Live at the Budokan!

 


One of the extremely Japanese experiences of my recent journey to Japan (I got back Thursday) was the robot waiters in a restaurant in Takaoka - like the evil Daleks of Dr. Who reduced by age and circumstance to being painted bright yellow and playing "Turkey In The Straw" as they bore trays to tables. I learned later that these are, in fact, drones operated from home (like the little red wagons that ply Santa Monica Blvd in LA), often by persons with disabilities. One orders the food by tablet on the table itself (it would have been easier had my knowledge of Japanese been better), and the Daleks themselves were pretty entertaining.

Other experiences included attending a Tea Ceremony (in full formal kimono - which required a professional to arrange), closing down a couple of bars, singing karaoke, and appearing with members of the dojo where I train in an all-Japan aikido demonstration at the Tokyo Budokan. (About 500 dojos participated, 5 at a time and each limited to 90 seconds, but still...).

I am jet-lagged as hell, but it was an amazing journey and one I hope to do again.

I went, as I said, with the group from my dojo: we trained at the central dojo of our style in Tokyo (the 6:30 a.m. classes were enormous, 120-140 students, which made for some speedy activity in the tiny changing-room), and at our sensei's home dojo in Takaoka, rehearsing for the demo. After the demo most of the group went home, but I took the bullet train to the old imperial capital Kyoto, and spent four days seeing the historic districts, visiting temples and shrines (including the astonishing Sanjusangendo), and, as I said, attending a Tea Ceremony.

My cats tell me that they were beaten and starved by the cat-sitter in my absence, but I suspect they are lying.

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