Tokyo Part 2 (Nikko)

Hello! It's been a while, I know, I'm sorry! I was about to write about the lovely trip I just took along the coast to Hiroshima, but realised that I never finished writing about my time in Tokyo. So here's the trip to Nikko:

Like I wrote last time, Nikko is the place where the first Tokugawa shogun is buried. To get to it you have to take a long train ride out of the city, and we saw Mt Fuji in the distance! Nikko is right up in the mountains, and although it was a little cold in Tokyo, we still weren't expecting this fountain;

The area is covered with temples and shrines - also hotels, actually, all seemingly closed, because the high season in Nikko is when the autumn leaves are at their best. Felt a little like a ghost town in January though... In any case, the first temple we walked past looked like this:

They'd constructed an entire building around it and drawn the temple on... (You could still go inside and pray and stuff, it just felt a little strange...)

From there we went to the site of the shogun's tomb, which, luckily, wasn't undergoing such big renovations.

The stable of the sacred horse that lives on the site is also noteworthy: it's decorated with the 'See no evil, hear no evil..,' monkeys.

Then we went on a walk around other smaller notable shrines. The mountain seems full of little holy springs and special wishing rocks. We found this stone dating back a couple of hundred years asking pilgrims to kindly refrain from relieving themselves in the holy forest of the mountain.

Also this little guy who someone had left at a shrine:

To end the walk we went down to the gorge, where there are a famous line of Buddhist statues, nicknames the 'bake jizo' (ghost Buddhas) because it is said that if you count them one way, and then count them again, you will end up seeing a different amount...

We didn't try to count them...

I don't know if the legend stems from it, but there were actually more statues until a great flood about 100 years ago, where many were swept away by the river that runs through the gorge. The people who live there did their best to find and return as many of the statues as they could, so along towards the end of the line are a couple of piles of rocks that may or may not have previously been statues.

(They get their own red hats and aprons anyway) 

Having been wandering on the cold all day, it was about time for something warm, so we got a really tasty set dinner with the local speciality yuba (it can be translated as tofu skimmings, but that makes it sound a lot less nice than it is).

The cup was adorable too:

So that was Nikko, I highly recommend it! Also they seem to be trying to attract foreign tourists, because we got about a 1000 yen discount on the return ticket, which helped.

I was going to write about the next couple of days here, but this post is going on a little long! I'll write about the Studio Ghibli museum and seeing the robot Asimo live in a couple of days. And this time I mean a couple of days, not 5 weeks. (Probably).

Shunkoin and Miyako Messe

This weekend I decided that the best way to prepare for the four exams I have this week was to go and explore some cultural exhibitions across town. Obviously. 

On Saturday, a local temple was hosting a zen arts experience, taught by IB students from a high school affiliated with my university. I ended up meeting a couple of friends from my course there, both of whom also did the IB at school! It was interesting to hear what the students get up to on the IB in Japan.

Also, of course, we got to have a go at calligraphy, raking of stones in the zen garden, and we took part in a tea ceremony.

This is my very first attempt at calligraphy! The character means 'Japanese'. It's not the worst first attempt, but I don't think it'll pave my way to becoming a calligraphy master any time soon...

This is the garden that we tried raking. The deal with raking is that you've got to try to create perfectly straight lines, while thinking of nothing else but the moment. Hard to stay in the moment when you're all too aware that if you take one step too far backwards you'll end up stuck in the branches of one of these lovely trees... It was really cool getting to actually walk in a garden like this, instead of just viewing it from the veranda.

Although, speaking of which;

I really liked this temple; it was very beautiful and calm, and also incredibly welcoming. You can even stay there overnight as a tourist.

The next day I went to a bonsai exhibition at the Miyako Messe exhibition centre. Here are some of my favourites:

I thought the lone fruit hanging off this bare tree looked a little sad, but my friend pointed out that from this angle it kind of looks like the moon seen through the branches. I was lucky I went to the exhibition with such a poetic person!

The other fun thing about Miyako Messe is that in the basement is the museum of traditional crafts, which was super interesting! Every Sunday it also features a dance by a real maiko (an apprentice geiko, or geisha)

She was incredibly graceful and I wish I could try on a kimono like the one she's wearing.

On the way home we cycled along the canal to the Kamogawa river (much like London, the arty district is found in the old industrial area and there are a few canals around there). It looked like all the trees were cherry trees, so they must look amazing in the spring, but I actually also really liked how they all looked without any leaves against the grey sky.

Almost forgot to mention, but I also experienced a magnitude 7 earthquake! Don't worry, you would have seen it on the news if anything that major had really happened! Outside the Miyako Messe the fire department were having a community information day or something, which included a truck rigged up to simulate earthquakes.

You sit at a table and tell the guy in charge what magnitude you'd like, then the system counts down and you get your earthquake. I'd heard that once it reaches 5 or 6 you can't stand, but at 7 I could barely stay in my chair, even clutching tight to the desk! It was scary, but I'm glad that we ran across something like this. So far I've only experienced very mini earthquakes, and this made me feel like if a bigger one does come along I'll be less likely to panic.

And now that I've terrified my family with all of this talk of earthquakes, here's some soothing pictures of the woodland walk I took today in the local nature reserve (5 minutes away from my dorm):

This week is the last week of term so it's full of tests, but then the two month spring holiday begins! I've got lots of fun trips planned, starting with Tokyo as soon as we're officially finished, on Tuesday. I'm really excited to go and see that other side of Japan.

Arashiyama and ceramics

In the run up to the winter break I've been a little busy with deadlines and the like, but I did get a chance to go to the Arashiyama light up last week. Unlike the autumn leaf light ups, the reason for the Arashiyama one seemed to be... just because. It was pretty, anyway!

 This is one of the centerpieces, an ikebana (flower) display on the riverbank.

 This cute lantern has a picture of the local tram, the Randen, painted on the side.

 The next day was my last ceramics class. It's kind of sad that it's over, but I had a lot of fun. And it'll be nice to be able to sleep in on Saturday mornings.
We painted and glazed our first two pieces (the tea cup and bowl) last week, so we got the finished pieces to take home! We were all given the same instructions to begin with, so I love how everyone's turned out so unique.

 This is my Japanese tea cup. We were allowed to decorate these ourselves; my teacher was a little unsure about my design! (It's supposed to be a shooting star from the Ghibli film Howl's Moving Castle)...

 The pottery studio decorated our tea bowls for us, so it looks much more professional. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Our teacher also brought some matcha tea at the end of the class, and we all got to drink tea out of our own bowl!

As it was the last class, the head of the company took us all to the old ceramics factory nearby. Apparently it got shut down because it was way too polluting, but he said that it's very interesting in terms of the history of kilns, so it's been preserved (albeit under a lot of wooden scaffolding).

 This is the old tanuki statue (for good luck) outside.

 The company manager also told us that the sometimes have concerts there; this is a poster for an autumn concert of English love songs.

 During the war, Japan couldn't import metal, so this is a prototype for a ceramic grenade.

 This last picture is a daruma; you make a wish and draw in one of the eyes. When that wish is fulfilled, you draw in the other eye. I wonder how long it's been since somebody made this wish...?

That's about it for this week. I'm very much enjoying the run up to Christmas in another country, so expect a post about that soon!

Umeda Sky Building

This week I went with a few friends to the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka. My Japanese teacher told us about it a week ago; there's a German Christmas market in the plaza underneath the building at the moment and she very emphatically recommended the German beer.

First of all, though, we went up to the top of the north building of the JR Umeda station to see the sunset.

 The sky just suddenly turned golden as we were making our way up and it reflected in all of the buildings (everything's very reflective glass in that area). The big building on the right is the Sky Building.

 There was a small Christmas market offshoot outside the JR station, with mulled wine!!! I've never been a huge fan, but it was nice to drink something familiar and Christmassy. And warm. Lovely and warm (Winter has definitely arrived in Japan now, by the way).

THIS is the Sky Building. Looks like something out of Star Wars.

 The Christmas tree at the market, directly underneath the building.

 For such a swanky place, it has an... interesting English translation.

 This is the reflection of the Christmas tree's lights on the other side of one of the walkways. The market was full of lights and people, and then this side of the walkway is just an ordinary office building.

 When we bought our tickets for the viewing platform, they gave us a star each to write a wish on. Then you tie it to these larger stars on the windows. I don't know if there's a Shinto god that hangs about up top granting wishes, or if it's just a nice distraction from the fact that we didn't know we'd need to pay 700 yen to get in... But it was cute reading everyone's wishes, anyway.

 I tried to get some nice pictures, but my phone's camera doesn't quite to the city justice. It was really really beautiful. Just imagine that.

 The walkway was lit with different coloured stones, so it kind of felt like you were walking above small galaxies. This is the ribbon on my bag, lit up by the UV light.

 My favourite thing was watching the traffic and trains run across the bridges on the river.

If you're ever in Osaka, I really recommend this, only maybe not if you're afraid of heights! It's probably a good thing I don't live nearby, imagine if I could go up and do my homework in the cafe at the top every day -  I'd spend so much money... and I'd end up just staring out of the windows for hours... it would be a silly idea... (I'd still do it).