Odawara Castle

We came down out of the cold, blustery hills to find a warm late February day that hinted at the spring to come. Winter had not given up its grasp, especially not when the wind gusted, but the plum blossoms were just easing their way out. That first harbinger of the change of the season. And not a moment too soon, based on my last heating bill.

Odawara castle is a concrete reproduction constructed in the 1960s. Like many of Japans feudal castles, Odawara was pulled down during the Meiji Restoration, a victim of the laws that propelled Japan out of its Samurai past. The current donjon, or keep, is actually much smaller than the castle that stood here at the height of its powers in the mid 1500s.

That version of Odawara Castle was ruled by the Late Hojo clan, a group that dominated most of the Kanto. Their holdings stretched all the way from Odawara, which is south of Yokohama, to Numata, which is a small mountain town north of me! It is a distance of some 200 plus kilometers, which is quite the journey by horseback.

That version of the castle was broken in 1590, along with the power of the Hojo. Toyotomi Hideyoshi besieged and defeated the Hojo, and ordered the fortifications torn down after his victory. The castle was given to future Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, along with the rule of the Kanto. Hideyoshi did this to break Ieyasu away from his family's power base in Aichi Prefecture. Sadly for him, that plan did not pan out very well, and Ieyasu eventually brought the whole country under his direct control. In the meantime, he transferred his seat of power from Odawara to Edo castle, which was located where the modern day Imperial Palace is, right in the heart of Tokyo. And that's why Odawara isn't the capital of Japan!

The current castle is still plenty impressive, and offered expansive views of the surrounding area and the vastness of Sagami Bay. I always enjoy visiting Japanese Castles, they seem just as deadly as your standard European castle, but with more of eye towards aesthetics.

As my train home closed in on Tokyo, I looked back the way I had come and saw Mt. Fuji peeking back at me, saying farewell for now.

Looking the other way I saw the skyscrapers of Shinjuku welcoming me back to the Tokyo megaplex and modern Japan.

The Hills of Hakone

Gunma certainly doesn't have a lock on gorgeous mountain scenery and active volcanoes with plenty of boiling water flowing out of the ground. One of the more famous mountain getaways in the greater Kanto region is the resort area of Hakone.

Hakone is a short express ride south west of Tokyo, close to Mt. Fuji. In fact, Mt. Fuji is one of the big draws of the Hakone region. The spectacular views of Japans most famous mountain is a big draw to tourists from around the country and the world. Though as it is said, Mt. Fuji is a very shy mountain, and it may not always make itself available for photography.

Hakone itself is located in an ancient caldera. Twice before a volcano has risen here, exploded and then collapsed. Today there is a smouldering central peak surrounded by deep valleys and a beautiful lake system. The prescribed way to enjoy Hakone is to make a multi-mode transit loop around the central cone, starting with a very cute narrow gauge railroad. The route from the plains below is so steep that the train must make three switchbacks on the way up, swapping back for front three times.

The next step is a cable car right up the side of the mountain. It was quite a bit of fun to watch the funicular system in action, with the cable slowly lowering the car down to the bottom station, then pulling it (and us)back up past the counterweight car.

It is here that the most spectacular part of the journey begins. A gondola system that carries people up and over a hissing field of sulfur vents, and then crests a ridge and presents visitors with the splendor of Mt. Fuji and its perfectly shaped cone. Unfortunately for us, while the view was still tremendous, Fuji-san was feeling a little shy, and the summit was wreathed in clouds. Though we did have a nice view of the sunlight glittering off of the far away ocean.

The next step in the course was one we were unable to take. There are "pirate ships" that take you around the lake, but we were there a little late in the day and things were starting to shut down. It is hard to imagine just why the closing time of the ropeway was an hour before sunset, but Japan is known for having some pretty early closing times. At least, to my western eyes. (Sometimes I want to go grocery shopping past 8pm.)

Though I have yet to mention the best part of the whole trip, our hotel. While there are many options for staying in Hakone, from the dirt cheap to the excessively luxurious, there is only one hotel that is historic enough to be mentioned on the guide map on the wall in the train. The Fujiya hotel was founded in 1891, and is the oldest western style hotel in Japan. Previous guests include the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Charlie Chaplin, The Emperor of Japan, John Lennon and Yoko Ono. That is a pretty illustrious list. The hotel has grown remarkably over the years, and now covers a wide area with several eras of architecture represented.

Rooms in the oldest, most historical, and least luxurious part of the hotel are remarkably affordable, especially considering the country and the area. So we were thrilled to get a chance to stay there. The mix of Western and Japanese styles that typifies Meiji period architecture is fascinating and very beautiful. The interior of the main building is all old wood of a rich dark brown, something that you don't see much of in the modern Japan of bland, drab concrete. Like most resort areas in Japan, Hakone is an onsen town. Fujiya approached the onsen hotel role very differently from most. Rather than have a huge and gorgeously appointed public bath, they just piped onsen water to every room. Every room is its own private hot springs bath.

We didn't have dinner at the hotel, that was a bit beyond our budget, but our room came with breakfast included. Now, I love Japan. I really do. But I do not love Japanese notions of breakfast. Rice, miso soup, and grilled fish does not make for an appealing first meal for me. Neither does spaghetti and fried chicken. The weak coffee, terrible toast and a spot of jam that you sometimes find is almost insulting. Natto for breakfast moves from insulting to downright ludicrous.

All of that is to say that the breakfast buffet at Fujiya was amazing. It was the best that I have ever encountered anywhere in the country. We had freshly prepared omelets, bowls of fruit and yogurt, fresh good bread and rolls, bacon, sausage, eggs, cereal and plenty of good coffee to wash it all down with. I had to be very careful to not just shovel it all in my mouth as quickly as I could, and to try and savor this watershed.

So, properly fortified by breakfast, we headed downhill into the nearby town of Odawara, eager to add a new castle to my list.

Red Wine, Yellow Sun

For reasons unknown to me, the Japanese adore the Beaujolais Nouveau. Like so many things from other cultures, they have seized on the first wine of the season and made it their own. Around here there is a family run winery in the city of Ashikaga, in Tochigi Prefecture. Every November they hold a harvest festival. Your entry fee gets you a bottle of wine, red or white, a glass and a bottle opener. Then its up to you to sit back, enjoy music, conversation and sun and just relax under the vines.

Though of course some people relaxed more than others. I myself found the moment rather culturally surreal. Here I was drinking red wine, with a good German bratwurst that I was eating with chopsticks. Now THAT my friends is multiculturalism at its finest.

The weather was glorious, sunny and warm, and the wine and food were both delicious. The weekend was a ton of fun, and is exactly the sort of event that anybody can enjoy. Even non-drinkers, as there is sparkling grape juice available for those who are not fond of wine. For anybody that finds themselves in Japan in  November, seek out the Coco Winery in Ashikaga. Even if you go alone, you'll make plenty of friends before the day is out!

Nikko in Fall

This fall has been truly beautiful. While the past summer was baking hot, and in fact set a few records, October and November have been filled with clear and sunny days. Not too hot, not too cold.

Nearby Nikko, home of Toshogu Shrine that I visited in August, is famous across Japan as an autumn destination. The brilliant fall colors in the area draw people from all over the Kanto region.

This can certainly make for clogged roads and busy attractions, but luckily for us, most people access Nikko from the Tokyo side. The drive from my place to Nikko was easy and pleasant, with gorgeous views at every turn. I drove up with a trio of flatlanders, who really enjoyed the trip.

We met up with a few more friends from around the area in Nikko, though it took longer than expected due to brutal traffic through town. The shrines were as gorgeous as always, and the small garden near the entrance to Toshogu was a delight.

That is one thing I really love about Japanese cultural sites. No matter how many times you have been, and this marks my third trip to Nikko, there always seems to be something new to discover.

We then headed up into the hills, back to the Kegon falls. It was nice to arrive a little earlier this time, and get the chance to take the elevator down to the lower viewing platform. 

The geology nut in me loved that vantage point. We could see the bottom of a layer of columnar basalt, the same type of rock that formed the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. The meeting point between the basalt lava flows and the underlying rocks was very obvious, even in the fading light.

After a well deserved sit down and some dinner, we all went our separate ways, with the knowledge that the weekend had been properly seized.

Night falls on the Kawagoe Matsuri

As we reached the furthest area of the festival, dusk was fully upon us. Of course, in a Japanese festival, night time isn’t an excuse to go home and have a quiet dinner, but rather a time to hang out the lanterns, light up the streets and keep partying!

The floats had been pretty impressive in the daylight hours, but bedecked with lanterns and lights they were even more so. At first the daytime crowds seemed to thin a bit, but that was an artifact of our location at the fringes of the action. As we headed back towards the central streets, things got even busier and more packed than they had been. 

 

At each major intersection a troupe of acrobatic old fashioned firemen did a performance. They would lift a ladder far above the crowds, and then members would climb up and do tricks high above our heads. Their skills were impressive, and a large crowd gathered around. A very large crowd. As the performance ended, we had to all hold on to each other to make sure we weren’t separated as we ploughed through the teeming horde of people.

Things got so busy that we eventually took to a side street to avoid the crowds. While we did miss the bright festival booths in that area, by this point each of us had overindulged in festival food, and weren’t in a mood to do much more buying. We were in the mood to sit down and relax, and to sing. Once we found a good karaoke booth, we stayed for three hours of badly belted melodies and draft beer. It was a perfect end to a great day.

Daylight Kawagoe Matsuri

Last weekend I met up with some friends from around the area to go to the Kawagoe festival and celebrate my friend Peter's birthday.One of the first things we ran into was a mikoshi headed out of a shrine. This is very like the one I helped carry at the Maebashi Matsuri the week before. I'm glad they didn't try to press me into action again, as my shoulder was still a little sore from the last one.

One of the best reasons to go to a festival has to be festival food. The mingled smells of a street or courtyard full of food stalls is sure to set your stomach to grumbling. From yakitori to okonomiyaki to ramen burgers to fried twisty potatoes to doner kebab, just about anything is available and it all tastes great.

The festival is a popular one, and one of the largest I've seen. The food stalls, toy booths and fairground games of chance stretched from the station to the old town, and filled the grounds of every shrine and temple in between. The whole stretch was jammed with plenty of festival goers, though during the day the crowd wasn't too bad to elbow through.

Along the way there were large floats with dancing, drums, flutes and more.

 

Though not everybody on the floats seemed to be totally enthused to be there. 

Like the portable shrines, the floats are all human powered. Luckily, they have wheels so there is probably less of a chance of a painfully bruised shoulder. 

As we snacked our way from one end of the festival to the other the sun went down, and the festival geared up for the night...

Tosho-gu

Located in Tochigi Prefecture north west of Tokyo, Nikko has been a worthwhile destination for centuries. The primary draw for the past couple of hundred years is Tosho-gu, the shrine that is the final resting place for Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Tosho-gu was built by Ieyasu's son Hidetada, and enlarged by his grandson Iemitsu. They needed a grand and glorious gesture to show the power and wealth of the still new Tokugawa Shogunate. Japan had just come out of a long period of civil war and disunity, and the Tokugawa made every effort to forestall any slide back into chaos. That their own heads would have been first on the chopping block in that event was certainly an added motivation.

The various shrine complexes are set a short ways up from the town itself, and an easy walk from the train station. Nikko is a very popular day trip from Tokyo, and it is easy to see why. It provides a remarkable contrast to Ieyasu's old capital, with the tall forests and ornate shrine buildings a far cry from the busy streets around Shinjuku.

Nikko is rather unique in Japan, far more gaudy and ornate than is usually the case in Japanese religious buildings. In that way it shares a certain aesthetic similarity with some of the traditional buildings I saw in China, bright and colorful as opposed to the more standard unpainted wood.

Indeed, Nikko can be overwhelming to the senses, especially when you factor in heat, crowds and a surfeit of steps. (I was at Nikko three days after Fuji, and had mostly recovered, but the steps triggered a measure of Post Traumatic Mountain Stress Syndrome in my calves.)

I have been to Nikko before, by myself over five years ago. That trip was during a very chilly mountain March, so I was quite glad to return with friends. Though the occasional drizzle merely made the late August heat even wetter and stickier and made the dirty snow piles of March an attractive alternative. 

After an extra fee and a hike up more stairs into the woods you come to the burial place of the man who unified Japan. It does seem ironic that once you get past the Rococo meets East Asia styling of the shrine buildings, Tokugawa's mausoleum is an understated bronze cylinder that still holds whatever remains of his ashes, these hundreds of years later.

Driving to Nikko

Nikko is one of the premier tourist destinations in Japan. It is an area of immense natural beauty and historical importance that has the good fortune to also be quite close to Tokyo. Nikko sits in the mountains to the north of Gunma, about two hours drive from my house. My old friend Zach and his girlfriend Miku came up to Gunma from Osaka during summer break, meeting up with me and our mutual friend Ryan. We planned a drive to Nikko, as Miku had never been!

While enroute we came across an old Imperial getaway that is now a museum. Originally built for the local lord, the small palace was obtained by the Imperial Family during the Meiji Restoration in the late 1800s, and was expanded and made more luxurious, as befits an Emperor.

Now of course, it is a museum that gives a look into the very private lives of the Japanese Imperial Family. There are displays on the history of the building, old Japanese building techniques, and of course rooms that show how the Imperial Family lived, from the shower room to the audience room to the billiards room.

This was a very nice surprise, everyone but Miku had been here before, some multiple times. It was just far enough away from the central tourist sites of Nikko that you wouldn't know about it without prior planning or a car. Just one of those happy accidents that happens when you are traveling.

Omiya

Some weeks ago I visited the city of Omiya, in Saitama prefecture. Omiya is mostly noted for being a major Japan Rail transfer hub for the northern part of the Kanto Plain. It's also a major suburb of Tokyo, existing in the sort of limbo that envelops large cities on the periphery of even larger cities. There's plenty of things to see and do in Omiya, but as the northern reaches of Tokyo are some 20 minutes away by train, a whole world of other, more interesting things to see and do exists right over the horizon. However, I had seen plenty of Tokyo, and little of Omiya, so I was primed to jump right on in.

The major attraction in Omiya is Hikawa Shrine, which is one of the major Shinto Shrines in the Kanto Region. In fact, Omiya the city is named after the shrine, Omiya means large temple/palace. Plenty of people still come to admire the long entrance avenue and huge torii.

For me, there was another good reason to make it to Omiya. The Japan Rail Railroad Museum! I'm a well known transportation buff, and my love of Japan's railway system is legendary. How then could I not be attracted to a huge museum devoted to trains from the very first steam engines to the latest in Shinkansen technology?

I have an old link to Omiya as well. Back in 2005, when I first visited Japan, I transferred through Omiya Station a few times. I never got to leave the station, but the view of the vast array of tall buildings and shops outside the train windows intrigued me, and I thought it would be an interesting place to live. I also transferred through Nagoya Station a few times, and when the time came to request a placement with GEOS, I got the two places mixed up, and asked for Nagoya! I remember living in Nagoya, and wondering why I mis-remembered the view from the station. It wasn't till my first trip from Kanazawa to Tokyo that I got another chance to look out the window, and realize that I had meant Omiya....

We stayed late into the evening, with some time at a cheap izakaya chain, though we were all too tired from an early start and a long day of walking to really get into a night life sort of mood, though a round of cold beer and some excellent Japanese bar food really hit the spot!