The land of the rising sun - Part 2 of 2

Ooops, this blog post should have been up and running earlier – sorry. Anyhow, it's only partly our fault (the old trick, always blame external factors). We were in Beijing until yesterday, where the government has blocked access to blogspot (and facebook and youtube for that matter). At least, somebody has finally realised the immense threat that this blog poses to the political stability of a world superpower. Having arrived in Ulaanbaatar, we can finally upload. To make up for our little delay, we have included more pictures and less text than usual - yay!

So where did we leave off? Right, Hiroshima. After Hiroshima, we headed for Kyoto, the former cultural and political capital of Japan. I guess there hasn't been a single tourist to Japan yet who didn't stop in that city of a rumoured 1,600 temples, 400 shrines, and many palaces - 17 of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

In case you are as ignorant a Westerner as Judith & I were and don't really know the difference between a shrine and a temple, here's a little guide. Of course, we're oversimplifying (again), and it might as well be the exact opposite way around.

• Shrines = Shinto, orange & white, torii gates, burn down a lot.

• Temples = Buddhist, wooden brown & white, Buddha statues (really?!), burn down a lot.

• Palaces/ castles = for rich/ powerful people, often have those creaking nightingale floors so the rich/ powerful could hear their enemies sneak up on them, burn down a lot.

 

It might not have escaped you that all of the above have a tendency to burn down quite easily. The preference for wooden structures combined with an obsession for the open flame (ceremonies, lighting, heating, burning arrows, arson) means that almost all temples, shrines, palaces, and castles have had to be rebuilt at some stage, often several times. That doesn't make them any less impressive, though. Our favourites included a temple with 1000 wooden statues painted in gold, a shrine with hundreds of torii (see below), and the golden palace built by a modest rich man (also see below).

Several schools of Buddhism are headquartered in Kyoto, meaning that some of the temple compounds are massive. Many of them feature beautiful gardens and parks. The famous Zen gardens (a must-have for any Hollywood star) are truly stunning and convey an air of harmony and tranquillity which is hard to match.

 

Of course, there are certain rules you should follow when visiting the sights. Before entering a shrine, for example, you typically wash your hands and mouth with water using the large wooden spoons provided.   

 

It's not all about temples, shrines, palaces, and castles, though. The second, no less interesting side of Kyoto is the traditional part of Japanese culture often referred to as “Geisha culture”. Before the 2nd World War, there were thousands of Geishas and Maikos (apprentice Geishas) around, most of them in Kyoto. Ever since, that number has fallen rapidly, and today there are only a few hundred left. Geishas spend their most of their time playing (drinking) games, reciting poems, playing an instrument, telling jokes, singing, and generally entertaining 60-year old Japanese politicians and executives. Real Geishas are hard to find, but you sometimes see one rushing to a new appointment in some of the very expensive traditional tea-houses. Their rarity has made them a tourist attraction, both for foreigners and Japanese. Thanks to our zoom camera, we are able to provide you with this exclusive shot (of what we think is a Maiko), paparazzi style. 

 

Having spent the past weeks in big cities, our small-town upbringing gained the upper hand again in that Judith & I really wanted to see something of the more remote Japanese countryside. Since we didn't have enough time to go to the Northern island of Hokkaido, we decided to spend some time around famous Mount Fuji instead. I'm sure you've all seen pictures of this iconic, almost perfectly shaped mountain volcano (well, you have now). The surrounding area of Kawaguchiko is beautiful, too, with lakes, forests, and a sleepy small-town feel. It's so small that we didn't even find a place to watch the Germany-Ghana match at 3.30am... Frustrated with the appalling quality of our emergency internet streaming, we decided to skip the second half of the match to watch the perfectly pink sunrise over Mount Fuji at 4.30am. Not bad, either.

We enjoyed engaging in some of the more outdoorsy activities like cycling, hiking, mimicking statues, and a wee bit of climbing around Mount Fuji, but paid for it dearly with very sore muscles for days to come. Sissies. It will be interesting to see how we'll cope with hiking for days with our 20+kg backpacks in Mongolia.

Our last stop in Japan was Tokyo. We were glad to come back there, since we both love the place. Among many other things, we visited Yoyogi Park on Sunday afternoon. Around that time, the park is usually packed with young bands performing and rockabillies dancing and dressing like in the good olden days. Fabulous.

We also tried some delicious tea with Toshiki, whom I know from my studies in London, and met up again with Jan-Hendrik and his friend Ayako for football & food.

I have mentioned the incredible size of Tokyo before. The best time and place to experience this is at night when the lights of the city come out, ideally from the top of a tall building. We went to the Tour Eiffel-copy Tokyo Tower and once again were amazed. Pictures can't really capture the atmosphere (also see the very first pic of this post not capturing the atmosphere), but anyway...

 

 

This closes our Japan chapter – well, not really, we'll write a bit about Japanese food in a separate section. Where to next? After a stopover in Beijing, we are now in Mongolia. Quite a difference to everything we've seen before. Given the lack of electricity and internet connections in a lot of the places we are about to visit, it might be a while until we get back to you on this. But have faith in us: we will be back.