Knife Festival and Lantern Art

Seki's annual knife festival is big news in this area and yesterdays glorious weather must have tempted everyone out because it was heaving. Seki's main street was lined with knife stalls interspersed with classic Japanese street food. The crowds edged their way along and you had to queue and dodge to get close to the best knife sellers. It was interesting seeing our sleepy city transformed into a tourist hotspot not least for all the foreign faces and snatches of English conversation. 
Seki's knife fame comes from it's Katana (Samuri sword) making heritage. It's location near the incredibly fresh water of the Nagara river and the quality of the soil made it ideal for forging swords. We watched a demonstration of traditional sword making with the blacksmiths in traditional dress. 

After this we found a carpark transformed into a fighting and sword demonstration arena where surprisingly few of the crowd had ended up. 

In the evening we made our way to Mino and walked around the pretty, old streets to atmospheric music shuffling through the crowds looking at the huge array of lit up paper lanterns. There were wedding dresses, globes, even a church made of paper and lit up. There were a couple of live music venues and all the cafes and shops were open. It was really cold strolling around and the late night opening and festive atmosphere reminded us of a Christmas market in England.

Today we went to a garden party in Mino and met some of the lantern artists. There are currently four foreign paper artists staying and working in Mino. Two of my students are working as translation helpers and invited us to the party mostly because of the coincidence of there being a young English woman from around Bristol among the artists. It was very nice to chat to her and of course she'd spent time living in Brighton-who under 30 hasn't it seems?! We met many other interesting people; Japanese and otherwise. The temperatures in the day are still in the high twenties but if you keep to the shade it's quite comfortable and the blue skies mid-October are really glorious. 

So a lovely fusion of new vs old, Japanese vs foreign and summer vs winter this weekend. 


P.S Mum for you a picture of the carp in the river:

Rice Harvest and Persimmons

Hello.
Although the day time temperatures are still in the mid twenties night times are cold and the leaves are beginning to turn. Most of the green rice fields are now harvested brown stumps. And here I have failed you-I have some pictures of the rice harvest but on my useless Japanese phone where they are trapped. So I'll try and explain.
The rice is harvested using a miniature combine and the stalks are gathered into cone shapes tied at the base and then hung upside-down along a horizontal pole. The green smell of rice growing is no longer in the breeze but instead is the scent of persimmon trees. Persimmons are traditional Japanese fruits that are ready to eat in autumn. They look a bit like yellowy beef tomatoes. The smell is slightly citrusy and fresh but with a hint of sherbet. The flavour is quite delicate and the texture somewhere between an apple and a plum.
Japan is waking up for the sleepiness induced by the heavy summer heat and now it is festival season again. We missed out on the Spring festival time because most events were cancelled after the earthquake. So this weekend we're looking forward to Seki Knife festival and Mino lantern festivals. Pictures to follow.
Love Jo

Takayama-Photos and everything

Hello.
Autumn has arrived, sight-seeing has recommenced, I am back! Today is a national holiday in Japan so we don't have to go to work! It's the autumn equinox and is a day to celebrate and honour ancestors. Right on cue the temperature has dropped. Last night I was cold cycling to and from work-not chilly but cold and I was wearing a jacket!
We planned to get up early as we'd had such varying reports on journey times to Takayama; from 2 to 4 hours. As it was we both woke up at 6am and decided to get up and go. The sun had just risen and as we drove through the mountains we reached parts still slightly dim as they waited for the sun to reach above the shadows of opposing peaks. As we neared Takayama we could see clouds nestling in the mountains below us. It turned out to take less than 2 hours at that time in the morning and using the toll roads.
We arrived to dark clouds and a chilly wind as we walked along the river to the centre of the city. We arrived through a giant Torra gate at the otherside of a bridge and were greeted by the morning markets. As we got further into the winding old style streets the shops were still unopened and only a few other eager tourists mingled about. We had coffee and Jasmine tea at a traditional wooden coffee house and Takayama woke up around us. It was amazing to see the difference when we found our way back to those streets later in the afternoon-they were packed with tourists and rickshaws.
We strolled around some Temples, across many pretty bridges where Weeping Willow trees blew about in the breeze. The sun came out and was pleasantly warming-a sensation I had forgotten. We had lunch (pretty early) in a lovely travellers cafe with guest books on the tables and postcards on the walls. We ordered pancakes and they came with a friend egg, bacon, tomatoes, fried potato, a lovely salad with a smokey dressing and parmasan cheese as well as crisps  and homemade Italian style bread on the side!
We strolled more shops and Temples in the afternoon before heading back to Seki. It felt like a real holiday day-I'm not sure if it was the effect of an extra day off of work or the cool weather.

 The tora gate at eigth thirty am-I don't know why Mike looks super-imposed-he was really there.

 One of the many Japanese flags flying today.

 Another beautiful river shot!

 Temple gates.

 A huge bell that we watched a monk ring at midday.

 Just to prove it's cool-a jacket and a scarf and I was cold!

Swimming

Today we went swimming at the public swimming pool in Seki-not the straightforward experience you'd imagine. They clean the pool every hour or so and there is an announcement for everyone to get out at this time. People either sit around the sides or get into the various jacuzzi set ups. After about ten minutes you are allowed back into the main pool but first the lifeguard leads everyone in a set of stretching exercises. Everyone joins in. No-one laughs. It is a genuine moment in Japanese swimming and then everyone is back in and off.
There is also a great deal of walking in the pool. There is a special walking pool with a current and bars for you to follow like a queuing system around the pool. In the main pool there are walking lanes roped  off. So yet again the every day proves to hold hidden treasures of bizarreness to enjoy!

Carrying On

Everyone is too hot. The conversation starts always with it's very hot today. Everyone is tired and a little dizzy or they have a headache. The summer trickles on here meeting autumn head on in typhoon season. This weekend was respite for us in Seki with a brisk breeze and a couple of cool rainy nights. For others it was a reminder of how vicious the natural world can be and how precarious little Japan is.
I spent yesterday hiding from all the bad weather, all the bad news, in Nagoya's famous department stores. A labyrinth of escalators and passageways that suddenly open up onto wide open spaces with pop up shops in the middle and the more established designer boutiques glassed off with museum like window displays. In some areas the sales are unattended racks in the unadorned corridor leading to the toilets in others Dolce and Gabana shoes hang from black chandeliers. The rough and the smooth, the rich and the poor, the lucky and the unlucky.
I stumbled across a tiny Fortnum and Masons concession and down in the depths of the fairground like food hall was a miniature Harrods tucked into a little alcove. Everywhere was crowded, fashions were as varied and enjoyable as ever and I found as much joy in browsing little boutiques housing items with nonsensical  English phrases as ever. This is the lesson I learn in Japan. The government battles, the ground shakes, the mountains fall down but Japanese people keep going. 6 months in and it still surprises me. Just as it surprises them that six months on people still aren't visiting their country.

Kyoto in Summer

It is hot in Kyoto in the summer. The city sits like a footwell below the mountains and gets no cooling breeze. The heat climbs and the humidity has no respite. Once you get over 30 degrees it's difficult to actually do anything. Moving around an incredibly crowded city in 38Cs is hard work. But the rewards in Kyoto are enough for the most sceptical sight-see-er. The Winding walkway up and up and up to Khyomizu Temple tempts you onwards through the crowds past the airconditioned sanctuaries of treasure shops and tourist cafes. Each bend disappoints you're sweating body but entices the curious spirt certain that itf it's this difficult then it will be worth it. To see the floating floor and to feel so high above the city it is. To know that you are in history while you can see modernity calms you somewhere inside where the ever recycled atoms that created you live.

The Golden Temple offers itself up for your disappointment but however small, however crowded the sight of a it sat amongst the pond is magical; a painting that you can walk around. The moss and the trees and the stillness of the water dare you to try and stir up all the years that this has meant something to so many people. And if you're immune to all that then the chanting monks bring it all back home.

Ryioma Temple offers a tiny Zen rock garden with a soft wood floored veranda to view it from. A veranda that somehow catches a current of cool air. It would be heaven just to sit there alone and never have to move. The peace is tangible almost electric except for it's stillness.

Inbetween there was the ever glorious Sakura and Kaede Ryokan to stay at. Cool, peaceful and thoughtful and the glamour of Gion with the chance glimpse of a Maiko real or otherwise. I can't say that it's the best city to visit everyone has their favourite for different reasons but it's certainly like no other.

The Visit

This past week has been a rush through bitesize Japanese culture. Since our friends arrived we have been Washi paper shopping, Sushi eating, Festival going, Neon-City clothes shopping, Temple visiting, Museum strolling, Onsen soaking and Castle viewing to mention a few. Our day trip to Inuyama was perfect with blue skies and sunshine. We walked to the top of the castle via it's steep wooden stairways feeling the smooth shine of the wood underfoot. After a lunch of Japanese curry we went to an architectural museum called Meji Mura and had drinks in the relocated Tokyo Imperial Hotel.
Kaminoho Onsen held a view of the mountains and at ten in the morning we pretty much had the hot srpings to ourselves.
As we left Nagoya in the dusk we got the full hit of the famous Japanese neon which was rejuvenating after a day of heavy shopping topped off by a beer and Jazz music in the park by Nagoya's T.V tower. All very enjoyable although if you think that's impressive the visitors are currently in Kyoto and have Tokyo and Mount Fuji yet to see!

 Inuyama Castle.

 The three of us in the hotel.

A traditional Kabuki theatre moved to Meji Mura from Osaka.