Japan Week 1 - Temples and Trains

31 May 2009 - A day of stuff-ups: Kurashiki to Beppu

Woke up in the Youth Hostel on a hill at Kurashiki, organised for our bags to be taken to the station, and set off through yet another graveyard for a 2 km stroll through town that took us several hours. The canal district was where rice used to be stored and then shipped out from old timber granaries, which are now houses and shops. They were beautifully made and housed really good art galleries and craft shops. It's a lovely town with huge pride and a strong arts community. The hostel owner's daughter kindly brought stuff we'd left behind. Arigato ........... Whoops. On the train to Kyushu, Japan's third largest island, we didn't really get the information we needed from our maps, and made an unnecessary trip to Fukuoka and back. Lucky we have a Japan Rail Pass, and the shinkansen was doing 285 km an hour! Finally got to Beppu and spent too much time and bus money and a 2 km walk up a steep hill getting to a free onsen (natural hot water spring bath) that turned out to be empty. AARGHH! Back in town, went to a 100 yen bath, in an incredibly old and well-worn timber and stone building. It was frequented by locals, who helped us with onsen tips, and it was really hot!!! Staggered out, bright pink, with weak muscles, to find dinner. A fantastic meal at Toto.... near the station. We ordered sashimi and tempura, and the little bowls and plates of veges and fish and rice and sauces and pickles just kept coming. Yum. Beppu Guest House is very cheap and kinda dodgy, but 5 minutes from train.

30 May 2009 - Koya-san

Many changes of train and a cable car ride got us to Mt Koya – a Buddhist monastery town on top of an absurdly steep mountain range. Beautiful lush forest surrounding 117 monasteries and temples. Saw a group of golden-robed priests walking along in two rows, with bundles of colourful cloth??? Sometimes we wish we were in a tour group, so we could know what is going on! Bought a combined pass and saw the sights, a really enjoyable afternoon. Then ventured to a graveyard amongst cedar forest, with tens of thousands of carved stone markers, many very old. All lining a path that we followed for a couple of km, and didn't reach the end of. Getting dark and really eerie, as we wandered back, with stone lanterns and candles lit along the way. Really Dianne's cup of tea. Stayed at the most beautiful old hostel, our own tatami mat room, paper screens for walls and the best hot bath yet. Oh, and totally unexpected wi-fi, so that Hils spent a couple of hours on Skype, talking to Kane.

Back down the mountain, through Wakagama, Osaka and Kobe (swine flu central) to Himenji. The castle here is an enormous stone one, overlooking the town. Put our packs into coin lockers, and skipped through town, light as feathers. Passing through endless baileys and massive stone walls and wooden gates, we climbed up many stairs to the top of the tower, to look out over the city. Constant thoughts of how we could never face samurai, in their terrifying armour and masks, in these dark, scary corridors. Shivers. Visited a nearby garden, with waterfalls and teahouses, ponds and covered bridges in nine separate gardens. Had the best-ever ocha (green tea) icecream, and got back on the train to Kurashiki.

29 May 2009: Yamanobe-michi

The Lonely Planet guide to “Hiking in Japan” led us along this very ancient pathway. It's 13 km, but we got lost and distracted many times, so we took all day. Heaven for anyone interested in food growing. It winds through forest and farmland and tiny villages. We listed dozens of fruits and vegetables we saw growing, and they were just the ones we could identify. Little farms, lots of terracing, rice fields, persimmon orchards, citrus, kiwifruit, thirty kinds of veges. Fantastic. Polytunnels with red, aromatic strawberries. Neat gardens of tomatoes, corn, cabbages, zucchini, cucumbers, etc. Trellising, bird covers, flood irrigation – all sorts of techniques that are clearly working very well – it was incredibly productive. Could recognise the season – tomatoes flowering, corn just getting going, snow peas finished. Like late November in our garden. Have to mention a snack we loved, freshly made and sold in a classic covered arcade. Like two pikelets with scrumptious sweet bean filling. Yum.

27-28 May 2009: Nara by bicycle

After a big farewell by all at Kiyomizu (including neighbours, “sayonara”) Short local train trip to the smaller city of Nara, which was the capital of Japan in the 700's. Beginning to recognise so many different subcultures. One is the young men/boys who have beautifully shaped eyebrows and 70's rock star hairdos, and wear nail polish and tight t-shirts, like the kid who served us lunch and made our teppanyaki at our table for lunch today. There are so many ways of dressing; people's individuality is entirely accepted. Hired bikes again and rolled along paths in the deer park, where we visited the Todia-ji Temple. It is the world's largest timber building, and is a 1700's rebuild, 2/3 the size of the original. The Buddha was enormous, too. Apparently he has lost is head a few times, in earthquakes and fires. Then rode uphill, through woods and parkland, so we could roll down again. Bought some fresh fruit in a tiny shop and the lady was astonished by Hilary's height. She kindly gaurded our bikes with her life as we searched for some dinner nearby.

26 May 2009: Kyoto on foot – our fourth day

Finally strolled 2 minutes up hill to “our temple”. Kiyomzu-dera is set high above Kyoto, backed by forest. It's main building is a massive timber structure, with verandahs projecting out in mid-air. Springs feeding ponds in the gardens, astonishing stone work supporting terraces. Not too many visitors – swine flu is great for us! ......, then the “Philosopher's Walk”, a very pretty stroll under cherry trees, along a canal, to Ginkaku – the Silver Temple. (We did laugh later when we saw a hotel named “Flussefers”!! – (Philosophers) - nearly right...) Great gardens with beautiful maples, and mossy ground in dappled sunlight. Kyoto Handicraft Centre, then a bus across town to Ashikara area, famous for a stunning “Bamboo Forest” another place we got to in fading light – made it even more lovely. Bamboo fences along winding paths, dense stands of huge bamboo. Simple and gorgeous.

25 May 2009: Lynda's Birthday in Kyoto

Hilary thought it would be a great idea to hire some bikes. It was my birthday, we had heaps of temples and gardens we wanted to see, and Kyoto is a busy city, with sites spread all around the edges, backed by beautiful wooded hills. 17 World Heritage sites, plans for a special dinner – we needed to be mobile. So we eventually found the “Kyoto Cycle Tour Project” and headed off into the traffic on a couple of very sturdy 8-speed numbers built for people a fair bit shorter then us.

We were pretty tired to begin with, after travelling the day before from Tokyo on the shinkansen, and then spending 5-6 hours walking and getting acquainted with the layout of our neighbourhood of Kiyomizu. It's an incredibly rich area of shrines and winding alleys of traditional houses near the Geisha district of Gion. In fact, we had amazing good fortune to catch maiko (apprentice geisha) leaving their final performance of the season. They appeared at the door of the theatre, bowed politely, then ran like rabbits (geisha-style) through the crowds on Pontocho-dori. Their kimono, hair and make-up were perfect. We couldn't believe our luck.

Anyway, using the “Kyoto Cycling Map” - an absolute treasure that showed slopes and stairs and had dotted lines indicating roads”good for cycling”, we rode north through downtown Kyoto. The woman who had hired the bikes suggested that “In Kyoto, we ride on the footpath”. Good idea, and we did, on the busier roads, but most streets are so narrow that there is just a strip of road surface with a line painted about 60cm out from the front of the houses and shops. It is shared by bikes, people walking dogs, shop displays, old people shuffling along, little delivery vans, and is otherwise full of plants in pots. So we diced with traffic and pedestrians, weaving our way through the fantastic machiya districts.

Set right on the street are traditional timber townhouses, beautifully constructed with tiny courtyard gardens. In between are many shrines and temples, some large temples, with stone walls and gardens, others are tiny shrines, decorated with flowers.

We came to an inner city corner with huge department stores – one called “Hankyu”, written in exactly the same font as Harrods in London, exactly the same”H”. Interesting. Other shops of every upmarket European brand imaginable, beside local shops selling beautifully packaged local sweets or kitchen utensils or kimono.

The Imperial Palace Gardens looked great on the map – wide traffic free avenues. It was very beautiful, with thousands of huge old trees in an enormous park, but the deep gravel on the drives was seriously hard work. The locals all rode the same path, making skinny tracks that we followed around. Massive walls surrounded the Palace and stretched for many hundreds of metres.

Turning west on more little back streets, were again in amongst the daily life of the city. More crooked streets of very old houses took us to a shrine market, where thousands of people were having a great time searching for treasures amongst antiques and old stuff of amazing variety. I would have loved to have bought some of the bundles of antique fabric – I could imagine an incredible quilt.

In this quieter corner of town we found people tending tiny vege gardens. It was easy to recognise the exact season - cucumbers in flower, tomatoes leafing up, corn one foot high,snow peas and broad beans just finishing – like late November at home.

We've been having great fun asking people for help, and they are all so excited when Hilary uses Japanese. An older gentleman helped us with directions to Ryoanji Temple, with a great combination of gestures and “reft, light,reft, reft, four hundred metres”.

The grounds at Ryoanji include a significant Zen garden set in a courtyard with earthern walls, where fifteen rocks are arranged in a sea of white gravel. The pond garden outside, and late spring foliage were also very beautiful.

Back on our bikes, we headed up hill towards Kinkaku-ji (the Golden temple). It's amazing and so nice to see Japanese kids walking home from school. The littlest ones must finish early. They were wandering along, alone or in little groups,dawdling and chatting and having a great time. We got stuck behind a six-year old boy and girl arguing and laughing just like Rob and Hannah used to. No big school pick-up traffic jams here – hardly anyone drives, and kids are safe to walk ride. Interesting that there aren't any bike helmets, or crossing ladies - but then everyone totally obeys traffic rules. Even groups of extremely cool looking boys wait patiently for the lights to change. No-one jaywalks. It's amazing how quickly we got to flying across pedestrian crossings without looking (like everyone else) because you know you are safe.

The Golden Temple looked stunning in the afternoon light, sitting in it's beautifully landscaped pool and gardens. The sun reflecting from the water's ripples made flashes of gold under the curved beams of the overhanging roof. Hils was convinced they were lanterns. We met a north american guy who was on a treasure hunt left by a friend. He had clues to follow, and was looking for a message left somewhere in the grounds. He had already been to Nara – another town of temples. We told him he was lucky to have such a great friend, but it didn't seem very Zen to be rushing so much.

After Kinkaku-ji came a fantastic gentle downhill cruise through backstreets to the river, which took half an hour or so. It was just fantastic. Sights, smells and sounds so familiar to local people were just so interesting and weird to us. There was never than five metres from one side of the road to the other. I loved seeing a little old lady buying a piece of timber from a merchant in a tiny timber shop. More kids, playing in the streets. Fruit shops, noodle shops and fish shops, people sweeping the road, lots of people of all ages on bikes. A man making bonito flakes and someone else smoking fish. Little vans delivering veges. We got used to bowing on a bike, as you do when someone makes way for you in a tiny space.

The river was Hils' favourite part of the day. It was late afternoon, and everyone was out to relax and play. We rode for about five kilometres right through Kyoto, from north to south, along a wide path between the Kamo River and wide grassy flats. There were baseball games, frisbee training sessions, and over the whole length of the trail, hundreds of musicians practicing their instruments in the open. Trombones, saxophones, clarinets. Guitars and people singing. Violins and instruments we only vaguely recognised.

People were fishing, walking dogs, reading, sleeping. Couples were rolling in the long grass, grannies walking with toddlers. Little boys playing swords with sticks. Teenagers being very cool. The light was beautiful on the lush green of Spring foliage and grass, and the river dropped over little weirs. Lots of water birds – cranes and ducks and egrets and cormorants. There were spots where huge stones made stepping stone crossings and office workers on their way home leaped energetically from one side to the other, including one very elegant woman in a suit and high heels.

When the bike path ran out, we climbed a ramp and plunged into the very busy narrow streets leading to Fushimi Inari which we had trouble finding. We got there in time to see the hundreds of deep orange torii gates leading uphill into the forest, in the last of the daylight. It was spectacular, and at that time of day, really eerie.

It was a dash to get back to the Station to drop off the bikes by 7:00. After a further hour of walking back up the hill to Kiyomizu, a long hot bath was just the ticket. Definitely a birthday I'll never forget. Thanks Hilary!

24 May 2009: Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto

An amazing two and a half hour trip (515km) to Kyoto. Eventually located the very beautiful Kiyomizu Youth Hostel, with the help of Gramps getting online, back in Drouin. It was just off “Teacup Lane” (we called it bloody teapot street) on the hill leading to one of Kyoto's most incredible temples, Kiyomizu-dera, but none of the shopkeepers could help with directions. The hostel was stunning, quite new, but traditional, all timber and tatami. Hilary made a few major etiquette blunders in the first 5 minutes, but the owner was very kind and we loved our three nights there. Headed out into tiny streets lined with traditional timber machiya buildings. Caught a glimpse of several Maiko (apprentice Geisha) leaving the final performance of the season. Incredible. Their make-up an hair was perfect. Their kimono were all different, beautiful fabrics, colours. They appeared at the door of the theatre, looked at the assembled crowd, bowed politely, and bolted off down Pontocho-dori in their wooden shoes as quickly as they could. We were incredibly lucky to see them. A few more hours of walking, seeing many temples, 700 year old camphor trees and more ancient neighbourhoods.

23 May 2009 - Tokyo

Spent on the incredible Tokyo Subway system, using a “Passmo” card. Found a post office to send stuff home, to lighten our packs. Doing this involved getting help from many people, all very enthusiastic and polite, who assumed that Hilary could really speak Japanese. Tricky. Visited the Edo Museum, recording the history of Tokyo, learned that it was largely destroyed by and rebuilt after 150 Allied bombing raids in WW2. Saw huge crowds leaving the Sumo Stadium after a big match – the train station was a bit like Richmond after an AFL game. Patience, respectfulness and manners are standard, and even the busiest train station in the world (Shinjuku – 3 million people each day) felt calm and worked perfectly.

After further eager assistance, we went to Akihabara to get a camera cable – techno city! Anime Centre, where we got incredibly cute Totoro things. Then across town to Harajuku, where there were some outrageous outfits amongst the hordes of teenagers out to show off on a Saturday night. Finally went to Shibuya, to see the famous four-way intersection where thousands of people surge onto the road at once, when the lights change. Joined in, walked the streets snapping photos of the massive neon signs. Back on the Yamanoto line, which circles through Tokyo, to the lovely Andon Ryokan.

22 May 2009: Narita (yes - near the airport!!)

After arriving at Narita airport, I had a day to fill in, while waiting for Hilary to land, after her three weeks in Mongolia, on a “Wildlife of the Mongolian Steppes” expedition. I caught a train to the small town of Narita and found the amazing temples there. They are set amongst beautiful gardens, lakes and woods, and were very busy, with people visiting all day. It was a massive and very exciting culture shock to be on my own, the only western visitor, amongst people so much at home. I watched people arriving at a temple and scooping handfuls of smoke from an urn over their heads and onto arthritic joints. Praying, chatting, enjoying a day out. Back at the airport, it was great to see Hilary come through the doors. Headed for Tokyo, to stay at the very small, groovy and affordable Andon Ryokan. Had a great meal of udon and hit the futon.