We just finished a family holiday in Japan. I am not having much success in posting notes from these trips - I posted only once from China - but I do mean to! I just always seem to be on some form of mass transit (right now sitting in Frankfurt airport). I always plan to write on planes but wind up catching up on popular culture instead. At least now I am all caught up on all the Oscar-nominated films this year, although I could not really sit through the entirety of the Shape of Water.  

Let me post a couple of favorite photos of Japan.  

This snap is from the Tenryu-ji temple in the Arashiyama area of greater Kyoto. As Kyoto is one of the most visited tourist places in THE WORLD, this site will be familiar to many. To me, it embodies the dichotomy that is Japan. The effort to find order, symmetry, and simplicity in all manifestations of life - witness the structured clean lines of the architecture - married with the effort to commune with nature, that which has a freedom of its own.

In this tableau, there remains an effort to ‘manage’ nature, to contain it within the intended aesthetic. No doubt such intentions require much upkeep;  foliage needs much pruning. But there remains an element of chance in trying to reconcile the two elements. Other cultures that also try to marry with nature have a more freewheeling approach - even baroque at times, as in Bali.

On our first day in Japan, we came back to the hotel - the iconic Okura! - to find our toothbrushes organized neatly on a beautiful plush towel. A fitting welcome and a wonderful one.