Trekking the Nippon Highway

Well hello again, and it has been a while since I have updated…but like I told some people this is going to take several weeks to complete. I got a lot going on right now!

Following the conclusion of the tour de Kinkakuji, the group and I took a bus from the northern parts of Kyoto where we were toward the Geisha district. Now there are a lot of misconceptions and strange ideas about what Geisha girls do, but we will straighten some of those out here. We walked from the bus station across a river as the sun was getting ready to go down on us, and stopped to wait for Peter (from Canada) to meet up with us. He was a former soccer player in college, and decided he wanted to travel around the world doing journalism. He headed west and landed in Japan, and said he never made it past japan! He currently resides with his wife in Kyoto…and has lived there for twelve years.

The river near Gion

Hustle bustle outside the Kabuki theatre

Peter explained to us that the statue pictured below is a monument to how the Geisha culture started. He said that originally Kabuki and Geisha were basically part of one group of eccentric artistic-type people that roamed the banks of the above river making art, dancing, performing music, merry-making and “doing other things.” Supposedly the more powerful castes decided to get them off the banks of the river and into the theatres. Eventually Geisha and Kabuki parted ways…as developed rules that only men were allowed in Kabuki and of course only women could be geisha.

Monument to those who danced along the riverbanks

Entryway to a tea-house district

Before long we were following Peter into the heart of a geisha district neighboring Gion. Peter explained to us, as we stopped near a tea house, that Geishas are basically waitresses, musicians, dancers, and flight attendants (without the flight) all kind of balled into one. They may be hired out as escorts for a single person, a group, a couple or what have you to be entertainment for an evening on the town or at a party. They do, however, mainly work in the tea houses that are numerous in the area. Below you can see a photo of japanese characters on wood above a doorway. These are the names of all the girls that work in the tea house. Likely most of them live there…but this is not always the case. Notice that all the first (top) characters in their names are the same. The girls on that board have all apprenticed and learned the art of Geisha from the tea house mother. They must take part of her name into their professional name to indicate that they were trained by this mother. Above each name is a symbol with three interlocking circles, which is a symbol of tea houses in this district…Gion’s tea houses had a different symbol.

Professional names of girls working in the tea house

Peter also told us that all the tea-houses are a members-only business. The only way to be introduced into a house is by another member. That member puts his reputation on the line by inviting you in, so you had better be on your best behavior! They serve drinks as I understand it but these are not bars…mostly a form of cultural entertainment that the financially-well-off indulge in to distinguish themselves.

The girls start their training in the early teens, and usually begin full time work as Geisha at the ages of 16 to 17. These girls are skilled at conversation, playing instruments such as the Shamisen, serving, dancing, and other such trades. Though peter spoke a lot about the Geisha, a more in-depth glance at this culture is recommended if it piques your interest. For more accurate 😉 information on the Geisha culture, go here: Geisha.

Maiko girl

Can you guess who?

We concluded our evening with a dinner and drinks with Peter. He and I spoke a lot about living in Japan, and he gave me some helpful hints as to what one can do in order to put a foot in the door for living in Japan. This is a goal of mine. Well maybe I’ll hook up with a Geisha girl when I go back 🙂

Next up I have a full day of touring Kyoto independantly and the adventures that lie therein.

Alright now this was a fun day! See we had planned to tour Gion upon our arrival to Kyoto yesterday, but since the weather was horrid we decided to postpone it until today. More on this little tidbit later. So we have breakfast at the ryokan around 7:30 or so, and then assemble our day gear and make for Kyoto station. We jumped aboard a train bound for a little not-really-a-town north of Kyoto by several miles, and got off at a station which was in a nice open area. There was a feild of flowers near the walkway to our destination.

Our destination was a boat dock. We were going to take a scenic tour of the Hozu river via watercraft. Supposedly the rapids were quite dangerous (ha ha ha oh…oh man thats funny). We ‘ordered’ a boat and waited around for a few minutes, watching these big boats coming and going from the long wooden dock. These were big fiberglass vessels…probably 25 feet long(?) with a 3 man crew.

So after a while we here “Shireya something something” over the loudspeaker; that was our party! Shireya (Celia pronounced in Japanese) is our tour guide if you haven’t read any other posts I have written. Anyway we were guided to one of the vessels by a nice older fellow, and proceeded to climb aboard. The boat held quite a few people.

A motley crew.

While we waited for everyone to get aboard I snapped that photo. We shoved off with the older fellow at the oar on the front migi (or righthand) side of the boat, a man with a bamboo pole on the front left, and a fellow on rudder at the rear. We passed beneath beautiful bridges and through awsome grassland, followed a canyon setting. In it we hit a few spots of rough water and some rocky areas…but our guide acted as if we were running the colorado river (though life vests were not provided). There were different varieties of what I think we Americans would call herons, cormorants, and even a hawk!

We also encountered some turtles sunning on the rocks and a deer foraging on the side of the canyon. There were bamboo forests on both sides of the river for most the length of the trip…but there were also coniferous trees further up. The guides would switch off on their three respective jobs every so often… It was quite entertaining when Elvis stepped up to the pole position. He had the hairdo, the blue jeans, white shirt, and a Ford belt buckle…what a crackup.

Toward the end of our long excursion a snack boat pulled up next to us and sold baked rice balls, squid, octopus, and some other goodies. Someone offered me a rice ball and I ate it…was pretty good. We ended our journey in a township called Kameoka, and there was a variety of things going on. I saw a fisherman out in the river wearing waders. He was dragging nets around and setting up to catch fish:

We took a train away from Kameoka to Ryoan-ji (temple), which is known for its gravel-garden. This place had a really nice park/garden with a pond, interesting plants, and peaceful walkways. In between the temple and our coming and going there was a beautiful large black butterfly that was resting on a leaf:

The gravel garden wasn’t that great and I have photos of a better one! Ryoan-ji was a little over-rated I think…but still it was interesting. The next destination was Kinkaku-ji, a.k.a. the Golden Pavillion. It was pretty impressive, and there were tourists from all over not just Japan, but Russia, Mexico or spain, england, the US…all over. I think there were Germans there to.

The pavillion sits across the pond from where you first see it, and then you get to walk around the pond toward it to make for some interesting shots.

Kinkakuji had some beautiful old pines out front, a nice little garden walk, and the people watching was fantastic! Though it was a bit more on the beaten tourist path, it was definitely worth seeing. Since this entry is so long already I am going to bust up Kyoto day 2 into two parts. We’ll get to Gion and dinner with Peter on the next post.

Ok finally I am at a point where I can continue updating this journal/blog/mess. I have been wrestling my computer trying to get it to do what I want and have finally succeeded. After a full week of work, I am just now settling in.

Kyoto: A city of tradition meets modern; a place where relics of the past stand before glimmering windows of shiny new buildings. Ok enough with the poetical essay-type speechisms… The tour group and I spent the morning in Takayama. Attractions included the morning market, and a bit of sight-seeing. After that we hopped a train for Nagoya, which took quite a while! We then transferred to the infamous shinkansen, or bullet train. We had reserved seats in the car that had that electrical transmission power box thing, so the whole trip was a buzzin.

It was about an hour to Kyoto I think, and then we hopped off the bullet train quick as you please. Kyoto station…wow.

This place was something else, only about 6 years old so it was pretty much brand spanking new. Full of eccentric sculptures, fantastic architecture, neat looking people, and did I mention that it is HUGE?

Directly following the station we walked to our ryokan, which was less than 10 min walk from the station. Nice little place, there was a little lobby up front that you could sit and read the newspaper or whatever. The task of locating our rooms was not an easy one…the place was a maze! Tiny hallways in which you needed to watch your head, a little bridge in a minature outdoor area in the center of the building, a small kitchen area, and INTERNET ACCESS! I was able to update some blog stuff from that place later on.

Anyway the rest of the group went to see kyomizu ( I think it was called, I may correct that later) or “Pure Water Temple.” I didn’t go to this because I was waiting to meet my Japanese mom for the first time, and her sister and daughter. Midoka was the first to arrive on the scene ( the scene being the front door of the ryokan) followed instantly by Yutaka and Shoko. We greeted eachother quite enthusiastically, and I was really excited to meet people I had heard so much from my family about. We went for tea and had good conversation; part of which was trying to decide what to eat for dinner. I already had okonomiyaki the first night I came so, instead we went out for shabu shabu.

This was a meal where you get a plate of raw beef, and you are seated around a copper cooking apparatus ( for lack of a better term. It has a trough around the outside of in with boiling water. You take a peice of the thinly sliced beef and boil it in the water just lightly, and then dip it in this side-sauce and eat it. MMM mmm good. We had the waitress take a photo of us as well:

After dinner we went for tea again, and then sadly parted ways for the night. Shoko was very quiet but I think I made a good first impression. 🙂 I went back to my ryokan with Midoka while Yutaka and shoko took the train home. I slept like a baby, it was a long day!

Stay tuned for Day 2 & 3

Hey Everybody,

I landed back in Portland safe and sound, and thanks again everyone. Souvenirs are on the way 😉

Anyhow I am going to get a shower and some sleep… I am a little jet lagged out…. Keep checking in on this thing though…I will add more photos and keep writting entries for a while… I still have a lot to cover!

Ja Ne, Dylan

Well as it turns out, all of the programming language for this computer in the cybercafe is in nihongo…which means I dont know wether I am uploading a photo or just creating a deadly new computer virus that will engulf the entire internet within 24 hours. So more photos will have to wait until later…probably until I get back. The original files are too large to upload and I am not sure how to reduce them. I have my second image cd made up but again…japanese creates a barrier for me. So I am just kinda sitting here and putzing around…got a nice lounge chair and I’m just taking it easy… Get back to you again probably from Tokyo…and then from home!

What a ride this has been…couldn’t have done it without all of you… and I mean ALL of you!

Wow…I have fell behind a lot… Hm…

Well I still have to write in my journal about many of these places…I have covered a lot of territory and alot of time in the last week…and I can not even begin to describe it with the 20 min and 32 seconds I have left on this stupid pay-internet computer I am on. Next time I come to japan…Laptop. Wireless internet.

I think I am just going to skip to yesterday and today…and fill in the blanks later. Yesterday I woke up late in Fukushima because I had a MONSTER headache…I was coughing like a banshee… and just generally felt like cat vomit. So the next bus from the Youth hostel (the first being at 7:00 am) didnt show up until 8:42. I was supposed to meet Takako in Sakuragicho station at 10:30… 2 and ahalf hours on the shinkansen and 30 min on a bus…plus 40 minutes by train…not happening. So after a series of calls and a lot of complicated packing maneuvers…I was on my way to yokohama. I met Taka around 12:40pm We met up with her friends Keiko and Mori-san (aka Mr. Mori-officially) a little after. We all took the train to Kamakura and went to see the big buddah there, some temples and then made our way for Shonan beach after. We crossed a bridge to an Island called Inoshima. Just as the sun was setting…I hope I can actually upload those photos because wow.

We walked to the top of the lighthouse as well where I got my first glimpse of Fuji-san. Yeah again…pictures are a must. I have decided to try to find a cyber cafe tomorrow and just chill and blog. Hopefully I can get more current pictures uploaded as well.

We went out for chinese after that, and had a really nice dinner. I then went to find my Youth hostel which was not difficult considering that I was given good directions by both Taka and a train station attendant. I got in and checked in, found my room…organized my mountain of junk in a half-assed manner…then went to SLEEP. The hostel here is pretty…low brow to put it kindly. I was hoping for something with …not nasty floors and well its not worth going into.

Today I met up with Taka at the station again at 11:30 and we took the train to her house. I then dispersed gifts that had been in my bag and sitting inside a box on her table for weeks. I played my flute for them and they seemed to enjoy it thoroughly. We then had a really good curry and rice meal accompanied by salad, pumkin pudding, popcorn from corn in their garden, and “Lactose bars” (dont ask yet…).

I was fortunate enough to meet Takas sister, and of course her three friends who came to lunch as well. Fine group of people! Anyway after that we went to visit Takakos university via automobile, and she has quite an attractive campus. We walked around, went to the gym and discovered that I could bench press the weight of one of her friends. Um…but after is where the real fun began. KA RE O KE…thats right ladies and gentlmen…my first experience at a real kareoke club.

You pay for a certain space of time and sit in a little room together with your friends, and select songs from books and enter them into the kareoke machine. Taka started us off with “My Heart will go on” (Celine Dion), followed closely by her friend with Avre Lavigne (spelling?), and then a traditional japanese song by Yu-san and Kasko (a pseudonym real name was Azuma). Then I am up to bat…Elvis. It had to be Elvis. I picked “Nothin but a Houndog”…to which the lyrics are quite simple and I still managed to destroy the song. Well I think they still liked it ha ha.

Following performances were Enya’s “Only Time” by Taka and Myself, a Korean song by Kasko, several other song in Nihongo, and I sang…sung…singed “Let her be” by Hootie & The Blowfish, uh… oh “Clocks” by coldplay…and um…I guess that was it.. What a blast though, I have got to come back and do that again! Surprisingly my voice held out despite the desire to cough my lungs in their entirety out.

After we went to Volks, which was like steak and salad, or soup…or both. Good, very good. And then uh…a long drive home…or to the Hostel. I was really sad to leave Taka and the bunch behind, they showed me a really good time! Wasnt really sure what to say in regards to goodbye…but something tells me a will see them all again. Ok thats all I got for now, I will try to find a good cyber cafe where I can rest my weary bones and add some real meat to this thing, and to my journal…and mail stuff home. Wow I still have a full plate!

Ja mata ne,
Dylanku

A peaceful little (little…hah) town with a nice kind of not-so-modern atmosphere. My main destination that day was the hida folk village. This was a collection of OLD time japanese houses from all around the region and from different periods. All the buildings were arranged in a little village like tour arrangement thingamajig…and yeah it was great to walk around in. I spent just over two hours there and still didnt see all of it. The coolest part about this place is that the caretakers still light the morning fires in the open fire-pits in each of the buildings to maintain the period atmosphere, keep the bugs out, and keep the roof lashings tight. Apparently its an important part of the upkeep of these old dwellings. Anyway I only have a couple pics of this place…

The Local Bell…duh.

And some of these structures were put together with no nails. What a technique in architecture… I dont have a photo of this uploaded unfortunately. The following is up inside the attic area of one of these houses. I suspect they may have used it for drying gohan (rice).

Ya think?

Anyway you would sometimes see handcrafters of items that were made back in the day actually making things in the houses as well. There was a basketweaver and some lady sewing stuff…and there was also a woodcarver who was kind enough to let me take a picture (shashin totte kudasai?). The musty smoky smell, dark rooms with light coming through the sliding paper-window doors… it was really neat. I had a chance to check out the Takayama morning market the next day which was neat…local fruits and vegetables as well as handcrafted items. Kind of like saturday market only its different. Because it is every day! Next destination is Kyoto, and I have photos but tomorrow I am hoping to get them on CD so you will have to wait for me to upload them. I will try to get up early (8:00) and get down to a photo store.

Props to the monkeyfoo, word up dad. What is your mailing address? E-mail it to me somebody! I have a postcard to send that mofo… Ok anyway love to yall (esp you Heidi, word we got to meet up before you take off) and I will get back with pictures of Kyoto, Osaka, some of Koyasan, and the Moriguchi family! Grandma Hirokazu and Kumiko send their love, and say hello back!

Ja mata ne from Osaka, I will be headed to Zenya’s parents’ house in Nara tomorrow to check out some real country side…and cook some hamburgers!

The next morning we had lunch in the tour buddys cabin, and then set out to do our various activities for the day. I went on a hike up toward the top of Hotaka dakesawa…one of the peaks. I never made it to the top and there are many more details I will reveal when I get back, but now I have a lot to plan for tomorrow in Kyoto. So again with three thousand words:

This was a pile of rocks that someone built along the “rock river” just before the halfway point lodge. Here was an elevation of about 2000 meters, from a start of 1039 I think. If you look hard you can see the river down in the valley…that was my starting point.

Some of the really cool trees that grew up high on the mountainside.

The sun setting over the valley. Unfortunately I was trooping down the trail at night shortly after this…but it was a really good days hike.

Ok I have to get rolling, I am now in a ryokan in Kyoto using the computer to update this page… and uh…oh up next is a few photos and thoughts from the Hida Folk Village in the city of Takayama…houses from old Japan!

This place was just remarkable, or beyond remarkable. However you want to say it. We arrived mid-morning by bus bound from Norikura hogen on a 1 hr bus ride. We saw some wild monkeys along the way from the bus…I didnt pay too much attention because I figure once you have seen one monkey you have seen them all. Anyway we dropped our bags off at the cabins and then grouped up to go for a day-walk. We followed the loop trail that went up and down a good length of the valley and well, if a picture is worth a thousand words it will save me quite a bit of typing:

Just as we got off the bus

Fall colors along the trail

Some of the main peaks that surround the valley.

I call it, um… a …picture…

Kerei des, no?

Check out day 2 as well…

Well I am going to keep the story somewhat concise this morning. We took a bus in the morning from matsumoto after a buffet style breakfast, and then made about a one hour journey to Norikura kogen. The accomodations we had arranged were in a ryokan, or a traditional japanese hotel. Sliding paper windows, no shoes on the floor, communal hot spring bathing, and outdoor rotenburo were all a part of our experience there.

We took off for a walk around mid-morning just around the local trails, and viewed all the fall colors that in this region were just starting to turn in most cases. There are ferns here that grow in a perfect circle, and some of the leaves get progressively larger as you get toward the end of the branch. I have photos of this phenomenon…somewhere. There was a waterfall, and a nice pond, a really weirdly grown tree and just a nice setting to go for a hike in.

We went for lunch at a local resort-type restaurant, as I recall I had…food. Something like that… Afterward we walked through a nice little parcel of pasturland where the fall colors contrasted nicely with still green feilds. It was almost like a swamp/grassland setting. We walked down a trail and observed two men making semi or charcoal. We didnt know what they were making it for.

Well we made our way back to the ryokan and arrived in time for a bath before dinner. It is a tradition at a ryokan to take this pre-dinner bath, and then come down in your yukata (summer version of kimono) for dinner. The meal was EXTREMELY elaborately laid out, and was quite delicious. For conpactedednesses…es…the dinner the following night was just as elaborate. It included a sampling of the most exotic food I have had in my life. Basashi is raw horse…but that wasnt it. Bee…larvea. Yeah you heard right. We thought they were nuts at first…but no. Bee larvea.

The following day we took a bus to the peak area of Norikura-san, and hiked the peak. We had lunch up in a restaurant in the parking lot, curry and rice which was a nice change of pace from just japanese quisine. The fog was in and it was quite chilly at the top of the mountain, and this made it hard to get any pictures of what I am sure is a uniquely picturesque mountainside.

All in all it was a great place to spend two days, and I am really enthralled with my experience there! Especially the ryokan, the lady gave us a bunch of stuff and worried about us being warm enough. People here are so concerned for eachothers well being here! Ok the best is yet to come…more fall colors, mountainous splendor and clear sunny skies in Kamikochi… Ta ta!