A big reason for this trip is my mom's father, Yoshio Hayashi. When he passed, we decided to visit Japan and my mom promised that she would show him where he grew up, Kishiwada. So today we planned to visit his hometown and spend the day being shown around town by his best friend's family. But first breakfast!
Our hotel does a really nice traditional Japanese breakfast. I don't know what mom ordered but we all 5 had something a little different. Oh, I forgot to post photos of the dinner-boxes on the train last night so those pics are first and a photo of breakfast in our room this morning.
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| Dinner boxes on the train. Essentially Japanese boxed fast food |
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| Everything tasted fresh and check out the color! Impressive. |
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| Please ignore my foot in the picture. |
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| A gorgeous red plum tree in front of the temple |
We grabbed the subway train out to Kishiwada. The subway station was very cool and ran different trains on the same track, in the same direction, but you can buy a ticket for specific trains that skip 75% of the stops to get you there quicker. Once we arrived in Kishiwada, we were greeted by grandfather's best friend's son, Hiroshi-san. Hiroshi-san turned out to be an excellent host and tour guide. Our first stops involved driving by a temple that was over 700 years old. We then dropped some coins inside an offering well in front of another temple for good luck.
After the temple, we toured a local Japanese garden. I have to give Japanese the award for best-in-planet gardens. I'm sure this was not one of the top gardens in Japan and yet it was incredibly beautiful. In just another couple of weeks when the blossoms come out, I imagine it will be even more pretty.
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| Tranquility |
After the garden, we went to check out the local castle. As recently as 100 years ago, a warlord ruled the village from this castle. My grandfather's home was just a couple of blocks walk from the castle as he was samurai blood. Before we got to the castle, we saw some young boys playing baseball and went to check it out. It turned out that the boys were playing fast-pitch softball! Apparently teams that come out of this village are sometimes National Champions in Japan and you could tell that they were above average in skill. What was really cool though is how they would chatter before the pitch. Probably the Japanese version of "hey batter batter". Then after every pitch, the entire infield would run toward the pitcher and saying something to him from about ten feet away. Kind of odd, but some kind of a show of support for the pitcher. After the game, both teams lined up 5 feet from one another and bowed. Then they turned toward the opposing dugout and bowed to the opposing coach. You can't help but love the Japanese culture for the way they show genuine respect for one another.
The castle was very cool but was not the original wooden castle. 70 years ago, it was completely renovated. However, it still has a sense of power around it. It is surrounded by a moat on all sides except for the bridge to the front gate. In the past, there was a system of waterways in the adjacent areas around the castle but the village built on top of the rivers at some point.
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| The Castle |
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| Incredibly manicured trees across from the castle |
Across from the castle was a fenced-off area with a guard. Our guide said a few words to the guard and we were allowed past the fence. To my surprise, we walked up to a training center with Kendo-styled men warming up with Kendo swords! I had never seen Kendo before so I was really excited. After the men saw us sitting outside the doors, they invited us in to watch them practice. It turns out our host's son is around my age and was one of the group. However, besides him, the rest of the group was in their 50's and 60's! Instead of Kendo, they were training in a related art called Kiai, which specializes in some subtle movements with the sword including how to take the sword out and put it away with skill and beauty. I spoke for a few minutes with a black gentleman-warrior who seemed to understand english pretty well. After getting to know him better, it turns out he is from Canada and is a Buddhist monk!!! He was telling me that he essentially has trained in more martial arts than anyone I know and that he trains Kiai primarily for meditation and focus. Mattie got a lot more photos than I did but here is what I got on my iphone. It was really a privilege to see these masters and their focus for 15 minutes before we headed out.
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About as legit as it gets. These guys gave me the feeling they could end my life pretty easily
even though they were 60 years old! |
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| The guy on the right is a black Monk from Canada :) |
Ok, I need to rest after all that blogging. I'll blog the second half of the day in a bit! What a day!
Note from Mom: Just to clarify, my father didn't live there because he was from the samurai blood. The area was part of the castle area at one point, but his father bought the house/land after everyone was "liberated." On another point, the boys were playing softball, not baseball. They continue to play baseball until they are much older. They were really cute and apparently quite skilled.
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