30 March 2010
... actually we don’t but we are doing so much don’t have time to keep up the blog.
Today took our first ride on a bullet train, left exactly on time whooshed through Tokyo suburbs (which stretch for miles), we saw Mount Fuji in the distance because today was sunny and bright (still v. Cold), whooshed through countryside with rich black earth where grapes are grown (Chateau Nippon anyone?) and whooshed on to our destination where we arrived exactly on time. Amazing journey, smooth ride, very fast (average 200kph), no mobile phones allowed, reclining seats, impressive. Then caught local train – quaint but still quite fast and it too stuck exactly to its timetable – and it had heated seats – arriving at our destination of Nikko on the minute it was due to arrive. Nikko is 128k north of Tokyo and is a pilgrim town where the World-Heritage Toshogu shrine complex is located on a huge hillside which is still covered in snow (think the Assisi of Zen Buddhism). The place attracts thousands of Japanese every day who visit the shrine and mausoleum of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who died in 1617, and the surrounding Buddhist temples and classical Japanese garden. The whole place took thousands of craftsmen only twenty years to build – there are at least 60 buildings and 500 steps in the complex – and is beautifully/gaudily carved and decorated and successfully conveys the immense power and wealth of the Tokugawa dynasty.
Once again we ate at the monastery (always safe as we know there will never be any meat, fish or eggs – nor alcohol!) and had the local speciality of yuba-ryori – milky thin strips of tofu made into rolls and sliced (think Swiss roll) and cooked in vegetable broth and served with noodles and vegetables – stop turning up your noses it was actually delicious and for pudding we had amazake – a warm drink made from fermented rice. G will be adding all of these to his dinner party repertoire on our return, anyone like an invite?
We won’t bore you with details of all the shrines and temples but visiting them all took all day, involved lots of walking and climbing steps, taking off and putting back on of shoes (fortunately back in sandals – well we didn’t know there’d still be snow up there) and seeing a glimpse of Japan’s past that somehow is very much part of its present. (Yes Barry there were groups of teenagers in weird costumes even here.)
At the end of the day we were quite knackered so caught a taxi back down to Nikko train station ( a quaint half-timbered building) and experienced the usual politeness and courteousness as well as the ‘no-tipping’ culture – not only would the driver not keep the change he rounded it UP and gave it back to us. Whooshed back on the bullet train and for dinner – more noodles, more tofu, more vegetables but cooked and tasting differently, this time with beer to drink.
No sweat, 2 Polish builders and relaxed employment laws - 2 weeks.
ReplyDeleteAm I the only person who'd rather drink Iron Brew and eat deep fried Mars Bars rather than yuba-ryori.
There's something deeply wrong about a public servant not taking a bribe.
Was it serene? I always think or serenity when I think of Japan but was it? Thousands of tourists have a way of ripping the serenity out of things.
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