While in no way wanting to detract from Ian Theodoresen’s concise and important point about heated toilet seats, I feel bound to describe Japanese toilet technology in more detail.
Because every toilet seat Janie and I encountered was more than just heated; every toilet seat was, to a greater or lesser extent, smart.
The simplest, smart toilets had an array of coloured and lettered buttons, which we knew to be flushing and bidet functions of various sorts, enabling the user to clean up after themselves in various ways.
In the absence of labelling which we could understand…and having both lived many decades each without such functions…we felt loathe to experiment with such buttons for a good while.
we were blessed, at the Hyatt, with an especially smart loo, upon which the buttons were more elegantly labelled, with descriptive symbols leaving both of us in little or no doubt as to the function of each button.
Seriously smart loo – control panel rarely needs using.
Also, we had a bit more time in Kyoto than we’d had in other places, so we had the luxury of some additional experimentation time. Thus we both tried the various bidet buttons.
We both agreed that the sensations provided by the bidet functions were quite pleasurable, once we got over the over-riding senses of amusement and novelty.
We also both agreed that, in the functional matter of cleaning up after oneself, we suspected that such “automated bideting” was only of limited use – perhaps even lulling the user into a false sense of hygiene security.
In short – we were remaining old school in the matter of such personal hygiene for the time being.
…that our toilet got really smart. I think the idea of “luxury pilgrims lodgings” with en-suite facilities is quite new at Ekoin, so we had the very latest stuff. More utilitarian in look than the posh Hyatt loo, but seriously smart.
The control panel enabled you to do all manner of things – we barely touched the surface of those possibilities – but the smartness of this loo included a sensor that recognised that one of us was in the vicinity and lifted the loo seat up for us.
Once we were done, the sensors seemed to recognise what we had done, so it would short flush or long flush accordingly (manual over-ride was an option of course) once we had moved away from the loo – then it would sloosh around the bowl for a while, then it eventually would close the lid again.
In short, this loo seemed to know what we wanted to do…as well, if not better than we did ourselves.
Now, as many readers will know, I’m all in favour of augmented intelligence and artificial intelligence in theory…
…but in practice, we found this level of smartness emanating from the loo just a little creepy…
…also had these ultra-modern, ultra-smart loos and we are now both totally into it. We conversed with our loos, instructed them orally just in case they aren’t quite as smart as they like to think they are…
…and of course we thanked our loos for their comprehensive efforts. After all, courtesy costs nothing.
And comprehensive those efforts really can be; as Janie put it on one occasion:
I’ve just had a complete wash and blow dry on my bum.
I fear that we might have adjusted so comprehensively to our new loo environment, we’ll no doubt find it difficult to adjust back; remembering to do our own flushing and to lift/close the toilet seat for ourselves might prove tricky for us.
Predictably hilarious results might ensue unless Janie and I pay close attention to “sharpening our own smarts” again in the matter of toilet use on our return to the UK, where the loos are still so very 20th century.
We left Osaka feeling just a little the worse for wear and in my case a little sheepish for my terrible faux pas in the breakfast room, not knowing that the “thou shalt wear slippers” rule in communal rooms in rayokans becomes a “thou shalt not wear slippers” in the breakfast room of the Ritz-Carlton Osaka. My grungy trainers (the only shoes I had, since the rest of my kit had been mailed ahead to the Amanemu), were apparently perfectly acceptable and indeed several other punters were donning well grungy clobber in that opulent setting.
Daisy was starting to lose all confidence in my judgment generally, but I insisted that I was totally on top of the task of getting to JR Osaka station on time and from there to the right station to pick up the train to Shima, where five days of bliss awaits us at the Amanemu. I was indeed well up to that task.
The long haul express train (this was to be a two-and-a-half hour ride) was pretty full when we started in Osaka, but it started to empty station by station and about an hour shy of Shima it was virtually empty, so we were able to spread out and enjoy a very relaxing ride.
At Shima we were met and whisked away to the uber-up-market property that is the Amanemu. We were told that high tea is served between 15:30 and 17:00 and the staff wondered whether we would like a buggy to take us to the bar where tea is served. So we called when we were ready and were whisked all 60 or 70 meters to the reception. We’ll walk that one next time and thereafter.
Before that whisking, we were visited by a large, majestic black kite – which seemed to be welcoming us and making absolutely sure that we knew that he was there and that we were visiting his patch.
In truth, we will need the buggy service for tennis and the spa, both of which are quite long hikes from our room, but the restaurant, library and bar are too close by for us to trouble the buggy-dudes – or indeed ourselves to get in and out of a buggy rather than walk.
We mentioned on arrival that we love the taste of Kakuni and were told that the chef would prepare some for us, but we didn’t realise that chef would be willing and able to implement that request on the very day of our arrival.
We were told the good news re this evening’s Kakuni before tea and eventually were also told the good news that we could play tennis early – at 8:00, tomorrow. On reflection, I had been wondering whether later (like lunchtime) would be better for tennis, given the autumnal weather – it was hardly going to be too hot at any time of day, but our request for an early slot had been met, so we would see it through.
The Kakuni meal was good. We tasted a couple of interesting starters ahead of the Kakuni; a seseame tofu and fish concoction plus a rather interesting fishy starter with conger pike. An interesting Italian Traminer to wash it down too.
2 November 2018
We played tennis at 8:00 in glorious sunshine, but even so it was a bit chilly and we realised that lunchtime will be better for us, especially if it was not to be so sunny every morning, which indeed it wasn’t. Our majestic black kite visited us at the tennis court and let us know in no uncertain terms that the big tree beside the pavilion in front of Court Number One is also his patch.
We had a craving for some western food, so we had the American Breakfast this morning. Then we took advantage of the sun on our beautiful terrace overlooking the stunning bay.
Our next door neighbours were playing some rather naff music, so we played some early music, performed by the Savall family, further to calm the atmosphere.
We took tea again today. While Daisy was fiddling with her WhatsApp, alarms went off and an emergency alert popped up on her screen. Then there was a tiny little jolt, which turned out to be the earthquake for which we were being alerted. Daisy was relieved, because she thought she had set off the alarm by pressing the wrong button on her gadget; we’d be getting alerts every five minutes if that were the case.
We satisfied our crazy craving for western food this evening – I had a very tasty seafood linguini and Daisy had a giant club sandwich with fries. In truth, this place is far better geared up for Japanese food than western food, but crazy cravings occasionally need to be satisfied, We tried the Riesling this evening, which was nice, but not quite as interesting as the Gewurtztraminer.
3 November 2018
Before we went down to breakfast this morning, I was reading in our splendid room (we’d arranged to play tennis at lunchtime today), when I heard a thump on the front window and then saw a little bird – a sparrow – struggling on the front terrace and then lying very still.
Perhaps it had got disoriented (perhaps it was being chased), saw the lush greenery through the back window and didn’t sense the glass. It was more than disoriented now – it looked out for the count.
Daisy gently put out some water for it and we kept an eye on the little bird for a while. Then when we went off to breakfast, we alerted the maid and signalled to her that she should not disturb the bird.
We had Japanese breakfast this morning – a splendid feast of a Japanese breakfast it is too, with some sashimi, some roe and three types of grill as well as pickles, rice and miso, all brilliantly done.
When we returned to our room, the little sparrow looked much revived, tweeted at us and flew away. It really felt as though the bird had waited for us to return to thank us and let us know it was OK before leaving. I don’t think the sparrow should play cricket or even tennis for a few days though, in accordance with the modern concussion protocols.
Tennis worked much better at 13:00 than it had the previous day at 8:00 – at least as far as the score line was concerned from my point of view. Actually both days the contest had been quite close and could have gone either way before one of us (Daisy the previous day) or the other of us (me on this day) took control. There are enormous carrion crows around here and at one stage, when I lost a point in ungainly fashion, I’m sure the watching crow was crowing with laughter at me.
Our return buggy didn’t show up today, so we wandered over to the Nemu Hotel and asked them to alert the Amenemu people to come and rescue us. This gave us the opportunity to check out the Nemu restaurant, but we concluded that the Amanemu was offering a much better choice of food and that the Nemu prices, while lower, were in a surprisingly similar bracket.
We also checked out the spa after tennis and resolved to take advantage of that facility over the next couple of days, while also picking up one or two gifts.
We also still had time to freshen up and take tea, which is a very pleasurable ritual at this property.
We got more reading done and the like before dinner, which we have now resolved to make Japanese food affairs here. We chose some wonderful seared tuna skewers, a grilled chicken dish and a soba noodle dish which made for a very delicious and satisfying dinner to end another most enjoyable day.
4 November 2018
It was misty and peeing down with rain when we woke up this morning. The poor weather for this morning had been threatened, but it looked well grim and all of the weather forecasts we could find suggested that it might simply rain on and off all day, which would be a bit of a dampener.
We managed to stay dry by timing our move to breakfast pretty much perfectly. We’d barely sat down in the breakfast room when it started heaving down again. Daisy went for American breakfast today, while I plugged for Japanese.
Towards the end of breakfast, Daisy remarked that the sky seemed to be brightening, which reminded me of my own hopelessly-optimistic assessments at more cricket matches than I’d care to remember. But when we got back to the room and I checked the radar pattern for the past half hour, I had to admit that it did look as though the rain belt was moving relentlessly to the east and that we should be spared the rain for several hours at least, despite the forecasts all still suggesting that we should expect showers all day.
So, as the weather really did brighten, we arranged to play tennis again at 13:00 and an epic battle ensued, starting under brightening skies and ending in fully-fledged sunshine. The battle ended an hour later as an honourable 5-5 draw.
We asked our buggy-dude to take us straight to the spa, as we had brought our bathing costumes with us for that purpose. He kindly offered to drop our tennis gear back at the room – now there’s service for you.
Meanwhile we got to enjoy the delights of the spa – the largest onsen you’ll ever see – beautifully laid out in several pools like a sort-of steamy, mineral springy Zen garden. Inauthentic, in that you wear costumes and it is dual-sex, but all the lovelier for that, enabling us to enjoy such a setting together.
We met a very charming young couple from Indonesia, the only other people in the onsen at the time, so we took pictures for each other and swapped tales about our travels etc.
Then back to our room before tea and then some more rest…just in case we are not well enough rested…ahead of dinner.
We decided to try shabu-shabu tonight – something that neither of us have ever tried. At the Amanemu we were able to try it with the local Ige beef. Very delicious and we were given more help for this “cook yourself meal” than we had been given at Fukinomori or the Hide beef place in Takayama.
Not sure I’ll be rushing to try shabu-shabu again – certainly not at those prices – but it was very delicious and we were both glad to have tried it once. The seseame sauce is quite a highlight.
5 November 2018
Rose early and packed out big bags for dispatch to Tokyo. Then the wonderful breakfast – again Janie went American and I stuck with Japanese.
The weather was much brighter so we were able to enjoy our lovely terrace in the sunshine after breakfast. Then it clouded over a bit, but when it brightened up a little we tried the swimming pool for the first and last time. The pool was quite warm despite the ambient temperature being a little cool, so we didn’t swim for too long.
We chose to use the mini but private onsen in our room rather than the massive but potentially shared onsen at the spa for our mineral bath that afternoon (such choices!)…
…in amongst rest and reading and getting ready for dinner. It started to rain soon after we got to our room, so the indoor onsen call had been the right one.
Dinner comprised two starters – lobster ones – two very different ways – both delicious. Also braised eel with turnip and a braised pork with vegetables in a rich dark soy, with rice. All excellent.
Then a buggy back to our room for an early night ahead of our journey to Tokyo the next day – a step en route to London the day after.
All the pictures from our five day stay at the Amanemu can be seen by clicking the Flickr link here or below:
We chose to leave Koyasan on an earlier train than that recommended and get to Osaka over an hour before the suggested time – after all we only had one day in Osaka and the place sounded like fun by all accounts.
The cunning plan worked brilliantly until we got to JR Osaka station, where Mr Googlemap’s walking instructions wanted to take us through a building site and where the taxi driver (when I decided to solve the problem that time-honoured way) was incredulous at my request to take us to the Ritz-Carlton.
Whether the taxi dude simply couldn’t believe that we were Ritz-Carlton material (we probably looked a bit back-packerish on our way back from our “pilgrimage”) or whether his vexation was the ludicrous proximity of the hotel by foot (about 500-600 meters as the crow flies) compared with the loop he had to drive in order to drive us there for a fairly meagre fee, I have no idea. But for less than a Lady Godiva we got to the Ritz-Carlton, at which point the taxi driver seemed to be apologising profusely to the doormen for our intrusion.
Conversely, the doorman and then the receptionist, Seri Lee, looked after us with great charm. Yet Seri displayed far more inquisitiveness and front than we have been used to in Japan, enquiring about our trip to the mountains and questioning what it was like up there at this time of year. It turns out that she is from South Korea and has only been in Osaka a short while.
As luck would have it, despite us being so early, Seri did have a room available for us straight away which, although not exactly the specification we had requested, was on the top floor (37th) with magnificent views and was absolutely suitable for our sole night in Osaka.
So we were able to freshen up and get out around Osaka a good hour or more earlier than suggested…
…which was a good thing, because we really did use that hour and indeed all our other hours in Osaka to great effect.
We set off through the maze of subways underneath the Osaka Station/Umeyda area, seeking and finding the M line. It is far easier to find your way to railway and subway stations down there than it is to find your way to the right exit for anything else.
A helpful member of staff at the subway station made me question whether subway day passes was really the right answer for us, as there are so many choices, before I decided that my original thought (to buy the simple day passes) was correct – so I parted with £10-£12 for the two of us – the helper seemed delighted – and we had “the freedom of Osaka”…just for one day.
To Namba, which is a short walk from Dotonburi and Shinsaibashi, where we wanted to check out the eating and also the American Mura (American Village) area which is sort-of Osaka’s second hand fashion / Carnaby Street-type area. Dotonburi looked great fun and we resolved to return.
We has a good stroll and look around Shinsaibashi and even did a bit of gift shopping there.
We were quite hungry, but it was only about quarter-past-three by the time we were dunshoppin and we realised that all the best restaurants don’t open until 17:00-18:00. Anyway we just about had enough time to leg it to the Castle/Park area to see Osaka Castle, which was the next thing on our reserve list.
In truth the Castle was probably a hike too far for us in our state of tiredness – especially given what was yet to come, but we’re pleased we’ve been there and seen it. The park is pleasant, but the Castle area was heaving with people and the Osaka Castle Museum exhibition inside was only of limited interest to us. Osaka’s history is explained in detail with wall panels, pictures and models, but there are few genuine exhibits in the Castle Museum itself. The other museum (across the way in a modern building) might be better for those with the time and interest in the historic relics. The views from the viewing gallery at the top of the Castle are quite stunning, though.
Then we planned dinner. After much debate (about five minutes-worth), we chose a highly recommended restaurant near Namba/ Dotonburi, named Tsuki no Odori.
On the way, we walked past the Osaka Dome and saw a young baseball team at practice.
Hungry, we took the very front carriage of the subway…
…and we hastened our step as we started to see the lights of Dotonburi again and Mr Googlemap said we were close…only to find the place closed. Whether it had simply chosen to close for Halloween night or whether this is a more permanent closure it was hard to tell. Google said the place was open…but it was closed. How can such a thing happen?
Still, part of our reason for choosing that place over one or two other highly recommended yakitori/teppanyaki restaurants was that “Sucki no Dooropeni” was very close to other well-received places.
A quick request to Mr Google for “best yakitori restaurant near me” yielded Teppanjinja Dotomburi a full 150 meters away, a little deeper into Dotonburi and also highly recommended.
What a great place. The staff were really friendly and helpful – not brilliant English but more than enough for our purposes, as they have a menu with pictures and a choosing card in English. Highlights were the pork on ginger sticks, the giant shrimp sticks and the eel omelette ones.
The shittake mushroom, chicken neck and pork with leek ones came a very close second. In fact everything we ate there was terrific. Washed down with sake (in my case) and a mixture of beer and plum wine (in Daisy’s case).
Daisy felt that yakitori/teppanyaki chef Yukinaga deserves a named mention.
Then out onto the streets of Dotomburi around 19:30 as the Halloween celebrations really were starting to hot up. What fun we had, illustrated far better by pictures than by me waffling on about it.
Eventually we realised that we were both exhausted and set off for home…
…which worked absolutely fine until we got to the Y-line Umeda station and got confused by the subway system again. In no mood for over-extending my analogue GPS skills in an environment where the electronic one seems to get confused along with us, we surfaced and grabbed a cab which again solved our problem for a small fee.
That night my brain went into total overdrive with the contrasting sensory effects of the last 2-3 days and the over-stimulation of the previous few hours…
We rose early at Ekoin – well, we did go to bed early the night before and we were trying to sleep on floor futons.
In any case, we needed to be up early for the morning service at 6:30. So after a quick slug or two of coffee from the excellent communal coffee machine, we shuffled along to the Ekoin Temple. Unlike the meditation, which is a sort-of service for the tourists, this morning service is the real Shingon monk macoy and had started bang on time. So we were a tad late, but not the very latest of the visitors to show up.
Very hypnotic chanting – one of the young trainee monks seemed to be very good at it. The senior monk, who looks the part in every way, not least his Buddha-like shape, was not quite so pleasing on the ear, chant-wise.
I discreetly (in accordance with the rules of etiquette provided) videoed a short clip, which is hard to see but you can hear the sound of the mantra chanting and bell ringing quite clearly:
Then we attended the 7:00 Fire Ritual in the adjoining chapel, which appears to be used solely for that purpose. Again our fellow visitors seemed exceptionally eager. We reckon that we did well to be tardier and therefore nearer the door because it wasn’t half carcinogenically smokey in there. Again I discreetly videoed a short clip so you can see what it was like – the clip gets more visible as the flames rise some 30 seconds in:
Janie also took a discreet, rather evocative photo or ten in the fire ritual:
Then breakfast – a modest vegetarian meal along similar lines to, but much smaller than the late afternoon feast. The highlight was the seaweed wafers which enabled me make rice only sushi rolls.
Yes, that’s right folks. High on a mountain I was rolling my own weed. But this breakfast did not make either of us feel high.
After breakfast, but before going off for our walks, we sneaked back into the temple to take some pictures of that rather stunning space and the Ekoin monastery surrounds in good light.
We wanted to see the town and we were told that there is an excellent hiking trail up a peak, Bentsen Dake, near the town, where you can leave the town at the western gate, Daimon, re-entering through the northern, Nyonindo and back to Ekoin.
So, to get to the Daimon Gate, we first needed to stroll the length of the town, which in itself would be about 25-30 minutes walk without stopping.
But we did stop a few times; to buy some tuck in an attempt to sweeten the austerity of our diet. Also to pick up a few interesting little gifts and the like. This pilgrimage town is for sure touristic, but more oriented to local tourists and it seemed less tourist-trap like than, say, Takayama.
We also looked briefly at the largest temple complex in town, Danjo Garan, before heading for the Daimon Gate and up into the “mountain” – really just a good rigorous peak walk than a mountain.
It was glorious up there.
In the words of Kobo-Daishi:
I never tire of admiring the old pine trees and moss-covered stones of Mount Koyasan. Clear streams on the mountain never cease flowing with compassion. Beware taking pride in the superficial poisons of secular fame and profit.
So there.
As for our walk, pictures probably tell most of the story better than I can with words.
We encountered hardly anyone up there. While we stopped at a resting point, just before we reached the peak of Bentsen Dake, we heard beautiful operating singing, which seemed to be getting nearer. It was – a young Japanese woman, with a glorious voice, stopped singing when she realised we were there and seemed most embarrassed. She explained in broken English that she likes to practice her singing while walking up there.
I think we only saw one other person the whole walk, although we did hear a choir singing in the distance (down in the town) later on during our walk – perhaps that chorus was the reason the young woman was practicing earlier.
The very top of Bentsen Dake has a small shrine and not the best views – but there’s only one trail so you need to go all the way up if you want to come down the other side and see those views; also glorious.
It was much easier going down – who knew?
Back through the town, quite tired but we were keen also to stroll the graveyard by light. So we retreated to Ekoin for a while to take some tea, rest, take stock on the photos and then set off again for the graveyard.
The graveyard has a totally different look and vibe during the day. Very photogenic and far fewer people on the walking trail from the town. However, once we got over the second (of the three) bridges, we were diverted (due to restoration works) to pick up the road and the more heavily populated and commercialised route from the bus & coach stops.
In a way this was a good thing, because we might not have seen that side of the cemetery at all had the regular trail been open all the way.
There are some really weird graves and mini-mauselia there. Some with the names and logos of companies to honour. One, presumably erected by an aeronautical company or in honour of an engineer, looks like a rocket. Some are stunning in design, some garishly so.
Anyway, we had a good look around, took some interesting photos and then return to our pilgrims quarters just too late to attend meditation this afternoon. What a pity.
Still, we meditated in our own way, by reviewing our photos, then soon enough it was time for our late afternoon meal. I tucked in more heartily than Daisy, as indeed had been the case throughout our stay. Again the centrepiece was vegetables and noodles in broth, but when that broth and sesame tofu in a blandish daishi sauce are the highlights, you know you don’t want me to tell you about the lowlights.
A bit more photo-reviewing and the like after the meal – we’d done the night cemetery walk yesterday after all and there isn’t anything else to do in that town at night. We raided our tuck rations, sufficient of which remained from earlier in the day – Daisy’s acquired skills from boarding school coming in useful at last, all these years later.
Then an early night on that floor futon for the last time. Strangely – perhaps through increasing familiarity or perhaps through tiredness from so much walking – I slept well that last night on the futon, as did Daisy.
It was a fairly complicated journey to get from Kyoto to Koyasan. So rather than bore your with the details, I have decided to explain the physical and spiritual journey of a few hours in the form of 10 haikus.
furtive morning
journey planned to excess
tickets hiding
Kyoto heaving
rail passengers queuing
without us
kind travellers
assist our passage
Osaka bound
Osaka heaving
towards Shin-Imamaya
train looping
farewell throng
Gokurakubashi
beckons calmly
guard advises
carriage change needed
train uncoupling
climbing slowly
motionless waiting
Nippon Chigley
sunny hillsides
glorious images
serene smiling
Gokurakubashi
peace briefly suspended
cable car
speedy taxi
Ekoin shukubo
welcoming
Not that haikus have anything specifically to do with Shingon or Esoteric Buddhism, which is centred at Koyasan. Although the 9th century founder of this sect, Kukai aka Kobo-Daishi, wrote some mean poems before transferring to “a state of eternal meditation” in the year 835.
For those who prefer pictures to haikus, here is the latter stage of the story in pictures.
We stayed in the Ekoin shukubo, or pilgrims dwellings, where relatively wimpish and well-to-do tourists, like ourselves, can enjoy the austerity of monastic life in comparative luxury. So we had heating in the form of a mobile air-conditioning unit and en-suite toilet and bathroom of surprisingly high quality, albeit somewhat utilitarian in look.
An especially smiley trainee monk, Nori, looked after us on arrival and to some extent thereafter. Most of the trainee monks were less smiley than Nori, as were most of the guests, especially the Western visitors (it seemed to be about 50%/50% at Ekoin between Japanese and Western “pilgrims”), who seemed to be taking the experience very seriously indeed.
Not that Janie and I were being facetious or disrespectful towards our hosts – far from it – but we suspected that some of our fellow Western visitors wanted to flaunt their “more spiritual than thou” credentials. We were relieved that this shukubo went for the “dine in your own room” tradition rather than the communal dining which is the tradition in some.
But before our modest late afternoon/early evening meal (temporally misnamed by almost anyone’s standards as “dinner”), we participated in the afternoon 30 minute meditation, which (as with all the activities) is voluntary for guests.
I enquired about the floor sitting requirement for the meditation and was informed that there are chairs available for those who, like me, want to have a go but fear the consequences of trying to meditate in the floor-sitting posture for that long.
As it turned out, I was the only meditator that afternoon who wimped out for the chair – everyone else tried to follow all of the instructions, including the sitting bit. Although, as Daisy pointed out, with the possible exception of herself (on the floor) and me (sitting in a comfortable chair-seated position), all of the Western meditators started to fidget and ended up fidgeting like crazy by the end of the session.
I found the breathing element fine – I usually do – but the mind-emptying side of things is a struggle for me, as was the strange injunction to keep our eyes half open – half shut.
Soon after meditation came the late afternoon meal referred to as dinner, an ornate-looking feast of fruit, vegetables, tofu (multiple types), noodles, rice…but no meat, no fish and very little that was “full of flavour” in the way we have become accustomed to in Japan. Daisy wondered whether she could survive two whole days on such rations. I wondered if I could survive two whole minutes eating on the floor and decided that i could not – moving relevant bits of my grub onto the small table and chair provided on our covered terrace/viewing deck.
After the meal, the monks removed the food and made up our floor-futon beds. But we didn’t see that room transformation, as we had booked to do the cemetery walk that evening.
The Okunoin Cemetery night walk seems to be organised through our shukubo, which is right at the Okunoin end of Koyasan. Okunoin is the largest cemetery in Japan and is the location where Kobo-Daishi is “eternally meditating”. It is the done thing to walk the cemetery at night, apparently. As Kobo-Daishi himself said:
Why, you ask, do I compare human nature and the moon?
It is because the round and clear shape of the full moon is not unlike a mind aspiring towards enlightenment.
It should be a profound experience, but the enormous group of us, perhaps 40 in our English language group and perhaps 20 more on the Japanese tour behind us, not just from our shukubo but tourists from all over the town, made for a rather regimented event. Not least, perhaps because it was so cold at night, people were stomping along at speed and with purpose that seemed, to us, to detract from the peaceful cemetery atmosphere. The Zen lot might ask, “what is the sound of 50 or 60 space cadets peacefully marching?”…Or some such koan.
Anyway, stomp to the mausoleum we did, then the larger group split off to walk a shorter distance to the bus stop and ride home, while we and a handful of hardier folk walked back across the bridges to the town entrance. The walk back was more in keeping with the atmosphere we had hoped for.
We walked a bit deeper into town, in the hope of finding the convenience store that is said to stay open “late” – it was 21:00ish – but that place is a little deeper into the town than Daisy wanted to go to satisfy her craving for something sweet to stave off the absence of her coveted meat and fish.
So we returned to our room and the futon beds on the floor. For one reason or another or indeed for several reasons, I don’t think either of us is cut out for the monastic life. Who knew?
Having unintentionally done so much touring yesterday, we really did take it easy in the morning. I wanted to do some write ups and organise the ludicrous number of photos we’re generating; both of us wanted to rest/spa a little and be ready in good time for today’s tour and for tomorrow’s off.
So we sat in the main restaurant/grill/bar area for some while after breakfast while I fiddled around, then both returned to the room for some spa and (in my case) more writing up.
How those hours flew by goodness only knows, but we still ended up rushing to be on time for our guide, Eiji Hiraki, who had sent us a reminder note by fax asking us to be punctual.
Eiji turned out to be a quite extraordinary character. He had headed up sales for Panasonic in the Americas for most of his career until, a few years ago, (in my words, not his) retiring and taking up guiding for fun. His other avocations include mountain walking and playing Beatles songs on the guitar.
He is remarkably fit for a seventy-year-old and kept striding ahead of us, while we (surely fit enough) wanted to dwell over some things – but not others. He seemed to think that we would want to spend time and money in gimcrack shops, for example, until we showed no interest in those. But we did want to try black sesame ice cream which slowed him down a little.
Along the way, I learnt that Eiji broke all sales records for Panasonic in the Americas in his time, that Sony was his main competitor and that he spent every night dreaming of how to beat Sony. I concluded that it was far more fun being his client than it would have been to be his employee or, even worse, his competitor.
Eiji seemed a little edgy throughout, in as much as he was insistent that the highlight of our afternoon would be some drinks and snacks in a bar with/on him. Frankly, we were happy to whizz through much of the itinerary, as long as we could see the highlights and linger on the bits that interested us, which we did.
To speed up proceedings, Eiji had produced his own visual aids to explain Kyoto’s history, the way the geisha/maiko system works and so on. Those visual aids really did work, for both of us and especially for Daisy who hates guides who lecture at length, which Eiji didn’t.
So we saw the Gion district north and south, including Hanami-koji’s tea shops. We wandered around the Yasaka Shrine, we crossed the Tatsumi Bashi Bridge and thus the Shirakawa Canal.
We saw no real geishas or maikos – tourists rarely do, it seems. The streets are thronging with young women who have hired kimonos for the day – mostly Chinese tourists according to Eiji – making the area look very attractive but the geishas are going about their business far more privately.
We have long been fascinated by geishas and how all of that stuff works. When Janie and I first started to go out with each other, my mother seemed to be under the misapprehension that Janie herself was a geisha girl…at least I think that’s what mum said.
Anyway, apparently, these days, the going rate for a well-trained maiko (i.e. a trainee geisha) is about £700 per hour, which is almost enough to make a Big Four Accountancy Partner or Magic Circle Solicitor blush,,,
…I said ALMOST enough.
Once we had ascertained that there were no geishas to be seen, we jumped in a cab downtown to the junction of Shijo Street and Kawaramachi Street, where several big department stores reside and the busiest pedestrian junction in Kyoto. Eiji pointed out a couple of stores, including Takashimaya, where he rated the restaurants, especially the tempura one, if we wanted to eat straight after our drinks and snacks.
Then Eiji took us down a side street to a new bar he was keen to patronise. An extensive drinks menu and snacks list might have been the draw. Plus the spanking newness of the rest rooms etc. perhaps.
So we chatted, drank sake, plum wine and (in Eiji’s case) highballs. We also snacked on edamame beans, salmon sashimi and cucumber with a delicious sweet miso paste – we also at that juncture handed over our respective gifts and sang “All My Loving” a-capella in three part “harmony”.
A very nice, lively fellow drinker took our picture for us and then told us in painfully broken English that his daughter is in London studying fashion while working in a ramen shop and that he hoped to visit London next summer. You have no idea how difficult it was to discern that content, nor how much effort this keen chap was putting in to trying to make us understand his English. It reminded me of a Two Ronnies sketch.
I think we could have carried on drinking with Eiji had we wished, but Janie and I have no real head or stomach for boozing, especially when we have an early start and a long journey the next day. In any case, I had visions of waking up the next morning to discover that I have signed an order for several thousand Panasonic rice cookers and tens of thousands of Panasonic video recorders, so we thought best to thank Eiji and bring an end to proceedings. We headed back to the junction, said goodbye to Eiji and sort-of intended to head back to Gion for the yakitori meal we had half-promised ourselves…
…except we hadn’t tried tempura in the city of tempura and Eiji had said that the yakitori is excellent in Osaka…
…so we relented and did as the master salesman suggested – we ate in the Tsunahachi Tempura restaurant in Takashimaya, which was an excellent meal and great fun.
I managed to blob a piece of tempura squid onto my shirt early in the meal, much to the hilarity of a lady diner at the counter, who was trying to be a polite lady by missing my gaze, but clearly couldn’t stop watching us and finding us a mixture of fascinating and hilarious. The restaurant should have paid us a fee for entertaining the customers. £700 per hour would secure our services as entertainers, eh, Daisy?
We retired to the hotel by cab, tired but exhilarated by another truly fun day.
Both of us were feeling just a little below par first thing this morning; nothing specific but probably the sensory excesses of the last week or so, combined with the slight over-indulgence of last night’s wonderful meal.
We agreed that we’d make it a light touring day after the short morning activity we had pre-arranged – a tea ceremony.
We had quite a long list of things we fancied seeing, but most or even all of them could wait until tomorrow if we didn’t feel like doing much, which we didn’t.
That was the plan.
But then, we all know what can happen to plans.
The tea ceremony was very interesting and great fun. A courier with the unconventional Japanese name Jim took us to the venue, then disappeared. Nine of us in a group, hosted by the Women’s Association of Kyoto – WAK. And what a “waky” experience it was too.
Daisy and I had done a tea ceremony before, at Yaohan Plaza “back in the day”, but it wasn’t then explained as comprehensively as this and frankly I recall not much liking the taste of the matcha – i.e. powdered green tea, when I tasted it at Yaohan.
The Kyoto style demonstrated by the charming WAK lady is a frothy style of matcha, far less bitter than the stuff I recall from Yaohan. Daisy still didn’t like it much, but I am now a bit of a green tea aficionado and really enjoyed the Kyoto tea ceremony tea – slurp slurp.
Of course, the ceremony requires everyone to bow and follow a strict ritual of manners in an environment that has been very specifically set out to be a tea room – the explanatory leaflet we were given at the end of the visit runs to 16 pages for goodness sake. Most importantly, if you like the tea you slurp the last drop.
One couple in our group were relatively young honeymooners from London who, it transpired afterwards, are great fans of Atari-Ya – our Japanese fishmonger and supermarket, but they use the Finchley branch. Daisy also spoke at some length with an Irish lady from Waterford who was there on her own. There was another couple, in their case from Yorkshire. The final pair was from France (a grandmother and grandson combination I guessed, but perhaps a wealthy lady taking the current French Presidential age difference fashion to an illogical extreme.)
Revived by our cuppa and inspired by the improved weather, we decided to go to the Kyoto Botanical Garden, as Daisy wanted to see bonzai trees and we knew there was a regular exhibit of many of them.
We were near a subway line and I had worked out that the mere two subway lines could nevertheless whisk us to a few of the remaining places we wanted to see for the small investment of 600 Yen (if you were prepared to forego the right to suffer on the buses).
That subway pass investment paid a dividend almost immediately when, as I ventured to procure our entry tickets to the Botanical Garden, the nice ticket lady spotted my pass and announced a small discount on our entry tickets as a result. The sums involved are trifling yet I’m sure I looked pleased to have scored a few dozen Yen and she looked delighted to have helped me.
The Botanical Garden is a very charming place and was a great opportunity to see all manner of plants and flowers which especially interests Janie but also (in such a pleasant setting) also pleased me.
We spent quite a while there, meandering around the various well-labelled and well set out exhibits, also looking at many small show gardens which were getting ready to be judged in a competition. Some were a bit gimmicky (e.g. the Halloween and dinosaur themed ones) but many were very beautiful and tastefully symbolic.
We took some ice cream (chestnut again, I thought not quite as nutty and whippy as Tsumago, but Janie thought just as good) at the cafe in front of the central lawn. I pondered the possibilities for said lawn as a cricket pitch – you know what I’m like.
Then we looked at the bonzai trees and then felt replete with gardens. Except we still hadn’t seen the sky walk and sky garden at Kyoto Station, of course. That was a simple few stops away on the subway. So we went on there.
It still took some finding – it’s not exactly signposted but once you start going up escalators it is obvious what you should do next, whereas wandering round at ground level with our baggage the previous day looking for signs had been hopeless.
Up we went and of course the architecture of the place is stunning and some of the views of Kyoto also worth the effort. Mostly it’s the place itself, though.
Then we thought we might try to find spare batteries for our LUMIX cameras, as our models, which suit us fine, are becoming dated and/but the bit that is most likely to go first is the batteries, which are already displaying signs of holding less charge than they once did.
Almost miraculously, while I was trying to navigate around the station to get to the “camera shop near me” recommended by Mr Google to the west side of the station, we quite by chance spotted a promotional stand with what looked like Yayoi Kusama pumpkins on it.
It transpires that the Kyoto Contemporary Art Museum is showing a retrospective on her and it is open until 18:00. That museum was on my “possibles list”, although I had discounted the possibility that we might see many, if any Kusama pieces there.
We resolved to head for that place after sorting out the LUMIX battery business. We found the camera shop but sadly were informed that our particular LUMIX batteries can no longer be found in Kyoto. We should have more luck in Osaka.
The camera shop – more like an electronics and chemist department store – was able to supply us with some nice mineral bath salts and one or two other chemist-type products, so we hadn’t completely wasted our time there.
Next stop, Sanjo Kehan station, on the fringes of the shopping district and the Gion district. The shopping side looked dull whereas the lure of the Forever Modern Art Museum was greater, especially when Mr Google told us it was a mere 15 minutes walk away…
…or rather, it would have been a mere 15 minutes had we not bumped into Martin and Jane, with whom we had done the food and culture stroll around Takayama only a couple of days ago. It was really nice to see them again and to swap stories from our different adventures of the last 48 hours or so.
Soon we realised that we would need to stride with purpose if we were to be sure of getting to the Yayoi Kusama in time. We did make it and were astonished to find that it was a substantial retrospective exhibition – basically the Forever Modern has been entirely purposed for this exhibition. After all that fuss in Tokyo and knowledge that Kusama’s London show is also sold out – this excellent one in Kyoto we just walked up and paid to get in on the door. Daisy was like a proverbial pig in shit.
I also enjoyed the exhibition but my goodness we were both tired when we came out of that place. We had meant it to be a light day of touring.
We resolved to eat at the hotel, intending it to be a light evening of eating too – we both had a crazy craving for some Western food. But the set menu looked so tempting, both in terms of the dishes on offer and relative price (exceptionally expensive place for food, the Hyatt), that we relented and enjoyed Caesar salad, clam chowder, ribs’n’beef with mash/veg and an “apple pie” which was in truth a cross between Grandma Jenny’s apple pie and mum’s apple strudel. Nice wines too.
We made an early start this morning, leaving Best Western and Takayama behind on an 8:00 train. A busy but peaceful ride back to Nagoya.
Then a shorter but more heaving carriage between Nagoya and Kyoto – we were with a huge group of huge Aussies with huge suitcases – just as well we got on the train quickly and grabbed our corner of the baggage rack early. That vignette will be captured in a short King Cricket piece in the fullness of time.
We looked briefly but in vain for a route up to the sky walk and sky garden in Kyoto station – strange, as we were so close to it but it is not well signposted and probably just as well because we had our bags with us. So we got a cab to the hotel where they were able to accommodate us early in an annex room – larger, near the spa but without a view.
Losing track of time, we realised that we would be meeting our guide, Moto Suzuki, very soon, so we popped downstairs to grab a quick snack ahead of our tour. There I saw, sitting quite close to our table in the lounge section, a slightly nervous looking fellow who I guessed might be Moto a few minutes early for his gig. It was him.
Moto immediately announced that we wouldn’t have time in four hours to visit all of the sites on the list that he, Moto, had faxed to us, in a note that was waiting for us on arrival. This all seemed a little odd to me as we had very little in the way of expectations from this half-day tour before he sent his note, other than, as in Tokyo, an element of orientation while seeing some highlights of the city.
Anyway, we quickly ascertained that two temples in one afternoon would be one temple too many. I also hatched my plan, in search of the elusive dish, Kakuni, to end up in the neighbourhood where the TripAdvisor punter had recommended a restaurant, Miki, for that very dish.
Public transport in Kyoto is not at all like public transport in Tokyo. Of course it is a much smaller city, but that doesn’t really explain the disjointed transportation system, for which a spaghetti mind might just help, whereas the orderly mind would surely be prone to confusion.
Even Moto seemed to struggle with some of the whys and wherefores of it, but we set off on foot, then went to a local railway line (off the two-line subway system) where he needed to pay separately, before getting us to a more regular line where he was able to buy day passes for us.
By a mixture of these methods, including buses, Moto took us to see, first, Nijo Castle, which was fascinating and steeped in history, which Moto explained patiently and very well. The real castle part of that c1600 complex was destroyed by lightening in the early 1700s, but the larger, surrounding complex of castle buildings has been preserved.
I was especially taken by the stunning ceiling work and by one carved piece, in the partition between two rooms, carved from a single ultra-thick plank of wood with ornate designs such as peacocks on one side and a totally different, slightly less ornate, carving on the other side, despite each carving including many features that are carved all the way through the piece of wood.
What sort of mind could possibly design such a complex piece? The sort of mind that would, 400 years later, be able to navigate the Kyoto transportation system perhaps. No really, the craftsmanship was exquisite.
Nice gardens at Nijo too, together with a relaxed atmosphere when walking around the site.
Next, a comfort-lite journey, mostly by bus, to another part of town to see the Golden Temple. This is really a very beautiful reconstruction of the original temple (destroyed by mad-monastic arson in the 1950s) but in its charming garden setting and the late afternoon sunlight it was an absolute delight to the eyes and to the camera lens.
Daisy and I competed feverishly to find the very best angle and capture the light in the very best way in our photographs – hence there being dozens of them in the complete photograph deck, but in the end we decided that the match ended as a high-scoring draw.
There was a small gaggle of Russian women taking photographs of each other posing like crazy. I felt loathe to encourage them by snapping at them myself, but suggested that Daisy capture that moment. She actually snapped the best looking of the gaggle, plus separately the rest of the gaggle.
As expected, we were out of time in terms of seeing the other temple and by the time we had meandered back to the subway somewhat circuitously to avoid the rush hour crowds, we didn’t have time to see Higashiyama and also track down the Miki place for our Kakuni.
Still, Moto was very happy for me to eat his brain on thoughts for what we might see and how we might get around during our copious free time in Kyoto. So in terms of orientation, the outing was a great success…
…as indeed, it proved to be in the matter of finding Kakuni, but not in the way we expected. We took a long hike from the K-line station to the west-side location where Miki (and supposedly Kakuni) were to be found. We took some nice evening photos along the way.
We also furnished Moto with a gift of Harrods biscuits in a fancy tin, which seemed to please him beyond measure – I get the impression that only a minority of visitors take gifts for their guides in this non-tipping (but gift-accepting) culture.
We hastened our step as we approached the Miki restaurant, but…it transpired that the Kakuni was off the menu at Miki’s now. Oh woe. Oh sorrow.
It was our good fortune that Moto is a bit of a Kakuni fan. His wife makes Kakuni at home and he was even able to recommend us his favourite ramen restaurant in Tokyo; the only one to his knowledge that serves Kakuni in ramen.
The bit we didn’t realise was that Kakuni is actually a regional dish, from a southern island, Kyushu, hence its scarcity, even in big cities. Moto came up trumps by tracking down a restaurant that specialises in food from that region and phoning them to confirm that they had Kakuni available and a place for us to eat.
He then insisted on taking us to the location to make absolutely sure everything would be all right for us. The location turned out to be the plaza underneath the Mitsui Building and the restaurant named Satuma Gokamon Shijo Karasuma (don’t try saying that after two or three sakes).
Unlike most of the other (many) eateries in that plaza, our one was very full and entirely populated with Japanese customers apart from us. Nevertheless, they did (sort of) have a menu in English (a more limited card) and one waiter who spoke excellent English who could help us to go “off-piste” (or rather, “on Japanese piste” menu-wise).
We had a superb meal. Portion sizes were quite small (but then so were prices per dish), so we ordered a second helping of Kakuni (having come all this way and with such difficulty). We also tried chicken nanban and satsuma-age fish cake, both of which were excellent.
It was a great fun evening, which we could bring to a tired end easily enough, as the one aspect of the transport system in Kyoto that seems to work very well, very easily and is (relative to other cities and Japanese prices generally) reasonably priced is the taxi system – most places cross-town for a tenner or less. And the taxis can move in Kyoto too. That final lesson in orientation was possibly the most useful of the lot.
We rose reasonably early, as we had arranged a morning tour of the town, but not at silly o’clock.
For the first time in ages, we would be doing a group tour. We like to travel independently and so, to the extent that we take tours, we usually arrange private ones. But our agent Tim recommended this and a few other tours we’ll be doing in Japan to be best taken as group tours and we trusted him. Spoiler alert: Tim was right as usual – we had a great morning.
We had been given just a simple joining instruction in our pack, to be at the Takayama Jinya Main Gate between 9:15 and 9:20. I guessed that this was a place where many tours gathered and wondered whether we’d find it difficult to locate our particular guide. But in truth most of the groups gathering there were Japanese tour groups so I quickly spotted out guide, Momo, with an English couple, Martin and Jane, waiting for the rest of our group.
I soon learnt that Martin and Jane are from Kendal but that they do not like mint cake. Soon another pair joined us; Travis and Keely, from Sacramento, California. Then just one more couple, Peter and Janet from York. We were complete.
Momo took a group picture of us all in front of the Takayama Jinya Main Gate and then continued to take pictures of us throughout the tour which she then sent to us later that same day – such is the modern way with group tours perhaps, or some extra care and attention in Momo’s excellent approach to guiding.
This was basically a food and culture walk, with more food than culture on the itinerary.
To make my life easier, Momo’s covering note with the photographs explains our itinerary…
…except, of course, that the itinerary only tells you what formally happened. Informally, there was a whole load of other stuff going on, not least because we were a very curious group of eight people. I don’t mean weird-curious…
…although some of us, me and Daisy included, might be thus described…
…no, I mean we had eight people all exerting their curiosity and interest in the sights, smells and tastes of Takayama, while wandering around, theoretically in a group.
Momo answering one of Ged’s trickier questions
At one point, Keely described looking after our group as an exercise in cat-herding and I thought that was a pretty spot-on description. Yet somehow Momo managed to keep a watchful eye on all of us and gently cajole us in top following the route she had planned and sort-of doing and seeing the things she had chosen for us.
Lots of photos – some of which are peppered in this Ogblog piece, tell the tale better than words. Some of the photos were taken by Momo, others by me and Janie. If Janie and I are both in the photo, then you know it was Momo – we’re not selfie stick types…yet.
Everyone in the group was really good company – we found out a lot about each other and our various journeys through the culinary elements of life. Some had been fussy eaters when younger but had relented over the years; one or two of us were still quite set in our ways with regards to food and were finding that aspect of Japan quite challenging. Janie and I were probably the most familiar with Japanese cuisine before the visit to Japan.
The conviviality was, of course, assisted by the visit to the sake shop to sample several sakes at around 10:00. That must be the earliest in the day that Janie and I have taken alcohol in living memory. Writing this up early (6:30ish) the next morning, I wonder whether I will get a “it’s sake o’clock” feeling when we are on the train to Kyoto at 10:00. (Editor’s subsequent note: no I didn’t).
The town is geared up to people going around and sampling food and drink, it seems. For example, we made an impromptu stop at a miso shop that wasn’t on our itinerary and sampled their miso.
We tried some street food along the way – no I don’t mean the above children or dogs.
I was the only person in our group who braved the takoyaki – octopus dumplings. Very hot temperature-wise but rather interesting in taste and wonderful textures – the goo of the dumpling then the chew of the octopus.
Soon after that, Daisy and I got chatting to an antipodean mother and daughter combination; Marianne (I think) and Sophie. But where were they from? The mother’s accent was French but I’m sure one of them said they were from Perth. Daisy came away from the conversation convinced that they had said that they were from New Zealand…quite a difference.
A whole-hearted debate about the origins of this unusual antipodeans ensued – Travis even opened a betting-book on the question and Daisy chased after the pair to interrogate them further. Daisy eventually returned, having heard the mother’s entire life story, claiming that both of us were right, as although the pair were sort-of from Perth, they had also lived in New Zealand. So all the bets were off.
Meanwhile the tour was coming to a conclusion. We all took tea/coffee and some mostly savory nibbles in a tea house at the end of the food stall market…
…and then strolled back to the centre of town via a confectionery store.
There the tour ended, so Daisy and I presented Momo with a gift of some English nibbles (Harrods I think they were, or perhaps Fortnum’s) before saying goodbye to the delightful group who had helped make our morning very special.
We strolled a little on our own, not least stopping at an interesting furniture-oriented department store (Takayami is renowned for its carpentry)…
…but only really to kill a little time before getting the bus to the Hide Folk Village.
The folk village is a falsey in a way, as the medieval houses have been transported from various other parts of the country.
But the houses have been placed artfully around a rather beautiful artificial lake and the interesting displays that have been placed inside them – authentic from the point of view that the relics relate to the houses (or at least the villages from which the houses) that have been transplanted to the Hide Folk Village.
In short, it made for a very charming and informative stroll. Hardly a Western tourist to be seen at that site – quite a lot of Japanese tourists and school groups though.
We returned briefly to our hotel just to wash and change in preparation for an early evening visit to Ajikura Tengoku, the restaurant we couldn’t get into yesterday, to ensure we got a table.
Ahead of our meal, though, we encountered a rare example of poor service in Japan as my laundry at the Best Western Hotel Takayama came back with a significantly higher price than expected. The laundry decided that my casual cotton shirts should be priced as overcoats and that my simple cotton trousers required a premium of a few quid over the (already very high) rate on the card, all for no apparent reason.
Daisy got quite incensed by all of this as a matter of principle, not least because the hotel functionary insisted that I bring the laundry back down for him to examine and then only tried to put matters right with a derisory couple of small coins, rather than the actual amount I had been overcharged.
Irritated but determined not to let such a small matter (a few quid, albeit a matter of principle) ruin such a lovely day, I simply resolved to get Audley to complain on our behalf and to report in detail on Trip Advisor a warning about how laundry happened for us at the Best Western Hotel Takayama.
Far more importantly, we had a date (but not a booking) at Ajikura Tengoku, so off we set to ensure we got there about 17:30, within half an hour of the place opening. There we found a tiny queue (we were second in line) and were in business within five minutes of our arrival – success.
Note for anyone who thinks that 17:30 is ridiculously early…when we left the place just after 19:00 there was a great long queue and the staff were already putting out the “full for the evening” signs.
Anyway, we got to try the wonderful local Hide beef and pork on a yakiniku grill. So once again we ended up cooking our own dinner and paying for the privilege of doing so!
What the hell do I do with this stuff?
Let me show you what to do, sir!
Got it…
…I just hope Daisy doesn’t photograph my undignified exit from this low table
No seriously, that restaurant is a very good place and although the meal was quite pricey, it was nowhere near the £100 plus per head prices in some of the more high-falutin’ looking places in town where the reviews are lower-falutin’ that the Ajikura Tengoku reviews.
So we had a very special meal to round off a very special day.
However much I try to be ready ahead of an earlyish travel day, it always seems like a bit of a rush in the end – this morning was no exception.
Of course there was bags of time when I rose, with difficulty, from the futon bed at 4.00 am to enjoy the onsen for one last time and relax myself sufficiently to go back to sleep again before 5.00. Of course there was loads of time to do some writing up first thing when I did rise properly.
There even seemed to be bags of time when we went down to breakfast at 7:45 with little left to do. Yet that Japanese style breakfast takes time even when you don’t want to eat all that much of it…
… so when I couldn’t find the version of the key that had the safe key on it, 20 minutes before our transfer bus, I did start to worry.
But of course I had only temporary mislaid the key and of course I was still downstairs and had settled the bill 15 minutes before the shuttle bus.
When Janie emerged five minutes or so after that, she was carrying not only her own bag but also that of “Mrs Tinker”, with “Mr & Mrs Tinker” following behind.
I must now explain about that couple, who were also staying at Fukinomori. To protect their identity we shall refer to them as Mr & Mrs Tinker. They clearly didn’t seem at all happy. We had heard Mrs Tinker grumble about her food and the fact that Hideo couldn’t speak English. We had heard very little from the Tinker table at meal times; he seemed to speak hardly at all. They didn’t seem at all friendly. I did hear them at the front desk the previous morning making their arrangements to leave, so I knew we would be on that shuttle together and I guessed they might be travelling our way.
It reminded both of us a little of The Taylor Couple Saga in Malawi (deep in those notes but eventually to be Ogblogged), where we noticed a disagreeable couple early in our trip and discovered that they were following us around for most of our Malawi holiday.
But unlike the Taylors of Malawi, the “Tinkers of Japan” turned out to be a pleasant, but unfortunate couple who had been blighted by her mobility health issues between booking the trip and setting off for Japan. Like us, they were using Audley travel. Like us, they were travelling next to Takayama. Naturally we compared notes.
Strangely, the Tinkers were scheduled (and reserved) on the express train from Nagoya to Takayama at 11:43, over an hour before our reserved train at 12:48 but only eight minutes after the local train arrives at Nagoya.
There were other English speakers on the shuttle bus (a nice Aussie couple) and on the local trains (a nice Scottish couple from Nantwich), which helped pass the time.
Meanwhile, I hatched a plan to try to get to Takayama earlier than expected, by dint of us helping the Tinkers to get to their train on time and us grabbing a couple of unreserved seats on said train…which worked.
In the unreserved car, Daisy and I snacked on the ginger snap-style biscuits that Janie bought in Tsumago for just such a snacking urgency. A Japanese family showed us how you can rotate seats to sit foursome style or airplane twosome style. As the unreserved car was not well populated, we took advantage of thus double-seating.
Not that sort of unreserved car
Why we were recommended a later train whereas the Tinkers were recommended the quick change is a bit of a mystery. The Tinkers had not gone through Tim at Audley and perhaps Tim felt that the eight minute turnaround at a big station was too tight to mention. Certainly Mr Tinker was worried about that aspect of the journey and for sure the Tinkers would have struggled to make it on time without our help.
Still, in the end, we helped the Tinkers and the Tinkers helped us. They seemed extremely grateful to us for our help and disappointed to discover that we wouldn’t be leaving Takayama on the same day.
So, here we were in Takayama with a bit of extra time on our hands. We checked in to the Best Western, efficiently picking up our forwarded baggage.
Janie was very keen to see the Yoshijima Heritage House, which was not scheduled on our tour and I thought, if we had time, would be an excellent short visit that first afternoon, followed by a stroll back through the Sanmatchi (Old Town) district. So it proved.
Janie took loads of photos in the exquisit and tranquil Yoshijima Heritage House, which had been the home of a wealthy money lender and sake maker.
We then strolled to the heaving Sanmatchi district – possibly not the best time of day to see it if you want a sense of tranquility there – it was heaving with tourists and schoolchildren fresh out of school- but certainly a good time to pick up on the vibe of the street food snacking that is the hallmark of this unusual Japanese town.
We decided to follow the lead of our Dutch friends in Tsumago and try the green tea (in our case mixed with vanilla) ice cream. Janie thought it tasted a bit like Odono’s green tea flavour, which made her realise why she sees so many Japanese people in Odono’s. So as we thought, not especially unusual for us – unlike the chestnut flavour which doesn’t seem to have made it to Takayama.
But that place turned out to be full and you cannot book – you simply have to turn up in good time – we planned to try again tomorrow. So, all dressed up with no place to go, I reverted to TripAdvisor and Google, to find what I thought was a highly-recommended pub-restaurant named Hu.
We ate a splendid simple pub meal of pork ramen, gyoza, fried chicken, fried rice and sake. Served well and efficiently – the owner-chef seemed delighted when I let him know we thought the food was delicious. We turned up at just the right time as the counter filled up soon after we arrived as did, briefly, the low-level eating area which would not have suited us.
Thus we had found exactly what we had been looking for through a flawed method. We’re on holiday – who cares? – the bit that matters is that we had a good meal and a good time.
