie and noodle salad, a tomato salad and various cheeses, and edamame (fresh soy bean) and sticky rice balls wrapped in nori (seaweed). We tried a little bit of everything. For the second course, we had a spicy noodle and veggie stir fry, which Yoshiko cooked in her hot pot. She also made us a Japanese pancake (typically has cabbage and other veggies in it, along with meat, but she made a meatless one for Jon and I) as the third course.
We had a really good time with everyone. I was shy at the beginning of the night, being nervous of the language barrier, and also not wanting to say the wrong thing and offend anyone, but I soon discovered it was an easy going group, and if we screwed up our Japanese (or they their English) it was just a great joke for everyone to enjoy. (I think the liberal flow of beer, wine and sake helped as well). I told them “sake o nomimasen” (I don't drink alcohol) and they seemed tickled that I said it in Japanese, since mostly I didn't try to speak Japanese, though Jon made a valiant effort (and they were quite happy to correct his pronounciation etc). One thing they told us was not to say you love (shiteru) an object. Apparently that is very strange. You only say that you like an object very much (daisuki). Love is reserved for people. We took group pictures after dinner, and Yoshiko promised to send a copy to me. It was a great night and we felt very welcome. Everyone, even those who spoke little English, said they enjoyed having us and we should come back to visit Kyoto again. I really hope we do some day.
After dinner, we all went out to look for fireflies by the river. Yoshiko said we might not be able to see any, because the river is too high, so it's been a bad year for them. We were lucky, however, and we did see a few. It felt quite magical, all of us standing in the dim light on the little bridge over the river, chatting and laughing and waiting for fireflies. The first few we saw hunkered down near the water, and only omitted a tiny glow. Then, however, we saw one in the bushes which was shining with an intense green light. It flew suddenly out of the bushes, and right past my face, and landed on Jon's shirt, sitting there like the ember from a fire that would not burn out. Then, after not very long, it was gone again, flying away where we couldn't see it any longer. After the firefly left, we parted ways too. Yoshiko gave us big bugs (the last of many she gave us throughout the night) and promised to stay in touch.
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