| Submitted by: Evelyn C. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 09 February 2005 |
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They invented the Walkman here, and people use it.) We got a few sprinkles, but no real rain.
Our last stop in the park was Kashuga Taisha Shrine, notable more for the thousands of stone lanterns lining the paths to it than for anything I could notice about the shrine itself.
On the way back to the train station we had lunch: curry udon, zaru-soba, and another soba dish. We had thought we were ordering squid ramen, but what looked like squid in the plastic food turned out to be scallions sliced diagonally. Oh, well, it was good anyway. If you're a picky eater, this is not the place for you unless you either read or speak Japanese or are on an unlimited expense account and can eat in restaurants catering to foreign tourists. (They do have McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and other Western chains. I don't consider that eating.)
We too the train a few stops farther down to Horyuji. Having the kanji for the various towns and sights in the Lonely Planet guide is helpful, because you can always show it to someone if your Japanese pronunciation is bad. But even more, you can use it to read the signs in train stations and at bus stops when they aren't in romanji. Using this we found the train to Horyuji and the bus to the temple there without too much difficulty. The temple is about a two-kilometer walk from the bus stop, but the route is not clear, and the roads are narrow and have heavy traffic-the bus is definitely safer. Although the bus announcement at the beginning said in English that this was the bus (number 72) to Horyu-ji Temple, the stop itself was announced only in Japanese.
Remember what I said about Himeji-jo being a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site? Well, apparently the Horyu-ji Temple area is another one in Japan; I simply must get a more up-to-date list.
Horyu-ji Temple was founded in 607 by Prince Shotoku. The special exhibit in the Tokyo National Museum was of the treasures of Horyu-ji and featured a lot about Prince Shotoku, but of course we didn't appreciate it then, or even know we were coming here.
There were signs all over saying there was no photography allowed. There were also tourists all over photographing away, including folks with tripods taking group photos of schoolchildren. I guess the no-photography rule applied mostly to inside the buildings.
The site is divided into three sections (all covered by one ¥1000 admission). The Western precinct contains the main buildings, the main hall, a lecture hall, and a five-storied pagoda that one brochure says is the oldest wooden building in the world (though from the other books, I get the impression it may be just the oldest pagoda in the world). The buildings house various statues and images but, except for the lecture hall, cannot be entered and are not lit, so seeing what is inside them through the doors shaded by eaves is very difficult. (I suspect shining a flashlight in would be frowned upon.)
The Treasure House contains more statues and other objects, these in a museum setting that makes them much easier to see and appreciate. Some of what we saw here were pictorial biographies of Prince Shotoku painted on screens. I suppose one could think of this sort of thing as the predecessor of manga. They also had something which was labeled a 'National Treasure': 'Tamamushi Ornamented Beetles' Feathers.' I didn't think beetles had feathers.
The eastern area is mostly notable for the Yumedono, or eight-sided building where Prince Shotoku is believed to have meditated.
Getting back should have been straightforward. There was a big sign outside the temple that said to go back to the station, catch the number 71 bus at stop 2 (there were three different stops near the temple). We went to stop 2, but when the stationmaster asked where we were going and we told him, he indicated we should wait at stop 3, across the street and a block down. This didn't sound right, but we went there anyway. Sure enough, fifteen minutes later I saw a bus pull up to stop 2, and was trying to see the number on it when I saw the stationmaster running down the street toward us gesturing for us to take this bus (which was actually number 71). It did take us to the station, but we just missed the train. Had we stayed at stop 2, we probably would have made it, but the trains run every ten or fifteen minutes here anyway. We changed at Nara for the train back to Kyoto.
It was too late to stop in Uji to see the Byodo-in Temple, being about 18:00, so we looked at its image on the ten-yen coin instead. We then got into a discussion of whether we should just hop off the train at some stop and see what was there. I was for the cautious approach, not knowing how late the trains ran and also not very impressed with the opportunities afforded by the towns we were seeing. But I suppose we should have, just to see what one was like.
We ended up riding back to Kyoto and eating at Osho, a Chinese restaurant that appeared to have a dining room upstairs and seats at a counter in the kitchen. We ate at the latter and had gyoza (two orders), mar po dofu, and something else (I can't remember what Mark ordered). This came to ¥1550, not a bad price considering the quantity.
Back in the room we tried again for the supposed English-language movie, but the closest was Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx, dubbed in Japanese and retitled Red Bronx.
My feet hurt every evening and that's wearing my walking shoes. (I think the problem is that the heel padding in them has no 'give' any more. I brought old ones, and will abandon them here.) The slip-on shoes I brought because they would be easy to take off and put on are not getting much use. One reason is that in addition to all the walking, we are climbing a lot of stairs, either at temples or in train stations.
October 20, 1996: Today was our last day on our JapanRail Pass so we traveled again.
I started with a breakfast of a green tea muffin; Mark had a pork bun and a vegetable cutlet bun. The bakery where I got the muffin has a bag that says 'thank you' in dozens of different languages but it is somewhat out of date, listing Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as being part of the Soviet Union and Macedonia as part of Yugoslavia.
We rode the Shinkansen to Maibara. As I said before, although they give announcements in both Japanese and English, they give more in Japanese, such as all the 'change here for such-and-such lines' announcements-and I'm starting to recognize some of the Japanese (at least the names of the other lines).
The station at Maibara was the most poorly labeled station of the ones we've been at, with very little romanji. And the Lonely Planet guide misled us as well, claiming that the Tokaido line went to Hikone from Maibara when actually it's the Biwako line. (Lake Biwa-ko is the main attraction in the area.) By asking around in broken Japanese, I was eventually able to find the right track and train and we got to Hikone.
True to our luck, there was a big bicycle race going on (which made getting to the castle a bit more difficult), and renovation of the donjon occurring, which made seeing the main keep impossible. But having come this far, we did want to see the rest of the castle (¥500, with no reduction because of the renovation work).
A sign at the entrance indicated that the castle's five towers were named as 'Important Cultural Assets' in 1951, the main tower as a 'National Treasure' in 1952, the complete castle area as a 'Special Place of Historical Interest' in 1956, and the stable as an 'Important Cultural Asset' in 1963. The castle is also on the list of 'Hundred Best Sightseeing Places' ('Meigetsu Hikone no Kojo' 'The beauty of Hikone Castle in the Moonlight' is one of Lake Biwa's 'Eight Famous Scenes'), and on June 5, 1996, the Environment Agency selected 'A Hundred Soundscapes in Japan' to preserve, including the time-keeping bell (Jihogane) and chirping of insects in Hikone Castle.
Who decides all these? And is their some rank-ordering? Is an 'Important Cultural Asset' more important than a 'Special Place of Historical Interest'? Or is it like National Parks and National Monuments at home, which are created by different groups of people? (National Parks are created by the President; National Monuments by Congress.)
As I said, the main tower was closed, and surrounding by scaffolding. It seems now that at least one sight per trip for us is surrounding by scaffolding. Mark claims it is a major infestation of scaffolding moths. The last renovation of the tower was in 1957, which seems fairly recent for it to require another one now, but I guess not. We did not get to see the view of Lake Biwa from the top floor, but there was a spot on the grounds that had a nice view. It was very windy, and the water was quite choppy.
We walked over to the garden, passing a monument to Seiichi Funabashi's Life of a Cherry Blossom, a novel about Tairo Naosuke Ii, who signed the Japanese-US Trade and Amity Treaty in 1858 and was later assassinated by isolationist elements. The garden itself was okay, but nothing special.
Lunch on the way back to the station was ramen for Mark and soba with green beans for me.
It was easier finding our way out of Hikone than to it. Not only was the station smaller, but it was also better-labeled.
When we originally posted our itinerary to the Net, we had listed a day in Nagoya. A couple of people said not to waste time there, so we had added Himeji and Hikone and dropped Nagoya, but some things took less time and we ended up with time on our JapanRail Pass that we hated to waste, so since it was only about 13:00 we decided to go to Nagoya for the afternoon.
Nagoya is a big city, and both the station and its well-labeled subway system are reminiscent of Tokyo's. It has a castle, which we had been warned was a reconstruction, but since many of the castles have been renovated and were still interesting, we decided to see it anyway.
Nagoya-jo Castle (¥500) is very impressive-looking on the outside, but inside it looks just like an office building with green marble or modern wood paneled walls, marble floors, fluorescent lighting, and an elevator. It is basically a museum with a fancy exterior. But in addition, two floors were closed for remodeling and another floor and a half were devoted to a special exhibition with separate admission. This left the sixth floor (an observation deck with a souvenir stand and much bigger windows than the original castle had), the fifth floor, half the second floor, and the ground floor for us to see, with some exhibits and models of the original castle and other buildings. And this is Nagoya's main attraction. I have to agree with the Net-skip Nagoya.
There was also a statue to Kito Kiyomasa and what is referred to as 'Kiyomasa's Stone Drawing.' He was a lord who wanted to show his enthusiasm for the building of the castle, So when his peasants were pulling the big stone he was contributing for the foundation, he stood on the stone and waved his fan in encouragement, while personally leading the work chant. I've seen managers like this, and Scott Adams would have a field day with this in his 'Dilbert' comic strip.
We walked partway back to the station, but nothing much was open and it was cold and windy, so we took the subway back, then walked around the station area looking for dinner, We found a place near the station for dinner (Meshiya) where the proprietor had a curled ponytail, a long graying beard, and a skullcap, and the menu was entirely in Japanese. We ordered at random two dishes and got stir-fried beef and fried whole fish (not really big, but not the breaded stuff most people think of as fried fish either).
After dinner we took the train back-our last train on the JapanRail Pass. The JapanRail Pass cost us US$273 each, and I calculated we made US$659 worth of travel each on it. Of course, a lot of that was because we had the JapanRail Pass. Without it, we probably would have done day trips to Nikko, Hiroshima, and Nara (and maybe Himeji) and left it at that. |
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