Kyoto Notes

CJST Director, Professor Ted Goossen is currently on sabbatical from his teaching position at York University and is spending a year as a Visiting Researcher at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies outside of Kyoto. Ted was kind enough to send me a copy of the journal he has been keeping so that CJSTers can get some insight into Goossen’s Japan. I had such a great time reading it and a really tough time selecting just one passage ... so I chose two! I hope you enjoy them. --ed.

The Balcony

The house we live in has a wonderful balcony, an island of cool in a muggy city. Do not think, however, that it is ours to do with what we like. No. Ours is a quiet street, discreet and "private" in the way that only those without actual physical privacy can enjoy. For the first two nights of our stay, my daughter Carolyn and I failed to recognize the unwritten law of the neighbourhood, displaying ourselves freely as the whim took us. Last night, Carolyn, Kazuko (from Shikoku), Park-san (from Korea), Michi (from Nagoya), Jessica Bettencourt (an old young friend from Toronto) and I talked and laughed until 11:30 in full view of the street - Carolyn sitting precariously on the railing. We were almost giddy with the pleasure of making new friends at the very beginning of a long and presumably happy stay. Today, however, the shinsetsu no obaasan ("kind old lady") was not smiling her usual gracious smile, and I sensed that we had broached one of the unwritten laws of the street. Tonight, in Carolyn’s absence, I was enjoying (to be more truthful, am still enjoying) a large bottle of chilled sake, when I realized that balconies are for the early evening only. For to be on our balcony past the bedding hour is to unwittingly eavesdrop on all those whose bedrooms face the narrow street. When we are out facing the windows that face us, we are privy to the shadows of all our neighbours as they spread their futons and prepare to lay down for the night. Will we be forgiven? In time, perhaps, but meanwhile we must try to read the customs that have preceded our arrival for so many years. Privacy in Japan, as we gaijin so often fail to discern, is a matter of the mind, not of the architecture or local geography. Balconies, like all public spaces, have their closing time!

The City of Kyoto

Kyoto is a tourist's dream - full of beautiful old houses and temples and surrounded by green, unblemished mountains. It’s small enough so that you can get almost anywhere on a bicycle, yet large enough to have the full spectrum of museums, universities, galleries, theatres, and now even a symphony. Living here, however, is less ideal. Not only is the weather absolutely dismal, the citizens of Kyoto are known for their coolness to outsiders and their narrow-mindedness. Now this may not be entirely fair -- Tokyoites are considered cold by many Japanese, and Osakaites mercenary -- but it does appear to be harder to make friends here - a problem that is accentuated by the glut of foreigners on the streets. These days in fact, it is unusual to be the only foreigner in a group of people. Hardly could I have believed, 29 years ago on my first visit, that the day would come when no one would stare at me on the street, or show much surprise at my ability to stumble along in the native tongue. All in all, I’m grateful for the new state of affairs, but a wave of mild nostalgia still passes over me when children stop and points, or some unbeknighted soul exclaims quite out of the blue "Ah, but you speak such wonderful Japanese!" Part of the seeming difficulty (I haven’t been here long enough on this trip to know for sure) in striking up friendships may be age -- Carolyn obviously has a much easier time breaking the ice with our college student neighbours, and her taiko playing friends who reside here. Still looking at the lifestyles of our gaijin friends who reside here, there does seem to be a tendency for the worlds of the Japanese and non-Japanese to separate into a "Two Solitudes" type of situation.

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