Blogs from Gifu, Japan, Asia - page 7

Nous avons pris des velos pour nous rendre a Hida-no-sato (Hida, village folklorique). C'est un peu en dehors de Takayama, mais assez pres quand meme. Arrives au village: wow, c'est magnifique! On voit deux vieilles maisons, sur le bord d'un lac. On sens deja que la visite vaut le coup, et on a pas vu la dizaine d'autres batiments! La visite a effectivement ete tres agreable, et tres interessante! C'est un beau village, avec plein de maisons d'epoque renfermant des outils, des ustensiles, etc. d'autrefois. Ca a pris un bon 2 heures a visiter, peut-etre plus. Toutes les maisons sont a visiter, certaines ont plusieurs etages qu'on prenait plaisir a explorer! Suite a ca, nous sommes retournes dans la ville de Takayama en tant que telle. Nous avons visite le parc de l'ancien chateau (tout en ... read more

We arrived in Japan on 15th August, blisteringly hot, quite unbelieveable heat! It happens to be a heat wave about 35 - 40 degrees! Wow! Thank goodness for air conditioned buildings! We flew into a city called Toyama north west coast, where our Japanese experiences began. We checked into a hotel with all mod cons, found it all quite amusing, all the gadgets - including a toilet with lots of buttons to press! The Japanese are lovely people, willing to help and haven't been anything but kind to us. They are clean, tidy and organised. On th 16th we continued to our desired destination, Takayama (after taking a train for an hour the wrong way to Tateyama - well it does sound the same!) a traditional city / town with preservation areas. Very quaint and interesting. ... read more

I’ve read Alex Kerr’s “Lost Japan” cover to cover today (Jeeva’s recommendation), and his cynical take on the concreting over of Japan’s cultural heritage has inevitably colored my response, especially to the artifical environs of Shirakawa-go, an assembly line of reconstituted thatched dwellings for the satiation of snapping salarymen, who wander around in a daze of incomprehension before returning to their fluorescent cubicles. Some comments on Mr Kerr’s diatribe about the Pachinko-isation of Japan. Yes the damned (intentional misspelling) rivers do run in pitiful concrete channels, the cities are assemblies of anonymous cubby-hole architecture populated by faceless business folk, and Hitachi tastelessly sponsors signage at every zen garden and buddhist temple, but the homogenisation of pop culture isn't unique to Japan. Every city in the world is acquiring it's own barcode, an imp... read more

After a nice restful night, we were up early for our breakfast ・Japanese style. We have been asked what the Japanese eat fro breakfast, well here is what was on our table and unfortunately we didn't eat all of this, because if we had we would have been there half the morning! One skewered fish - cooked at least, but still with head, eye and tail on! We each had a burner, on which was an up-turned leaf with pieces of raw meat, peppers and onions. When the burner was lit, the leaf secreted oil to become a natural frying pan! Also, there was a large pot of rice, in which to place the fried meat & vegetables as well into which to whisk the raw egg on our plate. Finally, there was also a ... read more

Hi Everybody, Thanks for your messages. I love hearing from you and getting your suggestions of places to visit. I have put a few pictures on the blog of Hong Kong and Japan. You just need to click on Gallery and then on the photos displayed. I have several of HK and 2 of Japan on there. You may be able to see a slide show with a click. The climate is warmer in Japan than I had predicted. It is in the mid 70's. We have not seen any Americans, Africans, or Muslims while we have been here. We met a nice economics professor visiting the local college. He could speak a small amount of English and was helpful. A few signs are in English but no tv stations. We get CNN but they have ... read more