A Trip to Wani and Old Friends

On Sunday, we took the train (clean, quiet, on time) from Kobe to Kyoto, then another train up into the mountains to visit Jim’s long-time friend Carl Becker and his wife Akiko. Carl teaches and heads up research projects for Kyoto University, and has lived in Japan for 35 years. Akiko teaches American History – Civil War and Reconstruction – at a university north of Tokyo, living in an apartment near Tokyo during the week, and commuting 6 hours home by plane and train every other weekend. They are a “commuting couple” – a common occurrence in Japan.

Carl and Akiko live near Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan. Even though their home is considered rural by Japanese standards, the homes are densely packed in their town of Wani, with houses built vertically, and not much yard between houses. This is true throughout Japan, where land is at a premium. Looking at their lovely lake view, Carl laughed and told us that he leaves home each morning before six and doesn’t return home until after 8pm, so he doesn’t get to see the view very often. The Japanese work long hours and take very little vacation time – Carl said many Japanese work their whole careers without ever taking more than a long weekend off.

Carl and Akiko took us into town to dine at a totally automated Sushi restaurant, which was a blast! Here’s how it worked: Akiko entered the number of our party in the reservation computer, and received a receipt with a number and the approximate wait time. When our number was called, we walked ourselves over to the numbered table which was designated for us. On the table were cups and a hot water spigot, where we were welcome to make ourselves cups of green tea. Dishes of all different sorts of sushi, soups and desserts paraded past our booth on a conveyor belt – when we saw something we wanted, we just lifted the plate off the conveyor, and it was ours. If you wanted something that you didn’t see, you could punch it into the computer and it would come down the conveyor on a special red plate. Each plate had a bar code on the bottom, and when the plate was empty, we sent it down a chute in the table that recorded the price of what we had eaten, and kept a running tally of our bill so far. For every 5
plates, we got a turn at the computerized slot machine on our computer display, for a chance to win a gum-ball prize (this is very popular with children). We didn’t win anything. When we were done eating, Carl pushed the Total on the computer screen, and a human (the first one we encountered!) brought over our bill and asked if everything was satisfactory and thanked us for coming. Totally cool!

The Japanese consider customer service to be of the utmost importance. At the restaurant, it would be much easier to have our bill print out at the table and have the transaction completed with a card swipe, but the Japanese feel that the personal touch, and thanking the customer is essential for doing business. We noticed the same at the supermarket we visited in town (like a Super-Walmart, with clothes, food and garden supplies under one roof) – they have automated everything but the checkout, which still has a pretty lady to thank you for your business. (The toilets at the supermarket were totally cool too, with warmed seat, refreshing spray and a button to push to make continuous flushing noises in case you are shy of peeing in public places!)

We stayed up late, with Jim and Carl talking old times. As is customary here, we brought presents from the ship for our hosts, and in return, Akiko gave me a silk kimono jacket – lovely! Japanese houses don’t have central heat (it was quite cold up in the mountains) but rather use space heaters so that only the room occupied is heated, and all heat is shut off at night. They are very fuel and energy conscious, and have adopted the Kyoto Accords (which America has not) which include unplugging the TV and computer when not in use to save the “stand-by” energy.

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast of pecan pancakes with ginger syrup, then walked around the neighborhood, enjoying the cherry blossoms, tulips and daffodils, and looking at the huge new housing developments under construction nearby. Then we drove into town to visit the Sanzen-In Buddhist temple, which had the most spectacular garden we have seen. It was like walking in a dream. It was also nice to tour a Buddhist temple with Buddhists, who could tell me the meaning of what I was seeing. The Japanese follow Shin Buddhism, or Pure Land Buddhism, which maintains that anyone can improve their lives by reflection of one’s limitations. This branch of Buddhism also holds that after death, one can be transported to a Pure Land (Indian Buddhism does not address what comes after death).

Akiko had to fly back to Tokyo in the afternoon, so our hosts left us in town with hugs and promises to visit again soon. Jim and I shared another wonderful noodle lunch, walked around town some more, then took a bus back to Kyoto Station for our trip home to Kobe. Even up in the mountains, the bus schedule was English-friendly, and, with Jim’s expert navigational skills, we had no trouble finding our way or negotiating the automated ticket machines.

Back in Kobe, we stopped to visit the oldest Shinto Shrine in Japan, and were lucky to encounter a parade of dragons and colorful characters on its way to the shrine. The dragon gave me a cloth with some Japanese characters on it – I’ll bring it home and see if David can translate it for me!