yakihito

Tea Gardens of the Bay Area: Saratoga

Having visited the Japanese tea gardens in San Mateo and San Francisco, I decided it was finally time to head down to Saratoga to see the Hakone Gardens, a site I only recently learned about.

Nestled at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains on the Silicon Valley side of the range in Saratoga, California, the Hakone Gardens are in interesting mix of Japan and Northern California. The site looks impressively Japanese—it's the most "Japanese" of the three I visited—and yet it's also unmistakably part of Northern California. The smell of the forest, that dense lushness I associate with camping trips amongst towering trees and moss, permeated everything and kept me grounded in where I actually was.

The Hakone Gardens were started in 1915 by a San Francisco socialite couple who were intrigued by the Japanese section of the Pan-Pacific Exhibition held that year in San Francisco. After visiting Japan themselves, including the Hakone region, they set about creating their own slice of Japan in the South Bay.

Two particularly impressive aspects of the garden are the Upper House, which was built in the traditional style (without nails) as a place to do moon viewing (tsukimi) in August.

I also really like the Kizuna-En, the bamboo garden. If it weren't for that ever-present scent of Northern California moistness I could easily have imagined myself at some zen temple in Kamakura.

Other ways you can tell you're not in Japan:

The carp don't beg because no one feeds them...

And there's graffiti on the bamboo. For shame.

Well worth the trip if you're in the Bay Area.

More photos available here.

Year of the Tat

This week is my 36th birthday, and to celebrate I thought I'd do something special. I went on down to Godspeed in San Mateo, my tattoo parlor of choice, and got the kanji for rat (nezumi) put on the back of my left arm.

It being my 36th birthday, this is the third time I've gone 'round the zodiac. Since I was born in the year of the rat, and it's during a rat year that I'm going to Japan, I figured it was auspicious enough to warrant a tattoo.

Plus I just love rats, and I miss the two that died last year, Niko and Loki. Now I always have them with me. Awww.

The New Cutest Girl In The World

Way back in May I proclaimed Aoi Miyazaki the cutest girl in the world. She's certainly still cute, but since then I've been watching another Aoi's star rise and I think it's finally time to declare a new cutest girl in the world.

I give you: Yuu Aoi. And she can act! Check out Hana and Alice, All About Lily Chou-Chou and, um, Hula Girls for proof.

See? Great acting!

Of course, what could be better than the former and current cutest girls in the world together? Actually, nothing.

Looking Up Kanji

Harvey over at JapanNewbie posted recently on the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary, which reminded me that I myself had recently picked it up again after buying it and never really using it.

A year ago, when I started studying kanji seriously at San Francisco State, our sensei told us to go to the Kinokuniya in Japan Town and buy a kanji dictionary. "Just buy the one that seems best to you," she said. So I bought the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary because it was for learners, which is what I was. I got it home, tried to look up something, and was totally mystified. So I put it on the shelf and bought a Canon Wordtank V80 instead.

The Canon Wordtank V80 is an electronic Japanese/English dictionary with the ability to input kanji directly on the screen with an included stylus. Actually, the Wordtank V80 also has Japanese/Japanese, Japanese/Chinese, English/Chinese, and English/English dictionaries, but it's the kanji functionality that attracted me to it.

I use it all the time. I see kanji I don't know, I draw it on the screen, and there it is. Or something close. The nice thing about the dictionary is not only is it forgiving on stroke order, it gives you a number of similar-looking kanji that you can choose from in case your writing was sloppy. You can also do compounds. Write the next kanji in the word and it'll give you the word. You can then jump to the dictionary to see the meaning. What's cool is you can use the stylus to jump. The keyboard is of a good size too.

My problem with the Wordtank V80 is it doesn't have nearly as many compounds as I'd like. Which is why I've gone back to the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary. I've never used a "real" kanji dictionary so I don't know how the Learner's Dictionary differs, but looking up characters isn't all that difficult once you know a little about how kanji works. As long as you understand how many strokes there are per radical, you can look up any character quickly. And it gives you lots of compounds and meanings. Very nice. I'll definitely be using this more from now on. Now if it were only more portable...

Oh, a lot of people in my kanji class use the Nintendo DS and the Sono Mama program to look up kanji. I've never used it, but there's a comparison between my Wordtank V80 and the DS here. Apparently it's pretty useful. I was watching a guy looking up characters for what I guessed was a business Japanese class (the book cover said ビジネス, "business" rendered in katakana). If it has what he needs, I'm sure it has most of the important kanji.

At the Asian: Netsuke

This is the last of my posts on things I like at the Asian Art Museum, where I just finished a tenure volunteering. These are called netsuke, and they're little hand-carved figurines that are used as toggles for hanging pouches and medicine boxes in the Edo era. My favorite is this kitsune, or fox, which reminds me of the kitsune in a Hiroshige ukiyo-e woodblock print.

Kimono don't have pockets (duh) so the cord of the pouch or box would be looped over the belt and secured by the netsuke. In the early 1500s, when they first appeared, netsuke were simple in form. But, as you can see from these pictures, by the Edo era they had gotten pretty darn cool.

Netsuke seem to me like the Edo era-equivalent of cell phone charms. Choose one that matches your personality, like that kitsune or a little cat or a drunken guy or something. I wonder if there was ever a fad to have like a billion netsuke on one pouch.

At the Asian: Haniwa

When thinking of Japanese history, you often think of samurai, from the Sengoku (Warring States) period through the Tokugawa era. Perhaps you think of the Meiji era, or back to the Heian period. But how about the Kofun period?

The name Kofun (古墳), which means old tomb, comes from the burial mounds found over much of Japan. Dating from AD 250 until the Asakusa period started around 538, not much concrete is known from this time period as it predates writing (which was later introduced to Japan from China). What is known comes from a few references to the Japanese islands in Korean and Chinese records, and via archaeological remains, such as haniwa.

Terra cotta clay figures, haniwa were buried in the kofun with the dead. The haniwa were made to represent birds, horses, fish, weapons, and people. At the Asian Art Museum, the two I particularly liked were this soldier, with his wide pantaloons, and this bearded fellow. With his wide-brimmed hat and curly locks, he looks to me like he should be walking around Fairfax in Los Angeles! His hat also reminds me of the hats worn by the men in those Korean period TV shows. Hmmm.)

Ready To Move

As you can tell by this picture, my room is in a shambles. All that metal is the remains of my once upright Ikea loft bed. A friend is coming to get it tomorrow. Why give it away? Can't take it to Japan, right?

Last night I slept on the floor, something I've never done in this room. I wish I had waited to take down the bed, as I was hit by an asthma attack in the middle of the night. I have an allergy to mold which causes asthma, and being in Daly City up in the fog this room has a lot of mold. Even though I wipe down the windows often, it must still creep in. No fun. I can still feel that little niggle in my lungs.

So why am I moving out now when the Japanese semester doesn't start until April 1? Good question. My lease here is up at the end of this month so I'll be a free agent until I leave for Japan in late March. Next stop, Los Angeles.

At the Asian: Goth Kimono

This picture, done on silk with ink and colors, is from the Meiji Period (late-1800s to early 1900s) and likely depicts a courtesan. I found myself coming back to this one again and again during my volunteer tenure at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum because of the striking clothing design. We tend to think of skulls on clothes as being a recent thing, perhaps from the punk era. But here is a woman with a kimono covered in human skulls! Her obi is pretty cool too—it's got an oni on it.

Courtesans were known for their flashy outfits (while geisha were not). I've seen representations of courtesans in pictures and in movies anf they often have on a lot of bright colors. The movie Sakuran is a good, recent example of the style of the courtesan. But I've never seen anything as "goth" as this lady!

I have the feeling that were I alive in Meiji-era Japan, I probably would have blown all of my savings on visiting this one.

(Oh, sorry for the crappy picture. It really is time for me to get a new camera.)

At the Asian: Chinese or Japanese?

For a while now I've been volunteering a few afternoons a month at the Asian Art Museum, a great museum in downtown San Francisco with an absolutely stellar collection of artifacts from around Asia. I finally remembered to bring my camera in (on my last day, even) so I'll be putting up pics that I like over the next week or so.

To start off, I'm posting this picture of a banner that hangs over the main entry way. The information booth, in which I often sat, directing patrons to the bathrooms and escalators, is right under this banner, which gave me ample time to stare at it and wonder if those characters are indeed Chinese. They look like hiragana to me. Perhaps not modern hiragana, although there are a few in there, but more of the old hiragana, often called hentaigana.

I'm no scholar of classic Japanese. I'm barely even a scholar of modern Japanese. And the only Chinese characters I know are the kanji I've learned. But those characters look pretty Japanese to me.

I asked about it and someone at the museum promised to get back to me but never did. The scroll depicted in the banner isn't on display in the museum, nor is it on the Asian Art Museum's website. Any scholars out there who can shed some light on his for me?

Tea Gardens of the Bay Area: San Francisco

The Hagiwara Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park was originally built in 1894 as part of the California Midwinter International Exposition (which also saw added the de Young Museum, which recently was rebuilt).

The Tea Garden, the oldest such public garden in the United States, was constructed by Baron Makoto Hagiwara, based on the site of the original Japanese Village, as created for the Exposition.

According to Internet Tours,

Designed in a rustic style to address the rugged site and its surroundings, the original Japanese Tea Garden included a large public area and small private area for the Makoto Hagiwara family.

This increased the size of the garden to about five acres, considerably larger than the original one acre exhibit. In addition to the landscaping and construction of several structures, Mr. Hagiwara imported many plants, bronzes, goldfish, rare Japanese birds, statues— including perched and spread winged eagles, a Shinto Shrine, a porcelain lantern, a wooden Buddha and much more.

The Hagiwara family lived in, maintained and enhanced the Japanese Tea Garden from 1895 until 1942 and the beginning of World War II, when they were forced to evict and relocate to concentration camps with other Americans of Japanese descent. The garden was renamed The Oriental Tea Garden, many structures were demolished or moved from their original locations, sculptures disappeared and plants died or were relocated.

As with the San Mateo Japanese Tea Garden, as a kid I loved coming to the Hagiwara Garden. Looking at it today, it's not hard to see why: the place looks like a section of Disneyland! It's pretty small and crowded, with lots of hills and bridges to run around. The pagoda, which dates from 1915 and was built for the Panama-Pacific International exhibition, recalls the Heian Shrine in Kyoto and, like that replica of the old Imperial Palace, looks almost Chinese. It also looks like something out of a ride.

While walking around the garden, I was reminded of something a friend from China said about San Francisco's China Town: "It's more Chinese than China." The same could be applied to the Hagiwara Tea Garden (with the appropriate country substituted in, of course).

Just when I was feeling particularly snarky, I came across the drum bridge, or taiko bashi. I loved this as a kid! Reading the placard next to the bridge, I learned that it was built by Shinshichi Nakatani, a shrine builder who made numerous trips to San Francisco at the behest of the Japanese government to build the bridge and a gate (now gone). To fund his trips and projects, he sold his family rice fields. His son had to remain in America for decades to earn enough money to get the fields back.

Thank you, Nakatani-san. Your sacrifice significantly enriched my childhood and contributed to my current appreciation for Japanese culture.