Kyoto

Maiko-san

My friend Nanae most kindly invited me to come to go house in Hyogo (near Kobe) for a few days with her, as she was going back on vacation.

So after work on Friday we packed into her car, and set off towards Hyogo. The countryside changes drastically once you get past the coastal plains of Kanto, and, driving West, with the haze of high humidity, it was like driving through an old japanese ink painting.

We then drove through a huge tea-growing area, which makes some of the finest tea in Japan. I am rather unsure of the electic fans on poles, but every single field we drove past had them, so I am guessing it is an essecial step of tea-growing.

This week-end was a big holiday all over Japan, as the 15th of August is the day the ancestors come back from wherever they usually are. And so everyone goes back to their family home, to put flowers and offerings on the tombs, to show the ancestors they aren't forgotten.

This means there is a huge rush of outgoing traffic from Tokyo, and even more so going towards Kansai, as the tradition is strongest there.

So it took us quite a long time to get to Nanae's house, and about half of it was in night-time, the sun setting quite early here.

Modern art created by long exposures on a bumpy road

Nanae's family is absolutely charming, and quite as crazy as she is. And they live in a beautiful big old wooden house with perfectly-kept japanese gardens. A true delight.

But the point of my vacation was not to just mope around the house! So after a rather short night, and after a small ceremony to the ancestors, we set out for Kyoto.

Kyoto is a huge city, but luckily, most of the old quarter is huddled around the central hill, all in easy walking distance. Well, the distance is easy. The fact it was an absolute scorcher of a day with not a whiff of wind in sight made it all an exhausting experience.

But we did not let meer meteorological factors stop us, and had a very nice visit of all the temple complex and old shopping streets surrounding it.

Although the temples around Yokohama are staring to all look a bit the same, these were refreshingly different, and, as in Okinawa, clearly stated 'we are the hub of the kingdom'. This was true for many years in Japan, and still is, for many Kyoto and Osaka residents.