Beauty in Bad Weather

Driech Takayama
“Dreich” is a Scots word meaning cold and wet, and for the 1st time in our 101 days, it is driech. It had rained buckets in Kenya for a couple of hours. It was cold and misty in the morning in Namibia, but neither of these fit the meaning. However, today in Takayama , it dreich. This is made slightly worse than it might otherwise be because in old Japanese houses, they are effectively open or semi open. They have no glass, and it seems the front door is always open. So, whilst Takayama was very beautiful and interesting, my enthusiasm this afternoon was damped by the weather.
I should be clear that up till midday, the weather was dry, and it was rather mild, but not chilly. Then the late afternoon was dreich, but the morning was not.
In the morning, we had sung happy birthday to Nora, who is 9 today. Knowing that we would be in a traditional hotel with only traditional breakfast, we smuggled in waffles, mango juice, and other treats for her. Just as well, as she ate nothing from the cold trout, onions & rice, miso, and pickled ginger. She looked happy that we had thought ahead for her. The night had been quite comfortable, and Oscar and I had slept well on our Japanese futons (floor mats), although he didn’t settle for a long time when going to bed, but that had nothing to do with the bedding. We had eaten a delicious banquet of Japanese food all together in the main hall of the Ryokan, which nowadays, at least for westerners, had seats. I am not sure I could have sat even a fraction of the time in the Buddha position on the floor. Lola, whose hobby is cooking, and who loves Japanese food, was quite ecstatic. The meal was made all the nicer by the very old waitress, who helped us eat properly and who had a laugh at our ineptitude.
The morning walk through Tagayama’s old town, which is a conservation area, was interesting. We visited the morning market, which was a mixture of food and souvenirs. The next street was well preserved but entirely empty of Japanese. We had encountered the same phenomenon the day before. Japanese tourists are only to be found where there are shops and markets 😊. That left us alone, but for a Belgian trio to explore the street and to go into one of the houses. This was the street of the wealthy merchants, and the particular one we visited had been owned by a man who was both a saki merchant and banker. His house was large, certainly more than 200m2, and very minimally and tastefully decorated. The style is much the same as for smaller houses. It's just the quality, details, and size that change.
As the rain came around lunchtime, we looked for an open coffee shop or restaurant, but we only found a noodle shop. Again, not Nora, our birthday girl’s favourite, but again, we had bought goodies in advance for her. Maybe the food was not for her, but she was delighted with the GoPro, for her birthday, which I must say was ¾ paid for by birthday and Xmas money she had collected over a longer period. “Best Birthday present ever”
After lunch, we headed for the well conserved regional offices from the Edo period, from where the entire region had been administered. Alongside the admin, there were also courts, with torture facilities and a large grain store. Taxes were paid by the peasants in the form of grain, and the exhibits demonstrated that the peasants rebelled, at times violently, against tax rises. These rebellions were always put down with equal violence and added vigour. Since the buding was effectively open, I was very cold, so I rushed through the exhibition. Let’s see if the others tell me I missed something.

When I was outside, I looked [ in vain] for a coffee shop, only finding innumerable vending machines for soft drinks, a saki shop, and multiple ice cream shops. Oh well, back to find the others, then back in the bus and a one-hour drive to our next destination.Read more