We arrived in Tokyo late afternoon on Sunday. Great to see the Harden-Kowals again-- the kids have been ecstatic. We had a peaceful evening reconnecting over wine and pasta. On Monday we took advice to flow with the jetlag and went out to the huge fish market with Blaine at 5am. We had a lot of fun watching the slicing of an enormous ($40,000)
tuna with suitably enormous knives, looking at many 
unidentified species of seafood, and finally feasting on exquisite sushi for breakfast in a market restaurant. Anselm had fish egg sushi, and Eliot disdained the raw fish for the real prize-- the raw shrimp head, with tentacles, which she chewed on throughout the meal. 
After the morning, we stopped for a coffee in Rappongi Hills and then caught a train out to Kamakura. In Kita-kamakura, we visited two Zen temples, Engaku-ji and Tokei-ji. We all especially loved Tokei-ji, an ancient haven for runaway wives, which manifested a peculiar femininity in the modest scale of the buildings and an unkempt garden of lilies, and continued to unfold in subtle tiered gardens of moss and stone. We all spent a long time wandering, separately and together, among the hedges and gravestones. From Tokei-ji, we hiked on a path of gnarled roots and mud behind some country houses and onto a ridge along the valley, finally ending up at a cave shrine.
The kids have been awesome. They woke up at 3am yesterday, and stayed happy and active throughout a long, long day, cheerfully sampling new experiences such as curry buns and the Tokyo subway, where Eliot insists on hanging, literally, from the yellow handles, crying "I can handle it! I can handle it!". Anselm loved the tuna auction, and both of them were delighted by the Zen temples. It's been great to see Anselm and Lucinda develop an intimate affection for one another, hugging and talking and playing.
No comments:
Post a Comment