Kyoto has been a really enjoyable few days, wandering around several temples, gardens and shrines, as well as watching the Geisha dances (by far my favorite part). The most impressive temple in Kyoto has to be the Golden Temple - a largeish temple covered in gold leaf, standing in the middle of a lake. It was gleaming in the sun, and walking around the park which surrounded it you could see it popping up over the tree tops every now and then.
Despite not having seen any Geisha during any of my forays into Gion and Pontocho (I did get overly excited by a couple of women in kimono before realising they were just walking around in kimono) I really enjoyed these areas. They were in places really cute, espeically some of the smaller alleyways which were also ridiculously picturesque. I did finally see some Geisha though as I went to watch the Geisha dances at the Pontocho theatre - they were incredible! the costumes were gorgeous and colourful, the dancing graceful, and whilst the music was not exactly what I would normally listen to, it was amazing to see people playing the shamisen and the flute in accompaniment to the dancing.
Nara seems to be a smaller and more peaceful version of Kyoto in many ways; it was an ancient capital of Japan and is full of temples, important not only for their beauty but also their historical contexts, although having seen so many temples they all seemeda bit familiar to me. The most impressive one was the Todaiji temple though - a huge wooden structure which is actually the biggest wooden structure in the world. It was definitely quite imposing. The wild deer in the park reminded me of those in Miyajima, peacefully milling about except when food is in the offing and often in those cases descening en masse on a small child holding biscuits who would inevitable throw the at the deer before running and screaming to hide behind their mother.
There have also been some really lovely walks that I have been on; in Kyoto I wandered through the bamboo forest in Arahiyama, a beautiful and quiet walk through the trees then the backstreets of the town, then in Nara I went on a hike throgh the hills behind the temples. It was really beatiful and the scenery was gorgeous, though it was slightly longer than I expected.
I will be moving to Osaka, but it seems strange that all the travelling is nearly at an end now.
Monday, 10 May 2010
Monday, 3 May 2010
Busy times
Ok, so I admit that it has been a surprisingly long time since I have updated (oops!) but I have been really quite busy.
I have travelled across the Japanese Alpes now, stopping at Matsumoto and Kanazawa on the way where I visited a couple of gorgeous gardens as well as some castles. The castles were really quite impressive; although the one in Matsumoto only had one tower which remained standing as the others had fallen to old age and scavengers it was still an imposing building. The castle was built, for the most part, really well with special windows for shooting arrows and different ones for shppting muskets. Luckily though, the castle never saw any action, which was quite good as I ond't think it could have been easy for samurais in full armour to rush up and down the stairs as these were ridiculously steep. I have also visited Himeji castle, which looked very imposing, but which we were unfortunately not allowed to enter.
I have spent the past couple of days in Hiroshima, which is a really fascinating place. The tpwn looks just like any other, and walking along the banks of the river there is a stunning amount of trees and grass and flowers. They also have amazing food - the local speciality, okonomiyaki (sort of a pancake with cabbage, noodles, and a couple of other btis and pieces) was particularly good. I also had a number of daytrips, during one of which I learnt a great deal about Sake having visited a Sake brewing area. Miyajima was particularly fun though, mostly because of the wild deer that roam the place, seeming not to notice the humans walking amongst them except to occasionally steal food - I saw one man having a tug of war with a deer over a lollipop! There was also some amazing scenery there, and I spent the afternoon hiking through the hills on a little used track before making my way down to the beach where I scrambled over the rocks to find myself a quiet cove to sit in.
My visit to the Peace Museum was incredibly moving and emotional, even more so than I had been anticipating. It is quite a difficult experience to put into words.
I am now in Kyoto, where the weather is absolutely gorgeous. This afternoon I walked around the area near where we are staying, and visited a couple of temples as well as a park which was full of locals taking in the sun and playing games (It is Golden Week right now so it is a week of holiday here), as well as, strangely, playing disney music. hopefully the rest of my few days here will be as enjoyable.
I have travelled across the Japanese Alpes now, stopping at Matsumoto and Kanazawa on the way where I visited a couple of gorgeous gardens as well as some castles. The castles were really quite impressive; although the one in Matsumoto only had one tower which remained standing as the others had fallen to old age and scavengers it was still an imposing building. The castle was built, for the most part, really well with special windows for shooting arrows and different ones for shppting muskets. Luckily though, the castle never saw any action, which was quite good as I ond't think it could have been easy for samurais in full armour to rush up and down the stairs as these were ridiculously steep. I have also visited Himeji castle, which looked very imposing, but which we were unfortunately not allowed to enter.
I have spent the past couple of days in Hiroshima, which is a really fascinating place. The tpwn looks just like any other, and walking along the banks of the river there is a stunning amount of trees and grass and flowers. They also have amazing food - the local speciality, okonomiyaki (sort of a pancake with cabbage, noodles, and a couple of other btis and pieces) was particularly good. I also had a number of daytrips, during one of which I learnt a great deal about Sake having visited a Sake brewing area. Miyajima was particularly fun though, mostly because of the wild deer that roam the place, seeming not to notice the humans walking amongst them except to occasionally steal food - I saw one man having a tug of war with a deer over a lollipop! There was also some amazing scenery there, and I spent the afternoon hiking through the hills on a little used track before making my way down to the beach where I scrambled over the rocks to find myself a quiet cove to sit in.
My visit to the Peace Museum was incredibly moving and emotional, even more so than I had been anticipating. It is quite a difficult experience to put into words.
I am now in Kyoto, where the weather is absolutely gorgeous. This afternoon I walked around the area near where we are staying, and visited a couple of temples as well as a park which was full of locals taking in the sun and playing games (It is Golden Week right now so it is a week of holiday here), as well as, strangely, playing disney music. hopefully the rest of my few days here will be as enjoyable.
Sunday, 2 May 2010
Furukawa Matsuri
I think that one of the best experiences I will have had in Japan will be seeing the Matsuri festival at Furukawa, which ushers in the Spring amidst much noise and celebration over the course of two days.
The centrepiece of the festival is the Okoshi Daiko, happening late in the evening of the 19th to early in the morning on the 20th April, involving a large drum parading through town waking up the residents to inform them that spring has arrived. At the start of this procession, everybody congregated in the main square of the town, under flickering firelight to watch the young men of the village (who had previously been running around with small drums attached to the middle of large poles) set off. Before the procession started, these groups of young men were chanting, drumming, and jumping onto the tops of the poles to the encouragment of the crowds. There was a lot of comptetion going on as each group tried to outdo the others in the number of people they could get on the pole, the quickness they could jump up, and the cheers they could get from the crowd. It was really quite amazing to watch, and I know that there is no way I could have done what quite a few of them made look effortless. (It was clear that it wasn't totally effortless though as quite a few were unable to jump on the pole and had to be helped up - quite often ending in with everyone on the floor)
The procession of Yatai floats, gorgeously decorated in red with intricate carvings and pictures lit up by lanters, was also a highlight - they were accompanied by the sound of flutes from the children of the village as they went along. The next day there were also performances carried out on the second floor f three of the floats - two puppet shows and a kabuki performance, which were really interesting to watch.
All in all it was a fantastic two days, and something I am really happy to have seen. It also made me see through the stereotype of the reserved Japanese, as they were anything but!
The centrepiece of the festival is the Okoshi Daiko, happening late in the evening of the 19th to early in the morning on the 20th April, involving a large drum parading through town waking up the residents to inform them that spring has arrived. At the start of this procession, everybody congregated in the main square of the town, under flickering firelight to watch the young men of the village (who had previously been running around with small drums attached to the middle of large poles) set off. Before the procession started, these groups of young men were chanting, drumming, and jumping onto the tops of the poles to the encouragment of the crowds. There was a lot of comptetion going on as each group tried to outdo the others in the number of people they could get on the pole, the quickness they could jump up, and the cheers they could get from the crowd. It was really quite amazing to watch, and I know that there is no way I could have done what quite a few of them made look effortless. (It was clear that it wasn't totally effortless though as quite a few were unable to jump on the pole and had to be helped up - quite often ending in with everyone on the floor)
The procession of Yatai floats, gorgeously decorated in red with intricate carvings and pictures lit up by lanters, was also a highlight - they were accompanied by the sound of flutes from the children of the village as they went along. The next day there were also performances carried out on the second floor f three of the floats - two puppet shows and a kabuki performance, which were really interesting to watch.
All in all it was a fantastic two days, and something I am really happy to have seen. It also made me see through the stereotype of the reserved Japanese, as they were anything but!
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