Weekend Confidential: March 31, 2024
Daily life, and some questions about future subject matter
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Happy Easter to all my friends in the West. I’m settled in Kyoto, the weather has warmed up some, and spring is in the air. No sakura (cherry) blossoms yet, but people along the river are already picnicking (the Japanese love picnics), in anticipation of the annual Hanami picnics, under the sakura blossoms, that will be all the rage soon.
The national television tracks the northward movement of cherry blossoms, and they are currently in southern Fukuoka island. They should be bursting forth here soon, even this week, perhaps. If not, then next week.
I am staying well out of the center of town this time, and it’s a relief. Central Kyoto is beautiful, and fascinating, but it’s also absolutely packed-out with tourists. Japan is experiencing a huge surge of tourism, due in part to the amazing exchange rate that makes one’s dollar or Euro go much, much further than before COVID. Not good for the Japanese, but great for tourists from America and Europe.
Thus, downtown and especially the area by the Kamo River are just awash in folks wandering around, dumbstruck. They’re Americans and Europeans, of course, but many are also from Japan’s traditional tourist sources, China and South Korea. The girls dress up in “geisha” costumes and titter around the streets, which is cute and looks “authentic” (because what do we Americans know?), but the Japanese regard it as we would regard Japanese coming to California and dressing up as cowboys and Indians.
Out here, life is quieter, it’s closer to the hills that surround the city, and to a great number of temples and shrines (Buddhist and Shinto) and I am usually the only gaijin
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