My Visit to Japan
Š 2013 Steve Solomon For further reading: http://www.professorsolomon.com/japanbookpage.html
T O K Y O Planet Wide City From the top of City Hall Twin Towers in the Shinjuku Section of Tokyo the city spreads out in every direction to the horizon as if the entire planet consisted of just one city. Even if you board a train and try to flee the city, you can ride for an hour and still think you're downtown. With a population of about 12 million people in 800 square miles, Tokyo is more like a county than a city. It consists of many large distinct neighborhoods.
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Shops in Daizawa near the train station On a weekday morning people wander on the narrow streets toward Shimokitazawa Train Station and shopkeepers prepare for the day. By late afternoon hundreds of young people crowd the streets, the youth oriented shops and restaurants, and loud video game parlors.
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Baseball Players In Daizawa near where I was staying with my friends there is a beautiful park running down the center of a street where motor vehicles are prohibited. Years ago there had been a little creek there but that had been paved over. Later above that the neighborhood decided to start another creek. Waste water is treated and recycled as a clear flowing stream which runs for many blocks. They’ve planted a great diversity of foliage and flowers and school classes have established gardens
and dragonfly preserves. Some children fished for prawns although they had to throw them back.
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Daizawa Bicyclists I no longer felt out of place because most everyone there walks or rides a bike or motor scooter. Because they don’t drive they are not so separated as in the US and because of that they are nicer to each other, and the streets are safe enough for everyone to walk around all night.
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Family on a bike in Daizawa Typically the whole family would pile onto one bicycle.
T O K Y O Daizawa Park Photographer We encountered kids with butterfly nets on long poles and men playing Japanese style board games. There were other photographers out there too. One of the oldest public baths in Tokyo is near the park. You can recognize it by the tall chimney in which they probably, like many other public baths, burn wood from housing being demolished.
Walk in and leave your shoes in an old wooden locker. Be sure to take the wooden key with you. Inside you can use another locker for your clothes and there’s an attendant to take your money, a carp pond, and of course a nice hot shower and bath.
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Old fashioned dimestore in Daizawa Earlier I had visited the Shitamachi Museum near Ueno Park, and was fascinated by their recreation of a 1920’s Tokyo dime store. It had reminded me of the jammed-packed dime store heavens of my youth in Ohio, and many of the toys were the exact same brands sold in my neighborhood in the 1940’s. This filled me with both nostalgia and regret that no such thing existed any more. Then during my last week in Tokyo a friend pointed out this nearby shop close to
Shimokitazawa Station. It still existed! And it still sold the same stuff! You can still buy the same brands of practical jokes we used to get when we were kids, but there was also candy and bubble gum packaged for modern children’s tastes.
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Out of Business Bookstore This bookstore had gone out of business, but the books were always available for about a dollar apiece. Just leave your money and take a book. I have no idea what the graffito is about or even whether it is a question or a suggestion.
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Nakamise-dori Nakamise-dori is the shopping street near the Senso-ji Buddhist temple in Asakusa. This is a wonderful place to find schlock postcards, unavailable in most places we looked around Tokyo. The street leads up to the temple from the famous Kaminari-mon gate with its enormous lanterns and pesky young rickshaw drivers. Because this pedestrian street pulls in so many tourists you may well find yourself
approached by someone wishing to practice his English on you for a few minutes. At the other end of the street right in front of the temple is a huge incense cauldron whose smoke is so healing that most folks stop by to waft it onto their babies or rub it into themselves.
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Asahi Shinbun Pressroom One of the world’s largest newspapers. There are four thousand employees at the Tokyo Head Office, and do they ever have a great employee cafeteria. The view is great, the prices low and the quality high. I wish I could work there, cleaning rugs or anything!
T O K Y O Pigeon feeding Very near the Senso-ji temple incense cauldron was a little hut selling bird seed for feeding the pigeons. One of the children had chappatsu dyed hair just like his young mother. A large portion of the population dyes their hair this color, and even though they often do it to stand out from the crowd it seems to be always the same color. Still it was nice to see.
T O K Y O Recycle Bins Everywhere you go in Japan you will find containers for bottles and cans, newspapers and magazines, and burnables. They can’t afford to dump it just anywhere, because there’s just no room. In the U.S. we’re still under the illusion that there’s room.
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Ticket machines Actually this photo is from a city other than Tokyo, but it shows the machines quite well. First look at the map above and find your stop (It will be written in Chinese characters, so have a map handy with those characters written down. Next to the name of your stop will be the children’s and adult price of the one-way ticket from where you are. Put that much or more in the machine and press the lit button for that fare and—voila!—you will be given a ticket and change. When you put your ticket in the
turnstile it will let you through at the same time as it gives you back the ticket. Don’t lose this ticket—you will need it to get out of the station when the train arrives at your stop! Yes, you guessed it: I forgot once, but they did finally let me out of the station after some explaining.
Hiroshima
Hiroshima Wide rivers come flowing down from the mountains to pour into the inland sea, and the city of Hiroshima is built around them. The word Hiroshima means wide island and indeed there seemed to be a lot more breathing room here after rushing around Tokyo. Missing are Tokyo’s vast jungle of interconnecting subways and trains and in their place we find a pleasant trolley line and a fleet of buses. One bus will take you very close to the large well-equipped Youth Hostel up on a hill overlooking
houses, schools, and graveyards. Even if you meet an Americanlooking person, in all likelihood they’ll be from somewhere other than the United States. There’s a nice hot tub with room for at least ten men and there’s another in the ladies’ wing. The food is simple and nicely prepared and a there is a handy coin laundry next to ubiquitous vending machines with green teas, beers, and an imaginative variety of other beverages.
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Youth hostel neighbor Out of breath walking up the hill to the Hiroshima Youth Hostel I met a man who was not apparently out of breath at all and happy to stop for a photograph.
Bicycle escalator How practical are the Japanese! Since this bicycle parking lot is on the second floor of the building across from the train station, they have made an escalator. Simply put your bike on it and walk alongside.
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Bicycle commuters Bicyclists would often surround you like flocks of birds. Often near the youth hostel I would be surprised by a number of schoolgirls on bikes rounding a corner or flowing down a hill, but I was always too late with my camera. So I had decided that no matter what I’d get a picture of this type of experience. These folks are on their way to work and the street is about a block from Hiroshima Station.
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Bike racks Everywhere were ingenious bicycle parking areas, covered to protect them from the rain. Most people ride older bikes of the “ladies� bike type, with its low center horizontal bar. I guess this makes it easier to get on and off fast and the rider has more flexibility in crowds and can just put his feet down quickly and thus avoid being thrown to the pavement. Also most of the bikes which I saw being sold in stores utilized real disc brakes in the rear wheel for fast stopping even on wet roads.
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Other parking options Of course, people need to park, and they’ll do it wherever they can. Amazingly enough hardly any bicyclist wore a helmet. The motorcyclists were obliged to do so by law, but apparently bike riders were waiting for some famous pop star to do it first.
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Hiroshima traffic From a hill on the edge of Hijiyama-koen park I watched the morning commuters—students and business people on bikes and in cars. I’d gone to the park on a sort of pilgrimage to the Manga Library, which happened to be closed for inventory that week. So I tried to find the observation hill noted on a map but became totally lost. At that point a very nice couple, husband and wife, offered to walk with me to it . I was delighted to find that for the hour we were together, though we chatted happily in Japanese without stop, I understood everything they said
and they understood me. It’s nice when something you learn to do actually works in the real world. On the way we passed through the site of the joint U.S. and Japanese hospital for the care of radiation victims of the atomic blasts. It was quite a large military style complex of buildings. The couple offered to drive me into town and left me off at the Peace Memorial Museum, where I’d already been the previous day and had hoped to go back to in order to take photos with low light film.
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Bomb Dome I stood on the bridge which was considered ground zero to the blast, but actually there was no ground zero because the blast was detonated about half a mile above the city in order to have maximum impact. It was very strange and amazing to look at the ruins and realize that this new thriving metropolis had been built on the flattened bare irradiated earth in so short a time.
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Bomb Dome from up close The rubble has been left piled inside as if the blast has just occurred.
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Hiroshima before the atomic blast In the Hiroshima Peace Park is a really wonderful museum, and it is dedicated to the thought that atomic weapons should never be used again on earth. Visitors enter and are able to view on the walls photos of the early years of the town and of the increasing military madness which led to such disastrous results. In this museum the people of Japan take responsibility for their sorrows and don't blame anyone
else. Here on the first floor near the entrance are two large models of Hiroshima in 1945. One shows the city just before the atomic blast and one shows it just after.
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Hiroshima after the atomic bomb When we see pictures of a city in rubble many of us can only relate it in our minds to scenes of modern urban renewal. You have to picture this more from the point of view of someone living there at the time. Imagine yourself standing there looking around at your city. Most of its inhabitants are women, children and the elderly because the men are away fighting. Most of the inhabitants are quite hungry, even starving because the supply lines have been cut off for a year. And also present are 40,000
slave laborers brought from Korea to work in the war effort. Yet the city is alive with the cries of children, the sounds of the summer crickets, motor vehicles, and bicycles. And people can be seen walking here and there on their usual errands. Then it’s all gone.
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Teacher and students in the Peace Museum There are several models in the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima Peace Park which show the city after the blast. Students were noting their impressions in class notebooks and instructors pointed out important things on the maps. Near this model is a portion of a wall into which a shadow of a pedestrian is etched by the light of the blast. There are also tall pillars plated
with engraved letters from the mayor of Hiroshima. These are copies of letters sent to each nuclear nation on the eve of an atomic test blast as pleas to refrain. Next to each is a copy of the letter sent in protest after the blast.
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Touch exhibits At this exhibit people are encouraged to touch the tiles from buildings caught in the atomic blast.
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Two Girls in Hiroshima Peace Museum It was not unusual to see Japanese girls holding hands. These two teenagers were looking at artwork of blast survivors.
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Colored cranes Children bring these vividly colored and very imaginatively constructed paper crane sculptures and chains from all over and place them below the children's monument. The monument was built with funds the children collected themselves, and beneath it hundreds of kids gather with their classmates to sing.
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Tour group Every group has a guide and usually that person has a distinctive hat and uniform and a little flag so that you can see her above the crowds.
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Boys in Hiroshima Peace Park These two pals came over to me to say hello in English. They were very surprised to hear my response in Japanese.
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Hiroshima Peace Park Family on Bike In Hiroshima too mothers would frequently be seen riding their bikes with one or two children on board. In this case one of the kids simply decided to fly behind. In all Japanese cities the roads are exceptionally well maintained, and bike riding is relatively safe.
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Below the Bomb Dome Apparently one school project involved writing about a famous statue of children. I wish I had asked to see what they were writing.
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Hiroshima Station Before you board the Shinkansen bullet train for a long ride back to Tokyo you may wish to stop at one of the stands selling bento boxes. Each city and town has its own peculiar style of meal and packaging. Even on the long distance train as the young vendors roll their carts down the aisle you will notice that the bento style changes with each city you are traveling through.
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Miyajima
Miyajima Island Miyajima island in the inland sea near Hiroshima is still considered a sacred place, but it is also a popular tourist spot for Japanese families and school groups. It is the home of the famous Torii gate in the water pictured in a million postcards. That gate was under repair and surrounded by scaffolding at the time I was there, but the giant torii gate pictured here seemed quite remarkable. You had to pass under it to get from the ferry terminals to the important sights of the island, and with its great span
and the sweet sea air flowing through and around it, there was a feeling of much more than a mere marker in the road. Once I was returning to the ferry and was considering passing around the gate by walking right along the shore when a woman walking alone in front of me stopped, took off her shoes, bowed deeply, and only then passed through the gate. I decided to go through the gate.
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Sacred Deer On Miyajima, as in Nara, deer have long been considered sacred and people are not allowed to kill them. Of course this doesn’t stop boys from playing around. Signs warn visitors against standing directly behind them.
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Itsukushima Shrine The shrine was begun in the sixth century, but because of the sacred status of the island, upon which common people were forbidden to set foot, it was built on piers and approached by boat through the famous torii gate in the sea. In one wing there are many large colorfully painted vats of sake donated to the gods and the keepers of the shrine.
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Shrine Omiyage Throughout Japan in both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines priests will be selling a variety of things: postcards, amulets, books and booklets with information about the place and its history and so forth. Sometimes you can buy a small piece of wood on which to write your prayer.
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Miyajima Island窶認our Friends There are lots of school kids of all ages touring the famous spots in the summer and at the time I was visiting school was not yet out, so many groups were touring with their teachers.
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Teacher and class This teacher was showing his class the purification basins near the shrine. They rinse out their mouths before entering the sacred place.
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Garden in the Miyajima Historical Museum A large old Japanese merchant house has been converted into a museum with a fascinating collection of furniture and implements of daily life in household and trade. In one section of the museum is a collection of sculpture and drawings, including interesting old tourist maps of Miyajima. There is also a large three dimensional map of the island showing the mountains in accurate scale and so realistically constructed that I attempted to shoot photos through the glass case without
reflections in order to have what might look like aerial shots. In the courtyard of this old house is a beautiful quiet garden with koi swimming in a pond.
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Kids outside the Miyajima Aquarium I met up again with an elementary school tour group which had been visiting the shrine earlier. This is the largest aquarium in Western Japan. The kids were having a great time, and we all attended a terrific show of trained sea lions. An electric eel aquarium sent boys running in surprise by making loud electrical zapping noises whenever the eels discharged, and a meter behind the eels kept track of the voltage. Because sea life is such an integral part of this nation and of its diet the life forms on display held
perhaps more significance to the Japanese children than they would have for most Americans. In outdoor aquarium ponds kids were able to stalk around on rocks looking at the water curiosities just as they often did near their homes after school with their nets and backpacks.
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Miyajima aquarium The Miyajima Aquarium houses 13,000 rare fish from all over the world.
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Miyajima hillside worship places In a splendid setting between the lush green mountain slopes many Buddhist and Shinto shrines exist side by side as if it were one unique temple complex. In this photo I believe both are probably represented, with Buddhist style statuary and Shinto water lad le, but I don’t really know. Many times you will find statues similar to this known as Jizo along a road or path. They are protectors of travelers, women and children and, though they appear similar to Buddhist sculpture they exist more in the realm of local folk beliefs.
Along the roads people take it on themselves to clothe these images with bibs and bonnets to keep out the cold. Here it appears that the keepers of the shrine have selected the garments.
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Religious Sculpture
The hillside is so crowded with steps and statuary that all sorts of ingenious locations are found for the stone residents of this community. In that way perhaps it is a little like the population of Tokyo.
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M I Y A J I M A Baby Kannon The merciful aspect of Buddhahood, usually given female attributes and known in the West simply as the Goddess of mercy, is Kannon. This seemed quite unusual to run into a beautiful little Baby Kannon on the hillside.
M I Y A J I M A Origins of Modern AnimĂŠ On the same hillside lane nested among the same shrines this little figure was simply standing there almost lost in the bushes. I could not believe my eyes. Was this a joke or was this where popular animation characters come from? Another possibility is that this is indeed a modern sculpture which has found its way into the folk art realm of the Jizo along the paths.
M I Y A J I M A Path up Mt. Misen from Momijidani Park Momijidani, or Maple Valley, Park is one of the prettiest woodland parks I have seen. I met a happy bunch of children crossing a bridge who tried out their English on me and argued about who would take the photo of all of us until their father stepped in and snapped the sharpest picture yet from my Dad’s little camera. Except for some English speaking teenage boys and their Mom they were the last folks I saw until most of the way to the top of
Misen-san. The pathway up seemed like one which must have been walked for centuries. Although once in a while it posed difficulties for tired legs, apart from the mosquitoes it was quite a blissful walk, and I kept thinking: “Wow, feng-shui at every step!”
800 Year Old Fire on Mt. Misen Of course I forgot my Hiroshima Youth Hostel friend’s advice to bring water for the climb. Near the top there is a plateau of sorts with several large shrines and a forest full of monkeys. There is also this smaller shrine in which a large cauldron sits over a fire which has been kept burning for the past eight hundred years. A woman tends the fire and probably the amulet stand just outside the door. One of the other visitors showed me how for a donation a pilgrim could take a cup and ladle out some of the hot liquid from the cauldron. It's only hot water,
not tea, he told me, but to me, sitting on a bench shaking and thirsty from the exertion of the climb through the woods, honestly, it tasted like the best hot tea I ’d ever drunk.
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Top of Mt. Misen On Mt. Misen you can begin to understand why it is something so basic to Japanese religion that nature itself is holy. At the top of Misen-san there is a fine observation tower from which you can see the four corners of the earth. A lady tends the snack stand there, and all of it is nestled between the sky and mysterious rocks. "Take care," she said as we bade farewell. "I will," said I as I tripped over a rock and fell flat on my face.
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Mountain shrine It is difficult to describe what the atmosphere is like when you sit alone at an ancient shrine on the side of a mountain in the midst of an inland sea and gaze out through a tori gate.
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Schoolgirls touring the island Back on earth after giving my knees a break and taking the cable car down from Misen-san I ran into a group of lively schoolgirls. They adopted me for several minutes and we took pictures of us all together.
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Asuka and Nara
A S U K A Asuka fields Asuka was the first capital of Japan 1400 years ago. Now it is mainly farming villages. In the hills are millennium old burial mounds of the first emperors which to the uninitiated appear to be odd little hillocks topped with clumps of trees. Below are acres of rice and patches of squash and other vegetables. Although near Kyoto Asuka is off the path of foreign tourists, and I noticed few school groups. My friend and I stayed in a lovely Minshuku, a family dwelling in which lodging space has been
& provided for guests and meals set out at night. In our Minshuku we felt very lucky for both breakfast and supper was far more delicious and exquisitely presented than in any restaurant we had dined. During our three day stay we also had the pleasure of many interesting conversations with fascinating guests who had come to trek the hills. History was so thick in Asuka that I sometimes felt as though I were wading through it as one would through a rice field.
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Shrine and offerings A bibbed Jizo and flowers sit on a hill near the Junior High School and close to a tomb which was opened, researched and then reburied with an enormous air conditioning system which should keep it intact as long as there is electricity in Japan. Normally Japanese cremate their dead, but in the Asuka period nobility were buried in an almost Egyptian way with beautiful murals to gaze at and handy things to take with them. Later because of the spread of Buddhism, with its preference for
cremation, mound building practices disappeared. Before that, however, huge “Kofun� were built. one as massive as the great pyramid of Egypt.
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Rice Planter The one time I really wished I had carried a camera with a good telephoto lens—to zoom in on her beautiful smile.
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Asuka Temple Buddha The large cast bronze statue in Asuka Temple is one of the oldest in the country, and seems to me to have very Indian features. Asukadera was the first true Buddhist temple in Japan (596) and the statue has been sitting in this area for 1300 years. There are other interesting artifacts at the statue’s feet and in a little corridor nearby.
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A S U K A Map of Asuka area Many museums in Japan have beautiful topographical models mapping the areas in history or the present. They are incredibly detailed and quite large. This one seems to show almost every house. Surrounding the maps are labeled buttons which light tiny bulbs pinpointing the areas you want to see.
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A S U K A & On the road back from Sakura to Asuka
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A S U K A Junior High School in Asuka This photo was lightened up considerably to make sure you saw the shoes at the entrance. The school was located above the rice fields in a little farming community just down the hill from ancient tombs.
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A S U K A Bamboo graffiti Above Asuka’s cement factory with its tiny mini-cement trucks there’s a hill with a small mysterious carved rock which attracts lots of visitors. Normally one doesn’t see much graffito in Japan, but lots of these bamboo around the rock were inscribed. Perhaps that hill path was a kind of lovers lane.
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Photographer goofing off Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. There are lots of these photo stands and, after missing my opportunity to be photographed at one outside the Miyajima fire station I was determined to have myself photographed at every one of these I ran across. In the background is a group touring another mysterious old rock structure which is thought to have been a tomb.
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Suido No matter where you wander around Asuka’s farming community irrigation channels are your constant companion. Because we were visiting during the beginning of the rainy season water was gushing down from the hills along dirt paths and city sidewalks, and it flowed into a swift-flowing central irrigation canal and from field to field. Many rice fields had their own little floodgates plainly visible.
Rice fields in Japan are centuries old and one of the country ’s great treasures. If abandoned they could not really be easily reclaimed to the same fertility and might even be paved over in the mad rush for housing. W e should think twice before we insist on their taking more rice from us to the ruination of their own rice farmers as well as their way of life.
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Jizo
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A S U K A Photographer on top of UFO in Asuka Had I been there only a few more weeks I would have instantly recognized pond scum from the surfaces of the rice fields in late June. As it was, however, after I had scampered up the side of this monolith by rope ladder in the rain I mistook it for moss on stone and stepped down into very old brackish water up to my pockets.
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A S U K A Tanzan Kannon Shrine In the green mountains around Mt. Tonomine the Tanzan shrine complex includes a shinto shrine dedicated to the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, Kannon.
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A S U K A Fortunes For a hundred yen (about a dollar) I was able to get some pretty observant and detailed fortunes. Others before me had hung theirs on the fence.
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Todaiji Temple in Nara The largest wooden building in the world, this temple houses the Great Buddha, one of the world ’s largest bronze statues, begun in 746 in response to a plague. Although it is 437 tons and covered with gold many of its visitors are more excited about going around behind the Daibutsu to see a tall wooden column. It is said that if you can squeeze through the hole in the base of this column you will be enlightened. Teachers, as always were happy to help their charges through the
path of enlightenment. Although for some it was a bit scary and for those who had overeaten the path was rough most emerged as if reborn.
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A S U K A Enlightened Soul A typical expression of kids coming out the other side of the Daibutsu’s column. They were having such a great time I think I took almost a whole roll of film while watching them.
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A S U K A & Nara temple complex incense burner Nearby many temples there are large incense burners whose smoke is thought to cure physical ailments if wafted onto the body. At a large cauldron by the temple near Nakamise-dori in Tokyo I had watched mothers direct it onto themselves and their babies. For the kids here in Nara I guess the burners were also a good place to meet.
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Kyoto
Rain at Kiyomizu-dera Temple
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Kyoto Train Station Perhaps several photos of Kyoto’s new train station are in order. This station is stunning in size and complexity. Some religious groups were still complaining to the city government that it had violated local zoning codes for height, but they may have also been jealous of its beauty and great popularity. The area around this station is always bursting with activity. There are large department stores nearby and of course a large central bus
terminal in front. The station itself held many stories of shops and galleries, restaurants and theaters. Even more surprising was the life underground, with seemingly endless mazes of subterranean shopping malls
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Kyoto Station on Sunday I was wandering through the station when I heard my favorite anime music playing over what I thought was a remarkably good speaker system. Then I decided it must be a live performance by the Kyoto symphony and boarded one of the many long escalators which carried me high into the sky. Halfway up as I fell in among a thousand seated spectators I turned to see that it was a girls’ high school band!
The station had been left open at the center to include an open-air stadium with the escalators running like Jacob’s ladder up to heaven.
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Kiyomizudera Temple Fortunately Kyoto was spared the firebombing during World War II which destroyed so much of Japan’s architectural heritage. One of the most famous of Kyoto’s Buddhist temples is Kiyomizudera, which means pure water temple. It is built on the side of a tall hill and approached by a steep tourist path called Teapot Lane, lined with souvenir shops from bottom to top. Like so many marvels of building in the Kyoto area this temple is con-
structed on a massive wooden latticework, just a small portion of which is shown in this photo.
K Y O T O Kiyomizudera Fountain Maybe the most popular attraction on the temple grounds is the waterfall. It is said that if you drink this water you will become very wise indeed. It is channeled over visitors who can scoop this precious water out of the air and get smart quick. I don’t think it helped me much, but I took before and after pictures of my friend to see if we could discern any difference. Smart or not, everybody under the waterfall was wearing a big smile.
K Y O T O Top of Teapot Lane Near the temple were these folks. My friend encouraged me to put ten yen in one of their begging bowls and when I did the robed figure bowed to me about as slowly as a human being could possibly bow. Of course I tried to emulate the bow, and teenagers coming up the lane couldn’t help remarking on the weirdness of the entire scene.
K Y O T O Tenryu-ji Temple A famous Zen temple down the tracks from Utano Youth Hostel with a 14th century water and rock garden by a renowned zen garden master. I had never seen so many tatami mats in one building before. Here also was an incredible goofy zen painting of a huge dragon which occupied the entire inner wall facing the opening to the water. Walking around the corner to view the next room I was surprised to find the tail of the dragon rounding the corner too and residing on yet another wall.
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Room with a view With the dragon painting on the wall behind them visitors could sit and meditate on the interesting shapes of small rocks jutting vertically out from the water while large carp jumped and frolicked about.
Hokkaido
Night Train Hokkaido is the northernmost of Japan’s four major land masses. Although its major city, Sapporo, is toward its southern end, the trip from Tokyo takes 16 hours and is best accomplished by night train. The wonderful old train I took, “The North Star” consisted mostly of sleeping cars, and many of the folks were taking it for a second honeymoon. Out my window as stations whizzed by I could see tired folks waiting for their local subway style cars and the most beautiful landscapes one after another. Probably most anywhere you go train travel beats highway travel for scenic view, but in Japan the unfailing unending beauty of this trip kept me staring out the window for hours.
I slept through our passage under the sea through an incredibly long tunnel and woke up in a landscape quite different from those of the day before. Gone were the fields and hills kept tidy for thousands of years and town after town nestled among them with rice fields up to the backyards. Instead of those picturesque Japanese houses with tiled roofs here were sturdy blocky frontier houses with flat, easily shoveled tops, and sturdy windows and walls. A little vegetable garden out back or even side or front completed the scene. Fields of squash and rice stretched far out to unruly evergreen covered mountains which showed no signs of man’s intrusion. This was going to be fun.
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Sapporo Cowpokes Hokkaido was inhabited mostly by the Ainu, aboriginal inhabitants of Japan who are often mistaken for Westerners when they trim their beards and don Western clothes. Only about 120 years ago did Japanese from the Southern Islands begin their serious migration northward, and even now most folks in the South head up there only for vacation, mostly to get away from the rainy season. But Hokkaido is far north and too cold for most Japanese to want to live here. Those who do live up here are quite proud to be very different
from the rest of the Japanese, and they have adopted Western styles of architecture more often than the traditional famous Japanese styles. The symbol of Sapporo, in fact, is a Western style clock tower. Your trip is not complete without a photo of yourself in front of it, and pedestrian traffic signals, instead of beeping or playing tunes, make the sounds of a cookoo clock. Downtown you can put on a cowboy hat, board a mule-driven wagon, and ride around the city.
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Odori-Koen Odori-Koen, or Park Street, is the Mother Church and the center of life in Sapporo. Everyone sooner or later goes out to enjoy themselves. There were mothers and children, teenagers, business men and women sitting, walking, or biking, enjoying the fountains and grass and that long hidden hearth fire sun. In Tokyo everyone is in constant confusion because streets are seldom named and there is little logical order to their designations. Sapporo’s ingenious solution is to name all streets according to how
many blocks north or south of Odori-Koen they lie, and how far east or west of another famous boulevard. And it really helps. If you’ve emerging from an underground subway totally disoriented and the street sign says West 10 South 5 you have at least a fighting chance. In Tokyo you’d be lucky to even find a street sign.
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Downtown Sapporo Odori-Koen crosses many blocks from a tall transmitting tower at one end to the University Botanical gardens with their Ainu Museum, stuffed animal museum, and acres of interesting flora. Underneath run several subway lines with extensive shopping malls. If you’re wondering where the population of Sapporo went and you don’t see them in the park, they’re downstairs shopping.
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Sapporo on Sunday After my return from the northern cliffs I found everyone again out there on a Sunday playing guitars, riding around on scooters, picnicking, sitting, people-watching—still enjoying the sun before wind and cool air returned as its custom in the afternoon around four. Maybe this regularity of the change in weather is why the city has chosen its old clock tower as a symbol. Three wacky young ladies with guitars were out there singing “Oh when the Saints Go Marching In” over and over just like groups in the States who don’t know any other song.)
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H O K K A I D O Sapporo Musicians Lots of groups come out on Sundays, and they don’t mind at all if you throw a hundred yen coin into the case. Above them looms the transmitting and observation tower, and you can take the elevator up for a view high above the park.
H O K K A I D O Salmon Museum Between some fast flowing streams in the suburbs of Sapporo is a place dedicated to educating about salmon. Many different types are kept in little aquariums, and research is carried on in regards to health and preservation of the fish. There’s a nice little library and lots of interesting exhibits. This one is a wooden replica of a large salmon cut to the same weight as a real fish. Visitors are
encouraged to pick it up and see how much one actually weighs.
Seabird Preservation and Research Center Reaching Haboro on the Sea of Japan Coast from Sapporo required an express train to Fukagawa, then a breezy little local train to Rumoi near the coast. From Rumoi there’s a bus which runs up and down a coastline that reminds me very much of Highway 101 from San Francisco to Oregon. The center is in quite a pretty little building, built fairly recently and staffed largely by men and women with an intense passion for the endangered coastal wildlife. A number of them had moved up from Tokyo to be here near a pair of amazing volcanic islands in this long volcanic
archipelago which is Japan. The islands are Teuri and Yagashiri, and after tea with the staff I sat and watched a fascinating movie about the bird life out there. Enormous numbers of seabirds which used to ply the airways from Siberia on down past the Western Coast of Hokkaido are now extinct. This center is trying to help. They convinced me to cancel my second night’s reservations in Haboro and spend the night on Teuri Island waiting for the Uto-U.
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Ferry to Yagishiri On the ferry the following morning we sat on moist carpeting in a large cabin full of people lying, sitting, watching a tv whose sound could hardly be heard. It reminded me of the lowest class cabins in old movies.People spoke softly to one another, read books or tended to their children. Up out on deck young women were leaning over into the spray holding cake in their hands for seagulls hovering a foot away. The ferry on the way back, by the way, was quite luxurious, and offered actual seats for its passengers.
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H O K K A I D O Yagishiri Flowers Some of the guests from the Haboro Youth Hostel the night before were touring the island also. They knew the names of the wildflowers and fondly photographed each variety. We wandered across the top of the volcanic island surrounded by alfalfa fields and singing a song my Japanese teacher had taught me about the fields overflowing with bloom.
Yagishiri I’m not so great at meditation, but we couldn’t drag ourselves away from a flock of sheep. They were so calm and the weather was so fair. Maybe this is why people count sheep in order to fall asleep.
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Teuri Bird Watching Platform A glass bottom boat sails around Teuri for a tour of the bird cliffs. Around most of the island they jut out to staggering heights from the sea. After dinner we were bussed up to where the Uto-u return at sunset with local fish delicacies to their nests. From a platform built in a semicircle around around the top of one of the cliffs we waited for sundown. You could easily sea the Volcanic cone of Rishiri Island about a hundred miles to the north and famous for its summer wildflowers, hiking and wild par-
ties at the local Youth Hostel. Or you could look straight down into the clear water all the way to the urchins at the bottom, two of which had been served at dinner that evening cut in half but with their spines still moving.
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Uto-U and Sea Cat The Uto-u arrived back right at sundown by the hundreds, and whatever they had in their mouths looked delicious. Their young were not the only ones awaiting them. Also present were large numbers of “sea cats,� local gulls who would attempt to snatch the fish away before they even landed. After they had landed the fighting went on fast and furious as the Uto-u attempted to make it back safely to their holes in the level sandy areas at the top of the cliff.
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Spectators Close above them were we tourists on a long platform, flashlights in hand, gasping and cheering on the little uto-u as they flew in and scampered to their holes. Dramatic scenes played out around the hill as people on the cliffside platform let out excited cries and flashbulbs popped.
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Steam Train This is a famous old local steam train preparing to leave Rumoi, on the Japan Sea coast of Hokkaido. When you go into a bookstore, you may well find an entire section devoted to Japanese trains. There will even be videos devoted to each type of train, for both young and old share the passion for the different lines and cars. I had been very concerned about missing any link in the tight chain of transport back to Sapporo. Because my rail pass expired that night and I’d have to hitchhike back to Tokyo for the next couple
of months if anything went wrong. My friend had played a trick on me and bought me a ticket which took me from Rumoi to Fukagawa by this antique steam locomotive, but I arrived too early and hopped on the regular local train. The Japanese transportation was, as always, on time to the minute, and in Sapporo I caught the “Hokotose,” or North Star Train and rode on home.
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Hakone Kamakura Mt. Fuji
N E A R Hakone Cable Car From Gora take a steep railcar up a 45 degree incline to a mountain top. Then board a cable car to travel for about 4 miles above sulfur pits where hot water is mined and piped down the slopes to hot springs resorts. The cable car ride ends down at Lake Ashinoko, where on a good day you get a good view of Mt. Fuji.
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N E A R Old Stone Road Hiroshige and Hokusai both created famous sets of beautiful woodblock prints depicting travel along the Tokaido road. This road several hundred years ago followed the scenic seashore route between Tokyo and Kyoto which the Shinkansen bullet train follows today. But parts of this road still exist. Several blocks from the bus station down by the lake an adventurous visitor can follow a path which leads up to one section called the Old Stone Road. A wide path of large flat rocks
leads up and down steep hills covered with old mossy forest. I fell in with several pleasant hiking companions who made the trip more fun. As we wandered we marveled that horses and carts could brave such a stretch . Although the sign says that it’s only a two hour walk to town most likely you’ll want to tarry for a while at the historical museum and the nearby teahouse specializing in Japanese cherry drink and plum wine.
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Kamakura Daibutsu Japan’s capital from the twelfth century for about 150 years, Kamakura witnessed a revitalization of Buddhism in the country. Professor Solomon in his book “Japan in a Nutshell” relates the story of a contest between the Daibutsu and a whale who was jealous of the bronze statue’s size, and it is indeed large, but not at all intimidating. Perhaps this is because of the remarkable artistry and sensitivity of its design. It was completed in 1252 and weighs 850 tons, and it used to be in a building. The building was washed out to sea in a tidal wave
in 1495, even though the sea is quite a distance away. A good friend who had been my Japanese instructor invited me to take a train to Kamakura and spend a day touring the sites. I was happy to tell her how much her teaching had helped, and proud that I could meet her on a certain train platform at a particular time in the morning without becoming totally lost as I would have been during my first month in Tokyo.
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N E A R Hasedera Temple Figures The Hasedera Temple in Kamakura houses the eighth century Eleven Faced Kannon statue described by Lafcadio Hearn. Nearby are caves dedicated to the Goddess Benten with wall paintings and deep silent pools. Outside are many gardens. Some are filled with small figures paid for by parents who have lost a baby. Evidence of the parents’ visits lies in the coins, Pooh and Kitty dolls, and in little knit head coverings.
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N E A R More Hasedera Temple Figures
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Meditation and Contemplation My friend had packed a little picnic of fresh cherries for our trip, but we were caught again in a long drenching rain at the Daibutsu statue. Somehow the heavy rainfall at Kamakura that day seemed to make the surroundings more intimate and added to my enjoyment of the area. We all had sprouted multi-colored umbrellas for our passage down the narrow town streets and garden paths. During lulls in the downpour we’d get on a bus and travel to another part of the his-
toric town, stroll down a crowded avenue of shops to check out the local red laquerware, or simple walk a short distance from a major shrine to a must-see museum. There was a covered porch on three sides of the Daibutsu, and we found a nice dry bench to sit and eat the cherries.
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N E A R Go Inside There are windows in the Great Buddha’s back which let in plenty of light to see the inner construction. You can pay the man in the hut a small fee and get in out of the rain, but it’s kind of like a musty cave with not much going on, and the kids didn’t want to stay long. Still it’s easier to get in and out of here than the pillar behind the Daibutsu at Todaiji in Nara.
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Prayer at Hachiman-gu Shrine These folks had just climbed an extraordinarily long flight of steps to reach the shrine; some may be saying a prayer of thanksgiving to have made it to the top.
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Hachiman-gu shrine Those who live at the shrine wear the most impeccably clean starched clothes. One of the young shrine women appeared in front of me in the traditional white blouse and bright orange skirt, and surprised me as much as if she had been a bright song bird alighting on a dreary winter landscape. I’m afraid I was too astonished and shy to take a picture of her, and she flew away, but along came this man in similarly pressed uniform.
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N E A R The Natural World Near Hachiman-gu shrine is a school and a wide lotus pond. Like school kids throughout Japan these children were interested in everything which swam crawled or flew in the natural world. Some had their insect nets with them and all were keenly alert to the sights and sounds.
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Fuji-san Mount Fuji is considered a god by many Japanese. And everyone wants to climb it at least once. It is not anywhere near as difficult as rope and axe climbing, but it is not a walk in the park either. They say that everyone should climb Mt. Fuji once, but only a fool would climb it twice. I met many people on the trek who were not prepared for the trip. Sudden storms come up and the air becomes quite thin at two miles up. It was so windy and
cold at the top that I felt I would be blown into the crater. There are several well-known and clearly defined paths up the mountain, but every type of volcanic ash and rock lay underfoot. I was very grateful that my friend suggested we start at six in the morning, because the hike took me over twelve hours, and nightfall overtook us at the very end of the trail. His mother had cautioned us with an old proverb: “Don’t make light of Mt. Fuji.”
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N E A R Station on Mt. Fuji There are stations along each of the routes and most climbers nowadays start out from a fifth stage, which is more than halfway up the side of the mountain. We were there early in the season when most of the stations were closed for repair, but ordinarily weary travelers can spend the night curled up with dozens of others on the floor of one of these refuges and purchase an expensive bowl of noodles before continuing. Many pilgrims begin their climb in the evening in order to watch the morning sunrise from the top of the volcano. On the way up we met many who had been on the
mountain all the previous night and who now looked quite exhausted as they wound their route down past us. Some seemed close to giving up, and I thought “that’s me a few hours from now” and I was right. There were some youngsters even, maybe about twelve years old walking with their folks. There were lots of young Japanese men, but also a surprising number of older folks, including quite a few married couples who appeared to be between 50 and 65 years of age.
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N E A R A Slope of Mt. Fuji On the way down my friend literally ran down the mountainside like a skier. It seemed that he had become a mountain goat, while I was so frightened of going over the edge of each precipice that I spent twice as much leg muscle simply trying to stay afloat so to speak. As I was taking such great pains with each step an old man ran by me hollering cheerfully “yasashii!” (it’s easy!) and hopping down the mountain like a kid running out the steps of school after the last class at the beginning of summer.
So I tried it too, and had some success, but by now my legs were too worn and becoming far too cramped, and the last few hours were among the most torturous I’ve ever spent in any sort of physical exercise. But my friend was quite patient and I would find him at each stage sitting on a rock writing e-mail over his cell phone to a friend on a train somewhere in Tokyo who didn’t want to bother other passengers by speaking aloud.
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N E A R Mt. Fuji Photographer This photo was taken when we were only about halfway up. My friend kept telling me to step back a little farther. Near the top I mailed several postcards from the local Mt. Fuji post office. Since my friend was a mountaineer he wanted to climb to the weather station, which was at the highest point in Japan. Unfortunately the air pressure was so low that my father’s camera broke down and I had to buy him a new one when we arrived back in Tokyo. Although I’d walked with the aid of my “Fuji Stick” I had no strength
to walk into the station huts on the way down to have them burned with the seal of each station, and I’m grateful to my friend for doing that task for me. I’m also grateful to all the nice folks who made this trip such a memorable one. Steven Solomon
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