The Best of Wanderlust (A GeoEx eBook)

The Best of Wanderlust

ON A QUEST IN KYOTO FOR TRADITIONAL WOODBLOCK PRINTS Don George

W atching the Olympics over the past few days has mentally transported me back to that country and culture which have been so intimately intertwined with my life for the last four decades. As I have been imagining my return to Japan, one memory has crystallized in my mind: an unexpected journey I undertook 13 autumns ago, shortly after I had joined GeoEx, when I was given a quest by the company’s then head, Jim Sano, a Japanophile himself and a devotee of ukiyo-e woodblock prints. When Jim learned that I was about to leave on a family trip that would include Kyoto, he asked if I could undertake a special mission. “There’s a wonderful little shop in Kyoto that specializes in woodblock prints,” he said. “It’s in the covered shopping area near the river. Everyone knows it. Could you go there and look for some woodblock prints that might make good covers for the catalogue?” This seemed simple enough and I enthusiastically agreed. Little did I know what an adventure would ensue! ~~ After four fulsome days in Tokyo, my wife, daughter, and I took the Shinkansen to Kyoto, where we planned to stay two

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