I have seen a lot of castles, gardens, temples and shrines
in my travels here. Most are
lovely, some only nice, some quite moving in their beauty. But this posting isn’t about the more
typical sites of Japan; instead it’s about little gems I found as I wandered
about the town of Takayama, tucked in the mountains, and Nagoya, a large
workman-like manufacturing city.
Takayama, a Gem in Itself. I’d heard Takayama was a lovely “traditional” town
with old wooden houses lining the streets, now shops and galleries. But the view from the train station was
of somewhat tired buildings built in the ‘60’s. Then my taxi dropped me off in front of a narrow little
walkway that led to my ryokan. The inn was indeed an old wooden building,
filled with antiques. My
tatami-mat room was in the back, and I had a little porch with a table and
chairs that overlooked the river.
Nearby was a little waterfall, so I heard the babble of water along with
the cicadas’ song. Life was good.
Takayama was a gem for several reasons. First was the ryokan and its
innkeepers, a jolly little man and his vivacious wife. I had a delicious breakfast at eight
and a luscious multi-course dinner at six. I could sit out on the porch and
listen to the river while I read, wrote emails, or did handwork. Then there was the walk in the woods to
various temples, a path modeled after Kyoto’s Philosophers’ Walk. It was lovely to be amongst tall old
cedars, especially when it was 95 degrees outside. None of the temples were open, but it was still a serene,
quiet place that invited contemplation since few tourists seemed to
go up there. Instead, they
strolled down the several-block long street of shops in the old
wooden houses. 
Takayama is near Shirakawa-go, a village up in the mountains
known for its “gassho” houses, some of which are about 200 years old. These are tall, three-to-five-story
houses with thick thatched roofs that are shaped like praying hands so the
heavy snows would glide off. The
bigger houses were built for large wealthy families. The attics were used to
cultivate silkworms, which liked the dry warm air. While some have been rebuilt with fewer stories and to meet
today’s living standards, there are still about 60 of the original houses left. It’s quite striking to see so many of
them together. While the village’s
business today is primarily tourism, it has worked to maintain a community with
people still living and working in many of the gassho houses. That’s a hard balance to achieve, but
they seem to have done it.
The last reason Takayama is such a gem is scenery. The bus ride up to Shirakawa-go was
through increasingly narrow valleys as forested mountains rose on each side.
And the train ride down to Nagoya was often along a river, often with
fishermen, that had carved deep gorges in the mountains. Where the valleys widened a bit, there
were small villages and rice fields, some terraced, with a few already
harvested. All in all, it was a
wonderful, relaxing few days. If
my ryokan hadn’t been booked for the weekend, I would have stayed longer.
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| Bamboo mouth organ |
Hikone Castle Museum.
I took a day trip to Hikone, a little town near Lake Biwa, because it
was said to have a lovely little castle, one of the few wooden ones still
standing. When I got there, I was
politely but firmly directed to the castle museum; as only the Japanese can do,
it was clear that this was the
route to follow. The museum proved
to be the gem. It includes a
replica of the Noh theatre used by the Hikone clan as well as family treasures.
There were traditional musical instruments
from the 13th and 14th centuries, together with their
cases. I’d never seen a bamboo
mouth organ before nor the flutes with their many protective cases. What were most engrossing were the Noh
masks, carved of wood and painted.
They were striking in their simplicity, beautiful carving, and
expressiveness. It made me want to
know more about Noh and the masks.
Designs for Today.
My guidebook mentioned Nagoya’s Design Center as a good place to see the
latest in applied design, i.e., designs for use in manufactured products. The current exhibit was of university
students’ work in design. My
“guide” happened to be the students’ teacher, so she explained to me the
progression students went through from their first year to graduation. In many ways it reminded me of watching
Juilliard student dance performances and how much more skilled and confident
they become as they matriculated.
One of the designs I liked best was a piece of paper, rolled simply and
connected by a little cut in one corner.
Two hours later I was at the LOFT, a nearby store, where I saw the
latest silicone cooking products.
Here was a silicone roaster/steamer that was virtually the same design as
that first-year student’s! 
The LOFT, a chain of Japanese stores, is a good window into
young, contemporary Japanese tastes.
There was an entire section devoted to stickies, which teenagers here
seem to use everywhere. There was
another long counter of pencil cases in all colors and patterns, since the
Japanese use a lot of pencils and pens of different colors. I’ve been impressed
at how many times I’ve had places and routes marked for me in bold pink or
chartreuse, clearly helping me find my way.
The Kaleidoscope Clock.
On my trip to Hikone, I went to the little town of Nagahama, known for
its glass. Unlike Takayama, it was
a bit kitschy, though there was a lovely museum with some gorgeous
19th-century French, German and Italian glass. But the highlight, such as it was, was
the “kaleidoscope clock”. It was housed in the building you see on the left. You go in and look up, while someone
turns a handle, rotating a wheel of different colors of stained glass. Voila! A giant kaleidoscope.
Animal Gems. These
are pictures of animals I discovered unexpectedly, so they became “gems” in
themselves. Strolling along In a wooded shrine in Nagoya, I heard a rooster
crowing. Following others’ gaze, I
looked up and saw not one, but three roosters, sitting in a tree. I couldn’t
tell if they found themselves stuck there, or whether this was their natural
habitat. One was obviously the
lead rooster, for it was he who was crowing away.
The second is a lizard, or some form of that animal. He walked across my path at Hikone
Castle. It was his bright blue
tail that caught my eye. If anyone
knows what kind of animal this is, and why his tail is blue, let me know.
And last, since humans are animals, too, here’s a picture of
two at Shirakawa-go, with the latest and greatest.
Little Gems of Books.
I’ve enjoyed two books recommended by friends, so pass them along to
you (you can get them both on Kindle, too). The first is The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by
Gail Tsukiyama. It’s a novel about
a Japanese family, how it survived World War II and after, and the two sons. One became a sumo wrestler and the
other a maker of Noh masks. It’s a
good read and I learned a lot about these two quintessentially Japanese arts.
The second is Zen
in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. It is much more philosophical, the non-fiction description
by a German professor of how he came to master archery (the Japanese form,
which is quite different from the Western) and its relation to Zen
Buddhism. Again, it’s a good
window into two other important aspects of Japan.
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