Almost off the beaten track – Matsuyama

We arrived in the evening in Matsuyama where I had booked an Airbnb. These seem to offer great accommodation options in Japan, if you are prepared for the difficulties of finding the address (or communicating it to a taxi driver). The place we had reserved proved to be worth the effort, with a wonderful host. We had a large downstairs living room, with small but beautiful Japanese gardens on two sides, and a large upstairs sleeping room.

bedroom Matsuyama — The bedroom of our Airbnb in Matusyama

After settling in we set off to find dinner. We were in a residential area, far away from the centre of Matsuyama, and the options were all very traditional Japanese. An outside light and sign would indicate the existence of a restaurant, but to see what one was like, you had to slide open the door – more or less committing yourself to eating there if they had space. On our first night we were lucky and ate very well, and very cheaply.

restaurant Matsuyama — Local restaurant in Matsuyama – slide the door

After a good night’s sleep, we set off to explore. Matsuyama is the largest city on the little-visited island of Shikoku. It is almost, but not quite, off the beaten track for western tourists, with a few making a short trip over from Hiroshima. First we saw the inevitable castle. Matsuyama’s version was bigger than the others we had seen in Japan, and offered good views over the surrounding area….but we were beginning to think that all Japanese castles look pretty similar.

All the same, a fun highlight of our visit was the opportunity to watch human tourists dressing up as samurai (unfortunately they had no teddy-size costumes to offer for us).

From the castle we headed to the spa town of Dogen, now a suburb of Matsuyama. It had a completely different atmosphere, with a wonderful retro train station, many shrines, several quirky attractions and one very famous one.

Temple in Matsuyama, Shikoku — Steep steps to this Matsuyama temple!

Amongst the off-beat things you can do here is tasting citrus fruit juice. We found a bar where they had around 20 varieties of mandarin juice on tap – you fill up small cups yourself and pay according to the number of samples and the varieties chosen. The bar gave helpful guides to the sweetness and acidity of each choice, and a genealogical chart showing how they were related.

You can taste around 20 varieties of mandarin juice

The famous attraction here is Dogo Onsen, Japan’s oldest and probably most famous onsen, and supposedly the inspiration for the bathhouse in the Ghibli film “Spirited Away”. Records document people coming here as early as the sixth century, and legends tell of gods visiting well before that. The current structure dates from the 1890s and is a wonderfully elegant building.

Dogo Onsen in Matsuyama — Dogo Onsen, Matusyama, from the outside

We bought tickets for a private room, got changed into the yukatas provided and were treated to a typically Japanese experience. A maid in a traditional kimono brought us tea and a snack and explained which areas we could visit, with much bowing and many “arigato gozaimasu” (thank yous). We enjoyed our tea before trying the separate male and female onsen reserved for the private room guests.

The bath itself was a bit of an anticlimax – an elegant enough room, but fairly small, and on the inside with no natural light. The water was a hot 40°C, so even the experienced Japanese visitors did not soak for too long. We retired back to our room to cool down, and then made a tour of the building, of which one of the highlights was a private bath reserved for the emperor.

Emperor's Room Dogo Onsen — The Emperor’s changing room

We had one more, short, final dip in our own bath before our ninety minute visit time was up and we had to leave. The joy of the experience was more the atmosphere, the building and the ceremony rather than the actual bath itself.
On emerging outside we found that it had started to rain, so we headed back to our flat and then out to eat. The restaurant we had enjoyed the night before was full, so we tried another and were less lucky. It seemed to be a place where people came to drink more than to eat, and half the seats were already taken by a group of three drunk locals. They were very friendly but also noisy. The owner continually topped up their glasses with whisky from one of the bottles kept behind the counter; in places like this you buy your own bottle, which they write your name on.

Bottles for frequent visitors to the restaurant

We retired back to our flat. It was still raining, but we opened the sliding doors to our Japanese gardens and enjoyed listening to the raindrops falling on the plants outside. The sight and sound were hypnotic and peaceful, and the prelude to a great night’s sleep.

Japanese garden in Matsuyama — One of our Japanese gardens at night

Next Post – from Matsuyama to Kochi, Shikoku

Previous Post – Magical Miyajima

2nd November 2024 5

Magical Miyajima

From Hiroshima we took a short ferry ride to the small island of Miyajima. On arrival, the area near the ferry terminal was quite touristy, with restaurants, cafés, souvenir shops, lots of visitors – and many deer, who roam around freely. The more domesticated ones hang around the town, trying to beg or steal food from the tourists (no unattended snack is safe from them); the wilder ones roam through the forests of the island. I had splurged on a treat for our accommodation – a night in Iwaso, one of Japan’s top ryokans (traditional inns). We found the place easily, but at reception they very apologetically told us that they were overbooked……..and would regretfully have to upgrade up to a private cottage. It was probably the best room in the whole place, located right at the end of property, next to a small stream. We lost no time in settling in and enjoyed the view and pleasant sound of water cascading over rocks.

It was now late afternoon and we set off to explore, first following the sound of traditional Japanese music drifting through the forest. We came across a performance of traditional Japanese dance, representing two priests overcoming two demons.

It was a wonderfully colourful spectacle, but it seems there not so many ways that demons can be vanquished, and after half an hour it got a bit repetitive. Since it was nearly time for sunset, we left the dancers and hurried to see the famous torii, the gate to the Itsukushima shrine, which at high tide appears to be floating on the sea. Despite the crowd of other tourists, we found a free bench on the seashore to watch as the sky turned from blue to orange to red to purple. As it grew dark, lights came long to illuminate the torii, which shone a bright red in the night. I had to discipline myself to stop taking photos and instead sit back and simply enjoy the beauty.

After that, it was time for dinner at the ryokan. The hotel had provided traditional Japanese clothing – a yukata (a casual form of a kimono) and a haori jacket to wear on top. They were very comfortable and when we arrived at the restaurant, we were glad to see most guests had opted to wear them. Dinner itself was a feast with many courses, which we chose to accompany with sake. Returning to our room, we found that the staff had prepared it for bed time by setting up two futon beds in the middle of the room.

Well fed and watered, we settled down on our comfortable beds and listened to the sounds of the stream outside until we fell fast asleep. We awoke for another sumptuous meal – breakfast this time. There were so many small bowls of food set out on our tray that the hotel provided a sort of map to tell us which was which.
Suitably nourished, we returned to enjoy our cottage for the remaining time left to us before check-out. We left Iwaso with a heavy heart, depositing our bags at reception and setting off to explore the island. First we returned to the Itsukushima shrine. It was now low tide, and the famous torii could be approached across the wet sand of the beach.

The torii is in fact firmly anchored to the ground

Legends say that the first torii on this site was built in 593, when the shrine was established. Over the years the torii has been replaced many times, and it probably took its current form in the 16th century. The torii we see today dates from 1875.

We dragged ourselves away from the beautiful, harmonious structure of the torii to take the cable car up to near the top of Mount Misan, Miyajima’s main mountain. We then walked the short remaining distance to the summit for some great 360 degree views over the Inland Sea, forward to Shikoku and back towards Hiroshima.

We decided to walk down rather than take the cable car again, which turned out to be a lucky decision.

We chose one of the many different possible paths at random and after passing through dense forest, arrived by chance at the mighty gates of the Daisho-In complex, which turned out to be an unexpected highlight of Miyajima, with some unusual sights quite different to what we had seen already in other temples in Japan.

…and striking features inside the temple complex

It was now time to leave magical Miyajima. We picked up our bags at the hotel, and their shuttle service dropped us at the ferry terminal. Our day ended with pleasant cruises across the Inland Sea – firstly back to Hiroshima port, and then by “jetboat” on to Matsuyama on Shikoku, the fourth largest island of Japan’s archipelago. The day and a half on Miyajima had been truly memorable and one of the highlights of our trip so far. Once you get away from the crowds around the ferry terminal, the island emanates a sense of peace and harmony, of which the beautiful torii is the ultimate expression.

Onwards to Shikoku – Cruising the Inland Sea

Previous Post: Hiroshima

Next Post: Matsuyama

1st November 2024 8

An Unexpected Lesson from Hiroshima

Sunset from the Prince Hotel (it really was this colour)

Today we said goodbye to Kanazawa, a city we had really enjoyed. We took a bus to the station and went by train to Hiroshima, a trip that took about five hours, including a stop in Osaka to buy tickets for the second leg of the journey. Our hotel was the Prince Hotel, located some way out of town centre on a peninsula near the port.

The hotel had hosted the meeting of the G7 in 2023 and seemed very proud of this fact. We visited the table where the world’s leaders had lunch (by special arrangement, the hotel can offer deep-pocketed guests the same menu as served that day).

Vote for Trouspinet and Aki! (at the table where the G7 had lunch)

By the time we had checked in, it seemed a bit late to do anything in the city so we enjoyed the hotel’s onsen, which looked out onto the Inland Sea, the stretch of water separating Honshu (Japan’s biggest island) from Shikoku (the fourth biggest). It was a great view, and as the evening drew near, we got dressed to go to the top floor bar to see the spectacular sunset shown above.

The next day we started our exploration of the city with a pleasant walk around the peninsula we were on, which gave us more views out towards the countless small and large islands of the Inland Sea.

We arrived at the port, and I checked our onward boat connections, before we caught a tram to Hiroshima’s most famous and most visited site – the Peace Park, which contains the Peace Memorial Museum. We went around the latter first. It was a harrowing experience, starting with immediate impact of the first use of an atomic bomb.

At the start of the museum – Hiroshima before and after the bombing

The first part of the exhibition focussed on a large group of school children who had been mobilised to demolish wooden buildings and who were working near the place where the bomb exploded. They suffered horrific burns, which were shown in graphic detail in photographs, and either died immediately or later, in great pain. Next there were exhibits of some of the victim’s belongings like singed clothing or charred watches, and then a description of the longer-term suffering of people that survived the initial blast but died later of various illnesses caused by radiation or burns. It was harrowing and shocking material, leaving a visitor sad and angry. Later floors of the museum were a bit easier to visit, being devoted to the development and reasons for use of the bomb, testimonies from survivors and the efforts to rebuild the city after the war.

Outside the museum was a complete contrast. There was a beautiful park, with several monuments promoting peace.

Memorial to schoolgirls killed in the Hiroshima bombing

There was also the Peace Memorial Hall, with a display of a view of the city after the bombing as seen from the hypocentre (point where the bomb exploded), and a sculpture representing a clock showing 8.15 – the time of the explosion.

A bit further away was the Atomic Bomb Dome – the ruins of a building that was the only thing left standing near the centre of the blast. The dome itself was made of copper supported by iron girders; the heat of the explosion melted the copper but left the iron standing.

After seeing the sites in and around the Peace Park, we went for a stroll around the city centre. There were few other classic tourist sights, but it had a pleasant feel, both relaxed and busy at the same time, and a remarkable location – sandwiched between mountains and the Inland Sea, with its countless small islands. As we headed to the port to catch the ferry to our next destination, we contemplated the contrasts between the utter devastation after the bombing and the thriving city that exists today, with its friendly people and peaceful vibe. Perhaps there is another important message to be taken from Hiroshima, in addition to the evils of nuclear weapons. It is one of the triumph of the human will in the face of suffering and adversity – in the form of the thriving and pleasant city the Japanese rebuilt from the ashes of Hiroshima.

Previous Post: Takayama

Next Post: Miyajima

30th October 2024 7

Takayama and Ainokura

Today we hired a car to make a day trip to two interesting destinations which seemed to be fairly close to Kanazawa.

The first was the village of Ainokura in the mountains, famous for its gassho or “praying hands” style thatched farmhouses – so called because the triangular shape of the steeply slanted roofs resembles two hands pressed together in prayer. This design ensures that large amounts of snow cannot build up on the roof in winter – a big problem in the area. After a coffee in the village’s only café, we strolled around and took a few photos.

Ainokura was a cute, quiet place, well worth a stop on the way to our main destination for the day – the small city of Takayama. It looked like a short distance on the map, with the driving being mostly on motorways that ran through mountainous terrain – probably a nice drive. However, it turned out that the road ran nearly entirely under the mountains, in dingy, very long tunnels with an insultingly low 70 km/h speed limit. Occasionally there would be a brief burst of natural light as a tunnel ended…..only for a new one to come immediately into sight ahead of us. It was probably the most boring stretch of road I have ever driven.

We finally reached Takayama and parked the car. The centre was similar to the geisha district of Kanazawa – old wooden houses converted to shops, tea rooms and restaurants – only with more tourists. Aki was happy browsing the shops for souvenirs, but I was feeling rather grumpy, annoyed that Takayama did not seem to be worth the long and boring drive.

However, my mood improved when we left the centre and dived into some quieter side streets, where there were antique shops that interested even me. Aki was even happier and made a few small purchases.

We wandered on and found a pretty area with temples where there were also a couple of museums. One was the intriguingly named Takayama Festival Floats Museum. It turned out to house several of the huge, colourful floats used in the famous Takayama Festival, which takes place twice per year, in spring and autumn. Most floats have wheels and are rolled manually by team of people in colourful costumes, but one had to be carried by two alternating teams of strong men (and weighed 2.6 tonnes).

The second museum was rather bizarrely devoted to a carved wooden scale model of the shrines at far-away Nikko – why they were on display here in Takayama was not explained, but it still made for an interesting visit.

After that we strolled until we reached the main river that runs through the city. This, surprisingly, contained some of the large koi carp that you usually only see in ornamental ponds. We could not understand what stopped the fish escaping up- or down- stream or how they didn’t end up being eaten by the herons we saw perched on the riverbanks.

Feeling better about Takayama we regained our car and made the long drive back to Kanazawa – which was even more boring this time because we drove it one go, completing the last hour in the dark.

We rewarded ourselves by returning to the restaurant we had visited by chance on the first night. The chef recognised us and greeted us enthusiastically. We again gave him a budget to work with rather than try to understand his menu, and again we were treated to another inventive feast of top-quality sea food.

Previous Post: Kanazawa

Next Post: Hiroshima

30th October 2024 4

Kanazawa – a city with many sides

Over the next couple of days we explored Kanazawa, a port city famous for its food, and which retained many old districts, since it escaped bombing during WWII. The city was once the headquarters of the powerful Maeda family, who sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu in the decisive battle which led to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Maeda’s Kaga clan became the second richest and most powerful in Japan, which greatly benefited Kanazawa’s development.

Our first stop was one of the city’s main attractions – the Kenrokuen Gardens. They were rather different to places like Kew Gardens that we knew from elsewhere in the world – very neat and ordered, as if in Japan nature is also elegant and tidy. It was a beautiful sunny day, so they looked at their best.

Inside the garden grounds was the beautiful Seisonkaku Villa, built by one of the Maeda clan chiefs for his mother.

We were only allowed to take photos of the villa’s beautiful garden, not its inside

Our next stop was Kanazawa castle. This had burnt down several times during its history, mostly a disastrous fire in 1881 which left only one gate and two storehouse standing. It seems that fire and lightning were much bigger threats to wooden Japanese castles than enemy attacks. The buildings have been painstakingly restored in recent years, and now it makes for an impressive sight, even if what is visible is mostly modern reconstruction.

We didn’t visit inside, but inside continued our walk through the castle’s park to the city’s former geisha district. This was an odd mixture of charming quiet lanes, with wooden buildings and very few people, and a very busy centre with the same pretty houses, but lots of tourists.

Quiet (above) and busy (below) streets in the Geisha district

We stopped at the Ochaya Shima Geisha House, once a place where the geishas used to entertain their customers and now a museum (unlike most of the other former geisha houses, which have been converted into shops and restaurants). It was very pretty, but there was (as often in Japan) very little explanation in English about the exhibits and the geisha profession.

Our final stop of the day was a workshop making gold leaf and sculptures using this precious material. There were some really nice souvenirs on offer, but for us the highlight was the toilets, whose walls and ceilings were covered with gold (the ladies) or platinum (the gents).

The next day we explored the city further, first visiting a district where many former samurai houses are preserved. It was indeed a beautiful area, despite the occasional tour groups. One of the old houses had been converted to a shop selling cakes and sweets, and we stopped there for a mid-morning coffee.

For lunch we headed to the Omicho market, a short walk away. The seafood here is rated amongst the best and freshest in all Japan, and originally we had planned to buy some sashimi for dinner. But we found that the shops selling food had mostly closed or sold out, leaving only restaurants. So, we changed plans and had an extraordinary sea food lunch instead.

In the afternoon, we explored one final part of the city, a short bus ride away on the other side of Kanazawa’s river – the Teramachi Temple District. We found dozens of small temples located either on the main road or down quite side streets. We ended up outside one of the largest ones, the Myoryuji Temple, more often known by its nickname of “Ninja Temple”. There were signs saying that guided tours could be booked by telephoning to make a reservation or by applying to the temple office. This seemed rather strange – temples are usually free to visit – and we wondered if it was a tourist trap. We decided to give it a chance and were put on a tour leaving immediately. It was one of our best decisions of the holiday.

The structure was built by a Maeda lord at a time when there was deep mutual suspicion between his clan and the ruling Tokugawas. Superficially a temple from the outside, it was in fact a disguised military installation with many features to ensnare enemy soldiers or assassins. The tour was in Japanese only, but they gave us booklets with a description of each room in English. Our guide led us through fifteen rooms, each with a fascinating set of features, including many devious traps for the unwary. These included a secret escape tunnel, sunken pits for enemies to fall into, hidden doors, a watchtower, and our favourite – a small windowless room where a vanquished samurai warrior was expected to commit ritual suicide if he had failed to defeat intruders. The forty-minute visit was a highlight of Kanazawa and also of Japan as a whole.

The outside of the “Jinja Temple” (sadly photos inside not allowed)

This pleasant surprise concluded our exploration of Kanazawa. We thought the city’s reputation as one of the most interesting in Japan was richly deserved.

Previous Post: The Alpine Route

Next Post: Takayama

29th October 2024 6

Wow – Japan’s Alpine Route

Today we set off on one of Japan’s great travel experiences – the Alpine Route. This involves a succession of different modes of transportation that delivers travellers across the Japanese Alps – from Ogizawa in the southeast to Toyama in the northwest. In our case, the trip included extra sections getting to the starting point and also from Toyama to our final destination of Kanazawa. I had researched the trip on the web, but was rather confused by the description given by the Japanese transport company managing the route. It all seemed rather complicated, including surrendering our luggage at the start and magically getting it back at the end.

We had to set off early on the 07.48 local train from Matsumoto to Omachi. The weather was cloudy and I worried about the complexity of the trip, whether we would actually see anything up in the mountains, and how cold it would be on top (the weather forecast for Murodo, the highest point of the route, was 0°C). A physical discomfort was soon added to our mental ones; our backsides started to get uncomfortably hot. Although it was a basic local train, the seats were heated when they detected that they were occupied by passengers. The intensity of the heating suggested that they were designed for the depths of the Japanese winter, when temperatures in this area can drop to -15 °C – and not for autumn. We found the only way to survive was to continually change seats, moving on when our new places got too hot to endure. The few other passengers in the train – all Japanese – looked at us with puzzlement. They seemed not to mind having their posteriors roasted.

We arrived at the small, uninteresting town of Otomachi about an hour later and were glad of the exposure to cold mountain air. We found the office offering bag forwarding and handed over our luggage, wondering if we would see it again, and waited for a local bus to a place called Ogizawa, which marked the beginning of our ascent into the mountains. This turned out to be another unremarkable small settlement. To get this far we had spent three hours on mundane local trains and buses, under heavy clouds, and were thinking that the Alpine Route had better be good to justify all this effort. Next, an electric bus took us through a long tunnel to the first stop on the Alpine Route proper. As the bus slowed down to stop at its destination, we could see brilliant sunlight streaming in from outside and hurried off to admire the first of a series of amazing sights – the Kurobe dam. From this point on, words cannot do justice to the scenery and I will let our photos tell most of the story of an amazing trip.

From the Kurobe dam there was a cable car to Kurobedaira, where there was a small botanical garden and yet more stunning views.

From Kurobedaira the Tateyama ropeway took us to Daikanbo….

….from where an electric trolleybus took us through the mountain to the highest point of the trip, Murodo (2450m), where the scenery markedly changed and where we made a short hike.

From Murodo, there was a regular bus down to Midagahara. On the way we saw, and then entered, the magical “sea of cloud”.

After we had entered the “sea of cloud” the weather was, unsurprisingly, cloudy and there was not much more to see. We still had to take a cable car down to Tateyama (where our luggage was magically waiting for us), then a painfully slow local train to Toyama, and then an express “shinkansen” to Kanazawa, and then a taxi to our house. We finally arrived at around seven, after 11 hours of travelling – half of which had been magical. We dumped our bags and headed out to the nearest restaurant. They only had a menu in Japanese, written with such a highly stylised script that Google Translate could only decipher the words “conger eel”, “egg” and “today’s horse” amongst a sea of hieroglyphics. We asked the waiter to choose for us, setting a budget of 7,000 yen, and were served a real feast with six courses including – sashimi, tempura, omlet and miso – all of very high quality. We ate so well that it was a relief when tea arrived to signal the end of the meal. It was a fitting end to an exceptional day.

Previous Post: Matusmoto

Next Post: Kanazawa

27th October 2024 7

Quirky Matsumoto

Matsumoto’s main tourist attraction – its castle

Today the weather forecast was for heavy rain, and so we decided to visit Matsumoto, the small city we had chosen as a base for exploring the Japanese Alps. First we had a big traditional Japanese breakfast.

Matsumoto is a pleasant, quirky place with some classic and some very unusual tourist attractions. One of the former was just across the road from our ryokan (hotel) – a museum devoted to weighing scales. This was such a weird idea that we had to visit. It was actually quite fun, with a collection of old devices from different centuries, and a whole room devoted to the once important task of weighing silk worm cocoons.

Our next destination was Matsumoto’s famous castle, but on the way we saw the Matsumoto City Museum, which advertised a special exhibition about the art of Japanese food. Unfortunately, this had only one panel with any English explanation, and we were left looking at plastic models of different types of fish or radishes. We did at least learn that around Japan’s coasts and in its rivers there are 4500 species of fish, as compared to only 300 in my native UK.

Matsumoto castle was a more traditional tourist destination. It is one of the few castles remaining intact from Japan’s feudal age, and was built around 1600. From the outside, the castle, its moat and grounds were beautiful. Inside was rather disappointing – it was quite bare, with a few museum exhibits about weapons and other aspects of life in that period. The interior was laid out over six floors linked by very steep staircases. Each successive floor got smaller and smaller, the staircases became steeper and stepper, and the queue of visitors to go up them got longer and longer – all to reach a totally empty sixth floor.

Matsumoto castle – impressive from the outside

Our next destination was the Matsumoto City Museum of Art. The highlight here is a series of rooms devoted to the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who was born here. Some rooms were devoted to her work using mirrors, and then we came across this huge colourful pumpkin…

Having seen almost all Matsumoto had to offer, we returned to our ryokan to wait for the expected rain. A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn, and ours was a comfortable place to sit and work.

We only ventured forth at dinner time, to a restaurant recommended by our host. It was so popular, that we had to queue to get in, but once sat behind a table, we enjoyed a huge feast of soba noodles (made from buckwheat flour).

Matsumoto had been a pleasant base for our trips around the Japanese Alps, but tomorrow we were due to move on, for something that I hoped would be a highlight of our tour around Japan.

Previous Post: Off the Beaten Track in the Japanese Alps

Next Post: The Alpine Route

27th October 2024 3

Off the Beaten Track in the Japanese Alps

Today was one of those wonderful days when a traveller discovers something for themselves. Our original plan was to drive to the Japanese Alps, and then take a bus/cable car to Mount Norikura, Japan’s third highest volcano. However, when we got into the mountains, it was cloudy and we thought that we would not see anything at the top. As we wondered what to do, Aki noticed a small sign with a picture of a large, bright red maple tree, so we followed the direction it indicated and found ourselves driving through a beautiful meadow, with nature’s autumn colours on full display – but this time with the red that we had been missing during our walk at Kamikochi.

The road went past a café, which, unusually for remote places in Japan, served excellent coffee and which had an excellent view of the scenery. In the car park in front, there was a sign showing a few short walks in the area, so we made a circular hike of around 5km, marvelling at the colours and taking lots of photos. We saw very few other people on our way, and almost no foreigners at all. Most of the people we did see were gathered around the big red maple tree shown on the road sign.

Our guidebooks did not mention the area. Maybe outside of autumn it is nothing special, but for us it was one of the highlights (so far) of Japan.

The map also showed a couple of waterfalls, which were a bit far to reach on foot, so we drove to visit the Zengorno and Sanbon falls, both of which were well worth the drive and short hike.

After a day hiking in beautiful forests, it was time for another of Japan’s traditions – a dip in an “onsen” or hot bath. These are found all over Japan and are hugely popular. They are often fed by volcanic hot springs, particularly in the Japanese Alps region. We drove to the well-known spa town of Shirahone Onsen, which was a short distance away, and paid for a day visit to the baths at the Awanoyu Ryokan (a hotel). After getting undressed and carefully washing in a shower room, we soaked in a pleasant outdoor pool for an hour. The water was milky white, and a relaxing 40°C, whilst the pool was surrounded by trees at the bottom of the river valley. Sadly no photos were allowed, so I have to use this one found on their website (from a rather sunnier day!).

It was a pleasant way to end a day of exploration and surprises, well off the beaten track.

Next Post: Matsumoto

Previous Post: Kamikochi

26th October 2024 6

Autumn Colours in Kamikochi

Today we left Tokyo for Matsumoto in the Japanese Alps. The easiest way to get there is by train, but I was hoping to visit the Fuji Five Lakes area on the way, so hired a car from Shinjuku. Driving in Tokyo was easier than expected and after a few turns our satnav delivered us onto an expressway heading straight to our destination. But when we got to the mountains it was cloudy, with no chance of seeing Fuji again, so we headed straight for Matsumoto and explored the city in the afternoon – more about this in a future post.

The next day we used our hire car to drive to one of Japan’s most popular attractions – Kamikochi. This is a protected area in the heart of the Japanese Alps, and the starting point for many pretty walks or more ambitious climbs of the surrounding mountains. Private cars are not allowed to drive all the way there, instead you have to use one of the many parking lots on the highway and take a bus for the last 10km to the national park.

On arrival there was a large reception area with restrooms, tourist information, ticket booth for the return buses and some snack stalls. We bought some coffee but immediately regretted it. The hot black liquid resembled dishwater and was hopelessly weak – coffee is the one food/drink that many Japanese establishments haven’t really mastered yet. What’s worse, there was nowhere to dispose of our paper cups, so we had to carefully throw away our drink and fold them into our backpacks. Japan is amazingly clean, maybe because there are almost no litter bins anywhere, and people are used to taking their rubbish home with them.

A short walk took us the popular Kappabashi bridge, with great views up and down the valley, including an iconic vista of the Hotaka peaks. It was crowded with tourists trying to take selfies, so we didn’t stay long and instead set off on our walk. It was a beautiful day, and the autumn leaf colours were spectacular, with all shades of green, yellow and gold – although we didn’t see much of the brilliant red colours that we had been expecting.

Our walk took us along the bank of the river. We met many other hikers coming the other way, most of whom were Japanese. They greeted us with a smile and a cheery “Konnichiwa” (hello). Many of them were wearing little bells that jangled as they walked, to deter bears. In my opinion no self-respecting wild bear would go anywhere near a path with so many humans passing along it, and the continual jangling annoyed me a bit. The obsession with bears seemed to be deeply felt, and the park authorities had also put up lots of warning signs and occasional bear bells along the path for additional protection.

At the end of the trail was a small restaurant, where we enjoyed another local culinary highlight – a tasty Japanese “katsu” curry.

The way back followed the other side of the river. At about halfway, there was a large, still pond (the Tashiro Pond), surrounded by trees with their autumn leaves. We sat down, breathed deeply and simply enjoyed nature’s beauty.

When we finally decided to move on from our idyllic spot, the path continued along a raised walkway through a green forest, where we met some monkeys. They ignored us as they strolled on, not even bothering to beg for food – they knew that in well-disciplined Japan, no one would feed them.

The sun was now beginning to set, and the autumn foliage offered yet more variants on gold and yellow in the evening light. We arrived back at the trailhead delighted with our day out, thinking that Kamikochi deserved its reputation as one of Japan’s top sights.

Back near Kappabashi at the end of the afternoon

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24th October 2024 8

At home in Tokyo

The next two days we were busy in Tokyo, catching up with two different Japanese friends from our travels around the world. Each of them invited us to a series of uniquely Japanese experiences, some of which would be hard for a foreigner to do on their own. A big feature of our reunions was Japan’s excellent food.

Our first friend invited us to lunch in a sushi restaurant. It was in a residential neighbourhood, and from the outside looked like any other house in the road, with no sign telling you what it was. We ducked under a low door into a small room with four chairs lined up against a counter, behind which sat our chef. It was a private restaurant just for us, seating a maximum of six people, and the owner would be our personal sushi chef for the afternoon. As we had expected, the food was amazing:

After a couple of hours of indulging in sushi we went for a short walk to digest our feast, before tackling the next big event of the day – a kabuki performance in the historic Kabukiza theatre in the Ginza district. My friend directed me around the theatre, including the place where foreigners can rent a touchpad that displays the English text of the dialogue on stage. That afternoon’s show consisted of two different plays, with two intervals (for which our hosts had brought us a bento box to enjoy). I was worried about falling asleep after such a big lunch, but instead was fascinated by the performances. The sets and costumes were beautiful. Each play had a simple plot, and concentrated on expressing concepts like honour, duty, jealousy and revenge through dialogue.

Just before “curtains up” (or in Japan, “curtains left”)

The three- and half-hours in the theatre flew by, and by the early evening we were back in our comfortable Tokyo flat, which we finally had a bit more time to enjoy. It had taken us a while to get used to some of its particularities, like ultra-modern washer-drier which was already loaded with washing powder for us, but whose buttons were all in Japanese. The flat’s toilet was also space age – on opening the entrance door, its lid automatically raised itself and a little pipe sprayed warm water around the area. It flushed automatically when you closed the lid. It seemed that everything worked in a slightly different way to back home, and was set up to provide maximum comfort and convenience for the minimum possible use of space.

The next day we met a different friend, who was now in charge of a tiny temple in Tokyo, a responsibility his family has held for generations. First, he showed us the Zozoji Temple, where he trained in Buddhism. It was in central Tokyo, with a photogenic location behind the Tokyo Tower landmark.

Next, we went to the tiny temple where he lives for green tea and a chat, before heading on to explore the Ginza district. It was the weekend, so the main road there was closed to traffic, allowing the area to soak up the many visitors without feeling crowded. Our host told us that the Ginza is now mostly frequented by tourists, especially the Chinese, and few Japanese go there anymore. There were some fun shops selling upmarket souvenirs, and lots of department stores – of which I particularly like Ginza 6, with its huge “Big Cat Bang” sculpture suspended from its ceiling.

Soon it was time for dinner, in small tempura restaurant in a side street, a place my friend’s family has been visiting for three generations. We could see why – the food was again excellent. We have yet to have a bad meal in Japan.

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23rd October 2024 3