Place ranking

So, the trip is soon over. What are the pros and cons of each place I visited? Which did I like, and why? What were the drawbacks? Let's try to list the pros and cons, eh?

Kyoto
Pros: A city of great historical interest, Kyoto sports several amazing temples. Most notably the Daigo-ji, the kinkaku-ji, ginkaku-ji and Sanjusangendo. These should all be visited. Kyoto is also quite close to Nara, which certainly should be included in any trip here.

Cons: I feel that Kyoto is a bit overrated. Yes, the temples are beautiful. Yes, they have a nice commercial district in the Gion. But then that's pretty much it. I'm an avid fan of temple vissits, but I was sick of them after five days here. So yeah, I still agree that Kyoto should be visited, but maybe just for 2-3 days.

Rating: 3/5

Hiroshima
Pros: Also of historical interest, Hiroshima has its Peace museum as the general attraction. But there is also the beautiful island of Miyajima, plus the fact that the food here was brilliant. Everything was delicious!

Cons: besides those two sightseeing things, there's really not much to do here that makes it stand out.

Rating: 3/5

Osaka
Pros: Osaka is quite charming, and is placed in a central position which makes it an excellent base for exploring the Kansai region. Osaka also has a quite nice castle and a good historical museum, as well as lots of commerce.

Cons: Sure, there's nothing really wrong with Osaka, but there really isn't much about the city. Instead, it's all about the possible daytrips. If you include Koya-san and Ise-Jingu, then Osaka becomes interesting.

Rating: 3/5 without the daytrips, 4/5 with them.

Takamatsu and Kagawa prefecture
Pros: Northern Shikoku is well worth a visit, with a number of good temple grounds, a beautiful garden in Takamatsu, and the Seto inland sea to explore. They also have great udon!

Cons: Well, really, Takamatsu only suffers in relation to Tokushima.

Rating: 4/5

Matsumoto
Pros: a charming city with surprisingly much in it, despite its rather small size. It is also brilliantly placed to be the base of any exploration of Nagano prefecture. The people is very friendly, and you can easily get to talk to some of them at a local izakaya.

Cons: At the time, the railroad was damaged by that typhoon, making some trips more difficult.

Rating: 4/5

Tokyo
Pros: The city to visit. Tokyo has everything the other cities have, and much much more. It is easy to spend many many days here, no matter what you are interested in.

Cons: A truly international city, there a quite a few touristy areas. There are also a LOT of people here :S.

Rating: 4/5

The two locations of special notice though, the ones that really got to me and really didn't have any cons, are the following two (they both have 5/5 of course):

Tokushima: the cosiest town I visited, with crabs running on the pathways in the park, and access to the fabulous Iya Valley.

Norikura: the most beautiful nature experience, and an excellent complement to the more tropical sense of Iya valley. Norikura was incredible in every way.

For me personally, Tokushima also has a special place in my heart because it became my completely own experience, and Norikura has an equally special place in my heart because it to a high degree was not my own experience. And if that was cryptic you are not meant to understand it.

The music of this trip

For various reasons, these have been my go-to songs during this journey:


Beautiful World


Bullet Train - Stephen Swartz


It's all understood


Counting Stars

Wastelands


Ice Age


In your Atmosphere


Various Methods of Escape


Puppet grudge seeing, it scatters



And this:

Odaiba again

They say Odaiba is a great place for dating.

But every time I'm here, crossing the Rainbow Bridge in either direction, it seems I'm missing a loved one.

So maybe they're right.

And maybe I should follow John Mayer's advice and just not come around anymore.

But then again, he probably didn't follow his own advice, so why should I?

Ikebukuro

I went to Ikebukuro, a part of Tokyo I haven't been to before. It's said to be a little like Akiba Electric town, and also is the setting for the anime series Durarara.

However, when I came to Ikebukuro, it was hard to find any of the places from the anime. No Russian sushi, for example :(.

Also, the connection to Akiba seemed tenuous at best. Sure, there were some electronic stores, but nothing really special that assoicated to otaku culture.

However. There were of course, places like... eh... these:

So maybe the connection to Akiba and Otaku culture is the porn part :-/

Asakusa fireworks festival

Yesterday, there was a fireworks (hanabi)festival in Asakusa - the biggest in Tokyo, apparently. The streets were crowded, but the hostel gave us guests an acceptable lookout spot.

How well do you know pachinko? Test yourself!

Anyone familiar with Japanese culture knows of the wonderful institution of pachinko. But how well do you know it? Now, with this new amazing test, you can find out!

Below, you will find four videos of pachinko areas. One is from Kyoto, one is from Osaka and two are from Tokyo. Which is from where?

A)

B)

C)

D)

For each correct answer, you get 1 point. Your pachinko mastery level is determined as follows:

0-1 point
You know nothing at pachinko, and are also rather bad at choosing randomly.

2 points
You have some pachinko experience, but it could be increased for higher levels of pachinko mastery.

3 points
You are honored master of pachinko! I bow to you.

4 points
PACHINKO!

Norikura dake

The summit of mount Norikura, consisting of a number of peaks, the highest of which is 3026 m.

The many arms of Kannon

The visually most interesting Buddha statue is, in my opinion, the Boddhisatva Kannon. Especially in her thousand-armed form (Senju Kannon).

Kannon is a popular deity in most East Asian countries, and Japan is no exception. According to the mythology, Kannon was originally a human princess. Her father wanted to marry her off to some rich/politically powerful man, but Kannon refused to marry anyone who didn't help easing the pain and affliction of humans. This so angered her father that he had her executed. However, the executioner could not fulfill the deed, since all of reality loved Kannon for her great compassion: thus the axe would not bite her. Kannon realized that the executioner would be punished no matter what he did: if he failed to execute Kannon, her father would punsih him, and if he did succeed, he would go to Hell for this sin. Thus she asked the blade to bite her, and accepted the executioner's bad karma as her own: she thus was killed, and went to Hell for taking responsibility for her own death.

However, Kannon would not stay dead: her mercy and compassion was so strong that the part of Hell she ended up in was transformed into a paradise, and she was sent out of Hell and returned to Earth, where she lived quietly in a temple.

A little while later, her father the king became very ill. The physicians found no cure for his ailment, but an oracle then said that the king could be saved by a medicine made out of an arm and an eye of a person without anger, and that such a person lived in a certain temple. When the king's men arrived at the temple, Kannon willingly sacrificed and arm and an eye to cure her father. The king was cured, and when he learned who she was he repented and bade for forgiveness.


The legend ends with Kannon about to ascend into nirvana. However, on her way, she heard crying and stopped and turned about. It was all the people suffering on Earth she heard. Then she decided to stay on the Earth and try to ease the suffering of all. However, she was very worried that she couldn't help everyone, since she had only one arm. But then from her, a multitude of arms burst forth, and since then she had as many arms as she needed to help all people.

Kannon is the goddess of Mercy, and is said to feel compassion with everyone, as the story above shows. In that way, I find her a little similar to the Satan of Christianity, who also accepts all humans without demanding that they adhere to certain rules.



So me of the pictures above are from the Sanjusangendo temple in Kyoto, with 1001 Kannon statues. I visited it, but photographing was not allowed, so I found these pics on the net.

The Norikura Guesthouse, Ten gallon hat

Some pics from the place to stay while at Norikura!

 Rie-san and Ryoichi-san say hello!

Last night drinking with guests, hosts and staff

Norikura woods

Some pics from the forest areas around Norikura.

Norikura waterfalls

Two waterfalls at the Norikura area:

This is the Zengorou no dake

and this is the Bandokoro ohtaki

The surroundings of the Bandokoro were also interesting:

The moths of Matsumoto

At night, the streets of Matsumoto are overtaken by moths. They swarm around the streetlights, ruling the night.

Then comes the morning, and still many moths remain, despite night being over. You can see them clinging on to store windows, trying to hide in dark corners of the street. They seem rather helpless, sitting ducks to any birds who might want to prey on them.

On the other hand, the moths pressing against the walls and windows are alive. All over the streets you can find the scattered remains of their brethren, who did not survive the night.

So maybe it’s preferable to linger on, waiting for the inevitable fadeout? Or is it better to go out in a blaze of glory, scattering all over the street?

I hope the moths don’t plague themselves with such questions – their existence seems hard enough already.

The Ninja Museum

In the village of Togakushi, they commemorate the fact that their mountain monks used to study the way of ninpo, and work as ninjas. The museum was complete with a collections on ninja equipment, as well as a "ninja house" of trapdoors to negotiate.