Whirlwind through Japan (part #1)
The last few days have been a whirlwind. When I selected our itinerary, we agreed that we would see a lot of little places at the expense of not staying anywhere too long. We can always come back. The exceptions are Tokyo where we started from and Kyoto which we’ll reach in two days. Our technique therefore is to travel each morning and arrive at our destination between 1 PM and 3 PM. Since most towns are small, half a day is enough to see most of the sites. Yes, we’re skipping the museums and anything out of town. I’m always more interested by how the locals live anyways. Moreover, the ryokans we’re staying in typically have a 3 PM or 4 PM check-in time. There may be no-one if you show up early (as we found out quickly). Check out is always 10 AM at the latest although we’re typically out by 8:30 AM.
So where have we been since we left Tokyo?
Our first stop was Matsumoto on the 1st of October. It’s truly a charming little town on the East side of the Japanese Alps in Northern Honshu; 2h30min from Tokyo. We suspect winter tourism is driving its downtown commerce. We got very lucky. In the afternoon as we walked around town we noticed street vendors next to the downtown river. In the evening, looking for food, we headed back. You can’t find Japanese street food easily in Seattle. A little while later we realized the crowd had grown a lot. Something was brewing: there was a ceremony at the shrine with all the men wearing suits and audio equipment was being setup on the stage next to it. At 7 PM sharp, hiding under an umbrella, we joined the locals and listened to a jazz orchestra playing classics from the 40s and 60s. If you look through the pictures you’ll find one of the band playing. I’ll say one another thing about Matsumoto: the next morning we had pastries for breakfast from a boulangerie a few steps away from the previous night’s stage. On the wall they had two signs: “Since 1913″ and “Membre de l’Association des Amis du Pain Francais.” I’ve never seen curry bread in a French bakery but everything we ate was good.
Our second stop was Takayama; on the other side of the mountain range. I chose that town initially because it’s high in the Japanese Alps; I wanted us to spend two days in the mountains. Fortunately the train doesn’t cross the mountain range, a bus does. If there’s one place I’d like to go back and spend more time just driving on the roads and admiring the scenery, this would be it. With the clouds still low, we often couldn’t see more than the shape of the valleys around us. The few glimpses we had did hint of beautiful things; deep luscious chasms with streams and waterfalls, snowy peaks reminiscent of the views from Seattle. 2h20 min later, we reached Takayama. In comparison it’s a much larger town than our previous stop. Its main tourist attraction is a few city blocks in the old town where the buildings’ appearance has been protected. We also walked a part of the recommended nature hike which, in one hour, took us thru 5 shrines and a cemetery. Consider that the forest there has the thickness of Germany’s Black Forest with the humidity of the Olympic peninsula. Now add a clearing with a gorgeous old shrine. There is something mystical about this painting that made the walk very enjoyable. It also opened up our appetite for the meal at Kakusho.
Our third stop was Kanazawa ; a rich city near the coast further to the North-West. Unfortunately, we hit the first glitch in our schedule. There is no train that goes directly between the two cities. There are only a few buses per day. The 9h30 AM one we’d aimed for was sold out a day early. Instead of rolling into town in the early afternoon, we would have staggered in in early evening in darkness and missed the city’s sights. We chose the alternative: a 5h train ride through Gifu down south. We still got to Kanazawa by 2h30 PM though. Enough to see what is left of the castle, the Kenrokuen Garden (one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan), the two streets that kept their fortification-like walls, etc. After our previous two stops, Kanazawa was a big change. The clouds were gone and the air was fresh and sharp. This city has programs for foreign students coming thru. It has hosted multiple international conventions. There is a Starbucks! Sadly, we couldn’t find a restaurant and ate dinner at a bad sushi bar in the basement of a shopping center.
If we were torn about Kanazawa, our fourth stop would reset expectations. When I looked at the map of Western Honshu a few months ago, one blip jump out at me: the island of Shodo-Shima in Shikoku. After a 3 hour train ride south, including one in the Shinkansen, and 30 minutes of bus we boarded a ferry from Okayama for the 35 minute ride. This stop is as “middle-of-nowhere” as we get to go on this trip. We’re still not sure what to make of it; it seems someone invested a lot in the seventies on infrastructure for tourists but either the island stopped being a fashionable destination or we are really out of season… Either way, jackpot. One note I’ll make is that I pity the only other 2 foreigners we saw on the island. They obviously didn’t speak a word of Japanese nor did they have directions to their onsen. More later.
After a stop by Miyajima and Hiroshima, tonight we’re in Matsue (on the other coast). Tomorrow we go back to Okayama to see Kurashiki.