Golden Week: April 29 - May 5, 2011

Golden Week is a national week long holiday in Japan. Well, it's not actually a week long holiday, but a series of one day holidays spaced out over the week. Hence, the week, and not the holiday, is called Golden Week. Luckily my company, as well as many others, closed for the whole week so we had some time to travel.

We bought our train tickets way in advance, but still manged to miss our first train of the trip to Matsumoto. It was a mystery because we left earlier than the recommended time by the travel site and even though we had lots of connections, we were (or we thought we were) on the right train. We even asked for directions but got a variety of different answers; I guess it's one of the downsides of being completely foreign.

We arrived in Matsumoto, and saw an interesting frog samurai statue.

But our main reason for stopping over in Matsumoto was the castle. It's the oldest 5-tiered castle in Japan (1593) and is one of only 3 original castles left.
The castle looks like it has 5 floors, but it actually has 6. This is a secret, windowless floor between floors where fully armored samurai waited in case their master was attacked. It had many defense devices including niches for archers, guns and dropping stones.
This picture (minus us) appears in many Japan guidebooks.
That night we arrived in Kanazawa, a city with a rich cultural history because it was protected from the outside by the alps and sea and supported by its ample rice production. In 1583 the Kanazawa area passed a form of egalitarian law under the firm law of the Maeda lords. This brought 3 centuries of peace while the rest of the country was involved in war, and as a result it became the richest domain in the land. Kanazawa also escaped bombing during WWII because of its lack of industry.

One of Kanazawa's biggest attractions is the Myoryu-ji, commonly known as the Ninja Temple. It was built in 1643 as both a place of worship for the Maedas and a watchtower at the edge of town. Trick defense mechanisms include trap doors, sliding walls, hidden rooms, and a donation box in the floor that could be transformed into a 2m deep pit when it was covered by a tatami mat. These paper covered stairs are also a trick device. Armed guards sat on the other side of the stairs in the dark, while the outside was illuminated so they could see the shadows of an approaching intruder. At the top of the stairs is a sliding door; the right half enters the temple, while the left accesses a secret tunnel.
We also visited the Nagamachi Samurai Quarter, with its earthenwalled streets.

We visited one of the samurai hosues, the Nomura House, which gave a good idea of life back then. Samurais were the wealthy class, so the house, and especially the garden, were beautiful.

We had traditional Japanese green tea and sweets in the tea room overlooking the garden.

The house also had some weapons on display...

As well as some period documents, along with translations.

The armor of the period was tiny.

The nearby Oyama Shrine has a very unusual gate. The shrine is dedicated to Maeda Toshiie.

The shrine also had a beautiful garden, with stone paths and bridges we could actually cross (usually gardens close these off to the public), Because it had just rained the colors were beautiful.

Shot...

Reverse shot... You can see the shrine in the background.

Kenroku-en Garden is one of Japan's "great three" gardens. It was established in the 17th century and opened to the public in 1871. Kenroku-en means "garden of six qualities": spaciousness, seclusion, air of antiquity, ingenuity, flowing water and views. These are the six qualities desirable in Chinese gardens.

That night we had dinner at a local sushi place. The chef didn't speak any English so there were some communication problems. Luckily, the man sitting next to us spoke English and offered to translate. He was there with his father who looked like the Dalai Lama and who also ended up buying us interesting Japanese foods all evening long (including some sake). Akira offered to be our tour guide the next day.

Our first stop was the Higashi (Eastern) Pleasure District. Established in 1820, this was the grandest such district outside Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo). The area had (and still has) old fashioned street lamps, wooden lattice windows and many elegant restaurants and galleries. It was very similar to Kyoto's Gion district.

The Shima Geisha House was at its peak in the 19th century. It was rare for houses at the time to have more than 1 floor, so this 2-story house was a sign of wealth.

The upper floor had guest rooms with small stages where the geisha's sang and danced to entertain the guests.

The view over the roof tops and garden was beautiful.

Typical Japanese English.
The kitchen.

The geisha house also had a secret back door where customers could leave unnoticed.

Caught red handed.

We visited the Sakuda Gold-leaf Store where we even got a demonstration of how gold-leaf is made. It's basically gold that's pounded many times under high pressure. It was so thin that the leaf had a ripple effect like the surface of water when moved.

Kanazawa has produced gold-leaf since 1593 and supplies 99% of Japan's needs.

They even had a bathroom tiled in gold.

The streets of Kanazawa.

Kanazawa castle was one of the largest in feudal Japan, but was completely destroyed by fire in 1881. Part of it was recently rebuilt in a park. It's strange to see such old architecture out of such new materials, and almost doesn't feel real. Still, this is how it must've looked to people when it was originally built.

From Kanazawa we took a very local train that climbed the mountains to Takayama. As its surrounded by mountains, it was agriculturally poor but rich in timbre. In the 8th century, when the region was unable to produce enough rice (rice was used to pay taxses back then), it sent craftsmen instead. Its seclusion also means it escaped much of the damage sustained by other regions of Japan and thus has unspoiled Edo-period streets.

We stayed in this ryokan - a traditional Japanese inn. This was our first experience in such accommodation and consisted of a ritual of taking off our shoes when we entered and changing into house slippers, then taking off those slippers whenever entering a tatami-floored room. You also had to change into special bathroom slippers at the bathroom door. Showering also had its own set of rules: wash first, then soak in a super hot, spring-fed tub.
Our room. Behind the sliding doors were our futons.
We got bicycles from our ryokan and were off to explore Takayama.
In the background you can see the entrance to a temple. On a later day in Takayama, we watched a parade make its way up this street to that temple.
We had lunch in one of the traditional restaurants. We had sweet green iced-tea (which is rare in Japan - they never sweeten their tea), and sweet bean paste soup (everything in Japan is made from bean paste).
The exterior of the restaurant, a typical Edo-period Takayama home. On the store sign you can see a hanging pot over an open fire, with a fish decorating the handle. This was a common feature of these traditional houses.
Takayama is the stage for Japan's best known festival, the Takayama Matsuri. It dates from 1690 and takes place twice a year: spring and fall (planting and harvesting). 11 festival floats are paraded through town, and people dress up in costume. We went to a museum that had a few of these floats on display.

Since Takayama is divided into "districts" for the festival, each such district is responsible for a float. Historically, there has been some rivalry between these groups which often led to acts of vandalism. One of these floats had a decorative turtle on it, that was stolen by a rival group and replaced with a note that basically read : "It's at the river!". When the people went to the river they found another note: "It swam away!" So juvenile.
There was also a museum with small, lavish reconstructions of famous temples. Annazilla.
These quiet streets would be much busier when we returned to Takayama in a couple of days...
The Kusakabe House was rebuilt of Japanese cypress in 1879 after a fire. It was the home of a wealthy money lender.
Despite this homeowners wealth, they still had a hearth at the center of the house for cooking and heating.

This is what a kimono looks like when it's not being worn.

Every traditional Japanese home has a family shrine.

When we were walking we were lucky to see one of the festival floats being moved.

There were many people standing around and watching and only a few actually doing any work - it's the same all over the world. The floats are stored in garages hidden among the houses on these streets. Now that we knew what to look for, we saw many more, including a few more floats.

Typical Takayama houses, and behind Rick, a garage with a car.

We had dinner at another traditional restaurant. This time we got raw meat and vegetables in a hot pot, that slowly steamed and sizzled at our table.

From Takayama we caught a bus that climbed even more mountains to the small and secluded village of Shirakawa-go. Because of its secluded location, it was historically a refuge for the defeated and persecuted. The area is famous for the gassho-zukuri (praying hands) thatched roof houses. There is a lot of heavy snow in the area, so the steep slope of the houses (much like hands folded in prayer) prevents the buildup of snow. Similar steep roofs are seen in Switzerland.

Of the original 1800, less than 150 remain. The whole village is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We stayed a night in one of these houses.

Dinner and breakfast were served in the main room by the lady who ran the whole house (in the green outfit and white bandanna in the background). The whole time we were eating the fire in the hearth behind Rick was going, filling the room with smoke. This was painful and my eyes were red and watering the whole time, until I was finally smoked out of the room. Still, filling the house with smoke is necessary, as the smoke makes its way into the straw roof and protects it from mold and insects.

The house consisted of one big, open space divided into smaller rooms by sliding doors (there is a gap between the sliding door and ceiling on the left). These houses were originally intended to accommodate extended families of 20-30 people.

There was also another traditional Japanese bathroom an we even got these fancy house clothes. Thank god the toilets were modern.

Because we were so high up in the mountains, you could still see cherry blossoms against the snow covered mountains.

The Wada House belonged to the wealthy Wada family, that eventually became the mayors of the town.The hearth is at the heart of all these homes.

You could tell the family was wealthy because of the relatively ornate rooms.

Upstairs they raised silkworms, which was a common undertaking for families living in Shirakawa-go up until the 1970s. The thatched roofs create an ideal environment for silkworm production.

The fish flags were also flying these days, as it was almost Childrens Day.

Inside another thatched roof...
This house had cool wood sculptures on display.
Another house was a European style cafe, complete with Japanese baby and bored dog.
The village was very charming, and a complete step back in time.
We also got to see one of the houses being rethatched. Rethatching is a group effort that involves the entire community. One house is rethatched each year.
Japanese gnomes!
There was also an open-air museum with a collection of houses from the area, including an outdoor teahoue.
This is a small temporary house that was built quickly as emergency housing when a family lost their home in a fire. To live in this area the entire community really did need to work together.
Same house from the other side; it was standing on an island at the top of the waterfall.
From Shirakawa-go we returned Takayama, where we saw a rare 3-story pagoda.
This little red guy is the spirit of Takayama and can be seen everywhere; especially gift shops.
Interesting sculpture on a bridge, though I'm not sure if it was actually supposed to represent anything.
We were able to see another float on display by one of the communities...

The streets of Takayama were much busier when we returned from Shirakawa-go...

That's because it was the day of a festival...

The focal point of the festival is a shrine that is carried to the temple. We were back on that street that we visited on our first day in Takayama, right at the temple gates.

On our way back to Tokyo we stopped over in Nagoya for a few hours to see what the city had to offer. It was crazy busy at the station, but we were able to visit a Noh theater stage that was open to the public.
There were also some masks on display.
The theater was across the street from Nagoya castle, which looked different from the other castles we've seen because of its blue roof. It also had deer in the moat. At some point wild deer actually lived in the moat, but when they vanished they would place tame deer there to maintain tradition.
We saw a lot but were exhausted from all the travel. We left our apartment in a moldy state, which was supposed to be dealt with by the landlord while we were gone. It was nice to return to a clean, newly renovated home. Yet another successful Japanese expedition on our part.