It was a long, long day.
We awoke at 7 a.m. in order to catch our 12.40 p.m. one hour flight from Wien-Schwechat airport transferring at Munich for two hours and then a sleepless Lufthansa 12 hour flight for Narita airport Tokyo. It was another three hours before we caught the almost three hours and 513 km Hikarta Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto arriving around 5.30 p.m. local time. It would not be until after 10 p.m. that we could call sleep our own- some 31 hours since our last sleep!
This in part was because we had received a message from the girls in Hong Kong ‘Please ring us urgently. If we are out could you please ring again?’ As it transpired the accommodation the girls were booked into looked more like a brothel than a hotel. Feeling unsafe they left. Upon making contact all was well.
Prior to our leaving a walk around the wonderfully lit Mariahilfer Strauss in our brief one night stop over {Wombat Hostel @ €68} gave us a taste of the beauty of Wintery Vienna. The airport bus driver to Vienna airport was in his mid-forties and typified the Slavic nations drive for a better life in Europe. Croatian by birth he swotted for six months to learn Slovenian so he could get better pay there. From there he learnt fluent German to work in Austria and was practising his tenses with us to improve his English. Soon he would be undertaking Spanish although he conceded that would take him a little bit longer as he was not as young as he used to be. This voracious appetite for languages was a reoccurring theme and perhaps a lesson for us in Australia.
Kyoto often referred to as the cultural capital of Japan, with its world heritage listed sites was as I remembered it on my inaugural visit four years ago. Staying at the conveniently located New Miyako Hotel {$AU200/night} adjacent to the magnificent railway station provided the perfect platform for temple visits and restaurants in the area.
I have long admired the Japanese pastime which the blue samurai excel in; queuing. Queuing for restaurants, trains, buses, trams, shopping, toilets, and temples is assumed and done with a minimum of fuss. Even during the peak period between Dec 27 and January 3 when the Japanese take holidays, in the teeming mass of humanity whether it be in the train stations, temples or shopping centres there was a quite calm, respect for the other and order. Perhaps little wonder as Japan’s population density is around 330 people/sq km compared to Australia’s 3 people / sq km.
Anne and I saw in the New Year at my favourite temple Kiyomizu, perched high on a hill north east of the town centre, beautifully lit and covered with snow. It is another Japanese pastime to welcome in the New Year by visiting a temple. This is a far cry from Times Square or the Harbour Bridge. Ten minutes before midnight the resident elder monk chanted the blessings and began with others to sound the huge bell. Strangely and eerily there was no countdown to the New Year just a faint ripple from the throng as the gonging continued well past the hour. As it was nigh impossible to catch public transport we walked back to our hotel- a good omen for 2011 with an hour of solid exercise underneath our belt.
We christened the first day of 2011 with an afternoon visit by bus (101/205) to the 13th century gold leafed Kinkakujii Temple {500 Yen} better known as the Golden Temple. It was wall to wall people, clearly very popular with the locals but the temple’s backdrop to the snow covered ponds and gardens was well worth the crush. Later that afternoon Ryoanji Temple, the 15th century Zen rock garden was such a contrast in its simplicity and solitude. The inscription: “Ware tada tauro shiru or Freedom from greed ensures a peaceful life” captured the essence of this serene environment.
Next day we caught the 40 minute train trip to the world heritage listed former capital, Nara, the home to the Good Samaritan Sisters convent and the beautiful Nara Park containing such treasures as Todajii Temple {500 Yen}, the impressive Nandaimon Gate and the Nara welcoming committee: the deer and lots of them. Anne decided not to attempt to go through ‘Buddha’s Nostril’ at the Temple which housed one of the largest Buddha’s in the world.
8.15a.m. August 6th 1945.
Pope John Paul II on his visit there in 1981 stated that “to remember the past is to commit oneself to the future”. Kenzo Tange, the architect of the Peace Memorial Park, said his design “attempts to combine the art of seeing with the art of praying”.
The world heritage listed Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the adjacent Peace Memorial Park is a testament to the insanity of war and the hopefulness of peace. An entire city was virtually levelled: around 160,000 people lost their lives and almost as many suffered irreparable physical and psychological damage. The United States (President Roosevelt) with the support of the English (Prime Minister Churchill) dropped an Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima then paid millions to help rebuild the city.
On our last full day the Peace Memorial Museum was an emotional experience. Seeing the charred clothes; the remains of those who perished (even finger nails were donated to the museum) and the many stories it is hard not to be moved by such tragedy.
The day prior to this in the mid afternoon we visited the little known town of Iwakuni, 45 minutes by rail south of Hiroshima. Here was the elegantly formed and elaborate wooden Kintai Bridge. Three main curved wooden arches spanning 35 metres and each interspersed with concrete pillars formed an unusual roller coaster effect. A long slow stroll in the adjacent gardens made for a pleasant afternoon. Earlier on in the day we caught the 20 minute train and five minute ferry to the world heritage listed Miyajima Island. The island is home to the semi submerged Tori shrine (at high tide), Shinto temples and practices, many souvenir shops and also to the redoubtable Miyajima deer. Soon after we disembarked and sat by the waterfront getting our bearings Bambi came up and took a big bite out of my map. He continued to eat the map nonchalantly in front of us despite our quizzical looks.
Our stay in the Sunroute Hotel {$AU80/night} was in a perfect location with views and within walking distance of the Peace Memorial Park. A slow walk through the Park with the many memorials including the hauntingly beautiful Children’s Memorial (Sadako Sasaki and the thousand paper cranes) and the A Bomb dome (a building severely damaged but not destroyed with its dome somewhat intact and later becoming a symbol of Hiroshima conveying the horror of nuclear weapons and the appeal for peace) was a fitting introduction into the city. Later that afternoon we strolled around the perimeter of Hiroshima Castle and spent considerably more time at the tranquil Shukkeien Gardens literally meaning ‘shrink-scenic garden’. Construction of this garden began in 1620 with the idea of collecting and miniaturising many scenic views modeled on Chinese tradition. Like many sites here the garden was destroyed in 1945 by the atomic bomb and restoration began in the early 50’s.
There is a strange paradox that stares you in the face when you walk the streets here. Trams that are called ‘Streetcars’ and the proliferation of McDonalds, Baseball all echo an Americanization of culture more apparent here than in other parts of the country.
Just before we left Hiroshima on the 9.15 a.m. Shinkansen bound for Shin Osaka (arriving 10.44) on the fifth day into the New Year we were thrilled to hear that the girls had arrived home safely and that George was purring. Many thanks too Margie for picking them up from the airport and driving them home. After finding two lockers {600 Yen/locker/day} to store most of our luggage we made our way by subway {240 Yen/person} to Namba Station located in the Osaka precinct before the trip to Koyasan. Prior to this in Shin Osaka we picked up a bargain suitcase for 10,000 Yen.
I had wanted to show Anne the shopping Mecca in Osaka. The Ebisu and Shinsaibashi-suji shopping street near the Dotomborigawa River is a honey pot for young Gen Y girls and their obsequious partners. After about an hour and a half of what felt like the ebb and flow of a tide of humanity Anne had had enough.
The pretty 90 minute train trip up into the world heritage listed Koyasan Mountains was such a contrast to the fast paced and bright lights of Osaka. {Nankai line-Limited Express, Namba to Gokurakubashi Stn then a cable car to Koyasan Stn, - not covered by our JR Pass at 1990 Yen/person}. A further 20 minute bus trip {340 Yen/person} and a short walk in the late afternoon and we were there at Ekoin {20,000 Yen/ person including all breakfasts and dinners} for our two night ‘shukubo’ or temple stay.
Koyasan is home to an active monastic centre with over 50 temples that provide ‘shukubo’. It was founded 1200 years ago by the priest known as Kobo Daishi (Kukai) for the practice of Esoteric (Shingon) Buddhism. Set in a beautiful cedar forest, 900 metres above sea level and today covered in snow, the area known as Okuuno-in or Inner Sanctuary is the backdrop for a vast cemetery that features the mausoleum of Kukai. Interestingly followers of Shingon believe Kukai is not dead but meditating in his tomb.
The monks, heads shaved and dressed traditionally in identical blue yakutas; were courteous and the service is reminiscent of a ‘ryokan’, or traditional Japanese hotel. Our room was clean and quiet. The furnishings were sparse with just a low table which had under table heating with some cushions on the floor, a kerosene radiator, and strangely a TV (which we did not use). The rice paper sliding doors opened up onto the snow covered courtyard. Very tranquil indeed.
The Koyasan temples are famous for their gourmet vegetarian cuisine, known as ‘shojin-ryori.’ The food was generous, and served in our room at 5.30 p.m., and was, naturally, entirely vegetarian. A part of the main meal which was soba in soup, tempura, with rice and assorted fresh and pickled vegetables washed down with ‘kikucha’ tea was delicious. I was not so sure of the sesame tofu and the bowl of the famous Koyadofu, a ‘gammo doki’ (a kind of disk of fried tofu with gin nuts). Dessert was mysterious sweet vegetable roots that we'd never seen before and a mandarin. We liked the mandarin!
After dinner the monks removed the trays and made our beds on the tatami mats which consisted of a rice pillow, doona and a sponge mattress.
Anne and I had a soak, separately, in the temple's beautiful black granite ‘ofuro’ or communal bathtub around 7p.m. Fortunately for the temple no one else was in the male communal bath at this time. It was seriously hot and I could only stay half submerged for a few minutes. (Enough details don’t you think?)
Off to sleep just after 8.30 p.m. and I awoke at 2 a.m. “Is it morning?” Tossing and turning with intermittent sleep we awoke just before 7a.m as the monk knocked on our door and led the four of us hardy souls to the temple's main hall, where the morning's main service was held. The monk chanted sutras from a venerable scroll, accompanied by cymbals. In the hall row upon row of sutra containers glowed in the dim candlelight. Later we moved to a smaller shrine, where two monks performed a ritual in which they built a fire, and one read prayers for health and prosperity from petitioners to Kukai and the other accompanied him on a ‘wadaiko’ or drum.
Breakfast greeted us just before 8 a.m. with of miso soup, ‘sansai’ or mountain vegetables, more gammo doki, rice, fried tofu and tea.
On a chilly, heavily snowing -3°C mid morning we walked to the huge Kongobuji Temple which is the headquarters of Shingon Buddhism in Japan, and contains administrative offices for the 3,600 or so Shingon temples in Japan. The temple's Banryutei rock garden is the largest in Japan (2,349 square meters) with its 140 pieces of granite arranged to resemble a pair of dragons emerging from a sea of clouds to protect the temple.
From here we were off to a magnificent 25 m high structure called The Daimon, or Great Gate, at the west end of town. Looking like a Tori shrine, two fiercely glaring guardian deities flank both its sides and provide a majestic entrance to magnificent views of the mountains.
We had lunch in the town centre about a kilometre away and then headed back to the Monastery. Anne decided to enjoy some ‘me time’ while in the late afternoon, in a blanket of snow, I took a stroll through the cemetery. The two kilometre avenue was flanked by tombs and towering cedar trees hundreds of years old where the stillness was only broken by the occasional pilgrim or the snow falling on cedars. In the fullness of Winter I was getting a glimpse of what brought Kukai to this sacred place.
There are an estimated half million tombs in the Koyasan precinct, the oldest dating back to the 9th century. Okunoin, the main cemetery, has over 200,000. The biggest and most important of course is that of Kukai himself, at the end of the avenue of the vast necropolis. The Okunoin Gobyo is a mausoleum and was erected by his disciples. Adjacent to this was the amazing Torodo or the Lantern Temple, in front of the Gobyo, which houses thousands of lamps, several of which have been burning for nearly a thousand years.
Not surprisingly, this is the most desirable cemetery in the country. The pole shaped tombs symbolise the departed waiting for the return of the Lord Buddha. The newer section has more modern designs. There are a lot of corporate tombs in this area, including Nissan, Toyota and Kirin Beer. Upon my return after a quick nap and dinner Anne and I treated ourselves to another communal bath, this time in the company of strangers.
Cuisines have their own way of unlocking cultural nuances. It has been quite noticeable how the menus and hence our eating habits have changed as we have moved around the country. Ramen delighted our pallets in Kyoto while in Hiroshima it was Okonomiyaki (a savoury pancake with cabbage, meats and eggs) cooked before us on a hot plate that made us come back for more in Okonomi village. In the monastery in Koyasan it was the vegetarian miso soup, ‘sansai’ or mountain vegetables, gammo doki and fried tofu that challenged our gastronomical senses while in Osaka it was the rice omelette's that were popular.
After another night of intermittent sleep, stiff backs, cricked necks but a great experience, we said goodbye to Koyasan in the early morning (7.30 a.m.) with the snow still pressing hard against the buildings and caught the bus back to the station {340 Yen} then the 5 minute cable car and 100 minute train trip back to Osaka with the Nankai Express {1230 Yen}. At Shin Osaka we retrieved our luggage from the lockers, had a brief breakfast and caught the 11.40 a.m. Shinkansen bound for Shinawaga (5 minutes from Tokyo) arriving at 2.35 p.m. where we could connect with a local train to the hip Shinjuku district in central Tokyo where our hotel was located.
We were on the homeward stretch and important questions came to mind. Had the girls remembered George’s birthday on the 6th January? If so, had they brought him a present? It is not every day a cat is five years old. We also thought how much ‘Uncle Tom’ and Anne’s dad; Denis would have enjoyed the Shinkansen which are clean, highly efficient and very quiet. At the end of the carriage each time a railway personal passes through they would turn, pause and bow to the people in the carriage. There were respective carriages marked ‘Silent carriages’ where the food trolley girls would whisper, mobile phones were asked to be put on silent and calls taken only outside the main part of the carriage. Sounds civilized doesn’t it?
Until next time, for the last time
Good tidings and God’s blessings
Janika
