Monkey Business
Trip Start
Nov 16, 2007
1
30
40
Trip End
Aug 2008
Kyoto,
Kinki,
Japan
Thursday, May 22, 2008
With one full day in Osaka, I head out early to make the most of a bright sunny day. Walking north through the vast Shinsaibashi-suji Arcade, you cross the Dotomburi Canal passing an endless series of food and clothes shops. About 4km north you reach the Kita area containing most of Osaka's big stations. I exchange the JR pass voucher I bought in Hong Kong for a two week train pass and book my train for Tokyo the following day. Then back out to visit the Ohatsu-tenjin, a peaceful oasis of a shrine in the chaotic Umeda district.
Further south lies the fantastic Museum of Oriental Ceramics, a small but beautifully put together gallery highlighting the best of Japanese, Chinese and Korean pottery. Back burning shoe leather, I head east to the vast moated park housing Osaka-jo. Entering through the enormous Ote-mon gate, I head up to the main tower to get a great view over the city. The tower now serves as a museum to the castle and its most important owner, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a sixteenth century Shogun.
Osaka
Walking back down through the gardens, I poke my head round the door of the Sudokan and watch the end of a kendo practice, wetting my appetite further for Tokyo.South west of the park is the Osaka Museum of History. A series of floors show the development of the city over 2000 years, with plenty of diaramas to peer over. The building is designed to give a great view back towards the castle, and it protects some important remains in the basement. Out on the street, I wander back towards Namba through the Minami area. Full of bars and restaurants, I stop in a great little place and have a local speciality, okonomiaki, kind of like a cross between an omelet and a pizza, with fillings mixed in and fish flakes dancing on top.
Another night in the capsule and then off to Shinjuku on the Shinkansen (bullet train). The continuing sprawl of the east coast of Honshu races past as we tear up to the outskirts of Tokyo. Changing onto a local service, I work my way to Nakano and meet a kendo friend, Gibbo, after he finishes work. Straight to the dojo that will be my home in June. The practice is great to watch, especially with an 8th dan hanshi (as good as it gets for the non-kendoka reading this) Yamanaka-sensei having a play underneath where I'm watching. Afterwards we head back to Gibbo and Emis' place, have curry and play Wii.
Next day we head over to a kendo shop nearby to pick out some equipment for when I start practicing in a couple of weeks. Then back out in the evening to meet up with Emi and her friend, Noriko, for a meal at a Shabu-shabu place.
Osaka
All you can eat and drink for 1 and a half hours. Sauteing beef and pork in flavoured bubbling broths, with vegetables and mushrooms. Then off to a karaoke bar to belt out some standards. All finished off with a bit more Wii.A slow start the next day, Gibbo and I head into Shinjuku and explore the busy streets there. Our focus is a tenegui shop, selling the head cloths we use in kendo. I pick out a couple of choice ones and then we carry on wandering. Finally we head back to pick up my luggage and I catch the Narita express out to the airport. Into a hotel for the night to wait for Dad and Natalies' arrival the following morning.
Their plane is on time and we head into Tokyo to check into a great ryokan near Nippori station in the north. The first afternoon we explore around Ueno Park and the area near the ryokan. There are a lot of shrines and tree lined graveyards making for an elegant, refined air up on the hill. We tuck into a meal at one of the little bars nearby in the evening.
The next morning we head into the centre of Tokyo. First we explore the area around the Imperial Palace. This is dominated by the wide expanse of gravel in front of the moats, the Imperial Plaza. Behind this lies the twin bridges of Nijubashi with a watchtower further back. Then through the grand Ote-mon gate to the garden of Higashi Gyoen which contains the Fujimi-yagura watchtower. Heading south east we reach the shopping district of Ginza with its famous names and wide boulevards. After exploring here we head north through Nihombashi to Akihabara and then back over to Ueno.
Destination Nagano the next day and into the mountains.
Osaka
We are staying in an old youth hostel in the temple buildings of Zenko-ji, Nagano's 1300 year old main temple. It is an incredibly atmospheric area with the grand Niomon and Sanmon gates protecting the approach to the enormous wooden temple. After a first night observing the 9:30 pm curfew, we head off to Yudanaka and into the hills to the hot spring baths. There a local created a bath ('rotemburo') dedicated to the monkeys that he fed in the winter. Now they cavort in the tree lined valley, bathing and grooming each other. We sit with the monkeys as they bounce around.Back on the Dentetsu line, stop at the town of Obuse. A drive by the local brewery has seen the town gentrified, private gardens opened and a museum built dedicated to the work of Obuse's most famous resident, Hokusai. After a great lunch, we visit the Hokusai-kan, which contains a small but focused collection of the artist's work, highlights being the festival floats he designed and decorated. Then a slow walk back to the station, poking our heads into some of the gardens.
I get up really early the next morning and join pilgrims to the temple in their dawn visit to the Okaidan. After some blessings from the monks, we form a line and plunge into the pitch black passageway under the altar. Feeling around in the dark, you find a relic shaped like a door knocker. After a good rub and eternal salvation guaranteed I head back to the hotel. Off to Kyoto next.
