Autumn

My wayward laptop has finally returned. Much has happened since the last entry, which was about Kyoto. Since then, Ive come back to Chichibu, studied, explored more of the surrounds, been in and out of Tokyo, and most recently, been travelling for a week with my wonderful friends Andrew and Nobuko. Appropriately, this has seen me return to Kyoto again, and I was able to revisit some of my favourite places from the first visit.

This time however, it was Autumn...


I really can't describe how sublimely beautiful Japan is in Autumn. Japanese poets have been trying for centuries, but still can't get even close. The intensity of the colours, the subtlety of the gradients, the superb shapes of the trees, the luminous translucency of the leaves, the freshness of the air...


In Kyoto, Koto-in, a subtemple of Daitoku-ji that I talked about in my last entry, was even more superb this time. I can only imagine what it must have been like to live there, watching the seasons change day by day.




Travelling with Andrew and Nobuko in Japan was pretty special - its been something Andrew and I have been wanting to do for a very, very long time.

We met up in Nagoya railway station, and immediately headed out on a train to Takayama, in the north of central Honshu. The train took us through mountains in the grip of Autumn, and the scenery was spectacular.








In what was to develop as a theme for our travels, we had about 2 minutes in Takayama to find and board a bus that would take us onward to Shirakawago, a village that is world heritage listed, for its wealth of traditional thatched roof gassho-zukuri farmhouses. The name literally means 'hands in prayer'. They are built entirely with wood, rope and straw and are quite beautiful. We stayed ryokan-style in one, which included delicious cooked dinner and breakfast.






In the mornings, when the sun hits the thatched rooves, large clouds of steam are generated, producing a quite spectacular sight - visible in the photographs.

It was also here that I was introduced to mitarashii dango, a kind of mochi (pounded cooked rice) that come as balls on skewers, grilled, and dipped in a special soy based sauce. Im going to try and make them when I get back home, so you may get to taste them if you are lucky (or unlucky, depending on my measure of success). Our Mochi-Man had the technique and the secret sauce perfected, and we visited him three times during the morning for more. Nobuko tried to talk the secret sauce recipe out of him, with some, but not complete success.

From Shirakawago, we went further north to stay in an onsen town, called Unazuki Onsen. Our hotel had both indoor and outdoor onsen, which we duly enjoyed, tho the outdoor onsen was less natural than I imagined - more like a large shallow heated pool, surrounded by rocks cemented into place, and 'natural' hot spring water piped from somewhere down below.

We decided to take the Tateyama-Kuroba alpine-route, to its high point at Morodo, which involved a train, then a bus ride way up into the Japan Alps. I was very happy to see bits of snow appear by the side of the road, and by the time we got to Morodo, the snow was knee deep.






While the tourists assembled on the roof deck for their group photos, we wandered off into the wilderness for a bit of an explore.

Snowballs were thrown, and a snowman, which I called Yukihito (literally 'snow-person') was constructed, mostly by Nobuko, who was the only one of us with gloves.










In this photo, he is grumpy about not having a bottom bit. Actually, he was a bit like a buddha statue, in that his expression was somehow completely different depending on what angle you looked at him from. Joyous, grumpy, indifferent...

From there, we headed back to Toyohashi, to Nobuko's parents place. They really are lovely people. When I was best man at Andrew and Nobuko's wedding, Nobuko's folks seemed to take a real shine to me, and her dad, Yasuhiro, was very emphatic in inviting me to come and visit in Japan. Which, finally, I managed to do.


I'll post this entry now, and continue from here tomorrow. Just in case you had forgotten, its Autumn here...