最後の観光 － 御所 ＆ 大原

Yesterday and today I went on a couple of small sightseeing trips. Yesterday with Keiko we went to the Imperial Palace in Kyoto where the Emperor used to live way back in the days when Kyoto was the capital. As we were walking I jumped across a little moat and landed on the other side, unknowingly setting off a blaring motion security alarm. Way to go out in style T-Mac.

Today I headed up to a small town called Ohara just northeast of the city. The area is incredibly beautiful and very peaceful. I took in the sights of Sanzein Temple as well as the Soundless Waterfall (which does make a sound) and some points in between. I'm hoping I can make it to Nara on Sunday, but if not these will be my last sightseeing trips, and probably my last post before arriving back in Canada on Tuesday. I started cleaning up my room and packing yesterday. I didn't realize how my stuff I had until I actually started to go through it. Anyway here are the pictures. I've been taking a lot of pictures in black and white recently because I think they're classy.

The Imperial Palace


















Ohara

白石島のバカンス

Earlier this week Keiko and I went for a short trip to a small island in Okayama Prefecture called Shiraishi Island. It's a very tiny peaceful island and the only way to get there is by ferry. Only about 2 km long and 1 km wide so it's very easy to travel around the island and there's really only one actual road which runs the circumference of the island. All other roads are too small for cars and are only accessible by scooter, bike or on foot.

In Okayama Prefecture they have set up a bunch of international villas in various remote areas of the prefecture as a way to attract foreign tourists as well as Japanese to the countryside. One of the six villas is on Shiraishi Island and Keiko and I stayed there for one night and then at a more traditional Japanese style minshuku (tourist home), basically a normal house that has been converted into an inn. The villas are really cheap to stay at 2500 for a foreigner and 3000 if you're Japanese and the rooms are quite comfortable. The only downside is you have to bring your own food. At the minshuku dinner and breakfast the next morning was included. Dinner was a full meat, seafood and vegetable barbeque spread. The minshuku was right on the beach as well so of course we hit that up and did a bit of swimming. The water was right at that prefect temperature and the water was nice and clean, free of seaweed and other various crap that would make swimming less enjoyable. Being so isolated as well the beach was basically empty. There were maybe a dozen other people on the beach or swimming at any given time.

On the way back from the island we stopped off in Okayama city and checked out a famous garden called Gorakuen as well as the neighbouring Okayama castle. I love Japanese castles and I can only imagine how great it woulda been to actually live or work in one of them back in the day. Sometimes I think perhaps I was born a few hundred years too late.

富士山

The day after the Dir en Grey concert Andy and I headed to Shizuoka prefecture in order to tackle Japan's tallest mountain, mount Fuji. At a majestic 3,776 metres, Fuji dwarfs pretty much every other mountain in Japan. Just to give some sense of scale, it's 4 times taller than the tallest mountain in Kyoto Prefecture, Mount Hiei. Andy and I took the train to the nearby town of Gotemba on the mountain's southeast side. There are 5 trails up the mountain, two of which are easily accessible by bus from Gotemba station. The buses will take you to the mountain's 5th stage, some 2000 metres high. Being the manly men we are Andy and I said screw the bus, we'll walk the whole thing. Big mistake which would come back and bite us in the ass. From the station to the trail it was at least 8 km. Then from there the road up to the 5th stage is a lengthy and steep 12 km walk. It was also as foggy as anything. Very ominous and very creepy since there's no streetlights or anything else around for miles.

We made it to the 5th stage around 11 and it was noticeably cooler. We managed to pick up a couple of drinks from a shop at the 5th stage just before the guy went to bed. We asked him how long to the top and he said 6 and a half hours or so from here. Hoping to make it close to the top to see the sunrise we didn't rest long before setting off again. It was pitch black as well and we had no flashlights so we used out cell phone lights which lasted surprisingly long and worked quite well. As we kept climbing the thin air was really getting to Andy. There were points where we'd rest, walk another 50 metres and he'd be winded. The air wasn't really bugging me but I was just tired from walking basically non-stop since 5.

Around 4 am the sky started to get a bit light, and by 5 the sun started to come up. By this point we were at the 8th stage, 3250 metres high with a temperature of 6 Celsius, and desperately in need of food. Luckily we reached a little food and rest hut where we could watch the sunrise and get food. It was ridiculously overpriced and the shop owner was an ass, but that's economics for you. It was here we realized that getting to the top was going to be a hell of a chore and not worth the effort. We were already pretty high and had walked and incredibly long time so we just headed back down. The trip down was a breeze. We made it back to the fifth stage in record time by talking a road that the 4 wheelers use to bring supplies up to the various huts. It took maybe just over an hour and we waited there for the bus to take us back to the station. The rest of the day was spent traveling back to Kyoto and sleeping on the various buses and trains on the way back. All in all a good climb and I'm not even that disappointed I didn't make the top. However, if I do it again I will definitely take the bus to the 5th stage and go from there. Not gonna make that mistake again.


The road to stage 5




At stage 5