The hills are alive ...

Day 173 - Thursday 3 July 2008

(Another double blog day so check out my early summary of Japan - you know where to find it by now!)

So I've happily dug into the heart of the Japanese Alps for the last week and when I left you last I was going to attempt to trek around the picturesque village of Kamikochi - the National Park's biggest draw card - the expensive bus trip (25 squid for a few hours travel) got me out of rather dull Takayama and to a glorious alpine vista ...

... cloaked in some of the heaviest rain I've ever experienced - it is rainy season here so this isn't whinging - I knew it was going to rain and went anyway - I'm continually pushing each day to do stuff regardless of the conditions - I may never be back to these places so I've got to get out there - instead of trekking I watched lots of videos in Japanese about Kamikochi's wildlife and warmed up in the 'good as the USA ones' Visitor's Centre having got soaked and cold in the space of a 400m walk from the bus stop!

To see how nice it is (and it was the first time I really got to see Japan is at it's untouched finest - you have to search hard and high) click on the link below to the admittedly Japanese web site - I'm stood on the lovely wooden bridge taking the picture above!

http://www.kamikochi.or.jp/

The next day I traversed the Alps by going back, around and up their other side to Matsumoto - because despite me waxing lyrical about the trains here last time - not even the Japanese have blasted a train track through a range of mountains that peak with Mount Hotaka at 3190 masl - and I wasn't about to spend more money on the bus over them when I had the golden ticket of a JR Pass in my hand - they really are one of the world's best travel bargains (unlimited use of the trains for 3 weeks is 25o pounds) - providing you don't just go from Tokyo to Kyoto and back - in that way - they push you to travel around a lot and see plenty of Japan

Now Matsumoto should be very high on anyone's list of Japanese experiences - but not for long - just give it a day - and what a relaxing day you'll have - Matsumoto is small yet snazzy - it wouldn't surprise me to see Stella McCartney walking down the street here - it's cosmopolitan and chic - I arrived to find the sun out, the air clear and my ryokan by having to read kanji (the first time my accommodation has not had a sign in English) - it sat right next to a rushing river lined by old fashioned properties and waaaaay in the distance, soaring mountains - this shot was taken just 3 paces from my ryokan's front door (and the ryokan was dated back to 1868) - how good is all this!




















The next morning I browsed the Matsumoto City Museum of Art and checked out some cool landscape work by Japanese artists nestled alongside a collection of Pop Art from the 1960s to 2000s - classic Andy Warhol, the ace Roy Lichtenstein, brilliant Vik Muniz and fancy David La Chapelle

But most people head to Matsumoto for their Himeji-esque jo (castle) - darker in colour than Himeji (it's black and nicknamed the Crow) it was first built in 1595 for the shogun and their samurai - it has a very cool 'invisible' floor (from the outside you can see 5 but when you get in there's actually 6) - samurai would hide there during a siege and when the attackers thought they were getting the upper hand then the defenders would all jump out swords slashing away!

The side of the castle had a very cool moon viewing pavilion that was open to the skies on all sides for socialising, watching the stars and, no doubt, some romantic activities - it was built during a period of peace up here in the mountains - if only it were open - I had to be content with snapping away from the side of the moat ...

Matsumoto City Museum (that your castle ticket also lets you access) had a huge array of guns (blunderbuss style) and had me reminding myself (and now telling you) that the samurai didn't totally dismiss firearms - in fact - one old ukiyo-e (art print) had a samurai in a boat attacking the castle - he was stood up in a canoe taking aim - now I've been in that castle - he must have been easy pickings from anyone similarly armed directly above hiding behind solid walls and poking his gun through a gap!

But now I'm in Nagano (pronounced with flat a's like a nag) - the observant amongst you (which will be most) will remember that this city hosted the 1998 Winter Olympic Games - and rightly so - for it's another cool, trendy mountain vista'd resort (it claims the title 'The Roof of Japan' - although I could claim to be Brad Pitt and I'm clearly not - I bet Matsumoto and others would question them) - but I'm off my point ...

Which is - I'm a bit skeptical of enormous, commercially driven sporting events - not for what they are at the time which I'm sure is awesome and I'm looking forward to London 2012 - but for what they leave behind when they're gone - an era of brilliant sports development where a city is transformed into a hotbed of sporting talent - or a rusty medal podium that's been turned into a car park ...














But despite the remaining availability of Nagano 1998 stickers and t-shirts the Olympic Games are history and what this city is really famous for is Zenko-ji - a very liberal minded, and consequently, hugely powerful Buddhist Temple (where sub-temples are everywhere and one runs a very average Temple Inn across the Alps in Takayama!)

Zenko-ji is actually awesome - it's full of fairy type tales involving priests and, apparently, holds the oldest Buddhist image in Japan dating from 552AD arriving here from India via Korea - called 'Amida Triad sharing one halo' - an ancient oracle decreed that it must never be seen so skeptics think the ark it's contained in (their words not my Indiana Jones ones) is empty - to quell such types the shogunate in 1702 got a priest to check - he said it was there and remains the last confirmed person to see it - mind you - if you were sent to check - would you tell all of Japan it's a myth?

They had the nicest security staff ever who were very happy to take shots of people and the temple - and bits of tree sticking out from the right ...
















Inside it's very golden and has a superb Okaidan - a low (I was doing my Hunchback of Notre Dame impression) pitch black tunnel that goes underneath the main altar and places you nearest the hidden Amida Triad (vertically of course) - I ventured forward, especially when prodded from behind by a Japanese guy really keen to find what lies inside, and when I reminded myself that I'm not scared of the dark - for it's really, really dark and there's a bell - called the Key to Salvation - it's said that if you find it and ring it you'll be saved forever - and I did - so that's me set up for the rest of my days and I've been walking with a spring in my step ever since!

And not surprising when I also clapped eyes on the most beautiful Buddhist image I think I've ever seen - isn't the casting of this just unbelievable - I'm not sure of the significance of the hat and bib (that are on many statues in Japan) - I need to check that out - if anyone's got a minute then find out and let me know!





















And we're right up to date again after I've hit the internet cafe today hard having woken up feeling a bit rough and finding out that the speed skating arena I planned to visit was shut - see - I rest my case!

By the way - it's been bloody hot now that it's stopped raining - but weirdly - not unbearable - which is what the temperature reading in the middle of this Japanese neon in downtown Nagano yesterday would have you believe - I think I've been away so long my body doesn't know where it's from, what's normal and what's hot or cold - so I've just about completed my journey to being an adventurer - in fact - I know I have - three Japanese school girls walked towards me down the street yesterday and started whistling the Indiana Jones theme tune - get in! - I kid you not - I knew I bought that new Kathmandu hat for a reason ...














Now strangely internet access has been ace on the road but wasn't so good in Tokyo - I've done so much today I probably won't blog again until I'm into Hong Kong - 10 days or more from now - so blog fans - I guess you'll have to read a book for a bit instead!