Shirakawago

Shirakawago is an old mountain village in the Japanese Alps which has had the majority of houses maintained in their original form. The locals still farm, but tourism is probably a bigger industry. Chihiro and I caught a bus leaving Shizuoka at 5.30am. Luckily we could get some sleep on the way, but as we got into the mountains there was more and more beautiful scenery to take in. The amount of snow was incredible. It had built up to over 3 metres thick in places. Luckily the roads were kept free by snow ploughs, and there was no ice on the roads. One rest-stop on the way had an igloo on one side of the toilet block and a "Doraemon" statue on the other. It was exciting just being in the snow, which I hadn't seen this much of since I was a kid. We reached the village at 11, and because of the long trip time we could only spend a few hours there before catching the bus back. Though it was enough time to go for a walk, visit a few of the old houses, and try some of the local food. The houses are about 300 years old, and are held together entirely with bindings of straw and "neso". They are re-thatched every 50 years or so in a traditional communal effort of about 200 people working on a single house at once. Because the village was so remote, everything that the village used was made there, and inside some of the buildings were displays of all the equipment for growing silk-worms, spinning various threads, making cloth, candles, farming equipment, medicine, all sorts of food, et cetera. The amount of knowledge and skill needed to make and use all this equipment is quite amazing. My imagination of the town as it was 200 years ago was cut abruptly short as we passed the temple bell-tower which had a brand new snow-cutter parked under it! As we walked around the edge of the village it started snowing, much to our delight! It got heavier and heavier, and I couldn't believe how big the flakes were. The jacket I got for Christmas kept me warm and dry though. It has a staggering number of features, which I kept discovering as the day went on. My fingers and toes started to get numb about the time we had to leave, so although it was great to visit, I'm glad I don't live in a place as cold as that!

Kendo Test

Last weekend I went to do my first level kendo test. It started at 1pm but there was a "practice" session from 9am where you can be instructed about how the test will proceed and what the important points to keep in mind are. I was pretty confident I would pass because I've been practising the basics required for almost a year, but I was a bit nervous about not being able to understand much of what the judges were saying so I went to the practice session anyway. The practice and test were both held in a huge kendo hall at a famous temple in Shizuoka. My first surprise on turning up was the number of people. There were more than 100 students (and when I say students I mean primary and junior high-school), so not only was I the only foreigner, I was apparently the only adult!

The practice went well, and I could understand most of what was going to happen during the test. The various instructors each had their bit to say on the test, most just re-iterating that your movements should be firm and your yelling should be loud. One in particular droned on and on for more than 15 minutes while we were all seated in the traditional Japanese "sitting on your legs" position. I started to cramp badly and had to lean forward or support myself with my arms, and even some of the other kids started to shift about. When it finally came time to stand up I could barely support my own weight! When it was over I had lunch in the temple gardens with Chihiro. When we came back we listened to a speech by the head sensei from my club, who it seemed was also the head of the prefectural kendo society.

Just before the test started, we were each given ID numbers and lined up in groups. I noticed that 2 other adults had arrived, though they were a fair bit older than me in their 40's. I was grouped with them, and we were to go last. Two hours later, it was finally our turn. It went pretty well, right up until the end, when instead of waiting for the instructor's call to bow and leave I was too exhausted to think straight and did it automatically. Luckily that little faux-pas didn't prevent me from passing! I was surprised that only 60% of people passed so their standards must be reasonably high. My sensei came up to me afterwards congratulating me, and said that I should order a Japanese-English kendo dictionary to continue my study. He gave me the details, but came back later saying that they had found a copy at the temple I could buy for $25 instead of the regular $30. I gave him the money and to my surprise he came back once more and handed me back half the money, saying simething about a discount! I was confused but happy.

To celebrate my passing, Chihiro and I went and had a strawberry parfait!

Luck

Tonight Chihiro and I went out for a great homecooked meal at a friend's place. It was a long way from where we lived, and we had planned to catch the last bus home. Unfortunately we had a little too much fun and left a bit late. We were walking through the backstreets assuming we'd have to catch a taxi when a voice called from a car that had just pulled up at traffic lights on the cold deserted street, "Ben! Where're ya headed?" It was an Aussie friend who lives across the other side of the city, just a few blocks from my place. He'd just dropped his girlfriend off at her place, and was able to give us a lift all the way home! In the whole city there are only 2 people who could have given us a lift home, and odds against meeting them in an empty backstreet on the other side of the city when we needed them most must be phenomenal. What a night!

Viking!

In Japan Viking restaurants are all-you-can eat. I went to a yakiniku viking restaurant last night and stuffed myself silly with all sort of delicious things. For starters, all the tables have a yakiniku grill in the middle, and there are a wide variety of meats (including seafood) and vegetables that you can bbq as you eat. There was also sushi, ramen, pasta, fried foods, salads, baked foods, 8 flavours of icecream, and a fairy floss maker! I don't know how they make a profit, but people mustn't normally eat that much, because it wan't expensive at all.

Tokyo Edo Museum

While we were in Tokyo recently we visited the Tokyo Edo Museum which is in Ryogoku (also famous for sumo wrestling). It was in a huge building, inside of which they'd reconstructed part of the Nihon-bashi (main bridge in old tokyo) for people to walk over the display floors. The museum focuses on the Edo period in Tokyo, but has displays for more modern periods too. The most impressive thing I saw was a mechanical doll that could write a few things in Japanese or English! The designer programmed in a few letters and characters, each of which could be selected by shifting some gears. Then all the operator has to do is put a new sheet of paper in the frame in front of it, and pull the wind-up cord. The body and head are also articulated so that it looks satisfied after doing the writing! There was also a mechanical doll archer that could notch, draw, and fire 5 arrows at a target in succession, though I missed that demonstration. These displays were sponsored by Toshiba, which at first I thought was a little too "commercial" for a government museum, but in actual fact, a lot of these historical pieces were invented by the founder of the company that later became Toshiba.

Of course there were lots of interesting things like weapons (my favourite being the sword with a gun attached and hidden in the scabbard), but I was also fascinated with the displays on life in early Tokyo. These included replicas of the first popular bookstores selling fiction and wood-block prints, as well as Kabuki theatre which used quite a few lighting and mechanical effects (like wires, traptoors, rotating stages) to impress the audience.

These photos aren't the greatest quality, but they're not bad given I took them with my phone!