Japan Part 6

So now coming to the end of my 3 weeks in Japan and to the end of my current travels.

I first spent 2 nights in the coastal town of Toyama where I spotted this sign for the men's toilets:

Another colourful manhole cover which made me think of thistles...

I went to the port for a great view from the Observation Tower:

Cars being loaded for export. Among them some Audis (didn't know they were built in Japan). The ship had come from Vladivostok.

Exhortation to use the pedestrian crossing at the tram stop.

Inside the house of a trading family that were based close to the port. They had warehouses with thick stone doors for the rice etc. that they were exporting. I also went to the excellent science museum with a very realistic animatronic T-Rex (half size!). I enjoyed a great planetarium show there.

From Toyama I took the train to Matsumoto a town higher up surrounded by snow capped mountains. Also contained a lot of colourful manhole covers like these two:

Matsumoto is the home of the now 97 year old artist Yayoi Kusama, famous for her colourful style:

There were also several exhibits using mirror and lights in which you stood in small room to experience the infinity effect. Very cool.

Whilst searching for a supermarket I passed a cat cafe. Something that has spread to the UK too now:

Today I walked to a museum of woodblock prints. A fascinating video showed how these prints were made - hand carved, one block for each colour used and then the printer has to make sure the paper lines up exactly each time a new colour is applied:

Next door was a collection of old buildings that had been moved from elsewhere in the area, these included a courthouse, a prison, a silk factory and an inn the female workers used on their way from their villages to the factory:

The factory was in operation until 1995. The basins were filled with the silk worm cases and the workers had to grab the threads and loop them through the small rings and then they were wound together into threads.

Matsumoto also has the oldest wooden castle in Japan, dating to the end of the sixteenth century:

I stayed in an excellent hostel called the Couch Potato. Very comfy and clean but with a lovely Japanese aesthetic. The town itself isn't big and has lots of great sights, cafes, bars etc. Also some onsen, though I didn't visit those.

The next day before leaving I visited the former Kaichi School built in 1876:

It was in the Giyofu style of architecture - a quasi Western style where the builders used traditional Japanese techniques but more Western finishes and flourishes like the tower. It was also a leading educational centre with forest schools, the best teachers assigned to the failing students and had 60% attendance rates compared to the national average of 30%. So many children had to work and here there were evening classes for those affected.

Although traditional notion software gender roles were emphasised it's interesting to note the end of this excerpt:

Also at that time the Western influence moved the system away from more individual programmes of education with children following their own interests to whole class teaching using wall charts (as textbooks were rare at first). An idea that is being turned around now in Scotland as we move back to child led learning.

After a stroll around it was back on the train for Tokyo and thankfully an easy change at the massive and labyrinthine Shinjoku station to get to my Narita airport hotel and be reunited with the rest of my luggage I had left there. 

And so this morning heading off to Haneda airport for the flight to London via Singapore, then Aberdeen and finally scheduled to arrive in Shetland in 40 hours or so.

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.

Japan part 4

 After leaving the island of Shikoku I headed for Hiroshima, crossing onto the main island of Honshu:

Enko River in Hiroshima

School pupils waiting for the lights to change. They all wear school uniforms, even t he youngest who look very cute with matching colourful umbrellas and wellies on wet days.

Japan in general is very clean. In the station a member of staff was busy spot cleaning any little marks. 

I was in Hiroshima station at morning rush hour for my day trip down the coast. So good at queuing, letting people off busy trains etc. 

Approaching Mejima Island on the ferry, south of Hiroshima. The red torii or temple gate in the water. Pilgrims previously sailed to the temple through the gate.

The gate close up. At low tide you can walk up to it. And many people did - it was very busy. I took the cable car up Mt Misen to enjoy the views before walking down via the various temples and shrines.

View of the Inland Sea and islands

Shrine near top

Daishoin temple

For those of you who have been missing the ice creams! A coffee and vanilla mix.

After taking the ferry back across I took a train further south to Iwakuni and see the amazing Kintaikyo bridge. The original dated from the seventeenth century but was swept away in the 1950s then rebuilt. Still beautiful. Some lovely gardens nearby where I spotted some caged cormorants which are used in traditional fishing called ukai (look it up).

Photo in the park display

The next day was pretty much rain, rain, rain. I had some time set aside so took the bus to the Hiroshima Peace Museum for a very sobering lesson on the effects of an atomic bomb.

The Genbaku Dome was the only building to survive in the city centre and is now the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Then back on the train and further south west crossing by tunnel onto the island of Kyushu and on to Nagasaki. Another city that suffered an atomic bomb attack.

The next morning was bright and sunny as I walked down to the harbour and the area known as Dejima. This was once an island set aside for the European traders to live and work in. It is in the process of a full restoration:

Weigh beam used in the trade of goods. Europeans wanted silver and later copper in exchange for a variety of merchandise.  

And we think the global economy is a new thing! Mejima is where the 21 year old Scot Thomas Blake Glover arrived in 1859 to take up a post with a British firm. Glover Gardens is where you will find his home, the oldest Western wooden building in Japan. Several other buildings have been relocated there.

View from the moving walkway

Young Glover

Glover then dealt for himself in tea, ships and weapons and was instrumental in the modernisation of Japan and played a role in supporting the clans who overthrew the shogunate and opened Japan up to the world.

View from Glover Gardens across the bay to Mt Inasa

This shows how you know what to pay for your bus trip. You take a ticket with your stop number as you board.