Temples and gardens -Kyoto

20 April 2014

For the last few days we have been in Kyoto, first at Otsu and now at Hanazono. We have been touring temples and gardens. 

I won't bore you with all of the temples, or even all of the gardens, but in my view it is the gardens that are worth the visit. The temples and castles are very old,so they are worth seeing just for the antiquity of them, but the gardens are true woks of art, and awe. 

This could be the Vegan mascot! 

I needed drink after all of that walking!

I could go on and on with photos of beautiful gardens, but the other pleasure of this part of a Japan is the vegetarian ( =vegan in Japan, almost) resturaunts. Take a look at the meals we are getting...

Sake, served hot, is totally different to any sake we have had in Austealia. It is quite like a spirit, and quite flavourful! 

This is the skin from the surface of boiled soy milk, served in a broth.

All vegan! Some variations of tofu, and some wheat based, pickled vegies, boiled vegies, various sauces and dips, seaweed, miso soup. 

The vegetarian influence of the Budhist temples has resulted in resturaunts that only serve Shojin Rhyori -Budhist cuisine. Suits us! 

Matsumoto - the Castle and cherry blossoms

16/4/14

We arrived at Matsumoto about 2pm. I was expecting a tiny mountain Villiage! Silly me!,it is a mountain town, at 625m, but tiny -no. We checked in to our ryokan and went straight out to the castle.

There were free English language tours! So we took that. Our guides were a married couple who were apparently language enthusiasts. He spoke at least 6 languages, with quite fluent English. I recommend this tour. 

The castle is 400 years old and was owned by a number of generations of the same family. This fact combined with the early acquisition of guns from Portugal resulted in hundreds of years of peace in the area. The results was that the castle was never used in war! In fact since it was built for protection of the ruling family in war time, it was actually never used at all.

It is built of massive timbers, has a hidden floor, and has stories of spirits. There are guns from the era on display, as well as Samuri uniforms. 

The grounds were quite beautiful with cherry blossoms in full bloom.

After the castle we walked down the street till we found a tavern. We intended to stop for a rest and a beer, but got talking to a Japanese couple of similar age to ourselves. They spoke good English and so we were able to have quite a stimulating conversation with them. The lady seemed particularly amused when we said that Abbott was "awful". Now I am not sure whether she thought I was talking about Abe -the Japanese prime minister! So I do hope I did not offend them! So Jun and (his wife -I'm sorry we couldn't remember your name) -please forgive me if I wasn't clear enough. To be clear now -I think OUR prime minister Tony Abbott (who visited Japan recently) is AWFUL! I don't know enough about your prime minister, Abe, to comment. I'll leave that to you. And good luck with growing pineapple tops! 

There has been a lot written about how different the Japanese are, but I am impressed by how much the same as us they are! There are certainly more things the same than there are different! And ALL of the people we have met have been very friendly and helpful.

In addition I have been thinking that Japan is the first country I've visited which I think may be more civilised than our own! The standard of living is higher, everyone is very well dressed. Everything is orderly, and so clean! No shoes are worn indoors, and even indoors different slippers are used for different zones, classified as to cleanliness. There is a foyer where street shoes are removed, a living zone, and a toilet zone. There is a pair of slippers in the toilet room, which is only worn in there and never in the living zone! Hands are washed with a towel before eating, in bars, in the train. People with URTIs wear masks (also worn by people with allergies to protect against pollens). Most doors open automatically reducing the opportunity for viruses to spread. I'd like to know whether the actual spread of viruses in Japan us lower due to all of these factors combined!

The toilets have to experienced to be believed. The toilet in our Ryokan today notices when you enter the room and the lid lifts automatically. The seat is warm. There are water jets aimed at different parts of the anatomy, for both genders. And then the warm air jet to dry you off. And lastly the toilet flushes automatically when you stand up. The result is that that Japanese must have the cleanest bottoms in the world, and also the cleanest hands. Public toilets on the other hand are usually squats, although on a much higher plane than in other Asian countries.

Eventually it was back to the Ryokan for an earlyish night. The shared bath was vacant when we got back so we were able to take a bath together. But the traditional grain filled pillows were like rocks! I had a headache before I even fell asleep! 

West coast Aomori to Niigata (days 6&7)

15/4/14

I have found that if I mention our vegetarian preference in the booking forms special requests section, the hosts go to quite a lot of trouble to have vege options available at breakfast. This morning we had the best breakfast yet with so many choises we couldn't try them all! NATO again, yam soup, slippery seaweed ( "slippery" seems to be a favourite texture for the Japanese, but we seem to be going off it!), roasted Barley tea, miso ( although this one had more in it than I bargained for including pippie shells....), tofu, steamed vegies, pickled vegies, roasted vegies, almond jelly, fruit and more! 

Today is mainly a train trip but we have chosen the slow trains along the west coast and mountains. Again we are hoping to find the picturesque areas of Japan to revisit in the Earthcruiser. 

This side of the north certainly does seem to have the beautiful scenery. There are more mountains, more agriculture, streams, beaches. There are far less people. 

South of Akita there was some greenery appearing, and clumps of daffodils. People are preparing beds for rice and also home vegie patches. 

Notice the haze in some of these pictures. There is smog in the air even in these country areas. It is apparently from China. I can't imagine what it is like over there!

And all the way there were mountains with snow not far away!

Even further south some of the rice paddies were flooded, and some cherry blossoms were appearing.

We met a Doctor on the train returning from a clinic in the north. He and joe had a vigorous discussion about the state of Japan's economy. He was also interested in the health care system in Australia. Apparently the elderly in Japan are being increasingly cared for in nursing home which are not well equipped to care for them. He also said that home ownership is rare in Japan. 

Eventually after a number of train changes we arrived in the mountains. At last some really pretty scenery! But the smog haze is ever present. 

And it true there is a light at the end of the tunnel! As we moved into the mountains the train went through very long tunnels.

Sendai to Sapporo, The far north (Days 4 and 5)

13/4/14

Joe suddenly had a wild idea -why don't we go all the way up to Saporro on the rail pass! The trains are so fast we can get up there in a day! That way we can have a quick look and note where to come back to, and where to leave out on the road trip! We were expecting more interesting countryside in the north of the country. 

Well the countryside was less heavily populated, with some nice mountain views.

But it was hardly remote countryside we were in. Even the farming areas had a house every 100m and small rice paddocks. There was no square mater of land that was not used, except on mountain slopes. The land is very brown still with no sign of greenery. It is still winter here with snow visible on the mountains, and further north snow still on the ground, melting, but still there. 

It was the Shinkansen again to Aomori, where we changed trains to go underground and undersea across to Hokkaido, the northern most island of main islands of Japan. The tunnel is 240m under the sea, and 54 km long.

The train to Saporro was a slow train and the last leg of the journey was quite wearying. There were good views of seaside towns, and industrial areas. There were more mountains than we had seen previously and they still had snow on them. 

We arrived in Hokkaido feeling quite weary, and tired of the bleak brown countryside. We had booked into a ryokan (traditional Japanese Inn). These are quite different from the usual hotels. We first had to walk in the early evening, with baggage, and of course we got lost. Joe went off to scout the area leaving me with the baggage. The streets feel safe here even after dark. He came back having located the ryokan, and off we went again. 

We were greeted half way there with bright "Turner -San?". It was the ryokan proprietor come to help with the luggage. Some-one Joe had asked had told him where we were! That was the beginning of a very different and interesting evening! 

We were taken to our room, asked to remove our shoes, directed to wear slippers in the hall ways, and socks in the room, shown the shared baths with signs indicating which gender was allocated which bath, introduced to the "kimono girls" who would serve us, and we went in. The room was bare except for a table and floor chairs (a cushion on the floor with a wooden back). The floor was covered with Tatami mats (woven bamboo). We had our own private bathroom, but could use the communal baths if we wanted -they are open 24/24. 

Soon a kimono girl came into the room and offered us tea, and asked if we wanted to eat. They knew were vegetarian. We ordered something simple. She came back with a feast! 

There was more there than we had ordered (and next morning I'm sure we didn't pay any extra).

We had a great time adjusting to sitting on the floor, using chop sticks for soft tofu etc. 

After dinner the kimono girl returned and made the beds. 

The futons were quite hard but not too bad. The pillows were stuffed with some grain ? Barley. They were hard! 

Then it was bath time. We wanted to try the communal baths but were a bit nervous about appearing naked in front of strangers, with the language problems etc. but were game so scrubbed ourselves off in our private bathroom (at least that could be private rather than in full view of others!) and dressed in the house robes they gave us.

We separated and went to the bathrooms - and nobody else was there! Almost a let down. But the water was HOT! 40"degrees according to the thermometer in mine. It was a nice hot soak. I lasted about 10 minutes I reckon! 

We had a good nights sleep, other then struggling a bit with the pillows. But it was interesting to try the traditional pillows. 

14/4/14

Next morning we had breakfast in the ryokan. The staff had gone to some trouble to have vegetarian food for us. It was Japanese style, with pickled vegies, some coleslaw with Japanese dressings, tofu, miso soup, fruit, and NATO! We have never had Nao before, but we sure have read about it. Google it if you haven't heard of it -look for a Utube vid and you'll see what the fuss is about! 

The NATO did not smell bad, but it sure was stringy! NATO is fermented soy beans and exclusively Japanese. It is slimy and had strings of slime hanging off it. But it wasn't as bad as the videos looked. The strings were stuck to our chins and they took some managing though. I'm sorry I didn't have the camera for that!

So our ryokan experience over we took a walk about Saporro. It looks quite bleak with leafless trees. The streets are wide and will be easy driving. There are underground car parks but no street parking. Saporro is a very modern clean city.

 It also appears that Hokkaido has a network of scenic parking spots, with views, scenic walks etc nearby. It might be possible to camp in these places. 

Today it is back on the slow train back to Aomori via the undersea tunnel. It will be a late checkin tonight and train tomorrow to Matsumoto for more cherry blossoms. 

We have travelled almost the full length of Japan!