Summer tour - Japan - Kyoto to Nagoya and then Hankone

 From Kyoto we made a slight detour to spend a couple of days in Nagoya - a modern  industrial City in central Japan that also happened to be the location of a concert by Casio P - a Japanese Jazz fusion band that A is a big fan of. 

While we were doing our Danube cruise A mentioned that one of his favourite bands was doing a concert whilst we were in Japan - he said that I may have heard of them as they had been founded in the 1970s (!). He asked if I would like to go along with him so of course I said yes. 

This involved  a visit to Nagoya and in the event it was a really interesting concert - we were among the the very few non-Japanese audience and there was excellent music (think Level 42 without the vocals) and plenty of inter-song Japanese banter!

Nagoya also boasted a very impressive Castle complex (including  a huge pagoda) - as the photos below testify, it was all in absolutely pristine condition having been restored following the Allied bombing in the war. The palace was a lovely combination of airy rooms with walls covered in beautiful animal and landscape paintings as well as the usual mix of nightingale floors (designed to squeak when walked on to give away intruders at night) and wooden panelling.

Out hotel room was very high up with splendid views o f the surrounding city and whilst we were only there for a short period it was  a very pleasant interlude in one of the industrial heartlands for Japan.

Our next stop was the central region where Mount Fuji was located and we were heading for Hakone - a tourist area within easy striking distance of the Mountain. Our arrival was marked by one of the heaviest downpours that we had seen in Japan (a pretty high benchmark given the typhoon in Tokyo) although as you can see from the photos below, the breaks in the mist, rain and clouds revealed spectacular landscapes, Mountain views and…..a Pirate Ship!

Summer Tour - Japan - Kyoto Part 2

 Kyoto is famed for its markets, well preserved temples and palaces and it did not disappoint. One of our more memorable trips was to the Temple of 10,000 Torii gates -  the Torii gate being a feature of the Shinto religion and here in Kyoto this was a very famous temple complex built on a mountain on the outskirts of the city.

We visited in late afternoon, falling a trip to the main food and clothing market in Kyoto (with its matcha tea rooms and art nouveau architecture) and after exploring the main temple complex started up the paths winding up the mountain where the torii gates had been installed. - it is possible to fund the construction of a gate - as a family memorial or for simple philanthropic reasons. The gates symbolises the transition from the ordinary everyday world to the sacred and the passage through the gates to the top of the mountain are seen as equivalent to a pilgrimage from a Christian perspective with various temples and shrines acting as way-markers on the way up. 

It is quite a climb up and we did not go to the top but the views back a cross the City and the surrounding landscape were very impressive as was the quiet otherworldly atmosphere as we made our way under the tori gates and the surround trees and bamboo forests.

We also visited the Nijo Palace complex with its ornate buildings and immaculately landscaped gardens and lakes.Again whilst the heat and humidity were a challenge it did mean that the crowds stayed away so while we did not have the place entirely to ourselves it was relatively peaceful.

All the hotels we stayed at were lovely but the Tomasu residences in Kyoto were particularly good. Whilst the rooms were not massive (ours was long and thin with a bathroom and store room at the entrance, a narrow lounge area with sofa and a TV where we ate breakfast and watched Japanese baseball and the beds next to the window at then) but the hotel management was excellent. Polite and helpful, they delivered their services with a kind of austere formality that was at once both incredibly efficient but also very friendly. I am not sure I have ever seen anything like it.

I have previously commented on the hotel’s proximity to what seemed to be unlimited interesting and quirky restaurants and bars and I have posted some pictures Elon of our visit to a tapas bar around 2 minutes walk up the road (in fact the Japanese chef had learned his trade in England apparently!). We made out way home via a microbrewery that specialised in fruit beers and Indian Pale Ale - we had past it on the way to the restaurant and the place was buzzing so popped in for a quick beer on the way back. 

Summer Tour Japan - Kanazawa

 Our Hotel in Kyoto was located in a quiet network of streets not far from the Imperial Palace and gardens. When we first arrived it seemed to form part of a network of residential houses but on closer inspection it became clear that, while there were certainly  residential dwellings, there were also a number of small restaurants and cafes nestling in unexpected corners and behind unassuming doorways.

In fact for our entire stay in Kyoto we barely walked more than a bout 15-20 minutes to eat and indeed on most occasions, our chosen dining destination was considerably closer.

On the first evening (before we had found the “Gnome” Irish pub, we had gone to a French Restaurant located in what later turned out to be one of the historic older buildings that had been constructed very much with a Parisien bistro atmosphere in mind -  an outside courtyard surrounded by a decked terrace, with a very dark wooded interrupt with Lo’s lighting and discreet tables dotted around the interior - felt like Rick’s Bar in “Casablanca” - and had a pronounced French tilt tot he dishes on offer (including the Boullabaise that both A and I enjoyed).

I wasted no time in booking a bike tour - the Bamboo and Golden Temple exploration ride which was run by a chap from Malaysia and had one other participant. 

I had grabbed breakfast at a nearby 7Eleven (another real find in Japan - essentially a corner chop that sold almost anything one would need including food and drink as well as dispensing money and concert tickets - although these obviously exist outside of Japan, the Japanese had (like a lot of service related utilities) turned them (and their rivals like FamilyMart) into an art form - convenience stores with a capital “C” where one could eat breakfast, lunch and Dinner as well as clothe oneself and get the necessary accoutrements to wash yourself and your clothes. We made full use of their ubiquity and their range of services throughout our stay.

Although we started the ride in a mild drizzle, it was another hot and sweaty day and both the tour guide and my fellow tourist were on e-bikes so I was labouring along at the rear trying to keep up on occasion. It was however an excellent way of exploring the ancient city of Kyoto as we explored numerous temples and palaces (including the stunning Golden Pavilion - see photo below - another victim of a recent fire (albeit apparently at the hand of a disillusioned monk rather than after an earthquake) but beautifully restored), as well as paddy fields and an amazing Bamboo Forest.

I have already written at length about the excellent food and drink that we had encountered during our trip to Japan and one of favourites of the whole trip was a visit to a Teppanyaki restaurant across the road from our hotel specialising in Misagya beef from an area quite close to Kyoto. 

As you can see from the photo below, the meat (and accompaniments) are cooked in front of you and it is quite the theatrical experience. Whilst one of the more expensive meals of our trip (around US$170) you pretty much get to taste bits form the whole cow (and a chef to your self) and the quality of the meat as well as the are with which it was cooked made for a truly memorable experience.

We also managed a visit to the Kyoto Museum of Modern Art and the Kyocera Museum which faced each other (separated by a giant Tenor Gate) and provided fascinating displays of traditional and contemporary Japanese Art as well as an interesting collection of tea and coffee pots (see examples below). 

The Japanese take there tea ceremonies very seriously and it is as much a piece of theatre (rather like the Teppanyaki restaurant) as an opportunity to take tea with someone - the main idea is that each time you have tea with a friend/acquaintance/family etc, it is a unique event either because of the choice of tea used, the combination of equipment, furniture, clothes etc.. Really fascinating and the collection of tea and related utensils on display made it very clear how it was possible to arrange a unique experience for each tea ceremony.

The kyocera Museum also had a display by a quite well known modern Japanese artist who had created several well known cartoon characters. Judging from the somewhat grumpy captions that he had affixed to some of the specially commissioned art works he had produced for the exhibition he had not been particularly happy with the time scales that he had been given to prepare the art works (indeed some of them although on display were still “in progress”.

Summer tour Japan - Kanazawa to Kyoto

 Although we were only in Kanazawa for a few days we managed to pack in plenty of activities and site-seeing. This included a Samurai museum which included - amongst the blood-thirsty weaponry and artefacts - the opportunity for me and A to demonstrate our dexterity with the Japanese throwing star  - shuriken. As the photographic  evidence below shows, I might have made a career as an Ninja with a bullseye in the target range on my third attempt!

We also had the opportunity to tour the “ninja” temple. In fact not really anything to do with ninja warriors but a fascinating insight into the tensions in Japan when the Samurai ruling class eventually agreed to the restoration of the monarchy. The Samurai were not allowed to construct “defensible” structures or indeed anything over three stories high so in Kanazawa they instead built a temple but which was specially designed - had the occasion required it - to allow aggressors to be repelled (as well have two additional floors that though a trick of architectural engineering could not be seen from the outside)

 Accordingly, whilst to all appearances the building was a temple with prayer areas and the usual religious  paraphernalia it had built into it various secret passages (including one said to connect it to Kanazawa castle which was some distance away through the well) and trapdoors, false ceilings and “nightingale” floors (essentially floorboards that squeaked whenever they were trodden on thereby making it almost impossible to sneak around without being detected - this was also a feature of many of the royal palaces that we visited). 

Although our tour was in Japanese there was a very information English language booklet that we were given and there was no doubting the purpose and effectiveness of the various mantraps, hiding places and darkened ambush corners that the tour guide gleefully demonstrated to us as the incense and reverberating bells from the prayer area framed the atmosphere. A real highlight on a tour of highlights.

From there we then visited a former Samurai house - a very elegant affair with a beautiful garden and pond and lots of light airy room decorated in a manner befitting a member of the ruling class and a veritable oasis of tranquility (see pictures below) amongst the hubbub of city life.

We then made our way to the “Geisha” district - a maze of low rise wooden houses and shops that had in years gone by served as the entertainment quarter for the City and which today housed both retail opportunities as well as Geisha demonstrations and tea ceremonies. It was remarkably well preserved and was a good way of seeing how urban Japan looked before the destruction of the Second World War and the myriad earthquakes and fires of the last 200 years.

Our final night in Kanazawa was celebrated with a trip to “Coil”  - a very modern restaurant where we had individual”box” tables and superb food  - I am not sure I have ever been to a country where the sheer range, quality and price of the cuisine was so consistently good. (I also - finally - managed to get my phone to work after wrestling with the various telecom providers to explain why I was not able to make or receive any calls - it seems it was simply a question of enabling one of the buttons on my settings screen. Quite annoying but at least A had use of his phone and I was able to use my IPad to zoom/teams E and V back in Dubai).

From Kanazawa we took another Shinkansen before changing to the splendidly named Thunderbird train to Kyoto around 2.5 / 3 hours away. Our first act on arrival after checking in was to head to the Kyoto Rail Museum  - a must for any fans of trains whether the latest bullet trains (and their various iterations from their introduction in 1965) back to the steam locomotives of the 19 and early 20th centuries. A and I had a complete blast exploring the huge range of rail and railway related exhibits as well as the recreation of turn of the Century candy stores and stationmaster offices. Great fun.

Our final act on the first day in Kyoto was to enjoy a nice pint of Guinness in a traditional Japanese Irish pub (the Gnome)!