Shika no Tone

Ive been in Hiroshima since Sunday, and today will head down the coast along the inland sea. But I've packed a lot into the last few days...

Friday night I got to see the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra play in Tokyo - when i turned up on Marty's (fellow student of Kakizakai-sensei) doorstep in tokyo friday afternoon, he said "want to go see some music? ive got some free tickets..." :)

Saturday morning I caught the Skinkansen to a place called Okayama - about a 3 1/2 hour trip west. The plan was to check out Okayama, then ride across the Kibi plain - camp that night on the plain, then catch a train back to Okayama the next day, and the skinkansen on to Hiroshima to see a shakuhachi concert that Bronwyn was performing in.

I got into Okayama at about 2pm, but while on the train I realised I had not obtained any metho to fuel the trangia (camping stove) - bad mistake. So I rode around Okayama trying to find metho. No luck. I found a camping store that sold Trangias, but according to the staff, they didnt sell fuel for them. This needed to be obtained from a Drug Store. This conversation took place in bad japanese, with a lot of pointing and gesticulation. So I visited a number of drug stores, but no luck. By this stage things were getting lateish, and I was pretty over it, so I decided to head out anyway and just have a cold dinner.

Definately the right move, and as soon as I was out of Okayama, I felt 110% better. Being on the Kibi plain at sunset was just wonderful - its more of a long, flat bottomed valley than what my Australian mind identifies as a plain, but japan is mostly mountains, so any piece of flat land larger than a postage stamp is considered a plain. Usually this means its covered in city, but the Kibi plain is mostly farmland. Rice paddies and a few veggie plots. It's networked with teeny bike-sized access roads though, and riddled with shrines, burial mounds, ruins of temples and other interesting sights.

It got dark before i found a camping spot however, but eventually I came to a burial mound - a large terraced artificial hill, and pitched the tent on one of the terraces, with a superb view out over the plain. It was still early, so i did a bit of shakuhachi practice (hee hee - I wonder if anyone though it was a ghost!) and went to sleep pretty soon after. Up early next morning, and caught the sunrise over the plain. I saw nesting cranes too! Didnt see the nests, but saw cranes, and they were swooping passers by (including me), so I assume they were nesting. They are really impressive. BIG. and when they swoop, they fly in silently and then when they are right on top of you, do a left-right zigzag that makes a big whooshing noise, and then fly off. Certainly caught me by surprise first time...

I caught a local train back from a place called Soja to Okayama, in time to catch the Hikari Rail-Star to Hiroshima. A very impressive train indeed - looked more like something about to launch into space. And it is indeed extremely impressive when you pass another one coming the opposite way, at a range of about half a metre, with a relative speed of about 600 km/hr! the whole train gets sucked sideways for an instant as the two pass. In all, the shinkansen feel like being in a plane that is about to land, with a small amount of turbulance.

Arrived in Hiroshima, with about an hour to find the concert venue. Found it, after a bit of riding up and down, and went in to wait for the concert. Anne Norman was the featured performer - another Australian (Japan seems to be *full* of us) who has been playing for about 30 years. Though an amateur concert, the standard was great! Anne played some solo pieces, and there were some ensemble pieces with a bunch of other local shakuhachi players. She also did a duet with Bronwyn, called Shika no Tone, which is about the calling of the deer. Afterwards I was invited along to the after-party/dinner which was a hoot! first time ive had a chance to interact with the japanese in relaxo-mode over a huge meal and plenty of beeru. When it was discovered that I had no accom sorted, I was invited back to Mende-san's house, where Bron and Anne were also staying.

Mende-san was largely responsible for organising the concert, and the hospitality shown by him and his wife was really extraordinary. Lovely people. He finds it baffling but wonderful that foreigners would spend their hard earned money and spend extened time away from loved ones, just to learn an obscure Japanese instument and be interested in Japanese culture. It moves him quite deeply, and as a result he goes way out of his way to help us. In this photo, we have, Right to left, Mende-san, Bronwyn, Anne, Keiko (Mende-san's wife), Fuji-san's wife (whose name I cant remember - terrible, since she was so lovely and I had a great conversation with her in Japlinglish), and Fuji-san.

Monday, he took us all sightseeing, to Miyajima island. Fuji-san, one of the other players in the performance had organised with the (famous) shrine on Miyajima, to have us all blessed, and for Anne and Bronwyn to be able to perform Shika no Tone at the shrine.


Quite an amazing experience. The piece was especially relevant, since Miyajima has a population of wild deer, that wander at will through the whole town/temple complex, eating people's guidebooks and both enchanting and terrifying small children (and adults!) in equal measures. The shrine itself is built on pylons out over the water, and has the famous 'floating' Torii (gate) out in the water.

After Miyajima, we were taken to visit the Peace Park and A-Bomb Dome, which was an extremely moving experience. Just standing in front of the memorial, looking through it to the A-Bomb Dome is extremely powerful, and just thinking about it again I am close to tears. The strength of feeling was quite unexpected, and I'm still digesting the experience. I think it was also magnified by the fact that our hosts all had relatives whose names were written on the registers housed inside the memorial. Fiji-san's wife told me that they were happy that the names were there.

I parted company with the group after going through the museum, deciding that I didnt want to impose on Mende-san's hospitality any further - I cant repeat enough how wonderful his generosity, especially with his time, was. After visiting the train station and checking out routes and times, I decided that I would rather spend the night in Hiroshima, so got a room at a hostel near the peace park, dumped my gear, and took the bike out for a look around town.

Peace Park, once the centre of a devastated city, is now a lovely and indeed peaceful place. At night, people wander around it, sit by the river with friends, or just play. I saw three girls practicing their dance routines in the reflective windows of the museum. People playing guitars and fishing under a bridge. Homeless and travellers alike sleep quietly and undisturbed on some of the benches.

The A-Bomb Dome at night is a quiet and beautiful place. Lit quite minimally, it radiates a kind of easy stillness that is simultaneously extremely welcoming and quietly thought provoking. Peace Park really is a wonderfully peaceful place.



The photo at the beginning of this blog entry is a moss stain on the wall of Okayama castle. Painted by nature and circumstance, and as beautiful (I think) as any Japanese landscape painting ive seen - it seems to me to be the scene of a moonrise over the forested mountains.

Time for me to head off and see the inland sea... but ill leave you with one last photo...