aki

[itsukushima at low tide]

On Tuesday, we checked out, walked to Hiroshima Castle, then walked to the train station. A quick train trip and ferry ride later, we were in Itsukushima, commonly known as Miyajima (shrine island).

I've seen so many breathtaking pictures of Miyajima that I knew this island would be a treasure trove for photography, and I was right. A dead giveaway: the number of people on the ferry with us, with significantly larger and pricier camera rigs than mine. (The same was true at the Eikando light up.)

All waiting for that first view of Itsukushima Shrine.

The view from the ferry (low tide).

This torii was first built in 1168, and has been rebuilt 7 times. The most recent was in 1875. They built it from a single tree, and spent twenty years searching for the perfect tree.

We arrived before our room was ready, so we left our luggage at the hotel and walked to the shrine.

We paid to enter the shrine itself, and planned to come back later during high tide (around sunset) but that never happened.

You could tell how the water would rise to hide the pilings at high tide.


There was a lot of seaweed left behind at low tide.
We later saw a cleanup crew gathering it and hauling it away, like leaves.


There was a wedding happening in the shrine's main building, with a view of the torii.
Tourists lingered and took photos; I didn't feel right doing that, so I moved on and took pictures elsewhere.


The tide slowly coming in.

[kyoto -> matsue]

On Saturday, we ate breakfast at the hotel, then bid Kyoto farewell. A bus ride and two shinkansen rides later, we were in Matsue.

This was a pretty big change. After a week in Kyoto, arguably the cultural center of Japan, with its hundreds upon hundreds of temples and shrines, we were in a very small city with only a handful of touristy spots in town.

Also, we went from a fairly westernized hotel setting to a more traditional, tatami-and-futon Japanese room. I bathed at the hotel's public bath -- a first for me since I was a boy (several tattoos and piercings later) -- and am pleased to say that no one accused me of being yakuza or made any sort of fuss at all; everyone pretty much kept to themselves.

[matsue castle]

Matsue Castle is the third of the original construction castles I've been to. Back in the Meiji Restoration, a number of castles were torn down to emphasize the end of feudalism as it once existed, but the people of Matsue begged to be allowed to keep their castle. I'm going to guess that Matsue was also not a strategic target in World War II, saving the castle from bombing.

They call it the Black Castle.

(more)

[yuushien gardens]

On Sunday we took a shuttle bus from the hotel to Yuushien Gardens, which was one of the places i had found in my research about Matsue that piqued my interest. (Adachi Museum was my first choice; Yuushien my second.) A pretty decent drive later (well outside of city limits; I think it's even in a different province), we arrived.

We were all very much surprised when we got in; Yuushien is arguably the most beautiful garden we've seen on this trip. There were very few people there for the first portion of our visit; I think that helped us enjoy it as well.

The peonies have hats.



These pictures make me smile.


The view from the tea room.

(more)

[adachi museum of art]

We took a bus to the station and another bus to the Adachi Museum of Art, which was absolutely packed. Also, the gardens were off limits; you had to admire them or photograph them from inside or behind barriers. And, of course, no photography inside.

The museum has the largest collection of Yokoyama Taikan's art, which I enjoyed. A looped video showed how the entire museum, including the design of the garden, was inspired by Yokoyama Taikan's art.

The website has a few pictures of Taikan's art. The autumn leaves screen was my favorite, and took up an entire wall.

I finished the main section of the museum fairly quickly, then noticed there was an annex with a large collection of paintings and other art much later, right before we were about to leave. I could have spent more time there, but it was crowded, we were tired, and after this bus there wasn't another one for over an hour and a half. We left and took it easy in the hotel.

Blown out skies still make me sad. But it was pretty.




These were at the Yasugi station; I think there's a local cartoonist with these characters.

[fushimi inari temple]

This shrine of [allegedly, and quite possibly really] 1000 torii gates was founded 1300 years ago. The gates, as they stand today, are all fairly recent -- the last 25 years or so. Each has writing on them, generally for the people or company that paid the million? yen to have that particular torii placed there.

There are also a whole bunch of small, foot-tall or smaller, torii, and other prayer items, that visitors can purchase for amounts that you might carry around in your wallet. I had been wondering why this shrine didn't charge admission, but this seems like a solid business plan.

The whole thing was highly impressive, both for the sheer number of torii and their religious capitalism ;-)

Here's a much less cynical view :)

The rest of my pics are here. (I made a quick video of us walking through the torii, but I was stupid and did it in portrait rather than landscape, and it doesn't work that way. Can I rotate it? Probably. Do I care enough to? Evidently not. Here's someone else's video ;-)

[byodo-in]

I have to admit, I wasn't sold on this place. Maybe the fact that it's on the back of the 10yen coin and that my brother-in-law loved the Oahu replica weren't enough to sway me.

My parents really wanted to go, though, and I played along. And I'm really glad I did.

This place was built in the 11th century, and looks it. I much prefer it this way than its original orange-red garish color.

So... too much polarizer on the standard shots, and a bit too much glare in the IR shots. Still, I like 'em.

The rest are here.

[uji]

Byodo-in is in a section of town called Uji, known for its green tea. All the stores reflected that; there was green tea bread, green tea candies, green tea chocolates and cakes and even plain green tea for sale.

On the way back, we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner of tenzaru chasoba (tempura + cold dipping green tea soba noodles) while overlooking the Uji river. Yum.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel. No light up that night; we took it easy and I finished up my first few blog posts.

[morning]

Tuesday was a national holiday, a Labor Day equivalent. Since Kyoto is famous for its autumn leaves, and Thanksgiving week is the height of said autumn leaves, we decided it might be best to try visiting autumn-leaf-less places to avoid the crowds.

We took the bus to the Kyoto station and walked a ways to Sanjusangen-do. Inside are [a claimed] 1001 Buddhas: 1000 semi-identical, human-sized standing Buddhas, and one large seated Buddha in the middle.

A priest chanted his prayer in front of that central Buddha; visitors donated coins and prayed, or purchased candles to write their prayers on.

I would have pictures, but every 5 feet there was a sign saying that anyone taking pictures would have their camera confiscated. Wikipedia has a picture.

Afterwards, we walked across the street to the Kyoto National Museum, where we learned that no photography was allowed, and their collections were currently closed to the public. But we could go see a wonderful exhibition of historical priest garb [!].

We didn't take them up on that, for some reason.

[kiyomizu-dera]

After having gone out of our way to avoid the crowds, we decided we were in the area, so we might as well visit Kiyomizu-dera, despite the fact that it would probably be one of the most crowded attractions.

I had already been, twice, during cherry blossom time.

It was a little crowded.

It was also pretty.

This manju machine caught my eye. We bought some, hot; they were tasty.

And the way back was crowded, too. But a fun walk.

[manshu-in]

My father didn't really enjoy this, at all. It remains one of my favorite memories of the trip so far.

We took a taxi up to Manshu-in Temple after dark... fairly far from the hotel, up winding mountain roads, heading far from the city lights.

When we arrived, the taxi driver offered to wait for us, for a small per-minute fee. We declined, noting that there were other taxis there; we'd take one of them, instead.

This was another one of those "please take your shoes off and come inside" places; we weren't actually allowed into the garden, but would be allowed to take photos of the garden from inside the temple.

There weren't a lot of colorful leaves on display... but what I loved about the place was it seemed so wonderfully creepy and spooky to me.

Afterwards, we went to get a taxi, but it turns out they were all waiting for other people. So we ended up walking a fairly long distance down the dark mountain road, til we eventually found civilization.

I thought that was all a great adventure, seeing parts of Kyoto I would have never seen before otherwise. Plus, if we had gotten one of those taxis, I would never have captured these, which I think are among my best photos so far:

outside manshu-in temple

[kyoto - heian jingu]:

I had been interested in seeing Heian Jingu early on, since we could see the torii from our hotel and it was listed as one of the five best sites for viewing sakura.

We went on Tuesday, I think. I didn't know very much about it, other than it was a Shinto shrine with a huge gate, orangish in color until you view it in overcast light, when it looks a deep red. Probably learned more from the wikipedia link above than I knew before.

There were some pretty sakura in front of the shrine with a crowd of people with cameras. I'd give up trying to photograph one tree since there were just too many people crowding me, and I'd look around for a better shot of another tree without anyone around, and I'd walk over to it. I shoulda camouflaged my actions a bit better because whenever I did that several people peeled off and ran right into my shot with their cameras.

That became a theme at Heian Jingu; making shots despite the crowds. Aiming high or taking wide shots worked a lot. So did walking to places where people hadn't crowded. Yet.

The courtyard was fairly impressive. I looked at the expanse of gravel and wondered how many trees had to be cleared and rocks crushed to originally make it.

The entire courtyard was too large for me to get in one shot, even at 17mm (~27mm with 1.6 crop factor).

There was a traditional Japanese wedding going on in that far building in that last photo. No photos allowed in there or I would've stolen one. Seemed like a nicer place for a wedding than the Hyatt Regency hotel lobby (where we saw a wedding being set up my final Saturday); at least the public was fenced off at some distance away.

After photographing the inside of the courtyard, we paid to go back into the [huge] gardens, where there were a ton of sakura in full bloom.

That first shot shows a good number of people; if you can imagine the path snaking around to where I'm standing, and every bit of that path being filled with just as many people, you get an idea of what it was like.

I missed quite a few shots 'cause of people in the way. Not as many as I did here at night, though.

This was my father's favorite place in Kyoto, since they had never been while the sakura were in such full bloom. I liked it too, especially the water shots, but I'm not sure it beat out Nijo-jo for me.

We asked, and found that they were open Thursday through Saturday nights with the gardens lit up, and a concert in that building on the water. We were leaving Kyoto on Friday morning, so we bought tickets for Thursday, after getting back from Himeji.

[heian jingu at night, or, umbrella hate]:

We bought the tickets at one of the Lawson's nearby (24hr convenience store); there's a machine in each of 'em, where you type in a search phrase for your show, then narrow it down by area in Japan, then city, then date, select how many people, then print it out and pay for it. Best part? No Ticketbastard convenience charges; the cheaper advance tickets are, in fact, cheaper. The worst part? I think you have to be literate to use 'em. Not being able to read kinda sucks.

We walked there... maybe four blocks away, in the rain. It was a nice walk, rain pitter pattering on our umbrellas. But then we saw The Line. That snaked around the front of the courtyard gate, and extended down the sidewalk, and around the corner, and down that sidewalk, and across a street, and halfway down that sidewalk. A sea of umbrellas.

We waited, but once the line started moving, it moved at a nice enough pace... a slow stroll with some pauses. We got to the courtyard gates soon enough, with puddles in the gravel (some sort of burlap or something laid down where the puddles got a little too deep), snaked around there, went into the courtyard proper, where the line disappeared through the far left gate, came back into the courtyard through another, crossed the courtyard, and disappeared into the far right gate... the sakura on the left, the lake and the concert on the right.

I didn't really enjoy being there, with all the umbrellas not only blocking my view and dripping on me, but often (several times a minute) poking me in the head or face. Countless missed shots due to umbrellas in the way. (I closed mine for more maneuverability and less awkwardness while operating my dSLR. Plus I was getting a little punchy and anti-umbrella at that point.)

Still, it was pretty. And I'm glad I went.

I think that last one shows just how many sakura there were (in just that direction!) as well as how densely packed the umbrellas were. Imagine about five more umbrellas clustered all around the edges of the frame, their metal pokey bits aimed at my face, and you've got the idea.

Then we were back in the courtyard, then over to the lake, where we heard highly compressed/effected guitar and flute, and we got to see the backs of people's umbrellas crowded all around the lake, at least three deep.

I did manage to sneak in and get some shots though. I think I'm still a bit bitter (can you tell? ;-) about the shots I knew I missed, had I just been able to wiggle through to the front for five seconds (or if they just closed their f'n umbrellas), but oh well. The ones I got are nice.

And so, after getting as many photos as we were going to get, and after squeezing through a large crowd of people who were staying to watch the whole concert, we headed back home to get dry and warm and unpokey.

This was my final photoshoot in Japan... purty but exhausting.

[kyoto - kiyomizu-dera]:

After Kodai-ji, we walked to Kiyomizu-dera, one of three sites we were able to see in both daytime and nighttime. It was roped off and guarded, so we weren't able to get in, but we were able to get some photographs anyway.

On the last full day in Kyoto (Wednesday? We spent Thursday in Himeji and Friday we took the shinkansen back to Tokyo), we went back. It's another of those sites that every tourist needs to go, so it was crowded, as usual.

The light green trees are Japanese maples, so in the autumn the valley is filled with red leaves. My parents are going back some autumn to see that.

There's an expression, "jumping from Kiyomizu-dera", that people use to describe a life-altering decision.

The sakura were definitely well on their transition from blossoms to leaves.

[kyoto - daigo temple]:

On Sunday we took the shinkansen to Kyoto.

The city was packed that day, since it was a weekend during the peak of cherry blossom time.

Distinctly different feel from Tokyo. My initial impression: Few highrises. More litter. Some urban decay photo ops during the cab ride, but I missed 'em.

We settled into our room, then took the subway (only two subway lines! in a neat Y shape, as opposed to the frenetic criss-crossing of subway lines in Tokyo. If you want to travel outside those lines you can take a bus.) to Daigo Temple, where Toyotomi Hideyoshi held his cherry blossom festivals centuries ago.

Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. We walked through the temple but weren't able to take pictures inside; the inner garden had that sense of utter serenity that you don't quite get at some of the Japanese gardens in America. Wooden floors smoothed with age, painted screen doors faded over time.

The old architecture looked a lot more beautiful with the cherry blossoms than the Tokyo highrises. And the varieties of cherry blossoms here are somehow more varied and prettier.

[kyoto - maruyama koen and gion at night]:

I was nearly passed out in our stuffy hotel room (A/C broken) til I opened the window and got ready for bed... then I was a bit more awake so my father and I walked to Maruyama Koen, where they light up the cherry blossoms at night.

Passed a few 24 hour convenience stores, nice. We kept walking, passed a bright orange Shinto gate full of grilled food vendors, kept walking, kept walking, and finally we decided to turn back.

We walked in Gion for a bit, where they raise and train high class geishas... the buildings there are amazing. Took some night photos there and the main street, then started heading back home.

My father found a map that said Maruyama Koen was just behind that orange Shinto gate we had passed by earlier. =)

We went and it was packed. Tons of young people on tarps eating and drinking and laughing and stumbling drunkenly around. Three or four f'n HUGE piles of trash, in stark contrast to Shinjukugyoen. The entire park was lined with food vendors selling grilled octopus or hot dogs or sweets; at regular intervals there were hanging metal cauldrons? full of glowing embers for people to warm themselves (probably good for toasting marshmallows too =) ... Cherry blossom time was a great big party.

At the center of it was a huge cherry blossom tree, lit from underneath for great effect, surrounded by people with camera phones and point-n-shoots and SLRs. That was pretty. My father's highlight of the day. I kinda liked seeing the whole shindig as a cultural thing.

[kabuki]:

On Friday we went to Ginza and stopped by Kabuki-za. Hunh, I was completely unaware that that was the center of Kabuki theater. That's cool.

Standard tickets had long since sold out, but there are day-of tickets available on a per-show, first-come-first-served basis (for much cheaper). We were thinking about just attending the first of the three afternoon shows, but a kabuki regular (who was unable to buy her standard tickets due to the popularity of this particular set of shows) recommended staying. We ended up buying tickets for all three.

Armed with bento and our commentary handsets, we filed up to the nosebleed seats above the balcony. The seats were narrow and cramped; the seats in coach had more leg room. Still, I was there for a new experience.

The first show was modern (1930s) and set at the end of the Shogunate, shortly after Commodore Perry and the Kanagawa Treaty. It was surprisingly realistic (due to its modern style) with a set that included the first 10' of a house, complete with sliding doors and raised veranda. The makeup and acting were realistic, with little of the over-the-top stylistic flair that one would associate with Kabuki. Overall it seemed like one of the lengthier expository scenes of a Kurosawa film.

I found the commentary a little jarring for this one; recorded dry English commentary in one ear and the live Japanese dialog in the other. At times I turned the volume down to listen to the Japanese. Overall I liked it, and the intermission gave me a chance to stretch my legs.

The second show was a classic, telling the tale of Minamoto Yoshitsune and Benkei using guile to evade detection (and execution) at his half-brother Yoritomo's roadblocks. This one was fully Kabuki with Noh artifacts, with thirty or forty traditional Japanese musicians accompanying the ten or so actors. This one was great, quite a treat. We were glad we didn't just see the one.

As a side note, I experienced my first earthquake in Japan during the second show =) A 4.0 quickie; the actors didn't stop acting.

The third was ultra-modern, having been written in the late 90s. An amusing but waaaaay too long comedy with maybe eight different scenes and set changes that were obviously not written for the people sitting in the backseat-of-a-yugo footroom nosebleed seats. Without the commentary I probably would have fallen asleep.

Still, we were glad we went, and by the time we left, it was dark, allowing me to photograph Ginza at night.

[night shots and roppongi]:

The city is so much more beautiful at night.

After humoring me for a while, my parents wanted to head back to the hotel. I decided to wander around Shinjuku for a while to get some of those shots I had missed the first time around... my first time oot&aboot Tokyo by myself.

Shinjuku

Kinda wanted to pop into a pachinko parlor to see what the fuss was about, but not enough to actually do it.

Headed over to Roppongi by train since Tim had regaled me with tales of girls in outrageous costume: the loligoths and cosplay and various other outfits crowding the streets... just something you gotta see. Maybe I got out the wrong exit (there were six or more widely dispersed exits from the station) or maybe he was exaggerating... I just saw a bunch of fairly normally dressed people, "gentleman"s clubs and bars, and a bunch of shady types trying to lure people (in shady ways) to walk into said clubs and bars. The better to part with your money, my dear.

Although I had never been to Roppongi before, I've seen it. The hustle, the girls on the other side of the doors, the drunks, the glassy-eyed men stumbling in or out. Not really what I was looking for at that point.

Instead I popped into the Tokyo Hard Rock, dodged some vomit, and took the ultra-packed train back home.

[homeless encampments + winter]:

After I showed so much interest in graffiti and homeless, my father showed me a small homeless encampment in Shinjuku Chuo Gyoen (the park just outside our hotel room). While others picnic nearby, homeless doze off on benches or take advantage of the free water and bathrooms. A small neat cluster of little tents, small enclosed shelters covered with blue tarps, lay in one corner of the park.

I asked my father where they go when it snows... is there a shelter? He said he saw them clustered underneath City Hall, in the parking area.

All men. My mother hypothesized that women adapt easier to new situations, so it's easier for their friends and family to take them in. I think there might be another reason as well.

They don't panhandle, so they're most likely getting some sort of handout from the government. I wonder what sort of carrot or stick keeps them well behaved and relatively neat and clean.

It's sad in a way. If my mother had been right, and there were no litter or homeless or graffiti or crime in Japan, that would have been some comfort, that there is a way for humans to reach a sort of utopia in this world. Who knows, maybe it's there in Canada or somewhere, maybe it's all about the moose. But Japan, with its strongly capitalist ways (privatized rail, privatized health?) doesn't have it, unless you have money.

[randomness]:

Ginza is the high class shopping district. Before kabuki we walked to Nihombashi, the site of an old bridge, 4 train stations away.

We finished our walk in Mitsukoshi, the oldest department store. Old enough to have a train station named after it: Mitsukoshimae, or "in front of Mitsukoshi".

Another notable train name: the Chiyoda line. Literally, "blood of Yoda". ;-)

Small police stations abound, three or four police per (and often a couple are out patrolling). These certainly contribute to the safeness of the city.

Akihabara is the electronic store district. Yodobashi Camera is a Circuit City / Fry's mix. The US isn't terribly far behind in tech these days, so it wasn't mind boggling... but I really liked the camera section. They had a number of camera bodies out and a greater number of lenses, all tethered to the counter. I was able to try out the various lenses in-store. The rest of Akihabara is just kind of crazy.

The cherry blossoms in Shinjuku are definitely fading fast, and will most likely be gone next week.

On Sunday we took the shinkansen to Kyoto, which is gorgeous. One 4gb card lasted me all week in Tokyo; I'm afraid I'll fill up my second soon and today was our first full day in Kyoto. Internet access is a bit more limited here and they cut off anyone who's a bandwidth hog, so I'm going to wait to upload photos til Tokyo or when I'm back in SF.