Good Evening Readers,
As I was expecting, the last few days has been without any real Internet access what so ever, and as I am already very afraid of what my cellular bill is going to be for the roaming email, phone calls, and texts that I had already sent, I felt it best not to make too many blog updates from the phone in case it broke the bank. As if trying to enjoy Japan with the South Pacific Peso (otherwise known as the NZ$) wasn’t bad enough with our shocking exchange rate! So let me now update you all on the last few days of our journey…
My last post from the road was telling you all about arriving at Yasugi Kiyomizudera Kouyoukan Accommodation and Temple (安来 清水寺 紅葉館), where we spent the night in a truly lovely setting at a picturesque temple in the mountains. If I thought it was amazing at night, it was even more special in the early hours of the morning when we went for a walk around the temple grounds. The air was very still and with only about three or four other people who had spent the night, roaming separately around the grounds, it felt as though we had the whole place to ourselves to enjoy the sights at will.
There is something about the quiet stillness of the early morning that really enhances the powerful feeling of the presence of history in the buildings and stone steps that dotted the hillside grounds. We didn’t manage to follow all the paths that wound around the hill to the various little clearings filled with graves or prayer alters and stone tablets. We did manage to get round all the main buildings and up the back to the 5 story pagoda, and we were only 15 minutes late for breakfast which was just as delicious as dinner had been with almost as many different little dishes, although it included a piece of fish and not just veges this time.
After breakfast we had been planning to get on the road straight away as there was a gallery to see on the road to the airport where we had to pick up my girlfriend by 12:30, but the old man who managed the temple accommodation and drove us back up the steep road to our car then offered to show us round his old house in the near by village. I’ve often gone by old houses behind high walls, there is usually at least one in each area in each town that has been there for generations, and this was my first chance to look inside one so I couldn’t say no.
With the old mans broken English and my broken Japanese we were able to have quite an informative tour of his house, most of which was about 80 years old, some parts were even older. The room at the back had massive timber rafters and parts of the timber structure were even built with lengths of wood that had just incorporated the natural bend of the wood into the frame of the house rather than trying to smooth it all out into straight lines.
The most amazing part were these two long panels that were pictures painted on silk, during the Edo era, truly antique treasures that I had only ever seen the likes of behind glass panels in museums. The old man had them rolled up in a box in a cupboard in the attic! When he unrolled them on the floor I was too nervous of accidentally damaging them to touch them or anything so they may as well of been in glass cabinets! It was amazing, these panels which were older than the earliest European settlements in NZ, were right there on the floor in front of me!
We eventually got on the road and went to the Adachi Museum of Art, the highlight of which are the surrounding gardens that had been perfectly manicured in traditional Japanese style, everything was very nice to look at but even the picture like backdrop of a cliff top waterfall in the hills was fake and had been man made. Very nice so long as you like your nature fake and manicured.
Somehow we managed to get round the museum in record breaking time, and were only 15 minutes late to pick up my girlfriend. I think she was surprised and had been expecting to wait hours. As always she had a plan for where we were off to next, and as usual it was spot on what we wanted to see! A little way from the airport was a local pottery where we could look around the gallery shop or look into the shed and watch the dozen or so artisans at work.
There were people working at all stages, from weighing out the clay, all the way through to painting the glazes on finished pots, mugs and other pieces. Of course we didn’t escape without buying some pottery but not too much. Fortunately my girlfriend sent the cups on to home via delivery service so we didn’t have to worry about them breaking in the luggage on the way or anything.
We drove on and made it to Izumo by the early afternoon, too early to check into our accommodation we went there but just parked the car. Once again the accommodation was in a great location for the surrounding sights and it was just a short walk down to the corner and over the road to Izumo Taisha, one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan. It’s a very interesting place though after being at the peaceful mountain temple it seemed very crowded with tourists! Not us of course, we were just observers, not tourists!
After we went back to the accommodation and checked in, it was time for a quick rest then off to dinner, but once we headed off into the town we realised that this is not Tokyo or Osaka, and in fact nearly everything was closed. We managed to find a little local eatery and sat at the counter. As is typical of Izakaya style restaurants everywhere in Japan there were a husband and wife serving and cooking in the kitchen behind the counter, and an elderly couple were the only other customers. It seemed as though the owners and the elderly couple were good friends and that this was just an extension of their own dinning room and they visited several times a week.
We had a good time chatting away, eating and drinking, and even sharing beers with the men. It’s amazing how welcome you always feel in these little local places, even as a tourist only stopping through for a night or two you feel like one of the locals very quickly. Japanese restaurants (in Japan) often have a customer – staff relationship that you just don’t get in restaurants anywhere else I have been in the world.
The next day we drove to an old mining town about an hour and a half out of Izumo. It was really interesting to walk around the mountain town that had been a mining area for over 400 years and was said to once have about 20,000 citizens which, now that the mines have been shut down for around 80 years, holds only a few hundred. We got a tour guide and went walking up into the mountain to see the tiny mine shafts dotting the hills. I’m sure even a 10 year old would have a hard time getting into one of those mines let alone an adult. At the end of the walk we went down one of the shafts, but I think it had been widened for us tourists!
It took several hours to look around the village and the mine, and then we drove along the coast back towards Izumo. Seeing as it was getting towards sunset we decided to try and reach a lighthouse along the coast that was considered to be a very good vantage point to watch the sun go down. The winding cliff side road was just like the winding roads all over NZ but each blind corner was set up with a mirror on the roadside so you could see round the bend. Along the way we spotted a rather large shrine down the cliff in a seaside town just before the lighthouse but we wanted to catch the sunset so decided to have a closer look on our way back.
Unfortunately the sun went behind the clouds just before it set so we missed the chance at seeing any bright red sunset but we did have a nice look out at the view and back at the little fishing village. Yet another beautiful setting at just the right time of day. As amazing as the view was, the best was down the hillside in the shrine in the little seaside village.
We backtracked along the road and down into the village as the sky started getting dark. Expecting to only be able to look at the shrine from outside the walls we parked and got out. We walked up to the gate only to find that it was completely open and we were free to roam the shrine grounds as we wished. I found out later that the shrine was called Hinomisaki Jinja and that some of the buildings on the grounds were originally built around the same time or earlier than those of Izumo Taisha and that the two shrines had fought each other. The reason that Hinomisaki Jinja was not so well known apparently was that they were the ones who lost and had to move the shrine to this small seaside village.
If there was an eerie feeling to the mountain temple early in the morning, it was nothing compared to how powerful the energy and eerie feelings in this shrine were as it was getting dark. We walked all through the grounds, looking at each building and even tossing a coin in the hopes of some fortune from the gods. Even I wasn’t game enough to go through the red gate up the back of the shrine. Having watched lots of movies where people walk through gates in the back of shrines after dark and find themselves somewhere completely different, and never come back, I wasn’t game enough to go for a walk down there but I’d love to go back again in the daytime and see what I missed!
We got back to Izumo again and once more had to hunt out somewhere to eat a meal in the mostly shut-down-after-dark town. Once again we were treated to the joys of hospitality in local style at an Izakaya a few blocks away. this one was a mother / son run Izakaya that had a bunch of old men at a table in back, us at the counter, and an little Yoda like 80 year old sitting next to me smoking like a train and drinking like a fish.
We had another delicious meal and were the only ones left in the places. They didn’t want to close up yet so we kept on eating and drinking and enjoying talking with them. We inquired about what the significance of the carved wooden statue of an old man with a fishing rod was on the bar counter, and they explained he was a Shinto god, One of 7 Shinto gods, this one was the god of good business. After inquiring about it and being told what he was, the mother of the restaurant went out back and showed us a smaller version of the same statue and explained how you keep it oiled by rubbing it in your hands each day. What we didn’t expect was what she did next when she wrapped up the small statue with another of the small 7 who held a hammer, and gave them to us as a gift!
It completely blew us away to receive such an amazingly special gift from people we had never met before and probably may not make it back to see again, at least not for a very long time! These kind of things are just part of what makes Japan an amazingly special place to visit, and so inviting to outsiders. Truly special, and unforgettable encounters.
Sadly the next day we had to drive to Matsue and give back the rental car, then catch a train back to Osaka to catch the flight home. As far as return journeys go though it was a very nice train ride through the hills, being on the rail lines gave us a look at the same areas from a different view point. We were looking at the same rivers and mountains but being on a train and not having to translate the navigation system gave us time to enjoy the view a little more. Our connections on the train didn’t give us much time to run from platform to platform but we made it and got to the airport with time to spare even before we could check in.
Once again I’ve had to leave Japan, live with the annoyances of a long distance relationship, and starve to death without the delicious food I can’t seem to be able to cook here in NZ (although I think I put on about a kilo a day while I was away with three banquet meals a day!). Time to get back to the real world of study and normal Wellington life. I think I even have an assignment due by the time Monday rolls around again. 5 days in Japan was quick but I’ve seen so many new places, eaten so much food, and enjoyed meeting so many people, that I think it could of been hard for some people to do as much in a month!
So for now that’s all I have to tell you! I think that this is a bit too long for a blog post but it saves trying to tell it all in parts and pieces that I might forget! Hope you read to the end, and if so why don’t you go over to the photo page and see the pictures! I didn’t have my own camera so most of these weren’t actually taken by me, but at least that means I get to be in some of them! We just got home a few hours ago so now I think I’ll get some sleep.
Good night.