Day 15 - Wednesday November 8, 2017 - Art and D.T. Suzuki
Art and D.T. Suzuki
Posted on Wednesday November 8, 2017
Today we’ll probably go to the Contemporary Art Museum and the D.T. Suzuki Museum.
A bit of a slow start to the day – it seems that something in dinner last night didn’t agree with A-M so she suffered a restless night. Not sure what as we both ate (and drank) more or less the same things.
Breakfast is included in the roomrate so eventually we headed down …. make that up… to breakfast. I keep pressing the wrong elevator button – we’re on 13, the main floor (including the restaurant) is on 16 so you go up, not down. I’ll get the hang of it by the time we leave…..
After breakfast, we headed round the corner to Starbucks, if for no other reason than to see whether the wifi on A-M’s iPad would work. For some reason, it simply refuses to work in the hotel. It sees the hotel wifi network, it appears to connect …. but there’s no wifi symbol and it simply will not bring up the required login/acknowledgement screen. It works fine on the phones and on my iPad … go figure. We’ve re-booted, reset, turned on and off but nothing will fix it. We head to Starbucks … where it works fine and connects with no problem. Oh well ….
As A-M is not sure she fancies a bus ride, we decide to walk. Through the Omi-cho Market and we re-trace our route from yesterday over to the Kanazawa Castle Park, with the intention of emerging on the far side, to get where we’re going. Unfortunately, we can’t figure out how to get from a to b. Even looking at the “you are here” maps provided in the park, we can see the gate we want to get to but we can’t figure out how to get there. Eventually, we decide to just continue re-tracing yesterday’s route back towards the Gardens. Although we then want to turn right – which would parallel one side of the Gardens, albeit on the outside, we decide we might as well pay the price and do that bit of the walk inside the Gardens rather than outside. This, of course, is when I discover that yesterday (and today) my advanced age means I can enter the Gardens for free.
We continue to learn the nuances of personal interactions in Japan. Walk down the street and you’ll be largely ignored … but then, what do you expect? You would be at home … but then, every now and again, you’ll pass someone and you know they’re having a sly look at you …. you’re different, a gaijin in a land that is otherwise amazingly homogeneous. Stand in line for the subway, and you’ll be ignored; everybody stands in line until the train arrives … and then it’s shuffle as fast as you can and if you elbow some little old granny out of the way, well, that’s life – believe me, they’ll do the same to you. No prisoners taken when it comes to competition for whatever seats may be available … and certainly don’t expect anybody to give up their seat for you. However, establish a one-to-one connection and suddenly the world changes. Like saying ‘Bonjour, madame’ when you walk into a boulangerie in Paris, expect disdain (and crap service) if you don’t. An apparent indifference to the gaijin will miraculously change the minute you stop and, rather than rush headlong (in English) to ‘demand’ whatever it is you want, say Ohayo Gozaimasu (good morning – assuming it’s before noon and therefore not Konnichiwa), bow slightly (from the waist, not a nod of the head) and smile. The response is often instantaneous – a greeting back and a large smile because you made an effort.
So it was this morning with the ticket lady at Kenroku-en … having made the effort to engage with her, she promptly pointed me to the sign that said that old folks get in free!
We walked through part of the Gardens, heading for the exit we needed to send us on our way to the Museum of Contemporary Art.
We found our way to the Museum of Contemporary Art though, once there, we found the place a bit hard to navigate. It’s free – unless there’s a special exhibition which it appeared there was. We opted to see what we could see for free – which didn’t seem to be much, particularly as one part of the Museum appeared to be in the throes of being changed over. We did find a fairly extensive photography exhibition – all outdoor/nature etc. focused, many of which were very good. It appeared this may have been some sort of ‘photography club’ exhibition, as there were several older gentlemen sitting around at tables and generally offering a bit of commentary. As we were leaving, they asked us (A-M!) to sign what we assume was the guest book … in which there were two columns, but as the previous entries were in Japanese, we had no real clue what you were supposed to write where. A-M put her name in the left-hand column but it then transpired that should probably have been in the right-hand column (and comments in the left?). Sorry we mucked up your guest book….
The best exhibit was a small outdoor swimming pool in a courtyard. At least, you thought that’s what it was until you realised there were people in it. The water must be no more than a foot deep (if that) with a glass bottom…. and people in a room down below looking up. Very clever and very effective…
We left the Museum and set off in searchz of the D.T. Suzuki Museum –
This spiritual museum is a tribute to Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, one of the foremost Buddhist philosophers of our time. Published in Japanese and English, Suzuki is largely credited with introducing Zen to the west. This stunning concrete complex embodies the heart of Zen. Come to learn about the man and practise mindfulness by the water mirror garden.
The museum consists of three wings connected by corridors: an Entrance Wing, an Exhibition Wing and a Contemplative Wing, and three gardens: the Vestibule Garden, the Water Mirror Garden and the Roji Garden. Visitors can learn about the philosophy of Daisetz Suzuki and engage in their own contemplation as they move through the wings and gardens.
We found the Museum without any problem. It is rather tucked away in a largely residential area but signs along the way kept us pointed in the right direction. A small but rather stunning complex, we spent some time wandering round and doing our best to ‘contemplate’. The Museum is not far from where Suzuki was born; he died in 1966 at the age of 95.
While we were sitting outside ‘contemplating’, one of the staff came to tell us to make sure to go in to the garden next door, which we did. A little oasis, tucked away, with an old building being used for pottery making, and a couple of private houses on the far side, it was certainly very pleasant. The path came to a dead end, so you had to re-trace your steps to exit … even though you ended up close to what appeared to be some apartments and, in particular, the way out of some sort of office-like building. We could see the main road but exit that way not allowed – A-M’s call out to the guard and some other guy who were standing by the gate chatting received a blank stare in response so we returned the way we had come.
We headed back to the main road and found bus stop LL7 so waited for the Left Loop bus to show up, which it did in a few minutes. We took the bus the rest of the way round the loop, ending up at the Station. We went in and upstairs in search of some lunch and found a suitable looking place on the third floor – a restorative bowl of hot soba noodles in broth, accompanied by a shared plate of tempura. Lunch over, we headed back out and took the loop bus the one stop back to the hotel.
As the first eight or so floors of the hotel building are a department store with a food court in the basement, we contemplated heading down there in search of supper. However, having had breakfast and lunch, neither of us was feeling very hungry so we eventually called it a day.