Second Day of Enlightenment

Keeping with the whole Buddhist thing, Casey and I set off for Koyansan today. Burial site of the Buddhist priest Kukai, and home to Shingon esoteric Buddhism, the mountain town revolves solely around its religious heritage. Arriving by train, and finally by cable-car, we made our way to the massive cemetery at the end of town. The top picture here was taken along the 2 km (1.25 mile) path that winds its way through the 200,000 tombs in this graveyard in the forest. The picture below shows a few of the tombs where children are burried. Here pilgrims place hand sewn bibs and sweaters on the small statues as a sign of respect. The long path eventually ends at Okunoin temple, the site where Kukai rests. It is said he is not dead, rather sitting in a deep state of meditation awaiting the next Buddha Maitreya (that's a neat trick). The scenery here was amazing, and though my knowledge of Buddhism barely scratches the surface it was easy to appreciate the drop-dead gorgeousness of Koyasan. There really was something unreal about this place. After walking back into town, we decided that we didn't need to see anymore of the 100 temples (pretty good for a town of 7,000), and opted to visit the Kongobuji monastery. The monastery is still used today, and we walked in while a few young monks were in the middle of class. They more or less ignored us, and I assume they've probably gotten used to the constant influx of paying visitors. This last picture shows the rock garden within the monastery grounds where the head priest resides.

Train to Nara

Working for Nova, Casey doesn't get weekends, but he's got Wed. (today) and Thurs. off. We decided we'd seen enough of Osaka, and wanted to leave the city for a little side trip, and decided on Nara. I won't go into the vast history of the place or tell you about how historically important this or that temple are (if you want to know, go here), but I will tell you it's an amazing place to be. We decided to first go to the Todaiji temple, home to the incredibly large Daibutsu Buddha. At over 15m (50ft), the solid-bronze statue dwarfs everything else in the room. There were hundreds of tourists and school kids, but we didn't mind much considering how unbelievable the temple was. After spending an hour or so at Todaiji, we hiked a hill above the old town, and watched the sun come down. Along the way we stopped off at Nigatsu-do, another of the many Todaiji temple buildings, and relaxed. After an hour or so, we headed down the hill to the newer parts of the city in search of food. We had a big okonomiyaki dinner, warmed up at a public bathhouse, then hopped on a train for the one-hour ride back to Osaka.

Osake Bike Tour

I took Casey's bike today while he was at work so that I could see a bit more of the city. Having already seen most of the central parts of town, I decided to take a look at the port and industrial parts of the city. I was pretty surprised to find how polluted it was, considering how amazingly clean everything is in more residential areas of the country. This picture was taken from the top of a big suspension bridge that spanned one of the port's many canals. The air was so bad up here, I had to pull my shirt up over my mouth to breathe. Below is a spiral-shaped onramp and steel plant in the background.

Big Fish

This morning, before Casey had to go to work, we went to the massive Osaka aquarium. It was pretty damned amazing, but the insane crowds forced us to kind rush through the whole thing. After the $20 ticket at the door, and the swarms of pushing grannies and kids, I don't think I'd really recommend this one. Nice jellyfish though.

Umeda Sky

Koji Aida, far left in the post below, is leaving tomorrow for a month-long business trip north of Tokyo, at Hitachi's corporate HQ. Casey and I met up with him this evening to see him on his way. Koji had a 10 o'clock bus ticket, and there was time to visit the sky garden at the top of the Umeda Sky building. As cheesy as it sounds, the view up there is crazy. Distanced just enough from the city to get a good view of it all, the observation deck is amazing, especially at night. This here's a view from the top, and a picture of the building below. The ride to the top is nice and scary because the escalators that climb the last three floors are suspended above the nothingness between the two main towers.

Return of the Kojis

I spent the day today with Koji and Koji. I promised them in Kochi that I would come and visit them in Osaka, and they couldn't have been more excited. Both of them took Casey and I out this evening for a night of kushikatsu and drinking. We followed that up with a trip to a reggae club, and made it to bed by 6.

What?

Japan has some weird trains. This one was in Osaka's Namba station on it's way to KIX.

And Now for Something Completely Different

This coming weekend Hania's been invited to go kayaking down the Shimanto-gawa (gawa=river), and, unfortunately, I haven't. Whatever, instead of whining about it, I decided to go and see a friend of mine up in Osaka. Casey's been a good friend of mine as long as I can remember, and just by chance, he moved to Japan only a few days after I arrived to teach english for a year. I told him I would be coming up to see him, and now was as good a chance as ever. There was one problem though, and that's that the return train ticket cost nearly $250. I wasn't going to let that get me down though either, so I decided to hitchhike the 200 miles or so up to the big city. Hania dropped me off in Uwa early yesterday morning, and four friendly drivers and 9 hours later, I was in Osaka. Though it was my first go at hitchhiking, everything went smoothly and I'd do it again if I had to. Having been to Tokyo, I thought I knew vaguely what kind of a city this would be, and while right in some ways, I was unprepared for how loud and crazy the place seemed when compared to the Japanese capital. Here's a few pics I took today, the first from Osaka's electronics district, Den-Den town, and the second from the famous Dotomburi-gawa. I'll be here for a week now, and am excited to be spending a bit of time away from the sleepy town of Mikame.

Dogo

Today was my first trip to Matsuyama, the largest city here on the island of Shikoku and the capital of Ehime. Hania and a friend of hers decided to take me to Dogo Onsen, the Matsuyama neighborhood famous for its many Japanese hot springs (onsen). Hania's friend, a woman named Toshie from our town of Mikame, was originally born in Matsuyama and proved to be quite a good guide. Though the old Dogo Onsen Honkan is the main attraction, it isn't nearly as nice as some of the lesser known spas in the area. Because of this, Toshie decided on the Yamatoya Honten, a very nice ryokan (Japanese-style hotel) only a block away from the Honkan. Here we had a large Kaiseki lunch served in a private tatami room before taking a long soak in the hotel's private baths. Kaiseki is something any traveler in Japan should try at least once. Generally consisting of a large number of dishes prepared with seasonal ingredients and carefully arranged on beautiful, hand-made dinnerware, it represents the best of Japanese cooking. Here's a picture of our first course: yellowtail, scallop, and sea bream sashimi, with a side dish of bamboo shoots, salmon roe, carrot, and sea urchin. After lunch, we were taken to the basement floor for our bath. We set a time to meet back in the reception, and soon Hania and Toshie went their separate way, while I carried on to the men's bath. After soaking naked in a big wooden, outdoor bath for an hour, staring blankly at the rock garden, I was completely relaxed. After showering off, and getting dressed, the three of us walked for a short time through Dogo Onsen before heading to dinner. This is a picture of one of the many visiting bathers dressed in a traditional yukata just outside the Dogo Onsen Honkan. After our walk we toured the central part of the city, and went to a nice Italian restaurant before finally heading back to Mikame.

Mikame Undokai

The town has gone crazy today. Everyone from 8 to 80 is taking part in the undokai, or annual sports festival. Modeled after the highly popular Japanese school sports festivals, the town sports festival incorporates relays, ball-throwing games, dancing, tug-o-war, and other activities into an all-day event on the Mikame chugakko (middle-school) sports field. Hania and I were minor celebrities, and it was also the first time that many of the locals have seen us together. It was all a bit weird at first with all the staring, but everyone soon got used to us and I ended up having a great day. I was invited to sit with Takami (my fishing pal) and his family, where we shared a huge obento during the afternoon lunch break. Hania was invited to represent her village of Nigyu in the ball-throwing game. She didn't do so badly either, and helped the team place 4th out of 16. After the festival wrapped up for the day, I took my newly purchased rod and reel squid fishing with Takami, while Hania went to the Nigyu village enkai (party) to celebrate their sporty achievements. I caught 3 squid, and after returning home to put them in the fridge, joined Hania and her well lubricated new friends.