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Japan

This was the trip that was conceived by the kids (Dylan and Foop) and promoted by Bort and Foop and attended only by Jen and I. Read more
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  • Trip start
    December 29, 2016
  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Kanazawa Precinct

    December 30, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    Getting accustomed to the Japanese way of life...

    Kanazawa is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 January 2018, the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km².[1] The total area of the city was 468.64 square kilometres (180.94 sq mi).Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Kenroku-en Garden

    December 31, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    First experience of Japanese gardens and layout design.
    Very impressive with everything neatly manicured and in its place!
    Notice the rope lines descending from the treetops...that is to ensure that in the winter when the branches are laden with snow that the weight of the snow does not snap the boughs of the trees.
    This park sat adjacent to the Kanasawa palace and so we walked through the park and directly into the palace surrounds.    Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Kanazawa (cont’d)

    December 31, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    More shots of my beautiful wife and our first impressions of Kanazawa.

    The area around Kanazawa was part of ancient Kaga Province. The name "Kanazawa" (金沢, 金澤), which literally means "marsh of gold", is said to derive from the legend of the peasant Imohori Togoro (literally "Togoro Potato-digger"), who was digging for potatoes when flakes of gold washed up. The well in the grounds of Kenroku-en known as 'Kinjo Reitaku' (金城麗澤) to acknowledge these roots. The area where Kanazawa is was originally known as Ishiura, whose name is preserved at the Ishiura Shrine near the Kenrokuen.Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Kanazawa Castle

    December 31, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Kanazawa Castle (金沢城, Kanazawa-jō) is a large, partially-restored castle in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. It is located adjacent to the celebrated Kenroku-en Garden, which once formed the castle's private outer garden. It was the headquarters of Kaga Domain, ruled by the Maeda clan for 14 generations from the Sengoku period until the coming of the Meiji Restoration in 1871.

    Although the Maeda clan were the most powerful daimyō in Japan after the ruling Tokugawa clan in terms of kokudaka, their position was not unassailable. Kanazawa Castle is located at the center of a castle town, which in itself consisted of numerous features which added to the overall defensive situation. The castle is built on the highest ground between the Sai and Asano rivers. A system of moats and canals surround the castle for extra protection. Maeda Toshinaga, the second daimyō of Kaga Domain, built a system of inner moats that total over 3,000 meters in length, and another system of outer moats was added between 1600 and 1614. To supply drinking water, a series of canals, built from 1583-1630, connected to the moat system. In total, the system was nearly 15 kilometers long.

    For further protection, the castle grounds were split into nine enclosures divided with earthen ramparts, stone walls and fortified gates, surrounding the main bailey where the Maeda clan had their residence. Buildings relating to the government of Kaga Domain were mostly in the Second Bailey (Ni-no-maru) In many Japanese castle towns, Buddhist temples were deliberately placed in locations selected to reinforce weak points in castle defenses. Kanazawa was no exception: temples were strategically grouped in areas some distance from the castle, most likely as retreat havens.

    The castle's distinctive, whitish roof tiles are made of lead. The reason for that is not only that they are fireproof, but legend says that also that in times of siege, the tiles could be melted down and cast into bullets.

    Main features:

    The castle's main features are as follows:

    Hishi Yagura - watchtower, three stories. Height of roof: 17.34 m above stone wall; total floor area: 255.35 m². This tower is built at a slight angle to the rest of the structures, which results in diamond-shaped internal pillars and hard-to-build connections within its complex web of internal pillars and beams.

    Interior (Gojukken Nagaya), reconstructed 2001.
    Gojikken Nagaya - long, hall-like, multi-sided turret normally used as a warehouse, two stories. Height of roof: 9.35 to 10.08 m above stone wall; total floor area: 1,384.95 m².
    Hashizume-mon Tsuzuki Yagura - watchtower and command post, three stories. Height of roof: 14.69 m above stone wall; total floor area: 253.93 m².
    Hashizume-ichi-no-mon Gate - entrance gate.
    Tsuru-no-maru Dobei - double earthen wall. Height of roof: 2.91 m above stone wall.
    Ishikawa-mon Gate - entrance gate with two distinctive styles of stonework. It has been designated an Important National Cultural Asset by the government. This gate faces one of the entrances of Kenrokuen park.
    The castle sits within extensive grounds, currently organized as large, well-kept lawns and informal wooded areas, with various large walls, gates, and outbuildings.    Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Samurai District

    December 31, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the 12th century to their abolition in the 1870s. They were the well-paid retainers of the daimyo (the great feudal landholders). They had high prestige and special privileges such as wearing two swords. They cultivated the bushido codes of martial virtues, indifference to pain, and unflinching loyalty, engaging in many local battles. During the peaceful Edo era (1603 to 1868) they became the stewards and chamberlains of the daimyo estates, gaining managerial experience and education. In the 1870s they were 5% of the population. The Meiji Revolution ended their feudal roles and they moved into professional and entrepreneurial roles. Their memory and weaponry remain prominent in Japanese popular culture.

    The philosophies of Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser extent Confucianism and Shinto, influenced the samurai culture. Zen meditation became an important teaching, because it offered a process to calm one's mind. The Buddhist concept of reincarnation and rebirth led samurai to abandon torture and needless killing, while some samurai even gave up violence altogether and became Buddhist monks after coming to believe that their killings were fruitless.
    Some were killed as they came to terms with these conclusions in the battlefield. The most defining role that Confucianism played in samurai philosophy was to stress the importance of the lord-retainer relationship—the loyalty that a samurai was required to show his lord.

    Literature on the subject of bushido such as Hagakure ("Hidden in Leaves") by Yamamoto Tsunetomo and Gorin no Sho ("Book of the Five Rings") by Miyamoto Musashi, both written in the Edo period (1603–1868), contributed to the development of bushidō and Zen philosophy.

    The philosophies of Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser extent Confucianism and Shinto, are attributed to the development of the samurai culture. According to Robert Sharf, "The notion that Zen is somehow related to Japanese culture in general, and bushidō in particular, is familiar to Western students of Zen through the writings of D. T. Suzuki, no doubt the single most important figure in the spread of Zen in the West."

    In an account of Japan sent to Father Ignatius Loyola at Rome, drawn from the statements of Anger (Han-Siro's western name), Xavier describes the importance of honor to the Japanese (Letter preserved at College of Coimbra):

    In the first place, the nation with which we have had to do here surpasses in goodness any of the nations lately discovered. I really think that among barbarous nations there can be none that has more natural goodness than the Japanese. They are of a kindly disposition, not at all given to cheating, wonderfully desirous of honour and rank. Honour with them is placed above everything else. There are a great many poor among them, but poverty is not a disgrace to any one. There is one thing among them of which I hardly know whether it is practised anywhere among Christians. The nobles, however poor they may be, receive the same honour from the rest as if they were rich.    Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Aokusamachi & Plum Wine

    December 31, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Food market and general walk around.
    Plus a sample of plum wine which has been a favourite of mine for a long time.

    Umeshu (梅酒) is a Japanese liqueur made by steeping ume fruits (while still unripe and green) in liquor (焼酎, shōchū) and sugar. It has a sweet, sour taste, and an alcohol content of 10–15%. Famous brands of umeshu include Choya, Takara Shuzo and Matsuyuki. Varieties are available with whole ume fruits contained in the bottle, and some people make their own umeshu at home.

    Japanese restaurants serve many different varieties of umeshu and also make cocktails. Umeshu on the Rocks (pronounced umeshu rokku), Umeshu Sour (pronounced umeshu sawa), Umeshu Tonic (with 2/3 tonic water), Umeshu Soda (with 2/3 carbonated water) and the Flaming Plum[citation needed] cocktail are popular. It is sometimes mixed with green tea (o-cha-wari) or warm water (o-yu-wari). Umeshu can be served at different temperatures; chilled or with ice, room temperature, or even hot in the winter.    Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Yamanochi-Machi

    January 1, 2017 in Japan ⋅ 5 °C

    We stayed in Yamanochi-Machi in a quaint little ryokan run by a very happy and welcoming Japanese man.
    We went for a walk around the town and experimented with some local food which was cool.
    This was the closest village to the snow monkey park which we planned to visit the next day.Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Jigokudani Monkey Park

    January 1, 2017 in Japan ⋅ 6 °C

    Jigokudani Monkey Park is located in Yamanouchi, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the Joshinetsu Kogen National Park (locally known as Shigakogen), and is located in the valley of the Yokoyu-River, in the northern part of the prefecture. The name Jigokudani, meaning "Hell's Valley", is due to the steam and boiling water that bubbles out of small crevices in the frozen ground, surrounded by steep cliffs and formidably cold and hostile forests.

    The heavy snowfalls (snow covers the ground for four months a year), an elevation of 850 m (2,800 ft), and being only accessible via a narrow 2 km (1.2 mi) footpath through the forest, keep it uncrowded despite being relatively well known.

    It is famous for its large population of wild Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), more commonly referred to as snow monkeys, that go to the valley during the winter, foraging elsewhere in the national park during the warmer months. The monkeys descend from the steep cliffs and forest to sit in the warm waters of the onsen (hotsprings), and return to the security of the forests in the evenings.

    However, since the monkeys are fed by park attendants, they are in the area of the hot springs all the year round, and a visit at any season will enable the visitor to observe hundreds of the macaques.

    Jigokudani is not the farthest north that monkeys live. The Shimokita Peninsula is at the northern part of the Honshū island and the northwest area of this peninsula, latitude +41°31' longitude +140°56', approximately 500 km (310 mi) north from Jigokudani is the northern limit of Japanese macaque habitat. No (non-human) primate is known to live in a colder climate.

    The Jigokudani monkey park became famous after appearing in the documentary Baraka.    Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    More Snow Monkeys...

    January 1, 2017 in Japan ⋅ 6 °C

    The Japanese macaque is sexually dimorphic. Males weigh on average 11.3 kg (25 lb), while females average 8.4 kg (19 lb). Macaques from colder areas tend to weigh more than ones from warmer areas. Male average height is 57.01 cm (22.44 in) and female average height is 52.28 cm (20.58 in). Their brain size is about 95 g (3.4 oz). Japanese macaques have short stumps for tails that average 92.51 mm (3.642 in) in males and 79.08 mm (3.113 in) in females. The macaque has a pinkish face and posterior. The rest of its body is covered in brown or greyish hair. The coat of the macaque is well-adapted to the cold and its thickness increases as temperatures decrease. The macaque can cope with temperatures as low as −20 °C (−4 °F).
    Macaques mostly move on all fours. They are semiterrestrial, with females spending more time in the trees and males spending more time on the ground. Macaques are known to leap. They are also great swimmers and have been reported to swim over half a kilometer. Lifespan is at the high end of what is typical for macaques, up to 28 years for males, and up to 32 years for females.    Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Quirky little cafe...

    January 1, 2017 in Japan ⋅ 12 °C

    We visited this little cafe after visiting the monkeys for a coffee. The coffee culture is very different in other parts of the world and helps you realize just how fortunate we are in Australia with the general quality of coffee and the general coffee culture we experience every day.Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Tripping around...

    January 1, 2017 in Japan ⋅ 14 °C

    New Year’s Day and walked around some more of this quaint little town and discovered more plum wine and good coffee which surprisingly is hard to find in Japan.
    The snow is such a beautiful contrast to the sky in all of these areas.Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Still tripping...

    January 1, 2017 in Japan ⋅ 11 °C

    Some of the places in Japan are so beautiful as was this tiny little cemetery that we came across. Everything in Japan is so orderly and structured from cemeteries to vending machines and by the way these is almost nothing that you can’t get from a vending machine in Japan.
    We also had a cool looking desert that was delicious and from memory it was cream with pastry and biscuit crust. We are now ready to travel to our next destination.    Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Nagano

    January 2, 2017 in Japan ⋅ 8 °C

    Nagano is the capital and largest city of Nagano Prefecture, located in the Nagano Basin (Zenkoji Daira) in the central Chūbu region of Japan. Nagano is categorized as a core city of Japan.
    Nagano City is the highest prefectural capital in Japan, with an altitude of 371.4 meters (1,219 ft).
    The city is surrounded by mountains, near the confluence of the Chikuma River - the longest and widest river in Japan - and the Sai River. The total area of the city is 834.81 square kilometres (322.32 sq mi). As of 1 June 2019, the city had an estimated population of 370,632 in 160,625 households, and a population density of 444 persons per km². A The total area of the city is 834.81 square kilometres (322.32 sq mi).    Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Matsumoto Castle

    January 2, 2017 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    We were privileged to visit this castle on such a beautiful day with the sun shining and crisp fresh morning.
    This castle is quite majestic and is surrounded by a moat which is the first one we have seen in Japan.
    Matsumoto-jō is one of Japan's premier historic castles, along with Himeji Castle and Kumamoto Castle.
    The building is also known as the "Crow Castle" due to its black exterior.
    It was the seat of the Matsumoto domain. It is located in the city of Matsumoto, in Nagano Prefecture and is within easy reach of Tokyo by road or rail.    Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Matsumoto Palace (cont’d)

    January 2, 2017 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    The keep (tenshukaku), which was completed in the late sixteenth century, maintains its original wooden interiors and external stonework. It is listed as a National Treasure of Japan.

    Matsumoto Castle is a flatland castle (hirajiro) because it is not built on a hilltop or amid rivers, but on a plain. Its complete defences would have included an extensive system of inter-connecting walls, moats, and gatehouses.

    The castle's origins go back to the Sengoku period. At that time Shimadachi Sadanaga of the Ogasawara clan built a fort on this site in 1504, which originally was called Fukashi Castle. In 1550 it came under the rule of the Takeda clan and then Tokugawa Ieyasu.

    When Toyotomi Hideyoshi transferred Ieyasu to the Kantō region, he placed Ishikawa Kazumasa in charge of Matsumoto. Kazumasa and his son Yasunaga built the tower and other parts of the castle, including the three towers: the keep and the small tower in the northwest, both begun in 1590, and the Watari Tower; the residence; the drum gate; the black gate, the Tsukimi Yagura, the moat, the innermost bailey, the second bailey, the third bailey, and the sub-floors in the castle, much as they are today. They also were instrumental in laying out the castle town and its infrastructure. It is believed much of the castle was completed by 1593–94.

    During the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate established the Matsumoto Domain, of which the Matsudaira, Mizuno, and others were the daimyōs.

    For the next 280 years until the abolition of the feudal system in the Meiji Restoration, the castle was ruled by the 23 lords of Matsumoto representing six different daimyō families. In this period the stronghold was also known as Crow Castle (烏城, Karasu-jo) because its black walls and roofs looked like spreading wings.    Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Street Market in Matsumoto

    January 2, 2017 in Japan ⋅ 7 °C

    This was a cool little street market that we visited after visiting the castle.
    I remember being quite taken by a particular sword shop that had an array of samurai swords and other knives and curiosities.
    There was also a collection of street food which Jen and I were trying to work out what food was actually on offer...but more of that a little later.    Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Eating Japanese Food...

    January 2, 2017 in Japan ⋅ 3 °C

    This was one of the funniest experiences but to completely appreciate it you need some background.
    I don’t like eggs or diary and Jen is a vegetarian :), so we go into this tiny little Japanese restaurant and we read through the extensive menu and select two dishes that we think we would like.
    The waitress comes over and because our Japanese is poor I point to the items on the menu and the waitress takes down the numbers and we wait.
    Our meals arrive...one is an egg dish as the other is fish guts on cream cheese. Two dishes that neither of us would order ever!
    I speak to the waitress and explain that there has been a mistake and point to the menu items we thought we had ordered and with my big fingers she has taken down the numbers directly below the ones we actually ordered. Funny and hungry.    Read more

  • BronzeJapanTraveler

    Nikesenko Trail

    January 3, 2017 in Japan ⋅ 2 °C

    These are some pictures of Sumago the little village along the Nikesenko trail. We experienced a quaint little tea house and had some real Japanese green tea as you can see we also came across an amazing store that was completely different to any of the other shops in the town.
    It was a clothing outlet run by an artist called Oberajon who did some amazing shirts with the print of the Great Wave on it and they were like $500.00 Australian dollars...however a bit more about him shortly.    Read more

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