Yokohama

Woke up today to pouring rain, and didn't feel like doing too much. Also I feel like I've seen the parts of Tokyo I wanted to.
After some deliberation I took the train to Yokohama, about an hour from the center of Tokyo. When you arrive at Yokohama station, finding your way around by foot at first was very confusing - kind of an urban planning nightmare. However, once I got close to the waterfront it was quite nice, with a path to follow all the way along. Yokohama is a port town, and being by the harbour, with the smell of the ocean, and in the pouring rain - I couldn't help but think this was preparing me for my return to Vancouver....

Right by the harbour is a large amusement park - I think its kind of the icon of Yokohama.

The park along the port is very pleasant. There was an event going on in the old warehouse area. However because of the rain there werent many people.

Next I turned into town and walked through the fairly large Chinatown district before going to a train station and heading back to Tokyo and the hotel to dry off.

Well, thats it. This evening is just taking it easy and backing my bags for the plane. I head to the airport right after checking out tomorrow morning.

Its been a great trip, in that Ive seen and done so much that it feels like Ive been travelling for longer than I have - a really good break.

more Tokyo

On the way back from the Ghibli Museum I stopped at Shinjuku, a major skyscraper area. Whats interesting, though, is an old looking warren of dark, narrow passageways just east of the station. They are filled with tiny restaurants that seat only about half a dozen people.

The next day I went to Asakusa. This seems like the most touristy part of Tokyo, and it centers around the market streets leading up to Sensoji temple. It was very busy and I heard a lot of different languages around me. Still a lot of Japanese come to worship at the temple as well.

The grounds around the temple, while not extensive, are quite beautiful and are a lot quieter.

About a 20 minute walk across the river from Asakusa is the Tokyo Skytree. Of course, its not hard to find.

The first observation deck is 350 high, and the top one is 450 m. The view is like looking from a plane as it lands.
In an earlier post Id taken a picture from an observation deck in Roppongi, from which you could see the Skytree. Roppongi is not far from the Tokyo Tower, so I found the Tokyo tower from the observation deck on the Skytree and took a picture looking the other way.

Unfortunately it was cloudy that day. On a clear day you can see Mt. Fuji from there.
At the base of the Skytree is a big shopping mall and a plaza. In the plaza there was a beer garden happening, with booths selling beer and food from different countries.

Ghibli museum

Today was the day Id booked for the visit to the Ghibli museum. The ticket had to be purchased in advance outside of Japan, which I did at the JTB travel office in downtown Vancouver.

Studio Ghibli makes the anime films of Hayao Miyazaki, such as Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle, and the recent one The Wind Rises. There are many others that did not make it the theatres in North America, but I have a DVD set of them and they are just great.

The museum is in Mitaka, a suburb town about a half hour train ride from the center of Tokyo. It doesnt open until 10am, so I took my time in the morning and got there before noon. I walked straight into the museum, but if Id got there and hour later I would have been waiting in line.

One of the first displays on the ground floor is a really cool 3D animation using strobe lights. It looks like the statue beside you is running, when it is actually a series of statues spinning in a circle synchronized to the strobe light.

There are several educational-type displays on the optics of movie projection and animation.

The most interesting part for me was the set of displays on the artwork of the animation. There were drawing on clear plastic sheets laid on top of  a watercolor background, to show the concept of layering in animation. A typical artist studio had books on gardening, for the illustration of plants and garden settings, old photographs of cityscapes, even frames of a movie film, to show how to draw the animation of something running, for example. There were books of sketches of the characters for the different anime movies.

There was a short anime film that you got a ticket for upon entry, in Japanese. I was a bit surprised at the shortage of English signage, given the international audience. There are a couple of shops. One sells story books and books of the art of a movie. Another sells trinkets, stuffed anime figures, T-shirts, and soundtrack CDs.

On the roof was a garden with a statue from the movie Laputa.

Tokyo

Tokyo - the last stop of my journey.....

Well, I knew Tokyo would be a big, crowded, busy city, but I was still in for a shock. You have to remember, Id spent the last three days at a mountain resort town, and the week before that at a zen temple. What surprised me most, however, was just how different it is. Tokyo is a world in itself that is different from the rest of Japan, I believe. The jostling, super-sized city life has left behind the reserved, careful friendly mannerisms I'd seen elsewhere, and replaced them with a rougher expressiveness. At first it feels more like a North American city in some ways, but then it has that urban quirkiness that is still uniquely Japanese, and there are a lot of fascinating things to see.

I spent a large part of my first day in Akihabara. Its called the electronics area, but its much more than that. There are plenty of small shops on the side streets selling specific electronic parts and tools for the hobbyist, plenty of gadgets for smart phones, etc, and computers. Along the major streets there are large department stores selling everything from cameras to kitchen appliances. I got most of my gift shopping done.

There are also shops for manga comics and DVDs, and the area originally catered to the "geek" culture.
And of course, maid cafes.

I went into a maid cafe, and its really more of a performance than anything. The kind of goofy place you take someone to celebrate a birthday, for example. The girls put on an exaggerated, anime-inspired, giggling cuteness. When you enter, someone shouts a greeting and everybody already there applauds. The customers were of all ages, men and women. Everything was in Japanese, but I saw a few other tourists. The girls call you "master". You are seated and then on "one-two-three" you say something in Japanese with some hand motions, that I really didn't understand. The food consists of things like an omelette with an anime character drawn on it. I ordered the curry rice which was done up to look like a cute bear. There were a couple of groups celebrating a birthday, and everyone sang "Happy Birthday". At one point one of the girls did a little dance to a J-pop song. Every customer gets a picture taken with one of the girls, accompanied by laughter and applause. 

OK, been there, done that.

From Akihabara I went back to the hotel for a bit, and in the evening when to the Roppongi area. I first got out of the station  at the new Roppongi Hills development, which has residences, theaters, an art museum, a park, and lots of shops and restaurants. The 52nd floor of one of towers has an observation deck where you can get a view of the city. In the background of this picture you can see the relatively new Tokyo Skytree, one of the tallest structures in the world, I think.

From Roppongi Hills I went through the station to the other end, and came to the Roppongi area which is a major street filled with restaurants and bars. It is one of the main night-life areas in Tokyo. You sees lots of tourists and ex-pats, and Japanese all dressed up for the night out. I found a great little pub that has really good craft beers from Japan, and the people were very friendly.

There is a bit of a seedy edge to Roppongi, however. As you walk by, large foreign guys call to you to come into their bar or "gentlemens club". If you try to ignore them, they go "hey, I'm talking to you" and actually grab you by the arm. This is the only place in Japan I didn't feel totally safe.

The next day, I went to Harajuku. This is a major shopping area. And Takeshita street caters to the pre-teen and teen crowd. This was Sunday, and it was literally wall-to-wall people.

I had hoped to see more of "cosplay", or young people dressed up in costumes like superheroes for example. However I only saw a few people in the crowd, dressed in a very goth-like style.

Beside Harajuku is the Meiji shrine, dedicated to emperor Meiji who presided over the modernization of Japan in the 1800s. He still seems to be highly revered. I walked through the park to the shrine, and back.

From there I went one more train stop to the Shibuya area, another shopping and restaurant district. Again, the sheer density of people is unbelievable.

Well, after a bit of a late night the night before, and after making my way through crowds all day, I am exhausted. Im surprised I lasted as long as I did, but Tokyo seems to have an energy of its own that carries you along.

Nagano

On the way from Yudanaka to Tokyo, I decided to stop at Nagano for part of the day. I found a place to change money, and an internet cafe to catch up on the blog.

The main tourist site in Nagano is the Zenkoji temple. It has a street of shops leading up to it, and large grounds. It seems to be a very active and important temple, as well as a major tourist attraction. While I was there, some kind of procession was taking place.

 On the inside of the main temple building is a large worship hall and altar. Also there is an underground passageway that is completely dark and you have to make your way by feeling along the side.

Overall Nagano has a nice feel to it. There are large pedestrian areas. There also seems to be local specialties such as fabrics, and foods like a kind of hot bun stuffed with vegetable, and soba crepes with fruit and whipped cream. It would be worth a longer visit.

Yudanaka

After leaving the temple I caught the train to Yudanaka,  a little hotspring town at the end of the train line outside Nagano. It is in the mountains, called the Japan Alps, and the surrounding peaks are almost 3000 m high. The cherry trees are still in full bloom here.

 I booked a charming little "ryokan" or Japanese inn. I have a cute little Japanese room with tatami mats, and the inn has its own hotspring or "onsen".

In winter the area is a major skiing destination, and it the summer it is popular for hiking. Currently however the snow had started to melt so there is no more skiing, but there is still too much snow for hiking, and so it is low season and the place is very slow. Most restaurants are closed.

Another main attraction for tourists from all over the world is the Monkey Park. The Japanese macqau lives further north than any other primate and so is the only one to live in snow. These are the monkeys famous for going into hotspring water to keep warm. The park has over a hundred monkeys. They sleep in the trees and come down to the water during the day. There is food sprinkled around for them to entice them into the area, and they have absolutely no fear of people. It is also breeding season so there were several babies. I got there very early in the morning but soon the place was filled with tourists.

I had two full days in Yudanaka, so one day I took a bus up the mountain to where the ski hills are. Still tons of snow.

There was no walking on the trails, so I walked back down the road, where there were great views of the mountains. There are monkeys up here as well by the side of the road.

Daijoji

Daijoji is an old magnificent temple at the edge of a park in the suburbs of Kanazawa. Historically it is one of the main Soto zen temples, next to the headquarters temple at Eiheiji.

It turns out there are only 6 monks staying there  in addition to the head priest. After the first day I was the only visitor.

The first day there was a group of very young Japanese guys, all about 19, who were starting jobs at a company. The company sent them to stay in a temple for a day. I thought this was kind of cool, but apparently its not very common and the guys all thought it was just wierd. I joined them in their training and we all slept in the same room. They were typical goofy 19 year olds in a way. One of the guys English was pretty good which helped, and it was pretty fun.

After the group left I was on my own, and fell into the routine of temple life.

While for most of my trip the weather has been very good, during this week it turned bitterly cold. Kanazawa is a little further north than Kyoto, and Daijoji is a little higher up a hill. Temples have no heat and are open to the air, and so it was sleeping outside when the temperature dropped to about 5 degrees at night. I slept with pants, socks, fleece, toque, and 3 blankets. And then got up at 4 am to meditate with bare feet in the freezing cold. It definitely added a new dimension of mindfullness during meditation.

The daily 4:30 am mediations are open to the public, and a couple of times and older Japanese man joined us.

After meditation there is a service in the main hall. The monks sit lined up before the altar and perform various chants, while two monks hit drums and gongs in synchronization. It is quite a show, and lasts about half an hour. In front of the hall there were always about 4 older Japanese ladies who came to attend the service with heads bowed.

During the day there were three work periods before each meal, and I did things like wipe floors, vacuum the hall, rake leaves, etc. Every meal was a formal affair with chanting, eating in silence, and a certain protocol for serving food. Afterward everyone took part in cleaning up.

After every meal there was a rest time for about an hour and a half, where I caught up on sleep or read. It was interesting to have this time where I was kind of forced to slow down, be in one place, follow the routine - in contrast to the busy running around and sight-seeing that I often do when travelling. On one hand I appreciated the break, but at the same time my mind kind of rebelled against it. This was probably the main discipline of staying there.

There are 3 junior monks, the youngest of which had only been there 2 weeks. Another, who had been there 6 months, was originally from Sri Lanka but had been living in Japan for the past 5 years. These two spoke fairly good English, and if it wasnt for them I would have been pretty lost. They were very nice and helpful and always made sure that I had what I needed and that I was on track in terms of the routine.

Every Sunday there is an afternoon mediation that is open to the public, and this one is very well attended. Id say about 30 people came.

Periodically there is a visiting teacher for the junior monks. For example on "chado" or the "way of tea". During the week that I was there, there was a teacher of  "kodo" or the "way of incense". They even brought an English interpreter for my benefit. The "kodo" was very interesting. Each incense is linked in some way with Japanese literature, some poetry from a particular historical period. With plenty of ceremony, we each smelled a set of three incense bowls. Afterward we smelled incense bowls and had to guess which one each of them was. The variations in the smell were very subtle (to me, anyway) and I only got one correct. For each one that someone got correct, one of the monks did a calligraphy of one the related poems.

At the end of the week I said goodbye. They were all very nice, and the assistant to the head priest even drove me to the bus stop.

It was very good to have this time in the middle of my trip. It allows the whole trip to come into focus a bit instead of being a blur of sights. I think I will need time to process the whole experience some more.

Yamanaka Onsen

On my last full day before going to stay in the temple, I went to a small hotspring town called Yamanaka Onsen. Its about a half hour train ride and then a half hour bus ride from Kanazawa. Thus bus driver was nice enough to let me out at the location of the public bath house, which actually two stops past the main Yamanaka Onsen stop. Nearby is a lovely walking trail along a river gorge. At one place there are little platforms set up with someone selling a sweet bean paste soup and tea.

I followed the trail upstream as far as it went, and then downstream. At the end is a hut where apparently Basho stayed while travelling here. Basho is a famous haiku poet from the 17th century.

After walking I went into the public bath.

I bought ticket for entry and a towel from a machine and presented them to the person a the entry booth. Inside the bath itself is quite spacious. It smelled of minerals. Since it is during a work day, there are only a few older men inside. I was surprised how long they stayed in the scalding hot water. I went in and sat with the water up to my neck for a few minutes, but it was so hot I had to get out and rinse with cool water. I repeated this about 3 or 4 times and I was done. Afterwards I sat outside in a shady spot for a while to cool off.

Yamanaka is a very quiet resort town. I walked up the main street of shops and found a little restaurant. There was a young guy working there - his parents owned the restaurant - and we talked for a while in Japanese. He was really into food. He talked about things like the difference between eating steamed rice and fried rice. I told him about my travels. He said while Kyoto is the place to go for temples and sight-seeing, Osaka is the place to go for food. Something for future reference.

Afterward I took the bus and train back to Kanazawa, and packed and got ready for my week stay at Daijoji temple.

Kanazawa

I arrived in Kanazawa in the late afternoon, and checked into a hotel next to the station. I spent the rest of the day walking around a bit. Had sushi at a sushi bar in the Omi-cho market. This is first real sushi bar Ive come across - didnt see any in Kyoto. But apparently Kanazawa is one of the places in Japan known for seafood.

The next day I caught main sites of Kanazawa. The cherry blossoms are still out here, and make for a great view of the castle.

Next to the castle is the extensive Kenrokuen garden. On one side it is on top of a hill and there is a great view over town and to the hillside with the mix of trees and blossoms. In the park itself there are interesting old pine trees that have gotten so large the branches need to be supported. 

Here is a classic shot of the stone lantern by the pond. 

 It was still early, and workers were out maintaining the park. They were even sweeping the rocks in the stream.

There is a nice tea house where I stopped for a matcha, and it gave me the chance to relax and enjoy a view of a garden only really visible from the teahouse.

After the garden I went to the 21st Century Museum of Contempary Art, which had fantastic paintings and sculptures.

Finally I went to the Higashiyama Chaya district. This used to be an area of houses where geisha would perform for wealthy patrons. There is one house, called Shima, that is kind of a museum of the arts that were practiced - it has the rooms in the traditional style with paintings and musical instruments.

The rest of the is now shops. Kanazawa is known for gold leaf production, and there is a shop with things from fine dishes and vases to handbags that have gold leaf on them. There is even gold leaf in the drinks! 

From there I went back to the Omi-cho market where I got a large bowl of udon for dinner.

Back at the hotel I did some internet searching and found a bar with really good reviews by tourists. It is a Scottish pub style with a Guinness and a great selection of whiskeys. I get there but it is early and for a while Im the only person. The owner is Japanese but lived in Scotland for a while. He is very helpful for information on things to see and do around Kanazawa. After a while three Japanese guys come in and sit at the bar with me. They are very friendly and talkative. The owner explains to them that if they speak slowly I could speak with them in Japanese, it works out well. They are visiting from a nearby town, and talk about places in the area worth visiting.

By now it is getting late and I go back to the hotel, and get to bed later than I have in a while.

full day in Koyasan

I started the day at 6:00 am with the service in the temple. About a dozen guests at the temple sat in front of a shrine room, where two monks were chanting. The air was heavy with incense, and sitting listening to the chanting was very meditative in itself. Part way through each person got up to the front to bow and offer incense. Then one of the monks gave a talk for about 20 min.

I had breakfast and made my way to the tourist information center to rent an audio tour. There were three main parts to the tour. The first is Kongobuji, the temple that is the headquarters for Shingon Buddhism. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside, but there was a series of rooms with beautiful paintings on the screen walls. Some depict the seasons, some depict the journey of the founder of Shingon Buddhism to China. In the back there is also an amazing rock garden.

Next I took a break from the audio tour and went to the Daishi Kyokai center, which is kind of an outreach place. They offer shakyo practice, or sutra-copying by tracing the characters of the Heart Sutra. The person who met me there spoke English and was very nice, and after I finished the sutra-copying we talked for a while. When I told her I had studied Japanese she encouraged me to speak in Japanese for a while, and it went ok!

I continued with the audio tour to the Garan complex. The most striking building is the large, brightly coloured Great Pagoda. Again, no pictures allowed inside, but it was a very interesting arrangement of four large statues of Bodhisattvas, interspersed with pillars with painting of dieties on them. A kind of three dimensional mandala.

At the far end of the Garan complex are older halls and pagodas. All the buildings are reconstuctions of originals which were lost to fire at one time or another, but the oldest reconstructions date back to the 1800s. This old hall is still the location of religious discussion for monks.

After the Garan area I went back through town, stopped for lunch, and then went back to the Okunoin area. Its such an amazing place. I walked all the way to the mausoleum and back again, listening to audio tour records for all the stops I could find. It is interesting to know how many people are interred here. It is apparently an important resting place regardless of the branch of buddism. The 47 Ronin (the basis for a recent movie) are here. Even Honen, the founder of another Japanese Buddhist lineage, is here. The main thing, though, is just the haunting atmosphere of the place.

That night at the temple I noticed several Tibetan monks. One of them happened be in the bath while was there. He said the Dalai Lama was coming to Koyasan the next day! I was leaving the next morning though! I wasn't sure I understood correctly, but later I checked the Dalai Lama webpage and it was true. He was there to give a series of talks. I don't think they were open to the public though, so I probably didn't miss anything.

The next morning I got up early again, and attended the service. This time there were twice as many people and the little room was packed. There was a group of older Japanese all wearing the same white jackets, who I think are pilgrims.

After the service and breakfast I got the bus to Koyasan station and the cable car and the train back to Osaka. I got tickets for Kanazawa and settled in for the several hour train ride.

Koyasan

Yesterday morning was the train ride to Koyasan. This took me from Kyoto to Osaka, and then a change to a different train line that goes into the mountains of the peninsula south of Osaka. It was interesting to watch the landscape change from dense urban where every station was a large, bustling hub of activity, to very remote mountainous where a station was just a platform. The last leg was a very steep cable car ride to the Koyasan area, and then a bus into town.

The town itself is small, full of temples. Most of the temples provide shukubo, or temple lodging for tourists. There is the main temple of Shingon Buddhism, and the sacred square of pagodas and halls called the Garan area. There is also a street of shops and restaurants. At the other end of town is Okunoin, a walk through a forest filled with huge cypress trees that are up to 600 years old, and over 200,000 grave markers. It leads to the mausolem for Kobo Daishi, who founded Koyasan in the 800s.

It is much colder here, and to walk around I had to put on a fleece under my jacket. The temperature drops below zero at night, and I've even seen a couple of patches of snow on the ground.

After walking through Okunoin I went to the temple where I am staying, to check in. I have a nice Japanese style room with tatami mats. Temple style vegetarian meals are served in my room. At 6:00am is a service to take part in.