Tanuki Hunt 2025

 Friday, April 18, 2025

Our plan today was to meet with our friend, Terin, who lives in Kyoto, and who promised to show us some ceramics and other interesting things that were a bit beyond Kyoto’s city limits. We had an early lunch of delicious 7-Eleven food so we could hop in Terin’s car and go, without delay for eating. (When I say “delicious 7-Eleven food,” I am not joking. The 7-Eleven stores in Japan are ubiquitous and delicious.  I love the sandwiches and the onigiri they sell.) 

Terin said he would show us what the more rural places, on the other side of the mountains from Kyoto, were like. He also mentioned, very casually, that we might see a place that sells tanuki. I wrote about last year’s Tanuki Hunt here. I love the little tanuki I brought home last year, but it’s too small. I need another one.

Ken wanted to buy a koinibori, also. (That’s a set of carp streamers or windsocks, traditionally seen during Golden Week.)

We stopped at three or four garden centers and hardware stores, but we did not find any koinibori, even though Golden Week begins in about ten days.

We drove through an area where tea was being grown and Terin shared some of his tea expertise with us.

Little fans on the poles keep the tea plants from freezing on cold nights

At one point we saw one of those animal crossing signs, and it had a tanuki on it. I was surprised, since we weren’t that far from Kyoto. Terin confirmed that tanuki do indeed live around there and can occasionally be seen running across the road.

I wrote about last year’s Tanuki Hunt here. I love the little tanuki statue I brought home last year, but it’s too small. I need another one.

Terin said he thought we might even see a shop that sells tanuki. Just when I was beginning to think we would not find a tanuki shop, we rounded a curve, and we suddenly saw three or four stores with yards jam-packed with tanuki of all different sizes!!!

We must have seen at least a dozen shops like this as we drove through the small town of Shigaraki. We stopped at a nice shop and I pinched myself to make sure this was not a dream. Of course, Terin knew all along that we would find the motherlode of tanuki.

There were many more tanuki inside, along with other gorgeous ceramics, such as plates and bowls.

The traditional tanuki wears a straw hat, and he has a jug of sake and a book of IOU’s. Many also carry a walking stick. Occasionally you will see a tanuki carrying some other object or wearing something different. It may be a female tanuki wearing a frilly dress. Some tanuki have vicious-looking teeth. Each one seems slightly different.

You see tanuki outside the entrance to many businesses in Japan. You also see them outside homes. (In Japan, no one has to worry that their tanuki might be stolen or vandalized.) They are said to bring good luck. I don’t believe in good luck charms and I don’t believe a statue can bring good luck. However, I feel that having a tanuki outside your home sends a message of welcome, and it is a cute reminder of our travels in Japan.

I ended up buying a larger tanuki for half the price that I paid for the small one in Tokyo last year. Ken got a ceramic lantern for the backyard. We also bought a beautiful bowl for a gift. We arranged to have the shop ship the ceramics to our hotel in Yokohama so we won’t have to deal with the extra packages until we are ready to board our ship.

No, this is not the one I bought

I had mentioned to Terin that I would like to go to Lake Biwa, so he drove us there next. Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan. I had seen something suggesting it was a place of great natural beauty. It is famous for freshwater fish and cultured pearls.

Woodcut: Yabase Crossing and View of Lake Biwa, by Hiroshige, 1850
Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Lake Biwa was not at all what I expected. It was intensely developed and it appeared that no thought had been given to aesthetics. Access to the shoreline appeared to be limited and views were blocked by ugly multi-story buildings. Also, the traffic was quite bad - a lot of residents commute to Kyoto.

The Michigan, a Mississippi River-style paddlewheeler operates as a tourist boat on Lake Biwa

Almost small enough to take home with me

A school bus in a rural part of Shigaraki

Once back in Kyoto we started to think about dinner, and we decided to go for katsu - breaded cutlets. First you grind your sesame seeds in a suribachi - a ceramic mortar with a ridged interior.

Then you add tonkatsu sauce.

There is a sesame salad dressing for the cabbage. There is always cabbage with katsu. And you always get soup, rice, and tea.

Itadakimasu!

(Said before a meal in Japan. It means “I humbly receive.”)

Today’s fabric is a navy blue tanuki raccoon dog pattern by Japanese Indie, not currently available. 

Shabbat Shalom!

The Five Divine Benefits

Wednesday, April 16 and Thursday, April 17, 2025

(Wednesday was a travel day, so I don’t have much content for my blog. I will combine my reports for Wednesday and Thursday.)

We arrived in Kyoto with the feeling of returning home. We have been here enough that we know our way around bustling Kyoto Station, the station neighborhood and our hotel. We have a few favorite haunts here, as well.

The entrance to our hotel

“Wet room” containing shower and soaking tub

Our hotel is the DoubleTree by Hilton Kyoto Station. In the last year or two Hilton has significantly expanded its footprint in Japan. Last year when we were in Kyoto, we stayed at this same property, but it was part of the Daiwa Roynet chain. It’s a good place to stay. It’s close to Kyoto Station, and the rooms are quite large for Japan.

After we got settled we walked back to the station to visit our favorite tenugui shop. It was a little disappointing this time. They had many of the same tenugui we had purchased 6 years ago. Few of the new ones were appealing. Tenugui are traditional Japanese hand towels made out of a thin cotton. They make beautiful wall hangings, but they can also be worn as a scarf, or they can be used to wrap a gift. We ended up not buying anything at the Kyoto Station tenugui shop this time. We will keep looking. 

We also went to look for some geocaches near the station. The first one was too hard to find because there were so many people in the area and you’re not supposed to let someone see you finding a geocache because they might not understand what it is and they could take it, or throw it away, or report you to the police. The second one turned out to be inside a bar, and we just didn’t want to go in there. I don’t think the official geocache rules would allow placing one inside a business, especially a bar. The third one was on a fairly quiet side street and we succeeded! I really wanted to find one today because today is “Geocache in Your Pajamas Day” and you get special credit if you find one today. You do not have to actually wear pajamas.

A few things we saw while we were out:

Cute little food trucks near Kyoto Tower

A man cleaning the sides of the escalator

On Thursday we went to see Ginkakuji - the Temple of the Silver Pavilion. We had seen it several years ago, and we wanted to get another look at the gardens there. Ginkakuji was originally constructed in 1482 as a retirement villa for one of the shoguns, who requested that it be converted to a temple after his death. 

I also picked this particular temple because it was on the east side of Kyoto, and therefore much closer to our hotel. I looked up directions for getting there and saw that Bus 5 from Kyoto Station would be an easy way to get there. This turned out to be untrue. Bus 5 goes in a large loop to western Kyoto, through gridlocked downtown traffic, and finally comes back to the east side and to the entrance to Ginkakuji. The good news is that when you take Bus 5 back to the station it is a very short trip.

It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed walking along a pleasant street from the bus stop to the temple.

  

A small restaurant beckons with cute bears and realistic plastic models of menu items

Ginkakuji’s gardens have a Zen Buddhist influence.

Kogetsudai - Moon Viewing Mound

Ginshadan -Sea of Silver Sand

The Silver Pavilion

This is not a rooster weathervane, but a phoenix that permanently faces east

After Ginkakuji, we headed over to Kyoto Gyoen, a National Garden, located within the Kyoto Imperial Palace complex. Despite the imposing wall and gate, entrance was free to this garden. 

Inside, we found pleasant paths and lots of trees.

Kyoto Gyoen invites us to “see venerable trees of historical interest and feel their presence.” That’s a good illustration of how the Japanese feel about their trees. I can’t even think of a “venerable tree” in all of Anchorage.

As we walked through the grounds of Kyoto Gyoen, we came upon Shirakumo Shrine, a shrine devoted to the goddess of music. According to ancient Hindu philosophy, Music is one of the Five Divine Benefits. 

These Five Benefits are tied to Saraswati, a prominent Hindu goddess associated with knowledge, wisdom, music, learning, and the arts. In Japan, this goddess became known as Benzaiten. Benzaiten became associated with Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan. Different sites on the internet list different benefits, or divine gifts, or virtues, or values, or qualities, in connection with Saraswati, or Benzaiten. It’s hard to pin it down. Even the list above offers both concrete benefits and more abstract interpretations of the benefits.

I couldn’t find out much more about the Five Divine Benefits from a quick internet search. I think the list is so interesting, and so non-Western.

If I were asked to name Five Divine Benefits, the Shirakumo Shrine list would not be my list. I probably would have said: Love, Health, Peace, Food, and Beauty.  Ken said: Compassion, Empathy, Truthfulness, Tikkun Olam (fixing the world), and Knowledge. What would you say?

We took the subway back to our hotel, avoiding all buses, and after a bit we ventured back to Kyoto Station to visit our favorite sushi place, Sushi No Musashi. This place has become extremely popular over the years, so we went around 6 pm to beat the crowds, and we had a 30-minute wait. By the time we left, the line looked like a 90-minute wait. It takes two three people just to manage the line and send hungry customers to their seats.

The line has four or five loops. At this point it seems to surpass the capacity of the restaurant.

This is a conveyor-belt restaurant. The sushi chefs in the center are constantly placing small plates of sushi on the conveyor belt. The types of sushi change, and you can ask for a particular type. There is a sign in front of each group of plates with the name of the type of sushi in Japanese and English, along with a picture of that type. The plates are color-coded according to a price list. Prices range from about US$1.25 to $5.25, though there might be a few that are more expensive.

You just take whatever you want and eat it. It doesn’t get any fresher than that. Then you add the plate to your stack of plates. When you are ready to go, the staff will add up the number of plates you have in each color and calculate your bill.

Our stack. The two yellow plates are for our beers.

Oishi! 

Delicious!

Today’s fabric is the tenugui, a thin cotton hand towel. This is a photo of a tenugui we bought several years ago. I found the photo on this website about tenugui. 

Photo credit: Kamawanu

Be Kobe

Monday and Tuesday, April 14 and 15, 2025

This was our first visit to Kobe. With a population of 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan’s seventh largest city. We stayed for two nights. We probably should have stayed longer, but we didn’t think it would be very interesting. So wrong.

There are numerous museums here, as well as other tourist attractions. Our first day was mostly a travel day, so we had to make the most of our second day.

We stayed at the Daiwa Roynet Kobe Sannomiya Premier. It is a typical Japanese business hotel. If we don’t know where to stay, we pick a hotel from the Daiwa Roynet chain and it is always clean, safe and in a good location. The rooms are usually quite small, so we try to reserve two or three steps above the cheapest level so that there will be two chairs, and the bed won’t be up against the wall on two sides. The rooms have just about every amenity you can think of, so it’s reasonably comfortable here.

Oops, we still got a bed with two sides against the wall - but it’s a king.

As we made our way to the Kobe City Museum, we passed an area of arcades (covered shopping streets) and I saw a booth welcoming passengers from the Noordam. I asked and found out the Noordam was indeed docking in Kobe today. That felt exciting, because we will be boarding the Noordam in just under two weeks. I hoped that we would be able to see her when we walked to the port later, but all we got to see was her stacks.

I have to mention that the weather was awful. The high was around 53℉ and it was very windy. It rained intermittently, as well. But we walked as much as we could.

We saw some banners hanging outside of Daimaru, a large department store. 

• I thought perhaps Daimaru was wishing a Happy Passover to the very small Kobe Jewish community. That seems unlikely, though.
• There is a Japanese Christian movement called makuya. They use a menorah as their symbol, rather than a cross. Maybe they are being recognized by Daimaru?
• Or maybe it’s just a stylized tree?

Here are some interesting “maintenance hole” covers.

Some other random sights:

A little white bear on top of the word “familiar” apparently has its own cafe 

 

A place to recycle plastic bottle caps!

At the Kobe City Museum we saw a small exhibit called Bronze Bells and Communities - Exploring Life in the Yayoi Period through the National Treasure, Sakuragaoka Bronze Bells. The Yayoi Period extended from approximately 300 BCE to 300 CE. Archaeologists believe that during the Yayoi Period the population of Honshu and Kyushu transitioned from hunter-gatherer to settled agricultural communities, and social classes began to emerge. Some archaeological sites were known to exist in and around Kobe for a long time. Large keyhole-shaped mounds still exist in the area. Then, in 1964 a stunning discovery happened by chance on a hillside near Kobe. Seventeen bronze bells from the Yayoi period were excavated. Figures of humans and animals were cast on some of the bells.

These bells were incredibly evocative. I could imagine the sounds they made. The simplicity of the exhibit removed all the distractions of a typical museum gallery and it was easy to focus on the bells and think about the moment of their fortuitous discovery. (I majored in Anthro many years ago, and I still love this stuff.)

The Kobe City Museum also had a small but interesting exhibit on the history of Kobe. The port was opened to foreign trade in 1868. In 1889 the city of Kobe was born, and in 1958 Kobe merged with surrounding areas to become the Kobe of today. There were a few old maps, and a small display on old glass brought by early European traders. How the mysterious properties of glass must have amazed people who had not seen glass before! 

But that was about the extent of it. The second floor of the museum had virtually nothing. We were rather disappointed that they didn’t have more to offer.

We rode the “Blue Loop” to the port. It’s an inexpensive city bus that loops around to all the tourist spots, but it’s a regular bus, not a hop-on hop-off. We got off the bus near Kobe Tower, a landmark in the port area.  Other than the tower, which we did not go into, and the “Be Kobe” sign, this area was not that interesting.

Kobe Tower

I really like this sign

Next, we visited Ikuta Shrine, after walking there from Sannomiya Station. Ikuta is possibly one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan. It is said that the shrine was founded by the Empress Jingu at the beginning of the Third Century CE (~200 AD).

As we walked back to our hotel, we began to pass a lot of restaurants featuring Kobe beef. I had been researching places to get Kobe beef, and I recognized the name of a place we passed as a restaurant that was frequently mentioned as one of the best. The sign indicated the dinner menu would be available, and we decided to go up and look.

It was very expensive, but we decided it was a bucket list type of thing and we had to try it because we might never get another chance to have real Kobe beef while in Kobe. 

it was about 4:00 pm and the restaurant was nearly empty, which was good. We were seated after 10 minutes and we had the full attention of our chef. It was a teppan-yaki meal, meaning cooked right in front of us on a large, flat heated iron plate. We got to pick the kind of meat, the cut, and the size. I picked a smaller portion of Kobe beef rump and Ken picked a slightly larger piece of rib-eye that was not certified Kobe beef, but the top type of local beef.

Every step of it was artful, without being flashy or pretentious. There was no flipping pieces onto our plates from six feet away or drumming with knives on the edge of the stove. A lot of care was taken to show us what was being done and to present the food properly. Everything was spotlessly clean. The chef constantly cleaned as she went. The timing of everything was just right. It was fresh and delicious. It really was a perfect meal. Ken thought it was the best beef he had ever had.

The uncooked vegetables (for one)

Jumbo pieces of garlic (for two). We could have had more, but we don’t tolerate garlic well.

Mine is in front of Ken, and vice versa

The chef renders some of the fat

The first taste is served with various condiments: salt, black pepper, wasabi, onion

We sat on the left, where two assistants are cleaning up

Today’s fabric is the Kobe Tartan. According to The Scottish Register of Tartans, the Kobe tartan symbolizes the city - blue for the Port of Kobe, light green for the Rokko mountains, red for the Port Tower and principal bridges, and white for the principal buildings and Kobe pearls, a specialty of the city. The tartan was created in 2014 for Kobe Fashion Organization.