Monthly Archives: June 2014

Nagasaki, Japan

Dejima

Scale model of Dejima in the north-eastern garden area, Dejima

During the Edo period (1603 to 1868), the Japanese cautiously opened up to trade with the west, but in an effort to keep the trade at arms length because of concerns over the the spread of Christianity through Japan, it annexed foreign traders to a small fan-shaped island called Dejima. Initially inhabited by the Portuguese, and later by the Dutch, all cargo from foreign ships had to pass through this 120m x 75m islet, where Japanese officials could monitor and record all transactions.

Opperhoofd’s (Chief Factor’s) residence on Dejima. The ground floor was used for storage and the first floor for entertaining and living

The trade brought many benefits to Japan and Dejima became known as a centre of medicine, military science, and astronomy. Many samurai travelled here for so called “Dutch studies”.

The Dutch also brought billiards – more pockets than a magician’s jacket. Julie beating me, and the attendant beating me

As Nagasaki grew in the late 18th century, Dejima was reclaimed as part of the mainland and was lost until 1922 when the Japanese Government designated the land a National Historic Site and work began on restoring the canal that was originally dug to create Dejima, and re-establishing the buildings.

Because Dejima is still landlocked (save for the Nakashima River), it was difficult to visualise just how small it must have felt when it was surrounded by water, still, it was nice to see staff dressed in period costume, and there was plenty of information in English. Some of the exhibits felt a little sparse, but that’s understandable as most of the buildings would have been used for storage and exhibits of crate-filled warehouses would get boring very quickly!

Chinese settlement

While the Dutch were restricted to Dejima, the Chinese traders were supposedly confined to a square walled section of the port’s mainland, but in reality they had almost free movement within the city.

Map of the old Chinese quarter in Nagasaki

On the side of the valley overlooking the port, the old Chinese settlement was a little difficult to find because all that really remains of it are parts of the moat and some of the temples – the houses themselves have long since been replaced and it was very easy to get lost wandering through them.

The Temples of the Chinese Quarter in Nagasaki; Fukken-Kaikan; Kannon-do; Dojin-Do

We enjoyed the peace and tranquility of the Chinese temples, and it was nice to wander through the maze of narrow streets, peering into the homes and lives of normal people.

Glover Garden

With the Meiji Restoration (1868 to 1912), Japan reversed its isolated stance and foreign trade was once again encouraged. No longer confined to walled settlements, early merchants built lavish western-style homes overlooking the port, among them Thomas Blake Glover who was born in Scotland and moved to Nagasaki in 1859 at the age of 21.

Bust of Thomas Blake Glover

Glover is credited with developing western industrialisation and manufacturing in Japan; his shipbuilding business and dry dock later became the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan; and he also helped found the Japan Brewery Company which became the Kirin Brewery Company – now the largest domestic beer producer in Japan and whose logo is said to be based on a dragon statue in his house and incorporates his legendary moustache.

Glover’s house in the Glover Gardens, Nagasaki. The first western style house built in Japan

The Glover Garden is a collection of British entrepreneurial expat houses built on the same hillside overlooking the port of Nagasaki. All are very western in style and layout, and it was a bit like wandering through a well-to-do version of the Beamish museum back home!

Glover’s neighbours; Clockwise from top left: Former Alt Residence; Former Mitsubishi No. 2 Dock; The Sitting Room of the Former Alt Residence; Former Ringer House

It was really interesting to learn about the strong British-Japanese connection. We also learned that Madame Butterfly is set in the same hills of Nagasaki, and there’s a statue of Japan’s most famous Madame, Tamaki Miura, in the garden.

Statue of Tamaki Miura, Japan’s most famous Madame Butterfly

Mt Inasa

We took the cablecar to the peak of Mt Inasa, some 333m above the city. Because we were the only foreign tourists making the journey, we suspect the attendant played the English translation for our benefit, which we couldn’t help but laugh at – according to the recording, Nagasaki is in the top 3 night-time city port views in the world, alongside Hong Kong and Monaco. Yeah, right..

Nagasaki by night. One of the top 3 night-time city port views in the world. According to Nagasaki..

The view from the observation deck over the city was good, but Nagasaki lacks an iconic skyline that would make it immediately recognisable. As the sun started setting we settled down with a glass of wine at the mountain-top restaurant and watched the darkness descend and the lights come on.

According to the restaurant’s menu, Nagasaki’s local dish is “Turkey Rice”

What is “Turkey Rice”?
Turkey rice is a dish in which pork cutlet, pilaf and spaghetti are served together on one plate, Nagasaki’s local dish

In England, I guess it’d be called Turkey Rice Surprise.

Hypocenter, Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park

Having already visited Hiroshima’s Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park, we knew about the terrifyingly destructive power of atomic weapons, and we wanted to learn about the different consequences to Nagasaki.

Nagasaki 1945 – Before and after the atomic bombing (Source: Wikipedia)

Nagasaki is a series of narrow valleys and hillsides that feed into the main Urakami valley, which meant that while the atomic explosion was more powerful than that over Hiroshima, the geography confined the damage to a smaller area. This in turn meant there were far fewer injuries, but there were a similar number of fatalities.

Wall Clock stopped at 11:02, found 800 metres from the hypocenter and on display in the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum

Of the two, we preferred the layout, organisation and smaller size of Nagasaki’s Atomic Bomb Museum, and the more contemplative, greener and spacious Peace Park in Hiroshima.

The first room of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. Wreckage of destroyed buildings and screens showing photographs of the aftermath makes a powerful first impression

The main hall of the the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial building is a beautiful, modern, remembrance space that reminded us of the DT Suzuki Zen Museum in Kanazawa. We all but had the place to ourselves while we sat in quiet contemplation

The black triangular monument at the Nagasaki hypocenter

The Peace Statue at the Nagasaki Peace Park. The right hand pointing to the sky symbolises the threat of nuclear weapons, the flat left hand represents eternal peace and the eyes are closed in prayer for the souls of the victims

We found Nagasaki to be a historically rich destination, and we were pleased we made the effort to visit.

Kawachi Fuji Garden, Kyushu

Practical guide on how to get to Kawachi Fuji Garden

First get to Yahata station on the JR Kagoshima Line. We stayed at the Comfort Hotel in Kurosaki just one station away and found it to be a very pleasant business hotel, but making a day trip from Kitakyushu or Fukuoka would be very doable as well. At Yahata station you will find a number of bus stops on the left side of the car park as you exit the station building. The final one of these (furthest from the station building) is where the shuttle bus to Ajisai-no-yu onsen leaves from. I advise arriving 20-30 minutes early and queueing as there were more people than the bus could hold for the first bus when we visited and the driver did not allow standing passengers.

The shuttle bus is free and is supposed to be only for customers of the onsen. There was zero checking of this on our trip but I would recommend that you do as we did and make a full day of it with a visit to the onsen after the garden (the onsen is ¥800 for an adult with lots of different pools as well as a sauna and steam room). When you arrive at the onsen walk up the hill for a couple of minutes to find the entrance to the garden which will be on your right. When we visited entrance to the garden was ¥500 although I believe it varies according to how in bloom the flowers are.

It’s lovely to sit under the wisteria canopy and eat a picnic lunch but if you prefer there’s a restaurant in the onsen and snacks and drinks sold in its reception area. There aren’t any other shops or cafes near to the garden.

Shuttle bus timetable – the first bus leaves Yahata station at 10:15 and then 25 past the hour except 14:25. Buses back leave the onsen on the hour except at 14:00. You can check the timetable on the onsen website (Japanese only but here’s an automatic translation).

Hiroshima, Japan

Miyajima (Itsukushima)

A day trip from the centre of Hiroshima is the small island of Itsukushima, which is also known as Miyajima, or Shrine Island.

Us with the famous floating torii of the Itsukushima Shrine

After a short walk through the town, we filled ourselves with the local specialties of conger eel and breaded oysters before setting off to climb the 535 meters to the top of the island’s peak – Mount Misen.

Itsukushima Shrine and Hatsukaichi in the background, as viewed from the top of Mount Misen

The hike was steep in places, but fairly easy going. We made a couple of wrong turns – the first was trying to go through the Daisho-in temple where the map at the entrance clearly showed an exit at the top, but we only found a fence. Still, the temple had a very cute figure garden where all of the stone statues had been given knitted hats!

Julie with the be-hatted stone figures at the Daisho-in temple at the base of Mount Misen

Us at the top of Mount Misen, Itsukushima Island

We took the Daisho-in route up and the Momijidani route down, and our timing was perfect to catch the sunset and low-tide at the shrine before our return ferry to Hiroshima.

The stunning “floating” torii of Miyajima at sunset

Japanese markets

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Markets are some of our favourite places to visit. For a start we love food and it’s always interesting to see the exotic (to us) ingredients available to local cooks, and they are usually interesting and colourful places to photograph too. We’ve found Japanese markets to be just as interesting as the ones we visited in Riga, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Bangladesh, and three very different markets from the first half of our stay in Japan really stand out.

Omicho Market, Kanazawa

The Omicho market in Kanazawa really feels like a locals market. It is comprised of stalls mainly offering fresh ingredients and is arranged in a series of covered corridors. There were lots of restaurants around the fringes and on the second floor, we ate at a couple of them during the few days that we stayed in Kanazawa.

A quiet corner of Omicho Market

All kinds of fish feature heavily from live oysters to dried squid, and especially big red crabs, this fine specimen is priced at just under £30!

Japanese vegetables – that’s fresh wasabi in the bottom left, bamboo shoots above it and the white vegetable with green leaves to the right of the lemons is called udo

Non-fish and vegetable stalls include cakes, desserts and flowers

We enjoyed sashimi bought from the fishmonger for lunch one day – eaten standing at the side of his stall

Nishiki Market, Kyoto

This very long covered market stretches for four or five blocks through the centre of Kyoto. It was a great place to spend a rainy afternoon, unfortunately lots of other people had the same thought so we spent much of the time shuffling along in a crush of bodies. There were a lot of weird and wonderful traditional foodstuffs that we attempted to identify, with enough samples to keep things interesting and the occasional souvenir shop as well.

Stained glass skylight over Nishiki market

Vast arrays of pickled vegetables

Miso pickled vegetables (called misozuke) are made using a fermented soy bean paste

We managed to score several samples of sake by looking simultaneously appreciative and indecisive :)

Souvenirs included beautiful ceramics, mobiles and cotton scarves

Food offerings ranged from fresh vegetables and fish to the intriguing sounding ‘Espresso Milk Jam’ (sadly no samples available) and packs of spices

There were lots of snacks available too, these Tako-tamago looked interesting – a baby octopus with a quail’s egg in its head on a stiiiick!

Kagoshima Fish Market Tour

When we read in the Lonely Planet about the weekly early morning tour of the Kagoshima wholesale fish market I got very excited, to the point of planning our trip to make sure that we’d definitely be in town on a Saturday. The tour is run by a group of local hotels and ryokans, but it’s not necessary to be staying with one of them to join in.

We were collected from our hotel just after 7am and whisked off to the Wholesale Fish Market on the seafront where we were issued with wellies and met our guides and the rest of the group – two locals and a group from a Hong Kong TV company (without their video cameras). A market representative guided the group in Japanese, but fortunately for us Yukiko, one of the hotel managers, spoke good English and gave us a really good overview of what we were seeing.

Bustling commercial fish market in Kagoshima

When we arrived fish was being auctioned. The smallish group of wholesalers moved around to each of the crates with the auctioneers amidst a cacophony of bells and whistles. Everything happened very fast, there was a lot of cryptic jargon (even to Japanese ears not in the know) and the bidding was done by the wholesalers quickly scribbling their price on a clapper-like pocket chalkboard which was then flipped open at the auctioneer so that only he could see it. To us, it seemed like the wholesalers got one shot at naming their price for each crate before the auctioneer moved on to the next.

Auction in progress, the guys with the red caps are the auctioneers

Wellington boots are pretty much required footwear around the wet floor of the fish market

We were able to wander fairly freely, trying not to get in the way and marvelling at the huge diversity and amazing freshness of the fish. I’ve never seen eyes so bright or scales so shiny. Obviously the quantity and variety of fish each day varies. Yukiko told us that this morning’s catch was a particularly good one.

Flying fish are a specialty of the Kagoshima area. Their pectoral (side) fins are very long to allow them to glide over the water’s surface.

Fish of all different shapes, sizes and colours

Next we moved into the section of the market where the wholesalers sell to trade, i.e. restaurants and fishmongers selling to the public. Here we were given a demonstration of a 40kg tuna being carved and even got to try some as sashimi – short of cutting it up on the boat, I don’t think we could get it any fresher than that!

Tuna preparation: from whole fish to delicious sashimi in less than 10 minutes!

Some fish varieties aren’t available locally and these are imported from as far afield as Scotland, Argentina, and Chile, and kept in huge walk-in freezers at -20^oC. As you might imagine, keeping so much fish fresh in Kagoshima’s warm climate takes a lot of ice. Market employees send a piece of paper up a dangling line to order whatever quantity they need and then collect it from a nearby huge chute.

Clockwise from top left: refrigerated trucks lined up outside the fish market, collecting ice from the dispenser, the market’s shrine to the god of the sea where thanks are given for its generosity, Andrew and our guide inside the walk-in freezer

There are a couple of restaurants on site that serve meals to the employees and workers at the market, but they’re also open to the public whether you’ve been on the market tour or not. The whole group went to one of them after the tour. Andrew and I ordered the huge sashimi set which contained some slightly exotic items (a large sea snail, and sea urchin) as well as more familiar fish.

A sashimi feast! The snail is at the top left of the picture, the sea urchin is the orange coloured meat in the middle right. As well as this mountain of raw fish, the set meal also included rice, miso soup and pickled vegetables.

After seeing the workings of the market it was great to sample some of its delicious wares, and to talk with the hotel managers who created the fish market tour, and who continue to run it every week with the support of the Kagoshima Fish Market.

Yabusame mounted archery, Shimogamo Shrine, Kyoto

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Once a year on the 3rd of May (which fell at the beginning of Golden Week this year), the Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto hosts a display of Yabusame – or Japanese mounted archery.

Yabusame archer making his way to the starting line

Originally started by Minamoto no Yoritomo in the Kamakura period (1185 – 1333) to improve the archery of his shoguns, this event is now part of the Aoi Matsuri (or “Hollyhock”) festival in Kyoto, and it was a happy coincidence that we were in Kyoto and able to see this fantastic display of skill.

The 5 riders in traditional costume take it in turns to race down the 255-metre track 6 times, taking aim at 3 consecutive wooden targets on each pass. By the time we’d arrived the crowds had already gathered, so we took up a place by a large green square which turned out to be the background for the final target.

The Yabusame archers started the procession to the starting line at 2pm and very soon afterward we heard the crack of splintering wood and the roar of the crowd before the first rider came thundering down the course towards us, at the last possible second drawing his bow across his face to lose an arrow into the final target. We didn’t see the arrow at all, the archer flashed past and the target exploded behind him – it was so quick!

Yabusame archer taking out the final target at full speed

The speed and control of the horses reminded us of the Mongol warriors during the reign of Chinggis Khaan, where archery, horse-riding and wrestling are huge sports celebrated every year at Nadaam festivals throughout Mongolia.

Here’s a short video we took of some of the Yabusame archers which hopefully shows their skills of speed and accuracy..

A woman in the crowd next to us translated some of the announcements for us, and it turned out that one of the archers was an extra in the movie The Last Samurai!

two year trip

Andrew and Julie's Travelling Adventures