Lachine, Quebec, Canada
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Japan 2008 - Takayama
Posted 2008-06-20
| Tuesday we travelled by bus from Suwa to Takayama, midway across Japan. |
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six storey wooden structure with extensive gardens. |
| As usual, we removed our shoes to begin the tour of the building. From part way up we saw a few of our party taking a break, and snapped a shot of the town across the moat with mountains on the horizon |
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Climbing the stairs from floor to floor was a bit dicey. There was little in the way of furnishings. |
| In the ceiling of the sixth floor hangs a small shrine of the 26th goddess of the month, which I noticed only because someone pointed it out. The story ( second photo) says that on the night of January 26, 1618, one of the young vassals on duty saw a woman dressed in beautiful clothes. Handing him a brocade bag, she said, "If the lord of the castle enshrines me with 600 kg of rice on the 26th night of every month, I will protect the castle from fire and enemy." It is believed that because the bag was deified (I'm not completely clear on the meaning here) the castle was preserved and survived to be the oldest castle in its original form. |
| Flowers, the castle from the sunny side, and a tribute to those who saved it from the auction block in 1872, and initiated the restoration process in 1901. |
| A "space azalea" and diagram of the castle area. |
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A modern bus stop en route to Takayama, with the Japan Alps in the background. The adjacent town reminded me of an Alpine village. |
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At the Matsuri-No-Morie Museum we were treated to a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony. Shoes off, but western height tables. |
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Matsuri-No-Morie Museum - Massive "yatai" (parade floats), used for the annual harvest festival. The puppets on the floats are digitally operated. |
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Our Takayama hotel room and the view from the window. The snow-capped mountains on the horizon don't show in the photo. |
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All of the hotels had toilets with cleaning spray, some with heated seats.
None had drying air after the cleaning spray. Pictograms made operation fairly instinctive. Toilets in wayside rest areas were not the same, but way ahead of some we have seen in Europe. |
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local shrine that was not on the itinerary, but we had a brief look on the way. |
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Some Takayama street scenes en route to the morning market. |
| Morning market along the river bank. |
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| Another shrine. |
| Flowers and a car port - don't know if they are all this tidy. |
| More Takayama street scenes. Rickshaws are for tourists, but not just foreigners. |
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Graham had the tables turned when one of the school girls asked if she could take his picture. (He didn't seem to mind.) |
| Pets? |
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Thatched roof, model, thatched roof seen from attic, "ladder" to attic. |
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Water wheel (don't know what it was driving). Water operated noise maker to keep the birds away from the crops. |
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Boys' Day Festival Items |
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Thatched roof - wonder what the R-value is? Flowers Ropey shrine. The rope (shimenawa) is a straw rope with white zigzag paper strips (gohei). It marks the boundary to something sacred and can be found on torii gates, around sacred trees and stones, etc. A rope similar to the shimenawa is also worn by yokozuna, the highest ranked sumo wrestlers, during ritual ceremonies. (Per japan-guide.com) |
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Takayama Jinya, Regional Headquarters of the Takugawa Shogunate |
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Takayama Best Western Hotel, RR Station, Street Scenes (before breakfast, but probably around 8 AM). |
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Wondered (again) if the apartment building had elevators or only the exterior stairways. |
Tokyo Day 2 - Kamakura
Mt. Fuji, Suwa, Ryokan
Matsumoto Castle, Takayama
Kanazawa
Kyoto / Nara
Kyoto / Osaka / Home
Japan 2008
The Lemmers Lynns