We left home in Hobart early on a Saturday morning and landed in Tokyo (Narita) at 7 pm that evening. Caught the train into the city. We’d booked a hotel on the edge of Ueno Park so as to get full exposure to the cherry blossom festival and it turned out to be a great location. This was our first experience of a Japanese hotel and we did find the room to be very small.
Our first day was Sunday 2nd April and through a mix of good planning and good luck this turned out to be peak blossom day in Tokyo. The first cherry blossoms happen in the subtropical southern islands of Okinawa then bloom further and further north all the way to Hokkaido over a matter of weeks. The cherry blossom ‘front’ is forecast each year and early April for Tokyo turned out to be spot on in 2017.
We stepped out of the hotel and straight into Ueno Park where we immersed ourselves in hanami. The cherry blossom was beautiful but we quickly realised it was the cultural interaction with this natural event that is most interesting. The park was crowded but everyone was in good spirts. Blue tarps were being laid out in pre-booked spaces under the blossom trees, and makeshift tables made from cardboard boxes groaned under the weight of food and drinks. There was an amazing array of food stalls and we ate very happily from these for much of the week.
Inside the park is the Ueno Toshugo Shrine dedicated to the shogun Tokugawa Ieysau. It dates from 1651 and is one of the few early-Edo period structures that has survived in Tokyo.
When the crowds got a bit much we wandered to the northern boundary of the park then around the edge of the National Museum to the Kan’ei-ji Temple and its cemetery. Once a great complex, there’s not a lot left of Kan’ei-ji after it was razed in 1868 by revolutionary forces.
Later in the day we stretched our legs with a long walk through the Akihabara district, famous for its electronics retailers, then on to the parkland around the Imperial Palace. A great first day.
Next day we took to wandering the streets of Tokyo without any major sites in mind, hoping to get a feel for the city.
Ueno Park has a lake called Shinobazuno Pond and it was still and reflective as we headed off.
Yushima-ten Mangu Shrine was established in 458 though the current buildings were reconstructed in 1955 and are surrounded by concrete and high rise. It is dedicated to Michizane Sugawara, a 9th C scholar, and prospective University students hoping to pass entrance exams come here to make offerings. The site is near the University of Tokyo main campus.
We wandered on past the Tokyo Dome and Korakuen Amusement Park. The rides looked great, from a distance…
We found our way to Kagurazaka. During the Edo Period it lay just outside the outer moat of Edo Castle and gained prominence as an entertainment district with geisha houses and restaurants. We walked up the sloping Waseda-dori Avenue stopping at Zenkoku-ji temple and later at Akagi-jinja shrine. Akagi-jinja was rebuilt in 2010 by the architect Kengo Kuma. They were filming an episode of Master Chef when we visited, complete with Matt Preston in cravat, waffling on. We’ve never watched this show, and nothing we saw that day made us think we’d been missing out.
The weather became stormy at this point so we hopped on a train back to the hotel. Later we headed into Ueno Park for dinner which was great fun.
The National Museum was only a short walk from our hotel so it was the first stop next morning. We strolled through Ueno Park checking out bored teenagers reserving spaces for family and friends, and took the mandatory selfie under a blossom tree.
The Tokyo National Museum is Japan’s largest and has four main galleries. We spent several hours exploing the Japanese gallery (Honkan), Japanese archaeology gallery (Heiseikan), Asian gallery (Toyokan) and the Gallery of Horyuji Treasures (Buddhist artwork from Kyoto). Only a selection of the full collection is on show at any point in time which we really liked. It wasn’t overwhelming, felt spacious, and the exhibits were well explained in English. The Gallery of Horyuji Treasures is a modern building completed in 1999 and designed by the architect Yoshio Taniguchi. The grounds of the museum are also lovely, including the Kuromon (Black Gate) dating from the late 18th C. One thing we found striking was how much the terracotta funerary monuments called Haniwa from the Kofun period (300-700) looked like those of the Minoans from Ancient Greece.
In the afternoon we walked to the Kappabashi district known as ‘kitchen town’ for its concentration of shops catering to the restaurant trade.
From there we walked on to the Asakusa district which was lots of fun. We cruised along the Nakamise Shopping Street where dressing up in kimonos was clearly a thing. Later in the evening we went back to Ueno Park to eat off the food stalls, rounding out a great day in Tokyo.
Another day we caught the Yamanote Line to Shinjuku for a bit of camera shopping and a Japanese department store experience. There’s some interesting modern architecture in this area. The Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower was designed by Tange Associates, the architectural firm founded by the late Kenzo Tange. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building was designed by Tange himself and completed in 1990.
Part way through this day I became a bit obsessed with Tokyo’s taxis. I loved the distinctive colour combinations adopted by the different companies, and have put together a gallery called Taxis of Tokyo.
After lunch we walked south to visit the Meiji Jingu shrine dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. There was a wedding underway. The Shrine and adjacent Yoyogi Park make up a large forested area within the city which provides some pleasant respite from the hustle and bustle.
The weather was indifferent so we opted to head indoors and visit the Ota Museum of Art. This museum features a rotating exhibition of ukiyo-e (woodblock) prints from a 12,000 print collection amassed by the late Seizō Ota.
From there we took a look at the Yoyogi Stadium, a famous Kenzo Tange design for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
At the end of the day we checked out Shibuya crossing, awash in neon lights, before hopping on the Yamanote Line and circling back to our hotel.
Next day we caught the metro to Ginza and wandered the streets with an eye out for iconic architecture.
Started at Yonchome Intersection with the art-deco Wako Store and clock tower on one corner, and the ultra-modern Ginza Place (Nissan and Sony showroom) diagonally opposite. Walked down Harumi-dori Avenue past the striking PIAS Building to see the old Kabuki Theatre. It’s dramatically backed by the Kabukiza Tower, which created interesting reflections on the curved facade of the building opposite. A koban is a small neighbourhood police station and the Ginza Koban stood out as an interesting structure. Stepped indoors for a while to visit the Ginza Leica store which had a gallery showing photographic exhibitions, including photos of Antarctica by Herbert Ponting from Scott’s Terra Nova expedition. We then went to see two pieces of iconic Tokyo architecture. The Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Centre is an amazing building by Kenzo Tange. Built in 1967, it was his first realisation of Metabolism which fuses ideas about architectural structures with those of organic biological growth. Not far away is the Nakagin Capsule Tower built by Kisho Kurokawa who was one of Tange’s students. Sadly it was in a state of disrepair when we visited, with netting draped over the building to protect passers-by from falling debris.
Next stop was the old Tsukiji fish market (now moved) where we had a great sushi lunch.
After lunch we visited Hama-rikyu Gardens on the edge of the bay. The serenity of the gardens was magnified by the backdrop of skyscrapers.
From there we jumped on a boat and cruised up the Sumida River. It’s always interesting to view a port city from the water. We could see the Tokyo tidal barrage and the Fuji Sankei Building (another Kenzo Tange) across the bay. Not all of the architecture we saw was pleasing to our eyes, and the Asahi Building by Philippe Starck looked a bit…um…flashy.
Hopped off the boat at Asakusa. We’d enjoyed it there earlier in the week and again had fun in the shopping streets, walking through Kaminarimon Gate and visiting Senso-ji Temple. It’s Tokyo’s oldest temple and is very lively and colourful.
This was another great day in the fabulous city of Tokyo.
On our last day in Tokyo we had a few practicalities to attend to in the morning. In between errands we visited the nearby Jyomyo-In Temple which has thousands of Jizo statues (guardian saint of children), then checked out another section of what’s left of the Kan’ei-ji Temple complex.
At lunch time we headed into Ueno Park for one last feast from the food stalls. Being able to eat so well and so cheaply from the stalls was an unexpected pleasure of our stay in Tokyo.
I’d developed a bit of a thing for Kenzo Tange’s architecture by this stage so we caught a cab to Sekiguchi to see his gorgeous St Mary’s Cathedral. It’s a remarkable building that is clad in steel and manages to look both angular and curvaceous. (I subsequently put together a gallery of all his buildings we saw in Tokyo, Hiroshima and Yokohama – see here.)
Finding our way back to the hotel we sought out a blossom-lined section of the Kanda River for one last taste of hanami in Tokyo.
On our first real Japan Rail journey we caught the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Toyama, then the Limited Express to Takayama.
Checked into our ryokan with a room overlooking the river. We had a walk around Takayama to get our bearings, then donned yakuta, bathed, and were fed dinner in our room. What a lovely experience. Fortunately, there was more of this to come on the trip.
Next morning we visited the Yoshijima Heritage House which is a beautifully intact Edo-period merchant building. We wandered on through the Miyagawa market then visited Takayama Jinya (prefecture office built in 1615), and Hida Kokubunji Temple.
With a great soba noodle lunch on board we spent the afternoon wandering the old streets and walking the temples around the perimeter of the town. Spent the evening bathing and eating.
Our two nights in Takayama were simply delightful.
Caught the train from Takayama to Kyoto, via Nagoya. Settled in to our townhouse (called a machiya) conveniently located just south of the main station. It was great to have some space to spread out and be in Japanese style accommodation. Learning to respect the tatami mats, wear toilet shoes, fold up the futon every day.
First evening we had dinner in Pontocho on the west bank of the Kama-gawa river. It was resplendent in blossom, beautifully lit.
Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from 794 until 1868. It has a bewildering array of World Heritage monuments. There are 13 temples, three shrines, and one castle. These 17 sites have a total 198 buildings and 12 gardens. So there’s plenty to see.
If you’re prepared to take the time, Kyoto is best approached in five districts. We spent our first and last days in the Central district, north then south of the central station. We spent an amazing day in the Eastern district of Higashiyama, a day visiting the Western district of Arashiyama, and a day visiting the famous temples of the Northern district. Even though we spent a week in Kyoto we didn’t have enough time to visit the Southern district. We also spent a day in Nara which was the first permanent capital of Japan. It probably deserves a week in itself.
If you have the chance to visit Kyoto (and Nara), go for as long as you can. It will be worth it.
The first day was very wet so we explored areas close to our townhouse.
Higashi Honganji is headquarters of the Jodo-Shinshu (True Pure Land) sect of Buddhism. Originally built in 1602 it’s a massive complex. It was rebuilt in 1859 after a series of fires. The main hall (Goeido) is Kyoto’s largest wooden structure and the adjacent Amidado Hall is almost as large.
Next stop was Sanjusengeu-do, a long narrow building which houses 1,001 human-sized statues of Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy. The effect is pretty amazing. In typical Japanese fashion, the site also has a Shinto shrine. We enjoyed sheltering from the rain under covered walkways painted in vermillion, looking out over the shrine and gardens.
From there it was a short walk north to the geisha district of Gion, and the beautiful blossom-lined street of Shimbashi. It was fun to watch young Japanese people dressing up for hanami.
The main sites of the Higashiyama district in eastern Kyoto sit within a fairly narrow strip between the east bank of the Kama-gawa river and the surrounding hills. We took a metro then taxi to the northern end of Higashiyama and spent the day walking south, back towards our townhouse.
First stop was Ginkaku-ji Temple, the ‘Silver Pavillion’. In 1482, shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa built his retirement villa here, modeling it on his grandfather’s retirement villa in northern Kyoto called Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion. Unlike the golden-gilded Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji was never gilded in silver. It was converted into a Zen temple after Yoshimasa’s death and has a beautiful moss garden and a unique dry sand garden.
A charming feature of Higashiyama is the Philosopher’s Walk, a 2-km-long path named after the philosophy professor Kitarō Nishida. It provides a pleasant link between sites. During hanami it is lined in blossom and punctuated by photo shoots and food stalls.
Honen-in is a small, peaceful temple with beautiful gardens.
Nanzen-ji is an important Zen temple of the Rinzai sect. It has a massive Sanmon (main gate) and you can climb up to the balcony providing excellent views across the temple complex. The Hojo (main hall) has lovely interiors and surrounding gardens.
Chion-in is head temple of the Jodo sect of Japanese Buddhism, with spacious grounds and large buildings. The Sanmon Gate is the largest wooden gate in Japan and dates back to the early 1600s.
Walking via the peaceful park of Marugana-Koen, our next stop was Kodai-ji Temple built in 1606 in memory of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a famous politician of the 16th C. It now belongs to the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism. There are gorgeous rock and gravel gardens and a bamboo grove.
From here you can see the 24-metre concrete image of Kannon (Goddess of Mercy) at the adjacent Ryozen Kannon Temple, a war memorial built in 1955 to honour both Japanese and Allied soldiers killed in World War II.
Yasaka Pagoda is a visible landmark in this area. It’s all that is left of Hokanji Temple which was founded in the 6th C.
Last stop for the day was Kiyomizu-dera, the ‘Pure Water Temple’. It has a colourful main gate and pagoda, and is famous for the wooden stage that juts out from the main hall affording fabulous views of the wooded hills east of Kyoto.
What a day.
Next day we caught the train to the Arashiyama district in western Kyoto. Took it quite a bit slower after a big day yesterday.
Tenryu-ji is the most important temple in this district. It’s ranked first amongst Kyoto’s five great Zen temples and was founded in 1339 by the ruling shogun Ashikaga Takauji. Fires and wars destroyed the original buildings and those you see today were built in the 19th C. The original gardens survived however, and are sublime. They were created by the famous garden designer Muso Soseki. We had an excellent Zen buddhist lunch in the temple restaurant.
Another highlight in Arashiyama is the Bamboo Grove. It’s one of the most photographed sights in Kyoto but the images can’t really convey the otherworldly feeling of being in a forest that sways with the wind.
We decided to head back into central Kyoto and visit Nijo Castle. It was built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period. It’s surrounded by stone walls and moats. Inside it’s divided into the Honmaru (main circle of defense), the Ninomaru (secondary circle of defense) and the gardens. The palace buildings are arguably the best surviving examples of castle palace architecture from Japan’s feudal era, and the beautiful gardens were designed by Kobori Enshu.
The northern district of Kyoto is very rich in temples. We decided to select a couple of sites to visit rather than running ourselves ragged trying to see them all. It worked well for us.
The ‘Golden Pavillion’ of Kinkaku-ji is one of the top sites in Kyoto. The crowded #205 bus from the main station was a sign of things to come. It was packed as we entered the site and people jostled for position to get their ‘shot’. We took our time wandering through the beautiful gardens and as the crowds spread out it became very enjoyable. Kinkau-ji was originally built in 1397 as the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and became a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect after his death in 1408. Only the Golden Pavillion survived numerous fires and wars. Then in 1950 a young monk named Hayashi Yoken burnt it to the ground. The author Yukio Mishima wrote a novel called The Temple of the Golden Pavillion which is loosely based on this story. The Golden Pavillion you see today was built in 1955.
We then visited Daitoku-ji, a large, walled complex dedicated to Zen buddhism. There are 24 sub-temples of which eight are open to the public. We managed to see five of these.
Oubai-in dates back to 1562 when a small temple was built by the feudal warlord Oda Nobunaga in honour of his father. It has beautiful moss gardens and maple trees.
Ryogen-in was constructed in 1502 and the temple’s main building is said to be the oldest standing in Daitokuji. It features five different dry landscape gardens. The largest has a field of raked white gravel representing the universe, and islands of rocks and moss representing a crane and a turtle, symbols of longevity and health. The temple also displays sliding doors (fusuma) painted with images of dragons and hermits.
Daitoku-ji is a working temple and it was interesting to watch it going about its business. Monks bustled along the pathways and main structures like the Butsuden (main hall) could be admired from a distance.
Kohrin-in was built as a family temple in 1520. It has a lovely dry garden which was being tended when we visited.
Daisen-in is the most celebrated sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, founded in 1509. It preserves important architecture and has beautiful gardens. Photography is forbidden.
Our last stop was Koto-in, built in 1601. It is famous for its bamboo-lined approach and its maple trees.
We took a day trip to Nara.
It was established as Japan’s first permanent capital in 710. Over the next 75 years, the influence and ambitions of the Nara’s powerful Buddhist monasteries became a threat to the government, and it was decided to move the capital first to Nagaoka-kyo (in 784) then Kyoto (in 794).
Although brief, Nara’s time as the capital left a rich legacy. Losing that mantle meant it was spared much of the war damage subsequently wrought on Kyoto. As a result it has an impressive set of World Heritage monuments with eight sites encompassing 78 buildings.
It was crowded as we walked from the station towards Nara-koen, the park that houses the main sites, with Nara’s ‘wild’ deer adding further excitement. The grand temple of Todai-ji was our first stop. Its Daibutsu-den (Great Buddha Hall) is the largest wooden building in the world and the Buddha it houses is one of the largest bronze cast statues ever made. Once inside the hall the tourist hubbub died down and we could start to take in what we were seeing. It was a remarkable experience.
Walking east from the Great Buddha Hall towards Mount Wakakusa, a lovely covered staircase led us to Nigatsu-do Hall. It’s a sub-temple of Todai-ji and has a broad terrace with lots of interesting detail. Sangatsu-do Hall is next door.
From here we contoured around the foothills of Mount Wakakusa looking down on Nara-koen. Next stop was Tamukeyama Hachiman, a small Shinto shrine established in 749.
The path led us on to Kasuga Taisha which is Nara’s most celebrated Shinto shrine. It was buzzing with life. Priests and attendents bustled to and fro, and there was a wedding underway. There were lanterns everywhere and gorgeous colours. Kasuga Taisha was the highlight of our day.
The path skirted the edge of the Kasugayama primeval forest where logging and hunting have been prohibited since 841. It led to Wakamiya-jinja, a small subsidiary shrine of Kasuga Taisha. From there we descended down a path to the centre of town.
Kofu-ji is a temple transferred from Kyoto in 710. It has two pagodas, one five-tiered (second tallest in Japan) and one three-tiered.
We left Nara tired and happy, and keen to come back for a longer visit if we ever have the opportunity.
On our last day we explored the southern part of central Kyoto, south of the train station.
To-ji means “East Temple” and it was founded in the late 700s just after the capital moved to Kyoto. Along with the now defunct Sai-ji (“West Temple”) it guarded the south entrance to the city. It grew to prominence under Kobo Daishi, founder of the Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism, who we learnt about at our next stop in Koya-san. The five-tiered wooden pagoda is the tallest in Japan (at 57 metres) and the spacious site has some beautiful halls. Most of the buildings seen today were rebuilt in the 17th C after many fires and wars. To-ji was a great place for a morning wander.
We caught the train a little further south to Inari, to vist the Fushima Inari Taisha (shrine). It’s one of the top sights in Kyoto, famous for its thousands of vermillion coloured torii that straddle paths through the woodlands around Mount Inari (233 metres). Inari is the Shinto god of rice and Fushima is the most important of all Inari shrines. Once we got through the initial crush of people wanting their ‘shot’ of the torii we found it to be a lovely shrine. The crowds thinned out as we walked further along the paths and there were many interesting buildings beautifully painted, and heaps of fox Komainu. Normally the shrines are guarded by statues of dogs or lions but Inari shrines are guarded by foxes as they are thought to be the god’s messengers. Shrines often have food stalls (at least at this time of year) and we feasted on octopus balls (takoyaki) and omelette (okonomiyaki). It was a great end to our stay in Kyoto.
We booked two nights in Koya-san, staying at the Yochi-in Buddhist monastery. It takes four trains and a cable car to get from Kyoto to Koya-san, so we used a baggage service to transfer our big bags on to Kinosaki (next stop) and travelled light for a couple of days. It was a good decision.
We really enjoyed the experience of staying in the monastery for a couple of nights, eating amazing vegetarian food, attending morning ceremonies of incense burning and chanting, and generally being quiet and contemplative.
Koya-san is most famous for the Oku-No-In cemetery-temple which includes the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi (also known as Kukai), founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism. The cemetery is about two kilometres long and has over 200,000 tombstones.
We spent the morning with a local guide who walked us through Oku-No-In and the main temples of Danjo-Garan and Kongobu-ji. It was great to have access to her knowledge and understanding as we tried to make sense of all we were seeing.
She explained various legends as to why Kukai chose Koya-san. In one he threw an implement from China and this is where it landed. In another he met a hunter with one white and one black dog on the mountain slopes. The hunter was son of the Shinto spirit of Mt. Koya and gave Kukai permission to build his Buddhist temple there, highlighting coexistence between the two religions in ancient Japan. She explained that Shingon Buddhists believe Kukai is not dead but rather in meditation, and the monks take him food every day. That once you cross the small Tamagawa River at Minyo-no-hashi, the area becomes a most scared place and photographs are not allowed. And much, much more.
We headed back to the Danjo-Garan Temple complex which has an impressive pagoda (Dai-to), just in time for the bell ringing service.
Next stop was Kongobu-ji Temple which is headquarters of the Shingon sect and has a lovely raked gravel and rock garden, the largest in Japan.
After lunch we went back to Oku-No-In, wandering slowly, and thinking about all we’d been told.
One thing that stood out was the painted, wooden memorial hall dedicated to Uesugi Kenshin, a famous warlord from the Sengoku Period. The hillside hall faces the stone memorials of his great rival Takeda Shingen and son Takeda Katsuoi. Locked in eternal combat. So many stories.
Late in the day we headed up to Daimon Gate, the old western entrance of the monastery complex.
Koya-san is a very special place and we felt privileged to visit.
After an early ceremony and breakfast at the Buddhist monastery in Koya-san, it took most of the day to transit to Kinosaki.
We wanted to visit a proper onsen town and Kinosaki looked like a good choice in the region we’d chosen to travel. The fact that it’s on the Sea of Japan and famous for its crab was a bonus.
We had a lot of fun at the onsen, dressing in yakuta, bathing, and eating very fine food sat (sort of) cross-legged on tatami mats in our room. We also visited other bathhouses in the town.
Kinosaki has a lovely, willow-lined canal running through its centre. It is also famous for art made from barley staw, called mugiwara zaiku. Sounds naff, but some of it is actually quite beautiful. We saw a few very desirable pieces but they turned out to be beyond our price range. Kinosaki is the place we first experienced black sesame sweets. Yum.
We used the baggage service to send our big bags from Kinosaki to Okayama, freeing us to make best use of the transit day by visiting the World HeritageHimeji Castle.
So many buildings in Japan have been destroyed by fire, earthquake and war. Himeji-jo is the finest surviving example of early 17th C Japanese castle architecture. It comprises 83 buildings and is a masterpiece of construction in wood, white plastered earthen walls, and multiple roof layers.
We had four nights in Okayama and it was an excellent base to explore an interesting region. It does however have one major attraction of its own in Koraku-en, one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan.
We visited Koraku-en on a glorious spring morning, spending several hours exploring it to the full. Numerous wedding parties were taking photos, providing additional splashes of colour.
Kurashiki is picturesque town with historic warehouses lining an old canal, just 15 minutes southwest by train from Okayama. We went there twice in the afternoon / evening. It is quite touristy but we found the quality to be high.
This area is known for a type of pottery called Bizen. It is very hard, reddish-brown color, and doesn’t have a glaze, though it does have distinctive markings resulting from firing in a wood-burning kiln. Kurashiki has a number of very nice Bizen pottery galleries and we bought four pieces that have subsequently been used and admired on a daily basis.
One day we visited the ‘art island’ of Naoshima. Up to the 1980s this was a fishing community struggling with declining catches from the Seto Inland Sea. Around 1990 the Benesse Corporation, which is in the language schools business, decided to build a series of museums on Naoshima to house its growing collection of modern art. It chose the star architect Tadao Ando to design the major buildings. Naoshima is now a world renowned art travel destination.
We caught the train from Okayama to the port town of Uno then hopped on a ferry to Miyanoura on Naoshima. Yayoi Kusama is one of the artists featured on the island and her red pumpkin greeted us (then her yellow pumpkin farewelled us – see below).
We walked on to the Lee Ufan Museum, housing paintings and sculptures by the South Korean artist Lee Ufan in another sensational Tadao Ando building. ‘Sublime’ is overused as an adjective, but I can think of no better word to describe Ufan’s minimalist brushstroke paintings.
We walked on to the Benesse House Museum, admiring Tsuyoshi Ozawa’s ‘Slag Buddha 88’ installation and checking out the beach and views across to Shikoku along the way. The Benesse Museum has a diverse collection. We particularly liked the works by David Hockney, Yukinori Yanagi, and Richard Long. And Tadao Ando’s building.
Below the museum a number of amazing outdoor works dot the coastline. ‘Seen / Unseen, Known / Unknown’ by Walter de Maria, Shinro Ohtake’s ‘Shipyard Works’ sculptures, Dan Graham’s ‘Cylinder dissected by plane’, Karel Appel’s ‘Frog and Cat’, and Yayoi Kusama’s now iconic yellow pumpkin to name a few.
We were out of time at this point so caught the bus back to Miyanoura to pick up a ferry and head back to Okayama. We had a fantastic day on Naoshima and would liked to have stayed for longer. We hope to go back again and if we get the chance we’ll spend a night or two on the island.
Footnote – As Tasmanians, Naoshima had a lot of resonance for us. It clearly influenced David Walsh in building his Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, which opened in 2011. It was interesting to feel such a stong connection through the common languages of art and architecture.
Another day we did the Kibi Plain Bicycle Route. Caught the train to Bizen Ichinomiya, picked up some bikes and spent the day following a signposted route to Soja where we dropped off the bikes and caught the train back to Okayama. It was a fun day out.
After checking out the nearby Kibitsuhiko-jinja (wedding in progress), we cycled on to Fukudenkai Temple which we found very interesting. There is a big ship anchor in the main temple area, a lovely open-sided wooden hall, and a bizarre mound of seven million cattle nose rings paying homage to the animals that have died to feed to the Japanese people. Next stop was Kibitsu-jinja which dates from 1425. It has long, covered arcades radiating from the central complex, and a lake area with tree branches supported on poles so that they grow out over the water. We stopped here for lunch.
Having only covered about 20% of the journey by lunch time we had to pick up the pace in the afternoon. The 5th C burial mound called Tsukuriyama-kofun is impressively large, standing out as a small hill in the flat fields. Surprisingly it had no protection, singage, or intepretation, and was absorbed into the agricultural landscape. Last stop was Bitchu Kokobun-ji which has a beautiful five-storey pagoda.
We all know why Hiroshima is famous. It’s for a terrible reason. Seeing the A-Bomb Dome for the first time is undeniably striking. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, planned and designed by Kenzo Tange, is visited by more than a million people each year. The memorials are sombre, and the museums are comprehensive in conveying historical complexeties surrounding the city’s devestation.
Yet modern Hiroshima is just like many other Japanese cities. It has its monuments to past wars and conflagrations, and the locals just go about their business, dealing with tourists and school groups who come to experience the past. Having been there it’s obvious, but the ordinariness of Hiroshima was the biggest surprise on first impression. The things we most enjoyed about Hiroshima had nothing to do with the A-bomb.
The World Heritage Itsukushima Shrine on the island of Miyajima is a fantastic day trip. We caught a ferry across the bay, visited the shrine which dates from 1168 and is very extensive, then wandered through the grounds and buildings of nearby temples. Caught a ferry back to Hiroshima at the end of a most rewarding day.
The savoury pancake called okonomiyaki is a speciality of Hiroshima, and we had a lot of fun seeking out good pancake grills, with some drinks on the counter, and baseball on the TV. Preferably featuring the beloved Toyo Carp baseball team.
On the last morning of the trip, we checked out from our hotel in Hiroshima, caught the train to Narita airport near Tokyo, and flew home to Hobart.
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