It took forty-two trains, thirteen buses, six street cars, two cable cars, two ferries, one taxi, one car, twenty kilometers by bike and well over a hundred on foot but I can comfortably say I saw some of the best of Japan over the last two weeks. With the magic of a Seishunn 18 ticket, Rhee and I were able to travel all over Japan by train for cheap, the only catch, only local trains. This means, over forty-eight hours spent in and around trains, and no bullet trains or expresses for us, but then the world slows down and I saw so much more!
I saw the most famous temple of Kyoto, the third eccentric bridge to complete my list, one of the three most beautiful gardens of Japan, the highest castle and the oldest, and lounged at the top of the prettiest, the temple on the back of the ten yen coin, hundreds of lanterns that lit up a river at night and looked through my legs to see if the bridge between heaven and earth really did float.
I walked through castle ruins and the path of the philosophers, climbed up a mountain lined with thousands of torii gates, scaled sand dunes and flung myself down the fifty meter ridges to land in soft sand.
I watched the most famous fireworks display in Japan over the floating torii gate as the ocean lapped at my ankles, dancers performing traditional dances in the busy streets under a nighttime rainfall, and my luck with love as a special paper at a shrine tried to keep my coin afloat in a little pond.
I slept in a stranger’s house, in a friend’s house, in an internet café, in a hostel, in a ryokan, in an Inn, on a beach and in the fanciest hotel that served breakfast in the morning!
Needless to say; it was an adventure!
Day One: [Saruhashi to Kyoto] Ten hours on a train took us through the Kiso Valley (where we stopped at a town in the middle of nowhere with really nothing much to do for two hours) down into the Kanto region and all the way to Kyoto. It was a hot and muggy night and quite quickly we had dinner and turned in for the night to do a little couch surfing.
Day Two: We started the morning as early as we dared to rise hoping to beat the heat. We didn’t. There is no such thing as beating the heat in Japan apparently. Regardless we had an early start because we were on a challenge, do Kyoto in a day! By means of a bus pass and some planning we found it more than possible and had a fabulous day. The morning sun greeted us behind a gorgeous view of an old pagoda down a quaint street which was special because as the sunset later that day we caught the same sight and it was a lovely way to begin and end our day.
The first place we went was the most famous temple of the ancient capital (a place I managed to miss on my last trip) Kiyomizudera. It was a spectacular temple with and beautiful orange gate and pagoda to mark the entrance. It’s most famous because it has a stage that is built over the side of the cliff and and it was once said that ‘to leap from Kiyomizudera’s stage’ was the equivalent to ‘taking the plunge.’ Within the temple is a brilliant shrine that is dedicated to love (I had that Love Shack song stuck in my head the whole time except replace shack with shrine lol). In the shrine are two rocks and it is said if you can walk from one to the next with your eyes closed you will be lucky with love. But if you need advice and still make it, you will still have luck but it will be thanks to someone’s assistance. So Rhee was at it and I ran ahead to get a better vantage point for a picture and I look up and she has veered hard right and is headed to these Japanese girls that looked so confused because they had no idea what to say when I should “left, left, left!” Poor Rhee will be lucky in the end but not without some loud sudden advice! Anyways, out of the shrine and back in the temple we walked down this shaded path along gorgeous trees to a place where a waterfall has been split into three fountains. Each represents something different such as love or intelligence or I don’t really know because I don’t read Japanese that good… To play this game, you take a long handled ladle and select your fountain and drink the water to achieve what it is you’ve captured. It’s considered greedy to take from more than one. My instincts told me to take from the right so surprising myself I took from the left and felt instantly enlightened, but by what? only the gods know… and the Japanese!
Kiyomizudera was by far my favourite of the day but we still had more to see. Catching a bus until we were let off along this quiet road we took the path of the philosopher along a shaded canal to the Silver Pavilion. Despite its name, it is not silver. It is speculated that either it never received its intended silver coating like the golden pavilion, or it’s just a nickname. Regardless, last time I was in Kyoto, Nikki and I went there and enjoyed the mossy garden that grows up the hill and provides a lovely view of Kyoto, but never saw the pavilion itself. So it was quite exciting for me. The shade was also a nice escape from the heat for me who was beginning to burn so bad I put up my umbrella for protection.
Moving up the ranks, we saw the Golden Pavilion next which still dazzled me just as it had the first time. It’s probably the most visited place in Kyoto but still it’s possible to find a quiet spot along the pond and forget about the other tourist and feast on the view for oneself. It was a strange sunny day so that when the reflection hit the pond the sky appeared bluer and the clouds more vibrant in the water than in the sky.
Now, thoroughly sweaty and parched we went in hunt of a combini and some shade. We successfully found both and under a bridge over one of the wide rivers that cuts Kyoto into districts. This meant a lazy hour dozing on the banks with my feet trailing in the current until I grew stir crazy and began wading about in the water. It was great fun and I felt infinitely revived afterwards. Just in time to wander the Gion district as the sun fell low and warmed the lighting through the traditional streets. Unfortunately, I spotted no geisha this time. It was around this time that we passed our pagoda again and reflected on the great day that still had one more plan for us. The fushimi Inari shrine!
Inari is the name for the fox god and thus the shrine is dedicated to foxes but what makes it stand apart from just any Inari shrine is the thousands of torii gates that tower over the path that leads up the mountain. Our intention was to hit it at night so we could see it lit up and it was worth it (despite the mosquitoes) for under a deep blue twilit sky the lanterns glowed a brilliant orange against the Shinto gates. We didn’t go all the way to the top but stopped at a pond where the almost full moon was reflected in the waters. It was a good day for reflections. I also played with a cat and wandered through all these shrines built into a little grove so that lit up they look like a little shrine village, it was very magical.
We finished the day at a public bath where we impressed the local obachans (old ladies) with our bravery of bathing naked with company. I’ve gotten very used to it and it’s so relaxing after a long day of walking to really pamper myself and take the time to clean and soak!
Day Three: [Kyoto to Niimi] Mostly a travel day with the exception of two important stops: Uji, a city famous for ‘The Tales of Genji’ and the temple on the back of the ten yen coin, and Okayama, the city famous for Momotaro and one of Japan’s three most famous gardens.
The Byodo-in Temple was exquisite and is apparently the only temple of its sort in Japan, which is fair enough to me as it wasn’t like any other temple I’ve seen before. I’m trying to find the words to explain the elegant sharp architecture but I suppose that it was why I’ve taken up photography. Regardless, I think it’s the neatest looking temple I’ve ever been to. And, on the grounds was museum that housed these really interesting statues. In all there are fifty, but half have been left with in the phoenix hall of the temple and the other half are on display in the museum. They were bronze and about two feet tall and depicted disciples riding clouds and each of them were doing something different and showed so much personality! How I wish I could have taken pictures but I wasn’t allowed (nor, so the sign said, was I to sketch which leads me to wonder what they would have said if I pulled out my notebook and wrote some poetry XD.) Take my word for it, they were really cool and awe-inspiring pieces of art and everyone that goes to Kyoto should go there! On the way back to Uji station we walked by what it said to be the oldest bridge in Japan and a statue of Lady Murasaki, who was a noblewoman that allegedly wrote the very first novel in the world, ‘The Tales of Genji,’ about a upper class gentleman and his romantic exploits which took place in Uji!
A few hours by local trains later, we found ourselves in the sunny prefecture of Okayama known for the story of Momotaro who is like the Japanese Tom Thumb as he was born from a peach and went on all sorts of adventures. There was a statue of him in front of the station! But what we were really doing in Okayama city was going to the Korakuen garden. Garden in Japan, is not at all the same as in North America because it isn’t a worthwhile garden until it’s complete with a walking course, pavilion, ponds, flowers, boardwalks, tea houses and the really good ones, such as this one, gets a castle looming over the tree line. One could easily spend hours wandering the different paths or resting in the tea houses, one which had a little stream running right through it, and enjoying the flowers. Unfortunately for us, we were kinda between flower seasons, so the predominant colour was green but I can just imagine it during the different stages of the year: the plum blossoms, then the cherry blossoms, wisteria, irises, lilacs and many more that I hardly know the names of. The beautiful thing about Japan is there is almost always a flower in season or coming into season and it seems almost every month there is a new flower. We arrived right before water lily season but there was one perfect pink flower blooming at the entrance to the garden.
Back on the train, this time were off to the middle of nowhere, known as inaka in Japan, to a little town called Niimi where lovely friends of Sheena were allowing us to spend a couple of nights. The train cut through a wonderful valley where I took the most perfect picture of the sun setting over rural Japan. I have to point out for those still skeptical, that while Japan is often considered a metropolis, there are more places that aren’t than are and this was a common site from the train.
Day Four: After a lovely rest and the chance to sleep in until an unheard of hour for us we debated our plans. The reason we came to the middle of nowhere in beautiful Okayama, is because it has the site of the highest original castle in Japan which is also the least visited. But that was almost an hour back the way we’d come the previous night. By noon, we were ready to go, feeling well rested now. Elli and Bryan, the lovely friends, had offered us bikes s we planned to bike back to the train station and then go to the castle but instead a better idea presented itself. As we were biking we saw a sign for a cave in ten kilometers. What ten kilometers by bike after a wonderful sleep and shower? So that’s what we did and was it ever worth it!
Ikura cave is by far one of the coolest places I have ever been! I thought places like this only existed in books and video games, and didn’t believe it possible for a one and half kilometer trail to cut through a mountain and follow a river as it made its way down to the base of the valley, but that was precisely what this particular adventure had in store for us. Ikura cave is one of the largest limestone caves in Japan and something I am glad I did not pass by. The picture of the bridge and the Cliffside shows that in the lower right corner is the entrance and by a waterfall up in the left corner is the exit. It takes a windy root through some narrow yet high ceilinged crevasses and over precarious stairs above waterfalls that drop down the rocks and past underground pool and little ponds of rocks and oh the amazement was never ceasing! I could hardly walk ten feet before I had to stop and put my hand out on a different damp rock to feel the texture. Every corner had something different and all the while (when it was falling from the rocks above) a stream flowed beside the path. It was like nothing I can describe. We were in it for two hours, stopping all the time to marvel at a new rock formation of pool or stalactite or just wow!
After, we chilled by the river with ice cream before biking ten kilometers back home. It was an amazing day and we were reward for our efforts by Bryan and Elli coming back and serving us delicious homemade pizza and television from home!
Day Five: [Niimi to Hiroshima] The day arose sunny and hot, unlike the lovely cool day up in the mountain valley around Niimi, as we head back down the valley to Takahashi. Mmmm, maybe I haven`t touched on this yet, but once in Japan there were thousands of castles. Almost every town could potentially have a castle, such as Otsuki which still has its castle site halfway up Iwadono, which was beautiful in sakura season. Anyways, so there were all these castle towns that usually belonged to a command castle in major cities such as Kofu (which still has some of its original outer buildings) and Matsumoto, until the fall of the samurai class in 1868. The Meiji Restoration was the big movement after this time which pushed Japan forward into becoming more modern like the western powers out there. So, as a result, to ensure that the old elite ruling class could not rise again, the Meiji government passed and act that intended to dismantle all the castles in Japan. It was through begging and some dumb luck that any survived and that was very few. And then, WWII happened and left Japan with only a handful of original castles: twelve. In the 1900s the Japanese came to their senses and realized how important and cultural these building were and preserved what they could and reconstructed what they couldn`t. I love Japanese castles because everyone seems a little bit different and they really have personalities of their own. But, I`m a bit of a castle snob and while I have seen many, I only like to explore the originals. But back to the story, we were off to Bitchu-Matsuyama Castle in Takahashi.
Because it`s not a well visited castle. We discovered that the buses travelled so infrequently that we were forced to hike, and hike and hike up a hill just to get to the base of the castle! Upon arrival there we discovered a shuttle bus up the next hill, but that still dropped us off a kilometer away so we hiked and hiked some more until at last! In the disgusting heat… we reached the lower fortifications of the pleasant little mountain castle. It was quite neat, despite the heat, to rise up through the trees under a brilliant blue sky and see the castle as approaching armies would. It would have been discouraging because a) you just hiked a ridiculous mountain through the woods and b) the beginning of the castle walls did not mean the beginning of the actual castle! We had to go up even higher than that. The grounds were quite unique and although the castle was small itself it was full of personality! I enjoyed just sitting in a window ledge and listening to nothing but nature as we were high above the town and miles and miles away from any city. Then we hiked down and down and down and caught the train to Hiroshima.
In Hiroshima, we ran into a little hiccup. My reservation for the hostel was for the following two days and not the day we were there. As it was a long weekend, the hostel was all booked and our next option was a place that was double our budget… Sighing we considered sleeping in the park until the very kind desk lady suggested an Internet Café. But first, starved and discouraged we went for food. Hiroshima is famous for okonomiyaki which is described as Japanese pizza. Sure, if you take away the tomato sauce and bread and pepperoni and then start from scrath and add noodles, meat, egg, cabbage, cornflakes and other stuff to pancake mix, fry it on a grill and serve it with melted cheese. Whatever, it was delicious! And raised our spirits. Then we went about the city at night, going through the peace park where we caught a beautiful glimpse at the A-domb`s lit up reflection in the river and the eternal that won`t be extinguished until the last nuclear weapon is destroyed, until we actually found said Internet Café. It was a bit mysterious though as one would never know it was there unless they knew it was. It was on the third floor in a shopping arcade and felt like we had entered a strange world. Luckily, they are open 24/7, offer twelve hour packages, a comfy office chair which reclines and stool, blankets AND free drinks! You do not get that kinda service at a hostel, and it was less than we would have paid that night. And that`s how I checked off another thing off the `to do list!`
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