The Bridges of Tokyo

Posted on September 24, 2016 by Ginger

We rode the water bus from the Asakusa district of Tokyo down the Sumida River to the Hama Rikyu garden. In the process, we passed under maybe thirteen bridges, all different colors and styles. I found the texture of the bridges against the backdrop of Tokyo’s buildings as pleasing as the scenery.

But first, here’s the view from Asakusa terminal, first, looking directly across the river, and then looking down the river, where the boat will soon go.

Now, here we go down the river!

After this, we docked at the lovely Hama Rikyu garden, but that will be the subject of another post!

Service

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Ginger

Whether you’re staying at a new five-star luxury hotel like the Capitol Hotel Tokyu in the Akasaka district of Tokyo or a hundred-year-old traditional ryokan inn like the Ryokan Sumiyoshiya in Kanazawa, or any kind of hotel or inn in between, the one thing the Japanese excel at is service. Even the modest inn can put an American Ritz to shame.

Case in point: the concierge at the Capitol Hotel Tokyu called ahead to our next *three* ryokans to ensure we would know how to get from the train stations to their ryokans.

Case in point: At Ryokan Sumiyoshiya in Kanazawa, we asked where to buy stamps, and they *gave us* four stamps for our postcards. And mailed the postcards for us, too.

Case in point: When we went out for the day or for dinner, the owners of Ryokan Gion Sano in Kyoto insisted we take their umbrellas if it was raining. They always accompanied us out to the street and waved good-bye as we left. When we left by taxi for the train station on the last day, I turned around and looked out the rear window, and they were still there, standing by the street and waving until we turned the corner and were gone.

Case in point: When we arrived in Toba, we called our hotel, the Toba International Hotel, to find out where to catch the shuttle they run to the train station every half hour. We had just missed it, so they sent a special car to pick us up so that we wouldn’t have to wait. When they learned that their first shuttle of the morning on our last day would make for a very tight connection with our train, they offered to drive us in a car so that we wouldn’t worry.

Case in point: In an extremely light drizzle, we walked from the bus stop to our hotel in Hakone, the historic Fujiya Hotel, where we were greeted by a doorman who raced to hand us umbrellas–and opened them for us. Another doorman relieved us of our suitcases, carried them inside, and carefully wiped them off for us. After we checked in, not one, but two, people showed us to our room–one to explain everything to us, and another to bring our bags.

Taxi drivers wear suits and ties and white gloves. Taxis are immaculately clean.

Everyone smiles and bows and seems genuinely happy to be of assistance. We smile and bow too, and say, “Thank you” (our one word in Japanese), and are genuinely happy to be so thoughtfully taken care of. But they bow deeper and say, “Thank you very much!” And they seem to mean it.

And most amazingly, everyone appears to be paid a fair wage for their work, which is treated with dignity, from the person sweeping the train platform to the manager of a large hotel. And no one–not one person–expects or will accept a tip.

In the Ginza

Posted on September 22, 2016 by Ginger

Tokyo subways are wonderrful. We took them everywhere. With few exceptions <cough, cough, Shibuya>, the signs are clear, the stations well marked, and even which exits lead where are clearly indicated. And it’s always surprising, when you leave the station at a new destination, what it’s going to look like. It could be the rather daunting so-called “pedestrian scramble” at Shibuya, for example.

Or it could be the sophisticaed shopping district of Ginza.

On the main street of Ginza, name brands and high-end developers can afford to build eye-catching buildings.

In the narrower side streets, interesting shops, must make their presence known with banners and vertical signs.

inside one shop, we found this intriguing glass ceiling.

But what’s inside another store must wait for another post!

How to Touch Statues

Posted on September 18, 2016 by Ginger

Our neighborhood in Kyoto, Higashiyama, is full of shrines, large and small, as well as a few notable temples. A shrine by the side of the street where we were walking contained this toddler-sized and friendly-looking statue, along with an explanatory sign.

Now, perhaps it never crossed your mind to touch this statue. You wouldn’t be alone! But if you did feel that gentle stirring in your heart, you may wish to reach out to this likable statue, and if so, you may think you know everything you need to know about how to touch him. But you might be surprised to learn that there’s more to it. Fortunately, it has all been explained for you. Here’s how:

Looking up and down in Kanazawa

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Ginger

We’ve been walking around in Kanazawa a lot in the last two days, and there’s a lot to like here. So it seems strange to start with smaller details, leaving the larger streetscape undescribed–but that’s what I’m going to do. Mostly, we look around us and report on what’s at eye level, more or less. But here are a few photos of what’s underfoot and overhead.

First, watch where you step! Here’s a cute and colorful manhole cover!

Walk a few blocks, and there are some old temples with beautifully carved wooden gateways. Look up! Here are some of the carving details.

The Little Street of Unbearable Cuteness

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Ginger

Late in the afternoon of our first full day in Tokyo, having seen how big and modern Tokyo can be, we headed to a small district that retains much of the texture of pre-WWII Tokyo–smaller houses, narrower streets, no high rises. And its own pedestrian shopping street.

It is . . . the Little Street of Unbearable Cuteness. And a notable feature of this street is . . . cats!

On the signs . . . cats!

Prominent among the merchandise . . . cats!

On the rooftops . . . cats!

In the windows . . . cats!

Wait a minute! Let’s look at that last one again!

Is that, “No cat, no life”?

And yet, and yet, we saw no live cats on the Little Street of Unbearable Cuteness.

Fun, Positano style

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Ginger

Never say we people in Positano don’t know how to have fun. We do! We have great fun! Our Positano hosts know how to show us a good time, and then–before you can say Volare!–we know how to have it!

Fun, Positano style, starts with a free ride. A bus from the restaurant picks you up at your corner, or at your hotel if you happen to have one, and then wends its way up impossible hills on streets so narrow it takes a five-point turn to get around the corner, to pretty nearly the very top of the mountain on whose slopes Positano is laddered.

The views of Positano way below us are breathtaking.

Fun continues at La Tagliata restaurant when the waiter asks if we’d like white wine? Red? Water?

We are quite literally on top of the world, and we’re in a good mood. Yes, we say. Yes. All three of those things. And we are in fact plied with bottles we lose count of, house-made white wine and red wine. And water.

And the food! We are served endless courses of bountiful variety of food. More than enough for everyone. But still it keeps coming.

Somewhere around dessert time, the band comes out, and they begin singing the most tacky, the most schmaltzy, your-grandmother-would-have-loved-this kind of well-known Italian songs imaginable. But there is no groaning allowed here. This is the *fun* program!

Percussion instruments are handed out to every table, and everyone is encouraged to participate. And someone from every table inevitably does.

But you’re not off the hook if you don’t want to stand up and play an instrument. You can still clap! This is the Positano Fun Restaurant we’re talking about here! So if you won’t even clap, we have just the thing for you. Handkerchiefs! Stand up, folks, and wave those handkerchiefs! That’s Amore!

If some of us inhibited New Englanders require instruction, it is provided. And it works!

But sooner or later, all good things must come to an end. The bus awaits to take us home. There are seven of us and only four seats left, but no problem! We sit in each other’s laps and make the acquaintance of our new best friends on the bus. Of course this leads to the ever-popular refrains of Volare and That’s Amore, and one by one as each group leaves the bus we sing each other Arrivederci.

I still have Volare stuck in my head. Can someone help me out a little here?

Positano, my home town

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Ginger

Okay, actually Positano is not my home town. I live in Newton, Massachusetts, USA. But for a week this year–May 3 through May 10–it became the home town of my husband Dan and me, our children Margot, Adam, and Clair, and our friends Steve and Susie, when we rented a gorgeous villa with the view you see above.

Our last full day in Positano after a busy week going one place or another, we spent at home. For visualization purposes, I have outline this home in red in the picture above. The corner room with the Juliet balcony is our bedroom. The next two windows each belong to a separate bedroom, and the fourth bedroom, with a private balcony is around the corner. Below, a broad terrace opens up from the living and dining areas. This terrace has an area for sunbathing and a covered area with a table that’s great for breakfast, lunch, and snacks while enjoying the sea breezes. Below the terrace sweeps an extensive garden, and below that, vistas of the sea, where we can watch the ferries going up and down the coast and out to Capri.

This villa, like many in Positano, can be accessed only on foot, along a narrow pedestrian street punctuated with stairways.

Finally, on our last day here, I walked down the 375 stairs (okay, that’s probably an exaggeration) to our local beach, the smaller of Positano’s two beaches. There’s one very attractive hotel and restaurant, and the opportunity to rent beach chairs and umbrellas.

Myself, I chose to follow the path that from here winds around the cliffs to the larger beach at the town center.

From here, I walked farther north, to the far end of Positano’s main commercial tourist area, where the views looking back at the town were–like everything about Positano–charming.

What I know about the olive trees of Puglia

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Ginger

Almost as soon as we entered Puglia (or Apulia, as it is known in English) from Campagna, we noticed two things: the landscape, while still beautiful, had gotten flatter–and it was filled with grape vines and olive trees.

And some of those olive trees looked really, really old. “How old,” I asked Dan, “do you think those trees are?”

“I’d guess really old,” he said. “Maybe two or three hundred years.”

The charming and peaceful Masseria Salinola in Ostuni, where we are staying, has some of these old trees on its property, so I asked our host Daniele how old the trees are.

“These here,” he said, “are at least one thousand two hundred, or maybe two thousand years old. But the oldest trees in Puglia are three thousand years old, maybe more.” It is very strange, as I write this, looking at a tree that was probably a young sapling when Jesus was alive.

“Did you know,” Daniele continued, “That Italy produces the most olive oil of any place in the world? And forty percent of Italy’s olive oil comes from Puglia.”

Olive trees self-seed when left wild. If you think about it, this is not surprising. That pit inside the olive is, after all, a seed. All it takes is the right terrain and the right climate, and both of them are right here in Puglia. The original people of this region harvested the olives from the trees wherever they happened to grow. But the Romans, when they arrived in the region, did what the Romans seemed to naturally do–they arranged the trees in rows.

The olive oil of Puglia is good beyond all reason. As are the olives. We’d love to take some home…if only we weren’t already laden with some five bottles of wine… more liquid than we can really carry onto the plane, and only two days left to drink some of it down…

Munnar actually has a town

Posted on May 3, 2014 by Ginger

Munnar actually has a town, and it’s actually cute and kind of fun. This came as a bit of a surprise, since tourists don’t generally go to Munnar to visit the town. They go to Munnar to visit the resorts and spas, healthfully and ecologically sensitively set in the mountainous countryside, such as the delightful Blackberry Hills Retreat and Spa where we stayed. They go to see the stunning scenery, to enjoy the fresh mountain air, and to learn about tea.

I don’t think that going to town even ranks in the top 34 things to do in Munnar in tripadvisor.

Well, true, the town is kind of small, but we enjoyed visiting it all the same.

There were, for example, craftsmen hard at work at their craft. This man is, I believe, doing something involving fire. And gold. And jewelry.

Shopkeepers had wide selections of soaps and herbs and spices.

There was a fruit and vegetable market–which Dan and I always find interesting.

And maybe best of all, shops piled on shops in a jumbled pattern that for me was sheer delight.

G. S. Kenney Author

Thousands of words, millions of words' worth of pictures

Category Archives: Travel

The Bridges of Tokyo

Service

In the Ginza

How to Touch Statues

Looking up and down in Kanazawa

The Little Street of Unbearable Cuteness

Fun, Positano style

Positano, my home town

What I know about the olive trees of Puglia

Munnar actually has a town

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