Water, Water, Everywhere: A Journey to Nozawa Onsen

In Australia I have lived for years with the ever present lack of rainfall. We have water restrictions in place and everywhere you look rivers are low and the grass is brown. In the year leading up to my departure we finally had some decent rain and there was green in places I hadn't seen it for years. Here in Japan there is water everywhere and people are rather blase about it. It is still perfectly acceptable to hose down hard surfaces, something which fills me with horror. Yet at the same time, Japan apparently imports bottled drinking water! You have to love the insane logic of capitalism, they probably import it from Australia!

Nowhere have I witnessed so much water as in Nozawa Onsen in Nagano prefecture which I visited 21-23 September. I arrived there on Sunday afternoon and was met at the train station by Tim in the van whom I haven't seen for at least 12 years! He drove me up to the onsen village ski resort where they are staying and introduced me to his girlfriend Fiona. She was very nice and we had tea and a chat. Before long we headed out to find an onsen and wander around the village. There are numerous free onsen baths scattered about the village and we passed a few before deciding on one.

There is a set of 'baths' outdoors which are used not for bathing but for cooking vegetables, eggs and some kind of cane that I assume was being left in the boiling hot water to steam. Next to the cooking baths, which are roped off with a sign 'For Villagers Only' is a small shrine at the top of a steep staircase. Climbing the stairs the shrine is much the same as any small Japanese shinto shrine but the view of the village was great and the trees around us were beautiful. Above one can see the travelator which apparently takes skiers further up the mountain. One of the most remarkable features of the village was the extensive drainage network that ran along every street and between almost every house. Everywhere you go in the village you hear the sound of running water and many of the drains are open so you can see the constant stream rushing past.

There must be a lot of water rushing down from the mountains above. Some of the drains were like waterfalls so they were very pretty. Others ran beneath the street and could be heard gushing through numerous grates. Apparently the hot spring water is channeled beneath some of the streets in order to keep the roads free of snow. It would be interesting to see this in operation were I to come back in the ski season.

Tim and Fi are currently staying at one of two lodges in the town belonging to an Australian guy and doing some odd jobs in exchange for their accommodation. They have been promised work at the lodge in the winter season but are not yet sure exactly what the job will entail. They spent the last Winter in Hokkaido managing a ski lodge in Niseko, which is frequented by Australian ski tourists. They had to cook breakfast for all the guests in the morning but were free to spend the day out on the slopes before returning to do various jobs at night. Included in the job was a season lift pass, obviously worth its weight in gold to a serious snowboarder, accomodation and a monthly stipend. They appear to have been able to save some money and as they are both snowboard lovers they were able to spend an entire winter snowboarding. The powder in Hokkaido is legendary and they confirmed that it was indeed fantastic. It was also cold, so cold that after a few hours out on the slopes they had to take refuge inside and warm up before heading out again.

Since then they have been living in their van and traveling around Japan. Sometimes they would sleep in the van and after a while just driving around and parking, checking things out, they would head to a WWOOF placement for a week or so in order to get out of the van, wash their clothes and experience Japanese rural life. They worked with goats at one placement but more often worked with plants. They said the farm life was very hard and while they enjoyed it they were amazed at the stamina of the men and particularly the women who work all their lives on the farm. The women work all day out on the farm just as hard as the men but also take responsibility for cooking an amazing meal and keeping the house clean. Tim and Fi both commented on the extensive use of chemicals on Japanese farms. While WWOOF farms are mostly organic or at least partially so they border farms which use pesticides and other chemicals and there is no way to prevent cross-contamination. In particular they pointed out that the water in the rice paddies flows between neighbouring fields making any kind of separation impossible.

On Tuesday morning we went to another onsen, this one was very hot. I could only stand to stay in the water for a few minutes and when I submerged my hands in it they immediately started to develop really intense pins and needles. When you are in a very, very hot bath you feel as if as long as you stay still you are OK but as soon as you move the heat hits you. It was boiling! Outside the bathhouse has a receptacle into which you can place eggs. After 20-25 minutes they are ready and we so we made some for lunch. This method of cooking is called onsen-tamago (onsen eggs). The eggs are somewhere between hard and soft boiled with the yellow being quite well done but the white quite runny. We made a delicious meal of eggs, brown rice, seaweed and miso soup. Tim and Fi after spending many breakfasts on Japanese farms have developed a taste for the fermented soy-bean product called natto and they had that as well. I can't quite get used to its slightly 'off' smell and sticky, mucilaginous consistency. Japanese people's traditional breakfast is natto with rice and apparently on the many farms they visited as WWOOF volunteers this was the customary breakfast. I have asked some of my students about natto and while most of them like it only a few eat it for breakfast regularly.

I rode a nice old local train back to Nagano from Togari-Noazawa-onsen station after getting a lift to the station from Nozawa Onsen with Tim and Fi.
Their van was really cool and they lived in it for several months. The train line wound its way through a valley. On the right mountain chains rose up against the hazy sky. The valley was filled with golden fields of rice nearly ready for harvest. In Nozawa Onsen I saw people actually harvesting their crops using small tractors, one of which was hand operated. The machines seem to cut the rice in bunches and toss them to each side in very neat diagonal rows. I guess the rice is planted in tufts to make it suitable for this style of harvesting. Once the rice has been harvested it is hung upside-down on lines across the paddies and there are many paddies with their rows of drying rice on either side of my train window. Wherever you look around here every available piece of space is occupied by rice paddies or small vegetable plots. I don't think Nagano is particularly well known for its rice production so the real rice producing prefectures must be a sight to see.

As the train stopped at Iiyama station I noticed a building with an imitation statue of liberty on it! It is quite big and the building displays the large katakana letters ribatihiruzu (Liberty Hills)! What a sight! out in this rural Nagano village. The building was on a hill overlooking the station and main town. Riding the train was lovely. It rumbled along slowly offering plentiful opportunities to gaze out the window and the gentle rocking was soothing.

The mountains here in Nagano are so big and steep and rise out of the flat land of the valleys so rapidly. I think they are typical of mountains in the whole region. I have passed many temples on this short train journey (about 1 hour) and they all seem to have big, red roofs. Most of the buddhist temples I have seen in Japan have brown roofs so it is quite different. I hope to come back to Nozawa Onsen in the ski season and stay at the lodge once again. It would be great to see Tim and Fi again and to see the town under a blanket of snow. I may not make it though as they mentioned March was the most likely season and I may have other plans for March. They will be heading back to Australia in a few days to await the coming of Winter and I look forward to seeing them in Tokyo. We are off to check out Neon - Deepflow Drum'n'Bass at Module in Shibuya. Should be fun!

Nozawa Onsen, Nagano Prefecture 22-23 September

Dreaming

We are quite ordinary women and men, children and old people, that is, rebellious, non-conformist, uncomfortable, dreamers. (Subcomandante Marcos, La Jornada, 4 de agosto de 1999)

I am a dreamer. I fight constantly with myself, telling myself that I ought to dream less and focus on the present more. True as this may be I think it's about time I learnt to love some things about myself which are unlikely to change. Being a dreamer means I can see possibilities in every situation. It enables me to hang on when life seems really hard by imagining a better future. It allows me to see things which other people cannot see. It allows the possibility of living those dreams. As Ella Fitzgerald says: "If you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?"

So I dreamed a dream about life in Japan and here I am. The dream was definitely rosier than the reality! I completely underestimated the challenges which would lie in wait for me here. Now I am single, working in a corporate job which I hate and living alone in the drab outskirts of Tokyo! All these worries prey on my mind, especially now and especially since my birthday a month ago. Birthdays make us think about where we are in life. Sitting alone in a cheap ramen restaurant drinking beer was not really the place I wanted to be on my birthday this year. Fortunately I had a great farewell party before I left so I will retrospectively proclaim it my farewell/pre-birthday party! Last night my friend Gavin had a skype birthday party which I unfortunately missed. I spoke to him though and he said it was a little schizophrenic but very rewarding.

Yet being alone in one sense I am not in another. My friends and family in Australia have continued to be extremely supportive and their love is what has kept me going in the last week. As tears well up in my eyes and my heart feels like it is being crushed in a vice, a kind word on facebook or a skype call nurses me back to life. Doing tai chi this morning in what I will call my forest of sadnessI feel no chi in my hands. I try to focus the chi but it is all bound up in a horrible knot in my stomach so I just wave my hands in the air in the appropriate way and hope that the next day, or the next I will be able to focus.

I can't help but feel that I needed to be in a position where I have little choice but to rely on myself. I have relied on my partner to know who I am but only I can know that.

I am pushing out too (thanks Mehtap). Each week brings me new friends. There is something exciting about this because people I don't know and have no real previous connection show an interest in getting to know me. As much as I think we have to find our self worth in our selves there is no doubt that friendships of all sorts play an important role in helping us build a secure self-image. Japan is full of amazing people and I think I have been pretty lucky so far in the people that I have met.

So let me re-imagine the current reality of my Japanese dream. I am living in a wonderful, different and exciting place meeting lots of new and interesting people. My apartment is in a nice, quiet area surrounded by vegetable plots and close to a large forest which lovingly embraces my tai chi practice. I am facing the corporate monster that is my work each day and coming out in one piece. I am continuing to develop my relationships with people in Australia and around the world via the wonderful medium of the internet. I am writing an awesome blog and last but not least:

I am dreaming my way back into myself.

Niiza and Surrounds

Simple Pleasures

Today was a challenging day but a very successful one. It was a day in which I recovered a little piece of myself.

I have learnt over the years that in the morning when I first wake up I am very vulnerable emotionally. I often get depressing, recurrent thoughts at this time and the longer I lie there the worse they get. In recent times I have generally reacted to this situation by taking the obvious step: getting up. Since I have been in Japan, however, I have often had trouble mustering the willpower for that and instead lay there worrying more and more. Today was not one of those days!

I realise that I need to take care of this body of mine. My mind is a wild and undisciplined creature and it tends to lead me on a daily wild goose chase through a myriad of possible futures and a forest of whimsy. I figure I can't do all that much about that so at least I can make the vehicle as comfortable as possible. I did some stretching this morning and some Tai Chi and started the day feeling a bit better in my body than I usually do. Then I went to the dry cleaners. This is a small pleasure for me because I always go to the same small shop on the other side of the tracks and the woman who works there knows me now. Although we don't speak much it makes me feel like I am known and that I live in this place. I need that feeling to help anchor me to the present. Another thing that helps me to feel that I live here is starting to explore the neighbourhood. I have taken a few adventures on foot but on Friday I picked up my new bicycle and since then I have been on a few rides and started to get a better sense of where I am.

Not wanting to spend the whole day on my own at home on facebook I decided it would be a good idea to ride to Tokyo. Well I made it almost as far as Ikebukuro before I decided I had ridden far enough and tried to find something to eat. I saw the sign to Koenji at about this point but it was another 5 kilometres and I didn't feel I wanted to go quite that far.

From Tokyo Scenes - Various

From Tokyo Scenes - Various

It's great to have ridden as far as a sign that says Koenji though because in my mind I thought I was much further away than that. An hour and a half is actually not a bad ride if the weather is OK. I only worry about the return journey, tired at the end of a day. I found a very delicious little sushi restaurant and had a very tasty lunch with no book! I just sat and ate my food slowly and deliberately. At least those two zen sittings I attended reminded me that I should pay attention while I eat my food.

Returning to Niiza I passed a large army base in Asaka. I think one of my students is stationed there. I went to 'Jonathans' family restaurant to have a coffee and do my homework. Unfortunately it was very noisy and dark and I was seduced by dessert so I ended up feeling sick. At least I finished my homework though. The dessert was black sesame and soft-serve ice-cream with these weird little gelatinous white balls. I think they were made out of some sort of plant gum.

I went to Takadanobaba in the evening and cooked dinner with Jaime at her place there. I met Jaime at the Mother festival in Nagano where she was volunteering. She has lived in Japan for 8 years! We chatted about life, love, the future and other such things. Jaime, who used to organise parties in Japan, played me some house music. I love listening to new music and learning to appreciate different styles. This is the first time I have eaten a meal at someone's house (other than my own) since I have been here. It was so nice to do something so normal. I am fascinated by electronic music and its evolution. Eating with people in restaurants and bars just doesn't compare to a nice meal at home on a Monday night. I am reminded by this evenings and yesterdays cooking of how much I enjoy cooking for people. I hope I can do something with this, maybe next year in Italy for the G8!

So today has been a day of simple pleasures.

The Sound of Vibrator

From Le Placard JP 2008 at Enjoy Kitanaka Hall

Today I attended a headphone concert called 'Le Placard' at Enjoy Kitanaka Hall in Koenji. A headphone concert, in case you didn't know, is a concert in which the music is not projected through a sound system but instead into a bunch of sets of headphones. The audience dons a pair of headphones and listens. Who thought of this strange idea? Well, apparently it started in France about 10 years. The younger brother of the guy who started it was at the concert and played the closing set. It's been going on in Japan for about 7 years. I'm not sure what the original idea was but at Enjoy Kitanaka Hall it wouldn't be possible to have a regular concert because of noise issues so it was just the thing.

I didn't even know I was going to a concert! And an experimental music one at that. I am not generally a fan of experimental music, although I can't help but respect people who try to push the boundaries of what constitutes music.

From Le Placard JP 2008 at Enjoy Kitanaka Hall

Enjoy Kitanaka Hall is a part of Shirto no Ran (Amateur Riot), a loose association of shops and people based mainly in Koenji who are trying to pursue a different vision of life and create a vibrant community. They engage in political activism, radical art and music projects among other things. On the first Sunday of the month Enjoy Kitanaka Hall hosts a community cafe at which people sew, eat food, chat and do other creative things. As it turns out, this month was a headphone concert. I came along with ingredients and made a large pot of chickpea stew based on Ali's recipe for the same. It is the first time I have really cooked for an event and it was really great having everyone eat and enjoy the food. I look forward to doing this again soon.

The concert was interesting. I enjoyed some of the music while some of it was just noise to me. The first act was an interesting guitarist/singer who ended every song by saying "genki? iizou", which means something like "happy?, that's great".

From Le Placard JP 2008 at Enjoy Kitanaka Hall

His voice was quite sweet as was his guitar playing but the "genki?, iizou" was a bit creepy. I don't think it was intended to be though, the guy seemed really nice. Then there was a very interesting performance by a guy who made his instrument out of a series of springs connected to pickups.

From Le Placard JP 2008 at Enjoy Kitanaka Hall

His name was Mark and I chatted to him after his performance. He has been living in Japan for 2 years and works as a researcher. Apparently he has access to machinery at his work and this gives him the ability to make his own instruments.

My favourite artist of the evening was Masa whose performance consisted of sound recordings of demonstrations in Shimokitazawa and elsewhere and of a Koenji personality called Matsumoto mixed with really good beats. Musically this was the best performance for me because unlike the really experimental pieces it wasn't just interesting it was enjoyable to listen to. The sounds he created were very reminiscent of psychadelic trance which I later found out is one of Masa's interests. Another performer, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, also created a very musical set. He also performed two hip-hop pieces which was very cool. I chatted to him before the concert while I was cooking, he was one of the organisers, and he said that there isn't really any political hip-hop in Japan. I was surprised to hear that but after listening to him perform political hip-hop I know there is at least one such artist in the big city. One of his other pieces combined electronic beats and glockenspiel which worked out much better than it sounds! Listening to that was like being in another world.

One of the most unusual acts was a French duo who played some kind of Nintendo DS, a computer (they used some kind of pick-up to 'play' the computer), a kazoo and a vibrator. As you might expect a vibrator projected through a sound system sounds kind of vibratey. They played a series of unusual clips on the laptop screen they were using for an instrument. The most memorable was a segment of a French cooking show where they demonstrated how to cook an eel starting with the live eel and proceeding to kill, skin and chop up the enormous creature. Not a pretty sight, especially in a country where they actually eat eel. Eel is very tasty, a lot like chicken ... but now I'm not so sure.

I actually spent most of the conert sewing while I listened. I sewed a 'Make Capitalism History' patch on the back of a T-shirt. I sewed another patch on the front the first time I went so now I think the shirt looks pretty nifty. I really enjoyed doing this because it's the sort of thing I wouldn't normally do. One of the reasons I decided to go overseas was to force myself to do things I don't normally do. The fact is I was unhappy a lot of the time back in Australia and I have been unhappy most of the time here in Japan too. However, coming here has forced me to challenge myself every day and stripped away most of the things I use to hide behind. I'm really confused at the moment about what I am doing here, who I am and what I will do in the future but no matter what happens next this experience has changed me for the better already. I have no regrets about coming.

In addition to the sewing I also made some stamps out of erasers which read 世界で平和を (peace for the world). I intend to use these eraser-stamps to make some kind of artwork by stamping pieces of paper with this message. I haven't worked out the final details yet! I ended up chatting with quite a lot of the people at the concert (which was very small, probably 20 people came and went all in all). Among them was the aforementioned artist Masa who I had a drink with at a nearby cafe afterwards. He owns and operates a shop in Shimokitazawa and is active in movements to prevent Shimokitazawa being gentrified and overdeveloped. He and some of the other people at the concert are fans of trance and other genres of electronic dance music. I found the psytrance/political connection! And it only took 3 months (and a few days).

My emotions have been pretty strong lately and I am often thinking about particular pieces of music and listening to various parts of my music collection. This has run the whole gamut from the old teenage angst music such as the Cure to the psytrance which has become such an important part of my life in the last year or so. I have reflected often on the connection between music and our lives. The music I listen to evokes memories of different parts of my life. I realised in the last week or so that my collection hasn't really expanded at all since I came here. I think this is a clear sign that my head has not been in a good place and I intend to rectify the situtation as quickly as possible!

Le Placard JP 2008 at Enjoy Kitanaka Hall

Zazenkai

This morning I got up at 5 am and went to a small Zen temple in Warabi city for zazen practice. I am not sure that zazen is really the path for me but it was a good idea to go at this time. I felt it helped calm me down after a very emotional couple of weeks. The temple was, as I had expected, a small family temple in the suburbs with a graveyard and attached residence. The priest greeted me in a very friendly fashion and showed me in. I arrived early, at 6 am and the meditation was not due to start until 6:30 am. He showed me the sutra we would be reading, the Heart Sutra, and some other prayers and then left me to my own devices. I sat in the temple and looked out at the garden and read the sutra. Then people began to arrive, at first in their ones and twos but then more and more. In the end there were quite a number of participants including 4 new students such as myself. There were probably 20 students or even a few more who were not newbies although some of them had only been twice. There were many old men among the participants. We new students were to sit outside the tatami mat area on the wooden floor (although of course we were given cushions like everyone else). I think if we go back then we can enter the tatami mat area with everyone else. After reading the sutra together and another short prayer by Zen master Hakuin the priest came and instructed us new students on how to sit. He showed us to sit with our spine extended and our shoulders relaxed saying that this position was the most important. He described the method of breathing, slowly in and out and instructed us to count our breaths until we reached ten. We were told to sit in half-lotus position or full-lotus if we could manage it. He then stated that in zen one can work to clear the mind but he said that that was too difficult to begin with and just to concentrate on the breath. The priest then said not to worry because he would correct our posture as we progressed and that if he corrected us that we ought to submit to the correction. He then told us we had about 20 minutes left and then left us. He then took up a big stick and began to patrol the room. It is traditional in zen practice for one of the monks to patrol the meditation hall and watch for signs of sleepiness or bad posture. These are then met with a whack with a big stick. Out of the corner of my half-closed eyes I observed him walking with the stick held above his shoulder like a club. He administered quite a lot of whacks to the students. I think the students had to bow down and take the stick across their backs. Each time he whacked twice and the sound was very loud. I was very nervous that he might whack me and hence I kept very still the entire time. The twenty minutes of meditation seemed to go quite quickly, perhaps due to the adrenalin I experienced every time I heard the whacking sound!

After zazen we went to clean the temple grounds but as there weren't enough brooms some of us had to pick up leaves by hand. After what seemed like a very short time we were told to come back inside to eat some breakfast. The meal was very simple and consisted of pickles, vegetables and rice gruel. Before the meal we recited the Heart Sutra once again and another short prayer. We were told to only take as much food as we could eat and not to leave anything behind except for one pickle which we were to retain on our plates. After the first serve of rice gruel another round was served and I was able to finish my meal. The food was quite tasty. We were offered tea but we had to use a bit of the tea to wash the small plate using the piece of pickle as a sponge. Then we dipped the pickle in the tea and ate it. Each new student was positioned next to an experienced student so as to be shown how to eat the meal properly. After breakfast we were all invited to stay for tea and a chat. As I was heading to Nagano later that morning I decided to head home. I walked to the station with one of the other new students who was from the Phillipines and spoke English. She is a teacher of Japanese and is here studying Japanese to increase and improve her language skills. She lived in Japan for 3 years in the past while completing a Masters degree in science in Kyoto. It was at that time that she practised zazen and like me she was at this particular zazenkai because it was located near her place.

As I am writing this post it is raining really hard. I am in a country town in Nagano prefecture staying at a lodge with a very old friend from Albury, Tim. He has been in Japan with his girlfriend Fiona since November. I haven't seen Tim for more than 12 years. We were friends in primary school. I found out through a mutual friend that he was in Japan and we were finally in the same island at the right time to meet up. On the ride out here from Nagano on the train I enjoyed looking at the mountains and rice paddies. One of the reasons I am interested in meditation is that I don't focus enough on the present. Well here is a chance to do just that by observing the beauty of nature. My friend Alison taught me the value and pleasure in doing nothing and just sitting in the beauty of nature. This is very difficult for me because I am always trying to intellectualise my experiences but it gives me a great deal of pleasure when I surrender myself to it.

I don't think I will go back to that particular zazenkai because I can't come at the idea of letting someone hit me with a stick. I am interested in the meditation though so I will look for another group.

The Freeters Union

Today I joined members of the Freeters' Union (a freeter is a part-time, foreign or casual worker) in paying a visit to the Touei Academy offices in Shibuya. It would seem that said academy neglected to pay one of their workers several months worth of salary and we went to remind the company that the money is due. I arrived in Shibuya in the afternoon amidst large crowds of people and met Saburou at Shibuya station. After getting lost trying to find the building (Japan's address system is notoriously complicated) we eventually located it and a number of comrades who were already there. It turned out to be very lucky. Some of the members had spotted the boss arriving at the building offices and going inside, apparently he usually remains elusive. Apparently the company offices too, tend to move around a bit.

Once inside the small company office the boss-guy came out of the office and spoke with us. It was very different from union stuff I have done in Australia. No rude words or shouting, just very polite, very insistent badgering. A number of people spoke and although I didn't understand it I certainly caught what I thought was very funny: we are coming to give you our greetings! I am sure that the boss probably would have preferred not to receive such greetings!

After the short action I chatted with some of the people out the front before adjourning with a few union members to a local coffee shops for a chin way. I learned a bit about the political situation in Japan and tried my best to explain my own background. A major issue that has cropped up in Shibuya is the proposed privatisation of Miyashita Park and its transformation into Nike Park. Apparently this is the first time that this has happened in Japan. I am looking forward to making a trip to Osaka in October for a rally in opposition to the death penalty. It seems like quite a few Tokyoites will be making the trip. We are very lucky in Australia to have already abolished the death penalty but it remains in use in Japan. The state must not have the power to give and take life.

After leaving the coffee shop we headed off to the station to make our separate ways home. We happened to pass the Japanese Self Defence Forces new recruiting office in Shibuya, apparently the first such office in Japan. It was a very modern, chic and attractive looking little shop in the heart of the major youth district in Tokyo, those military recruiters know what they are about. It seems like Japan's constitutional commitment
not to maintain a military or make preparations for war is in serious jeopardy.

After all these heady deeds and conversations I took off on a short, but relatively pricey spree around Shibuya, got some photos printed and bought stationery. Shibuya is a major shopping and fashion district. I only wish my feet could fit into some of the amazing technicolour shoes that are available here. Although it is probably a good thing that I have one less thing to spend my money on. I am now ready to face the next few months of intense Japanese study in preparation for the JLPT which I will sit in December and for which I probably need to get some sleep and so goodnight!

Freeters' Union: http://freeter-union.org/union/
Miyashita Park: http://minnanokouenn.blogspot.com/

Kawagoe Tour

Today is the first time I am actually going to post something that happened that day! I was very kindly escorted on a tour of Kawagoe, a city not far from my own here in Saitama Prefecture. At my welcome party I met Kobayashi-san and Hikaru-san who are both students at my school and chatted to them a lot, late into the evening at the second party (the non-official one). Kobayashi-san lives in Kawagoe and she offered to take Hikaru and I on a tour. We were both keen but schedules were full and I thought it might turn into one of those ideas that never happens. Luckily, Kobayashi was keen and a few weeks ago at school she told me the date for the tour! So this morning she drove over here to Niiza with Hikaru and picked me up and then drove us to Kawagoe. It was really wet and the traffic was bad and I think we got lost a few times but eventually we made it.

Kawagoe is known as Little Edo because many of the buildings in one part of town date from the Edo period. Most of the Ed0 period architecture in Tokyo proper was destroyed either in the Great Kanto Earthquake or subsequently during the Second World War and so Kawagoe is one of the few places one can see buildings from this period. The area was very touristy and despite the rain there were many people wandering from souvenir shop to souvenir shop. The buildings were indeed very old and interesting and there was a big bell tower which at one time would have provided the townsfolk with their only timepiece. We had lunch at a place that specialises in sweet potato, a famous local product. Every dish contained sweet potato! including sweet potato croquets, sweet potato udon gratin, sweet potato miso soup, agedashi sweet potato, sweet potato salad and various other concoctions. Desert was some kind of sweet potato mouse served with a piece of grilled sweet potato on top. It was a very interesting and beautifully presented meal. A big part of travel for Japanese people is sampling the local 名物 (specialty goods). This is great because I find sight-seeing only interests me up to a certain point. Being able to eat something unusual like a smorgasbord of sweet potato definitely adds interest. We later had some sweet potato soft serve ice cream too!

After tramping around the beautiful old buildings in the rain we drove over to visit Kitain, a famous old temple of the Tendai sect. We parked illegally in the temple grounds as the car park was already closed and wandered about the beautiful wet gardens. Everything was closing for the day but I managed to slip into the main temple before it closed completely and have a look. We went into the small, fenced Gohayku-Rakan sculpture garden and looked at the 538 stone statues of disciples of Buddha. By this time the rain was really starting to pour adding to the beauty of the gardens. The temple grounds were also playing host to an installation, a part of the Kawagoe Live Art 2008 art festival, which consisted of numerous white cutouts of children playing. The overall effect was actualy a little creepy in the dark, rainy afternoon light. A bit like those outlines of dead people that they make at murder scenes.

Having concluded our sightseeing tour we returned to the important business of food and drove back to Niiza to eat at a Korean BBQ restaurant. True to Kobayashi-san's word the food was delicious. Meat barbequed over charcoal really is one of the tastiest foods there is. The first dish they ordered, which they had been discussing in the car was liver sashimi. Yes, that is sliced raw liver. I tried it and it wasn't too bad but I just couldn't get the idea that I was eating raw liver out of my head! We also enjoyed intestines and tongue as well as more 'conventional' cuts of meat all of which were supremely delicious. The conversation took an interesting turn when Kobayashi and Hikaru started talking about how much effort one should put into work as compared with the rest of life. I was having a bit of trouble following the Japanese at this point but I'm pretty sure that the balance was decided in the right direction: life first. Luckily I was spared from giving my own opinion! Well stuffed we had complimentary ice-cream and tea and talked about our next adventure - a trip to Chichibu (where I went to the Brainbusters party) appears to be in the offing. I couldn't have asked for kinder or more considerate hosts for my trip to Kawagoe. More than sightseeing and even eating it is meeting nice people like this that makes being here worthwhile.

Here are the photos:

Kawagoe Tour 24 August 2008