11th May - Okayama, Korakuen Gardens

It's Mother's Day today. Quite by chance, this is also a rare opportunity to sleep in, so it was a wonderfully leisurely start to the day. An online family catch-up was also a perfect start to the day. It is now less than a week until we fly to San Francisco to spend some time with Alastair and Sophie and we are very much looking forward to it.

The big news from Bella and Nic is that they negotiated a sale of their house in Nelson a few days ago so they are now frantically packing up. Their family will be moving in with us at Walters Bluff in early June. 

We headed outside at 10am when the shops were opening up. It's Sunday but most shops are open, and many had Mother's Day specials. The florists were doing a booming trade. Our destination was not shops however, but the famed Korakuen Gardens.

We visited the Korakuen Gardens on our first trip to Japan in March 2019. These gardens are not zen, or for strolling in. Their purpose is for 'scenic promenade', where views are wide, open and panoramic. There is a lot of grass instead of little nooks and crannies. Because we were here in early March last time, the grass was pretty much brown from winter, but we still loved it. This time, in May, the grass is green, though we have missed the azalea flowering in April. It's hard to get it right!

Okayama Castle at the entrance to the gardens

Korakuen Gardens

It was very pleasant meandering around the gardens and alongside the ponds and little rest-houses or old teahouses. A small crane aviary housed six cranes. The bonus was to see some Japanese couples having their wedding photos taken. Obviously this is a popular location for that purpose. The women wore exquisite kimonos and looked gorgeous.

On a leisurely return to our hotel room in the train station complex, we took our time looking in a few shops, picked up a couple of items for me (it's Mother's Day after all) and had a quick light lunch of miso soup and a rice/tempura bowl.

Japan takes wrapping very seriously

Karen in one of her favourite spots - in front of a 7-Eleven coffee machine

A little foot-weary, it was a treat to be able to put our feet up at 3pm. For a non-hike day, we still racked up another 12km.

10th May - Matsue to Okayama via Kyoto

A bit of a weird day today. We were heading from Matsue to Okayama but decided we'd shoot past Okayama and spend the afternoon in Kyoto. There's one temple there we wanted to see and we also wanted to see if we could get a really good kimono for Nelson. It's very hard to find secondhand kimonos - the sort of shops you might find them in are not those who have a searchable internet presence. We knew of an excellent one in Kyoto - Vintage Kimono An Gion - that we've looked around before. Hence the trip to Kyoto.

We had a three-leg train journey - Matsue to Okayama to Shin-Osaka to Kyoto, but there was just enough of a gap to drop our bags at our Okayama hotel before catching the next leg. 

A pair of nice bento boxes for the train trip

Okayama was our first real contact with tourists on this whole trip so far. Not vast numbers, but enough to be obvious. This compared to seeing one or two non-Japanese per day until now, which I must say we have loved. It was a bit tricky finding our hotel in Okayama even though it was accessed directly off the station but one of the railways staff pointed us in the right direction.

The arrival at Kyoto was a major shock. Tourists outnumbered the locals. Loud voices, a clogged station, even the local bus we took to the kimono shop was full of them. 

Vintage Kimono An Gion

The shop was a bit of a disappointment as we couldn't find the sort of kimono we were looking for , and even if we could have, the price would have been more than we would have wanted to spend. We considered buying an obi, the wide belt used for kimonos, but again couldn't find the right one.

So having failed miserably, we set off on foot for Kiyomizu-Dera, a very famous temple set high on a hillside. Walking there was awful. We have become used to being by ourselves, and often the only people around, but the narrow roads towards the temple were lined with tourist-focussed food and souvenir shops, and there were so many tourists walking up and down that progress was slow and awkward. Russian, American, and Chinese voices everywhere. We felt totally out of place. The temple was clearly amazing, but we felt no inclination to go inside, as the pressing throng of people destroyed the experience for us. We just turned round and went back to Okayama!

A nice pagoda, and swarms of tourists, on the way to Kiyomizu-Dera Temple

Kiyomizu-Dera temple

It had made us realise that the effort we have made planning this trip and going to unusual and smaller places, before the main tourist season, has been totally worth it. Even our biggest city to date, Matsue, only gets 5000 tourists a year! We saw more than that between the kimono shop and the temple in just 20 minutes today. I should add that I am well aware that we were adding another two to the crowd! 

We would now not consider visiting Kyoto or any of the popular Japanese destinations except well off-season. Our previous trip was well before tourist season, and not long after Covid, so we were spoilt. The first trip was at the end of winter, so again not many people about. Again, living in Ceret meant not too many tourists as the pressure in that corner of France is nowhere near what it is in say, the French Riviera or Paris.

Back in quiet Okayama, we rested for an hour or so before going out for our first ramen of the trip. Choosing it was done on a machine - feed in the money, pick the meal, get a ticket which you hand to the staff behind the counter who make it. We'd both been looking forward to it, but nice as they were, it is after all a light soup with noodles and a topping of spring onions and pork slices. Pleasant, but not up the the izakaya meals. The chocolate ice-cream bar afterwards helped though.

Our ramen soups

The ticket vending machine for our ramen soup

9th May - Matsue: Castle, Museums and Tea-house

Today was to be cruisy day, and it was! For the first time in quite a while it was a leisurely start. The forecast was for light rain from about midday onwards. We walked for 30 minutes to the Matsue Castle grounds, hoping to find some little old second-hand shops on the way. On our two previous trips we thoroughly enjoyed nosing through old china, particularly tiny cheap sake cups and small sake bottles. We now have a fun collection, and would like very much to add a few more items to it. Shops here don't open until 10am, but we didn't see any that looked like possibilities anyway.

We walked through the modern entertainment district

We arrived at the castle at about 9:30am. It certainly is impressive, and is distinctive from most other castles in Japan because of its dark wooden exterior (instead of white painted plaster). It was constructed in 1611 and is one of the only five "National Treasure" original castles in Japan. On this trip we will be seeing three of the five (not something we deliberately set out to do), and have previously visited Himeji. There are only 12 original castles still in existence. A number of the old famous castles have been rebuilt in modern materials like ferroconcrete - it's just not the same.

Matsue Castle

As always when visiting a Japanese heritage site, it is necessary to take off your shoes at the entrance and then walk around in either socks or supplied slippers. We have quickly learned that the Japanese wear their footwear very loose-fitting and can therefore rapidly slip their shoes on and off. For us, it's tedious having to undo laces and then retie them each time. 

The staircases between each of the five floors of the castle are very steep and at least one woman appeared to be near to having a panic attack. The lower levels had chutes for stone-dropping (to land on the heads of any attackers), platforms for guns and bows and so on. The castle is more correctly described as a fortified watchtower designed for surviving a siege than a permanent residence.

View from the castle back into Matsue

From here we wandered through the castle grounds, past the odd shrine, towards the Tanabe Art Museum. On the way we got a video call from Bella looking for some feedback on her house sale back in Nelson. Having fulltime wifi has again proved excellent. We also tried to get a haircut for John, but even though the place was wide open, nobody ever appeared when John shouted out hello. Maybe another case of not wanting to deal with foreigners?

A nice little Inari shrine on the way

We did stumble on a little antiques shop full of dusty relics, including quite a few of the little sake cups we like. We did buy a couple, but the market seems to have changed and they are now selling for vastly more than they were on our first trip, and we have enough already that we are not prepared to pay much.

The Tea Museum featured a fine collection of tea making paraphernalia and some ceramics but John particularly was more interested in the architecture. It is a modern building by Kiyonori Kikutake and was designed to be a modern interpretation of the traditional teahouse. It really was a lovely and clever building which vaguely reminded us of a Le Corbusier building because of the internal ramp.

Next we explored an ex-residence of a rich samurai. We don't get tired of these open tatami-matted buildings, where rooms can be expanded or reduced in size by the clever use of sliding walls. Most of the rooms open to provide expansive views of the private gardens. As always, the residence was very simple, with very basic facilities for cooking and bathing.

Front entrances - visitors to the left, normal entrance to the right

A wheeled parade float of taiko drums

I had been looking forward for a while to the next item on our itinerary, the Mei-mei An Teahouse. It was turning into a rather gloomy day and starting to rain so we weren't sure that sitting admiring a garden while it rained would provide the atmosphere we were seeking but thought we'd give it a go anyway. The teahouse complex was very small, with a very old and historic teahouse, a newer one and a small garden. There was nobody else there. The man on the reception had to ring endlessly to get an answer from the teahouse to give them warning that someone was on their way for a cup of matcha tea.

We had a quick walk around the garden then opened the door to the teahouse. A little woman greeted us and directed us (after taking off our shoes of course) to the large tatami-matted room. She soon returned, knelt in front of each of us in turn and presented two little pieces of traditional Matsue confectionery. Next she brought out a cup of warm frothy green matcha tea and again knelt in front of us. It is all very formal. She was quite delightful and we managed to communicate via Google Translate. She was very impressed to hear that we have visited Japan three times and have taken tea at two other teahouses, in Kumamoto (Kyushu) and Takamatsu (Shikoku). It was just lovely sitting quietly by ourselves for a while, but soon John and I were discussing ways we can Japanify our holiday home in Hanmer Springs. We'll planning some alterations anyway, and may just have worked out a few new tweaks!

Mei-mei An Teahouse

Teahouse garden

By now it was raining but, still being on the lookout for second-hand shops, we were keen to walk the 30 minutes home instead of find a bus. John was in need of a haircut so when we spotted a barber's sign he thought he'd give it a go.

The barber's shop was run by an old man with a younger assistant who actually did the barbering. Karen was sat down with a cup of tea, I was shown to an ancient chair and the work began. A lot of discussion about how I wanted it done, via Translate and photos, then he was away. I think he probably took three times as long as my Nelson barber, and finished with some nice-smelling hair tonic and a short neck and shoulder massage. A pretty nice cut too.

Haircut time

Back to our room for an afternoon of train planning. We can board most trains without seat reservations, but still being so close to Golden Week some trains are pretty full, so booking guarantees we can sit together, which we quite like! We worked our way to the end of the trip, taking us some two hours. It's tricky to sort all the connections at each end to get to and from accommodation or sights, and choosing trains that arrive neither too late nor too early. In the end we did 6 bookings, adding up to 12 booked trains with several more unreserved or non reservable.

We are still photographing new manhole covers to add to our collection

We've made a couple of changes to our original plans. We had intended to visit Naoshima Art Island, but have decided to spend a day in Kyoto instead, as there is one particular temple we'd like to see, and we are considering getting a really nice secondhand kimono to hang at home.

On heading out for dinner we tried to buy bento boxes for the train tomorrow, but the bento place was closed up. Dinner was back at our izakaya of 2 nights ago. It was lovely to be loudly and cheerfully greeted by the 4 staff, and our table neighbour from the previous visit. Rather than a business partner like last time, he was there tonight with his "daughter". We're rather unconvinced it was really his daughter! She wasn't dressed like a daughter or acting like a daughter.

Making our omelette - note how basic the kitchen is

We chose a few different dishes to last time, including what was called a beef tendon miso stew - delicious. This time we were directly in front of the main cook and were able to see how things were made. As before, the staff were super helpful and the food was delicious. We've done very well this trip with the variety of food. We seem to have settled on onigiri, or rice triangles with a little central filling, for our lunches. They are easy, cheap, filling, and tasty.

A typical Japanese hotel bathroom - always a deep bath

8th May - Matsue to Adachi and Yuushien Gardens

Another early start. John's hanging out for a bit of a lie-in. We were on board the 7:48am train for the 20-minute trip to Yasugi, then it was a 40-minute wait to jump on the connecting free shuttle bus to Adachi. The focus this morning was to visit the Adachi Museum of Art which houses many paintings by some of Japan's more modern painters. Of more interest to us, however, were the zen-style gardens attached to the museum. These gardens are consistently ranked the No. 1 in all of Japan out of over 1000 special gardens. It is a museum of art, but most people go there for its gardens.

Lacquerware writing box at Adachi Museum of Art

The gardens were indeed amazing. The dry landscape garden was the most impressive to us, but there were also moss, waterfall and pond gardens. They are specifically designed to provide a feeling of harmony, a graceful aesthetic and to blend into the mountain backdrop. Manicured to the extreme, we saw a group of perhaps 8 gardeners concentrating on one area, pruning, picking up leaves and generally keeping the environment absolutely pristine. 

Adachi Museum of Art dry landscape garden

Pond garden

Because the gardens are so strictly maintained, it was a little disappointing that they could only be viewed from behind bamboo barriers, or behind glass. Because of this, we felt rather disconnected from the action, but after all, this is a zen garden and therefore designed for contemplation and reflection.

The gardens were indeed extraordinary, but I've got to say I prefer those gardens we have seen elsewhere in Japan where it's possible to walk along trails - stroll gardens - and be greeted by unfolding views, get really close to the moss, flower blooms, carp in the water or whatever. They engender a far more enveloping feeling, one I have come to love.

So, quite surprisingly, we had 'done' the gardens and museums within just an hour, so could get an earlier shuttle and train back to Matsue than expected. We had an hour to spare before catching the next bus, this time to a another garden complex. Yuushien Gardens are well-known for their peonies, and we were hoping they might be in flower given we are in the right season.

It was a 45 minute trip by bus, out over a causeway onto an island in the middle of the Nakaumi Lake. Indeed it was well worth the excursion. This turned out to be a stroll garden, and because of this we found it entrancing. Only a few peonies were in flower but there were many of the larger deciduous azaleas in full bloom. All the small-leaved azaleas had finished flowering and were tightly pruned back. 

It was a pleasure to wander along the paths. The sunny weather provided some lovely plays of light and shadow. The garden had it all - a vermillion wooden bridge, rock bridges, mosses, maples, bonsai, waterfalls, lakes, carp, and more. We had plenty of time to quietly enjoy the atmosphere and take far too many photos. I'm keen to do another cross-stitch of a Japanese garden so we tried to tried to capture a photo which might provide the template. 

Yuushien Gardens

Back to our hotel by 5pm we had a short rest before trying a nearby eatery for dinner. We were keen to have an okonomiyaki, having eaten a number on our previous visits to Japan, and since then some relatively poor versions in the kitchen at home.

It proved delicious. Patrons sit at a large iron hotplate, perhaps 70cm by 3m, with the chef on the other side. I'll try and describe how our ones were made. The chef starts by pouring a thin batter circle onto the hot plate, perhaps 25 cm across. Onto this goes a vast amount, maybe 3 cm deep, of finely shredded cabbage, then grated carrot, and tempura scraps. He then pours a little more batter over it to bind it. Next a few rashers of bacon and, for mine, some chopped up squid and a few prawns.  This sits cooking for a long time, a good 5 minutes or more. It then gets turned for another few minutes cooking and he introduces a little dashi (bonito and kelp broth) into it to help the veges soften. An egg is cracked onto the hot plate and spread out and the whole lot is dropped onto the egg. After a few moments he flips it back so the batter base is on the bottom again, and then dresses it. There are any number of variants of toppings - ours were quite simple with a sweet brown sauce smeared over the lot, some whitish powder and some dried seaweed flakes. Variations include adding a zig-zag of mayonnaise, more sauces, and bonito flakes.

The okonomiyaki is slid over the hotplate onto a slightly cooler stainless edge band in front of the patrons, who chop it into manageable pieces with a little metal spatula and put it on a small plate to eat. It was delicious. Just the ticket when you have had your fill of noodles and rice.

Our okonomiyaki joint

7th May - Yunotsu to Matsue

Our planned hike along the silver trail from Iwami Ginzan to the port of Yunotsu was scotched yesterday but we still wanted to see the western end of the trail as it entered Yunotsu as we knew that there were some very impressive clay kilns at this point. 

We got up early today so we could walk up out of the village and soon came to two very impressive lines of "climbing kilns" marching up the hillside. One line held 15 kilns and the other 10. Originally there were 11 lines of kilns. They worked by stoking up a raging fire in the bottom oven, and a system of venting allowed the hot air to circulate higher and higher, up through the kilns, baking the clayware as it went. One of the two lines of kilns is currently being upgraded and is still used twice a year. They were still used productively until the 1960s, having been established in the early 1700s!

A quick chat with Bella to catch up on news, including current negotiations to potentially sell their house, was really nice, before we made a hasty march to the train station and jumped on the train to Izumo. We hoped to visit one of Japan's oldest shrines and the Tezen Museum but unfortunately the latter was closed as yesterday was a public holiday and it carried over its usual day of closure. We also managed a chat with Ali and Sophie while on our way to the shrine.

Izumo Taisha shrine was already in existence by the early 700s. It turned out to be a huge complex, with the main hall is the tallest in Japan. One of the most impressive features was the simply massive skeins of rice-straw rope that hung above the entrances to the two main buildings. These ropes define the sacred areas.

Izumo Taisha Shrine

Huge shimenawa rope

17,000 paper cranes

Wishes written on paper and timber plaques by visitors

With the museum closed, it meant today was a reasonably unpressured one. With just one hour spent at the shrine, we were soon back on the bus and then train to return to Izumo Station. We retrieved our bags from the locker we had just managed to squeeze them into with John pressing the door closed while I fed in the money. 

A short wait and we were on the train again to Matsue, where we arrived at the nice early time of 3pm. Our hotel was just across the road from the train station. This is our first standard hotel room. The bed seems strange being so far off the floor. It's also quite small (probably just a double bed) when we are now used to sprawling over a very wide and long futon each. A quick stroll to the info station to find out details needed for our plans tomorrow, to check out a bento box outlet to buy some in a few days' time, and also to find a local eatery for tonight. 

We managed to put our feet up for half an hour to catch up on this blog and a few other things. Rest time has been perhaps a little too short this trip, but all the travelling has gone very smoothly. We're seeing so much that we haven't missed it.

Dinner was awesome. I had wanted to eat at izakaya places, where dinner is a a range of bar snacks and smaller dishes with a beer which together combine to make a meal. As soon as we entered we knew this one was the right place. Noisy, a bit smokey, a dozen businessmen in groups or pairs either at tables or along the L-shaped bar that surrounds the small kitchen. Ma sorting the orders with a helper, Pa doing the cooking along with a helper.

Satobou Izakaya

The menus were near impossible - all kanji characters which Google was OK with, but not great! We ended up ordering partly off the menu and partly by pointing to photos from Google reviews. We got chatting to a business pair next to us. Great fun with a little English and a lot of Google Translate. As always, these two and indeed all the staff were a lot of fun and as helpful as can be. The people of Japan are astonishingly nice and helpful. The one and only miss was the seafood restaurant in Yunotsu that told us they would be closed for yesterday but clearly weren't when we walked past last evening. Telling foreigners that places are full or closed used to be a thing, but seems to happen very rarely now. I think the reason was that they didn't feel they could meet foreigners' expectations, so it would be embarrassing for all and therefore best avoided.

At the izakaya we had a nice range of food, no noodles or rice for once, and every dish was delicious and fresh. A great choice and we came away full, after a most enjoyable time. We'll probably go back again and try one of the dishes our neighbours let us taste.

Our new best mates

Some izakaya food

One of the things we enjoy most about Japanese food is the variety. There's something for every taste. We had originally thought of Japanese food as mainly sushi, but have barely had sushi at all!