Gero and Sekigahara

May 1, 2015

This past Saturday, Adam and I went to Gero.  It takes a long time to get there, even though it’s only 140 km away from Tarui.  It was another hot and sunny day.  The train ride was especially beautiful as it took us, at a nice slow pace, through the mountains along a river.  The river was a beautiful bright blue colour.  We left at 8:30 am and arrived at 11:13 am.  We went to the tourist information center which was totally worth it as we got 10% off coupons for where we were going.  Then, we walked up along a creek to Gassho Village.  Gassho Village is like a Fort Edmonton or a Heritage Park.  There’s this really old town called Shirakawa-go which is a World Heritage Site because of all the old houses.  They took some of the houses from that village and reassembled them in Gero.  Since Shirakawa-go is rather inaccessible from Tarui without a car, going to Gero was a good chance to see this style of house. 

Gero

We arrived at the park gate at 11:50 am and immediately went into the Shadow Play theatre.  We watched a play about how an earthquake in Gero caused the hot spring to move.  Then, an egret came along and led the people to where the spring was.  The egret turned out to be a bodhisattva and they built a mini-temple for it.  Although we couldn’t understand the play, we were given a synopsis in English and could get the just of what was happening.  The play was performed using shadow puppets behind three different screens.  After the play, they showed everyone how to make a couple different shadow “things” with their hands.  Then, came the grand finale!  They showed a bunch of different shadow animals chasing each other across the screen and then changing into other animals.  It was pretty cool.  Unfortunately, you aren’t allowed to take pictures or videos. 

Inside the Shadow Play Theatre

After the play, we had some lunch and continued to explore the rest of the village.  The most famous house called Ohdo house took 13 years to build and has 4 stories. It’s from 1833, but was recently given a new roof.  You could only go up to the second floor and I’m not sure how the other floors worked, except that from the outside you could see windows at each floor. 

They also had a giant 170 m or something slide that you could go down for 100 yen each.  We considered doing it, but it didn’t look big enough for adults unfortunately. J

The roof in the house

In the Ohdo House, you can see how there are four floors.

By the creek in Gero

After the village, we went to an Onsen (a hot spring bath).  From the Shadow Play you may have gathered that Gero is famous from Onsens.  It’s basically a resort village in the mountains.  There’s free hot spring footbaths everywhere and a multitude of onsens to choose from.  They even have a free one by the river which requires bathing suits to be worn. 

Adam and I chose an onsen.  A French couple went in before us.  The women’s bath was pretty much empty except for the French woman and me.  As I’ve been trying to get over my timidity of speaking French, I decided to strike up a conversation with this French lady.  Interpretation: While hanging out completely naked in a hot spring, I decided that know is as good a time as ever to practice French. 

We finished the day by hanging out by the river and checking out the free outdoor onsen, although we didn’t go in.

On Sunday, we went to Japanese Mass and then took the train to Tado.  From Tado station, we walked to Kiso Sansen Park (3.5 km).  We were hoping to see the tulip gardens, but, unfortunately, they were all dead already.  We could tell that it must have been quite spectacular when they were blooming though.  There was some kind of kids’ day going on and so the park was loaded with families.  They had entertainment too which included a clown and belly dancers.  I know, belly dancers… at a children’s event… in Japan…  The highlight of the day was that I bought an ice cream cone out of a vending machine.  How cool is that, ice cream in a vending machine?

On the walk to the garden.

Kiso Sansen Park

Families everywhere!  Some flowers too.

A mascot of somewhere

Monday, I was invited to go for a picnic at a peony garden with a friend.  It was really beautiful.  After a while, my friend informed me that now we will go to a different park for a picnic.  I thought it was so classic.  It’s like I never really know what’s going on or what’s going to happen.  At this park, I got to see lots of misteria flowers.

Peony Garden

My friend Tomomi and her daughter Yui

Misteria flowers, the bees love these guys.

Wednesday was a national holiday.  Adam and I were planning on another big day of sightseeing.  We headed to Sekigahara which is the town right next to us about 6km away.  We decided to train take the train instead of biking.  Sekigahara is where the most pivotal battle in Japanese history took place.  It was the battle that finished unifying Japan and started a Shogunate dynasty that lasted about 300 years.  It was a battle between the East and the West.  The East won mostly because one of the warlords on the West side had secretly agreed to become a traitor and join the Eastern forces.  Two of the other West warlords’ troops didn’t do anything at all.  So technically, the West should have won, but being three warlords down, the East won instead.  It’s a pretty brutal history and if you want to know more, you can google it and get a much better explanation. 

We saw her walking around in Samurai costume, so we asked to take a picture with her.

Outside the museum

We visited the museum and different important battle sites.  In the museum, we got to see all these old documents that showed how the rich and powerful ruled and had so much information on everything happening in Japan.  We saw documents on who runs the inn, how many in each family, how many servants, and how many bushels of rice produced each year, etc. We saw a signpost stating that Christianity is illegal and how much someone would be paid if they reported a Christian. 

Christianity is illegal document.

Campsite of one of the armies.

The main Western warlords campsite

Sekigahara is a beautiful rural town.
 It's even more rural than Tarui with only 8000 people.

There was a bunch of art pieces in this little "peace" park.

An interesting thing mentioned in our pamphlet about the warlords was that the warlords who lost the battle were forced to commit suicide. However, one of the warlords was Christian, so they had to execute him. 

We had planned to go on to a festival in Maibara, but as we were both tired, we returned home. Since we’re leaving on a week long trip, I think that was a wise choice.  Travelling all the time can be very tiring.    

Kyoto

This past Saturday, Adam and I took a trip to Kyoto.  It only takes about an hour and a half by train to get to Kyoto so it’s pretty convenient.  I had been planning this trip for some time, as I had made reservations for a free tour of Kyoto Imperial Palace.  We arrived in Kyoto at 9:14 AM and were supposed to be at the Palace by 9:40 AM.  The line-up for the washroom was rather long so we only ended up leaving the station at 9:25 AM.  At this point, I started to feel a little stressed about getting to the palace on time.  We boarded the subway at 9:35am.  We got off the subway, went through a random exit and asked a passer-by which way to the Palace.  We both had our backpacks on containing two litres of water, not to mention our lunch and supper which slowed us down a little. Walking quickly/running, we entered the Palace gardens, but then we had to find the entrance for the tour.  We ran to the Information building which displayed a map of where to go for the tour.  We ran around the building only to find that it was a dead end.  We ran back around the way we came and could see the gate in the distance.  People were entering the gate and we ran faster. We saw people running from the opposite direction as us towards the gate.  Finally, we got there at 9:55 am, sweaty and tired.  I was glad they let us go on the tour.  The information I had gotten said that you had to arrive by 9:40 or you wouldn’t be allowed on the tour.  Adam and I were joking that they probably only say that for the English tour so that people get there on time.  For the Japanese tour, they probably only need to say that it starts at 10:00 AM. 

The tour was pretty good.  The guide started with a brief history of Japan that focussed on the changes in the role of the emperor. We then had a tour.  We didn’t get to go into any of the buildings, but our guide told us some information from the outside.  I learned a bit and quite enjoyed the experience, although I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone coming to Japan just for a few weeks.  You don’t get to see too much, it’s more just the experience.  Here are a few of the interesting things I learned: The emperor doesn’t live in Kyoto, but in Tokyo.  His palace and grounds in Tokyo are 10 times bigger than the Kyoto ones. The roofs of the buildings are made of 80 layers of cypress tree bark with wooden bamboo nails.  They used to play a drinking game where it was the person who won who got to drink sake.  Different gates and rooms were designated for people of different ranks.  For example, the servants had a certain entrance (the one we came through), the emperor had his own gate, different dignitaries entered through a different gate, etc.  We saw three waiting rooms for people of different rank.  The lowest rank room had cherry blossoms on the walls and red cloth joining the tatami floor.  The middle rank room had some kind of bird on the walls with white cloth joining the tatami floor.  The highest rank room had tigers on the walls and white cloth joining the tatami floor.  I guess the Japanese trend of ranking everything goes way back.

Brief Japanese history lesson

The rocks in front of this ceremony hall are white so that at night they reflect the light more.

Treasure House

Close-up of the cypress bark roof.

The palace burned down quite a few times partly because of this corridor.
Buildings were joined by this corridor, so when a fire struck, it spread quickly.

This is where the emperor would receive people.
The white canopy is where he could relax between visitors.
Apparently his throne is in front, so I'm thinking he might have knelt on the floor.
Whenever he received people, the blinds would be lowered so that you couldn't see into the room or see him.
This was because he was seen as a god.

The palace had a couple of nice gardens.

After the tour, we had lunch in the outer gardens which is a public park.  We chose a place in the sun and started to munch on some pita and falafels.  Adam was sitting on my right, and I was holding my pita in my left hand slightly away from my body.  When I was about halfway through my pita, a hawk, followed closely by a crow, swooped down and tried to grab the pita from my hand.  I actually felt some part of the birds brush my hand.  Well, my body went directly into the fight and flight mode and I chose the flight option.  I promptly got up and went under the nearby trees to make it more difficult for the hawk to make another swipe at me.  Adam picked up my bag and the picnic things and brought them over to me.  The hawk continued soaring above, no doubt looking for another chance at my falafel. It was the singular most terrifying moment of the day.  I am glad that the hawk didn’t claw my hand.  Adam said I should thank my guardian angel for that one.  Now for those of you who are acquainted with how I was stalked and regularly attacked by a certain crow on my way to work in Lethbridge, will understand how doubly terrifying this experience was for me.  One crow is one thing, but a hawk and a crow are two things (AKA quite another thing).  I was quite nervous around all birds for the rest of the day.  In conclusion, I’m planning on writing a review on tripadvisor warning people not picnic in the Imperial Palace Grounds, or at least not picnic in an open area.

The Palace park area
I found out that these are a different type of cherry tree.

Adam got a picture of the hawk that attacked me.

 Seeing as I was quite nervous, we left the Palace and decided to head to the second stop of our day- Ginkakuji Temple, also known as the Silver Pavilion.  We boarded a bus (as you will see we basically used every type of public transit Kyoto has to offer) and took it to the Ginkakuji stop.  We met some nice people who walked with us from the bus stop to the temple to show us the way.  They also spoke a little English.

The Silver Pavilion actually isn’t silver.  I thought I should clear that up.  It was meant to be covered in silver like the golden pavilion was covered in gold, but for some reason never was.  It was built for the grandson of the man who had the golden pavilion built.  Similar to the Golden Pavilion it was built as a retirement villa and now is a Buddhist temple.  The gardens were quite nice, but the temple was nothing special.  At the temple, some students approached Adam to ask him some questions in English.  They were on a school field trip.  Adam and I had helped the grade six students in Tarui prepare for their trip to Kyoto and helped them practice the conversation they were supposed to have with foreigners, so we weren’t surprised to be approached. The interesting part of this was that I had been waiting for Adam and none of them approached me.  They only approached Adam when he came towards me.  Perhaps my sunglasses and hat made me look less like a foreigner or something.  Or maybe, I’m turning Japanese. 

This is supposed to be Mt. Fuji.

This is supposed to look like the ocean.
The Silver Pavillion is the building at the back.

View from the garden of the temple.

Silver Pavillion

After seeing all we wanted, we left the temple and began our walk down the Philosopher’s Path.  This Path is famous and is especially popular during cherry blossom season.  The cherry blossoms were basically done, but there were some other flowers blooming.  It’s a pretty path and has a relaxing atmosphere.  Adam and I sat on a bench to finish our lunch.  As I watched the people go by, I told Adam, “Instead of calling this the Philosopher’s Path, they should call it the Foreigner’s Path.”  We both thought that was pretty funny.

I'm trying to look philosophical on the Philosopher's Path.

I think these are azaleas.

 After we finished our leisurely romantic walk down the path, we headed for the subway station.  On our way we passed what looked like another famous temple and a historic canal.  Although we only saw one sign in English, we gathered that this canal was built to transport goods from Kyoto to other parts of Japan on the way to Lake Biwa. It kind of looked like a water fall coming through the city.  I guess at some points they built a railway track to transport the goods since the water levels varied so much.

Probably another famous temple...

Where the canal starts/finishes.

 We took the subway to the end of the line and boarded a local train line to take us to Arashiyama.  Like I said, we pretty much exhausted Kyoto’s public transit options.  Arashiyama, from what I can tell, is like a suburb of Kyoto.  They’re attached, yet distinct.  It’s a cute little town with all kinds of tourist shops on old style streets and people walking all around.  I commented to Adam, “I feel like I’m in Banff in the summer.  There’s all these little tourists shops bustling with people, there’s mountains...”  Adam cut in, “And there’s Japanese people everywhere.”  We had a good laugh over that one.

We checked out the bridge that is apparently iconic of Arashiyama and I was really amazed at the beauty of the mountains.  They looked so close and so green.  Since it’s spring all the leaves are budding out with that bright bright green colour.  We also visited a bamboo grove which was actually the main/only reason I wanted to go to Arashiyama.  As many of you know, I have a love of bamboo.  Since grade seven I have had a bamboo plant which anyone I’ve lived with has gotten to appreciate and which my mother, sister, and friend have cared for while I’ve been off gallivanting across the globe (AKA living in France and Japan).  The bamboo grove did not disappoint.  After the bamboo grove we were mistaken as to where we needed to go to get to a different station than the one we had come in on and went to the river.  We ate a little supper and then saw a bus come up that said it was going to Kyoto Station.  We hopped on and then found out that it would take 40 minutes to get to the station, so it would have been a better idea to go with the train, but in any case we got quite the tour of Kyoto. 

Arashiyama bridge

Tons of rickshaws were all around. 

Bamboo grove!!!

When we got to Kyoto station, we saw three girls all with blond hair.  Adam commented, “People with blond hair sure stick out.”  I replied, “That’s what you look like.” 

Lastly, I realize that I’ve made quite a few comments about being the “foreigner” in this entry. While in many ways, I’ve gotten used to being stared at, I’m still very aware of the fact that I stand out.  I stare at foreigners too.  Adam explained that it’s because your eyes are naturally drawn to something that’s different.  People aren’t rude, it’s just natural. 

This coming weekend will yield more adventures, so please stay tuned for next week’s entry.