Belated Golden Week Day 5
From May 3, 2011:
May 3:
explore Tsuwano
on a bike. Faces i've seen.
Christian festival.
may 2:
temple gardens by
Sesshu. spots of beauty in
a sad, dying town.
May 1:
Magical Matsue:
a dead man understands me
better than most.
April 30:
Went to Izumo
in the rain. And i saw you.
I must be dreaming.
April 29:
floating like a leaf
on the river in the spring
in castle's shadow
April 28:
i climb the mountain
every Thursday. i can't help
squealing. class is great.
I am rather sunburned... drinking sake in my room after dinner is pleasant. This morning i woke up at 5 because it was light and i was hungry (as usual), but i didn't know what time they were going to serve breakfast here in the ryokan, so i pulled out my brand new studying charm and started studying Japanese. I crept downstairs quietly about 7 to see if breakfast was ready, and thankfully, it was. i don't remember much of breakfast, except that it was traditional Japanese but NOT queasy-making (fish and pickles first thing in the morning kinda turn my stomach).
The lady brought me a newspaper which had a picture of Bin Ladin and the character for "kill", so i assume he's dead. I wonder how the american media are portraying this.
After breakfast i took a lovely bath here at the ryokan. Nearly scalded myself, but it was worth it. Not quite onsen good, but very good. Then i went to the bike place and rented a bike. I realized that today is the Otometoge Festival. I got my days mixed up and thought i was going to miss it, but judging by all the foreigners in town and the banners at the catholic church, it's today. It commemorates some martyrs who were first exiled to Tsuwano from Nagasaki in the Edo period (during the prohibition on Christianity) and then were executed in Tsuwano. I really was here today by dumb luck. I heard all the hotels and ryokans were booked up. I find it kind of funny that i turned up by chance for a festival that is such a big deal for other people.
On my way to the festival, i stopped at the Hokusai museum. It was small but very worth it. i learned how the woodblock prints were made and saw some excellent, fascinating, and sometimes horrifying sketches of fruits, fish, demons, and the seven lucky gods. i was particularly fond of the fish and the seven lucky gods, but there were no postcards of those.
I was surprised to see at least 5 catholic groups from Hiroshima prefecture, one from Fukuyama. About 6 or 8 women wearing white dresses and veils (all Japanese) came out of the church carrying a platform with a statue of the Virgin Mary on it, and carried that from the church in town up to the original church in the mountains, where mass was held. I didn't want to go to mass anyway, so i decided to check out the onsen complex south of town, Nagomi no Sato. They have a bathhouse, restaurant, local market, and entertainment complex (kids' playground, craft lessons). I wandered around and looked at stuff, then ate katsu curry in the restaturant. I bought a bunch of omiyage for other people, so i should be about done with the souvenir shopping. (omiyage = souvenir, usually of the small snacky food variety).
The name of the sake distillery run by the young couple with a toddler is Ka-sen (華泉).
On the way back from Nagomi-no-Sato, i stopped at Nishi Amane's old residence (he was a supporter of the Meiji Restoration, and he was from Tsuwano) and Mori Ogai's museum and residence. I didn't get a lot out of it, since it was all in Japanese, with no English translation, but the architecture of the museum was amazing, all stark and modern and glass and brick and concrete.
I attempted, after that, to go up to the castle ruins, but the lift is closed until July, and i didn't feel like a 50-minute one-way hike. (in retrospect, that sounds really whiny).
So i stopped at the place that advertised wasabi soft cream (frozen yogurt) and tried some... which turned out to be a mistake. It was interesting, in the Chinese sense. I have now tried it and would like to never eat it again. HOWEVER, the place next door was giving a demonstration of paper-making by hand (which Tsuwano is famous for, and which i had never seen). After the demonstration, i bought some of their paper (including a poster of the legend of the bamboo moon princess!)
I rode around on the bike for a while, just wandering and exploring the town. I went to the Anno art museum. It has a bunch of sketches, watercolor, and paintins by a local artist. Some of it is very clever (he enjoys visual/wordplay across english and japanese, so i can appreciate that). Some of his paintings remind me of the illustrations in my favorite edition of "A Child's Garden of Verses". Sometimes, though, he lapses into Europe/Italy-worship, and that gets on my nerves. the museum has its own small planetarium and a replica school (one room) based on what Anno remembered of his childhood schoolhouse. I went to the planetarium and kind of tuned out and dozed off because it was all in Japanese, and more about how the stars influenced his art than about the stars themselves. I felt kind sick afterward, but better once i got outside.
I decided to visit an old temple and the tiny mountain church before dinner. The temple, Yoneiji, was beautiful, but it was a little creepy, because it had it all to myself and it was home to a big old cemetery. I could easily imagine ghosts creeping around at night, and i was startled by 2 little Jizo-sama statues among the graves. it was quite a hike up to the old Christian church, and i was glad i had not done it with the huge crowd earlier that morning.
I was actually more interested in the frogs on the steep mountain path and in their noises than the church, but it was interesting. I observed that Mary looks different in Japan, but Jesus, Mary, and the disciples are all still depicted as white. I did not see any representation of Joseph.
I rode around some, trying to find the big torii gate i could see from the valley, but it was in vain. i returned the bike to the rental shop and went back to the ryokan for dinner. It was delicious: rice, various pickles, baked fish and mountain uni/weird tofu and mushrooms, bamboo shoots and seaweed miso soup, fried small croquettes and meatballs and a small salad; sashimi (white with pinkish skin, eaten with wasabi and soy sauce); delicate white fish with a dijon-style mustard sauce (was that fish fugu?); pickled radish; onion and kimchee; sliced strawberry, and frozen figs, and green tea. Amazing.
Good night! おやすみ！
May 3:
explore Tsuwano
on a bike. Faces i've seen.
Christian festival.
may 2:
temple gardens by
Sesshu. spots of beauty in
a sad, dying town.
May 1:
Magical Matsue:
a dead man understands me
better than most.
April 30:
Went to Izumo
in the rain. And i saw you.
I must be dreaming.
April 29:
floating like a leaf
on the river in the spring
in castle's shadow
April 28:
i climb the mountain
every Thursday. i can't help
squealing. class is great.
I am rather sunburned... drinking sake in my room after dinner is pleasant. This morning i woke up at 5 because it was light and i was hungry (as usual), but i didn't know what time they were going to serve breakfast here in the ryokan, so i pulled out my brand new studying charm and started studying Japanese. I crept downstairs quietly about 7 to see if breakfast was ready, and thankfully, it was. i don't remember much of breakfast, except that it was traditional Japanese but NOT queasy-making (fish and pickles first thing in the morning kinda turn my stomach).
The lady brought me a newspaper which had a picture of Bin Ladin and the character for "kill", so i assume he's dead. I wonder how the american media are portraying this.
After breakfast i took a lovely bath here at the ryokan. Nearly scalded myself, but it was worth it. Not quite onsen good, but very good. Then i went to the bike place and rented a bike. I realized that today is the Otometoge Festival. I got my days mixed up and thought i was going to miss it, but judging by all the foreigners in town and the banners at the catholic church, it's today. It commemorates some martyrs who were first exiled to Tsuwano from Nagasaki in the Edo period (during the prohibition on Christianity) and then were executed in Tsuwano. I really was here today by dumb luck. I heard all the hotels and ryokans were booked up. I find it kind of funny that i turned up by chance for a festival that is such a big deal for other people.
On my way to the festival, i stopped at the Hokusai museum. It was small but very worth it. i learned how the woodblock prints were made and saw some excellent, fascinating, and sometimes horrifying sketches of fruits, fish, demons, and the seven lucky gods. i was particularly fond of the fish and the seven lucky gods, but there were no postcards of those.
I was surprised to see at least 5 catholic groups from Hiroshima prefecture, one from Fukuyama. About 6 or 8 women wearing white dresses and veils (all Japanese) came out of the church carrying a platform with a statue of the Virgin Mary on it, and carried that from the church in town up to the original church in the mountains, where mass was held. I didn't want to go to mass anyway, so i decided to check out the onsen complex south of town, Nagomi no Sato. They have a bathhouse, restaurant, local market, and entertainment complex (kids' playground, craft lessons). I wandered around and looked at stuff, then ate katsu curry in the restaturant. I bought a bunch of omiyage for other people, so i should be about done with the souvenir shopping. (omiyage = souvenir, usually of the small snacky food variety).
The name of the sake distillery run by the young couple with a toddler is Ka-sen (華泉).
On the way back from Nagomi-no-Sato, i stopped at Nishi Amane's old residence (he was a supporter of the Meiji Restoration, and he was from Tsuwano) and Mori Ogai's museum and residence. I didn't get a lot out of it, since it was all in Japanese, with no English translation, but the architecture of the museum was amazing, all stark and modern and glass and brick and concrete.
I attempted, after that, to go up to the castle ruins, but the lift is closed until July, and i didn't feel like a 50-minute one-way hike. (in retrospect, that sounds really whiny).
So i stopped at the place that advertised wasabi soft cream (frozen yogurt) and tried some... which turned out to be a mistake. It was interesting, in the Chinese sense. I have now tried it and would like to never eat it again. HOWEVER, the place next door was giving a demonstration of paper-making by hand (which Tsuwano is famous for, and which i had never seen). After the demonstration, i bought some of their paper (including a poster of the legend of the bamboo moon princess!)
I rode around on the bike for a while, just wandering and exploring the town. I went to the Anno art museum. It has a bunch of sketches, watercolor, and paintins by a local artist. Some of it is very clever (he enjoys visual/wordplay across english and japanese, so i can appreciate that). Some of his paintings remind me of the illustrations in my favorite edition of "A Child's Garden of Verses". Sometimes, though, he lapses into Europe/Italy-worship, and that gets on my nerves. the museum has its own small planetarium and a replica school (one room) based on what Anno remembered of his childhood schoolhouse. I went to the planetarium and kind of tuned out and dozed off because it was all in Japanese, and more about how the stars influenced his art than about the stars themselves. I felt kind sick afterward, but better once i got outside.
I decided to visit an old temple and the tiny mountain church before dinner. The temple, Yoneiji, was beautiful, but it was a little creepy, because it had it all to myself and it was home to a big old cemetery. I could easily imagine ghosts creeping around at night, and i was startled by 2 little Jizo-sama statues among the graves. it was quite a hike up to the old Christian church, and i was glad i had not done it with the huge crowd earlier that morning.
I was actually more interested in the frogs on the steep mountain path and in their noises than the church, but it was interesting. I observed that Mary looks different in Japan, but Jesus, Mary, and the disciples are all still depicted as white. I did not see any representation of Joseph.
I rode around some, trying to find the big torii gate i could see from the valley, but it was in vain. i returned the bike to the rental shop and went back to the ryokan for dinner. It was delicious: rice, various pickles, baked fish and mountain uni/weird tofu and mushrooms, bamboo shoots and seaweed miso soup, fried small croquettes and meatballs and a small salad; sashimi (white with pinkish skin, eaten with wasabi and soy sauce); delicate white fish with a dijon-style mustard sauce (was that fish fugu?); pickled radish; onion and kimchee; sliced strawberry, and frozen figs, and green tea. Amazing.
Good night! おやすみ！