Ikaho

Posted on November 7, 2024 by borysSNORC

Ikaho is a small town of around 4,000 people; together with the villages of Akagi, Komochi and Onogami, they comprise the merged city of Shibukawa. Ikaho is located on the slopes of an extinct volcano and, (no one will be surprised to read this bit seeing we are here!), it is widely renown for its hot springs!

On our way into town, there was apparently a very well knonw ‘Must-Do’ stop at the Ikaho Pudding House Crayon. I found out about it by persevering with YouTube videos done by Japanese content creators – not the easiest way to get your travel hints when nothing is in English, but.. famous puddings, you say? To take to our ryokan? Don’t mind if we do!

So much pudding! Pudding isn’t really a big thing in Australian – as far as I’m aware anyway! I don’t usually have much of a sweet tooth, so don’t tend to seek these sorts of things out when I’m at home. However, Japanese sweets tend to have less overpoweringly processed ‘flavour’ added. I can’t quite explain it, but something here that is melon flavoured, will in fact taste like melon rather than some amped up over-sweetened version of a ‘melon flavour’. Anyway, famous puddings flavoured in Royal milk tea, matcha tea, chocolate, strawberry, salted caramel, lavender; it goes on. Thankfully they have these teeny small taster sized portions so you can choose a few flavours without consuming your body weight in pudding! (Edit: predictably, the salted caramel was the best!)

Throughout Japan, you will see tiny little police stations, they are like teeny one man booths, this is the second police station that I have seen that actually appears to be a larger presence – the other being the one we spent over two hours at, on our last trip (J4), when Mr K was given a moving violation for crossing a solid line on the highway right in front of some cops less than four hours after we arrived into the country! Good times!

I LOVE this little police car! You can see by its sleek design that it is definitely made for high speed pursuits. 😀 We also thought the sign out front which shows two horse-police people wearing masks, was really typically Japanese cute! Joshu-kan and Miyama-chan are the police mascots here. I can’t decide if their names are some sort of piss take? Joshu and Miyama are both fairly famous types of beef!

The most well-known Ikaho landmark is the famous stone staircase that runs through the centre of the entire town. The steps number exactly 365 and lead up to the Ikaho shrine; ‘the steps stretch out like aiming for heaven’ is the original plan. The steps are believed to have been here for over 400 years, and were most recently refurbished in 2007, where the new plan is explained (in writing!) as 365 steps leading to visitors to the town 365 days a year! That is Fair. Totally fair. Without tourism, a lot of these small towns would be in real trouble.

Now, I haven’t written much about it at all – I intended to, but got distracted – but I had a total knee replacement in August… nearly 12 weeks ago. Given I live in a low set house (ranch style if you’re an American), there are ZERO steps in my house. So I’ve been doing my physio and doing my hydrotherapy exercises since the surgery, and visited a friend for a weekend who has steps in their house, but that is the most ‘stairs’ that have been in my life since the surgery. Naturally, the best thing I can do here is attempt to walk up all 365 of these steps!

I wasn’t really thinking about whether or not I *should* climb these stairs and was far more focused on whether or not I physically *could* climb these stairs. Which may or may not have been a mistake, I’m not sure. Thankfully we were in no particular hurry and I had the assurance of knowing that there was a wonderful private onsen bath for me at the end of this ordeal if it went poorly.

The town’s onsen waters flow straight down the middle of the street. You can see it here at the base of the steps as the water cascades down the steps, and at various other points further up you can see it gushing down the street through some glass viewing points.

Intermittently at the tops of small flights of stairs, there are terraces for resting, for smoking rooms, or that go off down little alleyways for cafes, restaurants, bunny shops (?) and gaming alleys … it all feels a bit like a fete or carnival with the street food and side show alley type games. The scenery was just magic every time I took a breather to look back down the steps.

The entire street is lined with quaint little shops.

This ‘shrine’ looking spot is actually a rubbish bin! It has been decorated with rubber ducks which seems to be one of the popularly won prizes in the side show alley games.

Also lining the street are a number of public onsens… sadly they are not available for those of us wearing permanent marker.

Cute little winding alleyways built on the slopes that house tiny little cafes, ice cream shops, and other stalls selling local onsen buns.

Taking a moment to rest and look back down the stairs is highly recommended… not just for the break for the broken knees but also for the views which improved the higher up the steps we climbed!

Glorious day for it! The three peaks of Mt Akagi, Mt Myogi and Mt Haruna are well framed from this photo point.

There are several little foot baths where weary tourists can stop and soak their feet on their way up the sacred steps. Speaking of tourists – we accounted for two of the four western tourists we saw all day on the steps. Ikaho is only two and a half hour train then bus trip out of Tokyo, so it’s doable in a day (a long day), but it’s not as accessible as many other destinations where there are better train services. There is no easy train here. To come stay, you’d need to train, then bus, then get your ryokan/hotel to come collect you and your luggage from the bus station. So it tends to be a very popular spot for domestic Japanese tourists, but not so commonly visited by foreigners.

There were many convenient little rest areas on the way up the steps… though I think the town provides them mostly so you have somewhere to sit and consume the onsen buns and ice creams that they want you to buy as you make your way up through the town.

The Komaguchi is the river that branches from the onsen source of the Yumoto. In the stone steps there are four small viewing windows or ‘mouths’ that allow you to see the water gushing down the street – and it’s seriously pumping out a LOT of very hot water.

Also, in the stone steps there are 12 hot spring inns that have been owned by the same families of landlords for over 200 years. Each of these landlords has a zodiac sign inlaid into the stone in brass to locate where their inn is – much like a family crest, only a chosen zodiac sign. I saw a few of them, but was so focused on how many steps we had gone up, that I wasn’t seriously searching for them. This (no doubt very clever, clever) rat is kinda cute.

One area of the steps has a poem by the Akiko Yosano inscribed into the steps, I can’t for the life of me find a translation of this poem on the internets, which is a little disappointing – I’d like to know what it says. Edited to add: The poem is called “The Town of Ikaho” and describes a scene of Ikaho in the early Taisho period (1912-1926), but further than that, a translation I can not find!

Above and below: Some of the carnival / side show alley gaming shops.

We found a little cafe to stop at around the 230 steps up… Mr K needed a coffee and I caught sight of some cute (notably Insta-famous) steamed buns. 😀 It was a pricey little steamed bun – but also the tastiest one I’ve ever tried here, so I forgave it.

A Daruma sundae… again we find that the sweets here are not so sweet and something labeled as strawberry flavoured, actually taste like strawberries, not just the sickly sweet pretend strawberry flavour you find in ice cream or milkshakes back home. This was strawberry, rose hip and hibiscus flavoured, all made with local produce from the Gunma Prefecture. It was quite flavourful and refreshing.

There are numbers on the steps telling you exactly how many more you have to go started to be encouraging at this point; which was appreciated given they were a little distressing at the beginning when my knee was already complaining at steps numbered 12 and 15! We stopped into some cute little knickknack shops – and there are several of them scattered about the terraces. I saw this cool canvas bag depicting the Seven Gods, which I couldn’t figure out a use for, so I didn’t buy it. Retail remorse has since ensued and I wished I had picked it up. It was only ¥800… but c’est la vie! I’m so not going back up the 240 odd steps to go get one tomorrow!

This little guy is Ishidan-kun and he/she/it/they is the mascot of Ikaho… which should be fairly evident from his little onsen hat and his stairs for an apron! lol

The Ikaho Bakery… which didn’t appear to sell any baked goods, but did sell… wait for it… moar pudding!

Now, I reckon we have to be all pudding’d out by this point, but they had a neat little insulated bag there that I thought would be useful for the rest of the trip as we are trafficking our saké around, so we picked up two little puddings for after dinner, so I could buy their insulated cold bag.

These were called ‘Stone Steps Pudding’ and were a traditional style egg pudding, and were not sweet at all. A bit like a light vanilla creme brûlée style deal without the sugary crust.

Another zodiac… no metal pig though.

Japanese manhole covers are famous the world over for being works of art. This one for Shibukawa is so famous it can be found on coasters, washcloths, plates, and all sorts of merch.

The last stretch to the top! It was really busy at this point of the steps – the shrine is just at the top of this next stage. I was worried about how slow (and carefully) I was walking and getting in people’s way and holding them up… and also lamenting that I wouldn’t be able to get any pics without people in them.

I stopped to gather my breath and stretch my knee a bit, and held a spot waiting for a break in the traffic. Patience is a virtue I don’t usually posses… until it comes to trying to take a photo without tourists in it! Then I seem to find the will to wait until the people have passed. Worth it!

The Ikaho Shrine… complete with queue of people waiting to pay their respects and ask for the blessings and cast their wishes. Apparently it gets crazy busy here at New Year.

I know in the big scheme of things, walking up 365 steps is not a big deal… but seeing it was so soon after getting huge chunks of my knee removed and bits of titanium and chromium cobalt implanted, and going from not being able to even hobble unaided from my bedroom to the kitchen in my house 12 weeks ago, this felt like a HUGE achievement. So I’m pretty damn happy with my wash!

It should be noted that I couldn’t have gone *back down* those 365 for love or money! Going up is one thing, but going down steps at the moment is still quite another. NOPE. We had to find a circuitous route down via the winding roads that meander in and around the steps to service the hotels. Still, small victories and all that.

On the way out of Ikaho, we made a stop at the Kajika bridge… the bridge is a famous photo stop, being strikingly red in the middle of summer green leaves, stunning when surrounded by autumn foliage, but also looks amazing when covered in snow. I guess this means we need to come back and see it in all seasons.

It feels like that is all a town needs to do in Japan to get people to come by – have some gorgeous Japanese maples carefully planted intermingled with cherry blossom trees, add one strikingly red bridge across a small ravine or creek. Add a couple of food stalls and get some tourists to start sharing photos of it it to make that thing Insta-famous. Build it and they will come!

The red bridges are such an iconic Japanese object that they never fail to be beautiful and feel ‘typically’ Japan.

We ❤️ Ikaho… I’ll definitely be back.

Takasaki – Byakue Dai-Kannon and Daruma-ji

Posted on November 4, 2024 by borysSNORC

Went to see the renown Takasaki Byakue Daikannon – or ‘Giant Takasaki White-Robed Kannon’, today. It is located on top of a small mountain, Mt Kanonyama in Gunma Prefecture and has an elevation of 190m. Colloquially it is called Kannonyama and sometimes they call it Byakui, and it is also known as the Goddess of Mercy… so I am just thinking of it as Kannon Of the Many Names! The Kannon (not the actual statue, but rather the concept of the Kannon), came originally from China where she is named, Guanyin, and people come to the Kannon to pray mostly for protection and peace, particularly for protection from natural disasters… which makes a lot of sense when you live on islands prone to volcanos, earthquakes and tsunamis.

The Kannon can be seen from quite a distance away as you approach as it is 41 metres tall on top of Mt Kannonyama. You can see the whole of Takasaki City proper in addition to all the most well-known mountains in Gunma from the top. You can go inside the Kannnon and climb up as high as its shoulders – there are nine floors inside that house 20 Buddhas along the climb.

The Byakue Daikanno was built by Yasuaburo Inoue in 1936, originally as a memorial for fallen soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army who were stationed in Takasaki. It was always intended to eventually serve as a tourist attraction, and the promotion of the Kannon for tourism began as early as 1937. At that time it was the tallest Kannon in Japan, but has since been superseded by a number of other Kannon (the tallest is currently the Sendai Daikannon), and it is now the tenth tallest in Japan. At 41.8m tall, it has a 48m waist measurement and a 0.4m thumb circumference (though why tourists need to know that, I’m not sure!); she weighs a whopping 6000 tonnes.

Stunningly gorgeous day today. Blue skies, cool breeze, 20°C… just like a Brisbane winter!

We chose not to select some fortunes today… it looked like there was a lot of bad luck being left behind at this shrine! And I, for one, do not need any bad luck.

Every Valentines Day, a giant red string is tied around her finger and couples come to pray for blessings and happiness as well as longevity in their relationships.

Mr K looking chill under a Japanese maple tree… busy deciding how empty my cup is. Apparently, one shouldn’t remark on the fact that the maples haven’t turned this year and they should be bright orange by now, as this means your cup is half empty all the time. Le sigh… 🙄

Takasaki off in the distance there.

Around the base of the Kannon were some smaller shrines which (from what I could understand from the poorly translated signs) housed the graves/remains of much beloved temple authorities.

Nearby was the ubiquitous souvenir shop selling Daruma dolls. The Shorinzan Daruma-ji temple is nearby (and our next stop), so it’s not surprising to see them everywhere in Takasaki. The Daruma doll are a hollow, papier mache, round traditional doll modelled after Bodhidharma – the founder of the Zen tradition of Buddhism. Traditionally, they come in red and are designed to represent the Indian monk, Bodhidharma, but now they come in a wide range of colours and vary greatly in designs depending on regional variations and artistic interpretation. Lots of people consider the Daruma dolls to be a toy, but they are also believed to be a good luck talisman for many Japanese.

You can see in the images that the dolls have blank eyes – I’ll explain this a bit later below. The dolls have become a bit commercialised by many Buddhist temples and even co-opted by politicians as aspirational images for their campaigns. Now, you can buy your fav colour to meet your fav goal… vicarious airy-fairy meanings applied to each colour for the rose-quartz crowd.

This morning as we left the ryokan on our way to the Kannon, I had mentioned to Mr K that we may need to hunt down a supermarket to buy some Japanese pickles… generally speaking I abhor pickles (particularly American gherkins!) and other pickled things at home. Even in Japanese restaurants in Aust they are really ordinary, but here, they are so flavoursome and come in such varieties, that I wish we could get good quality Japanese pickles at home. Wouldn’t you know it? Mr K parks us to go visit the Kannon right beside “The Pickle House”… home to a wondrous selection of Japanese pickled EVERYTHING!

Well, once you are buying stuff that needs declaring at customs (something we usually avoid like the plague!), you may as well have STUFF to declare at customs! So in for a penny, in for a pound, I stocked up on pickles and am now free to peruse the Japanese marquetry too. Bonus! 😀 If we are going to be standing in the queue at Sydney Customs with pickles… may as well stand there for timber products too!

Just outside the pickle house was a steamed bun shop making miso steamed buns. Thankfully, they warned us that ’1 is cool for one person’, and as we were only after a wee snack, we decided to share a stick, rather than have one each. Delicious, burnt miso flavours; but rather starchy.

I loved this little guy on the bridge that crossed over the river to the temple area of town… good thing they don’t sell big stone painted Daruma like this one or I would want to take one home!

When we arrived at the Shorinzan Daruma Temple, the first thing that we were met by near the car park was a cemetery… complete with a little booth containing a sales representative that was ‘selling plots’. Hmmm… I’ve long been looking for a place to sprinkle my ashes, maybe this is the place! 🙂

The Shorinzan Daruma Temple is a small temple not far from the Kannon in Takasaki. It was built originally in 1697 but the Obaku Zen Buddhists as a school. It is known as the original birthplace of the Daruma and it is believed the original Daruma dolls came from this region. Legend has it that the Daruma of Shorinzan are especially lucky, so much so that the city of Takasaki has been leaning on that reputation and Takasaki is known as ‘The Lucky Town’.

Originally the temple was believed to have been built for the Soto school of Zen Buddhism, but int he Meiji era was converted to the Obaku sect. In the late 18thC, the 9th generation Zen Master of the temple offered aid and comfort during the Great Tenmei famine, for whatever reasons, he taught them how to make papier-mache dolls based on the Daruma dolls. These become known as the Shorinzan Nanakusa Taisai Daruma Market Festival which is held every January. In more recent years, the festival has attracted thousands of visitors who come to buy new Daruma dolls and burn their old ones as offerings.

The Daruma dolls are often associated with the phrase, ‘Nanokorobi yaoki’, which means: ‘seven times down, eight times up’, which speaks to the resilience of the dolls – the Daruma are light due to their papier-mache construction, but they are weighted in the bottom so they always bounce back up to an upright position when they are tilted or rocked over. In Japan, these are called ‘okiagari’, which means to get up (oki) and rise (agari). They symbolise the ability to overcome adversity and recover from falls or find success and uprightness.

The eyes of the Daruma are often blank when people buy them. They have large oversized symmetrical round white eyes. The purchaser is encouraged to paint in one of the eyes, and focus on a goal. The aim is to complete the next eye when one meets the goal or finishes the big task in mind. They are commonly given as gifts at the beginning of the year or to students, and the recipient of the doll will fill in one eye upon setting their goals, then the other upon fulfilling it. This way, every time they see the one-eyed Daruma, they remember the goal and hopefully work towards it… steadfastly in spite of possible setbacks.

When dolls have both their eyes filled in, marking the completion of one’s goals, some people return them to the Shorinzan Daruma-ji Temple… hence the large collection here at any given point in time. (I wonder if they are cleaned out once a month, like locks on a Florentine bridge or coins from the Trevi Fountain).

After the temple visit we stopped at a konbini to grab some saké and beers – as you do! And I was curious to know what was in these steamed buns… gotta love Google Translate. It comes up with some real corkers.

Another quick and accessible sight in the Takasaki area are the Doukutsu Kannon Caves. These are a 450m deep man-made cave system that have 39 statues of the Kannon Goddess of Mercy on display. Each piece of sculpture is an artwork by the sculptor Rakuzan who devoted his life to creating this unique gallery. The caves appear to be a philanthropic project of a wealthy kimono maker and trader named Tokuzo Yamada. He was apparently quite generous with his fortune and spent half his life on this huge undertaking with the goal of making Takasaki a pilgrimage destination, such that visiting the Doukutsu Kannon would confer upon visitors the same blessings as visiting prestigious temples.

Tokuzo was reputed to have been quite knowledgeable in the design fields and was heavily involved in the layout and design of the Doukutsu Kannon statues he commissioned from teh sculptor Rakuzan. The statues and their posture and clothing are very similar to the aesthetic used in Buddhist art to this day. The entire cave system is considered a masterpiece of modern Buddhist art.

Usually depictions of the Buddhist goddess, Kannon will depict her with a varying background – among rocks, waterfalls, upon mountains, in the snow…. the Doukutsu Kannon created by Rakuzan and Tokuzo are the only Buddhist artworks where the ‘world of the gods is made real’. That is the backgrounds are created by using materials like local Gunma Prefecture volcanic rock and Sanbaseki stone, to create entire environments to glorify the Kannon.

Some of the statues and their vignettes are said to have take the artist more than a year to create.

The work on the caves and their artworks continued until Tokuzo passed away in 1964. The goal had been to make a 800m deep cave, but encountered limitations when they discovered hard ground, which hindered the continuation of the project. They current walk through the caves is 450m and is completely accessible… very unusually for a manmade cave system, it has not steps, but rather is cut into an existing mountain.

This wall may exemplify the difficulty that was found with the tunnelling project.

Right by the caves are the Tokumeien Gardens – considered one of the best Japanese gardens in the northern Kanot region and covering a 20,000sqm area. It is built on the slopes of the Kannonyama Hill using a large amount of the of rocks, soil and sand that were excavated during the creation of the cave.

The garden was designed by Yamada Tokuzou and the master Japanese architect, Kaneko Seikichi. The landscaping was completed by Goto Sekisui II, who was also involved in the beautiful gardens surrounding the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo.

The garden is a beautiful relaxing space filled with giant Sanbaishi stones, a huge amount of lava stones transported from Mt Asmara, red pines, Niigata black pines, and seasonal plants.

Sadly, the autumn foliage is late this year – like, concerningly late. The predictions have been put down to a particularly hot and unusually long summer. The tourism industry each year tries to predict the turning of the leaves in Japan, much like they do for the sakura – cherry blossom season, but thanks to climate change it is getting harder and harder to predict.

The garden should have been full of deep orange and red colour at this time of year, but hardly any of the leaves have turned at all. I have heard news reports that the tourism industry is fearing that the leaves won’t turn at all, but that the weather will turn cold so quickly, the leaves will simply fall dead from the trees rather than give the month long colour people come to see.

The gardens were lovely – though unfortunately, not the vibrant colour way that you can normally expect in November. Below, November pic of the gardens stolen from the internet:

After this we opted for a quickie late lunch. Now, we have been in Japan a number of times, but have never been to a regular ol’ sushi train. So we thought we seek one out. Kura-Sushi is a reliable and well known chain across Japan.

It was exactly what we were expecting! Fantastic (and cheap!) food, quick service, hardly any interactions with the staff at all. It was also super noisy because today was Culture Day, which is a public holiday, and there seemed to be lots of families out who would probably normally at school and work. Was good fun though; I’d go again… lunch for two including drinks was barely AUD$30, and we were trying all the strange things on the menu.

Not a bad morning out – now back to work!

Takasaki – Ryutakuzenji Ryokan

Posted on November 4, 2024 by borysSNORC

Nestled in a lush and green serene surroundings, Ryutakuzenji Ryokan is a traditional Japanese hotel built in old temple buildings. It’s close enough to Tokyo that it’s a popular retreat with the city dwellers, and has plenty of local places of interest for local and foreign tourist alike – like the Shorinzan Daruma-ji Temple, and the famous landmark, the Takasaki Byakue DaiKannon. I chose this spot as a good place to break out trip up to Gunma, and hopefully find an authentic and traditional ryokan experience without too many bells and whistles.

For such a small ryokan, the genkan was huge! Depending on where I search, it says there are only 3 or 4 rooms here, but some of them are enormous and can comfortably accommodate a family of six or more. Each room has a private bath, and there is no communal onsens here. So tattoo friendly as bathing happens in your own room.

There was a very cool bar area where you could help yourself to beer, wine, spirits, and saké on an honour system – you just write down what you’ve collected from the fridge and it will be added to your bill on checkout. This little bar area and its very welcoming and trusting tab system made us feel comfortable straight away.

I was also able to come collect saké cups to take to my room, and all sorts of crockery or barware that might might our stay more comfortable.

The entrance to our room… no real locks, no key. This place operates like a family home.

The small genkan into our room… to the left is the bathroom, to the right is a toilet.

Another high tech looking hairdryer. Maybe I just think that because I don’t own one and never use one?

Cat toilet shoes! 🙂

Our traditional Japanese room – large enough to accomodate up to six futons comfortably! This room is huge, covered in tatami mats, and traditional paper screens.

The screens are on all doors and large windows – and when opened, you can see garden spaces on every side.

It was raining quite heavily when we arrived, but even the rain couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm for this delightful place… we had our own little garden, with an onsen bath on a wooden deck!

Just had to press a button and it would automatically fill, which I did almost as soon as we put our bags down! 🙂

A little Mio sparkling saké, and a soak in the garden while listening to the rain.

We had a restful afternoon (if you don’t count the catching up on work stuff), before going in for dinner. There were three small dining room areas, and opportunity to eat at the bar if you like. Dinner was offered as ‘mountain fare’. So we were expecting hearty and comforting food, but nothing overly fancy.

Appetiser of mixed tempura, served with a light ponzu broth.

Rich beef shabu-shabu served with vegetables, raw egg, tofu, ginger and pickles. I was a bit iffy about the raw egg thing, even though I am aware that the food safety standards are quite high here and eggs are safe to eat uncooked… was just unsuer

But it was delicious – you broil the beef, fish it out par cooked, slop it through the egg mixture and straight into your mouth, and it was tender and rich and delicious! We also had a small soup with some soba noodles in it, and the littlest orange cupcake type thing and a couple of pieces of fruit. Perfectly simple but very, very tasty!

Next morning was magic! Blue skies and 20°C expecte… when in Japan – kawaii selfies! There’s more boobs in that than I thought, oh well, who cares?

Breakfast was equal parts simple, delicious and nutritious. A spot of potato salad, a piece of fried chicken, a piece of grilled salmon, a wee dim sum, some pickles for your rice, and some Tamago, and fruit.

We went out exploring the area for the day – Mr K is obsessed with the high speed rail – and when we made it back to the ryokan, we were greeted with our fabulous private bath. I could really get used to this little garden.

Another round of the Hakutsuru junmai before dinner!

Dinner was a piece of fried river fish with tonkatsu sauce, a steamed boat of beef, vegetables and a bunch of different mushrooms, a cup of curry soup, some rice with pickles and a wee bit of fruit cake and a weird but tasty jelly. The saké was quite good too – though I didn’t manage the name of it.

The dining room we were using had a display of lacquer ware boxes and pattens, I tried to ask the staff about them to find out if they were perhaps old or family objects, but sadly my Japanese is non-existent and their English was just as bad… but we did have some giggly fun trying to communicate really ineffectively!

Breakfast the second morning was something different – a bowl of cold soba noodles, served with a dashi broth, an egg wrapped around some vegetables, a steamed savoury egg custard, and some fruit. First breakfast without rice!

We loved this stay, the massive private garden, the friendly staff and the welcoming homey atmosphere were really appreciated. I feel this is a truly local experience and if that’s appealing, I would totally recommend people add it to their itinerary. I’m going to miss this lovely space.

The temple that the ryokan co-exists with? Services? I’m not sure. The owner/manager of the ryokan is the priest of this temple, and offers meditation every morning for any guests who wish to participate. I had intended to get up early and go check it out, but with my knee, I wasn’t sure I could comfortably sit on the floor for 45 minutes without ending up in pain and fidgeting. The last thing I wanted to do was impact anyone else’s mediation, so I thought better of attending. Maybe next time we come by this way, and I have a feeling we will – it could easily be en route to Nikko if we had to!

Hakone onsen – Hotel Okada

Posted on November 2, 2024 by borysSNORC

Something a little different – Yale and I spent tonight in a large hotel rather than a small intimate ryokan. It’s a completely different experience, and yes, at a completely different price point! So I thought it would be interesting to make the comparison and see what your extra $250-300 a night gets you; roughly the difference in cost between this place, the Hotel Okada, and last two night’s ryokan accomodation rates.

With 117 rooms on 12 floors and a maximum occupancy of some 650 people, the ambiance of the hotel is nice, still very Japanese in the decor, but things are far less personal as soon as you arrive. Starting with what feels like a bit of haggling over somewhere to park.

The kumiko timber-work in the lobby makes for an impressive entrance. And straight away it feels strange not to have to take off my shoes… but I imagine keeping 600 people’s shoes straight would be a bit too much!

Yukata are available in foyer if you wish to borrow something other than what is provided in the rooms. Which is pretty handy if you are either, fuller figured like myself, or 6’9” like Yale. The check-in procedure was a little more involved too, I guess with so many people comes bureaucracy.

Our room for the evening was on the 4th floor, was a booking type, “SUISAI”; a Japanese/Western style room with open air bath… Yamabato (not sure what that means). I noticed the kumiko timber work touches are carrying on throughout the hotel.

The genkan (room foyer) was very clean and welcoming, with half a dozen pairs of slippers! I guess this is bookable as a family room, so more slippers the merrier.

Bags to take your things to the public onsen – which we definitely did not use, as this is a 100% not tattoo friendly facility. The hotel is very family oriented, and as such definitely, ‘NO TATTOOS!’

Our room had two western beds, a sofa, a Japanese tatami sitting area with another small couch and chair.

Large TV (which we never turn on because you can rarely even get the BBC World News in English in hotels here, and everything else is not just foreign but also strange and foreign). We have coffee and tea making facilities, small bar fridge and all the needful things.

I’m always pleased to find a range of glassware – so I can find something suitable to take my saké into the onsen with me without having to use teacups or resort to swigging from the bottle! We were also provided with pyjamas, bright and comfortable hanten coats, and some lovely navy yukatas.

The lighting and decor is very warm and comfortable… compared to many large western hotels which tend to feel like you’ve walked into a fucking IKEA – so I love this!

The sitting space is surrounded by large picture windows to allow for views of the mountain stream outside… I have over the recent years come to appreciate just how much Japanese domestic tourists value being able to feel as though they are ‘enveloped by nature’. Living in the large cities like Tokyo or Osaka and to a lesser degree Kyoto, it must be common for them to spend most of their lives in a the concrete jungle glitzed up with loads of neon and animated and noisy talking street lights, train barriers and even toilets! Seeking out gardens in Japanese cities takes time and effort, compared to Australian cities which are heavily designed with green spaces everywhere in both the inner cities and the suburbs. The Japanese have a keen appreciation and connection of being ‘in nature’ and find it calming and restorative to be surrounded by the changing seasons.

The bedroom is warm and Japanese, the toilet could be Danish! 🙂

The bathroom is also bright and modern with all the amenities you could possibly want. His and hers washcloths, lotions and potions, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, cotton buds, hair bands, razors and more.

The hairdryer looked like something from a sci-fi film! Which I am sure is impressive to the hairdryer obsessed Japanese vloggers! The showering/washing room was very nice too… bit warmer with timber and slate.

And of course, the piece de resistance! The open air bath… smashing! The design and lighting in this space is gorgeous! You can see straight into the tatami sitting area though, so if you had a family here, you might need to draw the curtains.

First things first, always barely unpack, have a shower and straight into the onsen… pure bliss! Hakone Mountain Road saké – not bad.

Dinner here is buffet style, which I imagine is where the price reduction is going to be evident. The Sky Lounge on the 7th Floor is where our allocated buffet dining is… the hotel is quite large and has more than one large dining room.

I didn’t want to take photos of people eating their meals or hovering around the buffet – so I plucked this image off the internet. Let’s just say this promotional image is doing some heavy lifting. The room was large, bright, noisy and not even remotely as orderly looking as this image implies.

Food choices were odd… there were lots of hot boxes, with various foods in them, but no vegetables available that weren’t sitting in stews? Which made a lot of the veggies look like my grandma boiled them, or they’re the leftover bits from Asian dishes after everyone came along and took the meat out! I did find some nigiri which was nice and fresh and the rice was lovely, but the rest of this, was all a bit hit and miss; temperature-wise nothing was quite right – hot foods a little too not hot, and I couldn’t find the right accompaniments to any dish. So dinner was a hasty affair.

After a very quick dinner (oh dear lord it was so noisy in there!), it was back to the onsen to relax.

Next morning we had moody mountains, a light drizzle and the rushing river below our window.

Breakfast was another noisy affair that I would have preferred to make avoidable if possible. I can understand the appeal of staying in a large hotel like this if you are bringing the family away for a weekend and were after a more affordable option, but seeing how far we have a travelled, I definitely prefer the smaller ryokans at this point.

And we exit through the gift shop…!

Hakone – Part I

Posted on November 2, 2024 by borysSNORC

Driving from Yugawara to Hakone proper today, up some beautiful winding mountain roads. I noticed from my last trip to Japan that when you’re out and about in a car, and you encounter gorgeous scenery, there are rarely places to pull over and enjoy the view. In Australia, lookouts seem to be everywhere there’s even a slight elevation in the road, along with some big board of information to tell you what you are looking at. Here they seem very few and far between.

Looking back towards Tokyo.

The elusive Mt Fuji! Sadly, without any snow on top… apparently it’s the first time in 130 years there has been no snow on Mt Fuji in October. Signs of rapid climate change are all around us. The hovering low cloud is reminiscent of so many iconic Japanese prints and artworks.

These guys pulled up in their car and at first I was like, ‘Hey! Way to block the view!’, but they have a cute little K-car so we forgive them.

When we arrived in Hakone, we did a quick scout out of the Hakone Checkpoint area. The Hakone Checkpoint was originally an inspection facility during the Edo period (1603-1868) and was dedicated to keeping the city of Edo (Tokyo as was) safe. There were up to 50 checkpoints scattering across the country during this era but most were abandoned when the Edo Period ended. From what I’ve read the Hakone Checkpoint is the only one that has been restored. It was rebuilt and renovated in 2007, using the traditional building tools and techniques from the Edo Period. I am planning on coming back this way in a couple of weeks to visit the site – but so not going near it on a public holiday weekend!

The little shopping street leading up the Checkpoint has many craftsman who create the traditional ‘Yosegi Zaiku’ workwork that has its origins in the mountains of Hakone. The craft has hundreds of years of history and is designated as a special Japanese cultural treasure, and utilises naturally different coloured timber laid out in intricate geometrical designs and patterns to make complex and beautiful timber products.

Hakone Karakuri Musuem – showcases the techniques used to make the Yozegi Zaiku masterpieces. There is a small museum which displays how the history of the techniques date back to the Edo period, and it was as much as 1000 years ago that local craftsmen began to gather in Hakone to take advantage of the wide varieties of wood available in the mountains here. Initially, the timbers were used to create furniture, but around 200 years ago a noted craftsman named Jinbei Ishikawa developed a technique of co-mingling different colours and grains of woods to make boards and then cut them into thin slices of timber veneer. These thin boards containing the intricate designs are then glued to various boxes, trays, coasters and what have you, to create these beautiful marquetry pieces.

Planes used to create the thin slices of timber decorations.

The work is so beautiful, and showcases some serious woodworking talent.

After checking out the marquetry and resisting buying anything to carry around for the rest of the trip, we sought out something fishy for lunch. We found a sushi restaurant near the Checkpoint, called Daimasa Honten. It was rated 4.2 on the Googles, which is damn near impossible in Japan. The Japanese are notoriously harsh on rating restaurants, they will never complain about food they are served, but they have very high standards and seem to often feel, ‘things can always be better!’ Which seems to sit with the Japanese ideals of perfectionism quite nicely. Anyway, if you’re in Tokyo and see a restaurant with over 4 stars aggregate reviews on Google, just know that’s damn near impossible – and you should go there, the food will be amazing. This place however, could just be lucky enough to have lots of western tourists visiting who are more free and easy with their praise!

I chose a unagi and tuna rice bowl, that is supposed to look like a dragon.. and while the picture on the menu was sort of dragon like if you squint at it from the right – mind did not! 😀
Nevermind though, it was super fresh and really tasty. So all is good with the world.

Yale ordered a donburi set full of all good things. All up, a delicious meal and for a fairly reasonable price (compared to what we would pay for similar in Australia, though admittedly kinda touristy priced for Japan).

After lunch, we took a drive to get to Kitanozake Saryou, and made a quick detour to a photo point on a small side road near the “Old Tokaidō ROad, Ancient Cedar Avenue”. We managed to get some beautiful views of Lake Ashi towards the famous Hakone Tori Gate, and Mt Fuji in the background. As luck would have it, one of the very touristy and famous pirate ships was coming past and made for some beautiful iconic Japanese photos.

Togendai Station – where the ships come in.

Had to do a quick stop at the konbini for some saké… and I’m always amused at the strangeness available at the local shop. Spam nigiri? Hotdog in a bun complete with ketchup and mustard, and how long has that been sitting in that bag? Yikes!

Yale found this enormous chocolate waffle ice cream monstrosity… don’t let the Yale for scale throw you off, this thing was easily as big as my hand!

While in the area for a few days, we took the opportunity to visit the Hakone Venetian Glass Musuem also known as the Hakone Glass Forest or the Ukai. It is located in Sengokuhara in the Ashigarashimo District and I thought the idea of a Venetian glass museum in Japan was going to be something seriously odd… and well, I always love me a bit of absurdity in the morning.

And all these objects are before you even enter.

This is an Insta-famous archway is made entirely of crystals. It is quite striking when the sun hits it, but today it was quite overcast.

I saw this curly white glass sculpture in the middle of the lake and was immediately reminded of Dale Chihuly’s work… but didn’t think that likely as it was a Venetian glass collection, yes? Only to walk around the corner and find a plaque confirming that yes, it is actually a Chihuly.

The Venetian Art Glass Musuem.

I don’t know what this cascade of glass flowers is called or when it was made – but it was interesting.

Glass perfume bottle in the carriage – Italy, c.1860.

Compote bowl and lid in filigrana a reticello techniques. Italian, undated.

Wine glass in filigrana a reticello. Italy, c. 17thC

Glass ship hot work. 18thC Venice.

Mosaic of Doge Niccolo Marcello. This mosaic has a portrait of Niccolo Marcello, who was Doge (admiral) from 1473 to 1474, in the centre. Marcello Marcello’s portrait was repeatedly painted by Venetian painters such as Gentile Bellini and Titian in the 15th and 16th centuries. This mosaic was probably modeled on a portrait painted in a Venetian workshop.

Bottle in rock crystal with two handles, c.16th.

Cave a parfum. c.1870.

Glass rose water sprinkler, 18-19th C.

Insense burner with painting cicada and chrysanthemums, c.1840.

Bottle enameled with figures parading, c. 1500 AD.

Core-formed glass fragrant oil bottle “arybollos” c.6thC.

Flask in opaque-white glass (lattimo), c. 16thC,

Porcelain perfume bottle decorated with florid motif. C. 1760.

Black figure aryballos fragrant oil bottle, c.6thC.

Glass bottle with decoration, c.1C AD.

Toilet bottle, c.1stC AD.

Double head glass flask, c.1stC AD.

Porlain perfume bottle with enamels, c.1891-1920.

Glass perfume bottle “boy hon Fleur’s de Pommies”, c.1919.

Pair of glass perfume bottles in an enamel case, c.1770. This portable perfume set, which was popular at the court during the reign of King Louis XVI, is an extremely elegant case made of octagonal gold with beveled corners and decorated with a tortoiseshell pattern of scattered gold stars. It contains two glass perfume bottles with gold caps. The small gold funnel in the center is used to pour the blended perfume into the bottle. This piece was made as a special order for a French aristocrat.

Set of four glass perfume bottles with ornament case. Italy 19thC.

Mirror in glass mosaics, c.19thC.

Pommander, c.1630… is this made of glass??? I’m not seeing it.

Lamps in Millefiori glass, c.1910.

The Venetian Glass Rose Garden…

All the roses are made in glass… it’s really quite pretty and unfortunately very Insta-worthy. It took some patience to get some photos without the selfie crowd about!

’Le Tre Grazie’, c.1996 : Three bubbles inside the sphere emit rainbows when exposed to light – a eulogy to purity and feminine grace.

’Compenetrazione Dinamica’, 1998. Livid Seguso, glass, marble stone.

The indoor, Chilhuly ‘Form from Light’ exhibit.

The gardens are really pretty and when the sun did peak out from behind the clouds, the sparkling in the glass forest was truly striking.

Onions and Reeds Installation, Dale Chihuly, c.1941.

Such a striking sculpture, and from the ‘40s – it’s hard to believe it’s as old as it is given the nature of the medium.

We also had a chance to go for a walk at the Hakone Open Air Museum. I am not super fond of modern art, but I think expected things to be a little less out of place than the Venetian glass!

”Sphere Mesh” – Francois Morellet, 1962-63, stainless steel.

“Tree Man” – Taro Okamoto, 1971. FRP and paint.

”Grand Striptease” – Giacomo Manzu, 1967, bronze.

“The Weeper” – Francois-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, 1986, Trani stone. Sadly her pond was empty and she wasn’t weeping today.

”my sky hole 84” – Bukichi Inoue, 1984, stainless steel.

I couldn’t find a description of these – there were four of them, and they seemed like kami to me. I will have to look them up when I find some time.

”Big Hand” – Rainer Kriester (German), 1973, aluminium.

“Girl with Rooster” – Shin Hongo (Japanese), 1962, bronze.

”Grandson of the General” – Seibo Kitamura (Japanese), 1918, bronze.

”Eva” – Francesco Messina (Italian), 1949, bronze.

”Pavillion Sculpture” – Max Bill (Swiss), 1969, white granite.

“Van Gogh Walking Through the Fields” – Ossip Zadkine (Russian/French), 1956, bronze.
As I approached this piece, I saw the worn face and the heavy accoutrement and assumed it was going to be a heavily laden fighter with weaponry, it was only as I got closer I could see it wasn’t guns he was carry, and wasn’t until I saw the plaque that it was like, ‘Oh wow, did I read that wrong.’

”Great Prophet” – Pablo Gargallo (Spanish), 1933, bronze.

There is a world famous Picasso museum here, which is full of paintings, ceramics and even tapestries – most of which is created by Picasso himself, and some of which is inspired by the movement. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan. I can understand and appreciate the intent and important of most modern art; it’s just not that appealing to me, personally. Also – no photos. Sad panda face ensues.

”Fairy Chapel” – Satoru Okamoto and Nsenda Lukumwena, 2005, stainless tell, float glass.

Symphonic Sculpture (below) – Gabriel Loire is an 18-meter-tall tower covered entirely in stained glass made from shards of thick glass broken by hand with a hammer. “The intricate designs and patterns allow the outside light to pass through it in complex refracting motions, creating a beautiful, fantastical world.” Oddly, we have perfect weather for this – bright contrast outside makes photographing stained glass tricky.

It’s pretty spectacular… but no Saint Chapelle!! 😛

”Two Piece Reclining Figure: Points” – Henry Moore (British), 1968-70, bronze.

”Family Group” – Henry Moore (British), 1948-49, bronze.

”Miss Black Power” – Niki de Saint Phalle (French), 1968, polyester resin, paint.

“Close III” – Anthony Gormley (British), 1993, iron. I LOVE this piece! It’s so simple and yet speaks to me. The artist’s statement, not so much, but the figure itself. 🙂 ‘The artist recreated his body in iron. The rotatation and orbital revolution of the Earth produces centrifugal force and gravity binding it to the ground.’ Sure… but to me it speaks of years of exhaustion and chronic fatigue and pain.