For The Love of Travel

My plan for the day was to first visit the Hoshitouge Terraced Rice Fields and take some drone shots. Totally snowed over. I sort of had fun driving up and down mountain roads but what I really wanted to see was green…but today saw instead…..blimey! Poor planning on my part.

Then onto Echigo Hillside Park to check out some vibrant flower displays, before making my way to Kiyotsu Gorge. Closed on a Monday, doh!! Poor planning on my part again.

Well success with 1 out of 3 ain’t bad I suppose. Kiyotsu Gorge is one of Japan’s 3 great gorges and its the location of the famed “Tunnel of Light’. The towering cliffs create a V shaped grand canyon over the river. A short walk along the riverside from the parking area, leads you to the 750m tunnel entrance, drilled into the side of the mountain to allow tourists to view the gorge safely (after a deadly avalanche in the 1980’s). In 2018, the Chinese firm ‘MAD Architects’ renovated the tunnel, drawing on the five elements of wood, earth, metal, fire and water – introducing coloured lights, altering soundscapes as you walk along and three openings with different art installations, all set against the backdrop of the gorge. Delightful visual treat!

Stayed at the Yumatoya Ryoken, Niigata …..very special! A public bath house was involved. Wow, quite the experience.

Crowds swarm to see the legendary Kenroku-en garden which has 6 attributes of a perfectly designed landscape garden: spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, watercourses and panoramas. Originally the outer garden of the Kanazawa Castle, it’s morphed into its present configuration after the efforts of a few local lords, Harunaga, Naringara and Nariyasu between 1759 and 1874 – who added a waterfall, teahouse, and winding streams with stone bridges. Gorgeous! It takes about 1 1/2 hours to stroll through the garden’s featured areas. Got up early and started perambulating at about 7.30am. I was so glad I did, within an hour…busloads started arriving, ugh.

I don’t know how this took off as a craze, but gold-leaf encircled ice cream cones are the latest ‘buzz’ in Kanazawa….after my stellar walk this morning, felt like a bit of brekkie was in order….

Gokayama…has a World Heritage listing, so I thought I’d visit…at around 2000 metres, its in an alpine valley with mountains arising. Famous for being one of the villages in the area with ‘gassho-zukhuri’ farmhouses (wooden beams combined to form a steep thatched roof that resembles 2 hands together), they are ‘invaded’ daily with bus groups wanting to stroll through. Income generation a positive for the village, certainly.

Decided to travel to Takaoka to see the Great Buddha, said to be one of Japan’s 3 largest. Impresssive! It was completed in 1933 after 3 decades of work, utilising bronze casting techniques. It stands at 15.85 metres, and weighs 65 tons.

Running through the centre of Toyama city, is the Matsukawa river. Its lined with 500 cherry trees stretching over 2.5kms, and their blossoms should be out…unfortunately not. Boo hoo!

My final stop for the day was the Toyama Glass Art Museum, to see some of Chihuly’s work on exhibition from Seattle and that of Ohira Yoichi, a designer from the 20thC, who was exhibiting some of his Venetian glass designs….inspired by Picasso and Chagall paintings and Murano glass blowing traditions.

Kennin-ji temple is just south of Kyoto’s famous Gion entertainment district and serves as one of the head temples of the Rinzai sect of Japanese Buddhism. It was founded in 1202 by Eisai, the Buddhist monk who introduced both Zen Buddhism and tea cultivation to Japan after returning from study trips to China. There are several large halls exhibiting paintings from modern artists; a fantastic mural of twin dragons painted on the ceiling of the Dharma hall, commissioned in 2002 to commemorate the temple’s 800th anniversary; and a beautiful gilded screen adorned with images of the wind and thunder gods. There are a variety of gravel and moss gardens too.

I enjoyed the walk to Gion Corner and hung around for about half an hour to just people watch….and got rewarded with a view of 3 ‘Maiko’s’ (Geisha’s-in-learning) walking quickly from a cafe past me.

I was up at sparrow’s fart to see the Kiyomizu (‘Pure Water’) temple, halfway up Mt Otowa, one of the peaks in Kyoto’s Higashiyama mountain range. There were LOTS of people climbing the steep street with me on the approach to the temple complex even at 8am.

Founded 1244 years ago, its best known for its wooden stage that juts out from its main hall, 13 metres above the hillside. The stage offers nice views of the cherry and maple trees below that erupt into a sea of colour (not for me today though, doh!) as well as of the city of Kyoto in the distance. The Otowa waterfall has 3 separate streams and visitors use cups attached to large poles to drink from one of them – for longevity; success in education and have a fortunate love life. To drink from all 3 is considered GREEDY! The temple grounds are extensive with various halls, pagodas, and shrines.

Jishu shrine is dedicated to the deity of love and matchmaking. Lots of couples making their way to the 2 stones in front of the shrine, 18m apart. Successfully making your way from one to the other with your eyes closed is said to bring luck in finding love. This lovely couple “made it”, auguring well for their future. Hahaha!

I was excited to see the Marc Riboud photography exhibition @ the Museum of Contemporary Art, a french photojournalist I had heard about, whose work spanned half a decade of iconic and politically charged moments across the world, post WW2. I particularly liked his “Painter on the Eiffel Tower, 1953”; “Hommage to Anouk Grinberg 1991” and “Ho Chi Minh, 1968”.

Righto, I thought. Up earlier than ‘sparrow’s fart’ this morning @ -1 degree, to arrive by 6.30am and avoid the busloads! Yay! Wanted to see the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine, with 10,000 gates winding up the Inari mountain, creating the impression of a long (4km) tunnel. I was not disappointed. Stunning! one of my favourite visuals so far this trip. There were a number of cute fox statues around the shrine, called ‘komagitsune’, messsengers of the harvest god, Inari. There was an ’ema’ you could purchase as well, a wooden plaque on which people write their wishes and leave on display.

Sayonara Kyoto! Loved visiting again.