The Road to Nozawa

The car was set, our Winter tires ready, the five of us ready to go. Joined by Millo, Ken, Kazue, and her brother Dav, we set out en route for a festival that sounded too crazy to be real, deep within the mountainous prefecture of Nagano, in a small town called Nozawa. It was a long time coming, but we finally got the road trip we had been looking forward to for months. And what a good experience it was.
However, the road to Nagano is, simply put, quite short. So we decided to take our sweet time getting there, heading south-west then north, rather than simply north west, and ultimately adding some time before we got to our destination, not to mention some beautiful sights as well.

Our first stop was the often-romanticized city of Atami - known for its beaches, spas and, little had I known until then, numerous brothels. Atami in itself is very scenic, with a beautiful coastline which pretty much characterizes the whole area it's in, the Izu Peninsula, for which it serves as a good entrance point from Tokyo. But as it was, we chose only one place in Atami to stop at - and nothing would do but for that place to be Atami Castle!

Folks, don't get too excited about this seemingly wonderful castle overlooking the sea. Beautiful as that might sound, Atami Castle has, historically, never existed. That's right. It was built just for the sake of there being a castle there. If you can overlook that, though, the castle is a very handsome looking building, offers a great view of the whole city, and is pretty interesting to go inside. There, you'll find a small museum about castles, an exterior walkway with foot baths, a room where you can play ancient Japanese style dress-up in, and even an arcade. Who said a castle couldn't be fun, eh?

 But though I'm sure there's plenty of stuff to spend a day in Atami alone, we eventually got going, heading north towards our destination. Cutting across the Chubu province actually brought us very close to Mount Fuji, and there, at its very foot, was a town where we decided to make our second stop: Fujinomiya.

 The town, though quite sleepy, used to be the traditional starting point from where climbers would begin to ascend the fabled mountain. And at the mouth of that trail is the Fujisan Sengen Shrine, the most important shrine built in worship of the mountain. Though lacking the magnificence of the numerous other shrines in Japan, the Fujisan Sengen has a splendid garden, with ponds fed directly by Mount Fuji's waterfalls, resulting in exceptionally clear water where the fish can be seen from a distance. It probably wouldn't have been too hard to spear one or two, as Dav had said.

 Continuing north, we stopped at Matsumoto, Kazue and Dav's hometown (which has a splendid castle I stopped by on my first Japan roadtrip.) This time, however, Matsumoto was merely the point at which we decided to call an end to our first day of travel. Finding a ryokan in Matsumoto was, thanks to Ken, nothing too difficult, and we got a room to the five of us, which, despite being a little bare, was lots of fun together. The ryokan having an onsen was a welcome bonus, although the water was only a step below scalding.

 From the next morning on, our destination was within reach, and we made it there with little trouble. We found Nozawa Onsen covered in a deep sheet of white snow. Having finally made it, we were rewarded with a day of ski (my first in three years since coming to Japan.) But the true pearl of this whole voyage would be the festival that awaited us here in this seemingly sleepy ski resort town - the Dosojin Fire Festival.

Inuyama's Pleasant, Too

If you happen to be in Nagoya and don't mind spending a couple of bucks on the train ticket, you'll be pleased enough to know that the city has its own rustic little suburban village. Just like Tokyo has the nearby Kawagoe, Nagoya has Inuyama to remind it of its past days. You'll find it's a pleasant enough place to spend the day, without being totally dinky and boring.

I had to stand on top of a fence to take this picture.

 What actually puts Inuyama on the map, though, is that it has its very own castle! And despite not being anywhere near as big or as famous as the nearby Nagoya Castle, it is notably one of the most ancient castles in all of Japan, being one of th 4 castles to be designated a national treasure. For the record, the other three are Hikone, Himeji, and Matsumoto. Also, it is just as closed as Nagoya Castle during the 29th to 31st of December. Lesson learned, but going around the area climbing things to try to get good pictures was kind of fun in its own way too.
Asides from the castle and the temple at the foot of its hill, the town has a wonderfully rustic-looking street running down its center, full of little shops selling locally grown vegetables and hand crafted good such as sandals and Japanese-style clothes. It makes for quite a nice stroll.
Though I haven't visited myself, and therefore can't really recommend it with certainty, the town's also known for having an open-air museum full of relocated buildings from the Meiji-era, such as a cathedral from Kyoto or a prison from Kanazawa.
At any rate, if any of that sounds interesting to you at all, maybe drop by Inuyama if you happen to be near the Nagoya area!

Friendly, Livable Nagoya

Ah, Nagoya! Falling 4th in Japan in terms of population, behind Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka, Nagoya actually has a whole lot going for it - but I didn't know that when I got out of the bus. My decision to go to Nagoya was for the most part me spontaneously wanting to go somewhere during my brief break from work, without having much in mind when it came to what to do. But the tickets were cheap, and, after being dumped out in the middle of the downtown area at 6 AM, I made my way to McDonalds, and began sorting out my trip. And the results were good! Here are the things you can do in Nagoya - in one post this time, so it might be a bit of a long one!
 Here's a tip: you can buy a pass allowing you to use the subway system an unlimited amount of times within a day for 600¥. Talk about savings. I can't advise this enough.

One of the places that came recommended to me was the Atsuta shrine. Very much like its equivalent in Tokyo, the Meijijingu, Atsuta is a shrine dedicated to the worship of the old Shinto religion. Just like Meijijingu, so too is Atsuta shrine located at the end of a path taking you through very ancient woods - despite being rather close to the central part of the city. Atsuta shrine is beautiful in its serenity, undisturbed and surrounded by some truly impressive, ancient trees which appear to be in the hundreds.
Whether it was just at that specific time or date, I
don't know, but unlike Meijijingu, it wasn't possible to enter the immediate vicinity of the central shrine, which was surrounded by a large zen garden - the type with small, white sand like stone with lines carefully drawn into it. Being that I was there on the 30th of December, I found a large gathering of religious officials in the midst of planning for a ceremony, all dressed in white. Mysterious!

Of course, the first thing thing that most people will mention if asked what there is to see in Nagoya is the Nagoya Castle, though. With its roof being the color of rusted copper, adorned with its signature golden fish on each side, Nagoya Castle is one of the most impressive of its kind in Japan, and certainly one of the largest. However, it wouldn't do not to keep in mind that the actual Nagoya Castle of the Edo period was blasted to hell during World War II, with this one standing in its place as a reconstruction, the process of which is still ongoing. Though the central keep itself is complete, the rest of the palace buildings aren't due until the end of 2018.
 Well, not that any of that mattered to me, seeing as the castle grounds were closed off for the end of the year. The closest I could actually get to Nagoya castle was peeking at it through the bars of the gates, or climbing trees to get the best view I could. Fortunately, the main keep is pretty elevated, so I didn't fare too bad, I think, but it was a huge shame not to be able to have a closer look, or to see none of the other parts of the castle. That being said, it wasn't long until I got moving again.

 Moving on to something a little more modern, Nagoya has a rather handsome port a little ways out of its center, too. If you aren't too picky, there's more than enough stuff to do to spend the day here: there's a sizable aquarium for the families, or for those looking to learn something out of the ordinary, an Antarctic exploration ship is moored here, and has been turned into a museum of sorts. On site is also a small theme park for younger children, which is free to enter and houses the tallest Ferris wheel in the Chubu province, which is the central region of Japan. The area itself is full of bridges, interesting architecture, and the seafront of course, so I actually did go ahead and board the Ferris wheel, and got a good look at the area as a result, which was nice, but definitely not necessary in order to admire Nagoya Port. You can get the best of the area by walking its bridges and walkways, and without paying a dime.

 The next spot I visited was Nagoya's central Buddhist temple, the Osu Kannon temple. Completely contrary to Atsuta Shrine, Osu Kannon embraces its urban setting. Its grounds are very compact and full of visitors, especially given the encroaching New Year. Surrounded by very busy shopping streets, Osu Kannon is a nugget of tradition within a bustling area in the midst of modernization. Thanks to its long, roofed shopping streets, it's as good an area as central Nagoya to get some shopping done, or to grab a bite, but the temple itself is fairly compact, despite its large size. Still, Osu Kannon is impressive and fun to go see, whether to climb its stairs to pray, or merely to gawk at the crazy amount of pigeons at the bottom of said stairs, and the children on spot feeding them bird grains, which seemed to be a very common thing here. The bird grains are even sold on spot, so such a thing appeared to be encouraged, really.

And finally, as the day ran its course, I made my way to Sakae, the most bustling district of Nagoya. In terms of city life, Sakae is where it happens: the district has the biggest shopping malls, eateries, clubs, hotels, you name it.
 And right at its center stands Nagoya's own tower - sister to those in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Kyoto and Sapporo - and arguably the one with the best surrounding area! Leading up to the tower is park, making the stroll quite a pleasant one, but if you really want to get the best shot of Nagoya Tower, wait until night and climb to the top of the nearby Oasis 21 shopping center. The building's roof top has a pool of water and is illuminated at night, which really looks great all together, plus the tower turns gold rather than its regular cold steel color.
Fun fact: Sakae is the birthplace of SKE48, the Japanese pop band with 48 female members, based on the model of Akihabara's AKB48 in Tokyo.


 Whew, I think I got just about everything. I'll be posting about Nagoya's numerous specialty foods soon too, plus a little extra side trip I did while in the area. Hurrah!

Hiroshima is Tragic, Peaceful

Work has granted me a week off to do whatever may please me with, and I decided to spend the first few days in another of Japan's bigger cities. I hopped on a plane to the western Chugoku Province and found myself in Hiroshima. Have you heard of Hiroshima? It's the first city in human history to have an atomic bomb dropped on it. That happened during World War II. Remember that? Yeah. Well Hiroshima hasn't forgotten about that.

 When I was in my uncle's estate in America for a visit, he asked me if Japanese hated Americans for dropping the nukes on them. He was certain they did, and it came to him as a bit of a surprise to know that the average Japanese person actually...doesn't hate the United States of America. At a quick glance, the cultural authorities in Hiroshima are no different. In the last 70 years, Hiroshima has become an advocate of world peace rather than international hatred. That doesn't mean they've set the bombing aside, far from that. You can't walk a hundred meters in Hiroshima without there being a panel saying that this bridge or that bank was blown up and rebuilt after the bomb fell.

Sadly enough, most of Hiroshima's more touristic attractions are centered around this fact. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial, known locally as the Atomic Bomb Dome, is the sole remaining structure within the blast range of the US Army's Little Boy to not have been torn down or completely eradicated in the explosion. It alone stands as a testament to the destructive power of nuclear weapons. All the other structures in the vicinity of the blast were actually wiped off the face of the city, save for their bases. The only reason this one mostly stood was because the blast was detonated almost directly over it, pushing the columns of the structure downwards rather than outwards. Once, it served as a promotion hall for industrial products. It's Hiroshima's most recognized landmark now, sitting at the outer fringe of the Peace Park, also dedicated to the lost lives of men, women and children during and following the bombing.

The Cenotaph Tomb

The Hiroshima Peace Park itself is surely something that can't be missed while visiting the city. It's a beautiful green space speckled with monuments meant to bring hope to humanity. It is, as a whole, a message conveying that, through the sheer tenacity of people working hand in hand, something beautiful can rise from the most desolate ashes of what's been destroyed.
The center piece of the park is the Cenotaph of the victims. One can't tell by looking at it, but the monument is actually a tomb, directly under which is a stone chest. Inside it is a register of the over 220,000 victims of the bomb, either as a result of the initial blast or its radiation. Every year at this site, a speech is given in their memories, and at 8:15 AM on August 6th, a moment's silence is observed.

Also prominently featured is the Children's Memorial, built in memory of the younger victims of the bomb. Featured at its summit is Sadako, the young girl who lost her life to Leukemia caused by radiation exposure.
The story of the girl goes that she firmly believed in the story that whoever folded one thousand paper cranes would have any one wish granted to them. The popular version of the story is that, in her hospital bed, she folded cranes in hopes of reaching one thousand and getting back her health, but ran out of time at the count of 644.
 Her friends and family folded the remaining 356 and buried the thousand cranes with her. Today, cranes are still folded and brought to the memorial in her honor, representing the wishes of those who desire to live in a world without the threat of nuclear holocaust. The monument has many duplicates around the world.

Other similar monuments cover the grounds of the park, dedicated to others such as the Korean victims, with various symbolic meanings relating to world peace. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum also sits in the center of the park, for those seeking to draw a deeper knowledge about the facts of the bombing. I'll go into that another day. It's incredibly sobering and fringes on nightmare-inducing.

Hiroshima Castle

Exiting the confines of the park, Hiroshima also has its own Castle not too far away from the city center. The construction itself is mostly wooden. Like almost everything else in this sector of the city, though, the original Hiroshima Castle, too, was atomized by the Little Boy. This reconstructed version was completed over a decade later, complete with its own moat, just as the original structure used to have. From what I hear, you get a pretty good view of the city from its top, but it was well past time for that by the time I got there.

Well, what do you think? Pretty depressing all in all, isn't it? Well the worst is yet to come.

On the Road to Takayama

My three musketeers by my side, we had set off to Takayama with the goal of arriving on time for the Sanno Festival, renown throughout Japan - a three-day trip I've only just now gotten back from. The road to Takayama itself, though, was worthy of notice, as we drove through the countryside and up and around mountains to get to our destination. We managed to make quite a number of stops along the way, too, and here are some of them. No doubt each of these would've been worthy of a smaller trip just for themselves.

 Matsumoto
 Our first stop, a little more than halfway to Takayama already, was Matsumoto. Although the small town bares little in terms of bustling city life, it does have the Matsumoto Castle - one of the few in Japan to have remained in such an intact state. Over 400 years old, the castle has resisted the wear and tear of time and still remains as majestic as ever. It has a moat, with koi fish, and, holy shit, say it with me, swans. There are god damn swans in the moat. Wow.

Kiso Valley
 Knowing full well that our chances of finding a place to stay within Takayama would be fairly slim, we decided to spend the night in the Kiso valley, tucked in between the area's numerous mountains. Thanks to Ken, we managed to find a cheap bed that also provided us a hot bath and breakfast on top of that. 
 The Kiso valley, though, is also home to a number of very old post-towns, the likes of which are often seen in samurai movies. The most notable post-town in the valley is that of Tsumago, which we paid a quick visit to, and found rather silent and empty, despite it barely being 7:00 in the evening yet. Still, Tsumago had a very particular and dated feel to it, and left me wondering what its few streets would have been like during the day.

The Japan Alps
Although the mountain paths we took along our drive did not take us very high up the mountains, we did get to enjoy a lot of the mountain scenery, complete with pristine rivers and lakes. Not too far in the distance were white cap mountains, and so too were there too many ski resorts to count, still white with snow but not operating at this time of the year. Takayama city itself lies nested within these alps.

Kawagoe - A Discovery Impromptu

What wonders and horrors could await us here?

It was Eri who left me a message one day, as I got home from work. "Have you been to Kawagoe before?" it read. "I just saw a pic and thought you might like it, maybe."
"Let's do that this Saturday," I told her the next time I saw her. And we did.
 And, man, yes. I like Kawagoe after all. It's not a place I would've found out about or chosen to go to on my own, and for that I count my blessings that Eri showed me the way and came along.
 Located less than an hour out of Tokyo, Kawagoe's a reminder of what the city used to be in a time long gone. Of course, a lot of Kawagoe's been modernized. But all it takes is a few steps out of the concrete curtain to find a little bit of treasure here. It helps to know where to start, though, unlike Eri and I who ran from station to station and in circles looking for each other. But when I did find her, she had several maps (and a sense of direction twelve times better than mine), and with those in hand, we plowed onwards.

 The bulk of what's interesting to see in Kawagoe is located on one particular street named karazukuri no machinami, which is lined with very rustic looking shops and restaurants, most of which specialize selling equally traditional wares or foods. The street offers a window into what Tokyo was before it was even named Tokyo, with many of the store owners out in the streets in front of their own shops despite the relative cold of early February.


And it's from this main street that many of Kawagoe's most interesting features stem from or branch out of, one of which being the Confectionery Row, where rows of shops lay in wait that specialize in...candy.
 All of a sudden, I'm six years old again. I have a sweet tooth. So does Eri. We waste no time in buying one piece of every candy we dare try, sitting down, and eating them on the spot, where I was urged to try strange and marvelous things and others that in some cultures may be seen as only suitable for cruel and unusual punishment.

  Candy aside, Kawagoe also holds a few other vestiges of the past, one of which is the Bell of Time, which still chimes four times a day (although we didn't get to hear it out for ourselves.) The structure itself has a presence to it, and stands relatively taller than its neighbors. Behind it were a shrine and, oddly enough, a set of children's swings. "Shut up and go play, mommy and daddy are praying."
 

Behold what remains of my kingdom!

Our journey across Kawagoe also set us with another destination in mind: the Honmaru Goten, the sole remaining building of the former Kawagoe castle.
 The picture on the right...Well, that isn't it. It's a ditch. Apparently this particular ditch served to protect the outskirts of the castle. Nearby was a panel set up for touristic purposes explaining all the great things about the ditch which I couldn't care to remember. Luckily, though, we found there was more to the castle just a little further down the street.


The Honmaru Goten, while not as majestic as any of the famous bigger castles you'll find throughout Japan, is still a dignified and legitimate cultural heritage, and, crossing out the Imperial Palace in the dead center of Tokyo, which is inaccessible to visitors, is the closest castle to the capital city. A quick visit of the building costs nothing but 200¥, a price you truly can't go wrong with despite the time it takes to circumnavigate the place being brief. But a true buff of Japanese history wouldn't want to pass the chance up. As for ourselves, the major part of our pleasure in visiting the 500 year-old castle went a little something like this:

"Oh, Eri! Go stand over there!"

"Dum-dee-dum"

"Okay."

"Now take a picture of my king-like pose!"

Not that it wasn't fun. It was. As an alternative to what I did, though, you could go in and actually learn something. The place is a well-arranged exhibition that goes through the details of the castle's layout and its history concerning the Hojo Clan and the battle for the Kanto region and so forth. If I write about Japanese history, it'll be for another time, though.

  There is, actually, more to see of Kawagoe, but our day trip, for all intents and purposes, ended here. We unfortunately only made it to the Kita-In Buddhist temple upon its closing, and were unable to get in and take a good look at the 500-some statues of Buddha. But if I ever make a return trip, that'll be for then.

Wait, seriously?

 After a muddled and confused walk to the train station and a brief ride, I bid Eri farewell until the day after the next, where she made me change one of our flyers at work, like, a billion times.

As if you couldn't guess, many of these photos were taken by Eri. Notably, the good ones. Credit where it's due.

Scenic Hakone (Part 1/2)

  Two months ago, I requested a week off from work during June. It's tough to get in any kind of request of the sort. My workplace only allows one person in the company to take a day off at any given day, and it just so happens that, when I was looking at the calendar, two months ago, July and August had already been booked by my co-workers. And so I took a week off in June. "What luck," I thought.

 Japan's rainy season is in June, folks. And I am a dumb-ass.

 And so Ken and I tried to figure out what we could do with a week off in rain season. The days closed in on us, and we threw several plans out the window and ended up with a single one. A three day trip to the mountainous area of Hakone.

 Hakone's just a side trip from Tokyo. A train leading out of the city can take one there in an hour and a half or so. But despite the short distance, there's no comparison to establish between Hakone and Tokyo. This is a tropical country. Hakone's there to remind us of that.

 The area has a network of cable-cars and railways and boats going to and fro and across mountains and lakes. Though the area isn't huge (nor small, by any means) there's lots to see.

Hakone's got the mountains. It's got the trees and the rivers and the lakes. It's got a steaming volcano and hotsprings. Hakone's amazing. Buy purchasing a 3 day pass for just around 65$, one gets to and from Hakone for free, and gets to use all the transportation within the area for free as well, with a bonus of a bunch of small discounts on some touristic activities. Considering the round trip without the pass is already 40$ or so, the pass is altogether a great move. 

Our first stop was Odawara Castle. Though technically not in Hakone, whatever, man, it's a fucking castle. It's awesome. Ofcourse we stopped here on our way. The place is surrounded with a colorful garden, there's a cage full of monkeys right outside, and there's this shack with two old men who rent out samurai costumes for the likes of 2,50$. The inside of the castle itself was turned into a museum, which, to me, seems kind of too bad. But hey, whatever pays the maintenance fee to keep the place running, I guess. Odawara Castle is one of the many traditional old castles in Japan that still stand to this day. There's more than a good handful of them dispersed around the country. Odawara's I don't think is one of the most famous or nicest of them. But hey, I got to dress up as a samurai for 2,50$. It's all good.

Out of Odawara we headed into the actual Hakone area. We booked into a quaint little hotel, enjoyed a hot bath, and were up the next day to witness the best of what the area had to offer. A rail-car leading someways up the mountain brought us to the foot of a suspended car-lift, which whisked us off the ground and over the volcanic valley formed by the topmost peaks in Hakone. Damn right, I said volcanic. The hot springs in Hakone are natural, fueled by a steaming subterranean volcanic source water. And, using said lift, up the volcanic valley we went.

The top of the mountain attracts quite a number of tourists, for its obvious sight-seeing value as well as its one promised delicacy: the specialty "Black Eggs" served at the small restaurants crowning the valley. The black eggs are made through some process involving the volcano or something, but I wouldn't know, because I don't eat eggs. Ken didn't eat the eggs either. As a matter off fact, I couldn't really be bothered to give a damn about the eggs, so read about 'em off wikipedia or something. But damn did they advertise those eggs like crazy. Mascots and posters and all that stuff.

Asides from the fuggin' eggs, the volcanic valley itself was quite a sight to behold. Poisonous vapors rise from the cracks in the mountain stone, though, threatening to blind, intoxicate or kill any adventurer manly enough to stick their head in them, so walking in the shadow of the valley itself was prohibited to tourists. But to merely see the smoke rise out of the valley is enough to draw the awe of tourists. And the smell of sulfur permeating from the area had me not quite willing to venture any closer even if I could.
 From here, we took the suspended car down, and over to Lake Ashi, a lake formed by a volcanic crater many thousands of years ago.

Alright, I'm sure none of you want to read more than that much at a time, so I'll cut here and post more about Hakone tomorrow. Here's a picture of me and Ken being gay ropeway attendants, the way we often are on our free time when no one's watching. Part two coming soon!