Wakayama

A few weeks ago Matt, I and two teachers from my school went on a journey that took us south of Osaka’s seemingly endless urban sprawl. We went to Wakayama. This trip was meticulously planned by my go between at Maiko high school, who also doubled as our expert driver for the trip. Waking with the birds we left Kobe city at 6.00 am, cheated our way through Osaka’s crowded streets by taking the elevated expressway and arrived in Wakayama prefecture by 8.00 am. Here we strolled around the grounds of Wakayama castle, confirmed that Mos Burger doesn’t have a breakfast menu and had MacDonald’s for the first time in Japan.

(Click images to view slideshows)

Wakayama Castle

For the rest of the day we travelled along Wakayama’s coast making brief stops at some interesting and beautiful places. First, Tore Tore Ichiban is a fish market well known by locals for its delicious fresh fish. Here you can watch giant tuna being diced, pick your shell fish fresh from the tank and even pick up some whale meat, however, ask for a fish head to use as a table decoration and you will flatly be rejected.

Tore Tore Ichiba

Second, Engetsu rock which gets its name from the circular shape at its centre (en meaning circle and getsu meaning moon). Third, Senjojiki beach which gets its name because its wide open space seems to have room for a thousand tatami mats. Fourth, Sandanbeki cliff that bears some resemblance to southern Western Australia’s coastline. Finally, Kushimoto, the most southern part of the mainland Honshu island. Here we encountered a choral group singing traditional Japanese songs and many more unusual rock formations.

Engetsu

Senjojiki

Sandanbeki

Kushimoto

At the end of our long day we made our way to a Japanese style hotel called Arafune. Despite its less than impressive façade, the interior was newly refurbished. To Matt’s great delight not only did the hotel have hot spring baths and pool table facilities, each room came replete with Western style toilets!

Arafune Ryokan

However, the most interesting aspect of the hotel was the food. Upon sitting at the dinner table, we were served what can unequivocally be classed as the freshest of fish—shrimp and muscles to be precise. A tiny BBQ sat in the middle of our table, its flames licking at the open grill. What happened next could easily have been lifted from one of Peter Singer’s nightmares, for as the shrimp and muscles were placed on the BBQ they started moving! Indeed, they were still alive and trying to break free from their now searing hot shells. This intolerable cruelty lasted for about minute at about which time they settled into their endless sleep. Such an experience is almost enough to make one vegan.

Zankokuyaki

The next day we returned to Kobe via mountain passes. First we stopped at Mt Nachi and walked up an ancient pilgrims path (some people hired costumes so they could walk it in traditional kimono) to the temple which also commanded an view of Mt Nachi’s magnificent waterfall.

Climbing Mt Nachi

Mt Nachi

Mt Koya

After stopping for lunch we went through the mountains--this was the adventure part of the weekend! The road around the mountain was littered with many large fallen rocks and was only wide enough for one car despite being for 2 way traffic. Also, it was incredibly windy: the only way to check if there was a car approaching in the opposite direction was by looking in the misty mirrors. This was all good while the sun was still up, but as it began to set my go-between became anxious to get out of the mountain area and went into speed racer mode. As we careered in straight lines around sharp corners I quietly recalled all the special moments in my life and thought of all the people who had touched my life, while clutching desperately to the handrail to control my nerves. Luckily we did not need to rely on the slight metal rail to protect us from the almighty fall down the mountainside as we made it home safe and sound.

Highlight from Week 3: Hiroshima

Apologies to Kobe, but Hiroshima has to be my favourite Japanese city thus far. The last time we visited was via six long, slow hours of JR rail in the middle of winter. This time, in the first days of the cherry-blossom season, we travelled in speed and style aboard the Shinkansen, and therefore still had the whole day to sight-see.

Shukkeien Garden
(Click for slideshow)

Much of our sight-seeing was done on foot. We crossed the Kyobashi-gawa river west of the JR station, and made our way to Shukkeien Garden. Originally built for the local warlord in the 17^th century, the Garden was destroyed in the 1945 bombing, after which it was rebuilt. Teachers have told me that Shukkeien isn’t the best Japanese garden in the country, but we thought it was pretty spectacular.

Hiroshima Castle
(Click for slideshow)

After lunch under a grove of cherry-blossoms, we walked further west to Hiroshima Castle. Like Shukkeien, and much else in Hiroshima, this 16^th-century building also fell victim to the bomb, and what stands in its place is a 1958 reconstruction. The foundations of pre-1945 buildings can still be seen, and the tower itself houses a museum and observation deck giving a decent view of the city. In the outer bailey there was a food stand where we introduced Emma’s parents to takoyaki, and beside the moat stood an Australian eucalypt which had survived the bombing.

Peace Park and Memorial Museum
(Click for slideshow)

From the Castle we walked south to Peace Park. The first image to greet us was the A-bomb Dome itself, silhouetted against the cloudy sky. The Dome stands at the northern end of what is a spacious and magnificent urban park—the “Kings Park” of Hiroshima, if you will. At the southern end is the Peace Memorial Museum, which provides a harrowing guided tour of the events and aftermath of August 6, 1945 (though it provides too little detail of the reasons for Japan’s involvement in the war, in my view). We came here in January, but were pressed for time, so it was good to be able to give the exhibition a more thorough viewing.

Our flashy hotel, the Grand Prince (no slideshow)

We ate dinner at Okonomi-mura, which is a complex of okonomiyaki stalls housed on two floors of a building in the Shintenchi district, then caught a tram from the station to our hotel down by the harbour. In defiance of hotel policy we smuggled in conbini food for breakfast, rather than taking out a mortgage for the privilege of eating in the hotel dining room. The next morning we took a ferry from the hotel to Miyajima.

Miyajima (Click for slideshow)

I was glad to return to Miyajima, because on our last visit we arrived later in the day, and I wasn’t able to climb the 500m+ Mt. Misen. This time I hiked up the northern face, while Emma took her parents to the summit in the cable car. I don’t think the photos really tell the story, but the view from up there is spectacular. Once again we encountered the friendly local inhabitants—the monkeys and deer—though the latter were a little too friendly, sadly, for Emma and her dad.

Mt Misen
(Click for slideshow)

Hanami

This is going to sound awfully clichéd, but have you ever been somewhere and felt as if you’ve stepped into a fairytale?

Japan’s brush with sakura is fleeting. It has to be. To paraphrase Robert Frost, nothing this impossibly, wonderfully pink can stay.

Through summer and autumn you don’t even notice them. They’re just trees like any other trees. And, like any other trees, they strip themselves bare of their leaves in the winter. Just ordinary trees.

And then . . . a single petal. A single blossom, half-glimpsed, perched on the end of a twig. The tourists queue to capture the memory on film. Within a week, the cherry blossoms have spread, like a rumour, to the four corners of Kansai. Standing ancient, majestic and alone at Kyoto’s Yasaka Shrine. Bending their sad limbs over the waters on the Philosopher’s Walk. Raising their black arms into a canopy of pink and white in the Peony Garden at Himeji Castle.

And beneath the canopy, and beneath the evening blue sky that can be glimpsed between the petals, a carpet of blue tarpaulin, upon which the locals gather to look at the flowers, and sing karaoke (badly), with their eskies full of beer and sake, and steak sizzling on their barbecues. The Japanese have never looked more Australian.

This, my friends, is why God invented the digital camera! Click the images below for slideshows . . .

The beginning: Kikumasamune Sake Brewery, Nada-ku

Tenryuji Temple, Arashiyama

Heian Shrine, Kyoto

The Philosopher's Walk, Higashiyama

Yasaka Shrine, Gion

Evening at Himeji Castle

Osaka Castle

The last of the cherry blossoms: Sumaura