Roving Japan

We had a great time riding around the city today. We used a tourist map that we got at the train station yesterday and we planned a rough route around town that included stops at the castle, then one of Japans original middle schools and finally a miso factory. We figured that we would be able to find plenty of interesting things in between. As a bonus, the weather was perfect!

Matsumoto castle was awesome. We got there in the morning and enjoyed a leisurely climb to the top floor. The views of the city from the top were really nice. Matsumoto is surrounded by the Japanese Alps, and the weather today gave us a great view. As with most castles, the interior of Matsumoto castle is displaying some old artifacts, but this was the first time we’ve seen old canons on display. They also had an old rocket and a few other unique weapons like a dagger/pistol.

Next to the castle there is a little museum showing historical objects from Matsumotos history. I don’t know why, but my favorite thing was the wooden sandal ice skates. There was also a display about a local festival that involves carrying wooden penis around and throwing them into peoples houses. I guess it’s good luck.

The old Japanese middle school we went to was interesting. It was one of the first middle schools built in Japan during Meiji.

From the school we just biked around, not really going anywhere in particular, just enjoying the nice day and taking in our surroundings.

Around noon when we were getting hungry, we started looking for a good place to eat. At first we biked past the usual suspects: Udon, Soba, Ramen, etc… But after a little while I saw it. Like a beacon of hope beckoning me to come closer. I saw the “U2 Burgers Cafe”.

I immediately slammed on the breaks and slid into a bike parking spot. “Risa! I found lunch!”

Inside we found a very nice little restaurant that takes pride in making authentic burgers. And for the low low price of $10 I actually got a real burger. Sure it wasn’t giant, but it was good and there was some real meat between the buns. It also came with a decent number of fries. Thank you Matsumoto! You’re officially my favorite city in Japan!

After lunch we meandered our way to a little miso factory and tasted some miso soup. Then we biked over to the main river running through town and took some photos of the green grass with the mountains in the background. We also came across a high school baseball game, so we stopped and watched that for a while.

A curious aspect of Matsumoto are the fresh water wells spread around town. Every few blocks there are little wells that spew an endless supply of fresh mountain snow melt. The locals come by with dozens of empty plastic water bottles and fill up. We drank some of the water and it was certainly crisp and clean. Not a bad little benefit for those who live here!

I think this city is my favorite city in Japan. Free bicycles, fresh water wells, hamburgers, thai curry, an awesome castle, beautiful mountains, and interesting architecture make this one heck of a cool place. I’m really glad we decided to come here.

Tomorrow we’re back on the road!

Day 72 Photoset

Yasunobu is a successful tailor with his own shop in Nagoya. He designs and makes all his clothes in his studio room in his apartment. His wife Machiko makes handmade silver jewelry which she sells in their shop as well. Since Yasunobu is into fashion design and fabrics, he took us to a cool area in Nagoya called Arimatsu.

Hippies like to tie up some cloth and dump it in a bucket of dye, soak it, untie it, and call it good. Whatever random patterns emerge, its acceptable. Things are a little different in Arimatsu.

The people in Arimatsu have been making a specialize and precision form of tied-ye for hundreds of years. Their methods are detailed and extremely time consuming, but they produce really amazing patterns.

Yasunobu took us to the Arimatsu tie-dye museum where we got to watch some volunteers demonstrate the knot tieing. We also got to see a lot of examples of the different patterns they can produce with different knots.

I never knew that tiedye could be so precise. They aren’t making random designs, everything has been planned beforehand. The blank fabric is layed out on a table, and the pattern designer makes a dot wherever he wants a knot tied. The knot tiers then go about tieing the hundreds, or thousands of knots by hand. It’s amazing.

Yasunobu has two daughters, Saho and Miki. Saho is a fashion designer like her father. She is also a part time English teacher so I can talk with her without needing a lot of translation. This afternoon, Risa and I went with Saho to checkout downtown Nagoya.

Our first stop was Nagoya castle. This castle is pretty big, but it’s not an original. Inside they have the standard castle museum stuff. Samurai suits, and historical artifacts from the original castle and the surrounding area. However, they also had a few things that stuck out. The first was a fun “castle construction” simulator. You basically had to pretend to help pull large stones to be used in the castle wall. There was a gauge on the side that told you how strong you were. It was fun, and I’m proud to say that Risa and I were both stronger than the guy who went before us! Haha!

It was also interesting to learn that when the castle was originally built, the various subjected areas around Nagoya would donate stone to use in the construction. The lords of those smaller areas would stamp the stones with their symbol so that the main lord in Nagoya would know who donated what. We didn’t notice these markings when we got to the castle, but sure enough, as we left we could see the old markings on the stones from a bunch of different lords.

The castle is right next to the main Nagoya stadium. Right now the famous “Nagoya Sumo Basho” is going on. This is one of the main 4 sumo tournaments in Japan. We saw some sumo guys walking around, and Risa and I are trying to decide if we should splurge and buy a ticket! We didn’t have time to go today, but maybe tomorrow? It sure would be cool!

While we were out with Saho, Risa and I wanted to go see the store that sells Saho’s clothes. So we jumped on a train and went to Nagoya’s shopping arcade. This arcade is much like the covered arcade in Osaka, only with about 25% the number of people. Of course, just because they don’t have as many people, doesn’t mean they don’t have a few crazy’s. While Risa was in the bathroom, one old man in a cowboy hat was particularly interested in me. He kept saying “Hallo! America? HI!” I talked back to him in Japanese, and he talked back in broken English. He asked where I was from in America, and I told him Oregon. “Colorado!” “No… Oregon” “Oh! OK!” He had a pen and paper with him, so I drew a map of America and showed him where Oregon is. The best part was when I was getting my picture taken with him, Risa came out of the bathroom and was like, “Um… who’s that guy?”

We eventually made it to Saho’s store, and Risa finally got a chance to wear something other than her hiking clothes. She tried on one of Saho’s dresses, and really liked it. Too bad for us, it was kind of expensive! Good for Saho, bad for us! It was a nice dress though!

We wandered around the shopping arcade for a while, ate some ice cream, then left to go to the Nagoya port where we could watch the summer fireworks show.

We didn’t quite make it all the way to the main viewing area, but we did manage to get some cool seats. We climbed up a ladder and sat on a tall cement wall that gave us a clear view of the show. As a cool bonus, we also had the giant ferris wheel in view, so we could see the fireworks and the lights of the ferris wheel together. It was really fun!

For dinner, Machiko made us her famous spring rolls. Yasunobu explained that it was THIS dish that made him want to marry her, and after tasting it, we don’t blame him!

Day 64 Photoset

Yousuke is the leader of the local Boy Scout chapter. Today there was a scheduled field trip for some of the youngest scouts to the cities Disaster Preparedness Center. Yousuke invited us to go along, so Risa and I went with them to learn about earthquakes, house fires, and tsunamis.

The center was actually pretty cool. The earthquake simulator was fun/scary. Fun because you know its fake, scary because if that’s what a real 7.0 quake feels like, I’d be crapping my pants. They also had a dark smoky room where you have to feel your way to the exit, and a 3d movie that simulates the 1959 Ise Typhoon.

All in all, it was pretty fun. My only issue was with the guy who was explaining how to get out of a dark smoky house. He told people to use their hands to feel the walls/doors for heat, but he didn’t say to use the back of your hand. The back of your hand is more sensitive, and if it gets burned you can still use your hand to grab things. When feeling for heat, never use your finger tips or palm! always use the back of your hand!

The next stop for the troop was a neat ice cutter ship and the Nagoya harbor museum. The kids seemed to enjoy everything, although the little boy spent most of the time running around and pounding on any levers and buttons he could find.

Last stop of the day was Kiyosu Castle. This castle is a replica, although it was reconstructed within the last 5 years, so its a really well done replica museum made of wood rather than concrete. This particular castle is famous because it was the base of Oda Nobunaga, one of Japans primary historical figures.

The best part of the castle was the sweet armor I got to wear. The first room of the castle was showcasing some modern samurai armor made by local craftsmen and volunteers. When the main guy saw me, he said he would give me “Gaijin Service” and let me put on the good stuff! The whole time he was putting on the armor, he kept saying how cool gaijins look in samurai armor. Ha! Tom Cruise eat your heart out! I AM THE LAST SAMURAI.

When we got home, we got to enjoy some fireworks with Yousuke, his son Takehiko, Takehiko’s wife Sachie, and the two kids.

Day 63 Photoset

Yousuke and his friend Hibino took Risa and I to the town of Takayama today.

Takayama is famous for its old style shopping district, so Yousuke thought we might enjoy walking the streets and looking at the shops.

It was a neat town, and the shopping area was entertaining although crowded. We bought the biggest sembei I’ve ever seen, and we had a great lunch at a local restaurant.

Besides the historic shopping area, Takayama is also famous for it’s huge floats that get paraded around town during the autumn festivals. The real floats are kept in storage all year, but a local millionaire created a huge museum with replicas of all the floats for tourists to enjoy all year long.

The museum is actually a hollowed out mountain, which was pretty neat. The floats themselves are awesome. They are HUGE and each one has a marionette scene at the top. Every few minutes a different float puts on a show complete with music. The replica floats use anamatronics, the authentic floats have people inside who control the puppets.

I would love to see the actual festival.

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.