Lift Up Your Hearts!

Today was a walking day, which we began by heading in the direction of Kofu. Our first stop was the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art. This gem is one reason we chose to narrow the focus of our visit to Japan to "Janet's World." I doubt it would be included in any package tour of Japan, but it is a lovely collection of artwork, ancient and modern, Japanese and Western, including a significant number of paintings by Millet. Most of the descriptions were in Japanese, but that didn't prevent our greatly enjoying the pictures. A museum docent tried hard to explain the pictures to Janet, who was clearly the only one of us with whom she had a chance of success. Janet's ability to communicate in Japanese is amazing, and even though it does not extend to the more technical terms related to art, she still managed to convey some of the meaning to us.

Remembering our pleasant experience of yesterday, we purchased more "soft cream" to enjoy while wandering the museum grounds. It was nowhere near the quality of the KEEP ice cream, but nonetheless my blueberry cone was delicious. Our admission ticket was also good for admission to the nearby Prefectural Museum of Literature, which we enjoyed but passed through much more quickly than we had the art museum.

Walking onwards towards Kofu, we next stopped at the Crystal Museum. This is a small but lovely display of natural and carved crystals that reminded me of our trip to Brazil. Indeed, many of the stones at the museum are of Brazilian origin. Although the carved works were beautiful in their own way, I found I much more enjoyed looking at the natural pieces.

As we continued our walk into the center of Kofu, we began to look forward to lunch. Janet had great plans to take us to the Organic Café (completely different from the one in Kiyosato). Alas, when we arrived, tired and hungry, we discovered that it is closed on Tuesdays! We proceeded on to Janet's favorite yakitori place, though without a lot of hope since she didn't think it would be open till dinnertime, which turned out to be the case. No matter. We were in downtown Kofu; there should be plenty of opportunities to eat. The following scenario unfolded like a scene from a movie:

Three hungry and footsore tourists are seeking a place to eat in the big city. They spot a sandwich board in front of a building, advertising a restaurant on the third floor, and agree that it sounds attractive. Climbing the stairs, they meet their first obstacle: the stairway ends in a locked door at the second floor.

(Janet) It's not uncommon in Japan for places to be accessible only by elevator.

They enter the elevator and Janet presses the button for the third floor.

(Janet) Sometimes the best places are tucked away.

(Porter) Sometimes.

The elevator door opens to reveal…trash. Not just any trash, not just bags of trash, but a huge collection of random debris, boards, papers, and piles of food, including a prominent, large, whole onion. Trash that has been in place for some time, piled against the door of an elevator clearly not expected to be in use. Trash that begins to fall towards the elevator car and its shocked occupants….

(Linda) And maybe not.

(Porter) Going down!

The door succeeds in closing in advance the impending trashslide, and the elevator soon deposits our heroes, still hungry but laughing hysterically, back onto the street.

Eventually we found a very nice Italian restaurant were Janet and I enjoyed some pizza that she said was genuine Italian-style, with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil, and Porter had a seafood dish.

Refreshed and rejuvenated, we continued out trek to Kofu Castle. This 16th century structure has been partially restored and should not be missed by visitors to the area. Not only is it interesting, historically, but the grounds are covered with cherry trees, which were beginning to blossom for our visit. The restoration process is ongoing, and they are working on the trebuchet....

By dinnertime the yakitori restaurant was open, and we could see why Janet likes it. Small, intimate, and filled with Japanese diners, it was clearly a popular spot, and we ate our fill of various forms of meat, of various flavors, grilled and served on skewers.

The time had finally come to do the tourist thing: shopping. Not a favorite thing to do for any of us, but we ventured into Okajima, a large department store near Kofu eki. There we found a few interesting items to bring back as omiyage for our return to the United States. Janet made a purchase as well: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in Japanese. Although she is comfortable with the katakana and hiragana alphabets, learning kanji is daunting. (The Japanese language has four written forms, used simultaneously: kanji, the ideographs taken from Chinese; hiragana, a syllabic alphabet used for native Japanese words; katakana, a syllabic alphabet used for words of foreign origin; and romaji, Japanese syllables transcribed into the Latin alphabet.) Although Janet claims the book is 'way over her head, that she bought it does not surprise me, since she has always believed in what she calls "learning to swim by drowning."

It was raining when we came out of the store, so we dashed from shelter to shelter as we made our way to the train. The walk into Kofu had been a lot of fun, but in the dark and the rain, as tired as we were, riding the train back to Ryuo was the only reasonable choice. Even though Ryuo is only one stop away, most of the rain had stopped by the time we made the walk from Ryuo eki to Janet's apartment. Nonetheless, hot tea and cocoa by the kerosene heater were most welcome! Janet, with more energy or discipline than the rest of us, when out again to pay her phone bill and buy milk, then stayed up till 2:30 a.m practicing kanji.