Long day of travel

Woke up super early at Kyle and Lacey’s place in Asahi, Mie. Took the 7.15am train to Nagoya central, then the Tokaido line to the West. It was our second longest day of travel – 10 hours on the train making transfers at Ogaki, Maibara, Aioi and Okayama. We were able to follow the train schedule perfectly and make all our transfers as planned. We had lunch in Okayama where we found a supermarket by the station and bought ume (pickled plum) onigiri (rice balls covered in nori), cooked edamame (soybeans), blueberries and ritz crackers. Then we were back on the train for another 2 and a half hours to Hiroshima. We arrived a bit after 5pm, checked into Ks Backpackers which was only a 5 minute walk from the station, then went for a walk to find a supermarket. We found Jupiters, an International store which had coconut chai and refried beans. We had difficulty finding a fruit and veg section, and then when we did, they had no S&B curry cubes or soymilk that we could eat. So we caught the tram/streetcar to the station again and found another store. They also had no curry cubes so we settled on pasta sauce. Hiroshima does not seem the most veg* friendly of places. It was after 9pm by the time we had made dinner. But we enjoyed a lovely cup of chai in the evening before bed.

Thatched roof cottages in Takayama

For our second day in Takayama we took a local bus from the station for a 10 minutes and went to Hida no Sato (Hida Folk Village open air museum). We saw old thatched roof buildings from around the area. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining and it was lovely to be out wandering around the village. It was really scenic and have an atmosphere like Sovereign Hill or other ‘Historic Themed Villages’. We wandered around all of the different houses that had been relocated from other areas around Gifu and especially collected. They had example rice paddies, waterwheels, people doing traditional crafts that you could watch and lots of wildlife.
We came back to the town central by bus, walked to the Takayama castle ruins (there were a few stones but nothing more- it really was ruins) after having a picnic lunch (of salad and inari) in the park. We ate some red bean icecreams to cool down. Then we went to a museum that was a Government Building and Shrine. They had nice tatami rooms and a torture/prison room.

We wandered through the main streets again and stocked up on yummy Takayama sweets – ume, shiso and brown sugar flavoured jelly type lollies.
Then we caught the express bus back to Nagoya for the night and stayed with Kyle and Lacey for our last night.

Zenkoji Temple, the Pure Land Buddhist temple where we slept in Takayama

The torture chamber in the Government Building – during interrogation prisoners were forced to kneel on wooden slats while the heavy blocks to the right were placed on their knees.

Many koi in the pond at Hidanosato

Lara on the giant stag beetle

Benno riding the giant stag beetle

Hida no Sato – across the lake looking at the waterwheel and a thatched building.

Inside the Government Building – looking out at the gardens from a tatami room.

A wooden shingle/tiled roof with rocks to hold the shingles down.

Traditional thatched cottage

Very peaceful and great sunny weather.

Tucked away at the base of some mountains

Thatched roof buildings

The peaceful lake again.

Carriage wheels lined up outside a thatched wooden building

Inside one of the building – dark wood and tatami floors and paper sliding walls with holes in the ground for the cooking fires.

Thatched cottage

Green frog well hidden in the greenery.

Kuwana Festival

Photo of a lit up float, taken with our phone.

Nagoyan Festivals

Day 3:

In the morning we visited Nagoya jo (Nagoya castle). This castle had interesting exhibits. There were lots of insects in the collection and a model of the castle village.

Then we had lunch at Jinenan, a lovely vegan organic cafe. We feasted on the set meal that contained about 12 different items. It was pouring with rain and the lovely owners, seeing that we only had one umbrella, gave us another umbrella to take.
We caught the subway to OsuKannon shopping area and watched the CosPlay festival parade. Lots of crazy dressups, but most of the participants seemed too shy for photos.
After the cosplay festival we had dinner at an organic cafe called Poran no Hiroba- pita bread with chillibeans and salad, and a set dinner with an interesting bitter jelly for dessert.

Then we trained to Kuwana, one stop from Asahi, where we watched the “noisiest festival in Japan”, Ishi Dori Matsuri. Groups from all the neighbouring towns pulled their town floats along the streets of the city towards the main shrine. There were stalls set up along each side of the road selling food, souvenirs, sweets, drinks, games and amusements. People danced and banged metal drums the whole night – to no particular rythmn so it made it really noisy.

2 festivals in one day – yay!

Model of the castle town.

Cosplay festival. Blue hair.

Kabu (turnip) head from Howls’ Moving Castle movie.

Bitter jelly dessert and rooibos tea for dinner.

Cosplay dressups.

Kuwana festival float lit up with lanterns.

Cosplay dressups. The costume store must have have a roaring trade the week before…

Cosplay colourful hair and costumes.

Walnut bread with olive oil for dinner

Cosplay green hair and cute costumes.

Dinner set. Japanese-style mashed potato/potato salad is quite tasty.

Maids in the Cosplay festival.

Lunch set from Jinenan. So many different options and tastes. All vegan, even the mayo.

Someone we recognised in the Cosplay festival – the teacher from the J-drama Gakusen.

Navitime at the cosplay.

Death makes an appearance.

More colourful hair.

Sailor uniforms.

Robot dressup

Naruto (a manga character)

Amazing butterfly wing colours on display at nagoya castle

We’ve seen this guy in red before, but check out the lack of clothing on the girl behind him.

More amazing butterfly wing colours. Was this were metallic paint came from for cars?

At the time of fire pushing here, please come out.

The dry moat around nagoya castle.

Pita breads for dinner – one with a carrot salad and one with chili beans.

Crazy huge scary beetles on display at nagoya castle.

Nagoya Jo (castle)

Nagoya and Inuyama

Day 1 of our summer kansai holidays:

We took all local trains from Kisarazu (where we had to run for the bus to the station because we were running late) to Nagoya, making transfers at Tokyo, Shinagawa, Atai, Shizuoka and a couple other stops. Since we are not tourists (we have working visas, not tourist visas) we don’t qualify for the JR pass so the expensive shinkansen was not an option. We bought the seishun juhatchi kippu which is a seasonal pass for 5 non-consecutive days that allows unlimited travel on local trains for a day (i.e. you can go from Tokyo to Fukuoka for Y2300). We arrived in Nagoya around 6pm after 9 hours of travel. We picked up a map at the info centre before walking to Osu Kannon temple. We wandered down the Osu Kannon shopping streets to a restaurant called Chen Fu, but it had closed down in May. oh no! So we caught the subway to another restaurant (a little hard to find as it wasn’t on a main street) called Sorairo Magatama. It had a nice homey atmosphere and was vegan and organic. We had dinner of pasta and the fried vegetable set. It was rather late by the time we caught the train to Asahi and stayed with our awesome couch surfing hosts, Kyle and Lacey.

Day 2: After a big sleep in (needed especially since Benno hadn’t slept at all the night before we left) we caught the train into Nagoya central. We visited Atsuta shrine, but the temple itself was shut for renovations. The grounds were still lovely for walking in. Then we went for lunch at Kataron, where we had the lunch set and the fried soy set with an interesting roasted golden syrup flavoured jelly. Then we caught the subway up to Inuyama. We visited Inuyama Jo, the oldest standing original castle in Japan. The stairways were really steep. They had some interesting samurai armour on display, and the view from the top floor balcony was pretty good. We had to walk barefoot through the castle to preserve the wooden floors- just glad they didn’t break under our weight!
Walking back down the hill we passed through some shrines dedicated to dogs (inu). Then we caught the train a few stops to Tagatajinjamae station, walked the 5 minutes to Tagata shrine and saw the sacred object (a giant wooden penis). There were stones and carvings scattered throughout the grounds of balls and penises.
Then we went back to Nagoya for dinner at MosBurger where we had the vegan rice burger (the patty is a grilled rice patty), and adzuki bean icecreams from the supermarket.

Bridge in the gardens of Atsuta Shrine.

Benno on the observation deck of Inuyama Jo.

The skin/shell of an insect that has broken out. Even the leg skin is left behind.

An attendant at Atsuta Shrine.

Salad with fried gluten pieces for lunch.

Lara on the observation deck of Inuyama Jo.

The view from Inuyama Jo.

Benno in the armour room at Inuyama Jo where samurai armour was stored on the shelving. Now it displays photos of all the castles in Japan.

Benno washing his hands at Atsuta shrine.

A stone lantern at Atsuta shrine, in the large gardens.

Samurai armour on display at Inuyama Jo

The restaurant in Nagoya where we had dinner the first night.

Tokens at tagata shrine.

The giant sacred object at Tagata jinja. I realised after I took the photo that photos weren’t allowed but by then it was too late.

Lara in the garden outside Tagata shrine.

The rice patty burger (vegan) from MOS burger (Mountain Ocean Sky)

The lunch set with brown rice. Lots of various interesting dishes including green jelly stuff.

Iced tea and the interesting jelly dessert for lunch.

Stone lanterns in one of the temples at the bottom of the hill below Inuyama Jo.

Giant sword (maybe 2 m long?) on display at the museum in Atsuta Shrine.

Fried vegetables set for dinner on the first night. Delicious – juicy on the inside and crisp on the outside.

Inuyama Castle, maybe the oldest castle in Japan but all sights claim a superlative of some sort.

The stairs in Inuyama castle were very steep – maybe 40 cm high- plus we couldn’t wear shoes in case we damaged the floors.

Statue of a dog (inu) at one of the shrines below Inuyama Jo.

Quinoa salad with dinner on the first night

Pasta with eggplant dinner on the first night

Osu Kannon temple in Nagoya