Japan, part II: Saitama, Tōkyō, and Nagoya

On Sunday morning I had an early breakfast in Sapporo with Nakamura-san and his family before heading back down for nine hours to Saitama to see Samejima-san again. The weather was a lot worse on the journey south, until Morioka (Iwate Prefecture) where it started to clear up and get sunny. On Monday morning, Samejima-san and I headed over to the Kyūka-en Bonsai Garden near his parents' house. This area of Saitama is known as Bonsai-chō, for the large number of bonsai growers who relocated here after the 1923 Tōkyō earthquake. Samejima-san has known the owners of Kyūka-en since he was in middle school. It was amazing. In addition to growing bonsai, the owners take care of bonsai for many famous people (the zelkova tree in the second photo below belonged to Occupation-era prime minister Shigeru Yoshida).
Samejima-san and I then headed into Tōkyō in the afternoon. We first swung by Jinbō, the bookstore district, to check out natural history used bookstores (I bought a field guide to the plants of the Bonin Islands), and walked from there to the Hongō campus of Tōkyō University. On the way there, we stopped by a Confucian temple. Confucian temples are rare in Japan, and this one is visited primarily by students preparing for exams. Its austerity is in stark contrast to Buddhist temples and most Shintō shrines. The grounds are planted with species of trees mentioned in Confucius' Analects.I was curious to check out Tōkyō University because I had last been there nine years earlier, as part of a summer science program called the Japan International Science School. In retrospect, the two weeks in Tōkyō that I spent in that program were not very exciting, but it seemed very exciting at the time, and a year later, I started taking Japanese at when I entered college. I wandered around the campus somewhat nostalgically pondering the paths life takes us on. Tōkyō University looked a lot like I remembered it, but this time around I was able to tell that it was a much richer university than its rival in Kyōto.

That evening I took the Shinkansen to Nagoya and met Los Gatos friend Aaron there. Aaron lives in Ichinomiya, outside Nagoya, and works for Toyota. It was my first visit to Nagoya, but more excitingly, it was my first chance to meet Aaron's eight-month old son, Noah. Aaron and Nami were wonderful hosts and Noah is one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. I can't wait to hear what he says once he starts to talk.

Tuesday morning, Aaron took me on a whirlwind tour of the Nagoya area. We first took the train to Gifu, where he led me to see Japan's third-largest daibutsu (great Buddha statue), housed in the unassuming Shōhō Temple on the outskirts of town. The picture is deceptive. The daibutsu fills almost the entire inside of the temple hall.
As far as I can tell, this last picture is a depiction of Buddhist hell.

After that, Aaron and I headed into downtown Nagoya. Nagoya is Japan's fourth-largest city. I think it's a very livable city, of a very manageable size. We went up Midland Square, which despite its name is a 247-meter tall tower and Japan's highest open-air observation deck. The views of Nagoya were spectacular. Downstairs we checked out the latest (right-hand drive) cars from Toyota in the exhibition room, and then spent the rest of the afternoon wandering about the city. We had beef curry and a couple of Sapporo Red Stars at a small, recently opened restaurant that Aaron recommended, before, on the last few hours of my rail pass, I rode the Shinkansen to Kyōto, and then took a local train to Seta, the station I lived near for a year and a half before coming to Berkeley.