Nozawa Onsen

Nozawa Onsen

野沢温泉

Nozawa Onsen is a great little hot spring village in Nagano prefecture.

I go up there at least once every winter. Nozawa is very popular with Aussies

and on weekdays it often seems like half the people on the mountain are

non-Japanese. Japanese are seemingly always anxious when lots of foreigners

start showing up someplace in Japan. You hear how places are going to lose their

unique "Japanese-ness" and that sort of thing. My impression, from talking with the

couple who run the inn I always stay at, Minhusku Kakushige,

http://homepage2.nifty.com/kakushige/index.htm

and the men at the public baths, is that the locals appreciate the visitors but worry

that the town looks less and less Japanese with all the foreign faces. It seems like

run of the mill "shimaguni konjo" (island country mentality) thinking to me. All of the

Australian visitors I've met up there are very positive about Japan and go out

of their way to learn and obey the local customs.

Dinner at the inn. It's hard to beat after a long day on the mountain.

Note the raw horse meat on the right.

it was delicious! After dinner, a stroll down to the local

neighborhood public bath and you're ready for bed by 9:00pm

Mid-day on a Friday. On Saturday or Sunday

there might be 50 people in this same picture

Nice and warm in front of the inn on my way back from the hot spring bath

My room with the kotatsu (table with a heater underneath

covered with a blanket) right in the middle

Hida/Takayama

Takayama in Gifu prefecture is apparently the largest city in Japan in area.

I can believe it. I've driven up there a few times and coming from the south

you see a sign "Takayama city limit" about 50 kilometers away in the middle

of nowhere. It's got a pleasant little town center to walk around, a cool

outdoor cultural museum and is known for having lots of sake breweries,

a great festival and an interesting souvenir doll called a "Saru bobo."

Akiko, myself (looking distinctly uncomfortable) and some Saru bobo

at the outdoor museum, Hida Minzoku Mura 飛騨民俗村

A small neighborhood festival in Takayama.

Unfortunately, not the one Takayama is famous for.

This couple was holding hands until the instant

before I snapped this pic.

A side street in Takayama. Like many places in

Japan, especially tourist destinations, the main

sights will be wall to wall people but a few minutes

walk will bring you to completely empty spaces.

One of the things I love about this country.

This is how mom and I got from Hamamatsu to Takayama!

Everyone who sees this thinks it's Kyoto.

It's hard not to feel goofy and embarrassed riding

a rickshaw. It was quite fun actually.

人力車で浜松から高山まで行って来ました！

高山の裏道の建物

Izu

The Izu pennisula juts out into the ocean

between Tokyo and Hamamatsu where I live.

Izu is actually also part of Shizouka prefecture.

I love going up there because it has a beautiful

rugged coastline, hot springs, good surf spots

and nice hiking trails.

We were exploring around Shimoda and we

happened upon this cove. This was apparently

a bunker built during WWII in anticipation of

the allied invasion.

The room in our inn in Izu. I've stayed in this place

now five times, twice with Akiko. It's actually a youth

hostel but a very nice one!

Dinner. Yum yum! After a long drive

and a longer surf it was just what the

doctor ordered.

The bath. It's a real onsen (hot spring) and has an

outdoor bath on the right just out of the picture.

It's a wonderful way to end the day. After a great

meal with a beer and a dip in the bath we're in bed

by 9:00pm and sleep like babies.

Miyazaki

Miyazaki in Kyushu probably has the consistently best

waves in Japan. If you enjoy big city life it might be a tough

place to live as it's a bit remote and slower paced. I loved it.

The profile of Miyazaki has recently been raised due

to their tireless celebrity Governor Higashikokubara,

a former comedian and TV presenter.

For more information on Governor Higashikokubara check out this

not completely flattering link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideo_Higashikokubaru

Despite the incidents in his past he's

very popular and it seems like he's on TV virtually

everyday promoting something Miyazaki.

This is me on the overnight ferry in Osaka

Next stop Miyazaki.

Better surf than it looks. I don't know if the locals knew

something I didn't because they all were sitting on the

inside while me and one other guy had the outside

with good waves all to ourselves. Go figure.

Takachiho, Miyazaki

This is an important place in Japanese mythology.

It is where the founding god of Japan supposedly

descended from heaven. Many of the local shrines

have regular performances of the Japanese creation myth.

If I remember correctly this is Takachiho Shrine.

Takachiho Gorge, Miyazaki

Kyoto

I usually go to Kyoto three or four times a year. It's a great place

to see in the different seasons although mid-summer and

mid-winter are both pretty brutal. Of course the major temples

are usually quite crowded but it's fairly easy to find beautiful

out of the way places that still retain the Kyoto "hannari" atmosphere.

Hannari, as far as I understand it, means a kind of elegant beauty.

Anyone who has ever been to Kyoto has (or should have) this exact same photo!

Kinkakuji/The Golden Pavilion

Koto-in at Diatokuji Temple 京都のちょっとした穴場

Lanterns at Yasaka Jinja Gion, Kyoto

The lanterns have the names of companies or people

who have made contributions to the temple

Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto

There is a famous Japanese saying that when you do something risky,

take a big chance on something or take a leap into the unknown you are

"Jumping off the platform at Kiyomizu Temple"

『清水舞台から飛び降りる』

That's the platform behind me. Of course, really jumping

off it would probably be fatal.

Geisha trainees called "Maiko" and a local pensioner

No doubt they are talking baseball or sharing stock tips.

何について話しているかな？

Nagasaki

A city famous the world over due to having been

the second city to suffer an atomic bomb attack.

A pretty city in a beautiful setting with a long history

of contact with the outside world. Nagasaki was one of

only places in Japan that maintained some contact with

western countries when Japan was largely closed to the

outside world. This is me relaxing and waiting for my tea

to come at a small museum in Nagasaki's Chinatown.

This is a photo from a house in Glover

garden where some of the wealthy western traders

lived when Japan opened back up to the west in the

late 19th century. The weather wasn't the best that day

but maybe you can get a sense of the scenery of

the city and it's wonderful setting on the harbor. This is

looking toward the city while to the left the

harbor eventually opens up to the open sea.

Dejima is the very small

island in the harbor on which the Dutch traders were housed.

This photo is of the inside of what a Dutch traders house

on Dejima might have looked like; it's an interesting

combination of Japanese and western styles.

My favorite part of Nagasaki was the quiet and atmospheric Chinatown

(at least it was on the days I was there).