Category: Travel (Page 1 of 15)

Today was supposed to be a free day, while we waited for our flights back home. But our fights were all from 5 PM onwards, so that was a lot of free time to fill. A couple of the guys asked Ben if he could organise a bullet train ride for us to help fill in the time, He came back with an itinerary.

This was great for him (obviously) as we each paid $75, but it was also great for us, as we got to see things that we would not have seen otherwise, with the benefit of having transportation as well.

Ben has been a terrific guide.

We went 2 stops to Tokyo. It was so quiet and sleek.

I was sitting next to this girl who was very busily working on her nails.

It reminded me of the young mother with the jewellery on her teeth, remember?

Our next stop was to see the Lady Liberty statue. As we were waiting for people to finish their toilet stop, I saw this couple dancing to music from a boom box they’d brought. It was like something out of a movie.

Who needs to go to New York? I’ve seen her in Paris on the river Seine and now here in Tokyo.

Then we walked to see this robot.

“Your poses are very interesting….” said Ben.

More cherry blossom! I booked this trip a week before the cherry blossom season to save $600. Honestly, I don’t care about cherry blossom, but it’s nice to see it.

Our next stop was Chinatown, where we had a couple of hours to wander around, get lunch and get rid of any Japanese cash.

I bought a hat. It turns out that it fits perfectly in the top section of my bag, where I can slip my phone into it to protect it from getting scratched. Plus it’s there waiting, right on hand, if I get cold. This might come in handy for Africa next week.

A willow form of cherry blossom. So beautiful.

Goodbye Japan.

I wasn’t particularly drawn to you, but so many people told me I’d love you.

They were correct. My god, I’ll miss your toilets.

I’m half joking, but only people who’ve been to Japan will know what I mean.

I think I gave Japan a pretty good shake. Obviously, there are places up north I could go, but for now, I’m happy with the ground I covered with this tour.

And the ecstatic welcome from Miss Scout was wonderful.

She’s ging to be mightily pissed off when I bring the carryon out again on Tuesday for my Africa trip…

Dad Joke of the Day:

Today we only had one excursion, which was to a tea plantation. Here’s a view from the bus. Tea as far as the eye can see!

See the fans? They’re switched on whenever frost is expected, to protect the delicate new leaves from being ruined.

Another of Ben’s funny sayings: “ A tea ceremony is like a tea party in slow motion.”

Ben and the farmer standing among the tea plants. We’d ask questions, Ben would translate to the farmer and we’d get the translated answer back from Ben.

Here’s some of what I managed to glean:
4 harvests per year.

Small leaves grow on the tops of the plants after they’re cut, then 1 month later they’re ready for harvest.

The plants are 30 years old. They grow a maximum of 50 years before they’re replaced.

Cut by two people like a hedge trimmer.

3 lines of te plants = 5 kgs of harvested leaves.

Matcha is made from bushes covered with a black tent to keep it from sunshine. It takes a long time, so it’s more expensive. This makes it taste like umami. 

Rainfall is enough to irrigate.

They stop spraying for insects two weeks before the harvest.

7 years before new plants are ready to harvest.

Harvest to finished product takes only 2 days.

Green tea is the number one drink in Japan.

I bought matcha powder, green tea lollies and a panel of material with a cross samurai printed on it.

Then we drove to a petrol stop, where I had lunch with these two cuties, and was reunited with an old friend…

I had lunch looking at the south side of Mt Fuji.

Afterwords, I stood at a fence and waited for 15 minutes for the clouds to move away.

Nearly…

Finally, I realised that this was the closest I was going to get.
Isn’t she utterly beautiful?

As we were leaving, Ben said, “I can’t believe it. Most trips we see the two sides of the Fuji and both are covered in clouds. You get to see the Fuji on a clear day… twice!”

”It’s because you have Fortunate Frogdancer on the bus!” I said.

When we got to the hotel, I went clothes shopping for an outfit to wear to my ex brother-in-law’s funeral on Friday. I bought a dress first, then thought to google what the weather will be in Melbourne that day.
26C and sunny. The dress I bought is more for winter wear.

So I bought this outfit, then once I got back to my room I spent half an hour working out how to fit 3 more articles of clothes, plus all my matcha stuff, into my carryon suitcase along with everything else.

I think I’ll be able to zip it closed for my flight home tomorrow night.

I really don’t have the space for any more souvenirs.

Dad Joke of the Day:

Everyone’s heard of the deer that you feed in Japan, and today was the day that we got to see what all the fuss was about.

As the bus cruised by the park, we all gasped at the sheer number of deer strolling around.

”We are here in the morning, so the deer might still be hungry,” said Ben. “Be careful. Some bow to ask for food. Others will grab your clothing.”

See?

We were here for 2.5 hours. The plan was to ignore the deer at first and go straight to the temple, then enjoy lunch and the deer on the way back to the bus.

Now, I know that between Vietnam and Japan, I’ve seen a lot of temples and shrines in the space of a month. But this temple was amazing.

Todaji Temple was built in the 700s, after Buddhism arrived in Japan from China. There had been a huge pandemic and around 30% of the population died. Back in those days no one knew about viruses and germs, so this new religion offered hope in a time of great distress.

Buddhism took off like wildfire. Back in the day there were 5 million people in Japan. Two and a half million joined the project to build a Buddhist temple in every area with over 100 of them being built. This one was like the mother of all of the temples.

The only part of the temple that has survived since those times is a small gate on the side, which is around 1,300 years old. This front gate is 700 years old.

There have been civil wars, as well as WWII fought around here. The main hall is hundreds of years old, but it’s still smaller than the original one built in the 8th century.

Bullet holes.

Every Buddhist temple has two statues of Buddha at the entrance. Usually, these face south, but in this temple they’re facing each other. This is the only temple in Japan where they do this.

These Buddhas always have one with its mouth open, to symbolise the beginning of life, like a baby crying…

… and one with its mouth shut, for the end of life.

This is the main hall. It’s MASSIVE.

This was sitting outside the main hall. It’s the only statue of Buddha that people can touch. This is the ancient version of going to see a doctor.

If you weren’t feeling well, you’d travel to the temple and touch the part of Buddha that was in pain. Migraines? Touch his head. Sore back? Touch his back.

”You travel a long way, touch the statue, you believe… sometimes people get better!” said Ben.

I got two for one statues in this photo!

The picture doesn’t do justice as to how big this statue really is. It towers over everything. It’s very impressive.

One hand is laid down, open palmed, on his thigh. It means, “Your prayers and wishes can be granted.” His other hand is held up, meaning “Do not be afraid.”

He is flanked either side by his deputies, covered with gold leaf.

This gold backdrop shows that this big Buddha is the centre of all the universes, and he has sent out versions of himself to all of the other universes.

The butterflies on the vase have 8 legs, not 6. This means that they are not of this world, but are from paradise.

I loved this statue. He is one of the 4 warrior kings who is there to protect Buddha. Or cause mayhem, perhaps.

Anyway, I was keeping an eye on him.

This is a model, built by prisoners, which shows how the original temple looked like back in the eighth century.
The pagodas either side were huge. They had 7 levels, while the biggest ones nowadays only have 5. Notice the roof of the one on the right, with the gold sticking up.

Here is another warrior king, but he’s the leader. He holds up a container which is exactly like the Golden Pavilion we saw a few days ago. It’s showing that he’s ready to collect and guard the sacred remains of Buddha.

They were running out of money, so he got what remained of the gold leaf.

Outside is a replica of the gold topping of the right hand side pagoda. If you zip back and look at the model, it brings home just how big these buildings actually were.
The main hall, which is huge, is actually 33% smaller in modern times than it was when it was first built. It would have blown the minds of pilgrims and worshippers back then.

I took a last look as I walked away. It truly is an amazing place.

Her little face!

The reason the deer are here around the temple is that they are the messengers from the Kami.

Now, this deer was smart. This is one of the places that you can buy the special biscuits to feed the deer. This one was waiting in the shop!

I asked a random guy to film this for me.
It’s lucky I was wearing my jumper around my waist, because Ben was correct. Those bloody deer sneak up on you from behind and try to bite. My jumper had deer spit on it.

A bit of subtlety in the advertising here as I walked down the Main Street back to the bus.

I loved the colours here.

This lot have clearly eaten their fill and want to be left alone to digest in peace.

Then it was a two hour tour of the Toyota museum.
I have nothing against Toyotas. My second car was a Corolla.

But I’ve rarely been so bored in all my life. These robots were interesting, I guess. They weren’t moving though. You had to watch the video to see what they could do.

And I suppose this car was cool.

I lasted 20 minutes, tops, before I went back to the bus to find my iPad. I spent a very pleasant hour sitting under a tree, reading. Far better than walking around looking at dismembered cars. I had enough of that when I was a kid and Dad was restoring vintage cars.

Speaking of Dad, Kate messaged me. He has pneumonia. Again.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that everything is going to be okay for Africa for me and India for Kate in a little over a week. That poor man can’t seem to catch a break at the moment.

Dad Joke of the Day:

Ben has an iPad and uses it to show us things he’s talking about each day. Sometimes it’s maps, but today it was a painting of the place we were driving to.

In the 500s, there was a famous artist whose name escapes me, who went over to China to learn how to draw and paint. He was prolific in his lifetime and there are still 20 of his works that still exist today. This one, of the Amanohashidate sandbar and the temple is the most famous.

The temple has a few things that I haven’t seen before. These fans, for instance, were in several trees near the main building of the temple.

The temple is dedicated to learning. This building is the oldest part, dating in the 1200s. Books were kept here.

Ben said that when he was in Australia to settle his daughter in at university, he saw graffiti In a lot of places. Stickers are like Japanese graffiti.

I swear, I’m not going to be embarrassed about owning a pram for Scout again. The number of doggy prams in Japan is huge.

The best place to see the sandbar is from the top of the mountain. The chairlift is the first one I’ve been on that doesn’t have a safety bar in the front.

The sandbar… because I’m not laboriously typing out that long name again… is 3.6-kms long. It’s covered with pine trees. Although it’s surrounded by sea water on both sides, somewhere in the middle there is an old well with spring water in it.

Amanohashidate means “the bridge to heaven”. It is named because it appears like a bridge floating up in the sky when you turn your back to Amanohashidate and bend down to look its upside-down view through between your legs from the Kasamatsu park.

Ben was freaking out as he was taking this. “Hold onto the handrail, Frogdancer!”

Here you go!

The two Kami who created Japan by laying an egg for each island had a ladder in heaven that fell to earth and became the sandbar. This legend was before the Shinto book, from before the 6th century.

The bays look like bites have been taken out. And even though a walk on the beach is WASTED without a dog being with me, It was time to head down for lunch and to check it out.

I bought a postcard here that I might frame when I get home.

Nonchalant on the chairlift. Me? I was worried I was going to drop Wanda, so I was clutching her to my chest like a baby.
Incidentally, so far I haven’t left her behind anywhere on this trip. Knocks on wood.

I really think all the drama with Mum and Dad before Vietnam really messed with my head. Thank goodness I’m back to normal and perfectly normal and ordinary again!

As I was walking across the bridge I saw this beast setting off.

Gazing out to sea. I enjoy the whimsicality of dressing statues.

I decided to go and stand on that point of sand.

And so I did.
Do you recognise my travelling boots? They’re the only shoes I’ve brought with me. I’m travelling the lightest I ever have for a winter trip.

It was almost as if I was on the beach at home. It was an absolutely sparkling Friday, yet hardly anyone else was here.

Tomorrow is Saturday though, so I’m expecting huge crowds like we saw at the Bamboo Forest. But for now, it was so pleasant to feel the space and the sun.

That looks like fun!
As I got closer I saw that the husband had a baby strapped to him.

We were chatting about him, with their limited English and my non-existent Japanese, when I noticed something odd about his mother’s teeth…

She has jewellery on them! I asked if I could take her photo because I’ve never seen this before, then naturally, we airdropped.

Here I am!

At least the beach was being used properly by this person. If Scout smells any vestiges of the beach on my boots on Tuesday, she’ll be cross.

I had some time left to grab some lunch and walk through some shops before we left. I saw some mini sticks of incense that I thought might fit inside my little ceramic happy Buddha I bought at the Golden Pavilion, so I bought a couple of packs.

Then back through the temple I went.

It’s a shame I didn’t allow myself more time to wander around here, because it had some quirky aspects. Unfortunately, the alarm on my phone had sounded.

When I’m on a tour, I always set my alarm for 10 minutes before we have to get back to the bus. I don’t want to be THAT person who everyone is waiting for.

Incense actually being used! I took this photo to show you the charcoal brazier at the back, which people use to light the incense sticks. It has been kept burning for 100 years.

Goodbye, shrine!

Our next stop was Ine fishing village, where we were going on a boat cruise.

Now here’s where you can learn from my mistake. If you ever come here, it’s not the 300 year old fishing village that’s the attraction. Oh no.

it’s feeding the birds from the boat. Buy a bag of chips and have some fun.

Because it was crazy. I didn’t realise, so all I could do was watch other people literally feeding the birds from their hands.

This is what our boat must look like. Birds swarming around it, like something out of Hitchcock’s’The Birds.’ It was insane, but such good fun.

I liked the colours in this shot.

There were masses of seagulls, but what I really wanted to capture was the hawks.

I’m so glad I bought the new iPhone after Canada last year. Being able to take shots like these makes me so happy.

After this, we drove back to Osaka, where like a bad little quilter I went back and bought more fabric. In my defence, I also bought a present each for Izzy and Sophie. Got to keep the daughters-in-law happy!

Dad Joke of the Day:

Today was primarily a travel day, but even so, it was very enjoyable.
We drove to a town called Takamatsu, on the smallest island on the inland sea.

These hazy, misty shots were taken from the bus as we went over the bridge to the island.

Then I saw this spoiler for my next holiday in 9 days.

We were at Ritsurin Garden, a lovely place right at the foot of the mountain. Ben talked to us of the concept of “borrowed space “, where a garden uses vistas from beyond its borders to create a feeling of more space.

This garden does it with the mountain. I remembered the zoo I went to in Alice Springs last September. It also used the mountain behind it to add to its appeal.

We saw the famous pine tree on rocks, looking (apparently) like a crane on the back of a turtle. This imagery was also used in the University in Hanoi, only in that case it was a sculpture and was WAY clearer than here.

If it helps, the turtle’s head is to the left.

The tree is over 300 years old.

Cherry blossom!

Aren’t these amazing? By the size, they’re around 10 years old.

The superstition is that the carp are not just pretty fish. When they get big enough, they swim upstream and become dragons.

Soon after the stream, there was a rocky set of steps to the left. At the top was a viewing platform with this view of the lake.

This is the water source for all the six ponds in the garden. It once served in the past as a place for holding an elegant ceremony in which poets sent newly written poems floating on a gentle stream.

I didn’t write that. It was on the information board nearby.

The lake had a huge number of baby dragons. There is a festival day every year where kids make flags shaped like carp and they’re hung outside the house. It dats back hundreds of years, when they hoped that their children would grow up to be strong and brave like a dragon.

I stayed by the lake for some time, just letting my thoughts drift.

Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. One of the women from our tour asked me if I had airdrop.

Now I know what the heck of my head looks like!

There were a couple of boats sailing along.

By far the biggest feature of this garden was the pine trees, all professionally shaped and maintained by bonsai experts.

This was taken from the bridge over the lake.

Here’s a bonsai-sized one.

I airdropped this one to his mother.

There was a grove of plums towards the back. Pretty, aren’t they?

Then we were on the move again, this time to an udon noodle making class.

It was all as you’d expect, until the tambourine came out.

This made it so much fun. We rattled those babies around to ‘encourage’ the people mixing the dough. Then it was time to press the dough down hard.

This was done by dancing to ‘Gangnam Style’ on top of the dough. Then it was music was loud, everyone was shaking their tambourines and laughing.

it was so silly but it was so much fun.

We had our noodles for lunch. I was meant to cut mine smaller, like the width of a chopstick.

oh well. They tasted good anyway.

Cue lots of jokes about balls from the group…

He allowed me to taste one of his balls.

A few days ago we went through the longest tunnel in Japan. It was 10 kms long.

This bridge isn’t as long, but at almost 4 kms long, it’s the world’s longest suspension bridge.

The city we were heading towards was Kobe, on the way to Osaka. I couldn’t remember why the name Kobe was so familiar until Ben mentioned the earthquake in the 90s.
Over 6,000 people died. Kobe wasn’t considered at a high risk of earthquake, so the building regulations weren’t as strict as in more high-risk places. After this, the whole of Japan now has the same strict regulations in place.

Once we were in Kobe, with all of its towering buildings, I felt a little odd. All of the talk of earthquakes started to seem a bit dangerous…

It was a long drive to Osaka. As we were waiting for the traffic to move, someone noticed something odd about this building.

If you look closely, there’s a black shape that’s probably the cat.

Lots of us walked to the department store for dinner. There, like a good little quilter, I bought some Japanese fabric.

Dad Joke of the Day:

Itsukushima Shrine is on the island of Miyajima, just a 10 minute ferry ride from the mainland. It was a sunny day but it was COLD! I came downstairs with 2 merino tops under my jumper, felt the wind and marched straight back to my room to grab another one. It turned out to be a wise decision.

This island has always been worshipped by the locals and is considered to be Kami. So, to avoid hurting the land and bringing bad luck to the people, in 593 they built a Shinto temple on the seashore. We saw the gate at high tide, and it was beautiful.

Can you believe that I’m seeing all of this stuff?

This is only the gate to the shrine, which is built over the beach.

The vermilion colour is a protection against evil spirits that could hurt the people.

It didn’t hurt that people brought their dogs along with them…

This arched bridge was only used by the emperor’s messengers.

And then suddenly, as we were walking on the beach, the sun came out and I was able to capture the brilliant shade of Orange I was unable to get with my photos. Here is the colour I was seeing!

This is what I had for lunch. Hiroshima is famous for its oysters, but they don’t eat them raw. They cook them.
I know… talk about ruining a perfectly good oyster! But these weren’t too bad.

Then we wandered around the shops.

I quite liked the humour here.

This one’s been busy shopping.

The island has wild deer that roam around. There are many signs and recorded announcements asking people not to feed them, but they do it anyway.

They also remove the antlers to keep the tourists safe.

Our next stop was Hiroshima.
This morning on our 2 hour bus ride, Ben told us the story of Sadako. 

She was one year old when the bomb dropped, and she was 5kms away and inside. It looked as if she was ok, but when she was a teenager she developed leukaemia.

There’s a Japanese superstition that if you fold 1,000 origami cranes, you can make a wish and it will come true.

She used the paper wrapping from her medicine to make the cranes. Sadly, she didn’t get to make the thousand cranes, but after she died her classmates got together and finished the job. Now, people bring paper cranes here. In the bus on the way into Hiroshima, we all made paper cranes.

It’s lucky it was a two hour bus ride, because there were a few tricky bits. Ben had his hands full teaching us what to do. We’re a large group!

This is the Dome monument; the building that was almost directly under the atomic bomb when it went off 600m in the air above the city. It’s left as it was, even with bricks and debris around the outside, as a stark reminder of what happened that day.

Here’s what it looked like before.

There were 300,000 people in the city of Hiroshima in 1945. Most of the young men were gone, so it was mainly the elderly, women and children.

170,000 people died after the bomb fell. This hill in the Peace Park is where the ashes of 60,000 people who died in the area were buried together.

The bomb was dropped at 8:15 AM. There were hundreds of schoolchildren outside that day, as they were helping to demolish certain houses, to stop the spread of fire racing between houses when conventional bombs were dropped. No one expected what was to come.

I snapped this photo of the tree and the river, but caught the building in the background. This was another building that partially survived the bomb. At 8 AM that morning, a guy went down to the basement to check on some documents. Out of 48 people who worked there, he was the only survivor.
The top two stories collapsed on top of him. Imagine his bewilderment and horror when he got out and saw what had happened? He ended up living into his eighties.

Before we went to the museum, we dropped off our cranes. See Sadako with the crane over her head?

People drop paper cranes off by the tonne. They’re sewn together and then dropped off into storage.

There’s a bell beside the Sakako memorial. I tested it out. It rings.

The memorial was full of symbolism. The front is shaped like a bunker, with the words roughly translated to: Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.

There is water here. After the bomb exploded, black oily rain fell. The survivors were greatly injured and craved water, so most of them drank this rain. It was highly radioactive, of course. Many thousands of people died asking for water, so they have it now, so they may rest in peace.

Behind the pool is an eternal flame, like the one we have at the Shrine in Melbourne. This flame in Hiroshima will burn until the last nuclear bomb in the world is destroyed. Then it will be turned off.

And finally, in the far background, you can see the Dome.

I took a few pictures inside the museum.

The day after the bomb.

The sign says: A melted statue of Buddha.

Between the war museum in Saigon a month ago and now this one today, I’ve seen some very confronting stuff. It’s saddening, of course, but when you go outside and see the bustling city as it now is, I am heartened by the resilience that ordinary people show.
I deliberately chose a tour to Japan that included Hiroshima. My grandfather was a Tivoli performer and came here after the war to entertain the troops. After coming here today, I wish I had’ve thought to ask him about what he saw.

Dad Joke of the Day:

Mishima Inari Shrine.

3,000 gates. Oldest one 200 or 300 years old. Youngest one could be made yesterday.

The biggest and oldest Inari shrine in Japan is this one. Inari shrines are all over Japan, with around 8,000 of them. It’s a harvest-based thing, so the farmers support them by bringing a share of the harvest each year.

These shrines always have huge barrels of sake. Back in the day, before we knew about alcohol and its effects on the human mind, they used to believe that sake opened up the worlds of the humans and the gods to each other. If you drink too much, you can talk to your ancestors, right?

Just to prove that I’m actually here. Both sites that we saw today are places that I’ve seen pictures of, but never actually visualised myself going to.

This is the main gate. There are statues of foxes on either side. Foxes are everywhere here. They are the messengers to predict how the harvest is going to be each year.

We got here first thing in the morning, so although there were a fair few people, it wasn’t too bad. My friends Matt and Andrew, who are Blogless Sandy’s son and husband, are a week ahead of me on this trip and we’ve been messaging about what we’ve seen. They got here later in the day and were inundated with people.

Wanda has been sticking close to me on this trip, but I think she found her spiritual home.

I decided to walk as quickly as I could to reach the lake. This temple is on a hill, so it was a bit of a workout.

The lake was a disappointment. Murky and dull. I chalked it up to experience and Lyn and I made our way back to the bus.

I was so pleased to have seen this place. Then it was off the see the White Heron Castle.

But not before I located a Baku for my blogging friend Spo.

I saw this outside a shop at the temple and immediately thought of Spo. Here’s your Baku, my friend!

HomeKit Castle is over 500 years old. Although it was a target in the war, thankfully it escaped a direct hit.
This castle was a target for bombers during the war, but it was lucky and it survived.

This castle was one of many that was built in a time of great unrest in the 14th and 15th centuries. The family of Shoguns who were ruling were the 2nd Shogunate – the guy who built the Golden Pavilion was the founder- but over the intervening couple of hundred years, the family had gotten weak.
Lords all over Japan started building castles, with an eye toward possibly being Shogun in the future.

The Monkey Shogun owned this place. He was originally a farmer, but somehow managed to become a samurai and the right hand man to the Shogun. When the shogun was assassinated, he moved into the top spot and stopped all of the fighting.

He didn’t sire a son until he was 50, which was getting on a bit in those days. When he was dying at 60, he asked the 5 top men to be regents and look after his son.

”No worries, “ said the men. Tokugawa was one of them.

But instead, he invaded Osaka , killed the boy, his mother and 40 other kids and concubines.

Tokogawa was the one who established the longest Shogunate in history. He’s the one in ‘ Shogun’, both the Clavell novel and the Netflix series. He’s portrayed as a hero, but clearly, he got his hands dirty to get hold of the power.

I had no idea about this place until we were driving towards it. I was sitting at the front of the bus and I had the perfect view. “Ohhhh, it’s THIS castle!” I’ve seen pictures, but again, never put myself in there.

Because it’s authentic, a lot of period movies and dramas were made here… until they shot the second James Bond movie here. They needed an explosion, but they misjudged and blew up part of the wall. That’s why the stones are different colours.

It’s possible to climb to the top of the castle. It’s 8 stories, with no lifts. I looked at it and thought there was no way I was going to climb it.

But we started climbing. We passed through this doorway. It’s designed so that if the Shogun’s troops are chased through here, they’ll shut the gate and fill in the space with all of those rocks at the sides, thus blocking the way.

We kept getting higher, right up to the point where Ben said, “ If you go any further you have to take your shoes off.”

Can you believe there were men in our group saying, “I don’t want to take my shoes off. I tied double knots this morning.”

Like, real dude? Are you three years old???

So I took my shoes off and started climbing.

The stairs were insanely steep, but it honestly wasn’t so bad.

The views at the top were worth it.

These windows have no glass, so there was quite a breeze blowing in. I walked from window to window feeling proud of myself. It would be too easy to turn back, but now, every time I see a picture of this castle, I know that I’ve been there at the top.

These upside down fish are all over the rooftop.

I stood at the bottom and looked at where I’d just been. It’s designed so was very satisfying.

After a group of us had lunch together, we drove to a town two hours away from Hiroshima. That’s where we’ll be tomorrow…

Dad Joke of the Day:

1.3 million people in Kyoto. It’s the second biggest city after Tokyo. And this morning, those people were COLD. It was strange day, weather wise… a very Melbourne day with all sorts of things going on.

”No matter what the weather is outside, inside is always sunny!” said Ben on the bus. As we passed by yet another Starbucks, I asked him if this was a traditional Japanese eatery.
“It’s US temple, “ said Ben “They’re everywhere.”

Our first stop was Ninensaka street. There’s a temple here, but Ben says that the street is more interesting. It has a pagoda that has 5 stories.

Lots of tourists from Korea and China hire the traditional dress. It makes for fabulous photos.

According to Ben, there a local curse lasts a thousand years. If you fall in Ninensaka, you’ll die in 3 years. I’ve never walked so carefully in my life!

“If you fall, don’t worry. There are lots of anti evil shops here where you can buy an amulet,” said Ben.

The Japanese think of everything!

The temple was here before the city.

Longevity, prosperity and happiness are symbolised by 3 streams around the temple.

A thousand years ago, monks used to stand under the waterfall to meditate. This is really hard, so over time they switched to the streams instead.

You drink from whichever stream you feel you need. They all sound good to me!

I passed by this place. Here’s a close up:

It’s a shame that it was closed. My garden is crying out for a baby coming out of an alien’s head.

There was an incredibly colourful temple across the street from the pagoda. Zoom to the top of the gate. It’s the three wise monkeys.

This sign made me laugh!

Ten what?

Here’s the pagoda from the other side.

There’s always plants around in Japanese streets. In Vietnamese streets, too, come to think about it. Even on major city streets, all concrete and glass, people nurture bonsais in pots and create small gardens. It’s very nice.

Remember that I brought incense and a holder a couple of days ago? I saw this little plate and thought it would be perfect to catch the ash.

14th century. 3rd shogun of the Ashkarga family. He was the richest person in Japan.

When he was Shogun, there were 2 emperors but he persuaded them to settle to decide on one, to bring everything back to normal.

He was a very astute politician.

Top roof is like pagoda Buddhism.

Second story like a samurai style of building… square.

Ground floor unpainted , in the style of the aristocracy.

Showing that the Shogun controls all of society.

Golden phoenixes on the top. In Japanese culture, phoenixes are only in paradise, so the Shogun built his version of paradise.

The pine tree boat is 600 years old and it was planted when the Shogun who built the golden temple was alive. Basically, they’re saying that because you put your heart and soul into bonsai trees and you train them, you don’t just let them grow, that the soul of the Shogun is still alive today in the boat.

I wonder how he feels about all of the commoners and tourists flooding the place?

Again there were so many small things to observe. It would have been a stunning place to wander in when it was a private garden.

There were a couple of places where people were throwing money at the statues, trying to hit the cup. I don’t know why, but they were pretty invested in it, in both meanings of the word.

The Golden Pavilion from further away. This is a replica. A mad monk burned the original in 1950. It’s been painstakingly recreated, with 20kgs of gold leaf.

It’s surrounded by extensive gardens and ponds, which the ducks appreciate.
How did I feel about the pavilion?
Not as impressed as I should have been, I think. It’s certainly spectacular, especially when you first see it, with the reflection in the lake. But honestly, it seemed a little gaudy…

This little ceramic man came home with me. I looked at him and I knew exactly where he’d go in my lounge room.
It was only when I got to the cash register that I realised that he was an incense burner. I guess, like Canada turned out to be the holiday of the eagles, this one will turn out to be the holiday of incense.

More blossom.

Then it was off to the Bamboo Forest.

You could say there were a few people there.

From ancient times, the lord of each area would choose a female virgin to serve in the temples for the next year. They would be sent to live in the middle of the bamboo forest for a week, to be purified before they began their task. It used to be a house in the middle of the forest. Now there’s a shrine.

We had two hours to spend in this place before we had to meet back at the bus. I decided to walk further into the forest, then make my way to the river and then back to the Main Street.

I walked with a few different people from the group. We made our way back to the Main Street and we still had over an hour. Once lunch was bought… I had fried chicken on skewers for $5… there wasn’t much left to do. Around 95% of the shops were food places. Not being a food-motivated traveller, there wasn’t much to interest me.

The street was jammed with-packed full of people and I was glad when I could finally get back on the bus.

When I booked this trip, I picked the last week before high season. It was $600 cheaper and I was only a week out from the high season weather. But this made me realise just how crowded Japan was going to get during cherry blossom season. It’s going to be insane.

An optional tour was to go and see the Shogun’s palace.

This is an original building. The Shogun’s primary residence was in Edo/Tokyo, but he would come here for ceremonial reasons once or twice a year, as the emperor lived in Kyoto.

Again, like with the Golden Pavilion, I was a tad underwhelmed. It was interesting to see how the Shoguns used perspective and decor to create a feeling of mystique, but honestly? The most memorable thing was the squeaking of the floorboards as we walked over them in our socks.

It’s called a hummingbird sound, and although it’s so loud that you’d swear it had to be intentional, it isn’t. It’s rust on the nails holding the floor together.
The murals in the empty rooms are reproductions. Pretty, but not the real thing.

So today was feeling a little bit like a fizzer. Until we went to the geisha dinner. omg so good.

I nearly didn’t go to this. I’m doing so much travel this year and it was nearly $400… that’s a lot of money for one person to have dinner! I ummed and ahhhed, but in the end, when was I going to get the chance to see real geishas again? I might as well just do it.

I’m so glad I did.

There are 5 Geisha streets in Kyoto.

270 active geishas today. In the 1970s there were over 1,000. In Kyoto, they aren’t called geishas, but ‘meiko’ for apprentice geishas, and ‘geiko’ for fully qualified ones. The girl on the left is a meiko called Kotono, while the girl on the right is a geiko.

The language they speak is ancient and they live in the ancient ways. 

5 years of training in singing, dancing, tea ceremony and language. Meikos are not allowed to even hold a mobile, let alone use one! They are not paid a wage as a meiko, but once they become a geiko, they earn money, can date and can have a phone. A bit like an apprenticeship, I suppose.

The meikos keep their hair and have to have it styled once a week. To keep it looking good, they sleep on very high pillows to keep it from being mussed up. Geiko swear wigs. Much easier. The girls do their own makeup, which takes around an hour and a half.

Here they are, introducing themselves and giving me their business cards.

Ben said that it is believed that if a geisha gives you her business card, you put it straight in your wallet because it brings good luck. So now I have double good luck.

Also pictured are the cards I’m currently using. I’ve used UBank as my travel card for years, as they don’t charge international fees. I got the Wise card before Vietnam and it’s my backup card. It’s ok, though I’m not rapt at how you have to allocate funds to a specific currency. Still, it worked fine in Vietnam and I’ll use it on my last few days in Japan to get rid of the yen on it.
Anyway, back to the dinner!

The Japanese consider a long neck to be a sign of beauty, so she’s painted her neck this way to appear longer.

Kotono stayed at our table and although Ben stayed to translate, she had learned English for the couple of years she was at high school, so we could converse.
Someone asked her why she decided to pursue this career.

”I was at the shopping mall when I was 13 and some geishas were singing and dancing. They looked so beautiful. I knew I wanted to be like them.”

She’s now 16, and has been a meiko for a year. She has a younger sister and when someone asked if her sister would follow in her footsteps, she laughed and said, “Oh no. She is a tomboy!”

Kotono has two hours of trading each day, then she and the other 10 girls in her house rest until 4. Then they start getting ready for the night’s work. Their clothes are heavy. They weigh 15 or 20 kgs so they need help getting them on.

They go from tea house to restaurant until around 1AM. Then they go home, remove their makeup and sleep until 8. This is 7 days a week, with only a once a year holiday at New Years to go home and see their families.

If they don’t marry, they can keep doing this until their 70s.

They never used to perform for foreigners but the state of the economy changed that. Now, people like me can see them.

Earlier in the conversation, Kotono said that she liked to watch sumo wrestling. When someone asked if she wanted to get married someday, she shook her head and said, “Not for 10 or 20 years.” When someone then asked, “What about if it was to a sumo wrestler?” she laughed and mimed putting a wedding ring on her finger.

They performed 2 songs, but I had to cut down a video for you, because the wifi couldn’t cope with a 2 minute video. Look at Kotono’s precise movements of her head and hands. This dance has been passed down from a very long time ago. It made me wish that I knew Japanese, so I could follow the song.

It made me wonder how they feel about training so hard to be perfect in everything they do, then coming out every night to perform for tourists who can’t appreciate the subtleties.

Anyway, before they left to go to their next appointment, we played the geisha game. It’s simple, but it’s fun.

I didn’t play. I knew I’d had too much sake to be any good at it!

It was a fascinating glimpse into a world that’s so very different from ours. These girls are living history. This is something I’ll remember forever. It was so very interesting.

Dad Joke of the Day:

We only spent the morning here, before taking the afternoon to drive to Kyoto, but I could have easily spent longer here. It was fantastic.

This is one of the iconic sights in the famous Kenrokuen Garden – the Kotoji Lantern. It has two legs instead of the usual one.
This garden is one of the top 3 gardens in Japan. It was built beside the castle. The first fountain in Japan is here.

It’s famous because it encapsulates all 6 excellent elements of a Japanese garden. This is extremely difficult to do because the 6 elements cancel each other out.

Spaciousness is the opposite of Seclusion.

Artifice is the opposite of Antiquity.

Watercourses are usually low, while Panoramas need to command the heights.
This garden has them all.

The garden was established in 1676, when the 5th lord of the Kawa domain shifted here and built a garden beside his castle. The family kept the garden until 1874, when it was given to the public.

Every winter, ropes like these are suspended around the trees so that the heavy snow won’t break their branches. We’ve been seeing them all over the place.

Stones representing the seven gods of good fortune have been placed here. The 12th lord created this so he could see it from his study.

“It’s best to see the beautiful garden under the light spring rain, “ said Ben in the bus this morning . Of course, it’s raining, so he would say that.

This is the first non-Buddhist bronze statue made in Japan. This place was a samurai stronghold and there was a rebellion in 1877, 9 years after the emperor Meiji took power away from the Shogun. It didn’t go well for the samurai, but at least they have this statue of one of their leaders to comfort the spirits of those who died.

Now, I’m not one to like getting rained on but even with the rain and huddling under my Hampton Court Palace umbrella that I got in England back in 2015, I like it here. It’s a place where it’s designed for people to slow down and notice the little details; the trunks of trees entwined together, the moss on the trunks, a splash of a flower, the artful arrangement of rocks on an island…

You could spend all day here, you really could, and I probably would if it wasn’t raining but it is a very beautiful place.

I was taken by the swoosh of the tree trunk here.

This is the oldest fountain in Japan, built in the 1860’s. It works by natural water pressure caused by a difference in elevation between two ponds, which was very difficult to do, back in the day.

Then, I walked over the bridge to see Kanazawa Castle.

For some reason, as soon as I walked through these massive gates, I was captivated.

Look at this gate! You’d be bashing at this for a good long while before you’d break through.

Zoom in on the stones in the wall. The little ones were put there to stop invaders being able to use the gaps between the big stones for footholds to climb the wall.

This gate has been here for over 300 years and is one of the best preserved ones in Japan.

It’s spacious in here.

It doesn’t take much imagination to picture soldiers being trained here.

I don’t know why this place grabbed me so much. Was it the crows flying, calling overhead?

The door opening onto nothing. Imagine trying to get up there to attack it?

All I know is, if I’m ever back here again, I’d like to be taken through with a guide so I can find out more about it. But we were racing the clock.
Our next stop was a gold leaf class.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much enjoyment from this activity, but I ended up having a lot of fun.

99 % of the gold leaf work is now done here. In olden times it was made in Kyoto.

Pure gold isn’t very durable, so the gold is mixed with silver and copper.

1 gram can make 60 pieces, so it’s pretty thin.

I chose a cat and a star from the stencils provided. Al, one of the guys at our table, was by far more adventurous.

I don’t know how he had the patience.

After we cut the stencil out and put the sticky paper over the lids, the gold leaf was smoothed on over the top.

Look how mine turned out! I was pretty happy.

So was Al. After a month, we have to put clear nail polish on the top to preserve our good work.

We had half an hour to wander around the shops. I saw one of our group stepping out of a shop, clutching a gold leaf ice cream. 

“The gold leaf tastes like plastic wrap,” someone else complained. I was happy to let others try it out. I can’t see the sense in eating gold that will simply travel right through me.

I enjoyed looking through the shops here. There were a couple of ceramic places that had some exquisite pieces. Again, only having carryon luggage helped, because I have to keep in mind both weight and space. Also, my rule of only buying things you absolutely love helps too.

I heard a guide talking about how sake makers would hang a green ball like this outside the shop when they had new stock come in. By the time the ball turned brown, the sake was ready.

After this, the rest of the day was a long bus ride to Kyoto.

This should be interesting. Kyoto was where all the emperors lived for over a thousand years. It wasn’t bombed during the war because of all the history.
I’m looking forward to the next two days. Hey, I’m going to see a real geisha tomorrow night!

Dad Joke of the Day: