Live from Japan!

As we were walking away from Nanzen-ji, one of the temples we visited in Kyoto, we were stopped by this little man on his bicycle. On the rack behind his bike he had a variety of hand-painted rocks. He carefully, and patiently, explained to us about the rocks and tried to convince us that we should buy one.

I wasn’t necessarily convinced that I needed one of these rocks for 1,000 yen ($10), but after spending several minutes with this vendor, while he worked so hard to speak with us in English, we decided that yes, we would love one of his rocks.

Then, he spent time carefully describing the rocks to us. Including explaining which scenes in Kyoto they depicted. We ultimately settled on one with two different pictures.

The vendor was unable to come up with the proper word to describe this picture. He kept calling it a night bird. We told him that it was called an owl, he seemed so happy to learn a new bit of vocabulary.

This is the picture on the back of the rock. I cannot remember where this scene is from, but I like it anyways.

After we decided on the rock we wanted, we picked it up and handed it to him. Included in the purchase, apparently, was a can of Japanese tea and a bag of snacks. A definite bonus. All in all, we were excited to find a little souvenir, and have another chance to interact with a Japanese person. As usual, we were surprised and happy to be embraced and welcomed, and stunned at his warmth and hospitality.