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Mid August is the usual holiday’s season in Japan. Especially as Obon is taking place, many Japanese go back to their hometown to welcome their ancestors. This is for the traditional part… Obon’s week is probably the busiest week in Japan or maybe just after the Golden Week and every single hotel is for sure booked a long time ago in every touristy city. Luckily I decided to take my vacation one week before the rush and got to several beautiful places in Japan. The schedule was pretty tight but we (note that “we” does not refer to Sébastien and me this time) managed to enjoy the sightseeing despite the many hours we spent in trains, subways, boat, bus and other transportation.
We started at Osaka obviously on Saturday 4th, I have been in Osaka for 4 months already but never visited the castle, Ōsaka-jō. No need to say it twice, we headed there and even if the castle looks beautiful from the outside, also considering the surroundings, once inside we were a bit disappointed. The 7 floors were rebuild as a museum and not much from the original interior were kept but it is still nice to have a idea of how this castle and the surrounding evolved through the years. And as every tall building in Japan, you can enjoy a panoramic view of the city (which looks endless except for the mountains far far away and the sea).
For the following days, we took the shinkansen (probably the most convenient way to travel in Japan, I wish there was shinkansen everywhere) for Tokyo and stayed there for 3 days. Of course you can spend years in that city and still have something you did not visit, but as simple tourists we just got a glimpse of it. (After all, it is the purpose of this blog right?) Also as far as I remember, I did not write a second article on Tokyo when I went there 3 months ago so I will take the chance to show a couple of pictures I took in addition to some new one. Osaka is known to be the city for food, but as a poor student I never tried the numerous delicious restaurants there. However as a tourist who wants to experience good food in Japan, we tried as many restaurants as we could during those couple of days. Maybe I should not stay a poor trainee once back in Osaka… it was so good!
The next stop of our journey was initially Mount Fuji, as I had that crazy idea and wanted to climb it (and come back in one day). It is for sure possible but many guides warn that it is not an easy walk and you should be prepared beforehand… which we were not unfortunately. Giving up that idea, I still wanted to see Mount Fuji and a good place to see it is to go to Hakone. About 1 hour from Tokyo and located at 1000m in altitude, the place is famous for its onsen and the sulphur scented hot water that comes out of the mountain. We were just 1 hour late as by the time we reached a high and god spot to see Mount Fuji, an gigantic cloud chose to take a nap up there before we could admire the sight. This is too bad as we spent hours in train, bus and rope way to get there. The good thing is that after 3 days in the Tokyo excitement, a walk in the mountains we nothing else than nature, the strong smell of sulphur (and a load of tourists…), was truly pleasant and cleared our mind.
Back to Osaka for the night, the next day is for Hiroshima! Travelling is exhausting and we got up a bit late and hit Hiroshima only around 6pm… not to say that it was quite hard to get a hotel or ryokan just for one night as the holidays are very close and something like 62 years ago on August 6, around 8 o’clock a tragedy took place in Hiroshima. You bet there have been ceremonies and people attending them. The city was not the main reason of our visit in itself, we walk around the (in)famous Genbaku Dome and the Peace Memorial Park and though the hope living in a world free of nuclear weapon is honourable, it sounds a bit unrealistic when you see the damage that occurred during the last century in the city. Also wandering at night near the dome, somehow gave me the goose and I felt uncomfortable.
The clou of the journey was Miyajima, supposedly one the three most beautiful views in Japan! And indeed it is wonderful! From Hiroshima, you go to Miyajimaguchi where you take a ferry for the island and enjoy the sight as the ferry is getting closer to the famous tori (or shrine gate). The place is delightful when the sun goes down as the water will have covered part of the coast thanks to the tides. We did not stay long enough to see that as we had a long road back to Osaka but we stayed long enough to see the tori in the water. Be warned that the deers on the island are much friendlier than their relatives in Nara, and they will not hesitate to empty your pockets, bags if you leave them unwatched for a second, in search of food or whatever that can be chewed.
Seven days passed already and this is the last week-end but no resting time! Months ago I booked tickets for the Summer Sonic Festival. A two day festival held both in Tokyo and Osaka at the same time, featuring lots of international artists as well as Japanese ones. In the heat of Osaka and a radiant sun, we enjoyed live performance of Rooney, The Fratelis, The Pillows, Kasabian and The Arctic Monkeys but there were many more artists. It is just to hard to choose among them as they were not less than 6 stages and performance started from 10am till 9pm. The incredible thing with Japanese organization is how they keep everything clean and no trouble happen… except of course for the transportation but when you think about it, thousands of thousands of people are not easy to move from one place to another in a short amount of time. That was the only bemol of the festival and I am pretty sure many people missed the last train back to Osaka’s downtown.
The journey ended in Kyoto but again, tired to the bones by the festival we were lazy and got there at 4pm… unfortunately every museum, shrine, temple and other touristy place close around 5pm. Bus are convenient in Kyoto as they go pretty much everywhere but it takes time to go through the city… luckily we arrived at the Golden Pavilion at 4.55pm and got the chance to see at least one of Kyoto’s monument, though it is a quick visit.
Initially written for the already too long previous post, I decided to separate the two as wanted to write more about my week-end trip to Koyasan. Right after the Summer Cooling Evening on Friday, I decided I will go the origins of the Shingon Buddhist school, namely Koyasan. Located at about 1000m above the sea level, the place is surrounded by 8 mountain, as it should be to reflect the lotus flower, a symbol of Buddhism.
I left my place on Saturday morning as if I would go to work, except I aimed at a more peaceful and resting place south from Osaka, in the Wakayama prefecture.
The city was founded by Kōbō-Daishi (弘法大師) in 818 A.D., it is known as the headquarter of the Shingon (or True Word) school of Buddhism. The place features a lot of temples and pagodas but one of the main interest lies below the ground… in fact the cemetery next to Kōbō-Daishi’s mausoleum is gigantic! The reason is that many people are buried here in the wait of Kōbō-Daishi’s awakening, in the hope to reach the Nirvana. I am not quite sure of people are really buried here but at least, believers buried hair or bone to be somehow here for the awakening. Also, among the tombs many monuments were erected in memory of famous historical persons such as Oda Nobunaga, Uesugi Kenshin, Mitsuhide Akechi and so on. There are probably thousands and thousands of tombs and my kanji reading disability prevent me from knowing if I was taking a picture of Oda Nobunaga’s monument or a probably wealthy guy. Still, the cemetery is surrounded by a pine forest so once you entered it, you really feel like you are somewhere out of the real world, the nature is taking over the man’s buildings. During the day, you can still see the sunlight when dusk is here, there is an eerie atmosphere taking place and it would be perfectly normal to see ghosts or spirits wandering at night… I got bitten by mosquitoes pretty bad when walking through it at dusk but maybe it was just the inhabitants playing hide and seek with me…
Koyasan being 3 hours away from Osaka by train, I decided I would stay for the night here, I mean, not in the cemetery but at one of the many temples offering a place to sleep and 2 meals (not for free of course). As I did not visit everything around here, I thought it would be the best choice anyway. Speaking English does not help to book a room for the night so I had to do with my crappy Japanese and I apologize (as any Japanese would do) for being hard to understand, but we managed to do it.
Of course monks do not eat meat or fish, so the meal is essentially made of vegetables and tofu and it was truly delicious. I recommend to anyone who has the opportunity to stay in shukubo, to do it; monks are really kind and careful persons. Part of the experience is the Morning Prayer which you are expected to attend at 6 in the morning. Normally, you would have to sit in seiza position but it is acceptable if you take a more comfortable position if you are not used to it. Well, let’s try to do it the right way, I was telling myself. I could not feel my legs anymore after 30 minutes, so I had to switch to another position and hopefully I did because the prayer was still going for another 30 minutes. After a good breakfast, it is time to hit the road of temples again, it was a pleasant and replenishing stay though it is a bit commercialized as I ended up with a souvenir from the temple as I signed out.
I am using a slideshow again for a couple of pictures but you can also find all the the pictures for this pilgrimage on the following url
Today is the end of the famous Golden Week in Japan which is not a full holidays week but contains many of them:
April 29
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Greenery Day, or Nature Day (みどりの日, Midori no hi), until 2006
Shōwa Day (昭和の日, Shōwa no hi), from 2007
May 3
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Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日, Kenpō kinenbi)
May 4
- People’s Day, or Citizen’s Day (国民の休日, Kokumin no kyūjitsu), until 2006
Greenery Day, or Nature Day (みどりの日, Midori no hi) (from 2007)
May 5
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Children’s Day (こどもの日, Kodomo no hi), also known as Boys’ Day (端午の節句, Tango no sekku)
Luckily for me, most of the big companies, and NEC is one of them, set May 1st and 2nd as holidays as well so their employees can return back to their home and travel with their family. Home is a bit far in my case and there is still a lot to do in the Kansai area so let’s go for it!
One of my very best friend (who is Swiss also) happens to be in Japan for some times too so we decided he will come to Osaka and we will visit Nara then. We also thought to visit Kyoto but the Golden Week is terribly busy and we sticked to Nara but Kyoto will show up soon hopefully.
I have to warn you about tourist sightseeing in Japan, every single place is the number one in oldest, highest, widest or any other superlative that could come into mind, and if not first at least second in the Kansai/Kanto area or city… So to be complete here is a little description of Nara and our visit!
Japan’s first real capital (in 710), Nara, is the number two tourist attraction in Kansai after Kyoto. Eight sites in Nara are designated World Heritage sites by the UNESCO, they are considered od immeasurable historical value and are fortunately open to public viewing.
Although brief, the Nara period (75 years) was extraordinarily vigorous in its absorption of influence from China, a process that laid the foundations of Japanese culture and civilisation. The adoption of Buddhism as a national religion made a lasting impact on government, arts, literature and architecture. That’s it for the cultural aspects, let’s head to the visit for now.
Nara is not a big city, moreover, there are many temples and shrines and a huge park but the visit could be made in one day. The main site to visit id the Tôdai-Ji, inside the temple is an enormous bronze Buddha (Daibutsu) and it is really huge. For the records, it is 16 meters high, consisting of 437 tonnes of bronze ans 130 kg of gold. Nevertheless, the building itself is quite impressive, it is said to be the largest wooden building in the world, though it was rebuilt 3 times, it is nowaday only two thirds of its original size but still unbelievable. Oh yeah ! By the way, being at the right place the right time may become my speciality… so we were at the Tôdaiji on May 2, which is when Shomu Emperor (who decided to build the temple) Festival is held. About 300 people acting monks, bushi, and other historical characters proceed to the Great Buddha Hall. It was truly interesting to see all those replica costumes, colorful!
Next is the park (Nara kôen) with many shrines and stones lantern along the path up hill. Lot of the fun in the park is to look at other people buying shikasembei (deer biscuits) and feed the one of the many many “sacred” deer. Those animals are not stupid and wait in line in front of the shops to get their biscuits and even chasing you in you happened to have some on you but did not give it all.
During our way through the park we also enjoyed a cup of tea in one of the tea house and take time to contemplate the peaceful surroundings. We also had a “philosophical” talk on the crazy number of the lanterns and how it should be long to lit them all… we came to the conclusion that it was obviously necessary to be seen properly during those sombre time when assassination was common… (in fact there are parallel paths which are completely dark…)
It was an enriching cultural day, way out of the technolized Osaka city, unfortunately it was a bit grayish and it even rained so we did not stay longer in Nara to get every single shrines there but it is definitely one the most beautiful and calm area I have seen so far, and the numerous tourists were part of the experience too.
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