Roving Japan

Date: 08-12-09
Location: Back in Tokyo! I’ll be getting the blog caught up in the next several days.

Day 59 Photoset

It rained pretty hard last night. So hard that it actually woke us up several times. We were both pretty tired this morning, so we were lucky that the rest area we were camping in had a vending machine with coffee for 80yen.

We walked pretty far today, making it all the way to Hikone. It was a nice walk, and we were very fortunate with the weather. The report called for rain all day, but we somehow managed to walk between storms and were lucky enough to miss almost all the rain. I even got a little more sun burned to add to my already potent farmers tan.

We did our best to walk off the highway as much as possible, as the constant traffic gives us both headaches. It was nice to take a mental break and walk through the rice patties, watching the crows hunting for bugs and the frogs hopping around everywhere.

There was a sad/interesting shrine along the way. At some point in history, it was a shrine in the middle of the countryside. Now it has a Shinkansen track going right through the middle of the main path.

A couple of the towns we walked through still have the Nakasendo marked. It was a nice assurance to see signs marking the old path. It reminded me of the signs in Oregon for the Oregon trail, and how Oregonians barely notice them. I am sure that the locals don’t even notice the Nakasendo markers, but they were sure a welcome sight for us!

After three days of walking in high humidity, we grabbed a hotel for the night. Tomorrow we are going to check out Hikone castle before starting through the mountains towards Gifu. I set two targets, either camp by the river in Semegai or at a shrine in Kashiwabara.

Day 58 Photoset

Long, tedious walk today. We took a long break at a bath house where we also grabbed lunch. Besides that, we pretty much just followed the highway north.

I am constantly amazed by how many pachinko parlors there are in Japan. It doesn’t matter how big the town is, you are guaranteed at least one pachinko parlor and chances are it will be busy! I tried pachinko once. I lost $10 in about 1 minute without ever figuring out what was going on. But apparently some of those players can make a living off the game.

Towards the end of the day we left the city and came into some countryside. I like walking by the rice patties much more than the urban sprawl. It’s also cool to see how much the rice has grown since we started back in May.

We stumbled upon a sweet shrine at one point. We asked if we could camp there, but this shrine is a designated national treasure, so no vagabonds allowed.

A few kilometers before getting to our current camp, we snapped this shot. How cool is that? A Gundam made of granite!

We are now in a roadside rest area, camped off to the side of the parking lot. It’s supposed to rain tonight and all day tomorrow. Our target for tomorrow is Hikone, which apparently has a cool castle and old style shopping street.

My foot is back to 100%, and we are ready to start walking again. It’s been a long time. The sightseeing was fun, but we’re ready to move on.

Today was rather uneventful, which was actually kind of nice. We began the first leg of the Nakasendo, but there wasn’t a whole lot to see. We crossed the first “checkpoint”, Sanjo-ohashi bridge, then headed east on route 1.

As we walk, I am trying to imagine what it might have been like for someone back in the Edo period. Their first encounter once leaving the city is to climb a small mountain range. Welcome to the trail! I wonder if anyone gave up right away.

I can totally see how people would hire body guards. Walking 550km is a daunting task. In those first few miles, you think to yourself, “Wow, we are going to walk through the wilderness for a month?!” Heading into the woods for a month would be scary especially knowing that bandits might lurk in the darkness. Good thing for us, modern Japan is safe!

Wikipedia has a nice entry on the Nakasendo, with a list of all the post towns and the modern equivalent. It also lists what highways follow the old trail. So it looks like we will be on route 1, then route 8, before turning east to head into Gifu.

Tonight we set up camp in a wooded park. I’m not sure what town we are in, but we are between the Otsu and Kusatsu checkpoints.

Happy 4th of July! Celebrate the birth of our nation by blowing up a small piece of it!

Photoset, Days 54, 55 and 56

I was going to do an entry for each day, but I think I can summarize the entire Kyoto trip in one post and let the photos fill in the details.

We spent our 3 days bouncing around as many temples and shrines that we possibly could. All of them are beautiful, but some more beautiful than others. Many of them are actually undergoing restoration and are covered in scaffolding (this doesn’t stop them from charging full price admission though.). My personal favorites were Taizo-in, Tenryu-ji and Nijo-jo.

Taizo-in had an excellent Zen garden which far outclassed the more famous Ryoan-ji which was tiny and unfortunately obscured by construction work. Taizo-in is part of a huge temple complex which was really fun to walk though, as it gave us the feeling of walking through old Kyoto city streets.

Nijo-jo is where the Kyoto capital palace is located. This ancient temple was very impressive. We really liked that they had set up mannequins in a couple of the main rooms. We’ve seen a lot of historical buildings, but this was the first one that showed some context for how people actually used the rooms.

The floor at Nijo-jo also makes a chirping noise as guests walk on the wooden planks. At first we thought that it was just due to wear and tear, but we learned that the chirps were by design. The noisy floor alerted the guards that someone was walking the halls.

I also liked Ninna-ji, although it didn’t offer any revolutionary sights, it was nice because we were basically alone. Being able to quietly walk around a 400 year old temple is much more gratifying than trying to squeeze around bus loads of tourists and school kids to take a photo.

One of the most famous temples, Kiyomizu-dera was way too touristy for my taste. It was just not possible to retain the authentic ancient temple atmosphere when there were hundreds of people walking through, and souvenir shops selling sweets and trinkets INSIDE THE TEMPLE. Charms are one thing, but sweets and fans are another. Keep that stuff outside the temple walls please.

Another temple, Sanjusangen-do had an amazing display of 1000 golden statues of the “Thousand Armed Kannon.” but there was a constant flow of middle school and high school students disrupting the temple atmosphere. Too bad too, because the statues were really awesome (no pics allowed, so here is a link)

I know that many people like to associate Kyoto with Geishas and such, but we didn’t see any. Risa says that it’s very rare to see a real Geisha. Most of the girls in kimonos you see walking around are tourists who have rented a kimono for the day. That doesn’t make the scene any less pretty though. In the neighborhood of Gion, we saw a couple kimono clad women walking down the road. When they are alone, it almost looks like a scene out of an old movie.

It was fun to spend the last few days with Risas mom. One of the most unique temples we saw was based on Yoshikos suggestion. Nanzen-ji, which has a European style aqueduct running through it and a giant stone lantern.

Risa had a great time hanging out with her mom. It’s been a couple of months since we’ve seen a familiar face, so it was nice to have family around.

Yoshiko left on the 3rd (today), but Risa and I are staying one last night so we can leave tomorrow morning.

Kyoto Sightseeing Summary
Day 1:
Sanjusangen-do Temple — ***1/2 The artifacts alone are worth 5 stars, but the temple atmosphere is shattered by bus loads of students and tourists.

Kiyomizu-dera Temple — *** Too touristy for me, but the buildings are beautiful.

Yasaka Jinja — ** Nice shrine near Gion.

Gion Neighborhood — ***1/2 Cool neighborhood with a good atmosphere.

Ginkaku-ji Temple — *** The main structure was under construction, but the garden was great.

Heian-jingu Shrine — *** A giant torii marking the entrance was very cool, and the colorful structures were very impressive. Can anyone identify these Chinese(Taiwanese?) celebrities?

Day 2:
Kinkaku-ji Temple — ***1/2 The famous gold structure was pretty, but the garden was lacking. Also lots of tourists.

Ryoan-ji Temple — * Disappointing. Zen garden was obscured by scaffolding, and they charge full price admission anyway.

Ninna-ji Temple — *** Nothing new, but since we were almost alone, we could enjoy the relaxing atmosphere.

Taizou-in Temple — **** Fantastic zen gardens. Fun to walk through the temple complex.

Tenryu-ji Temple — ***** One of the best temples we saw. One of the few temples where you can walk inside the buildings. It also has a massive garden in the back.

Arashima Neighborhood — ** Famous for the river and a few shops. Nothing too exciting.

Togetsu-kyo Bridge — ** A Famous bridge. Nice for the historical significance, but this bridge isn’t an original, so there isn’t much to look at.

Day 3:
Nijo-jo Castle — ***** “Castle” doesn’t apply anymore, as the main castle structure is gone. But the Nijo-jo Palace is fantastic. This is the actual capital building of old Kyoto. The palace was incredibly interesting because they had life-sized mannequins in the rooms to give you some context as to how these rooms were used. (no photos allowed inside unfortunately)

Nishihonngan-ji Temple — *** Huge “Working” temple. We could enter the temple buildings and listen to the monks reading scripture. We also saw a long line of monks leaving the temple after a days worth of studying.

Koryu-ji Temple — ** Nice little temple, but nothing new.

Nanzen-ji Temple — ***1/2 Nanzen had two unique elements. An aqueduct and a giant stone lantern. It’s very pretty, but we arrived after closing so we didn’t get to experience everything it had to offer.