May - An Update from Sam and Paige
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May was all about scenic beauty, some highly anticipated road trips, and Paige’s birthday! We went south, north, and a little bit in between.
Excursions
We had two highly anticipated road trips this month, and spent our down days exploring Kyoto. We also managed to visit all three of Japan’s “premier castles” this month, something we’ve been wanting to do since we arrived.
Kyushu - We’ve been saying for months that we’re most excited to check out Kyushu because of its biodiversity and, after a week long trip, it feels like we hardly scratched the surface. The parts we did see, though, blew us away.
Fukuoka: The largest city in Kyushu is where we begun the trip. We only had about a day here, and honestly were a bit underwhelmed. It seems like it might be the type of city you need a few days in to really enjoy. They specialize in a specific type of pork broth ramen (this is the home city of the famous ramen chain, Ichiran) that we were excited to try, but we didn’t end up loving it. The highlight was the night market. Rows and rows of food stalls, adorable makeshift ramen bars, paper lanterns lighting the alleyways, and live music that sort of sounded like what you’d find at a karaoke bar at 2AM (in an endearing way).
Yanagawa: We only spent a couple of hours here on the way to Kumamoto, but it’s too fun not to mention. Yanagawa is referred to as the Venice of Japan because of its 930km of canals. They were originally built as irrigation channels, but are now mostly used for peaceful cruises in flatboats known as donkobune. These cruises are typically guided by boatmen with long poles that push the boat along at a relaxed pace and occasionally sing traditional songs. The best part? The cruise stops at an ice cream stall literally built onto the canals so they can sling soft serve to whoever pulls up on the boats. We got a kick out of that.
Kumamoto: Completely opposite to Fukuoka, we immediately fell in love with this quaint city. Home to Kumamoto Castle, one of Japan’s aforementioned three “premier castles” (specially noted for its historic and cultural significance) and one of 12 original castles, the city is centered around history. Every corner you turn there is a new plaque to read and its historic charm is accentuated by the small vintage cable cars that weave throughout the city. There are rows of cute shops and we ended up having dinner at a gorgeous rustic restaurant serving local and seasonal dishes. We even made a couple bartender friends there that recommended places to stop on the rest of our drive. Above all, the city is home to Sam’s greatest love, Kumamon, the city’s adorable black bear mascot (more to come on that later).
Takachiho Gorge: This was probably the most anticipated part of the road trip. We drove an hour outside of the city, hitting a couple of waterfalls on the way, and ended up at an extraordinary volcanic canyon in the forest. The gorge is lined with geometric rock patterns so stunning they look like they were hand carved into the basalt. The main attraction of the gorge though is the waterfall that you can row a rental boat alongside and the hills around it that look down onto the area. Surrounding the awe-inspiring gorge, the town of Takachiho is home to some of Japan’s creation myths. There is a cave at the edge of town where, according to legend, Amaterasu (Shinto goddess of the sun and universe) had hidden away from her violent brother Susanoo. As she hid, the world plunged into darkness. Amaterasu was eventually lured out of the cave when the Gods had a massive party full of festive cheer at the entrance, and Amerterasu’s FOMO forced her to join the fun. After Amaterasu and Susanoo subsequently reconciled, the sun finally returned to the earth. Today, you’re able to take a short walk through the woods and along a river to visit Amaterasu’s cave, also known as Ama-no-Iwato. One fun personal tidbit here - On our first road trip in Japan through the Mie/Wakayama prefectures back in January, we had Amaterasu’s cave on our itinerary. Little did we know, there is another cave in the woods around Ise called Ama-no-Iwato, and we spent about two hours one morning circling the woods trying to find it, until we realized the cave we were looking for was at the complete other end of the country. So getting to finally visit the real Ama-no-Iwato was a nice full circle moment for us.
Mt. Aso: This volcano in the center of Kyushu gives the surrounding areas so much of its biodiversity and surrounding onsen towns its healing hot spring water. On a good day, you can take a shuttle bus right to the volcano’s caldera, but we were not so lucky as the conditions were level 4 dangerous that day. Not sure what that means but definitely something about unbearably toxic fumes. Still, the drive around the volcano goes through stunning vistas complete with hidden forest shrines and wild horses.
Beppu: Looking onto Beppu from the nearby mountain, the cityscape itself looks as if it’s on fire with huge plumes of smoke. In reality, it’s just the pillars of steam and vapor coming out of the countless hot springs in the city. According to my barber, this is THE premiere onsen destination in Japan. The baths are so plentiful, people will come here to do nothing but onsen hop for days on end. The other main tourist attraction is the Beppu "Jigoku Meguri" Hells, or Seven Hells of Beppu. These seven bubbling pools each have different chemical qualities that make them unique. They’re different colors, different consistencies, but all generally around the same temperature - really REALLY hot. They all hang out around 200 degrees fahrenheit, so these are more for admiring than bathing. The two most famous, Umi Jigoku and Chinoike Jigoku are cobalt blue and blood red respectively. Even though the whole gimmick is a little kitschy, you can spend a whole day visiting each of them and they really are neat. We couldn’t stay in Beppu without enjoying at least one hot spring, and we were spoiled for choice with many historic bathhouses here dating back hundreds of years. If you can only go to one though, you might as well go to the best, so we visited Hyoten Onsen, the only 3-Michelin star bathhouse in Japan.
Kitakyushu: Our last stop was a very relaxed one, but this city had a unique castle and an excellent cocktail bar that was recommended to us by a bartender we met in Matsumoto. Proper cocktail bars with unique drinks are a bit hard to find in Japan, so this one and the one we found in Matsumoto were a real treat!
Himeji - A half-day stop on the way back from Kyushu, we weaved through the downtown area of Himeji before arriving at the main draw of the city, Himeji Castle. This is widely regarded as the most impressive remaining castle in Japan which is mostly due to it being one of the only remaining original castles in the country. It’s also one of the three aforementioned premiere castles.
Paige’s Birthday Trip - In between some of our visitors, we headed north to the Japanese Alps!
The Japanese Alps: Snow capped mountains dominated the landscape and wild monkeys ran along the roads. The alps are situated in Chūbu-Sangaku National Park, home to some of Japan’s highest mountains, and the area is frequented by avid trekkers and climbers. That shouldn’t scare you off though, because some of the most gorgeous views that the area has to offer are also the most accessible. The Kamikochi area features mountain silhouettes very reminiscent of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, and we got to see them all on one of the easiest hikes we’ve ever done! After the hike, we ended up the rest of the day on the river bank just sitting by the water, skipping rocks, and reading. We did some other waterfall hikes and hit some hot springs, but mostly just enjoyed being out in nature.
Matsumoto: Tucked in between mountains, Matsumoto is best known for its castle. Nicknamed the “Crow Castle” because of its black exterior, it is one of Japan’s three “premiere castles” and is designated as a National Treasure, similar to Kumamoto Castle and Himeji Castle. From the castle moat onward, the city features quaint streets lined with historic Kura Storehouses made of thick white plaster with black geometric detailing converted into local shops and restaurants. We had such a fun couple days exploring and celebrated Paige’s birthday day with many sweet treats and a private onsen.
Aichi: Aichi village is a designated dark zone, which means the light pollution is limited to allow for a clearer night sky and view of the stars. We stayed the night glamping in this area, our accommodation being a gorgeous see-through dome alongside a river. We even got lucky with a clear night after a few days of rain.
Magome to Tsumago: Remember the hike we tried to do back in February, but couldn’t because the fog was too thick to see and we were scared of bears? We didn't want to leave any unfinished business and we were sort of in the area, so we went back and did the dang thing. No fog at all this time and it was bear-free! The hike was beautiful and definitely a workout but at the end, they gave us a cute certificate of completion made out of a thin sheet of Japanese Cyprus. That one’s going in the scrapbook for sure!
Kyoto - We got to explore our home-base in a different way this month, and we had some great friends come hang out with us for it (Sara, Avi, Julian, & Ale, shoutout to you all), but this email is already going to be too long, so we’ll go into this more next month!
Kumamon (& the other mascots of Japan)
It’s no secret that Japan loves their cute characters. Kawaii culture altogether is a fascinating phenomenon. In a way, it encapsulates youthfulness and innocence, ideals that are important in Japanese society. Post-WWII, Kawaii culture helped Japan rebrand into a more non-threatening country, hoping everyone would forget its grisly history. In recent years, it’s mainly tied to consumerism and the fact that a cute little mascots are easy to sell - branding products with the local/company mascot increases sales 20-30% - but it goes beyond that. The culture is also used to soften the public perception of state-run institutions (some prisons have mascots, for example), increase productivity at work (friendly corporate mascots all around the office), deliver sensitive information or address potentially stressful topics to the public (public service announcements, flyers, posters, warning signs, etc.; Sanrio has even licensed rights to make Hello Kitty children's fireproof evacuation gear and first-aid kits!) and much more. It won’t take you much time once you arrive in Japan to notice how many there are. It isn’t necessarily a modern concept either as woodblock prints from the Edo period often featured cats in kimonos, frogs playing instruments, or carps smoking from a pipe. This was done partially as an alternative to depicting samurai or geisha engaging in such debauchery, but also because people just thought they were fun.
A disclaimer here, not everything in Japan is cute and we’re not trying to be reductive. There are many different aesthetics on display in Japan, which is part of the reason why it’s such an interesting country. The society is truly a mix of tradition, modernity, and futurism. This is all just to say, we have a lot of love for a cute little guy around here. As mentioned, they have mascots for just about everything. They’re called yurukyara, a combination of yuru (soft, fluffy) and kyara (character). We have been lucky enough to get aquatinted with some of them, and they really are such a joy. Here’s a few of our favorites…
But the best, hands down, has got to be Kumamon. We met him this month, and wow… it was love at first sight. Kumamon is the prefectural mascot of Kumamoto. Kumamon is probably the cutest prefecture mascot in Japan, and this city knows it. They are fully aware that they have a star on their hands, and they are not afraid to flaunt him everywhere.
The souvenir shops were packed with endless Kumamon merchandise. Shirts, pen cases, sake bottles, stickers, patches, keychains, literally anything you can think of being in a souvenir store, there’s a version of it adorned with the bear. Everywhere you look in the prefecture, you’ll be met with those lovable red cheeks and slightly demented eyes. And honestly? I don’t blame them. This guy will be hard to beat for our cutest mascot award.
Niche Japanese Words
Last month, we talked about “hanami”, the Japanese word for flower viewing. If any of you have seen the movie Perfect Days this year, you’ll have seen a definition for “komorebi” at the end of the credits, which is the “shimmering of leaves in the sunlight that exists only for that moment”. There are many words in the Japanese language without a direct translation to English but are so helpful and resonated with us, so we thought we’d share a couple of our favorites:
Tsundoku: A habit that likely many of us are guilty of, “Acquiring books, but letting them pile up without reading them.”
Kuidaore: “To eat until you’re bankrupt.” A tall order in Japan, because the food here is pretty dang cheap. But then again it’s very good, so it’s easy to eat a lot of it. This slogan can be found all over the flashy and perennially packed Dōtonbori area of Osaka.
Shinrin-yoku: Similar to flower viewing, this is the act of “forest bathing”. It is meant to represent the deep sense of calm that washes over you when you spend time in nature.
Wabi Sabi: Often used to describe an aesthetic, this refers to “imperfect beauty”. For example, a beautiful handmade piece of pottery with slightly uneven sides, or maybe a fingerprint snuck into the glazed piece, would be wabi sabi.
And a couple of deeper ones:
Ichi-go ichi-e: This is more of an old Japanese proverb. Ichi-go ichi-e means “one opportunity, one encounter” and is meant to express the concept of treasuring the unrepeatable nature of the moment, an understanding that no encounter can ever truly be repeated. I could not explain this better than a native speaker could, so here is what someone online said about it: “Ichi-go ichi-e speaks to the idea that no one encounter can ever be recreated: Each moment and each convergence of time, space, light, mood, thought, and circumstance is singular and unrepeatable. As such, every encounter should be met with one’s full, attuned senses. Some encounters plant seeds that take root over time, while others change the course of one’s life in a single moment.” We love this one.
Natsukashii: “Bringing forth happy, poignant memories of the past.” As opposed to the English nostalgia, which is a bit melancholy, natsukashii is looking back on something with complete fondness. It is to be grateful to have lived that memory, and to move forward happily knowing that you did.
Ikigai: This is one of our personal favorites. Ikigai literally means “a reason for being”, but it is also a philosophy. The concept is that your ikigai is found at the intersection where your passions and talents overlap with the wants and needs of the world.
We learned about this concept a few years ago while browsing in a bookstore in San Francisco’s Japantown, and it has really stuck with us. It seems like an oversimplification, but I think it’s the opposite. It’s a concrete way to determine your place and to define what serves both yourself and the community at large. I have often struggled with reconciling my personal ambitions with my desire to make the world a better place. It’s difficult to do when you’re not working in something like social work, activism, environmental sciences, or something that is obviously for the benefit of others. To me, the concept of ikigai provides a framework for finding the balance between the two responsibilities, and encourages introspection and honesty with oneself.
This was a long one, we hope we didn’t bore you! See ya next month for our FINAL Japan installment! Time flies, huh?