Cherry Blossoms (Hanami) Movie

I’m still holding onto my Japan trip last month ever so tightly. This weekend I went to see Hanami (watch the trailer below) at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. I had desperately wanted to see Hanami at the Cleveland Film Fest before my trip, but missed it because we were out of town that weekend for March Madness.

I loved the film! The impermanence of the cherry blossom season, which appears and then vanishes within 10 days every April, reminds us that life is short and should be seized and treasured. The movie is about the relationship between a German husband and wife and how it’s never too late to learn about each other and fulfill your dreams.

Looks like it’s on queue for a Netflix selection… A lot of the movie is conversed in English since it’s the common language between German and Japanese. You'll see clips of the area near Lake Kawaguchiko and Tokyo, both of which I visited last month.

Love Letter to Japan

My favorite new song by The Bird & The Bee...

Reflections

I’m four hours into the 13-flight from Tokyo to Newark and reflecting on how to savor details and feelings from this trip. I’d like to prolong what I’ve experienced -- balance, personal growth, contentment, accomplishment, appreciation — so that come Monday after a full work day, these feelings don’t disappear like the cherry blossoms that are falling from the trees.

I’ll miss using chopsticks (even though I STILL don’t hold them properly), making fun of the people on our language tapes with Gina, random acts of kindness (presents!!!!), nods of respect, warm toilet seats, experience meals (shabu shabu, yaki-tori) and cherry blossoms. Thank god it’s getting warmer because walking outside is a beautiful thing!

As a bonus, I hope my Japan adventure has stimulated my motivation to finally finish our Asia-inspired guest room. I’d like to get back in the habit of framing pieces I’ve bought instead of shoving them in a closet until inspiration strikes at a later date. I’ve got a bunch of stuff from my D.C. trip a year ago, Bangkok in the fall and now my Japan souvenirs. Michael’s, here I come!

Ten days for this trip appears to be a perfect length. I’ve had a wonderful time with a great traveling companion, and now I’m ready to go home. I haven’t heard my husband’s voice in 10 days, and that is an eternity. I definitely have a shelf-life when traveling if he’s not with me.

When I told friends and family about my plans to visit Japan, many people wondered what the allure was for me. I hope I’ve helped to give you a flavor of the beauty, tradition and culture that drew me to visit.

Lake Kawaguchiko & the Itchiku Kubota Museum

We've really been lucking out with our hotel locations and friendly staff. We arrived at our hotel in Lake Kawaguchiko at nightfall, so we weren't able to fully appreciate the glistening lake and glimpses of Mt. Fuji until this morning.

Our hotel staff served as our personal chauffeurs to the Itchiku Kubota Museum and then back to Lake Kawaguchiko Station to catch our bus to Tokyo, which was really convenient.

When I visited San Diego in December, I caught a glimpse of the Itchiku Kubota kimonos as art exhibit, which traveled there and is currently on display in Canton (the only U.S. destinations). At the exhibit, I read about the artist's museum in Japan that married his kimono art with the natural landscape surrounding Mt. Fuji, and it locked down my desire to plan this trip.

The museum is tucked away on a side road off of Lake Kawaguchiko, which is where we stayed last night. You would never know it was there unless you were looking for it.

Once through the front gate, the spectacular site took my breath away. The museum itself blends into the landscape since it's comprised of stone and 1,000-year-old beams formed to make a pyramid-shape building that resembles Mt. Fuji. There are trails in the back that also are home to sculptures and other works the artist collected.

During our visit, we learned that it takes about one year to create each kimono using the intricate tsujigahana knot tying, dyeing and embroidery technique. Kubota finally perfected the technique at age 60, which is an inspiration to any late-blooming artist.

He dreamed of creating 80 kimono that represented the four seasons and the universe, but he died before completing his task. His family has been continuing to create the kimono from his vision.

We loved how many of the kimono were designed to function as pieces of a larger mosaic design of Mt. Fuji. It's really something to see displayed in person (sorry, no photos were permitted). If you haven't visited the exhibit in Canton, yet, go. It's there until late April.

Fuji-san!

We finally got great views of Mt. Fuji today with his glistening peak above Lake Kawaguchiko. All of our shots were taken from moving vehicles...the courtesy car from our hotel on the way to Kawaguchiko Station to head back to Tokyo and then on the bus ride.

Transportation overload

We did it! It took three bus transfers and a lot of pantomiming with our broken Japanese, but we made it from Hakone to Lake Kawaguchiko near Mount Fuji. Here’s a rundown of today’s transportation madness:

--Hike for 30 minutes toward a Mt. Fuji viewing point until we tired

--Ride from hotel chauffeur to mountain train station
--Ride train to cable car station
--Ride cable car up a mountain to the Hakone ropeway station
--Ride ropeway gondola roundtrip and squint for views of Mt. Fuji despite clouds, admire sulfur
vapor rising from Owakudani volcano
--Ride cable car back to trainstation, accept carved mirror gifts from lovely Japanese woman
happy to practice her English and proud of our Japanese speaking skills (???)
--Ride train to station near hotel
--Walk back to hotel
--Ride bus headed toward Gotemba, pass the Hakone Glass Forest, get off at next bus stop and
schlep luggage back to Glass Forest, pass on ride offer from friendly Japanese man
--Continue bus ride to Gotemba, transfer to bus for Kawaguchiko
--Call hotel and speak broken Japanese to secure ride from station (high five after getting to
say“moshi moshi” on the phone…how Japanese greet one another by telephone)
--Ride in hotel van driven by 14-year-old

Whew! Are you dizzy? I sure as hell am. It may just be the after-effect of the onsen bath at our hotel…whole other story.

The Glass Forest was gorgeous…imagine crystals hanging from tree branches like little sparkling flowers. We loved that parts were open air so you could admire the beautiful mountains and springs outside. We ate lunch al fresco in the café and tried not to laugh at the bizareness of a Japanese man singing Italian love songs. No idea about the relevance of hosting this type of Italian museum in Japan, but it was awesome all the same. Too bad we ran out of time to visit the Open Air Museum.

Once we got to our hotel which overlooks Lake Kawaguchiko, one of the Five Finger Lakes near Mt. Fuji, we were starving, so we made reservations for the sushi bar. No one at our hotel speaks English, so the chef brought out the fish he had and we pointed to what we wanted prepared and he told us the name in Japanese. We had tuna and mackerel sashimi and some rolls with a shitload of wasabi that burned my nostrils and eyes. I couldn’t stop laughing when Gina said the Japanese wearing masks (we’ve seen a ton) to prevent allergies from hanami season (cherry blossoms) should just use wasabi to clear out their nasal passages.

Oh, and once the chef served us, he hovered over our table until we started eating, which was unnerving. We told him our sushi was delicious, and he made us another round.

After dinner, we bought beer from the vending machine and tried to sneak it in the onsen (public bath), but then thought better of it.

Tomorrow, we hope to visit the Kubota museum to see seasonal, gorgeous kimono in a breathtaking mountain setting. The exhibit I saw in San Diego in December was the inspiration for taking this trip to Japan. Then, we head to Tokyo.

Sayonara!

Tomorrow starts my 10-day Japanese odyssey with my friend Gina. I've got cherry blossom fever big time, so I can't wait to get moving despite the 30-hour journey from Cleveland to Kyoto. BUT, I found out that I've been upgraded to first class (for free) for the first leg of our flight tomorrow to Houston, so I'm psyched. I've never flown first class before! Hopefully we can convince the folks at check-in to let Gina accompany me. Now if only we can score deluxe seats for the 14-hour flight from Houston to Tokyo and the four-hour train ride to Kyoto... Here are some highlights of our itinerary:

Kyoto: April 2-6
- Visit Nijo Castle and as many of the 19,000 temples in the city as possible
- Go geisha watching in Gion
- Breathe in the cherry blossoms (check out the blooming forecast...perfect timing!)
- Take a sushi cooking class

Hakone: April 6-7
- Explore the Venetian glass museum (the blogger who reviewed the museum in the link helped us to plan our transportation for our trip. Thanks Sandy!)
- Ride the Hakone ropeway by Mount Fuji

Lake Kawaguchiko: April 7-8
- Admire kimono at the Itchiku Kubota Museum at Mount Fuji (Canton currently is showing kimono from this museum, and I saw a preview of the exhibit in San Diego)
- Sample the hot spring by our hotel

Tokyo: April 8-10
- Ogle giant tuna at the Tsukiji Fish Market
- Poke around the Imperial Palace
- Grab coffee with a reporter at Time magazine in the ginormous Mori Tower

FYI, since we're staying in Japanese ryokans for most of our trip, I won't have reliable Web access until Tokyo. I'll do what I can to find Internet cafes every couple days to blog, and I'm hoping I'll have Web access on my work phone so I can send travel updates via Twitter (check the home page of my blog on the right side). The phone's on the fritz, so I'm doubtful that will happen since I can't make or receive calls at this point. So, DON'T WORRY if you don't hear from me for a while. We're going to have a great time, and we're visiting very safe cities.

Back to packing...