Hachiman

We set off saturday morning at 2am for Gifu prefecture, and at around 7am drove into one of the most beautiful montain villages I have ever seen.

Hachiman, also known as Gujo-Hachiman as it's part of the bigger city Gujo, is a smallish town in a beautiful mountain valley, with 2 rather nice size rivers flowing through it, and many many many small streams. Every road and alleyway has gutters of gurgling water, and there are innumerable canals running between the houses, most of them filled with an amazing number of huge carp.

The houses themselves are still very traditional, which means they don't look solid enough to last through the winter, and yet have obviously been there quite some time.

They also look as if whoever constructed the second floor did so in complete disregard of what style might previously have been employed to build the first floor. This makes the 2- and 3-floor houses look like something from the children's books where you can flip the pages to dress the characters in different clothes.

As the town started to wake up, we had a pleasant little visit, enjoying the cool morning air, before moving on to one main attraction of this town: the plastic food company! Japan is known for its displays of terribly life-like plastic food displays outside of restaurants and bars. And here is one of the places where such displays are made!

Look but don't eat! It's all silicons gel....

We even got to have a little hands-on class of tempura-making. (On the photo I am making the decorative lettuce leaf).

As we got into afternoon, the coolness quickly evaporated to be replaced by a swealtering heat only confined valleys can achieve. And so the local youth moved on to what appears to be their favorite summer occupation: jumping off the bridge into the (freezing cold) river below. Or at least the boys do. The girls either cheer them on from the bridge or get their wet suits on and paddle around in the swimming area near the bridge.

Leaving the rest of the party to swim around in the river, I wandered up to Hachiman castle, one of the main features of the town.

Like seems to be rather common in Japan, this castle spent its lifetime being beuilt, torn down, rebuilt in a different style, burnt down and finally rebuilt again, so that this actual castle is from 1933. It is wooden covered in white plaster which makes it really quite beautiful, sitting atop the mountain. I did not go inside it, though, as there is only a museum in there, and as far as I can tell, they re-built it as a museum in 1933.

And finally, after a delicious dinner of fish, fish and more fish (the local specialities), we got to the point of our trip, the Obon festival! And all dressed up as we should be!

This is half traditional, with a small band platform with singers and a few musicians, which sets in the middle of a square, while the crown join in the traditional dancing, moving up and down the roads on each side of the square. The other side of the town saw a normal village fair, with some small attraction stands (shooting and darts are really big here), and lots and lots of food stands, many of them selling unknown things fried in batter.

It was a very fun evening for all (we had some extra excitement when we had to fish one of the girls' telephone out of the carp pond), but I was glad to slip into bed for some well-deserved sleep!

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.

August

August is an absolutely horrible month to be in Japan. Summer is not my favorite month at the best of times, and I will certainly not be changing my mind this year!

It is not actually that hot, usually being closer to 30° than 40°. But as the normal humidity levels are around 70 to 85%, one tends to melt after even the smallest physical effort.

All this to say that long hiking trips and such are absolutely out of the question.

But all this is no excuse for not posting on the blog for so long, as I haven't been not doing anything all these weeks!

It being so hot and humid out, the first things one wants to do of a week-end is to go to the beach! This I did with a friend from the house, to make it even more fun.

Fist, we went to the beach at Zushi, it being the closest by train. It was like a completely different beach from what I had previously seen, the road-side lined with bars and beach booths, and the sand literally crammed full of people, all with parasol and tents.

We finally found a spot for our towels right at the edge of the swimming area, and had an enjoyable afternoon in the water, with Fuji-san peeping through the clouds in the background.

The week after, we decided that although Zushi was close, there were just too many people, so we set off to find ourselves a smaller beach. This we did, and spent a very enjoyable day at a minute little beach further down the coast from Zushi. The water was beautiful, and there were hardly any people at all, so was totally worth the longer time to get there.

Another fun event of August was the beach volleyball contest held at Uminokoen, near Kanazawa-hakkei. I had head of it through the folks at the lab who were participating in it, and decided to go cheer them on. What I had not realized, was that it was a huge event, with more than 400 teams participating!

Despite some of the JAMSTEC teams being quite good, they just could not compete with teams from volleyball clubs, and so by late morning everyone had retired to the blanket they had set out for the consolation prize, which was a cooler full of beer.

And of course, one of the biggest events in August in Japan are hanabi, firework displays. They are literally everywhere, and on week days, too. As it gets dark quite fast, most fireworks are from 7 to 8pm, which leaves time for everyone to get home, and doesn't make anyone miss work. This means everyone can go, and it is traditional to wear your yukata to go.

A few weeks ago I had in fact bought a yukata, and so my friend Nanae, with whom I work, shoed me how to tie it all up, and off we went to see fireworks! I would like to point out this point that it was by general concensus rather than personal choice, that my yukata is pink.

It is very fun going to the fireworks, both the fireworks themselves, which are absolutely magnificient, and simply watching all the people, both in traditional and modern wear.

wisdom

Japan, land of wisdom and meditation.

Land of succinct thoughts.

However, when our mind gets awed by the haiku and sayings of the japanese elders, we can always step down into modern-day Tokyo, and find a different kind of wisdom on the walls of the pachinko parlours.

The shop where is filled with pleasure full loading, smiles.

More entertainment space best more happily comfortably.

We are brought up by warm encouragement of local people.

If enjoy a pachinko and a slot; from where if spend time of the best, it is wrong here, and is not is comfortable, and happy!

Not that this is any less deep, as I have yet to grasp the whole concept of the last line. Shall have to meditate a bit longer on this one.

mangroves and waterfalls

Nanae's friends know of all the good places, and took us on a very fun tour of the northern part of the island.

We first stopped off at a small family soba restaurant, which serves monstrous bowls of delicious okinawan soba. This is a bit of a story in itself, as on mainland Japan, soba is a buckwheat noodle, often served is a sweet broth. On Okinawa, the soba are in fact wheat noodles, resembling the mainland udon noodles. The broth is an intriguing mix of subtle soy sauce and heavy duty peppery taste, which is, on the mainland, more associated with ramen (wheat) noodles.

So, after this tasty totally-unlike-soba soba lunch, we headed away from the coast, up a small river valley to an even smaller stream, to go see the waterfall. Here, we found that news had gotten out, and that the whole US army had taken up residence there. Although this meant the chances of seeing any beasties in the stream was nil, we still had a very enjoyable ramble up the stream, amongst giant fern trees and lianas worthy of a Tarzan remake.

The waterfall was very spectacular, too, as the stream wad been really quite calm most of the way, and then you come around a corner and you have this beautiful waterfall, with a small swimming pool at the base. And contrary to what I am used to in France, the water was not freezing cold!

After that entertaining visit, we drove to the other side of the island, to go see the mangroves. They are a fascinating place, with animal life everywhere you look, and vegetation that looks as if it could get up and walk around, too.

The tide was just coming in as we got there, and so we got to see both the mud inhabitants, as the fish coming in for feeding.

I spent a very fun half hour watching mud-skippers, who totally lived up to the oddness I had expected of them;

... and crabs. I don't know if it's the eyes, or the way they scuttle sideways, or just their bubbling clumsiness, but I find all crabs hilarious, and these were no exception.

Hot and tired but our eyes full of stars, we made our way back to the university, ready to face another week of DNA extractions and, hopefully, amplifications.

Shuri

The island of Okinawa used to be the hub of the Ryukyu kindom, which served as a hub for commerce between China and Japan. The castle of Shuri, house of the king of the Ryukyu kingdom, is located on a small hill overlooking the port at Naha, and, like so many castles, is mostly built on the ruins of the previous destroyed or burnt-down castles.

Now Shuri is a fortified castle, and like all fortified castles, the point is that there is a clear separation between what is inside the walls and what is outside the walls. Shuri does, however, have one peculiarity, and that is that there is nothing, if fact, inside the walls. Having caught on to the fact that you needed to have guards on top of the walls to protect them, they thought it would be a huge waste of space to have to put guard housing inside the walls, thereby taking up valuable ornamental garden space.

It would be much easier to put the guard housing up on top of the walls, where the guards have to be anyway. That leaves plenty of space for the royal ornamental gardens, and still have space for a big inside courtyard where you can have dances to entertain your guests.

We saw 3 different dances, which were all interesting, but they were all very very slow dances.

The royal family's quarters were very impressive, with many many small chambers everywhere, and a very ornate throne room in laquered wood, with 2 large sliding doors in the wall. When open, the dignitaries sitting on tatami mats in the courtyard could look up and see the king sitting in his throne. I thought that was a really neat idea, as it gives a clear image of "I am the king and you are guests", and also avoids over-crowding of the throne room, which could only accommodate about 30 people.

It was a very fun visit, as the Ryukyus were clearly not Japan (and are still very different), and were much more under chinese influence.

After that, we went to an old sacred place, with many odd rock formations and some big stalagtites. As it is all lava deposit, it is very interesting, and very different from the sandstone formations I'm used to.

From there, we just drove up the coast, which is absolutely beautiful, with many small islands and islets all over the place, and everything overgrown with exhuberant vegetation.

We even had our first jellyfish sighting: a dozen large scyphozoans swimming around is the crystal-clear water. We tried to catch one for work, but they refused to come close to the shore, even when we called "here, jelly, jelly, jelly!". Not at all cooperative.

We then rounded off the day by going to an okinawan eisa performance. This is a mix of dancing and drum playing, which is very fast and energetic, in a complete contrast to the slighly lethargic traditional dances we had seen earlier. And it is very very impressive and entertaining!