More Takayama [高山]
Some more photos of Takayama [高山] that we took whilst doing the hiking trail around the temples around the northern edge of town.
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Some more photos of Takayama [高山] that we took whilst doing the hiking trail around the temples around the northern edge of town.
Monday, 12 January 2009
Takayama [高山]
Takayama [高山] is famous for its;
・Old Private Houses - Furui-machi-nami [古い町並]: Recognised as a site National Preservation area of Historically Important Buildings
・Hida Beef - [飛騨牛]: Tasty beef which rivals Kobe's famous brand and which has also been in the news for cloning...(here)
・Sarubobo dolls - [さるぼぼ]: Little faceless dolls which come in a range of sizes who wear little black cloth hats, and an apron (which usually has the Kanji Hida [飛騨] written on the front). The dolls act as good luck charms, and different colours basically represent wishes for different kinds of luck. Traditionally they red in colour - which is meant to ask for easy delivery of a child, but also come in about 5 other colours: yellow, blue, pink, green and black which wish for money, study, love, good health and riddance of bad luck respectively.
・Festival Floats - [屋台]: There are 25 different floats in Takayama, made by craftsmen for which the Takayama district is famous for. 12 of these floats are used in the Spring Festival [春の高山祭] - Held April 14-15th and also known as the Sanno Festival. Another 11 of the floats appear in the Autumn Festival [秋の高山祭] which is held on October 9-10th, and the remaining 2 take part in different festivals all together.
We saw lots of the big, purpose built store houses for the festival floats dotted all around town, but they were all locked up so we weren't able to see any of the things themselves. On the brightside there are photos of all the various floats HERE.
Anyhoo, we only got to Takayama in the late afternoon, so there was only really time to have a quick look around the old town district [古い町並] - wondering into the few shops that were still open at 5pm (which wasn't many), have tea and cake in a little coffee shop, then look for a place for dinner.
We managed to find a great place for dinner, which looked like an Izakaya [居酒屋] with a small barbeque in the middle of the table. They even kindly offered us a English menu - which included lots of pictures to aid the choosing and ordering-via-pointing process.
The food was great. But we did get told off by the old lady serving us when we commited a hideous crime of turning over the shitake mushrooms on the barbeque - which then led her to watching our food like a hawk (in a caring way - it was quite funny actually - she was vetting all the meat and veg coming off the grill plate 'chicken: OKAY' etc...) just to make sure we didn't do anything wrong again. Anyway, you should cook shitake mushrooms with their tops facing the fire. DON'T turn them over, or they loose all their juice and you end up eating dried, chewy mushroom. Which is bad.
・Old Private Houses - Furui-machi-nami [古い町並]: Recognised as a site National Preservation area of Historically Important Buildings
・Hida Beef - [飛騨牛]: Tasty beef which rivals Kobe's famous brand and which has also been in the news for cloning...(here)
・Sarubobo dolls - [さるぼぼ]: Little faceless dolls which come in a range of sizes who wear little black cloth hats, and an apron (which usually has the Kanji Hida [飛騨] written on the front). The dolls act as good luck charms, and different colours basically represent wishes for different kinds of luck. Traditionally they red in colour - which is meant to ask for easy delivery of a child, but also come in about 5 other colours: yellow, blue, pink, green and black which wish for money, study, love, good health and riddance of bad luck respectively.
・Festival Floats - [屋台]: There are 25 different floats in Takayama, made by craftsmen for which the Takayama district is famous for. 12 of these floats are used in the Spring Festival [春の高山祭] - Held April 14-15th and also known as the Sanno Festival. Another 11 of the floats appear in the Autumn Festival [秋の高山祭] which is held on October 9-10th, and the remaining 2 take part in different festivals all together.
Sarubobo dolls clinging to twigs outside a toys shop in Furui-Machi
We saw lots of the big, purpose built store houses for the festival floats dotted all around town, but they were all locked up so we weren't able to see any of the things themselves. On the brightside there are photos of all the various floats HERE.
Anyhoo, we only got to Takayama in the late afternoon, so there was only really time to have a quick look around the old town district [古い町並] - wondering into the few shops that were still open at 5pm (which wasn't many), have tea and cake in a little coffee shop, then look for a place for dinner.
The food was great. But we did get told off by the old lady serving us when we commited a hideous crime of turning over the shitake mushrooms on the barbeque - which then led her to watching our food like a hawk (in a caring way - it was quite funny actually - she was vetting all the meat and veg coming off the grill plate 'chicken: OKAY' etc...) just to make sure we didn't do anything wrong again. Anyway, you should cook shitake mushrooms with their tops facing the fire. DON'T turn them over, or they loose all their juice and you end up eating dried, chewy mushroom. Which is bad.
Otaki and Metaki Falls [男滝女滝]
It was raining heavily when we left the Minshuku [民宿] the next morning, so we thought we would avoid doing part of the hike recommended by the minshuku [民宿] owner and drive along the road (which runs beside it) instead and pop out from the car if we saw anything interesting. Luckily the rain cleared up after we drove a kilometer or so. So we parked the car and then joined the hike (which intersects the highway from time to time.
As explained to us by the minshuku owner, the hike on the Tsumago [妻籠] side of the 'Tsumago-Magome Hiking Trail was quite nice and peaceful, mainly walking through forest and not too close to the road. We had actually stopped the car not too far from the Otaki-Metaki Falls, so we walked along the highway (as suggested by the minshuku owner) in order to approach the falls from downstream. This approach would apparently give us much nicer photos of the falls, than if we followed the hiking trail (as the path takes you past the upstream end of the falls).
After going down some a stairs we crossed some wooden bridges to get across the rivers to have a look at the falls.
The area was nice and secluded (you couldn't hear any traffic on the road above (although there weren't that many cars around anyway. The only other people we really saw were other couples doing the same kind of sightseeing that we were. I guess the weather wasn't so good for hiking...
Anyway, we continued hiking on the trail this time, and stopped just as we got to the Nagano [長野] Gifu [岐阜] Prefectural border...Then we walked back along the road to the car and drove on to Takayama [高山].
As explained to us by the minshuku owner, the hike on the Tsumago [妻籠] side of the 'Tsumago-Magome Hiking Trail was quite nice and peaceful, mainly walking through forest and not too close to the road. We had actually stopped the car not too far from the Otaki-Metaki Falls, so we walked along the highway (as suggested by the minshuku owner) in order to approach the falls from downstream. This approach would apparently give us much nicer photos of the falls, than if we followed the hiking trail (as the path takes you past the upstream end of the falls).
After going down some a stairs we crossed some wooden bridges to get across the rivers to have a look at the falls.
The Female and Male Waterfalls [男滝女滝]
The area was nice and secluded (you couldn't hear any traffic on the road above (although there weren't that many cars around anyway. The only other people we really saw were other couples doing the same kind of sightseeing that we were. I guess the weather wasn't so good for hiking...
Anyway, we continued hiking on the trail this time, and stopped just as we got to the Nagano [長野] Gifu [岐阜] Prefectural border...Then we walked back along the road to the car and drove on to Takayama [高山].
Saturday, 3 January 2009
Tsumago [妻籠]
We managed to make it to Tsumago for the afternoon, and after popping into the minshuku [民宿] to check in and drop our bags off, we headed to the town to have a look around.
Tsumago-juku [妻籠宿] an some mini sharon fruit [かき] hanging in a shop window (aren't their little faces cute?)
The place was near deserted and really felt like a large outdoor museum. It was definitely not a very busy time of year for the town, and we only saw one or two other tourists wandering around. We managed to make it to two of the museams before closing time (5pm) - they offered a ticket which lets you into three of the main museums in the town for 700yen (however, if you are staying at a minshuku in Tsumago they can give you a discount coupon so that this price drops to 450yen *I think - can't quite remember now*)
Then it got dark very quickly, so we headed home for our 6pm dinner at the minshuku. The dinner was absolutely amazing. The little fish was the tastiest fish I can remember - the flesh was soft and juicy - and he was apparently caught from down stream (a little river runs behind the house). Infact all the veges we ate that night had been grown by the minshuku owners and carefully prepared by the lady of the house. And there was lots of food: pounded rice rolled into balls and skewered on to sticks and covered in a sweet and nutty sauce (soy sauce, honey, ground seasame, sugar, salt), pumpkin, carrot and daikon* pickled with some yuzu#, a steamed cup of mushrooms covered with a layer of pounded sticky rice, tempura, rice, miso soup.
It was a lot of food.
*big long white radish thing 白萝卜
#citrus fruit, tangy taste - in between a lemon and an orange
The traditional open fire place in the minshuku and the owner of the house (who also sang us a old folk song and gave us tips on sightseeing - a very nice man)
Tsumago-juku [妻籠宿] an some mini sharon fruit [かき] hanging in a shop window (aren't their little faces cute?)
Then it got dark very quickly, so we headed home for our 6pm dinner at the minshuku. The dinner was absolutely amazing. The little fish was the tastiest fish I can remember - the flesh was soft and juicy - and he was apparently caught from down stream (a little river runs behind the house). Infact all the veges we ate that night had been grown by the minshuku owners and carefully prepared by the lady of the house. And there was lots of food: pounded rice rolled into balls and skewered on to sticks and covered in a sweet and nutty sauce (soy sauce, honey, ground seasame, sugar, salt), pumpkin, carrot and daikon* pickled with some yuzu#, a steamed cup of mushrooms covered with a layer of pounded sticky rice, tempura, rice, miso soup.
It was a lot of food.
*big long white radish thing 白萝卜
#citrus fruit, tangy taste - in between a lemon and an orange
The traditional open fire place in the minshuku and the owner of the house (who also sang us a old folk song and gave us tips on sightseeing - a very nice man)
Fishy on the balcony of the room we stayed in, over looking their back garden.
This minshuku was great; fantastic food (we had a huge breakfast too), very welcoming, helpful and friendly owners, nice traditional futon room with a very nice view out the back - in which we were kept toasty warm in despite the cold weather, and very new toilets and bathroom - which were in a very recently refurbished part of the house.
Just in case you want to know, we stayed at Koshinduka [こしんづか] and I thoroughly recommend it (homepage here).
This minshuku was great; fantastic food (we had a huge breakfast too), very welcoming, helpful and friendly owners, nice traditional futon room with a very nice view out the back - in which we were kept toasty warm in despite the cold weather, and very new toilets and bathroom - which were in a very recently refurbished part of the house.
Just in case you want to know, we stayed at Koshinduka [こしんづか] and I thoroughly recommend it (homepage here).
Thursday, 1 January 2009
Fruit is my friend
Mr. Fugu
Amikan*
a mikan [蜜柑, みかん] is apparently a satsuma, a sweet and seedless mandarin. I guess they were called satsumas because they were introduced to the West from Satsuma [薩摩], Kagoshima [鹿児島], Japan.
New Year, New Tank, New Fish.
After a long and hard ten days, our fishy was tired and looking a little stressed (that and his water was getting dirty after only one day as opposed to one week resulting in him swimming in a tank of filth for a the last few days). So we decided that it was time for him to get a tank. An actual tank with a filter and more pebbles, as opposed to the plastic bread box he had been living in.
We also got him a friend (a comet) which led to an additional problem of naming the fishes. If you only have one fish, it's quite easy to call it fishy. But with two fishes? fishy-one and fishy-two? nah... it just wont do. So, they now have names that will result in great conversations (see the photo below).
Road Trip 2008 - Intro
Right. so. We didn't make it back to Europe for holidays this Christmas because;
1. When we were planning the winter holidays back in Sept, the plane ticket prices were a little too high for my liking,
2. We thought that we had better make the best use of our time in Japan by seeing a bit of the country while we were here,
3. We also thought we could do our bit in boosting the Japanese economy.
So, we've ended up spending what we would have spent on just an air ticket to Paris or London on a 10day road trip around Nagano [長野県] and Gifu [岐阜県] Prefectures (which are North and North-Westy of Tokyo).
As Greg has a French driving licence - he could do a direct transfer to a Japanese drivers licence (unlike my British one which involves another test...hmmm...no thanks) so we rented a car from Nissan via ToCoo!.
The plan was too drive along the Chuo Highway [中央道] out of Tokyo towards Tsumago [妻籠] and Magome [馬籠], stop there in a minshuku [民宿] for a night and do a bit of sightseeing before heading off to Shirakawago [白川郷].
---------
Tsumago [妻籠] and Magome [馬籠] - Designated a site of National Architectural Preservation where you can still find an Edo-style post town in its entirety.
Minshuku [民宿] - A guest house run by the family which live inside the house itself, usually offering dinner and breakfast.
Shirakawago [白川郷] - A village in Gifu Prefecture famous for it's traditional farm houses with steep-sided thatched roofs.---------
After Shirakawago [白川郷] we would head up to Kanazawa [金沢] and try to see a bit of the Noto-Peninsula [能登半島]. Then we head East wards and then South towards Hakuba [白馬] in Nagano [長野] for a bit of snowboarding.
face bras....
I didn't think they really existed. I thought that they were just a figment of 'Ally McBeal'. But apparently not.
Greg thought that he saw some randomly placed mexican wrestling masks in the middle of the skin care section of a supermarket...but it was just face bras...
If you look carefully you will see that there are ones designed for men too. nice.
Friday, 5 December 2008
It's alive!!! - and it really shouldn't be...
Okay, so I re-started trying to take Chinese herbal medicine, mainly in the vain hope that it will help with my ever ailing eczema, and also to help appease my mother who is threatening to come over to Japan and force-feed it to me if I don't do it voluntarily. Anyway, this stuff was posted over from Malaysia (using some serious international coordination: mum [London, UK] phoning aunt [KuanTan, Malaysia] who went to pick up my prescription from the doctor (whom we had failed to get hold of for the second time whilst we were visiting KuanTan HERE) and then had to post it to me [Tokyo, Japan]. Fun. eh? MMMmmMmmMMmmm
Anyhooo, it's been sitting in the apartment for a while, on the account of me stopping the herbal medicine ingestion on account of 1. the lack of time to boil the stuff whilst doing my experiments, 2. the negative effects it seemed to be having on my poor little stomach - which seemed to be under undue stress at the time, and 3. It really doesn't taste that nice. I've gone through the whole week drinking one pack, twice in one day, every other day, and tonight, in a very uncharacteristic show of forward planning, i picked out a bag of medicine to boil for tomorrow morning and pour the contents into the nabe pot to boil; only to find that dust comes out of the bag (usually the stuff looks like a bunch of dried twigs). This is NOT a good sign.
There are definitely holes in the big 'herb' (I bet you its just garden compost material) which resembles a sheet of yellow card in a kind of pear shape. The holes aren't meant to be there, and the dust now looks suspicously like the left-over munchings of BUGS!!!! OooOOoOOoh.
One bag i pulled out was particularly affected by this holy disease, and I didn't have to look hard to see some very happy larvae, who looked suspiciously well-fed.
MMmMMmmmmmm. tasty!
Three bags of the stuff (+ the unwanted guests) are now in the bin. And I'm awaiting further inspection of the other bags before I decide whether or not to throw them out too.
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Yellow Leaves of Autumn
It's a beautiful, sunny autumn day and the leaves of the ginko trees on campus have turned a vibrant yellow (or golden - whatever you like to call it). So, here are a few photos from campus.
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