Kyoto revisited - Gion

One of the most iconic (and thus one of the most crowded) places in Kyoto is Gion.  This district kind of sums up Kyoto.  Traditional, old, beautiful, and historic.  It is one of the busiest places in Kyoto and therefore one of the most frustrating places........unless you go there at night......

For me, there is something magical about old traditional places in Japan at night time.  Without the hustle and bustle of daytime, you get a more realistic vibe of what the places would have been like when the traditional was the norm.  It was for this reason that myself and friend Tetsuya caught the train to Gion at about 9:30 at night.  We got off at Kawaramachi station and headed straight for Hanamikoji dori, the heartbeat of Gion.  Right on the first corner is an exclusive restaurant, Ichiriki-tei.  For those of you who know the story of the 47 Ronin (very different to the Hollywood movie, you can find my post about the story here) the leader of the 47 Ronin, Oishi, used to frequent this place as he and the others were plotting their revenge.

As I said before, you get a special feeling walking along streets like these at night.

And, like I said, the hoards of tourists are nowhere to be found!!

As with any place in Japan, often the side streets are more interesting than the main streets.

This tiny alleyway was lined with restaurants and from the outside we could hear people talking, laughing and enjoying themselves in these exclusive restaurants.

Just after taking the photo above a geisha walked out of a restaurant and hurried along down the street!  My first geisha!!  About 20m behind us was a couple of other tourists who took it upon themselves to spoil her night.  As she walked past they pulled out their camera and started snapping away like a pair of paparazzi.  Please, if you are ever graced with the good fortune of seeing a geisha, please, please don't do this.  She is not a tourist attraction, she is just doing her job.  If you do want to take a photo, please ask her if it is okay, but remember, you are imposing on her.  Sorry, rant over.

We walked passed Yasaka shrine

and back down to Pontocho (to be featured in a separate post).  We stopped at a little shop selling takoyaki (balls of batter with octopus pieces and other bits and pieces in them) and wagyu beef skewers.  We ordered a couple of skewers and I stood back to take this photo.

As I looked up, Tetsuya was looking at me and said "You just missed it!".  "What did I miss" I asked.  "Another geisha just walked past!"...... I slapped myself in the forehead for missing it.  We walked off down Pontocho with our wagyu skewers.  As we walked along Tetsuya said "The geisha, she walked into that restaurant".  A second or so after he said that, she walked back out again!!  Now Pontocho is a pretty narrow alley and Tetsuya and I walking along cover about 90% of the street!  We both jumped to the sides of Pontocho and said "すみません" (excuse me).  She looked at us both with a smile on her face and said "Sorry".  Now that little encounter was so much more memorable than a photo!

That finished the night on a high note!

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Naha's castle - Shuri castle (Shurijo - Naha, Okinawa 首里城)

As you know from a post last year (Charlies tacos), I took a trip down to Okinawa with good friend Tetsuya.  One of the places that we wanted to visit was Shuri castle.

Shuri castle was built back in 1429 and a lot of the structure has real similarities to Chinese architecture.  It was the palace of the Ryukyu kingdom until 1879 when Okinawa became part of Japan.  It was left mostly unused and deteriorated over time.  During the battle of Okinawa that devastated much of Okinawa, Shuri castle was heavily damaged.  In 1992, reconstruction commenced back to what it is today.

Tetsuya decided to brave the heat and visit the castle during the day.  I chickened out because of the heat and decided to visit later in the evening.  Jumping on the monorail I went all the way to the end, Shuri castle and started the short walk to its location.  Along the way I spotted some beautiful old style buildings.

Not sure what they were but they looked nice.  I kept on going and saw a sign pointing the way to the entrance of the castle.

I wasn't so sure, but I decided to trust the sign and continued on and things started looking a little better.

This looked a whole lot more Royal and closer to what I was expecting.  I rounded a corner and came face to face with this.

I stopped to say Hi to the Shisa at the entrance.

Shisa are traditional Okinawan guardians.  They represent lions and are often seen in pairs, one with it's mouth open, the other it's mouth closed.  The open mouthed one, like this one here, keeps evil spirits away while the open mouthed one keeps good spirits in.  I thanked him for his work and moved on inside the gates where I was greeted with this view.

Incredible!  And for it to be so quiet too!  It was almost like Okinawa was saying "Jason, here you are."

I bought a ticket (820 yen) to go inside and headed on in.

As with a lot of places at the moment, Shuri castle is undergoing renovations and the front part of the main castle was having some work done.

It is inevitable that tourist spots will have work done on them from time to time to keep them in top condition.  This, in no way, detracted from the experience that I was going through.  I moved on in to the castle itself and it was here that the mix of Japan and Ryukyu shone through.  This, very much Japan.

and this, very much Ryukyu.

Unfortunately for me, closing time was approaching so I made my way out of the castle

and back towards the station.

Okinawa has a unique culture and Shuri castle had just given me a unique experience. In fact it, and the people and the way of life, reminded me a lot of Australia and Australians.  I highly recommend visiting the castle in the evening.  Not only will you avoid the heat, but also the crowds and get a beautiful perspective of the castle lit grandiosely.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the photos (which don't really do the castle justice).  Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you, and please sign up on the right side of the screen to get email updates when I upload a new post.  Take care and see you next time.

One of Japan's top 100 castles - Hachioji castle (八王子城)

At the end of the last post I left a message inviting people to leave me a message with a letter of the English alphabet and a number.  What I would then do would be to find a train line in the Greater Tokyo area beginning with the letter provided and then find a station along the line that matched the number (train stations here recently have been given a designated number to assist foreign tourists make their way around.  I would then try to find something in the area to write about.  The first person to leave me a message was Ms B.  She left me B 22.  I searched long and hard around the Tokyo area for a train line beginning with the letter B, but no luck.  Sorry Ms B but I had to move on to the next letter in the alphabet, C.  Immediately I thought of the Chuo Line.  Now station number 22 happens to be Hachioji.  Next problem, what is there in Hachioji?  I started searching and found that Mount Takao is located in Hachioji city but I have already written about that (post can be found here).  A little more searching and I stumbled across Hachioji castle.  "What is this?" I mused, having not heard of Hachioji castle before.  I little more searching and I realised that this was it.  I was going to visit Hachioji castle!  I was also to find out that not many Japanese people know of Hachioji castle, even people who have lived in Hachioji city for years.  What a hidden gem!

Hachioji castle has a very short history, and a very violent finale.  Construction of the castle started in the 1570's by Ujiteru Hojo of the powerful Hojo clan.  The Hojo clan controlled most of the Kanto area which is comprised of Tokyo, Kanagawa to the south, Chiba to the east and Saitama and Gunma to the north.  Possessing such a large tract of land gave them a huge amount of power.  Their main castle was located at nearby Odawara but Ujiteru built Hachioji as a defensive fortress.  Located at the top of a mountain, it was thought that it would be much easier to fend off enemy forces.

Skip ahead to 1590 and another guy by the name of Hideyoshi Toyotomi was well on his way to unifying all of Japan under a central rule.  One of the final pieces of regional power left to fall was the Kanto area.  He marched 150,000 men to Odawara, surrounded the castle and started a waiting game.  He didn't attack the castle, just lay siege to it.  What he did do was to send a force of men around the Kanto area taking down each of the smaller Hojo family castles, slowly whittling away their power.  Our friend, Ujiteru Hojo heard this news and quickly made his way back to Odawara castle leaving a force of 1,300 men protecting Hachioji castle.  Hideyoshi Toyotomi sent two of his military commanders, Toshiie Maeda and Kagekatsu Uesugi, along with a force of 50,000 soldiers to take down Hachioji castle.  It fell in less than a day. This victory was influential in finishing the resistance of the Hojo family at Odawara caslte and they surrendered the next month.  A couple of weeks ago I paid a visit to Hachioji castle.

The nearest station to the castle is Takao station and while technically not station 22 (it is 24) it is within Hachioji city.  I met up with friends Tetsuya and Jarrett at Takao station and headed out the North exit to where the bus stop is.  We jumped on the bus (which is clearly marked in English "For Hachioji castle" and within 15 minutes we had arrived at the entry point to the castle.

We started in toward the castle and the forest was thick around us.

This is in the area where the front gate of the castle used to be.

Walking through here I could imagine the Hojo soldiers viewing the sight of the massive Toyotomi army marching toward the castle gates.  I could imagine them retreating from the front gates back into the main castle area.

The path kept winding up the hill toward the castle proper

eventually arriving at the last obstacle before reaching the castle, Hikihashi.

It was one final obstacle as the bridge was built so that it was easily collapsible, thus forcing attacking enemies to find an alternative way across the river to get to the castle, effectively buying the inhabitants a little extra time.  In this case, it was futile as Toyotomi's men soon found a way in, as did we.  We had it a little easier than those 427 years ago as those who had reconstructed the bridge in recent times kindly made it sturdier and non-collapsible.

Reaching the other side, we made our way up the stone stairs just as Toyotomi's men had 427 years ago.

and into the grounds of the main castle building.  All that remains now are a few foundation stones and the foundation of the main castle residence where Ujiteru Hojo lived.

The silence was mystical and mesmerising, while at the same time, sombre and haunting.  Just a handful of people wandering around wordlessly taking in the atmosphere of this place, this place which had been, historically, a crucial part of one of the most significant episodes in Japan's history, the re-unification of Japan under a centralised rule.

Turning around, I noticed a path leading back into the forest behind the castle so I wandered in to have a look.

I kept following it deeper into the tangle of trees and undergrowth

further deeper until the path started fading away

and I began to feel as though I might just about to have my own Blair Witch moment so I turned around and made my way back along the path and back into the clearing.  Heading off to the right I made my way down a path that led me away from the main area of the castle ruins.

In front of me was a worn path

that led to a waterfall.

It was here on that fateful day, in 1590, that thousands of soldiers and regular townsfolk fled to get away from the oncoming forces.  It was here that they took their own lives rather than be captured or killed by the enemy.  Exactly how many people died here that day is unknown, lost in time.  Some reports say 50,000 people died here (although that number may have been inflated by the sands of time).  Legend says that the river water ran red for 3 days after.

A memorial to the fallen, perhaps.

I made my way back down to the entrance of the castle area, again, surrounded by silence, a silence that cloaked what had happened all those years ago.

I think I will end this one here.  There is more to the castle are than I saw, I just had to leave when I did to get back to the bus stop to catch the bus back to the train station.  As it turned out, we had missed the last bus and had to walk back to Takao station!

Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed that Ms B.  That one was for you.  Please leave a comment below and tell me what you thought of this post about Hachioji castle.  Also, feel free to sign up for email updates when I put up a new post.  See you next time.