Takamatsu

This morning we packed our bags and strolled down to the station enjoying the clear bright morning and the relaxed pace of Okayama. We stopped to take a photo of  the statue of "Peach Boy", Momotaro, who is an important hero for the city - the main street is named after him, man hole covers depict his exploits, and ladies in shops will song his song with the slightest prompting.

 

There was a mum with a tiny child in a pram sitting nearby and she was pleased to see us taking the photo. The little one waved to us and said 'bye' as we headed off into the station, a lovely farewell from a really nice city. We enjoyed our stay in Okayama.

The train ride over to the island of Shikoku takes less than an hour but you really feel like you are somewhere else. The train trip itself is spectacular, crossing over the inland sea hopping from Island to Island, and the whole feel of the place is different. It seems cooler and fresher, thanks to the proximity of the ocean. We had a coffee and a bun sitting in the sun, then headed off to find our hotel, which was a bit of a challenge, as the girl in the tourist info centre spoke no English so could give us no directions, and Google maps directed us to a different hotel, which was a bit confusing for a while. But we worked it out in the end, dropped our bags, had some lunch, then headed off to have a look at Ritsurin Koen. We went without any expectation whatsoever which was good perhaps, as the garden was simply extraordinary, one of the best things we have seen in any of our travels. We were lucky to get a volunteer guide, a lovely older gentleman who had learned his English by listening to the radio, and who had a deep knowledge of and passion for the garden. There were moments today when the hair honestly stood up on the back of my neck, where I felt like I was somehow in a living blue willow china scene. I don't know who decides the ranking of gardens in Japan, but for my money Ritsurin has to be right up there at the top of the list.

 

Our guide told us there are 1600 pines, of which most are allowed to grow naturally, but several hundred have been carefully pruned over hundreds of years to form special shapes. There is a team of 16 special pine gardeners, and an elite team of three who work on the most celebrated pines.

We caught a train back to our neighbourhood, then stumbled off towards our hotel, more than a little tired. We'd seen a "Spanish Italian Grill" restaurant our way out, and it was open, and we were tired, so we thought we'd try some Japanese Tapas and a glass of wine to give the energy to get home. It turned out to be a great choice, cool young chefs wearing T shirts with "low and slow" on the back - no idea what that means, but they were good, the sound Track was mellow, and we stayed on for dinner, finished off with an excellent crème Catalana
So we are very pleased we have come to Shikoku and we are looking forward to tomorrow.

 

Okayama

Another day of brilliant blue sky and sunshine. After a leisurely breakfast, we hopped onto one of the great little trams that rattle up and down the wide main streets of Okayama. We wandered through the gardens of Korakuen, said to be one of the top three gardens in Japan. I'm not sure who decides or how, but it certainly is a beautiful place, and filled with people enjoying the Sunday morning sunshine. We climbed the small hill in the park and patted the stone that is said to bring prosperity to offspring - hope it works kids!

We had lunch in a nice café looking across the river to the castle, then visited the castle itself. After Matsumoto castle, which has survived intact, Okayama castle looks like it did from the outside, but has been reconstructed so that the inside is like any modern building, nice even steps and an elevator. It has all the atmosphere of a concrete carpark. But it was fun none the less. We had a nice chat to  Japanese man who was a castle buff. He recommended Nagoya castle. We will have to get here next time. There was a great exhibition of reconstructions of the armour of various important Samurai figures, including Tokugawa Ieyasu's and Toyotomi Hidetoshi's.

They certainly are not interested in camouflage.  Some of them looked particularly terrifying.

We still had some energy left so we caught a tram down to the station, and caught a local train to Kurashiki, a town about 25 minuteas ride away, and explored its celebrated historic canal district. Well, eventually we did, but not before I got us lost. People are very kind here though. A lady in a shop saw us looking confused, and came over to give us a map and point us in the right direction. It is a beautiful place, and one which we wished we'd had more time to explore.

We found ourselves a the Ohara Museum of Art, a small but high quality collection of Western Art, the outcome of a collaboration between a Japanese artist, Torajiro Kojima, and a wealthy philanthropic industrialist, Magosaburo Ohara. Kojima travelled through Europe in the 1920s, identifying works which he would then persuade O'Hara to buy. The collection has been enhanced since, but the core contains works by Monet, Guagin, Modigliani, Henri Rousseau, Matisse and many others. An unexpected find, and a pleasant way to spend a few hours. Our genial spirits started to flag somewhere in one of the ancillary galleries, so we beat a retreat back to the station and were soon back in Okayama.

Did a load of washing in the hotel machines, ok dinner at a restuarant over the road - about half the price of last night's, and about jalf as nice, though dinner last night was sensational. So, off to Shukoku tomorrow, not a long trip and a relatively slow start. We are feeling a bit tired tonight so a quieter day will be good.

Okayama

I was up at 5.40 this morning, and down for the morning temple service, which one of the young monks told me is essentially the same ritual that monks on Koyasan have been performing for 1200 years. It was a peaceful way to start the day. At the conclusion of the chanting part, where the monks chant various sutras in Sanskrit I think, the senior monk launched into a long discourse, of which I understood a little thanks to the whispered translation from a younger monk who kindly came and sat beside me. But it did go on for quite a while, and it was after 8 before we emerged for breakfast. I must surely have earned some merit from all that. Anne meanwhile had a bit of a sleepin, then a sit in the delightful garden outside our room. The best view I think of any room I've slept in.

After a excellent breakfast served in our room, we paid, and headed out to start the long journey to Okayama. First the bus to the station, next the funicular down the mountain, then train to Shinimamiya, then train to Osaka, then train to Shin-Osaka, then Shinkansen to Okayama. Left at 9, arrived a bit after 2. We had lunch and a beer to fortify ourselves in Shin-Osaka, which was packed and cheerless - we just happened to see a table become vacant in one of the station restaurants as we walked past, and grabbed it as a place to sit down. Really busy weekend people traffic - all the trains going towards Koyasan that we passed were packed - lucky we went yesterday not today.

We were a bit travel weary and bedraggled when we got here, but after a bath and a rest we headed out to explore Okayama, which is a relief after the super busy Kyoto and Osaka experiences. Okayama Hana much more laid back vibe. We walked up to the river and saw the other black crow castle, its roof top golden tiger fish ornaments glowing in the late afternoon sun.

 According to Shijo, our guide from the other black crow castle in Matsumoto, the tiger fish is believed to gush water from its mouth when threatened. These fish ornaments are a sort of divine fire extinguisher, important for wooden castles. And probably as effective as the collections of red, water filled buckets you see outside Toji temple in Kyoto.

Anyway, we are very glad we went to Koyasan. It is a special place. Tomorrow we might take it easy, visit the famous gardens and maybe the castle, but generally have a rest day.

Koyasan

We were up early and on our way by 8, just in time to hit the rush hour in Osaka which we had to pass through on our way to Koyasan.The people there seem a little less gracious than other places we've been. We saw a guy deliberately bump into a lady who was sheparding a young child down an escalator. We were glad that we sent our bags onto Okayama and only had small backpacks to navigate through the crowds of hurrying commuters. But we got through the various stages of the journey ok and arrived up on the Mountain a bit after 12, in time for a very welcome lunch of toasted sandwiches.

The autumn colours are spectacular up here this time of year, and the trains and the streets are packed with mostly Japanese tourists. After lunch we dropped our bags off at our Shukubo - temple lodging- we are stating, then headed off to visit Okunion, a massive cemetery with over 200,000 headstones, clustered around Kobodaishi Gobyo, a building in which it is believed that Kobo Daishi remains in eternal meditation. The monks still bring food to him twice a day, and have been doing so for over a thousand years. The whole area is set in a forest of massive cedar trees, and on a beautiful clear day like today, with the sun filtering down through the foliage, it was special.

The cemetery is a who's who of Japanese history, but there are many monuments, large and small, beautiful and strange. One custom is placing a bib or hat on statues of Jizo Bosaro. Jizo is believed to watch over and protect children in the afterlife. The bibs are placed on the statues by those who have lost children, but also for the long life of living children. Some of the statues have beanies, some straw boaters.

The pathway leading through Okunion is designated a World heritage site, and rightly so.
As we walked along groups of O-Henro Sans were walking the other way, identifiable by their white robes and staffs. These are people intending to make the 88 temple pilgrimage around Shikoku.  The tradition is that they come here first, to announce their intentions to Kobo Daishi and ask for his support. Lovely to see the tradition in action. As an O-Camino San I approve, and feel faintly envious.


We headed back into town, had a coffee in a little café with the best view ever, then walked over to visit Reihokan Museum, which was a nice contrast to Museum of Kyoto - packed with interesting stuff and well explained in English. We stumbled back to the monastery, admiring the gorgeous vistas of maple and ginko trees in the golden afternoon light.

We have a lovely room in the temple, overlooking a garden with a waterfall and carp filled pond. We soaked away the aches of the day in our respective hot tubs, then were treated to a spectacular dinner, brought to our room by a lovely young monk, Zen-Ch'ing.

So off to bed. We promised to get along to the service in the morning so need to be up before six.

 

 

Kyoto

Today we caught a bus into Kyoto Central, and jumped onto the end of the queue for the 100 bus. In no time the queue was stretching back a couple of buses worth of people. We managed to get onto the next bus that came along, and sailed off smugly observing all the people left behind. Ah, Schadenfreude, so satisfying. We got off at the National Museum but discovered that the main galleries are closed at the moment, and only a special exhibition was on offer. We decided to visit Sanjusangen-do Buddhist temple over the road instead. A good choice we thought. Some of the 28 guardian deities have a lot of personality. The overall affect is spectacular. Anne has it in her top 5 things to see in Kyoto list.  The temple hall is very long, and has been used for centuries as the site of an archery competition. We followed a group of school boys who were being shown round by an older gentleman, who was telling them about this, from his gestures. The boys were a very appreciative audience, with lots of 'oohs' and 'aaahs' and 'eeeees'.

Next stop was the Museum of Kyoto, two buses and a walk through a high end shopping district away. We stopped for coffee in an Excelsior Café, which was playing its soundtrack of the worst cover versions of the worst songs of the sixties. If it is meant to make sure you don't hang around too long, then it sure works for us.

We found the Museum of Kyoto was a bit of a dud, very stuffy, very crowded, not much there, and not a lot of explanation in English for the exhibits. But the lovely lady who sold us our tickets told us that there was going to be a procession of people in Japanese costume that day over to the Heian Shrine. So when we left we wandered in that direction, and sure enough, there it was. Anne said it was sort of like Moomba in slow motion. There was a lot of stopping and standing, people in costumes which the load speaker told us were wearing costumes from different eras. Here is Shogun Ashikaga in 1390s. A bit later here is Oda Nobunuga in 1590. The retainers of each seemed to be wearing pretty much the same outfits though. Anne's theory was that the retainers in the grey and blue outfits ran round the block to help fill out each historical period - we're sure we saw the same guys at least three times. The best value were the palanquin bearers. The palanquin with people inside must be a fair old weight, so the bearers would run along, then stop and, to make lifting easier, they'd balance the palanquin on sticks - which is a great idea except one bearer didn't locate his stick properly and one end of the palanquin crashed heavily to the ground. Ouch.

 

 

 was all good fun but terribly slow progress with all the stopping and stately strolling, so we decked into a restaurant nearby for a spot of lunch. It was one where you order lunch and pay via a machine, get tickets which you trade in for your order. A great system but not super intuitive. We worked it out thanks to Anne's lateral thinking. Sometimes travelling in Japan is like an iq test - with the potential of social embarrassment to encourage you to sharpen your wits.

After lunch the procession was still going, but when we saw the grey blue guys coming again we figured we'd had enough. By good luck, a station for the subway line that runs past our hotel was close by, and we were back home in no time. Anne had a rest, while I headed out to walk to Toji temple, not too far from our hotel. It is a bit faded and bashed, but beautiful in the afternoon light. Kobo Daishi was abbot of a monastery on the site, and there is a lovely statue of him, as well as some impressive sculptures in the halls. Well worth a visit and relatively close to Kyoto station.

 

We explored the neighbourhood around the hotel a bit, lots of little streets and houses not unlike Gion, then headed out for yet another delicious meal. So, we've enjoyed Kyoto, and will be sorry to leave tomorrow, but it will be nice to be somewhere a bit quieter - which we expect Koyasan will be.

 

Kyoto

We were much more efficient in finding our bus platform this morning, and just as well, for seconds after we joined the queue a couple of large rowdy school groups appeared to tag on behind us. We managed to get a seat and could observe the packed mass in the aisle with some complacency. Cultural site visiting seems to be a major part of the Japanese school curriculum. As we walked up the narrow roadway towards Kiyomizu-dera, we walked past charter bus after charter bus, each full of school kids. The road is lined solid each side with little shops selling food, souvenirs, pottery and even one with ninja star knives. The school kids were streaming in and out of the shops, no doubt exploring the educational value of shopping. The atmosphere reminded me more of the show bag hall at Melbourne show, rather than the entrance to a religious site. Everybody seemed in high good humour.

The closer to the entrance to the temple we got the more packed it became, so we turned off down a lovely street that runs along the side of the valley, with numerous temples and shrines as well as interesting little shops and lovely old buildings lining the sides, almost no cars, and relatively fewer other pedestrians competing for space. It is called, I think, the Ninen-zaka path, and is one of the nicest bits of Kyoto I've seen. We walked past the impressive Yasaka-no-To pagoda, last rebuilt in 1440, and said to contain some relics of the Buddha. We passed a group of about 20 of the smallest children we've ever seen, walking along each holding a rope looped between a carer at each end.

 

There are lots of shrines and temples to visit. We patted the ox statue, that is supposed to take on your ills if you pat it in the matching place. Sore leg?  Pat ox's leg. We spun the Mani  prayer wheels, walked around the Temmangu shrine, patted the statue of Hotie, and left coins in front of the Jesu statues, all of which actions are said to earn merit and good fortune. A bit touristy maybe, but we seem to be going ok, so something is working. We had lunch in sight of the enormous entrance to the Choin-in temple, then walked on up the road a bit before we were enchanted by the sight of a number of huge camphor trees, massive things that must be ancient to have grown so large. They stand outside the entrance to Shoren-in Temple, which we visited.  A very peaceful and beautiful place, with wide verandas, long well worn wooden corridors, and surrounded by a delightful "strolling garden." There were only about twenty other people visiting at the time we were there.

There is a bus stop right outside the temple, so we decided to call it quits for the day, and we managed to navigate our way back to the hotel where we laid low for a couple of hours before heading out for dinner. A better day today - finding quieter less popular places seems to work for us. Tomorrow we aim  to visit the National museum and Sanjusangen-do temple, and maybe a shuffle through Gion, then get organized for our trip to Koyasan.

 

 

 

Kyoto

Today we planned to explore a bit to the North, starting at Kinkaku-ji, then catch a train to Arashiyama to catch the Sugano "Romantic Train". We've heard that Kinkaku-ji can be very crowded so we were up and out the door by 8, hoping to get there early. Anne had researched the buses, and we needed to catch a 205 from Kyoto station. We got the subway in to Kyoto no worries, but managed not to see the large sign facing the station which tells you which bus leaves from which platform. Each bus platform has its own sign, and I saw 205 so we hoped on. It was the right bus, but going in the wrong direction, and some 10 minutes later we arrived ... almost back at the door of our hotel. Undaunted, we caught the 205 bus heading in the right direction. Kyoto buses aren't the most comfortable conveyances - short on leg room, hot, diesel smelling, and often crowded, but the trip was made worthwhile by the presence of a couple of groups of what looked like older primary school age kids, in groups of four, heading off for the day to visit some of Kyoto's cultural heritage. (I can't imagine any Australian primary school sending groups of four students out for the day on our public transport to visit cultural sites.) We made friends with one group, we smiled, they smiled, they waved, we waved, good feelings all round. We bumped into them a few more times when we got at last to Kinkaku-ji. Here are the two girls with Anne - lovely beings.

And the Golden Pavilion in the back ground. I was glad to see it at last, even if it is a reconstruction. The gardens are immaculate thanks to the work of the tireless ninja lady gardeners who rake up every leaf. 

We caught another bus onto Ryoan-ji temple, famous for its Zen rock garden. We spent a while contemplating the 15 rocks arranged in a rectangle of racked white gravel, created first around 1500 by a highly respected Zen monk Tokuho Zenketsu. Enlightenment not forthcoming, we strolled around the shadey peaceful gardens for a while, before heading down the hill to catch a wonderful little train on the Kitano line. We had to change trains, to an even more attractive train. On the platform waiting for the interchange was a group of kindergarten age children all in blue shorts or dresses, white socks, and straw hats. They were like a flock of ducklings, and when the train pulled in, the line split up, and the stragglers had to be shooed in.

After a rather squeezey trip, being solemnly scrutinized by 30 pre-schoolers, we arrived at Arashiyama, which is a pretty spot. We were much taken by the sight of a gaggle of young ladies absolutely resplendent in their kimonos, lining up at one of the take-away restaurants in the main street.

 

We didn't have a lot of time so we chose to walk through the bamboo grove, which is promoted as one of the town's attractions. After the bamboo groves on the walk to Tsumago, these seemed a bit tatty, and the narrow paths overcrowded with people on hire bikes taking selfies. A nice walk further up the hill, past lovely tea houses and shrines, but we had to get back to the station in time for our Saguno Romantic Train. Which proved to be a dud for us. The landscape the train passes through is spectacular - steep gorges and a beautiful river, with small boats making what looked like an impossible journey through shallow rapids - but the train itself was packed and found ourselves wishing we'd stayed to explore more of Arashiyama. At the end of the "Romantic Train" ride we found ourselves in a fairly desolate landscape of rice paddies and a fair walk to the JR train to get back to Kyoto. But we did get back in time for a late and delicious lunch in an Oniomiaki restaurant before stumbling home again.The hotel cunningly offers free drinks after 5, which is a great marketing strategy as after a long day and a drink the temptation to eat in the hotel is strong - too strong for us tonight, so that's what we did.

 

All in all not a bad day, but we are finding Kyoto harder work than other places on the trip so far. Tomorrow we will explore the East side, along from Kiyomizu-dera.