Little Raven's World: April 2011

Arrival in Kyoto and the day of the Earthquake

I was quite sad to leave Takayama, I had grown to tolerate the green tatami mats and anyone who has read my previous posts will understand how much I love the river and the town surrounding it. But I had to go to Kyoto. Continuing my journey on the Wide-View train to Nagoya I was once again amazed by the stunning scenery.

--- My some-what bedraggled reflection inside a tunnel---

Somewhere between Nagoya and Kyoto, while I was on the shinkansen, or perhaps while I was taking a photo of these cakes in Kyoto Station:

Japan was rocked by the huge earthquake I'm sure you have all heard about.
Kyoto is a huge distance away from the epicenter and I didn't feel a thing. In fact I didn't even know it had happened until after I had checked into my hostel (K's House Kyoto, which is AWESOME by the way) and realised that I had missed calls and lots of text messages from worried friends and relatives back in Australia.
So that was the end of my first day in Kyoto. The rest of my night was spent sending emails, text messages and talking on Skype, while watching BBC news as the disaster began to unfold.
While I was not effected directly it is a terrible thing to have happened.
If you are interested in donating money to the relief effort the Japanese Red Cross Society is a good organisation: http://www.jrc.or.jp/english/relief/l4/Vcms4_00002070.html
Otherwise with a little bit of research I'm sure you can find something in your own country or area.

Takayama Highs and Lows- 10 March

Today was an interesting day. I'm not sure how well it will come across, as there were quite a few things that happened which didn't warrant a photograph. Oh well, if you are just reading this blog for the pictures then you will miss some of the experience!

--- Minshuku in the snow ---

--- Yet another photo of the river ---

--- My borrowed, rusty bicycle ---

--- Ancient tree, forgotten the name, will add it if I remember ---

After making up my daily temple and shrine quota I decided to see where this bike could take me, and headed off for the Takayama historical village.

--- Notice that all the rocks are exactly the same shape? Snow reveals all ---

--- My footprints ---

The historical village is centered around a man-made lake. All the buildings are original farm-houses and country-style dwellings that were bought and moved to this location, in order to preserve the local cultural heritage. You were allowed to go inside all of the buildings (after taking off your shoes) but it was difficult to take picture as it was very dark inside. I spent nearly 2 hours here, exploring the houses and the grounds.

--- 'Hina-Ningyo' Doll's Day statues ---

--- A white swan! ---

After leaving the village and eating a delicious bowl of ramen for lunch (only 700yen!!) I remembered that there were more castle ruins at the top of the mountain. This marked the beginning of the low point of my day. Though the hike was beautiful, the photos below are evidence of that, I frightened myself stupid because I was so alone. Also I didn't realise just how much snow there would be, in some places it was higher than my knees! But for some reason I kept going and did reach the ruins at the top.

--- No this isn't a weird angle, that path is just really really steep ---

--- View from the ruins. While taking this photo I realised that if I slipped, a very real possibility, no one would ever find me. Sobering thought. ---

To try and calm myself down I went to an art gallery/museum. At 1300yen entry it was probably the biggest waste of money ever. There were 3 things in the entire collection I actually liked:

If you ever go to Takayama, don't bother going to the Museum of Art.

--- My purchases for the day ---

After the disappointing museum I rode back home and came across a giant warehouse store which sold all manner of wonderful things that might cheer up a girl. So after spending a while wandering around I bought the over-the-knee socks you can see in this picture. The other things are some silk fabric pieces I bought on my way up the mountain.

To finish off the day on a high note I had some really delicious vegetables at a tiny little Izakaya. The owner was a lovely lady and we had a really lovely conversation before I headed home for bed.

Takayama- 9th March

Another day another place to explore.
While my afternoon walk yesterday had taken me to some interesting places I still hadn't reached the area of the town that Takayama is most famous for; the original wooden buildings of the shopping district.
While it is now fairly tourist-friendly (read: commercialized) it wasn't nearly as tacky as I expected. I assume there must be some strict rules for the businesses which operate out of these wonderful old buildings, as there are no signs in English and the items for sale are mostly very traditional, small scale items, rather than the mass-produced plastic souveniers you can buy closer to the river.

I didn't really take many pictures, I was too busy being fascinated by the different stores, but this gives you a good idea of the 'feeling' of the district:

--- Looking a bit gloomy, as it was about to snow ---

Takayama is situated in a valley and the town is spread either side of the river, the old town on one side (where I was staying) and the 'new' town on the other (where the train station is). The result of this is that the river has become a central point for me, helping me orient myself, it is also very pretty. After eating lunch I decided to walk up one side of the valley to find the ruins of a castle that were marked on my map. The view from the top of the ridge was wonderful. It was at this time it began to snow quite heavily!

--- The walls of the castle ruins ---

--- The graveyard which now occupies the castle grounds ---

This picture give you a good view of Takayama, the straight line across the centre is the river and the grassy area on either side of it. The huge clump of tress you can see on the opposite side of the river is at the Shrine I visited yesterday (I did say you could see them for miles) and it gives you some indication of just how HUGE those tress were. To the left of the trees you can see more modern multi-storey buildings, these are in the area surrounding the train station.

My next port of call was a museum which houses the ceremonial 'floats' which Takayama is very famous for, there were a few on display (I was informed that different ones are displayed at different times) and they were very impressive.

Takayama- A Town of Nostalgia

After indulging in some shopping at Toyama station (I bought a dress, lace socks and some shoes) I caught the 'Wide-View' train to Takayama. The scenery was amazing, if you are ever in this part of the world I highly recommend you take this train trip, as it is the most spectacular thing you can see for free (if you have JR Pass).

--- The Emerald water ---

Once I arrived in Takayama the friendly staff at the tourist information office phoned the Minshuku I was to stay at, and the owned came to pick me up from the station. My room is quite nice, traditional style. Though for some reason I took an instant dislike to the pale green tatami mats.

Following my tradition of exploring each new town I visit on foot, I set off to wander Takayama with my map in hand. Some of the interesting things I cam across include: