White House Garden Tour

Twice a year the White House gardens are open for tourists.  I went for the first time today.  I was glad I took the time, and it was free!   I did wait in line about 45 minutes for a ticket, but I think there was no wait later in the day.  The weather was very cool, so it wasn't as crowded as it might have been--though there was a good turnout.  Even though we didn't get to go into the White House, we still had to go through Secret Service security screening.

One of the most dramatic views was from the walk in front of the South Portico toward the Washington Monument.  This is the South Lawn, where the helicopter picks up the President and brings him back.

And this is the South Portico.  We were so close to it!   It was impressive.  Of course, there were many Secret Service guys between us and the front door.

One of the volunteers explained why the picture below is his favorite spot.  It is where the President "commutes" through this walkway from the residence part of the White House to the Oval Office.

Nice commute!!!  And those two roses in the picture were the only ones left.  Also in the rose garden was a podium set up like it would be for the news conferences that are held there.  Pretty small in this picture, but you can see it if you look.  Empty now, but it looked so familiar to me.

The next highlight was going by the oval office, which must have a lovely view of the Washington Monument.



I was amused to see a very tiny golf practice area....looks more like it is for the First Daughters than the President.

Final stop of the tour was the White House Kitchen Garden....still going pretty strong, with some fat tomatoes, though they don't show in this picture.  Today was so cold....I think things will slow down. It was interesting to see that the artichokes also seem to be doing very well.  I thought they only thrived on the Central California Coast, but now I realize that doesn't make any sense.

Something I knew grows in the South, but had never seen at harvest was peanuts.  I took this picture, but it doesn't seem to show them as well as we could see them.  It was fun.  They looked like you could pick them and eat them, but I guess this is after they are dug up. There were lots of them.  My picture just doesn't show it.

I finished off by going to the White House Visitor's Center.  I highly recommend it.  It appears to be very modest, but there is a lot there.   I loved the timeline that showed how the family leaving the White House moves out the same day the new President and his family move in.  The White House staff is amazing, and makes it all possible.

White House appreciation day for me!

Memorials I hadn't seen before....Hiking in the Rain

This morning, I went for a hike with the Capitol Hill Village hiking group.  The hike was originally planned for Saturday, but it was rainy then....so it was postponed until today.  Guess what?  It was still rainy, but we did it.  There were 8 of us including Ed, the leader.  Ed was also the only guy!

I walked from my home to the park where we met to begin the hike.  I was unprepared for rain because the weather report said there was  only a 30% chance of rain and it would only bring sprinkles.  WRONG!  It rained almost immediately from the time I left my house until just before the end of the hike.

The highlights of the hike for me were two memorials that I had never seen before, the first being the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial.  It was very interesting.  I didn't get great pictures because of the rain, but the one above shows what was a surprise to me.  When we arrived, there was no flame and while we were looking, it flared up.  It is in the middle of a star that has different branches of the service at the tips of the five points.

What I like the most about the memorial doesn't show up too well in this photo:

As I looked across the water feature, it appeared people were walking through water, not beside it....but I couldn't get the right angle.  I think I'll go back on a better day.  It is kind of an amazing effect.

We then walked the length of the Capitol Mall, passing by an art installation that is a face.  It is on flat ground, so we didn't have the right angle to see it.  Evidently the best view is from the Washington Monument, or from the air (which is not open to private planes over the Mall).  Here is what I could find on-line about  how it looks from higher up:

To us, on the reflecting pool side, it just looked like dirt, sand and gravel....with a little grass growing here and there.  The image is called "Out of Many One" and is a composite of young men of various nationalities..."e pluribis unum."

We next walked the bridge in the background of the above photograph to Arlington Cemetery.  It was heavy rain by then, so we didn't pause at Arlington.

We headed to another memorial that was new to me---the Pentagon Memorial.

It was quite interesting, but a little hard to understand.  I finally "googled" it and read to the group that the memorials are arranged from the memorial bench to the youngest to the oldest. The youngest was three years old, and the bench with her name also included her sister and her parents. There are other complicating factors in the arrangement, but it is a very moving sight to see.  The above picture is one I took today.  The weather improved a little.

Here is how the benches look up close.  Today, there was a carnation on each one.

Each has a reflecting pool under the bench.  The gravel seems to creep in to some of the small pools, so there might have to be some modifications for good maintenance.

At that point, we were close to the Pentagon Metro Station.  There is also a huge transit center for busses. Lots of people work at the Pentagon, but today was a holiday, so it wasn't very busy.  We took Metro back to the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

A Brave and Startling Truth

Today was a day to reflect back on the trip to Japan.  My fellow Heiwa pilgrims and I were part of the Sunday morning services.  We sang the song we sang in Hiroshima, "The Breathing Meditation."  The words are simple:  "When I breathe in, I breathe in peace, when I bring out, I breathe out love."  It is in three-part harmony and we sing it in Japanese as well as English.  It was special today to sing with the Jubilee Singers.  I took the picture above during the second service from the balcony.  I participated in the first service.

I was part of a group that read selections from a  poem by Maya Angelou, "A Brave and Startling Truth."  The full poem can be found at:
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bharath2/poemoftheweek/301212.html
It is an amazing poem, and I think captures a lot of the complexity of feelings I and others have about visiting Japan--especially Hiroshima.

Several other peace pilgrims offered "postcards from Japan" to share some of the special experiences we had.  We also had a table after church so people could ask questions about the trip and see some of our mementos.  My contribution was a binder with entries from this blog and some of the things I picked up during the trip, such as local maps and paper cranes.

A few of us then went out to lunch at a very nice French restaurant, "Le Chat Noir."  We had a long, leisurely, delicious lunch and enjoyed further sharing memories of the trip.  I took this picture of my friends Josephine, Margaret, Armele, and Carol.

I wasn't in it, so Josephine took this one with me in it.

A nice Sunday!

Four Movies in Four Days

I suddenly had the leisure of a four-day weekend with no big commitments, so I decided to catch up on my movie-watching before the next meeting of my film group, The Cinephiles.  I went binge movie-watching.  I am posting this as a travel report because, unlike watching tv series, such as House of Cards or Orange is the New Black, I had to leave home and go to a theater and I couldn't push the pause button!   Oh, the trials of real movies.....but, of course, there are rewards!  No pictures here, but you can always google the trailers.

On Friday I saw Love is Strange.  It is a memorable movie, sweet and yet very sad.  For those who don't know, it begins with a wedding of two gay guys (played by John Lithgow and Alfred Molino) who have been together almost 40 years.  The movie is compelling because it is about a long-term relationship, but not really about sexual preference.  The wedding is joyous, as it should be, but the gay element comes in because Molino's character is fired from his job as a music teacher at a Catholic School.  The scene of the firing is very restrained and factual.  However, that leads to loss of their apartment and they end up temporarily living (with great difficulty) in two separate households while they look for an affordable apartment in New York City.  This movie is hard to watch because it is so sad.  It is very real, though, and the acting was excellent. I read an interview in which Molina credited Director Ira Sachs for letting them just play the roles naturally.  It is very understated.  There are a couple of times when things slow down and seem to drag, but then I realized what was happening was in what would have been real time.  The sound track is perfect....mostly Chopin, and nicely paced, too.  Good movie!

Saturday's movie was Magic in the Moonlight.  Yes, it is a Woody Allen movie, and I usually don't like those much---except for Midnight in Paris.  The plot involves a magician (played by Colin Firth) who is trying to show that a young woman clairvoyant (played by Emma Stone) is a fraud. Predictably, a romance develops.  The Colin Firth character is so boorish, negative and self-centered that I didn't find him credible.   I think we are supposed to find the conflict between the physical and metaphysical to be a central theme, and thought-provoking.  I found it over-worked, and the romance is simply not believable.   However, our young woman was also being vigorously pursued by a ukelele-playing rich kid who could only be described as a joke.  She chooses the Firth character.  These couldn't have been her only choices.   Firth did get in some good lines, and that was amusing.  He dominated the film, though, which I guess is also predictable.  Most of the action takes place in the South of France in between World War I and World War II and the cinematography is gorgeous....as are the costumes and interiors.  However, I didn't like this movie very much, and the then, as I was leaving, I heard someone describe it as "cute."  Not cute to me, but cute would not have been what I was looking for anyway.

Get on Up! was my choice for Sunday.  I think this movie, about James Brown, was played pretty straight by lead actor Chadwick Boseman.  Brown had a very difficult childhood and the way out was through his music. The man who got him out of jail and into music was at his side almost all his adult life was Bobbie Byrd (played by Nelsan Ellis).  Byrd recognized Brown's genius.  That genius is demonstrated in the movie, especially in a scene where he instructs his back-up band how to use all the instruments (horns and string, for example) to support the rhythm.  The film seems at times to be hard to follow but it is divided into segments that are beautifully labeled.   I have to admit I don't remember those labels, but they dealt with different times in his life.  It was initially confusing because those segments included flashbacks.  James Brown came to be the "Hardest-Working Man in the Business" and the "Godfather of Soul," but this movie is clear in showing that he "took down" some people along the way.  He was egotistical, greedy, insensitive and abusive to women--even the women he loved.  It is an intense, but I think true, picture of who James Brown was.  I think that is what a biopic is supposed to be.

Today I saw The Hundred Foot Journey.   It is a "foodie" movie, but also a good story.  I think the critics panned it, but it is worth going just to see Helen Mirren.  She plays Madame Mallory, an established French restaurant-owner with a one-star Michelin rating.  Her goal is to get two stars. A family from Mombai buys a restaurant across the street from her and opens to serve Indian food.   "War" ensues between her and the father of the Indian family, played by Om Puri.  She is absolutely determined to get the new restaurant shut down.  Hasam Kadam (played by Manish Dayal), the son of the Indian father, is a gifted cook.  He had been taught by his mother, who died in a fire in a restaurant the family owned in India.  He is good at what he knows, and he wants to learn how to cook French cuisine.  He has coaching "on the sly" from Madame's sous-chef and eventually a romance between them will evolve.  A truce in the restaurant war is reached in which Madame Mallory admits that Hasam Kadam has a gift in the kitchen and hires him to work for her.  She furthers his training, and she also gets her two stars.  There is what I consider a charming relationship that develops between Madame and the Indian father, and so I enjoyed it.  Maybe, as a former mediator, I really liked the way the conflict moved from hatred to friendship.  

August 10 Nara, more temples, and celebration banquet

There was indeed the threat of heavy rains due to the typhoon, but we boarded the bus and headed for Nara. This is the the Todai, temple.  The main attraction is a huge bronze Buddha statue, Daibutsu, which is almost 50 feet high.

This picture doesn't do it justice.  The temple itself was very beautiful and we enjoyed the grounds....though it was raining because of the typhoon.

The group went to the Kasuga Shrine, but I have to admit that I passed it up and stayed in the bus.  It was still pouring rain.  The Kasuga shrine is famous for its many (maybe 3000) lanterns. Here's a picture anyway....admittedly retrieved from on-line sources...taken on a better day.

We had lunch at a food court and I was with a group that ate at a Chinese place.  It was good, but it might have been more interesting to look around for something more Japanese.  We just weren't sure we had enough time.  

We headed back to Kyoto, where we visited the Sanjusangendo Temple..  It is remarkable because there are 1001 Kannon statues.  One is big and is in the center,  It is surrounded by  1000 life-size Kannons.  All of these were formed in 1200-1300.  Kannons are forms of a Buddhist diety, but I will be in "over my head" if I try to explain the significance in this particular case.  Pictures are not permitted and I pulled this off the internet, too.  It really doesn't do it justice.  It was amazing.  This picture doesn't even show the central Kannon--just one part of the 1000 Kannon.    There also was a special incense, and I bought some of that because it was so beautiful and peaceful.

After that, we returned by bus to the hotel.  We had a little more time for shopping and exploring the neighborhood. That evening, we had a wonderful banquet, which included a dance by a maiko.  A maiko is a geisha in training.  The name is a little hard to understand unless you know that, in Kyoto, a geisha is known as a geiko.  The maikos are essentially their apprentices.  Ours was very beautiful and also was gracious enough to answer questions about her life.  it was very interesting.

This will be my last post for this trip.  We left the hotel the next morning and went by bus to Kyoto Station.  From there, we took the Shinkansen to Tokyo Narita.  A little shopping was possible at the airport in Narita and then we boarded the plane for for a long flight to Dulles (IAD).  It was a great trip, with amazing people and lots of adventures.

August 9 Touring Kyoto

This is a view of our hotel, the Gion Maifukan.  It is a very small hotel and some of our group stayed at another hotel nearby.  Those of us at Gion Maifukan went to a nearby cafe called Medea for breakfast. The breakfast cafe was also small, and we had to eat in two shifts.  The coffee was terrific, ( though, like at RKK in Tokyo) we had to pay extra for it.  They call it European coffee and it is good either hot or cold.  I had no idea that good coffee was available in Japan.  The breakfast was good, too.

After such a peaceful day yesterday, I think I was kind of overloaded.  The activities of this day are kind of a blur for me!    We toured around Kyoto, a beautiful city, but I didn't make notes.  We went to a large shrine that is also an active religious community today.  I don't know the name of it, and I read that there are over 1600 temples and 400 temples in Kyoto.  I can't just do a google search!  It was raining, and I didn't take any pictures.

We also toured some small shops.  I especially enjoyed Mr. Saiki the fan-maker. He is a sixth-generation business man and explained the history of the folded fan, which was invented in Japan.  It was particularly interesting to see how the wooden fan spokes are inserted into the paper fan, which has already been decorated.

We also visited a tea shop and enjoyed a tea ceremony there before touring their beautiful shop. Afterward, we had lunch at a sandwich shop.

We then had a free afternoon.  I went back to our neighborhood and explored a little around there.  I found another Shinto Shrine that was very interesting to me, but I didn't get the name of it.  I was by myself, so I don't think anyone else would know either.  I reached it by taking a little path off a main street and then saw a mound with wishes on it.  I made one of my own for peace and love.

 This is how the mound looks and I have since learned that I should have crawled through it with my wish to make my wish come true.   I did find information on this shrine on the internet.  It is called Yasui-kompira-gu.  Be careful if you type that in....an error might lead you to aJapanese pornography site!!!!

I actually went to this shrine because the approach was so pretty and the rain had stopped.  I had no idea that I would find something so interesting.

I did a little shopping, but seemed to be more focused on tourist attractions.  I saw a pedicab with a man and a woman in formal kimonos, but my picture was blurry.

Back at the hotel, we had a reflection and discussion about plans for the next day.  It was predicted to be rainy because of a typhoon. It was decided that we should buy some food for the morning breakfast and have it in our rooms in case it was too stormy to go out, but our bus trip to Nara was still "on."

Carol and I went to a Lawson's convenience store and got stuff for an evening casual meal as well as for breakfast.  We had a little time for a glass of wine and a visit, which was very nice.   I had another nice warm bath before bed.

August 8 to Kyoto!

We got up early, had a buffet breakfast (mostly American-style), and walked to the train station to take the Shinkansen from Hiroshima to Kyoto.

In the afternoon, we went to the Myoshinji temple complex and were led in a meditation by a buddhist priest  It was a highlight of the trip for me.  It was so peaceful and beautiful.  We sat on tatami mats and looked out on a beautifully maintained garden at Shunko-in Temple.  Some of us had very comfortable stools so we didn't have to sit on the floor the whole time.  Part of the garden is shown in the picture above and the shoji screens were open, so  it was almost like being outside. As the meditation concluded, the rain started falling very softly.  It was refreshing.  We were given some information on the history of the temple, including a bell that has Jesuit origins.  Yes, there were Christians in Japan and this particular bell is identified as being cast in 1577.  We were all permitted to get a close look and ring it, if we wished to.  We also looked around at the hand-painted screens and altar of the temple.  It was beautiful.   Maybe the fact that this was a private visit contributed to the peacefulness.  When we visited the larger temples and shrines, they were crowded and beautiful...but not as conducive to contemplation.  It was just our group for this visit.

We were served tea and cookies before leaving and the rain had stopped by then.

Our next stop was also very peaceful and spiritual.  We went to the Ryoanji Temple, where we saw a famous rock garden.  It is said to have been created by a Zen monk, Tokuto Zenketsu, in about 1500.  I took this panoramic shot.  We had time to sit and peacefully meditate at this garden, which was a real treat and the rain held off.

I have seen pictures of this particular rock garden many times, and it was amazing to experience it in person.

This temple also has a beautiful green garden covered with moss.

That evening, we had special dinners with the youth in the group.  Each young person invited some adults to go with them and to encourage some inter-generational discussion.  My group went with Victoria, a beautiful young woman who was adopted (at about age 4) from Russia.  It was fun to have a traditional Japanese dinner (sitting on the floor) with her and learn about her experiences.  I didn't get a picture, though.

We settled into a hotel in the Gion District of Kyoto.  It was great fun to have a yukata (Japanese Summer robe) to relax in after my bath.  I had to take a mirror selfie.

Another great day with the Heiwa Peace Pilgramage in Japan.