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Published: November 28th 2007
三連休 or sanrenkyu, a long weekend.
A 3 day weeknd in Japan for me, is like the summer holidays to a school student.
A thing of long anticipation and preparation, and when it comes off a general feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction is felt, which has been accompanied by me being in a good mood all week, despite being intensly sleep deprivated, and slighty alchohol poisoned.
Its always good to see friends from back home, as they become a vessel for all that is home and an opportunity to feel like your back in Britain once a again if only for a short while.
It is not like I am crying for the lack of time off work I have, and I have robbed myself of a lot of time also as I have been taking various test etc recently also to fill up the time, but when you live out here you really are miles away from everything, and traveling suddenly seems like quite an exertion.
Entrusted into Denis capable hands, forged in the tour guiding field, and that of his lovely girlfriend Laura, a veteran of Japan, and expert at getting us
Spooky tori gate
one of not many photos that came out at nightto excellent places and eateries, I set of on an epic 4 night, 3 day tour of central to almost northern Japan, with the aim of chasing the red leaves and generally, getting top a another area of Japan altogether.
Once again, a story best told in pics, but I will attempt to describe the adventure that spanned from the temples of Kyoto, to the onsens of Fukui, and on to the gardens of Kanazawa.
A few drinks were taken along the way and we all put in some of our finest performances in the karaoke department, along with some of the finest ryori that the Japanese could coax down our attuned palettes.
THREE PAY THE PRICE FOR THE RED LEAFED PATH TO GLORY
Taking an afternoon off work, I boarded the Fukuyama shink, luckily find a seat through a very crowded three day weekend holiday maker train.
There is nothing worse than paying the 40 quid (!) one way ticket price for the shinkansen and then having to stand all the way (its happened may a time).
The 3 day weekend is a pretty busy time for the Japanese as
Forest moon
the silent tranqil natural glory that is the mossy forest of endor. its one of only a few opportunities to get away from work and so I was expecting more large throngs of loud speaker led, camera flashing tourists to greet me in the hub of Japanese tourism, Kyoto.
It was colder than I expected but the sight of Denis and Laura warm my cockles good, and we instantly celebrated with a drink of finest grape juice.
On to the temples, and unfortunately as is the fleeting way of nature, we had arrived perhaps a little early, and the leaves were possibly still in their unripened form.
But there were enough to make the next wandering around worth it and as I struggled to take pictures in the dark lamplight night, Denis no doubt pondered Haiku and other such high brow topics.
Verging on complete finger snapping cold, we decided to head to an isakaiya to down some hot sake and ales, and whilst almost every meal arrived with some description of meat in it to confound Laura’s vegetarianism, this only doubled the plate of the sympathetic Denis - a true savior to vegetarians, and therefore surely a hero to animals everywhere.
Behold, the redness
Truly a beautiful country. This was followed by a few more snifters of brandy, and before you knew it, it was time for breakfast.
Unluckily, Laura and Denis’s attempts to sneak off to get a descent night sleep were thwarted by my incessant need to keep drink and my suspicions of them trying to deposit me in what I thought was a brothel and turned out to be yet another cheap sleep of which countless can be found dotted about Japans city to cater for the fact the someone somewhere believe that everyone should be in bed before midnight and therefore shuts off ALL public transport at midnight.
The fact that this is not true, in evident in the sheer number of internet cafes, capsule hotels and cheap places to stay. However, lest to say no-sleep was had, but the leaf viewing had to go on.
On to Arashiyama. A suburban area, on the brink on Kyoto, that quite literally must be seen to be believed, and photos cannot truly capture the vividness of the colors and the beauty of the old shrines. I would very much like to see it again sober one day.
The nicest of
Cosy
Denis watsh grabing me somewhre I care not to mention.
Not really, I had to run to get in for the first time for the shot and it was very hot. And then Denis grabbed my... the various walkways and forest and gardens was at the climax of a long walk, where the aborted children lay buried, surrounded by red leafed, bam booed forest and old shrines and tombs。
No picture taking was allowed inside, and probably one best for the memory banks anyway, but this didn’t seem to be stopping most of the weekend holidaymakers.
After making our way back into town, slowly and unsurely, we got the train onto Fukui Prefecture.
Havan to both Denis and crabs a like, Fukui would be the furthest venture from my gaff yet, and we would be traveling into an unknown land of mountains and snow and lake, the kind I was not used to .
Passing along lake Biwa, the largest in Japan, I began to feel the fluttering of my belly that spelt punishment for the night before.
The next 2 or so hours were spent both physically and mentally in the toilet, and the only thing that saved me from the pain and woe was a intensive round of general knowledge questions which included:
² “Name all the territories of Australia” (lame),
² “what is the country immediately
Road to Ishikawa
Denis's sterling beast of a automobile, got us there in record time and with out a breakdown. east of Mongolia” (Kazaksthan, 10 point! Yosh!)
² and “following modernization of Tukey by Kemmel Attaturk in the 1920s, what that was actually of Europena origin was banned?” (Fez, obvious), which I both won and hosted.
Fukui is a nice enough city and Denis has a cool little aparto cold enough to freeze your giblets.
We went out that night and drank Chimay beers and had Fukuis finest fusion cuisine.
After driving a there we knocked back the beers and order and taxi doublet to drive us home.
In this simple equation, a taxi man comes with an extra man, dressed immaculately and plunks in your car and drives you home.
All for about the same price as a normal taxi.
Why we don’t have this service in England I don’t know, but its probably coz we convinced ourselves that we are sober enough to drive and that someone else will surely be much more dangerous behind the wheel that I would be steaming drunk.
Or perhaps there is already this service in Britain, I don’t know, let me know.
Or start it.
I seem to remember some elaborate scheme with a man
that comes on a fold up bike and inserts in you boot or something, but this seems a bit more straightforward.
I cant imagine this being possible in Denis’ yellow plate car, as it is a little, er,, small.
But it was in this tiny beast that we set off the next morning to drive our way to Kanazawa city of Ishikawa Prefecture. A couple more relaxed our drive northward.
On the way we would take in some of the natural scenery and stop of for chow etc.
First to a really nice onsen (spring bath).
I haven’t actually been to many of these, which is a shame as they are one of the really unique luxuries of Japan, and are dotted about all over the place, but for want of trying I am always to lazy to travel over miles to take a bath.
However, this onsen was something special and located in the middle of the forest, outside, running past a waterfall, connected to a river, you felt properly in the thick of nature, whilst getting back to a semi-natural state.
You can slip back into he piping
Fukui
I was pretty much like a school boy again to see snow of any description. hot water, and watch as the leaves fall around you from the tall trees above.
It really was a great place. And considering I never have the opportunity to travel to these places, it was a great place to go for a one off.
All that semi-naked frolicking though had brought on the appetite, and so we stopped off at a local Tofu restaurant, and although we had to wait a ridiculously long time, it was one the nicest meals I have had in a long time.
Tofu in Japan, unlike in Britain, is not shit, and comes in a variety of forms and flavors and this restaurant had got it right.
Anyway, food, eat, don’t talk about it to much.
Next went traveled on with the glimpses of already snow covered mountain tops in the distance, which after about 2 or so years of not seeing any snow, I was pretty excited about.
Passing replicas of the temples in Nara, and the Fukui Dinosaur museum, we stopped off a shrine enclosed within the enormous thick trees on the surround forest.
Now this was a place to remember.
Not a sole there (in Japanese terms that
Finest of Tofu platters
I am not a massive fan of the tofu, but I do often eat it. However, this meal was possibly one of the nicest I have ever had (all thought it was the longest i have had to wait) is) and barely a shrine to be worthy of a feature in the Lonely Planet, yet this shrine which more a natural shrine, was definitely one of the nicest shrines I have been to in Japan.
The Japanese do (at times possibly more so in the past) have an amazing ability to live side by side with nature. As is also present in their gardens, they have a amazing ability to harness nature, and more recently they seem to have forgotten in completely and thrown roads, bridges and shipyards, anywhere that gravity permits.
But this shrine, chanced upon once upon a time, was as perfect a image of the side-by-side, side that I had seen. Stretched out through the forest floor was a deep covering of thick moss that had slowly engulfed most of the stone and wooden shrines that had grown up over the years.
The moss has a effect of silencing every footstep you make and thus, the there is a deafening quiet.
The sun just breaks through the trees and for short moments you feel as if the world outside, like this, is a glorious place.
If you ever come to Japan, please go to
Up in the mountains
Travelling through to Ishikawa Prefecture this place. However, one of the reasons it is still so nice and not covered in both the tourists hoards and the junk that goes with them is it is still a little know place. A secret hidden, forest?
Anyway, there was no time to get to sentimental, as we were on the move, and before it got dark we were to make the trip over the snow powered mountains to reach Kanazawa that evening.
We burned off and began the descent into the mountains. It was pretty picturesque and I supposed that I hadn’t really been to a place like since I was in the mountains of France on a skiing trip when I was 12.
The snow had fallen about half a foot in places and against the green river and browning leaves, it was very beautiful.
We managed to arrive a very tall waterfall just before the light was completely gone and I commented that it was the highest I had ever seen, until Denis reminded me that he had once taken me to Niagara falls, which was probably larger, but that yes, this was a also large.
After a buzz of
The Mighty wheels of fotune
The Mirth Mobile/Dengel GTI excitement touring through the mountains, we finally arrived in Kanazwa City, thanks to Laura and Denis’ combined skills, and we stocked up on some drinks and snacks at a yamayamaya something.
This was a foreign drinks store, specializing in foreign alcohol and their snack friends. After over a year living on my island, this is like a kid from communist Russia, being taken to Toy’r’us for the first time. Wow.
We don’t even have things like this in Britain.
Kanazawa, I find out afterward is very famous, and modern city, like a mini Kobe or Kyoto, and seems to house wealth and modern amenities along with many old streets and well preserved old buildings.
I t also had a really nice art gallery that we checked out the next day, however, once again I was hung over. The city life is cruel.
That night we went to a Indonesian restaurant, that was celebrating its 17th birthday and so sent us around to it Jamaican bar cousin and the for a about 15ounds you could order anything off the menu and drink anything fomr the cocktail menu all night.
The theme seems to revolve around
elephants or something (I dunno) but anyway the barman continually pour ed monkey nuts (peanuts in the shell) on the bar in front us and you were supposed to just through your shell on the floor.
This meant that the entire floor of the bar was ankle deep in peanut shells, nice. I will steal this idea one day.
I think I drank every thing on the menu, although a lot of the drinks I ordered kept on looking the same.
Fueled by cocktails, there was only one thing to do and as Laura whipped out her Karaoke gold card, I wondered to myself if they were really ready for the awesome power of my Karaoke skills.
I decided it was time and after bring the room almost to tears (Denis had to call home) with my rendition, or should I say live action duet, of ‘Your song’ by
Elton John, and finishing on an almighty Power trio rock recital of ‘Don’t you want me baby’ by the Human League, we stumbled onto o find a last watering hole before heading home.
In the street a guy with kind of comedy TV glasses invited into
Relaxed drowning
Kanazawa art museum. his bar, which looked more like his bedroom and we sat there for a couple of hours, trying desperately to impress him with our English knowledge of songs on the guitar, but to no avail, the booze was having none of it.
Damn.
However, we vowed to master a song to break out whenever the next opportunity arises, and wow the Japanese folk with our ingrained rock blood.
They like my rendition of the Terminator sound track anyway …….. I think……. Let’s go home.
Before leaving though, after my sermon with the porcelain God on the train to Fukui, Laura joined the club. Although not in the toilet.
The next day, we awoke to sweet smell of salsa toasties, made by Laura’s fair hand (another fisrt in a long time),and the impeding feeling of hangovers in the post.
This was even more evident as. Whilst purchasing my rail ticket to Kobe to catch the ferry back home, I glanced back at Denis to see an expression on Denis’ s face that I will never forget as long as I live.
Just thinking about it whilst typing has got me cracking up in the teacher’s
Woweewoowawei!!
Kenrokuen Park. tThis one was taken by Denis's and may I say well done. office.
It was a face that told a tale of alcholoic woe.
Like a man watching the last Dodo being beaten to death by colonial settlers.
We were taking the taxi ride to the “3rd most beautiful” garden in Japan, kenrokuen, I don’t think I have to finished the story, lest to say the trilogy was complete.
In fact a better name for this blog would have been throwing up around Japan.
It was truly a beautiful, if busy, garden and the leaves here were in their ultimate stage of redness.
And that really concluded the epic journey.
We ventured, as I mentioned, into the Kanazawa Modern Art gallery which was pretty spectacular, and feasted on some spags before saying a tearful goodbye, and setting off on the 10 hour journey home.
After, a to be expected, nights sleep aboard the diamond ferry I arrive at work tired but a revitalized glow on my face, ready for a another week in on the island.
Thank you Denis and Laura,
You were mighty hosts and you showed me another side of Japan. I hope I can return the favor one day
Winter is coming
The midway pin between winter and autumn.
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denis
non-member comment
Good one. Oh how I miss you already. Joking, although not really. Well kind of, but I do miss you. Kinda.