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[lobosolo]

About a year ago, Mary announced that for her 65th birthday present she wanted something special: a trip to Japan in springtime to see the cherry blossom. So what could I do but agree? We started looking for a package tour. I didn't think it was feasible to organise a trip there on our own (seeing as how neither of us speaks a word of Japanese),

Comments

[a_trick_mind]

Thanks for posting the photos. The cherry blossoms make me want to be back in DC or in Kyoto. Excellent photo of you at dinner.

[lobosolo]

One thing I meant to mention was how unfailingly friendly, helpful and cheerful we found everyone in Japan. Everywhere we went, people would invariably go out of their way to help us order a dish off an incomprehensible (to us) menu, or show us how to buy subway tickets or something of the sort. We were embarrassed to think that Japanese tourists in London and other Western cities probably aren't treated anything like as courteously.

It may sound ungrateful or even racist to say this, but every time a young person showed us a kindness in this way, I couldn't help but wonder if his grandfather had been a brutal prison camp guard in WWII. When I was young, I knew people who had suffered appalling cruelty as prisoners of war in the Far East, so much so that they could not bear the sight of a Japanese face. Yet Japan today seems to me to be the model of a caring and humane civilisation, far more so than our own countries.

[a_trick_mind]

When we were on Guam, site of much Japanese cruelty in WWII, and current Japanese honeymoon favorite, we heard some of the older Guamanians sing a song about the Japanese. I don't really remember the lyrics, but in part they went, "What the Japs couldn't win with bombs and guns, they buy with money by the tons." Apparently all is not forgiven.

[lobosolo]

I remember as a teenager reading about some of the horrible tortures that the Japanese inflicted on their prisoners, such as simulated drowning. But times change. That practice has been given the jolly name of "waterboarding", as though it were some kind of a sport (like surfboarding or snowboarding), and Donald Rumsfeld has authorised it as an "admissible interrogation technique".

[cool_moose]

You've triggered my urge to re-visit wonderful Japan. I've been there a few times, from one end to the other, on the amazing shin-kan-sens.

And, among your many talents, Chris - is that of a photographer. You have captured Japan beautifully. More art than photography.

Happily, in Vancouver's April and May - the cherry blossoms blanket our city as well. And they escaped the December storm that brought down 15,000 trees in our Stanley Park - some 100's of years old.

[lobosolo]

Ever since we got home, Mary has been saying that she wants to go straight back there. The cherry bloosom may already be over, but the azaleas and wistarias that we saw in tight bud will be at their best by now. I would also like to see a lot more of Japan than we were able to get to in two short weeks.

That's a great photo of you and your two sons in your latest LJ posting. As you say, you're a fortunate man (we both are).

[butsu]

fantastic shots!
may I friend you? I´ve considered myself a lone wolf all my life. And my surname stands for wolf itself, too.

[lobosolo]

Thanks! I'm always glad to have new friends.

[butsu]

ok. glad 2 meetcha