The summer of the three Ns
I had a busy summer. I visited “the Three Ns” - Nagoya, Niigata and Nikko. Nagoya and Niigata are both large cities, and therefore convenient for me because there are plenty of available services. But Nikko, in Tochigi Prefecture north of Tokyo, was a measurably more anxious trip for me because it is a small city, and I was less sure what I was getting into. Also, it was more difficult to reach by regional railroad than the two other, more distant cities, which are on the bullet train grid.
These trips were all weekend excursions. I was happy to escape my urban apartment which has only electric fans so, I could wallow in a nicely air-conditioned hotel room by myself. Yahoo!!
In addition to the Three Ns, I visited the Sunshine 60 Aquarium in Ikebukuro for the first time in about 20 years.
I visited Yoyogi Park in Shibuya Ward twice and decided that this year it will be my go-to park for photographing Autumn colors.
I visited the Hama Riku Gardens in Chuo Ward for the third time, and I finally finished seeing every little corner and hidden pathway. The park is so big that it took me three visits to see it all.
I rode the Tokyo Waterbus across Tokyo Harbor to Odaiba Seaside Park on a sunny, hot day and took many excellent pictures. And, I witnessed a female foreign tourist collapse in the humidity and get medical attention from the Japanese port staff.
I revisited suburban Karakida in Tama City, Tokyo. It is one of the four terminals of the Odakyu Railway Line, and it has a nice, large park. The one other time I visited there it was cloudy and dull. This time, I got to photograph the neighborhood in brilliant sunlight with blue skies.
I briefly revisited the Imperial Palace, the National Diet Building and the Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Chiyoda Ward.
I revisited Meiji Shrine in Shibuya Ward with a high school friend and his family who were visiting Japan. We hadn’t seen each other in 42 years, but we renewed our acquaintance through social media.
I revisited Omiyahachiman Shrine and Sanshinomori Park, both in Suginami Ward. I visited the small Oshi Castle in Gyoda City, near Kumagaya in northern Saitama Prefecture. I’ve been to Kumagaya several times for work, but it was only recently that I was told by coincidence and by more than one Japanese that it is the warmest city in Japan. Not because of its latitude, but because of its geography.
I revisited the Shibuya Sky observation deck adjacent to JR Shibuya Station on a fine, sunny day for a fantastic view of the city.
I revisited the Minatomirai 21 district of Yokohama. On previous occasions it was always gray and cloudy when I was there, but this time I went on a sunny, hot day for the best pictures from the giant 112-meter tall Cosmo World Ferris Wheel overlooking the Yokohama seafront and harbor.
I took a river ferry upriver from Hinode Pier to Asakusa Pier in Taito Ward. Then I walked to Ueno Park and toured the National Museum of Western Art.
Finally, I continued gradually removing large, heavy reference books from my apartment by donating them to a Christian church library in Shibuya Ward.
Aichi Prefecture
July 7-6
Nagoya is Japan’s fourth largest city, and the capital of Aichi Prefecture. It’s in the industrial heartland, so in Canadian terms it’s like the city of Hamilton, Ontario, but the size of Toronto. I went to Nagoya specifically to see the castle there. Of course, there’s plenty of other things to see and do, and maybe I will see and do some of them on a future trip. But this time, I went for the castle. It was an okay castle, but unfortunately the main keep, or tower is closed for repair of earthquake damage. I forgot to ask when it would reopen. Fortunately, the palace that occupied the Honmaru grounds below the main keep has been re-created and is open to the public. A traditional Japanese palace is an interesting architectural thing. Almost a labyrinth by Western standards. It really stretches your idea of what a “room” is, and how space is used``. The castle features a combination of dry and wet moats. I walked around the outer moats and was sad by the moat’s condition on the west and north side of the park: too little water in the moat; ramparts in disrepair; planted trees all dead; and decidedly poorer real estate development than what prevails on the castle’s south side (the side oriented towards the city center).
For the first time ever, I bought my own bullet train tickets from a bullet train ticket vending machine, rather than going through a travel agency. I booked a hotel close to the castle, but still a taxi ride from the central station. After checking in to the hotel on a Friday afternoon, I immediately headed towards the castle in a direct line up the street. But I didn’t know how far it was, so I took a taxi. As soon as we arrived, I understood that the cab wasn’t really necessary, and that I could walk the distance myself - which I subsequently did when returning to my hotel, and then returning to the castle the following day for more sightseeing. Over two days and about eight hours of visiting, and 600 photographs, I toured the hell out of that place. When I visit a place, I like to see every nook and cranny of it. Only then can I boast that I’ve actually seen it all. It often takes more than one visit to achieve that.
Niigata Prefecture
August 11-13
Niigata is the capital of Niigata Prefecture, a port city, and the largest Japanese city on the Sea of Japan coast. It sits at the mouth of the Shinano River (the longest river in Japan). It is the primary ferry port for access to Sado Island offshore. There are other ferries from other ports along the coast, but the one from n Niigata is the most important. When people learned that I was planning a trip to Niigata, they all quickly suggested I go to Sado Island. But I had neither the time nor the inclination for it.
Before the modern era (before 1867), Niigata was one of the largest cities in Japan, even rivalling the capital Edo (Tokyo). But from the mid-nineteenth century, as exposure to foreign powers and foreign visitors became first inevitable, and then unavoidable, and then a regular occurrence, most of the infrastructure development in the country took place along the Pacific coast. Railways and factories. Industrialization, education, engineering, medicine and science and modern cities. When that happened, the Sea of Japan side of the nation began to fade as a major sea trading center to become an agricultural backwater to the Pacific side.
I had wanted to visit there for a long time for the purpose of seeing the Sea of Japan. And that’s what I did on my first day. A very hot and sunny Friday, I checked into my hotel and took a cab to the public park by the sea. I saw, photographed and touched the Sea of Japan. It was perfect for swimming, and I would have liked to do that. But I wasn’t prepared.
I could easily see Sado Island in the distance. Retuning to my hotel was a more difficult matter, because there was no taxi cab or bus. Japanese beach goers go there in their private automobiles and park in public parking lots adjacent to the public beaches. I was on foot, so I had to endure a looooooong trek back to the city center and my hotel. Oh, well. You gotta do what you gotta do if you want to accomplish anything.
My second day in Niigata was devoted to leaving the city by commuter train for the rural city of Shibata. Shibata is surrounded by rice agriculture. I went there specifically to see the small Shibata Castle (and to take a couple hundred more pictures). The castle is the ancestral home of the Shibata clan, who were Tokugawa Shogunate loyalists. It was only rebuilt as a tourist attraction in the early-1990s. I went to the castle by taxi from the station, but once more, there are no taxis or buses there to return visitors to the city center. So, once more I walked. No problem. Shibata is a city of about 100,000 people, and the gift shop lady at the castle gave me an easy-to-read free map showing the route back to the station in about 25-minutes on foot.
There are over one hundred castles in Japan. Only a handful - Osaka, Nagoya, , Matsumoto, Matsue, Matsuyama, Kumamoto, etc. - are particularly famous. They almost all date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when Japan was torn by constant civil war that ended with the rise of the powerful Tokugawa Shogunate based in Edo (Tokyo). At the start of Japan’s modern history, the Meiji Era (1867 - 1912), many of these fortifications were decommissioned, sold and demolished. The new constitutional government of Japan did not want to risk opposition using old castle forts as hubs of resistance in the future. However, over time, the public and politicians realized the cultural, historical and economic advantages of castles. So, municipalities began re-purchasing the former castle land from their new private owners, and rebuilding the forts - the moats, walls, gates, turrets, keeps and palaces - for the tourists.
Tochigi Prefecture
August 25-27
Nikko town is famous for the Toshogu Shrine, and the grave site of the first Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. The Toshogu Shrine is not a single shrine so much as a complex of shrines and temples. Together they form a national park that is a designated U.N. World Heritage Site. Japanese are very proud of their World Heritage Sites. (Japan has 23 World Heritage Sites, nineteen Cultural Heritage Sites and four Natural Heritage Sites.)
Nikko is 150 km north of central Tokyo. I visited it once before, in the autumn of 1989 when my employer at the time treated his staff to a weekend trip. For many years, I’ve wanted to return and see it again, because the shrine there is so famous, and it’s close enough to Tokyo to be enticing. For more than a year I thought about it, planned for it and looked for the opportunity. But something always got in the way. It is actually possible to make it a day trip from three different starting points in central Tokyo - Tokyo Central Station, Shinjuku Station and Asakusa Station. But that would require more than five hours on a train going and coming back. So, considering the distance, the time, and the train schedule I decided that a weekend excursion was best. I was right, but finding an eligible weekend was a real chore. I originally planned to do the trip in August 2022, soon after returning from my Canada trip that year. But an unexpected, unplanned emergency surgery blew that plan to smithereens.
Nikko is fairly small, with only about 77,000 people. And, the place I visited - Tobu Nikko - is a mere suburban village of the larger municipality. It’s so small that when I arrived, I was a little worried when I found that the entire village shut down at 6:00 p.m. Shops and restaurants closed. What would I do for food? My hotel only offered breakfast. Well, I managed.
National Highway 119, which connects the city of Utsunomiya with the city of Nikko, forms the main street of the town, passing directly in front of the station. The highway mostly follows the same path as the ancient Nikko Kaido, an Edo-era road that connected Edo (Tokyo) with the famous shrines and temples there. Cradled in the wooded foothills of the Japan Alps, the town smells of cedar, giving it a very different feel than Tokyo. Despite the distressing humidity, the smell of the trees was exhilarating. It smelled a little like summer camp in Algonquin Park back home. The town is dotted with small hotels and hostels - cheap places geared towards economy travelers (young foreigners in particular). This augments the feelings of summer camp.
The World Heritage park includes some religiously sacred temples and shrines, so there is a constant steady stream of Japanese Buddhist pilgrims. There were many foreign visitors walking around, but most of the tourists were Japanese. It was not what I would call crowded. The COVID pandemic hurt the town’s economy hard, and now tourism is rebounding to everyone’s delight.