Tsumago again

We took our 2nd hiking trip between Magome and Tsumago over Golden Week. (The historic post towns along the old Nakasendo, that connected Kyoto and old Edo (better known as Tokyo). Most of the buildings in the two towns date from the Edo Period (like early1600 something to mid 1800 something – obviously you don’t want me on your Trivial Pursuit team). Most of this stuff was in the October 2005 post so if you’re interested, check it out.
Spring is definitely an interesting time to go. First…the place is packed with people…the weather was gorgeous and everyone decided that a trip on the old road was a great activity (probably not a sentiment shared by the daimyo’s of the olden days). In contrast to the fall scenes shot earlier, here are some wonderful spring offerings.

Tsumago - 2nd round!

The picture of the path took a while to get...we had to wait until it was clear of people!!!
The path was originally paved with the stones you see there. I'm not so certain that they really helped the footing. The stones are uneven and difficult to walk on, though I suppose that during the rainy season they might have been nicer than the mud.

Meiji Mura

Meiji Mura is an “open air museum” that takes you on a trip into the past. It includes buildings from the Meiji period (1867) through the Showa period (1989). The architecture from these periods is characterized by a strong influence of western ideas and techniques. The fusion of Japanese style with Greek columns, ranch style houses, gothic churches and more led to some very interesting structures.
Probably the most famous building is the entrance and lobby for the Tokyo Imperial Hotel, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and originally completed in 1923. It was created in a Mayan Style that is really interesting. The bricks are all different shapes and while they are art by themselves, they blend together to create a really interesting structure.

Meiji Mura Post Office

The post office is still working. You can sit in the center, write a note and actually mail it there. It’s really an interesting building, the main section is round and it includes a history of postal services around the world. Now...the Japanese was lost on us but the pictures of different boxes were cool. Actually, all of the different buildings had explanations in Japanese, English and Korean so it was easy to learn about each building.

Meiji Mura again

Here are some more of the interesting buildings at Meiji Mura. The first one is the entrance porch to a girls’ religious college. The 2nd picture is that of a ‘foreigners’ home in Kobe. They even had a completely separate building in the back, connected by a covered walk on the 2nd floor, for servants.

Meiji Mura Train

The train at Meiji Mura is a coal powered steam train. It runs on a single track from the top of the hill down to the midpoint of the museum. At either end, the conductors turn the engine around on a “hand powered” turn table. They put on quite a show for the kids…big and little…with lots of steam, many whistles and lots of waves.

Hanami 2

Another picture of hanami (read the article below for more information). The hillsides are just spectacular!

Hanami: Cherry Blossom Viewing

Hanami, or “cherry blossom viewing’ is taken very seriously here. There are websites available that track the blossoming of the famous sakura blossoms, letting you know when you might expect the ultimate viewing experience. The local trades people, not to miss out on an opportunity for a festival, set up their stalls ahead of time so that they’ll be ready for the matsuri (festival) the minute the blossoms come out in force.
The week before is a tease. You can see the promise…the tiny buds, the slight pink shade to the trees, the mountainside taking on a pink hue. A few bold blossoms poke out but the rest are still slumbering. And then…the moment arrives. ALL of the blossoms seem to unveil simultaneously. We went to work in the morning, noting the pink, the handful of blooms peeking out and the brave trees in full bloom but nothing spectacular. On our way home, the same day mind you,....oh my gosh it was like a switch had been turned on and EVERY tree had bloomed that very afternoon. Gorgeous!!!
Needless to say, the vendors went into high gear, the blue tarps were laid out under the trees, the sake (or beer) was purchased and people began VIEWING with a passion. We went to Tsuramai park on Saturday, a horribly windy day with a strange sun (thanks to pollution from China cascading into the region). It was cold, it was threatening to rain, it was gritty, but the people were everywhere. Some people had placed their blue tarp out with a note giving the group name and what time they’d be arriving AND, lo and behold, people respect that and the tarp will be waiting for you when you arrive after work (only in Japan….).

Asuke Revisited

We took off to Asuke on what promised to be a beautiful, sunny, warm day. Once again the promise of sakura was in the air. The drive was fabulous because the mountains were just barely tinged with a hint of pink. Asuke itself was in ready for action. The entire entrance was filled with vendors, all trying to sell you various handmade crafts, some exquisite and others that were…well…interesting.
Even though we have been there a number of times, we still discovered new things. They have a wonderful restaurant in the back of the traditional village – and it’s all Tofu!!! I was thrilled. It was truly delightful. We tried out a number of different things on the menu and were delighted with all of them.

Visiting Japan

This has been quite a week, taking Mom around to all of our favorite places here in Japan. We began with a trip to Nagoya Castle where the Sakura blossoms are attempting to bloom. The entire country is on edge just waiting for the day to come. Every place is set up, waiting for the blooms and all of the crowds that will follow.
Nagoya Castle was quiet still…a few blossoms to ooh and ah about but the promise is there. This particular weekend they had a number of programs already in place. Numerous groups were playing for the, admittedly, small crowds. We did get to see a ninja presentation that was very entertaining, even though it was all done in Japanese. They were quite good and very funny.

Izu Coastline

The trip home was plagued with rain but the advantage was it kept the tourists home. We had a delightful trip following the coastline and viewing some of the spectacular scenery.

Izu Peninsula

Jeff decided that Gabby, our navie system, needed an outing so we took off for a long weekend on the Izu Peninsula. It’s one of the hot spots to travel to here in Japan and particularly popular with the folks in Tokyo because it is so close. We learned, through a prolonged, attempted, sightseeing excursion one afternoon, that the eastern side of the peninsula is actually one large parking lot. Fortunately, there is an inland route to get to the tip and we used it on the way down. There is even a spiral bridge on the road…we made 2 complete revolutions coming down the bridge…just like in a parking lot but free-standing in the middle of nowhere!!!
Except for our rather dull crawl up the coast (we gave up after 2 hours-took us a while to figure out it was pointless), we spent most of our time in Shimoda.
History alert!!! This city/port is the location where the American Black Ship, (Kurofune in Japanese), entered in the 19th century. Prior to this there was a national isolation policy which had preserved Japanese heritage by making any exchange with foreign countries illegal. Whew! end of lesson.
The port and the surrounding areas are gorgeous. We spent most of the morning hiking between Shimoda lighthouse, Tsumekizaki and Sazaki, a neighboring fishing village with its own, smaller lighthouse. It was our only sunny day and the view and scenery was spectacular.
Later, we took the ropeway up to the top of the hill that overlooks the port where the Black Ship entered. They have a lot of information about that first contact. It’s interesting…we’ve been told that school books here portray Perry with a slightly wild look to him….

Home delivery

We came upon this truck, unloading large machinery, on our way out of our ryokan. The road is quite wide at this point, but he's using the whole thing. We had never seen a truck up in the air like this. The man was very quick as he switched two machines, bowing to us as he raced from one to the other. When he finally brought the truck back down to a more normal setting he bowed once more and then quickly moved the truck.

Those wide streets

Here's a picture of our car coming up a two-way street! (it's actually the road to the ryokan as well as a number of homes) Obviously, you’ve got to wait your turn. THEY race up and down it…we crawled. To top it off, it’s roughly a 110 degree turn into this road.

Unique Signage

There are some things that are just very different here in Japan. One is the stray road sign you might just encounter.....

The sunsets were outstanding. We had a hotel with a view of the setting sun and was it ever a treat to watch it nightly. The colors, the peace, the serenity, the cows…it was definitely a picture perfect opportunity.

Fish Zoo

One thing we did get to do on the boat excursions was to stop by a fish market. Not the run of the mill market we think of…it was kinda like a zoo as well as a market place. They had some fish that were there just to show the tourists…hence the picture of me feeding a manta ray!! It fluttered up to take the food, though I have to admit I dropped the food more than I actually got it in the guys mouth! The kids were much better at it.

Island Hopping in Malaysia

The claim is that Malaysia is the land of 100 islands and the Langkawi area certainly works at providing its portion of the 100. It is surrounded by a large number of small islands, some of them very, very small islands, imagine car size. We spent one day on an island hopping tour, again on one of the small boats, though this time with about 10 other people. This time they took us to some of the small islands to spend some time. The day was gorgeous so we had a wonderful time soaring through the water, smacking into the backwash from other speeding boats and having water splashed up into the boat as the drivers raced to the first island. I actually think their goal was to get to the island as fast as possible because then they got to lie back on the boat for and hour or so while all of us crazy tourists took a walk UP the hill to the small lake hidden in the jungle. Well..it’s actually not hidden very well because there’s a walkway heading up to it, complete with toilet facilities (that you pay for), drink stand (no ice) and, when you get to this hidden lake, they have paddle boats available for only a small fee. So much for back to nature.

After their siesta, we visited a beach for more swimming and lounging around, us on the beach, them in their boats. Here again they had a food hut…perhaps the destinations were chosen by the availability of facilities to fleece the tourist??? It was pleasant to swim, the water warm, the beach clean (for a beach) and I just like being warm and in the sun!!!

Bats in Malaysia

Bats! We got to see bats in their caves!!! We cruised on the little river boat up to “Crocodile Rock”. There they manipulated the boat INTO the mouth of the cave, coming very close to the top of our boat. However, we were well rewarded with a view of bats roosting inside the ‘belly’ of the crocodile. They also took us to a nearby cave where we could walk through and see the limestone caverns along with hundreds of bats. On my side of the lantern, it was cool to see so many bats up in the far reaches of the cave. I’m sure on the other side of the light, the bats were not too pleased to be disturbed in the middle of their night. Some fussed and watched us pass, others just snuggled into their wings and attempted to ignore us.
With over 100 different species of bats in Malaysia, I have no idea which bats we had the opportunity to disturb.

Mangrove Swamps

Mangroves happen to be the weirdest trees I’ve ever seen. They look like they have these long, spindly legs that they stand on, almost like they’re ready to walk out of the swamp on their own.
Now…since the rest of us don’t have boats or the knowledge of the swamps and the swamps have all these crocodiles and snakes and bats and insects living in there (it’s a cool swamp), they have come up with a fool proof way to treat/fleece all of the tourists…excursions into the swamps. Our two guides took us off into the mangrove swamp, first stop watching the eagles feed. Now we were totally impressed. The eagles were circling overhead, performing aerial tricks, swooping in, latching onto small fish…the perfect photo opportunity. I just had to know what fish was in such plentiful supply to have so many eagles all in one place, repeatedly diving in for the kill. Well…it’s a very rare species designed to convince tourists that the eagles always congregate in one spot to eat their favorite food…chicken skins.