Newly renovated and stunning, Himeji Castle

Himeji Castle

For the last 8 years, the Himeji Castle has been under renovation and closed to the public.  It reopened about a month ago to huge crowds.  Fortunately, we arrived early and were able to get tickets to see the buildings and grounds immediately.  Quite a fantastic place.

 

upper stories of Himeji Castle from ramp

First, the castle looks very different from the European variety.  While it originally encompassed a very large area and many of the original walls remain along Himeji's city streets, the main part of the surviving castle consists of a huge multi-storied white building soaring above the courtyard below.

support post

The castle was not designed for comfortable living, but for the defense of the local warlord and his family.  In an attack, they would go to the top floor, defended by samurai and an array of architectural devices and tricks that would confuse or ensnare the enemy.  Like the Ninja Temple in Kanazawa, there were hidden stairways, narrow alleyways and convoluted passages that could be more easily defended in case of attack.  If all else failed, the warlord planned to set the building on fire, with the central part of the building acting like a flue, drawing the fire quickly up to the top floor where he and his family would all die, presumably in glory.

This large structure is supported by 2 huge pillars of wood and very large wooden beams in an elaborate latticework of posts and beams and crossbars.  Stone walls form the foundation and also protected against an assault.  No one ever attacked the castle, not that the warlords weren't dispatched in other ways as rivals sought their power and privilege.

charm protecting castle's roof

Hiroshima is a sobering visit

the Dome--bombed out exhibition hall near ground zero

We've visited Hiroshima several times before and, each time, come away sobered by the horrific effects of war in general and the atomic bomb in particular.  I wish every member of Congress had to visit Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park and Peace Memorial Museum to see what happened to this city (obliterated) and the people who survived the blast (indescribably hideous).  Maybe it would temper the rhetoric about taking on and taking out a country that disagrees with us.  Just maybe it would encourage better diplomacy and less hostility.  Maybe, too, if the Iranians had to visit the Peace Park Museum, they would be less enthusiastic about building their own nuclear bomb. 

exhibition hall just before bomb blast

The Peace Park is not focused on blame; instead, it is dedicated to eliminating nuclear weapons from the world's all too huge arsenal of destruction.  The Japanese blame themselves even more than the U.S. for what they call the Pacific War and for bringing on the destruction that befell Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945.

exhibition hall right after bomb blast

But, nothing speaks like the terrible photos of burned and bloody survivors, many with their skin hanging off them in sheets, clothes fused to their bodies from the heat of the blast.  Mostly they died in utter agony within hours or, at most, days.  The response was rapid, with even the Allied Forces providing some medical supplies, but nothing could deal with the enormity of the disaster.  The fact that Japan didn't surrender immediately, which resulted in the attack on Nagasaki 3 days later, is appalling to anyone who visits here, particularly to the Japanese people.

We can only hope this never happens again.

Japanese school children in Park

One of the few hulks of buildings left standing is the Dome, the remains of the Exposition Hall.  While most of the few remaining buildings were demolished, Hiroshima's citizens wanted to keep the Dome as a reminder of the bomb blast and the horrors of war. 

Children's memorial

peace flame

Across the river is the main part of the Peace Park, with its memorial to the children who died that day and after, an "eternal" flame that will not be extinguished until every nuclear weapon in the world has been eliminated, and a monument that contains the names of every victim of the blast, including those who have recently died from the effects of radiation poisoning from that day.

monument with names of those killed by atomic bomb and aftermath

 

The world's most beautiful museum--the Miho Museum

cherry trees along path to Miho Museum building

Just outside Kyoto is the Miho Museum, designed by I.M. Pei for the Shumei Christian sect to house their exquisite collection of ancient artifacts and Japanese art. 

tunnel leading to museum

The museum is set on a mountainside with wonderful views of the surrounding mountains and the valley below, in a nature preserve with strict building requirements.  In keeping with the beauty of the location and the rules of the preserve, only 20% of the building is above ground.  To actually construct the museum, the top of the mountain was removed while the structure was built--a 4 year project--and then carefully (and, they say, lovingly, which I would agree with) replaced, complete with a new forest, each tree and bush planted by a caring hand.  Looking at the site today, you would never know that only 15 years ago, this was an open construction site.


mountain azaleas on reconstructed and replanted mountain

Pei wanted a serene building and a peaceful entry to the museum, so you walk up a path lined with weeping cherry trees (in gorgeous bloom right now), then pass through a silvery tunnel until you walk out the other end with a perfect view of the museum's entrance.  Once inside the main lobby, you see a 150 year old pine tree that Pei carefully placed (it was moved from elsewhere) to welcome the visitor and blend the space into the natural environment outside.  The interior is a soft, warm limestone.  The lighting is natural in the lobby area, but very muted in the exhibition areas.


museum entrance from tunnel

I've photographed some of the artifacts from the museum's book just so you can see the quality of the collection.  Unlike so many museums which crowd their collections together so they are a bit overwhelming, Miho places its pieces in their own lovely spaces, making it a wonderful and peaceful experience to view them.  Everything is calm here, which is what the leader of the Shumei and Pei both wanted.  He clearly took great pride in designing this incredible building to fit perfectly into its surroundings and to display the beautiful collection.

view from lobby with I.M. Pei's pine tree

I think it is the world's most beautiful museum because of the gorgeous location, elegant and peaceful building and remarkable collection so perfectly displayed.  The feeling I have while in the museum (this is my second visit and I'll be back again) is hard to describe--it's not just calm and timeless inside, but also slowly-paced so that you feel like you can completely enjoy each piece and each space on its own.  There are museum staffers in most rooms, but they sit in a quiet, dark alcove so, unlike every other museum I've visited, do not intrude on your contemplation of the art.  If you go to Japan, don't miss this exquisite museum just outside Kyoto.

Chinese funerary panel

Buddhist scross

crowned Buddha (probably Khmer)

Iranian necklace

Egyptian deity

Greek pegasus

Asian goddess








 

A thumping good time at Kyoto's Honky Tonk Bar

band playing at the Honky Tonk Bar, Kyoto

On our last visit to Kyoto 7 years ago, our guide, Aki, took us to the Honky Tonk Bar where he is a regular.  The Honky Tonk, located in a remote part of Kyoto, hasn't changed a bit since we were last here.

It's a Country and Western dive, complete with Japanese C & W band, local singers and a dance floor which gets more active as the evening wears on.  On Monday nights, anyone who wants to sing C & W, in English, of course, gets a chance to join the band for a song or two.  And, Aki, who is a charming crooner, sang a number of times last night, to wild cheers from our group of enthusiasts. 

Aki crooning at the Honky Tonk Bar

Aki loves to sing Country and Western tunes, complete with his Western clothes and black 10 gallon hat.  He was joined by several Japanese women and a couple of men who were there for the pure pleasure of singing their favorite music to the accompaniment of an animated band playing with skill and fervor.  Honky Tonk has been just the same for nearly 45 years, so obviously C & W has at least some following in Japan.

Don and Aki singing "Country Roads" at the Honky Tonk bar

We had a wonderful time, singing along and, a couple us, dancing while the beer flowed and the music thumped.  Don took his turn with Aki to sing "Country Roads" which the Japanese patrons thought was a highlight of the night.

Gokoyama and Shirakawa-go in the Japanese Alps

mountain valley with river near Gokoyama

This area of deep mountain valleys used to be the center of Japanese papermaking.  Those days are over and the region has primarily a tourist economy with rice and wheat farming on small plots.  We visited Gokoyama to learn how paper was made when it was an important industry here.  We even tried our hands at making a little paper, with a lot of help.

making paper

Japanese paper is made from the inner bark of the mulberry bush.  After boiling, women strip bark off the branches then clean off the outer bark, leaving the soft inner layer.  After several more boilings and lots of pounding, the fibers have separated.  An emulsifier is added which gets all the fibers lined up in a row.  The papermaker then dips a frame filled with a screen into the thick mush of fiber and water several times and dries the mixture before peeling off the paper.  Takes much more time than it sounds like it does.

Shirakawa-go's A frame houses



old shed in Shirakawa-go

In another valley is the old farming village of Shirakawa-go, now a tourist town of steep-roofed, A-frame houses roofed with reed thatching several feet thick.  The roof lasts about 20 years.

recently re-thatched house

When it is leaking sufficiently, the entire community gets together to pull off the old thatching and put on a new roof, usually within a couple of days.

Inside, the houses are much like those of Hida Village in Takayama, with large first floor rooms and an open space upstairs where silk worms used to be raised for making silk fabrics.  The family rooms have tatami mats, but much of the houses have wide planked wooden floors.  The heat came from urns placed in fire pits and the family sat around the pit, on cushions on the floor, to eat, sleep and try to keep warm during the long winters.  When we were there a couple of days ago, there was still snow on the ground, even though it's late April.

Takayama--Denver's sister city in Japan

9700 foot mountain near Takayama

Takayama is the largest city in Japan by area, 850 square miles, but has a population of only 98,000.  Over the years, smaller towns joined Takayama, seeking better city services, thereby extending the city's boundaries enormously.

The city lies in a pretty valley in the Japanese Alps.  Its old downtown area runs along a canal which, right now, is lined with beautifully blooming cherry trees. 

cherry trees by river

Takayama has several blocks of its original houses still standing, now home to an array of tourist shops, inns and restaurants.  One old pagoda stands near the center of town next to a hundreds-year-old ginka tree.



Takayama pagoda

But, Takayama's main attraction, in addition to nearby ski areas and sake breweries, is the Hida Village, a park-like setting where the original houses of the region's farming families have been moved.  The houses were taken apart piece by piece and reconstructed at the Hida Village so that the stories of these families' lives could be told to visitors as they tour the buildings.  More than 30 houses were moved to Hida Village.

Hida house

The families and their animals lived on the first floor of the homes that included stables for horses and cows.  Second floors were for sleeping or storage, sometimes for making paper or other crafts.  These homes must have been incredibly cold in the winter.  Most have doors opening off the second floor, often 12 or 15 feet high, that could be used in winter when the snow was too high to use the ground floor doors. 

Hida house with snow door on second floor

A fire urn in a pit in the main living room was the source of heat for the entire house.  Sometimes as many as 50 family members lived in the house and would gather around the fire pit to try to keep warm.  I imagine the ones towards the back of the crowd shivered.  They all wore many layers of quilted jackets.  I can only guess how often they bathed, so the long winters must have resulted in a pretty smelly crowd of people and animals.

Besides farming, the families made and sold horseshoes of rice stalks, steel tools and farming implements and wooden utensils, tools and sculptures. 

Hida horseshoe

Each house had both a Buddhist and a Shinto shrine as most people then and now practice both religions.  Shintoism is an animist religion that Japanese feel is very compatible with their devout Buddhism.  People still take care of their ancestors graves and souls and visit Shinto shrines to pray to the animist gods that inhabit them.  Shrines, we are told, are for gods while temples (Buddhist) are places where monks live.  Buddhism is their way of life and Buddhist temples are very important parts of their lives.  The Hida Village has a number of shrines.  Certainly, the villages where these houses used to reside also had Buddhist temples.

Around Takayama (and other parts of Japan), you find 6 jizus lined up, wearing red bibs. 

6 jizus at Hida Village

Jizus are the Buddhas who take care of the souls of young children who have died young and therefore given their parents only misery.  Because of that, their souls are not eligible to go to heaven--but the jizus take care of their souls and guide them to heaven.  It is a lovely concept to have a special Buddha just to take care of children who have died and a great source of peace for their parents.

Jizu in ginko tree by pagoda

Hida beef is a prized food of the region.  It is very rich, as it is perfectly marbled, so delicious and melt-in-your-mouth tender.  You can't eat very much because it is so fat, but it certainly does have a lot of flavor.

Japan Alps viewed from Takayama Castle

A rollicking dinner with the Mayor of Takayama

Dinner with the mayor of Takayama and his colleagues

Denver's sister city in Japan is Takayama, set in a valley of the Japanese Alps.  As we did the last time we visited Takayama, we invited the mayor to have dinner with our group at our ryokan.  Today's mayor was the vice mayor when we visited 7 years ago, so we had already met him.  While his predecessor was reserved and formal, this mayor likes a good time, is very jovial and a lot of fun.

view of Japanese Alps from castle above Takayama

 We all dressed up in yukata--Japanese kimonos which, luckily for us, the ryokan maids put on us as we stood still, stupefied by the array of required moves and pieces essential to properly wearing a kimono.  They cinched us in tightly, reminding me of Scarlett O'Hara's complaints when she had to wear a corset to a party (so she wouldn't eat too much).  We were all somewhat breathless by the time the job was finished, but looked sensational when we greeted the mayor! Even though we could only take mincing little steps as our legs were rather tightly bound in place by the kimono.

We hosted dinner, so the mayor bought the drinks.  Takayama is a major sake producer, so he poured their finest for us.  When we asked him to tell us about the sake, he leaped up, ordered 2 more bottles of different kinds of sake (one unfiltered and milky white and the other a lesser distillation), and proceeded to fill our sake glasses while regaling us with the details of making each kind of sake.  We all drank everything he poured while he simply tasted, with the expected results.



welcoming song, compliments of our Japanese guestrs

Next up was a welcoming song for us, which the mayor and his 2 colleagues sang, kneeling on the floor in front of our table.  They wanted us to sing a song in return, so, since our guide, Akira Sato (one of the best guides we've had anywhere in the world and guiding us for a second time), sings country and western at a local bar in Kyoto, his home, he led us in a rambling rendition of "Oh Susannah" before moving on to "Home on the Range". 


our guide, Aki, leading us in "Oh Susannah"

The mayor eats dinner out every night, with some group or another.  He obviously enjoys himself with other people.  I asked what his wife did and he said she stayed home and ate whatever she liked.  Not sure that sounds so great, but it's not unusual for Japanese wives.

The Nakasendo Trail--a hike not to be missed

apricot and cherry trees along the Trail



walking through Tsumago

The Nakasendo Trail wound through the mountains between Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo) in the days of the warlords and samurai.  Along the way, there were post towns where travelers could stay in inns on the 450 mile journey.

Today, in a light rain, we left Magome, one of the post towns, for a 6 mile hike over a pass to Tsumago, another post town. 

scenery at beginning of hike

And what an incredible hike.  The cherry trees and apricot trees are blooming in full and gorgeous color right now, along with shrubs and daffodils.  We walked along a wide trail through cedar and bamboo forests, passing through a few villages along the way.  While Magome burned several times and was rebuilt, Tsumago has most of its original homes and shops, refurbished inside, but maintaining their 200 year old character outside.

The trail crosses streams with lots of waterfalls as they drop out of the mountains into the steep valleys. 

a section of the Trail



 

bamboo forest

apricot trees with forsythia

Fortunately, it stopped raining after about an hour, so the second half of our hike was cool, but dry.  The  rain, however, kept the usual crowds of Sunday hikers to a handful, so all was peaceful.  I will fill this page with photos and encourage anyone visiting Japan to include this lovely hike as a way to see a part of Japan you cannot enjoy in the towns and cities.

perfect camellia along Trail

old cedars

 

                                                                     wild mountain azalea

daffodils along trail

cherry trees along trail