We started the day with a leisurely breakfast, packed our bags and collected a bit of cash from a Post office ATM. The streets are so empty. It is Boy's Day today, the last day of Golden Week, but even so Hagi feels almost abandoned.
We trundled our bags down to the station where we expected to find coin lockers, but there weren't any and the staff took them behind the counter instead, for free. Our train out today is at 1:17pm, so there was plenty of time in the morning to visit one of Hagi's more famous sites - Tokoji Temple. It was half an hour's walk away in the warm sun. Very pleasant.
We visited a couple of former houses of the famous Hagi Five who were instrumental in the Meiji Restoration, including first ever Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi and Bunnoshin Tamaki who taught the Five and inspired them. Both houses were very small and simple.
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| Bunnoshin's House |
The main reason for the visit was Tokoji temple. It was built by and for the powerful Mori clan. It began with a most impressive gate, then the large and ancient main temple, built in 1691. The grounds were quite tired, which in a way was very nice compared to the heavily manicured temples you might see in Kyoto. It made it feel more real and historic.
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| Tokoji Temple entrance gate |
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| Internal courtyard |
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| Tokoji Temple interior |
The biggest drawcard is the massive Mori mausoleum behind the temple. The grounds have burial stones for 5 of the Mori lords, along with wives and children, and side burials of various nobles and eminent people from the Meiji Restoration leaders. The lord's burials are massive stones, but what is makes it really impressive is the collection of over 500 large stone lanterns.
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| Mori lords' burial ground |
The staff at the Hagi train station were so helpful, firstly with storing our bags and then clarifying our train change at Masuda. The station master merrily waved us off at the platform. People are always very interested that we come from New Zealand. Many people ask where we are from.
The 3 minute transition between trains at Masuda was always going to be tight but the station master assured us it would be fine. Unfortunately our train was soon delayed by 8 minutes when we had to wait for another to come through. The driver made up a bit of time but we still arrived at Masuda 6 minutes after our connection was due to leave. Thankfully that train was late too. We scampered up, over and down the rail bridge lugging our big bags and had 30 seconds to jump on the train as it arrived and virtually promptly took off again. It was a big relief because the next train wasn't until 6pm, 3.5hrs away. You really have to be ready to jump off the trains as soon as they pull in to the station.
We were pleased to arrive in the little port town of Yunotsu in the middle of the afternoon. We thought this would be a fun place to stay. It's very small, on the coast, is renowned for its two ancient rustic onsens.
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| Yunotsu Port |
A couple of ice-cream Trumpets seemed in order too. Walking just 100m along the road we sat down to eat the ice-creams overlooking the water. John got up to wander closer to the water and was immediately taken completely unawares by a very large black raptor (a kite) swooping down on him. With a rush of wind the kite picked the Trumpet out of John's hand before he had even had more than a few bites. What a hoot (no pun intended). John thought it was a huge joke. We hope the bird likes ice-cream! John returned to the grocery to buy another trumpet, relaying the story to the store owners. They thought it was a laugh too!
We walked onwards and soon came across the information centre. We had already Googled our hike for tomorrow and had our train and bus connections all planned. I thought it might be an idea to pop into the info centre anyway. The woman was only too helpful, but was very sorry to tell us that a portion of the trail we were planning to hike is currently closed due to a slip. Darn! The weather forecast for tomorrow is for light rain all day as well. We've now changed our plans and will still head to the silver mine and other sights and then return to Yunotsu, hoping to then walk some of the western end of the trail to see a line of historic kilns. It dashes our hopes of another through hike, but we just have to go with it.
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| Yunotsu's main street |
We found our accommodation place for the next two nights and were pleasantly surprised that it's effectively a studio, when we thought we'd booked just a basic room. It's in an historic folk house just down from the hotel we did the booking through. Retracing our steps 200m we tried to book into a highly rated fish restaurant for dinner tomorrow night but unfortunately they said it is closed tomorrow, and at 6pm it was already fully booked for tonight. We found a little curry place nearby and had our first curry and rice since being here. The eatery was run by very pleasant staff and was starting to fill up. Quickly back up the road and we made good use of the onsen at the hotel which we can use for free. One of the two pools in my section was just too hot to get into, but John tried out both his pools.
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| Yunotsu's playhouse |
Staff at the hotel told us about a performance that was to take place this evening at 8pm at the main temple. We promptly reserved two seats. We were thrilled to be here on exactly the right evening for it. And what an evening it was! It was simply spectacular. It was put on by a small group of perhaps 10 people, many adopting different roles and costumes during the four acts. The first scene was two nobles, then two demons fighting two samurai, the third was the village clown, and in the fourth four snakes being overcome by a swordsman. The energy, choreography, exquisite costumes and connection with the audience was awe-inspiring and both John and I thought it was the most impressive performance we have been to, anywhere, ever!
One of the impressive things about the play was how engaged the audience was with the actors. Jaws dropped during the exciting scenes, roars of laughter and lots of spontaneous clapping were displayed by young and old alike. It was very obviously a play put on for the locals, and not a tourist pantomime. We were the only non-Japanese there.
The act which saw four snakes whirling around the stage, intertwining with each other, capturing the swordsman and provoking reaction from the audience, before succumbing to the sword, was absolutely riveting. I'll stop raving but it's obvious that the play has been a clear highlight of our trip so far.
At the end of the performance the actors all came back out on stage bringing their amazing costumes with them. Members of the audience were invited to put them on and in this way again made to feel an integral part of the magic of the evening. We've found out that this particular type of performance is typical of this local Iwami region and is not seen elsewhere in Japan.
The costumes were astonishing in their detail, opulence and quality. There are apparently many groups like this in Iwami. If they are all as skilled and professional as the ones we saw, it would be amazing. It was a mix of dance and noh theatre, and we saw four of many standard stories they play. The choreography of the dancing was amazing - people and snakes whirling over the little stage with perfect timing. When the snakes were on, the entire stage was covered in their enormous spiral bodies - each one was at least 4 metres long, and 40 cm thick.
We had originally thought the building they performed in was a temple, but it is clearly was and still is a permanent playhouse with the audience on two sides of the central area used as a stage. The five supporting musicians - two drums, 2 mini cymbals and a flute - were the 3rd side and the 4th was a curtain where the actors came and went from. The audience is right there next to the actors, and it was so engaging.
