Japan Part 5

And so after Nagasaki I crossed back onto Honshu and headed for the coastal town of Hagi. Changing trains has generally been no problem. The Japan Travel app helps though it does tend to offer you connections of less than 5 minutes! Sometimes this is a train on the other side of the platform but not always. Station names are not prominent on the platforms. Often just one sign with the stations either side also marked - on this measure the UK stations do it better for once. And how many times have you had the person in front of you on a plane/train suddenly recline their seat? On this trip the woman in front politely asked if it was ok for her to recline her seat. There is a lot more space too than on our trains. And luggage straps to hold your suitcase in place on the racks at the end of the carriages.

More country views

A lot of settlements cluster around the mouth of a river where there is a bit of flat land.

Stayed in a lovely hostel in Hagi and tried out some local saki with the staff and another visitor:

This one was quite sweet

Hagi is famous for being the home of the Choshu 5 who were young men whose families smuggled them out of Japan with the help of Thomas Blake Glover. They studied in the UK and brought their learning back with them. This clan had realised the importance of learning from the West and that this was the only way to avoid being overwhelmed as the Chinese had been in the Opium Wars. The speed at which this new learning led to the industrialisation of Japan is amazing: shipbuilding, coal mining, engineering of all kinds, railways etc. 

I learnt much of this in the former school, now museum, pictured above. A big emphasis was also placed on preparing students to be good citizens who would serve their country:

Maxim in the classroom

The layout of Hagi has changed little as it fell from importance and no high rises have appeared. The old castle district is a delight to walk around in with many old buildings open to visit like the Kikuyu family residence. Outside is a large stone for the guests' palanquin to be set on. Then a servant would ladle water from the top of this stone for them to wash with. The duckboards are cedar to protect the valuable zelkova underneath and would be removed only when guests came.

The cage to the right would have contained incense and a kimono would be laid over it to be perfumed. 

The 'new' gardens of the house

Typical boundary walls and roofscape

Funky little art shop

Beach - with Mt Shizuki to the left

I also walked to the site of the castle. The moat etc remain but the rest was dismantled as was the case with many of Japan's castles at the fall of the Shogunate and the restoration of the Emperor that began the Meji era in the late nineteenth century. 

It sat below Mt Shizuki with watchtowers on the hill behind. I took a walk up for the view:

After 2 nights in Hagi I moved on to Matuse, a much bigger town further east. Here is another of Japan's original castles and one that had some innovative building techniques using beams and pillars to distribute the weight. Fascinating to see the foundations:

A castle celebrated in tiles and on manhole covers:

Lafcadio Hearn  - Greek/Irish chap who went to America and was sent to Japan as a newspaper correspondent. His collections of Japanese stories have saved many that would otherwise have been lost. His own life story is pretty amazing. His writings introduced many in the West to Japan. 

My next stop was based on a recommendation I got earlier in the trip: Kinosakionsen. An onsen being a hot spring and the buildings around it. This little place didn't disappoint. I also stayed in a traditional Japanese inn or ryokan.

My room

The inn even had its own onsen. There are seven public onsen in the small town, all fed from the local hot springs.  A river runs through the middle with numerous bridges:

Most visitors are here for the onsen. You don your yakuta or robe, take a towel and wooden sandals then make your way around the streets:

All have separate bathing for men and women, though you can get private rooms too, as everyone is completely naked. First you must wash throughly, then you can bathe. They are also pretty hot as I said before.

A couple of the Onsen here are outside, one even had a waterfall beside it. Sone photos from the website:

Kouyno-yu

Jizou-yu

I took another cable car ride up Mt Daishi for the view:

More temples and shrines on the way down:

Nature reclaims

Onsen-going

Tomorrow I was due to head up to the north east and the island of Hokkaido. However yesterday there was an earthquake off the coast there and although the tsunami warnings were rescinded I have decided to stay away from the area. Now heading to Toyama and then Matsumoto before I return to Tokyo on Sunday.