Takayama
It was fall break this week, and R and the children set off to
Takayama, a town famous for its beautiful merchant houses. They had warned me that it was cold there,
and to bring plenty of warm clothes as well as gloves. Takayama is in the mountains (literally, it
means high mountains) and the air there is noticable thinner than it is in
Tokyo and the smell reminded me of St Luc, and some of the atmosphere reminded
me of the time when I took my Swiss greatuncle Michel (oncle Michel) and
greataunt Loeki (tante Loeki) to St. Luc one time many years ago. Oncle Michel had turned in his drivers
license to the authorities when he had turned 65. He was convinced that old people should not
be on the road being a man of principle and a firm believer in the equality of
men he applied the same principles to himself.
Tante Loeki thought it was foolishness and although his senior by a few
years had kept her license and drove him all over town and even to the
neighboring towns. But St Luc was too
far, so R and I had to drive them both.
We had not quite understood that we oncle Michel was going to a meeting,
were a little late, which made everybody very nervous, especially onlce Michel
who had in his entire life not been late for a meeting. He told me what was now required was
‘prudence and rapidite’ with the definite emphasis on rapidite. We made it in time to his meeting in the
valley everyone’s great relief and then ascended to St Luc which was empty
(fall being the season when the natives get some respite from the
tourists). The air was a mixture of the
fresh mountain air and the smoke eminating from the chimnees. It was hunt, ing season, so we ate chamois (mountain
goat) and walked through the village.
On the train ride to Nogoya (Shinkansen) I got a great view of Mount Fuji, and tried to take a picture, and it really
did not come out, but I will include here nevertheless
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From Nagoya
I got into a smaller train, also very nice and climbed into the mountain, along
a river that had obviously been much fuller just recently when the latest
typhoon swept across the country. The
train ride was beautiful and what struck me about the train itself was that it
appeared that the driver was shifting manually, just like one would in a
car. I had never heard that before (and
now that we are on the way back and descending, I notice that he often shifts
down before a turn to reduce its speed).
Saskia has little tolerance for this traindrivers style however, and
promptly got sick.
Takayama is indeed a very picturesque town and the carpentry of the
merchant houses spectacular. It is also
the place where there is much lacquered goods, a beautiful orange lacquer is
harvested from trees and put onto wooden boxes, plates, cups etc. creating a shiny orange finish on the main
surfaces, but the edges, where the lacquer has pulled away are whitish, so that
they are emphasized.
The hotel we stayed in was luxurious except, of course, for the
beds, which consisted of the backbreaking 2 inch thick futons that the
chiropractors must love. Both dinner and
breakfast were provided in big tatami rooms and there was a beautiful onsen
that we enjoyed every day after we came back from a long day of sightseeing and
activities.
As is common, there was plenty of staff, but in this case, we had
our own Nagai-san, a lady in kimono who took care of us particularly. She would come and visit us as soon as we got
in, often entering without knocking and bring us our hand towels and make our
ocha (green tea). She would also serve
us dinner. Dinner was a very elaborate
set menu, with a little sashimi, tempura, some beef grilled on magnolia leaves and
some 12-15 other dishes with unidentifiable substances the taste and texture
were always a surprise for us. </P>
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<A HREF="Dinner ">
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<P>The children are not all that keen on most of this food,
but they got a huge piece of cake for desert and there was rice to be had so
they were content. Among the highlights for
us were some of the mountain vegetables and beef that the area is known for
(some of this beef was served raw with other pieces of sashimi, I hesitated, but I was glad I tried it). This morning there was a little dish with
some unusual little vegetable in it, little strings on top of some grated
daikon. Upon closer examination they
were definitely miniscule white fish with gray eyes. They were quite good, but got stuck between
ones teeth, so I spat one out when I brushed my teeth later. When we left the breakfast room, the ladies
that served there would kneel down and bow to us, while thanking us for having
been so gracious as to try their food.
As these women are my senior by several decades, this kind of deference
makes me feel a bit awkward. R thinks
that you should bow back deeply, but most Japanese customers do not do so. A simple brief of head with a thank you is
all that is returned. It is similar to
the problem I have when entering a store and people are doing their elaborate
‘welcome’ (Irasheemashe) to which I always have the impulse to return the
greeting (and which I have done many times much to the confusion of the
greeter) but which most Japanese people completely ignore. Would it make the servicing staff feel
awkward if you would bow back deeply in return?
I think it just might, causing yet deeper bowing on their part, thus
having the opposite of the desired effect.
We went to the Hida
Village, a museum where
some of the old farm (and other) houses from the different villages in the
mountains had been gathered into a beautiful open-air museum. Many of these houses had thick thatched very
steep roofs (almost A-frame) and were extremely beautiful. Whenever we went inside the houses it was noticeably
colder. And this was on a beautiful fall
day. Cannot imagine how cold it must
have been to live in them when snow was falling. I include some pictures below
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<A HREF="Hiba
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<P>We also went to the market several days in a row. The morning market was in front of a
beautiful old building (Jinya) used by the local governer and his
administration. The other was along the
river (on the way to the market we found a recently killed pigeon on the road
with some of the guts sticking out.
Saskia said that it looked like the pigeon had committed seppeku). On the Jinya market farmers are selling the
most unusual vegetables, many of them pickled.
There are also little foodstands where you can get little riceballs
grilled on a stick then dipped in some (Sesame or Soy-based) sauce (quite good,
really). The other market is more an
arts and craft market where the local artisans bring their textiles, wood
carvings, etc.
12:57:38 PM 
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