Ep 20 Big Blog Adventure

Our Japanese friends take their religions seriously

At the Kiyomizu-Dera Temple in Kyoto the Blogs were guided around the temple gate and temple which nestle against the mountains. On one side there is a 100ft drop to the ground below. We were told that back in the 19th century a trend developed among the local devotees to prove that their gods were looking after them. This proof required two things,

1. the devotee had to jump off the temple walkway 100ft above the ground
2. the devotee had to survive

Amazingly more than 85% of those who tried it survived. It seems that there was sufficient foliage below to break their fall leaving them with just cuts, bruises and fractures. Rather sensibly the practice was outlawed.

Ep 19 A serious one - Big Blog Adventure

As the title says this is a serious post. Our visit to Japan occurred in the 80th year since the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a city which our visit included.

If you wish to know some of what we learned then please click on the link,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Sasaki

If you did so the following will make sense...

...after our tour of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum we were each given a gift of an origami crane by our coach driver. He makes them himself for all the people he takes there.

Ep 18 Big Blog Adventure

The Geisha house visited by the Blogs was over 200 years old and now functions as a museum. Which is just as well. As a functioning Geisha house it drew its clients from only the highest ranks of society and admittance was based on trust with guests required to have a sponsor. Without its new status as a museum the Blogs might not have been let in.

These high-end customers expected high-end entertainment, which, if the Blogs had ever been let in, Mrs Blog was ready to provide.

She was invited by the owner of the musem to try out a Shamisen. The Shamisen is a type of Japanese banjo made up of a small wooden drum, a broomstick, three strings and some clothes pegs. Despite the obvious differences to western guitars, Mrs Blog knocked out a more then passable rendition of Clapton's "Lay down Sally". 

Ep 17 Big Blog Adventure

A trip to Japan would be incomplete without a visit to a Geisha house. 

The Blogs discovered that girls begin full-time training at the age of 15 for six years to qualify. They must be expert in the following to graduate,

• Conversation
• Singing
• Playing musical instruments
• Dance
• Acting
• Flower arranging

For many years Mr Blog has wondered why such an occupation developed in the first place. 

The answer lies in tea house competition. It seems tea houses back in the day decided to "up their game". One of them started it by employing a guy to stand outside and encourage customers to come in by telling them it was the best tea house. It worked. Soon the street was full of guys making the same claim about all the other tea houses. So they stepped it up again.

A guy outside and tea plus sake inside, then...

A guy outside, tea and sake inside and music...

Eventually, the idea of the Geisha was born and still exists today. 

(Meanwhile in the UK we developed TV adverts with chimpanzees to achive higher tea sales!)

Big Blog Adventure Ep16

Mr Blog grew up in a world that is now largely the stuff of history lessons. There have been many changes along the way which are for the better. The toilet for example.

In his youth Mr Blog experienced the trauma of not only having to use the outside toilet on visits to Nana-Thewitch-Blog, but also sharing it with countless daddy-long-legs. The loo roll wasn't a loo roll - it was cut up squares of newspaper hung on string on a nail in the wall. Back then, at the age of five, you believed that this is as bad as a loo can get, but as the years passed you find out that you are wrong.

Holidays in France provided further education . "Open to the air troughs in the pavement" surrounded by a cast iron screen provided an introduction to the French disregard for complex sanitation. Later in the trip, the legendary "Footplate" system in France was a revelation. This topped the Mr Blog list of "Toilets never to visit again" until he discovered the communal, unisex, four sets of footplates facing each other model.

Traumatised, Mr Blog vowed never to go to the loo in France for the rest of his life. However, he overlooked the practicality of keeping this vow (in his defence he was only 14 years old). A later trip in his early twenties for three days to Normandy put paid to his toilet-vow when it proved completely unworkable.

Scroll forward to Japan this year and you will appreciate that Mr Blog was a little nervous! He needn't have been...

Japan is a truly global centre of excellence for rest rooms! All of them have heated toilet seats, even the public ones! They are all immaculately clean. They almost all have integral bidets with myriad buttons to operate the strength and direction of water jets. 

In one hotel there was a loo where the toilet lid opened automatically as soon as you opened the bathroom door and again, automatically closed when you left. Mr and Mrs Blog spent hours opening and closing the loo door trying to catch it out -  a bit like closing the fridge door slowly to see if you can catch the light going out!

Sadly, Japanese loos would be wasted on the French.

PS While writing this post Mr Blog got very immersed and lost track of the time, nearly missing the start of the Lions Vs Wallabies. Having told Mrs Blog of the near disaster she said, "Did you get bogged down?"

PPS Apologies to Sussex-Nephew-George Blog for not spotting his comments! Thank you.

Ep 15 Big Blog Adventure

The Blog adventure included a trip into the mountains. Given the Blogs are domiciled in Scotland, mountains are something they are accustomed to. After several hours of climbing upwards, Mr Blog asked Eric-the-guide-Blog how high up we were and was told that we were close to the height of Ben Nevis.

"Wow. So how big are those mountains over there?"

"They'll be over ten thousand feet."

Wondering if we might see some snow (despite this being springtime in Japan) Mr Blog noticed a sign on one of the gantries above the road warning of this very weather hazard. The Japanese department of transport thoughtfully used an image to warn drivers who struggle to read Japanese...

Sadly no signs to warn about the bears or large groups of snow monkeys!

Ep 14 Big Blog Adventure

It would be foolish to travel all the way to Japan and not experience a tea ceremony. The Blogs are not fools. So impressed was Mr Blog, that he recounted in detail the entire 45 minute ritual for Mate-Mike-Spoiltheparty-Blog. 

Here is the short version...

A venerable, well established tea house had lowered its standards far enough to admit us.

On entering the bamboo and paper-walled room, Mr Blog noticed a few things were missing, carpets, seating, tables, plug-in kettles and sugar. Instead there were tatami mats, cushions and a woman in a kimono with some pottery.

Sitting cross-legged (or at least the nearest the blogs could manage) the centuries-old ceremony was explained by our host. A mix of Zen, socialising, honouring guests, cultural conversation and tea drinking.

The tea is made following a very srict method and takes years to perfect. The host judges the temperature of the water in the kettle (non plug-in) from the sound of the bubbling water. The tea is a green powder which is whisked with a carefully crafted bamboo whisk. The cup is presented to the guest with both hands and with the decoration on the cup facing the guest. The guest drinks the tea and turns the cup so the decoration faces the host.

(And there is so much more.)

Back to Mate-Mike-Spoiltheparty-Blog, who, hearing all the above says...

"Forty-five miuntes for a cup of tea? You could have gone to Costa for that!"