| Submitted by: Evelyn C. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 09 February 2005 |
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We also saw the 'Oil Wall,' made of clay mixed with rice water. All the other walls are of white plaster and have been restored many times; this wall is over four hundred years old. The stone wall around the base of the main keep (donjon) incorporates all sorts of stones including old tombstones, stone coffins, millstones, and stone lanterns. Apparently getting all the stone necessary was a problem. There is a legend that the millstone was donated by an old woman when she heard that the castle was being built, but this is not true, because that part of the wall is much newer. But it's a nice patriotic legend to get people to sacrifice for their country.
The donjon itself appears to have five stories from the outside but really has six and a basement (much like Matsumoto-jo Castle). One of the main pillars is original; another was replaced only during the restoration work done from 1956 to 1964. The stairs are very steep (originally there were no stairs, only ladders). The guide implied that some of the castles had elevators installed during restoration/renovation work, but this wasn't one of them. (Needless to say, this means that this castle is not handicapped accessible. Most everything else is. Although temples and shrines usually have a few steps, they often have a ramp as well. Not only do all the main sidewalks in major cities have curb cuts, they also have a strip of raised 'stripes' down the center for guiding blind people using canes, and at the corners the stripes become dots as a warning. The same is true in the Tokyo subway, which also has Braille at the ends of the handrails on the steps to and from the platforms.)
This donjon had a display of materials relating to the people who lived in the castle (this one was used for living). Its atmosphere was somewhat hampered by the loudspeaker constantly reminding people in both Japanese and English not to smoke. (Fire is obviously a real danger.)
The Lonely Planet guide book says the 'tour' takes about an hour and a half. By this it probably means the 'route,' since it doesn't really talk about having an English-language tour. (There is an English-language brochure with map and explanation if you don't want the tour.) Not only castles here have specific paths to follow, but museums do as well. (I suppose it's possible that this is true only of history museums, though the Asian art building of the Tokyo National Museum had a specific route.) I'm sure one can interpret this in terms of the Japanese emphasis on conformity and the group, where in the West we are more geared toward letting people wander about on their own as their individual wishes dictate, but I'll leave that to others.
At any rate, the book said an hour and a half, the guide said at the beginning it would take two hours, and what with all Mark's questions and subsequent discussion, it actually took three. I think the guide was not used to Americans who already knew who all the main historical figures were, even after seeing SHOGUN. (Of course, SHOGUN changed all the names for some reason.) Speaking of which, parts of this castle have been used for filming historical films and television shows, including SHOGUN.
After the castle, we went to the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, which had a special exhibit of archaeological finds from the area. It was a nice exhibit, but it overlapped a lot of what we had seen in the Tokyo National Museum and for us served mostly to raise the usual admission fee of ¥200 to ¥800. This museum has a nice section on Japanese castles, which cutaway scale models and descriptive illustrations (not a lot of English, but not a lot was necessary).
By the time we finished with this museum, it was after 15:00 and we hadn't eaten lunch. We walked back to the train station and on the way found a place to have lunch (dinner, really, by the time we ate). This made stopping in Kobe on the back not worth it; our main interest was the synagogue, but we wouldn't get there until after sundown on a Friday night, and we weren't planning on attending services. So we didn't rush, but stopped at a Baskin Robbins for ice cream. Mark had 'odura cream,' which turned out to be red bean swirl, and I had chopped chocolate. They also had green tea ice cream, and pumpkin pudding ice cream. I'm sure the latter (the October Flavor of the Month) was invented for the United States, but in Japan they celebrate Halloween (we saw displays of Halloween costumes) and Christmas, even though the vast majority are not Christian. This is yet another example of how things are the same as back home.
We came here thinking we would at least get to miss all the campaigning for the Presidential election back home, but we merely swapped it for the campaigning for the elections here. The whole time we've been here, there have been trucks with loudspeakers cruising the streets pushing various candidates. Of course, here we have no idea what they're saying.
We returned via Shinkansen and stopped in a manga store on the way back to the Takase. Manga are often described as Japanese comic books, but there's more to it than that. There seem to be two kinds. One is the large (really large-eight and a half by eleven inches, or slightly smaller than A4, and up to two inches or five centimeters thick) monthly magazines which have five or six stories printed on cheap newsprint. The other is published in a book format, and is usually devoted to more serious works. In the United States we are starting to see more manga-influenced works, where they are often called 'graphic novels.' I mentioned earlier Barefoot Gen, which was just a translation of a Japanese manga. But a work such as MAUS by Art Spiegelmann seems to have been at least somewhat inspired by manga, in that it tries to use the combination of text and illustrations usually referred to as 'comic books' to tell a serious story. (For more information on comic books and manga, see Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics.)
Most of the manga were incomprehensible to us, even with the illustrations, but there were three of interest: Les Miserables, Heidi, and Jane Eyre. Les Miserables (listed on the cover as Les Miserable-the French here is as fractured as the English-is a little over two hundred pages, so obviously somewhat abridged, but makes an interesting souvenir. I wonder if they have Sherlock Holmes manga. (I never did find any Holmes manga. And anywhere I saw this series of Western-inspired manga, they were the same three.)
Random note: Western actors appear in advertisements here, particularly the actor from The Professional and Quentin Tarantino. You also see URLs in advertisements here; they are frequently the only romanji in the ad.
October 19, 1996: Today was our day trip to Nara.
Several people suggested spending more time in Nara than just a day, but I think we have decided we are city people rather than temple and shrine people, and so we found a day in Nara to be just about right.
Breakfast was something different this morning: a green tea and red bean muffin, a bran muffin, and a piece of 'custard bread' (what appeared the be a thick slice of bread with a custard filling). We took the JR line to Nara. There are private lines that are a bit faster but with the JapanRail Passes this was free. (I suppose that's a bit of a drawback to the pass; you find getting places sometimes takes longer. Luckily, it's not usually a very big difference.)
This was a local train complete with children in uniform going to school (I guess they have a six-day schedule). While there are school uniforms, this doesn't seem to include shoes, for which anything goes (conservative uniform with bright pink running shoes, and so on), and the rest of the dress code must be equally loose: I saw one student in uniform with a lip ring.
We arrived in Nara and walked down the main street to Nara-Koen Park. All of Nara is dotted with temples and shrines, but the major ones are mostly concentrated in Nara-koen Park.
Our first stop was Kofuku-ji Temple, which includes a five-storied pagoda dating from 1426. (There is also a three-storied one dating from 1123.) One can't go in, however, so the main attraction seems to be the 'tame' deer that wander around. There are vendors who sell a package of 'deer cookys' for ¥150 so you can feed the deer. But it's a funny thing: though the deer will wander by the vendor without trying to eat the biscuits from the table, as soon as a tourist buys some, whammo! The deer swarm the poor soul, butting against him (luckily their horns are trimmed), drooling on him, and trying to eat not only the biscuits but often his clothing as well. The best approach seems to be to throw down the biscuits and run!
By the way, this is another example of a price change from when the Lonely Planet guide was printed: they quoted ¥100 as the price of the biscuits. I think the English label 'deer cookys' was added to some of the stands because gaijin tourists were buying the biscuits and eating them themselves!
As for the antlers, every Sunday in October they have a sort of deer rodeo when the deer are herded into enclosures and have their antlers sawn off. There were signs all over the place advertising this, for only ¥500 admission.
We next walked to the Nara National Museum, not really excited about seeing another museum, and so we were not entirely displeased to discover that the museum was closed while they were setting up a special exhibition to start in a few days. (This actually worked out well, as we were able to get to Horyu-ji Temple which we would not have had time for otherwise.)
Our next stop-and apparently everybody's stop-was the Todai-ji Temple. While this has several buildings, it is really popular only for its Daibutsu-den (¥400), which is the building housing the Great Buddha. This building is the largest wooden building in the world, and the Buddha inside is the largest bronze statue in the world. Although it is larger than the one at Kamakura, it is not as impressive, probably because it is enclosed in a dark hall which makes it seem smaller. The vital statistics about this Buddha statue are printed on the ticket in case anyone wants them. (Most tickets here are informational. For example, castle tickets will have little maps of the castle on the back, labeled in Japanese.)
The one piece of entertainment that the Daibutsu-den has that Kamakura lacks is the 'Tunnel of Enlightenment.' At the base of one of the pillars towards the back of the hall is a tunnel through it, about a third of a meter square and two-thirds of a meter long. The legend is that if you can squeeze through the tunnel, you will attain enlightenment. I tried, but couldn't quite fit. (I had problems with my shoulders, but afterwards noticed that some people tried it with one arm pointed above their head and one by their side, thereby tilting their shoulders to minimize the width.) There was one woman who did squeeze through, and the book says children do it all the time. I suspect in a couple of hundred years it will be a lot easier to get through; it's wood, so all these people squeezing through is wearing down the wood and widening the hole. Of course, before then they may close it, because as the hole widens, the pillar becomes weaker.)
The books warned of hordes of schoolchildren with guides with megaphones, and there were some, but it wasn't as crowded as, say, Hiroshima. Maybe there were fewer because it was Saturday.
There were souvenir shops lining the path to the Todai-ji Temple, selling the sort of junky souvenirs that we usually assume only Americans buy. There were stuffed deer toys, deer hand puppets, toy samurai swords, key chains with pictures of the temple, and so on. Two of the odder items were little Buddha hand puppets (I doubt they sell little hand puppets of Jesus at St. Peter's in Rome), and a James Dean noren. (A noren is the small divided curtain that hangs outside a shop when it is open.)
Nara-koen Park itself was reasonably busy but quiet. The only real crowds were at Todai-ji Temple, and there were no boom boxes or noisy groups. (The subways and trains are also very quiet. |
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