![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Up close and...
May. 23rd, 2003 12:57 amOkonomi is a pancake-like structure with vegetables and various additions -- squid, prawns, crab, thinly-sliced beef and/or pork -- all layered and cooked on a griddle in front of oneself. It's huge, protein-rich and delicious ;-). Colleagues of mine found a tiny shop in Naramachi and they passed along a deserved recommendation. It was a bit intimidating -- through the curtains and sliding doors, it's tiny (six small table-griddles, each seating four) and there's nothing in romanji. The lady running it looked dubious. There was a baseball game (Hanshin vs. Hiroshima) on a corner TV. I ordered the daily special and then watched as she cooked for three women at the next table. Then mine... mmm. Aromas. Bonito flakes. Ginger. I gave her my card, and she asked me about my home... it turned out that she had passable English and that she visits a friend in New York City once a year to see Broadway musicals :-).
After a while, all of the other guests had finished their food and drifted out. Myachi sat down and talked with me... she's owned and run the same shop in the same place for 33 years. She has two grandchildren (she's in her 60s, but looks like late-40s) and a daughter. Her husband died from leukemia eight months after they married, leaving her alone to raise her daughter.
She went in and brought out two small bowls of cut apples, and gave me one. Then as we talked further, half each of a grapefruit. We glanced at the evening news, she cleaned up, and then closed up and walked with me back towards the hotel while taking her poodle for a walk. She continued on while I waddled back to my room (it was a *huge* amount of food ;). A companionable evening.
Today's papers concluded the formal meeting, focussed mostly on robot controls. The Canadian Space Agency described their plans to transfer the control of the Space Station onboard manipulator down to the ground. More attention was arguably paid to various negotiations between participants... alliances of research groups being formed and abandoned, informally across national boundaries.
Seeing nothing particularly interesting in the sessions following lunch, I skipped-out and explored Nara-koen (park). There are small herds of deer scattered around the park and forest, like ( these ) outside of the conference hall. But if they scent a rice cracker, they jerk their heads side-to side and pursue humans (as in ( this picture ). I was nipped from behind by one doe...nothing serious.
The park's most prominent attraction is the world's largest bronze Buddha contained in the largest all-wooden structure, at Todai-ji. On the middle of a weekday, it was busy with ( schoolgroups ). Rather than being a nuisance, I was rather pleased to watch and note the similarities and differences between these groups and my own children's field trips. Megaphones, uniforms, flags with numbers... it all looked regimented at first. But the kids were playful, would slip away from the group, chase each other, ignore the flag-waving teacher... just like I'd expect to see at home. And the characteristic Japanese reserve seems to me to be much less in children -- they were happy to be direct, to ask embarrassing or silly questions, or to come up and practice their English. Several junior high kids asked me to sign their notebooks. Even if one offered me a deer cracker and mimed eating... not falling for it, I mimed antlers back.
After purifying my hands and face, I went inside the temple, paid my admission and ritual respects (tossing a 5 yen coin in a bin for good luck), looked at the enormous 1300-year-old statue, and then wandered around back. One support beam has a hole drilled that's the diameter of the Buddha statue's nostrils -- legend has it that those who can wriggle through this 1m-long narrow hole are certain to gain enlightenment. I put all sense of dignity aside, lined up with the queue of 8-10 year olds, and managed to wriggle through fish-like. It was tight... only 45cm (about 20 inches) in diameter and smooth.
While waiting, a high school student approached me to practice his English. After he learned a bit about me, I gave him my business card, which then attracted the other boys over. Then I was peppered with questions, praised for my struggles with Japanese, and asked about sports teams and whether I'd met George Bush. "Heiwa" means "peace" in Japanese ;-). Then the high school girls came over. Interestingly (for a society in which girls are supposedly in deference to the boys) the boys stepped back and the girls dominated the talking. It was fun -- they all wanted NASA business cards, and wanted to talk and hang out. After a while, we took a (inevitable? ;) photo, ( shown here ). Where the teens all shouted "get-it!" in English and pointed both fingers forward...
Then I roamed around Nara-koen awhile, visiting two other shrines and the forested hillside before returning to the closing session of the conference.
Only three days left... but I felt like I got to spend time interacting with Japanese people at a more-personal level today.
After a while, all of the other guests had finished their food and drifted out. Myachi sat down and talked with me... she's owned and run the same shop in the same place for 33 years. She has two grandchildren (she's in her 60s, but looks like late-40s) and a daughter. Her husband died from leukemia eight months after they married, leaving her alone to raise her daughter.
She went in and brought out two small bowls of cut apples, and gave me one. Then as we talked further, half each of a grapefruit. We glanced at the evening news, she cleaned up, and then closed up and walked with me back towards the hotel while taking her poodle for a walk. She continued on while I waddled back to my room (it was a *huge* amount of food ;). A companionable evening.
Today's papers concluded the formal meeting, focussed mostly on robot controls. The Canadian Space Agency described their plans to transfer the control of the Space Station onboard manipulator down to the ground. More attention was arguably paid to various negotiations between participants... alliances of research groups being formed and abandoned, informally across national boundaries.
Seeing nothing particularly interesting in the sessions following lunch, I skipped-out and explored Nara-koen (park). There are small herds of deer scattered around the park and forest, like ( these ) outside of the conference hall. But if they scent a rice cracker, they jerk their heads side-to side and pursue humans (as in ( this picture ). I was nipped from behind by one doe...nothing serious.
The park's most prominent attraction is the world's largest bronze Buddha contained in the largest all-wooden structure, at Todai-ji. On the middle of a weekday, it was busy with ( schoolgroups ). Rather than being a nuisance, I was rather pleased to watch and note the similarities and differences between these groups and my own children's field trips. Megaphones, uniforms, flags with numbers... it all looked regimented at first. But the kids were playful, would slip away from the group, chase each other, ignore the flag-waving teacher... just like I'd expect to see at home. And the characteristic Japanese reserve seems to me to be much less in children -- they were happy to be direct, to ask embarrassing or silly questions, or to come up and practice their English. Several junior high kids asked me to sign their notebooks. Even if one offered me a deer cracker and mimed eating... not falling for it, I mimed antlers back.
After purifying my hands and face, I went inside the temple, paid my admission and ritual respects (tossing a 5 yen coin in a bin for good luck), looked at the enormous 1300-year-old statue, and then wandered around back. One support beam has a hole drilled that's the diameter of the Buddha statue's nostrils -- legend has it that those who can wriggle through this 1m-long narrow hole are certain to gain enlightenment. I put all sense of dignity aside, lined up with the queue of 8-10 year olds, and managed to wriggle through fish-like. It was tight... only 45cm (about 20 inches) in diameter and smooth.
While waiting, a high school student approached me to practice his English. After he learned a bit about me, I gave him my business card, which then attracted the other boys over. Then I was peppered with questions, praised for my struggles with Japanese, and asked about sports teams and whether I'd met George Bush. "Heiwa" means "peace" in Japanese ;-). Then the high school girls came over. Interestingly (for a society in which girls are supposedly in deference to the boys) the boys stepped back and the girls dominated the talking. It was fun -- they all wanted NASA business cards, and wanted to talk and hang out. After a while, we took a (inevitable? ;) photo, ( shown here ). Where the teens all shouted "get-it!" in English and pointed both fingers forward...
Then I roamed around Nara-koen awhile, visiting two other shrines and the forested hillside before returning to the closing session of the conference.
Only three days left... but I felt like I got to spend time interacting with Japanese people at a more-personal level today.
