Central Japan: Day 3

Nagoya to Shiga...to Kyoto to Shiga to Kyoto to Osaka.

The lanterns are painted with the name of the temple: Ishiyama-dera

As you can probably guess, it was a pretty crazy day.  Today was one of those days when my preference for visiting some of the less-touristy areas were incompatible with the fact that I was also carrying a suitcase.  Plans to arrive by noon at a temple/garden complex were undone when I reached the train station only to discover that they didn't have lockers available to hold a suitcase as big (read: medium-sized) as mine. In the end, I had to go to a much larger city (Kyoto), drop off the suitcase, and then come all the way back.

But I made it to the garden eventually.  (Huge thank you to my friend Heather for the recommendation!)  Perfect season of the year to visit because they have some of the most beautiful fall foliage.  I took dozens of photos:

Two-story pagoda

E-ma (絵馬), small wooden plaques with prayers or wishes written on them

One of my most favorite pictures from the afternoon...

School trip

Arriving later than planned meant I had to rush a little in order to make it to my next destination: a stern-wheeler cruise around Lake Biwa. Just barely made it; I actually ran from the train station to the port, then dashed breathless onto the ship.

Our ship was called the "Michigan"...

It was a lovely cruise.  A little chilly at first, but towards the end there was no wind at all, so I stayed up on the top deck nearly the entire time.  It was a very nice way to enjoy the late afternoon sun.

A collection of knots hung on the wall

Late afternoon sun

View across Lake Biwa

After disembarking back at the port, I walked to the train station and headed back towards Kyoto to reclaim my suitcase, then I turned right back around and got on the train for the last leg of the day to Osaka, where I have a hotel reservation for the rest of the week.

I arrived at the hotel after a very long and confusing search for the building.  Tired and hungry, I wasn't in the room very long before I went out for a late dinner.  I'd rushed around so much in the afternoon that I hadn't stopped to have lunch, so I was starving.  Found a small local place near the train station and enjoyed some authentic, Osaka-style negi-yaki.  This is a type of okonomiyaki (a savory dish of batter, cabbage, and other ingredients cooked on a griddle) that has extra, extra green onions:

Lots of onions.  Just the way I like it.

Followed dinner with a coffee to-go and some black sesame ice cream that I've been enjoying as I wrote this post.  This is the most relaxed I've been all day.  Just how relaxed am I? Relaxed enough to be able to tune out the drunk businessman shouting (on the phone?) in his room down the hall...

Tomorrow: Kyoto!

Central Japan: Day 2

Nagoya.  Started the day off at Atsuta-jinja, one of the three most important shrines in the country.  Since I am not a practitioner of Shinto, I usually go to shrines to take photographs--generally of the grounds and particularly of the roofs.

Today, everything but the traditional-style forked roof underwhelmed me.  Even the pond was too dark to see the koi fish.  But it ended up being one of the most exciting stops I made because...

...there were children everywhere in cute little kimonos.  In November, there is a festival for young children called Shichi-go-san (literally "7-5-3").  It is celebrated for three- and five-year old boys and three- and seven-year old girls.  Children are dressed in expensive kimonos and taken to shrines to pray for health and long, happy lives. Today I saw mothers and grandmothers who had also dressed up with the children. (I've got too many pictures to put them up here, but will save more for a later post.)  And just as I had my camera poised to take another picture of a child, one of the mothers started yelling, "Look, look!"  Everyone whipped around to see...

...a wedding procession! It is definitely a very rare occurrence to see everyone in full garb at a shrine on a weekday. Here the bride and groom--dressed in white and black, respectively--follow the priest and two attendants. The parents walk behind the couple. In this case, I'm not sure who the woman holding the bride's hand is; her kimono is too plain for her to be the mother (see the more extravagant one behind the bride?).  Other processions will be some variant of this.

After leaving the shrine I took the subway to Nagoya-jo, one of the country's largest and most significant castles. This is a reconstruction as the original was fire-bombed during WWII.

For being in the right place at the right time, I got a free personal tour of the grounds given by a volunteer guide who spoke English.  After spending a couple of hours wandering through the palace and the castle, I know a lot more than I did before about their design and about feudal defense strategies...

From the castle, I went to take a few photos of Nagoya TV Tower, and then on to Ōsu Kannon, a Buddhist temple.

Afterwards, I went to try Nagoya's famous tebasaki chicken wings for dinner, and then a trip to the 46th floor of a nearby building to enjoy the view.

Karai tebasaki kara-age: spicy deep-fried chicken wings

The castle is lit up in the center

Off to Shiga tomorrow!

Central Japan: Day 1

The overnight bus departed at 1am and arrived in Nagoya at 6:30.  Grey, drizzly weather.  After dropping of my luggage at the hotel, I got right back on the train and headed for neighboring Gifu prefecture.

I stopped in Ogaki to visit an art museum and the local castle, then went to Gifu City where I saw a garden, a Daibutsu (giant Buddha statue), and took a ropeway up mountain to see another castle at the summit.

Back to Nagoya from there, where I had a late afternoon nap to help recover from too few hours of sleep on a bus.  Went out for Indian food, and now back at the hotel.  Still tired, so I'm turning in a little early...

Here's what I saw today:

Found this man at a train station.  Hope he doesn't have a sore neck tomorrow...

Ogaki Castle

Sōfuku-ji temple garden

Gifu Daibutsu

Gifu Castle

View of Gifu City from the top of the castle

Nice fall colors to be seen from the other side of the castle, looking down the mountain

Japaneesy Halloweeny, or "You had me at 'costumes'," said all the Japanese people.

Like other Western traditions that have been "imported", Halloween in Japan is the same...but different.

Halloween bouquet, anyone?

...or perhaps a beverage?

For example, it's clear to everyone that October is the right month, but very few people are aware that Halloween itself is only the 31st, rather than a season that lasts from October 1st until the end of the month. "Halloween is almost over, you know," a woman said to me.  On the 29th.  She, of course, was talking about the entire month of Halloween decorations and costume wearing, but by the time the real thing actually arrives most Japanese people are already shifting into Christmas mode. (Another tradition that has undergone similar treatment...but we'll wait a few more weeks before addressing that here.)

The bakery made "Ghost cream bread"...

...and "Black cat chocolate cream bread".
I think the raisin eyes are the creepiest part.

Despite the fact that Halloween falls on a day of the week that is convenient for parties this year, the big celebrations actually took place last weekend. "But why?" I asked.  "Because if the party went until after midnight on Halloween, then it would be November," said my Japanese friend.  That's right, folks, we time our celebrations down to the minute in this part of the world, because never does a celebration feel more right than when you know that you're going to finish on time.  (Just for kicks, you can read more about how Japanese people enjoy doing everything at exactly the right time here.  It's pretty spot-on.)

I can't quite nail down the project that one of the train companies
is advertising here, but there's our trusty Hachiko in his "wizard" (?) costume.

And one of the department stores joins in on the fun.
At least they know what day it is...

Today is the 31st.  By the time I wake up and go out tomorrow, it will be as if Halloween never existed. All those cute little jack-o-lanterns, twenty-somethings roaming the streets dressed like zombies, and ghost-shaped pastries will have gone up in a puff of smoke, replaced by tiny little Santas, Christmas lights, and reminders to place orders for our strawberry Christmas cakes and o-sechi boxes (traditional New Year foods).

How do we make black hamburger buns with black burger
sauce in Japan?  Why, with squid ink, of course!

And for dessert, jack-o-lantern Mont Blanc pastries or Casper the Friendly Ghost cakes.

But never fear, Halloween lovers.  Celebrations will resume again next year at exactly 12:01am, October 1st, 2015.

「１８時３０分、ちょっと早いじゃない？」 or "A nap in Japan, part 3"

Let's return to an old photo series of mine: A nap in Japan

Here's a little goodie from my commute home tonight.  Isn't 6:30 a little too early to be unconscious (read: drunk) on a train?

I snapped this just minutes before we pulled up at a station and employees from the train company rushed on and literally lifted him up off the seat and walked him off the train.  My favorite part of the whole experience was watching passengers give him the evil eye for inconveniencing others.  One of the worst crimes of etiquette to be committed in this country...


See other installments of the series here:
Part 1
Part 2

Actually...

So my previous post was spent reflecting on how it's pretty rare for Tokyo folks to pause just to admire the sky...twice in one week, no less.

But that wasn't the last of it, in the end.  Monday was the typhoon.  Wednesday was the eclipse.  And Friday...well, that was one of the most spectacular sunsets we've seen in a while.  I'm lucky I happened to look out my window at just the right time.  Grabbed my camera and headed up to the roof of my building to capture these shots:

We almost never see colors like this without some explanation (like a typhoon)...and the next day at work, it was a hot topic: "Did you see that sunset?!"

And then, the very next Monday evening, another typhoon.  (To paraphrase a local weather reporter: typhoon season sure started quietly, but decided to go out with a bang.)  I wanted some daytime shots, so took my camera with me to work the next morning and got these shots from the window of the train:

Pretty blue...and even the moon was visible

Now here's where we get to test your powers of observation.  Take a look at just one last picture below.  Doesn't look like much does it?  Can you figure out why it's special?  Look closely!  (I was very excited to get this shot.)

See it yet?

Need a hint?  Take a very careful look at the background.

I'll give you a few more seconds.

You got it, right?


 ......


It's Mt. Fuji!  The mountain that has for so long refused to allow me to photograph it.  It took an actual act of God--a typhoon--to make that mountain visible on a day I had my camera with me.  Seriously, I've seen the mountain lots of times.  But never, ever, with camera in hand.  And when I'm prepared, it's usually hidden behind clouds.

Me: 1, Fuji-san: 251.  But I'll take my wins whenever I can get them.

Breaking news: Tokyo residents appreciate sky twice in one week

People in Tokyo don't spend enough time looking at the sky--it's usually obscured by a building.  Unless you work on the nth floor of some skyscraper, it's likely one of those things you might forget exists.

Except for this week.

We had a typhoon on Monday morning.  Typhoons--destructive while they're happening--disperse all the smog, and skies afterwords are truly beautiful.  I've learned that if one is headed our way I can expect my newsfeed to be chock full of everyone's snapshots for a day or two following.

I took my camera to work with me intentionally.  Took my break a little too late to catch the best colors of the sunset, though, so it's hard to tell that it's a post-storm photo.  Guess I'll have to have better timing next time.

And then came the eclipse, just two days later.  In Japan it happened after sunset, so it was really nice to be able to catch it.  I took this picture just outside the train station on my way home from work tonight.  Just a sliver!