Kyoto
Two nights ago I arrived well at Youri’s place after an eternal trip via Joburg and Bangkok, landing at Osaka and taking the train to Kyoto, where I was picked up by a friend of Youri’s (himself still practising with one of his bands for Friday mega-party). He lives in a small apartment with a room of 4 x 3, a kitchen and tiny bathroom. When he arrived home I finally achieved my goal: to be with Youri in his Japanese life, sharing the last two weeks of his stay here.
That night there was, apart from another earthquake (7 at Richter) in Tokyo - where they're apparently constantly going on - also one of 6 in Kyoto, though we didn't feel anything. Got a mini earthquake training from Youri and for the rest it's just life as usual. Some of his friends came from Tokyo to flee the radiation, which during the day had gone up (wind blowing towards Tokyo) but at this moment seems to go down again. Unclear if we can go to Tokyo next week or not. The impact of the disaster will be felt for a long time with the economy slowly coming to a standstill because of energy shortage. Youri pointed out some public parts in the streets that normally would be very lit but are now dark, everyone saving energy. In the affected area including Tokyo people are hamstering all sorts of stuff in their homes in case they shortly may not be able to go out at all. Half of public transport has come to a standstill for lack of energy, many people can't go to work. Batteries are getting scarce even here because people are sending them all eastwards.
16 March
Today Tadashi and Hiroshi took me out for a walk through the historical part of Kyoto full of age old temples and beautiful gardens, with even the architecture of recent houses based on the temple forms and lots of natural materials like bamboo and wood. We walked through narrow streets full of incredibly looking small food stalls and fine arts shops, both the food and the artefacts all so beautifully made and exposed, colourful and tasteful and of a very high standard. Everywhere you could taste samples of the most exquisite and unknown foods, tastes I could not place but were very nice. Walking up and down hills and stairs, visiting some of those temples. We walked for about six hours and at the end my feet were hurting like hell.
When we finally got home we rested a bit and meanwhile some other friends were arriving and finally Youri as well. Then some shopping had to be done, and suddenly we were with the ten or so of us downstairs going to the supermarket where we bought the most incredible foodstuffs (again, everything unknown to me) and drinks and went home and had a typical Japanese dinner party, with the guys serving sushi and making some soup that during the night would always be filled up again with new ingredients and new boiling water, while the girls were preparing a food that also had to be renewed constantly on the low table, everybody sitting on the floor for many hours, chatting and eating and drinking sake.
Of course part of the time was filled up with talks about the disaster and the real situation, Tokyo still not safe and western governments ordering their citizens to go out of the country. The queues at travel agencies are long, all flights out are booked out, but the general opinion in Kyoto is that it is all highly exaggerated and panic is being created by the media...
So all in all it was a full and gratifying day, even though I'm still not back in my own energy with jetlag and all, but Youri and friends are so sweet and welcoming that I just get no time to be tired. Now, at one in the morning, most have left but an Estonian friend is staying over and now still came along a dancer who has to perform at Friday's party and needed to coordinate things with Y. While they're talking rapidly Japanese (still hard to believe how fluent Youri is in that language) and we all have to sleep in the same room (tomorrow with even more people) I'm using the time to update my blog.
Two special things drew my attention: 1. Umbrellas in Kyoto are like the whit bike plan in Amsterdam: outside of shops and public buildings and apartments there’s a box full with umbrelaas. If you need one you pick one up and leave it somewhere else once you don’t need it anymore. 2. At least 10% of the people wear a mouth cap in public life. Now as to the reason why, you get multiple answers, like “protection against the cold wind”, “to avoid contaminating others while you have a cold”, “protection against pollution, or other version, against allergetic reactions”, and a lot more. It’s a weird sight, many tiomes one of a couple using one the other not, or in groups of people some using them others not.
It is damned cold here, walked already through several snow storms. Now that Tokyo will fase a powercut for lack of energy, imagine how those millions will suffer. Not to speak of the 500.000 or so in the tsunami area who lost their homes.