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| bullet train |
Bullet trains just started running between Tokyo, near the
Pacific Ocean, and Kanazawa, across Honshu Island on the Sea of Japan. In the morning and evening the express trains
run, but we took a midday bullet train that stopped in a dozen cities along the
way. Even so, it only took 3 hours,
passing through endless tunnels and across high bridges as we went through the
mountains literally from sea to sea. The
high mountains are covered in snow and even many of the towns and villages have
a surprising amount of snow for mid-April.
When the bullet trains slide into a destination station like
Tokyo or Kanazawa, an array of cleaners waits at attention next to the doors of
each car.
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| train cleaners |
They quickly replace all the
head protectors with clean cloth, wipe down the seats and tables and vacuum the
entire car. All this takes about 8
minutes because, in Japan, the trains run precisely on time. Next the cleaners hop out at each door and
again stand at attention until the doors open for the orderly lines of
passengers waiting to get on.
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| samurai soldier |
Kanazawa is a city of about 500,000 people which, fortunately,
was not bombed heavily during World War II.
Its old samurai section lines the narrow canals of the old part of the
city. The shogun did not live in
Kanazawa, but kept a close watch on the feudal lords who ruled the area. To keep them from rising up against him, the
shogun always required the wives and oldest sons of the various feudal lords to
live in the capital near him as hostages of sorts.
These lords always feared for their lives. In Kanazawa, we visited the Ninja Temple, a
large Buddhist temple that had rather extraordinary protections and escape
routes for the warlord. These included
secret rooms and stairways, hidden doors, trap doors that could send an invader
plunging to a small room below, where soldiers waited to kill him, paper panels
that hid other soldiers and let them watch for shadows of enemies entering the
space and spear them in the feet, and 7 levels of rooms on 4 floors in a
building that looks like it is only 2 stories from the outside. None of these devices was ever needed, but
were a source of comfort to the warlord.
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| untended graves |
Nearby, we walked through s small cemetery. There were many old gravestones neatly
arranged against 2 sides of the cemetery.
These were from graves where families had died out so had no one to care
for them anymore. The stones were
brought here so that the cemetery caretaker could tend them.
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| garden at samurai house |
One samurai house is particularly notable, as it is large,
beautifully built around a lovely small garden and very well-preserved. The large rooms are all covered with tatami
mats, as are most Japanese homes even today, where the family would gather to
sit on the floor and sleep on futons placed on the floor.
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| alcove in samurai house |
Consequently, these were multi-purpose
rooms. In the cold winters, families
would congregate around a fire in an urn placed below the floor level. This was the only heat and would rise enough
to warm the second floor rooms as well (though I can’t imagine it did much to
keep people toasty).
Our ryokan was very traditional, so we slept on futons on
the floor. During the day, the futons
and down comforters are put away in a closet and the room has a low table on
the tatami matted floor with 2 chairs, seats flat on the floor, for
sitting. Fortunately for us, the ryokans
also have an alcove with 2 higher chairs and a small table since sitting on the
floor can be a bit hard on unaccustomed joints.
Each room has a small alcove that holds a flower arrangement and a
scroll. In family homes, this will
usually be a shrine, often with an altar.
This ryokan also has one of Japan’s best restaurants for kaiseki cuisine
and we enjoyed a superb meal at the inn.
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