Wednesday, October 18, 2017

“Traveling. It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”, IBN Battula

So storyteller may be my new profession :). Or maybe just a way to document and remember all the interesting things we are seeing and doing.  Yesterday was another private tour arranged by one of the passengers several months before we started.  We docked around 8 at Osaka which was the time for our tour to begin.  There were 41 one of us, the driver and two English speaking guides.  Dan still has his head cold and didn’t feel really energetic but we knew a lot of the tour would be spent on the bus getting to the historic sites we wanted to see.  The day was mostly cloudy with some sun breaks but no rain and at times it was so warm we needed to take off our jackets.  Our three sites consisted of the Sanjusangendo Hall, the Heian Shrine and the Nijo Castle along with a stop for a traditional Japanese style lunch. All along the way our guides took turns telling us about their city and our destinations.  One guide was a Japanese gentleman who did this on a part time basis.  His English was very good; I suspected he might have been a teacher but am not sure.  The other was a young lady who was half Filipino and half Japanese.  She was born in the US but was very interested in traveling abroad and studying Japanese so she came several years ago on a university program and then applied for a work visa getting a job with the tour company.  Both had a good sense of humor and shared a lot of personal things about living in Japan and traveling around the islands.  

The Sanjusangen Hall or temple houses 1001 statues of the Buddhist deity .  One thousand standing statues of Kannon (important cultural properties) and one gigantic seated statue are placed at the center of the standing statues and are housed in the temple.  We all had to remove our shoes to enter the temple and were told there was no talking; but there were literally bus loads of students from elementary to jr high age going through the temple with their teachers and the teachers were sharing information with them quietly.  We were quite impressed with how respectful and well behaved the students were.  All were in uniforms and there was no inappropriate behavior or comments.  All the statues are made of Japanese Cypress; 124 of them were made in the12th century when this temple was founded; the rest, 876 were made in the 13th century when the temple was renovated.  The photos I have aren’t great because there was no photo taking inside the temple; they would confiscate your phone or camera if you even tried to take a photo.  I took the photos I have off the brochure.  The two powerful looking statues of the Thunder God and the Wind God (he is carrying what looks like a long bag on his shoulders) are at either side of the temple on raised pedestals that look cloud shaped.  These Gods were derived from the people’s fear of and gratitude for nature in the old days.  These God’s they felt controlled the rain and wind and brought about good harvests.  There are 28 images placed in a straight line in front of the 1001 statues and are guardian deities that protect the Buddhist deity.  Many are mythical images expressed in a vivid manner having their origin from ancient India.  They were made in an assembled method with arms and heads being carved separately and then joined together coated with lacquer and finished with coloring.  This temple was established by a powerful warrior politician in 1164.  The original temple was lost in a fire but the building was reconstructed in 1266!!  This has remained unchanged for 700 years with four great renovations made during that period.  The long temple hall is about 120 meters long.  There are 33 spaces between the columns therefore the name for this temple which means a hall with 33 spaces between the columns.  

After about an hour at this temple we reboarded the bus for the Heian Shrine.  Here is some of the interesting information the guides shared as we traveled...

Osaka mostly was wetlands...they are great rivals with Tokyo.  It is very expensive to build because of earthquake standards.  As we drove we noticed that laundry was hanging everywhere on balconies. Not as clean here as what we saw in the other Japanese cities..we noticed garbage in the mediums and along the sides of the streets cigarettes and small debris.  There is  no sound of “L” in Japanese.  Universal Studios Japan is located in Osaka close to the port and the Japanese are diehards for Harry Potter.  We did drive past the studios on our way to Kyoto where the shrines and temples are located.  One interesting structure that we passed was their garbage and recycling plant!  It looks like part of Universal Studios with large gold capped towers.  They say the Japanese like to inject random art into their society so we may see examples of that when we travel throughout the area. 


We had a couple that should have originally boarded in San Diego join us in Osaka.  The story we heard was that their son in law was on the police force in Portland and had died.  We don’t know if he died on the job or had been ill but the local police and fire department personnel arranged for a memorial for their son in law.  The date was set for a time during the cruise from San Diego to Dutch Harbor so the older couple contacted the Holland America office and asked for permission to board in Osaka so they could attend the memorial.  They drove to San Diego on Oct 1st and actually loaded their luggage into their stateroom.  Then they left the ship and returned to Portland.  We picked them up at a hotel on the way to our first temple...all the passengers clapped for them and you could tell people were so happy that they could finally join us.  


Feudal wars were endless with thousands of small kingdoms ruled by lords trying to expand their territory in Japan.    For 250 years now they have had peace.  Shoguns are leaders like prime ministers and are over samurai.  

People in Osaka are said to be friendly rough loud maybe abrasive.  Tokyo people not so friendly.  Tokyo people are concerned about money and position ...small hotels are called love hotels!!  Ha ha.  

It takes a long time to get anywhere here.  Don’t see any old cars. They say their cars only last about 10 years.  

Japan is about 2400 miles long which would be like from New York to Mexico City.  Main island is Honshu.  Population is congested.  30 million live in Tokyo in a radius of 40 miles.  Within a 30 mike radius are 15 million people in Osaka. There are 127 million people total who live in Japan...70% of Japan is covered in hills and mountains.  10 % of the land is where the people live.  They all live in tiny apartment homes.  People live in two big areas of Japan because of climate and flat land.  Other parts are very cold.  

When you give Japanese something you typically give food or drink not things because of their small living quarters.  Hospitality is their hallmark.  They don’t require tips because they believe they should always give you excellent service. 

Cars are checked and licensed every two years.  License plates are white for regular sized vehicles.  Yellow plates are used for compact vehicles and they pay less tax. Streets are very narrow often just one lane.   Green license plates are for commercial vehicles like taxis and trucks. 

No freeways are built in Japan.  All roads except in town are toll roads.   Can be costly like $18 per section to pay in tolls to travel. Some train stations offer cars only for women so they are not harassed.  

Number 8 means a promising future. 4 and 9 are often avoided.  On special occasions like weddings and funerals friends and relatives give money.  Usually 10,000 yen but give odd amounts not even because they believe that odd amounts of money can not be divided which would mean like divorce. 

There are at least 2000 religious sites in Kyoto.  1600 shrines. 400 temples and 1 castle.


Kyoto was capital for 1000 years. Layout was North to south and very straight.  Easy to navigate.   


Shintoism is originally from China and they have or had 100’s of Gods.    Buddishm came to Japan in 6th century.  They coexist in Japan and are mutually beneficial.   New homes have Shinto priest to ask to have the god of ground protect the house.   A baby born  goes to Shinto shrines to receive a blessing from priests.  When married ladies dress they want a Western wedding ceremony often held at chapel or what they call a one day Christian ceremony.    Funerals are only conducted by Buddhist priests.  

There are no beggars seen anywhere.  


Japanese use four types of writing items like Chinese characters , phonograms, pictograms, etc.  they must know all four ways.  Very challenging. Osaka has very few earthquake tremors but Tokyo

 has many often.  


Gas is about $6 per gallon. 


Ikigai is a word in Japanese that means to search for ones purpose and ones self. 


On our entire 80 day cruise we will experience 10 currencies.


After the  Heian Shrine which was fairly quick we were off to lunch.  Our lunch was at the Gion Gyuzen. We climbed four sets of stairs to get to the restaurant.  We noticed that many establishments are like this located up off the Main Street. The seating was the traditional low table with thin seat cushions and of course you remove your shoes before entering into the restaurant area.  Each table was set for four people with a built in electric heating element in the middle of the table.  Our meal was called Shabu-Shabu which the guide said would mean a meal of very thinly sliced meat cooked in a large boiling water pot with various vegetables.  We each had a bowl of rice which was ready and waiting for us; none of us drank the water but we did have a pitcher of water on the table.  We also had some soy sauce, peanut sauce and another bowl of tofu and thick rice noodles.  I found this lunch to be much better than the previous one we had in Tokyo but many people wouldn’t eat the meat saying it was too fatty!  It was difficult for lots of the older folks to eat with the low tables but almost all of them were able to get seated; we had two folks that were disabled that were served at more of a bar making it easier for them.


After about an hour lunch we headed to the Nijo Castle.  It was a much larger facility with gardens and ponds.  Because of the traffic our guides told us we would not have time to actually tour the whole castle but encouraged us to wander through the gardens and all the different areas.  The castle was built 400 years ago being completed in 1603. The building of this castle was to unify Japan after a long period of civil war by a famous shogun.  This shogun would reside here on the rare occasions when he visited; when he was not in residence the samurai guards would garrison the castle.  The 400 year old buildings staged the opening and closing ceremonies of the last period of feudal rule and the creation of the modern Japanese State.  They are the golden age of Japanese architecture known as the Edo period  which is ornate and magnificent relating to their interiors.  We did see a lovely heron in one of the ponds at the castle and were impressed with the huge moat around it.  The castle has been under a large renovation since 2011.  The Palace consists of 6 connected buildings arranged in a diagonal line from southeast to northwest.  There are 33 rooms and over 3,600 wall paintings.  

We only had about 45 minutes to wander and enjoy this castle and then we would need to reboard the bus and make our way through the very slow traffic back to the ship.  We arrived back at the port around 4;45.  It gave us just a little time to try and get some wifi before boarding.  The weather turned very cloudy and chilly and we were ready to get onboard.  The ship pulled out of port about 6:00.  It was dark and stormy looking.  The captain announced that we would have a little bit of rough seas but by early morning things should calm down.  Dan felt pretty miserable so we came back to our room where he showered up and took a 20 minute nap.   Then we headed up to the Lido deck to find some hot soup.  We each chose a bacon cheddar soup and a gourmet burger (without the bun!). We could tell most folks were pretty tired too after their full day of excursions.  By 7 pm we were back in our cabin and decided to take the cold medicine and think about watching a movie on TV.  Tomorrow will be Beppu, Japan.  This area is known for hot springs and geysers.  We have no tour here.  The ship will dock around noon and be here till 10 p.m.  It looks like it will be another cloudy cool day with a chance of rain.  We may try to get a taxi to one of the hot springs but it depends on how Dan feels with his head cold.  


Thanks to those of you that have sent us comments!  We enjoy getting those.  We want to thank our dentist too, Dr Bradshaw, and his staff for following our journey and for their comments!!  



This is the garbage and recycling plant right in the middle of Osaka!


Our first stop...




Gardens here...


Beautiful colors...





A very little girl getting dressed and made up at the temple by her mother to be blessed...


Ready for lunch!


The strips of meat and the vegetables all go into the boiling water to be quickly cooked and then enjoyed with chop sticks!


The side streets are narrow, clean and full of electrical wires and poles...


Many young women walk the streets in the beautiful kimono’s...they like to be photographed too..


Here is the yellow license plate used for the compact cars!



The green plate is for commercial vehicles like taxi’s and trucks...


Entrance to the Nijo Castle...


Very large and ornate ....





Notice the beautiful cranes and color in this huge archway....



Lush gardens...


The heron looking for lunch!


Photos from the Sanjusangren Temple of the carved statues and deities...


There are 1001 of these!  They all have glass eyes which are haunting...



Thunder God...


The God of Wind....that is what he is carrying on his shoulders in the bag...



Strong and fiercely looming with glass eyes also....



5 comments:

Tess said...

Great pics....keep them coming...I like the Kimono's....very pretty! You two look cute sitting cross legged at your lunch table.

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Hi Beth! I just got the link to your blog! Thanks for posting your fabulous trip in detail! Doug and I can’t wait to go on a cruise around Japan!

Chris Ferris said...

Thanks for including pictures. And so much new information.

DrTK said...

We love shabu shabu but a seafood version :)

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