The forest of Meiji Shrine

This forest is 80 years old, which is not as old as we expect. The oasis surrounded by Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Shibuya worships the Meiji Emperor and Empress, and their furnishing goods such as historical costumes, drawers, books, horse carts, and others are exhibited at a treasure house.

the 700,000-square meter garden was an inhospitable country in the beginning because of the World War II. There was no forest and even trees. However over 100,000 trees were donated from all over the nation, and over 110,000 volunteers participated in the recovery of the land. Additionally a lot of donation were gathered for the garden. Finally Meiji Shrine was dedicated. These facts are described in “Three beautiful stories about the beginning of Meiji Shrine”.

There are 3 huge gates at Meiji Shrine, and all of them are made of woods. Whenever I enter the gates, I want to breathe fresh air due to the sanctity. Please remember that we can’t bring back anything even fallen leaves and acorns. There is an old emperor’s garden surrounded by bamboo. Everybody can go inside with an entrance fee (500 YEN) and see many flowers. At this moment more than 150 sorts of iris are beautiful.

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Japanese calculator, SOROBAN

It’s a Japanese traditional calculator, which is originally imported from China, but nowadays Japanese SOROBAN has the biggest share all over the world. Of course SOROBAN is not a major calculator, so I guess you’ve barely heard the name.

When I was a kid, everybody around me learned something such as piano, prep school, shodo, and more. SOROBAN was one of our choices, and my choice was SOROBAN, because I liked arithmetic. Don’t me the reason. Something became clear when I got an answer by calculation.

Kids sit on seats. Around 30 people in the same class. Everybody brought SOROBAN. My teacher told me how to use it and do the math in my head. We visualized SOROBAN in our heads and worked the beads. Surprisingly at the moment I never made mistakes with simple addition.

Math was my favorite class until I graduated my high school thanks to SOROBAN. I can say it’s a part of our culture and won’t vanish. At least I hope so. Yesterday I had an opportunity to pass through my SOROBAN school. Suddenly it reminded me of the days.

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Mt. Fuji

I guess most of people know the Mt. Fuji, which is the highest mountain in Japan. The height is 3,776 meters. Even Japanese want to go climbing in the mountain before we die, because it’s the national landmark and holy place. Something may be there.

I went to the top of Mt. Fuji 5 years ago with my friends. I drove my car from Tokyo to level 5 of the Mt. Fuji for 3 hours and started climbing at 22:00. Of course you can start from level 1, but Mt Fuji has 9 levels, and you can park a car at level 5.

It was summer. I didn’t bring any jackets or sweaters. The temperature in Tokyo was over 30 degrees C (86 degrees F), but it’s 0 degrees C (32 degrees F) on the peak. I was freezing to death. Only Amazake, which was Japanese traditional hot drink, warmed up my body. Unfortunately I almost became altitude sickness on the way. My friends game me portable oxygen masks, which saved my conscious.

There are too many people climbing in the mountain in summer. The sun rose when we reached to the level 9. The view was amazingly beautiful. Everybody stopped their feet and gazed over the sunrise. Maybe the beauty gave me a power, and I got the peak after 8-hour walk. I peeked the crater. Strong wind came up against my face. It was hard and cold to me, but I know what I did was what I wanted.

If you’re interested to climb the Mt. Fuji, don’t forget to bring a jacket.

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Oasis in Tokyo

Tokyo is a monster city. Wherever you go, buildings are everywhere. You can see restaurants, shops, nightclubs, and more. I’ve been to Los Angeles, New York, Seoul , Milan, Frankfurt, and more, but Tokyo has the largest downtown all over the world in my opinion. It means there is on oasis in Tokyo seemingly.

However There is an oasis at the end of Tokyo. The are is called OKUTAMA. It takes 1hour and half from Shinjuku by Chuo Line. You need to transfer twice or so during the way to OKUTAMA. It sounds like outside of Tokyo, doesn’t it? but it’s still in Tokyo.

Do you wanna hike mountain roads, see a dam, or breathe fresh air? OKUTAMA is good for your weekend. I sometimes go there by car, because I wanna move all over the place. Additionally one of my purposes is BBQ. BBQ under the blue sky is perfect. Of course we can’t do BBQ in the center of Tokyo, thus I sometimes go there in summer.

It’s getting warmer in Japan. Today I wear only T-shirt. The rainy season will start on middle of June. Now is the time to go!!

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TARLUM

I’ve been curious a cafe in front of Yoyogi Park, which is one of the most famous parks in Tokyo. JR Harajuku station and Chiyoda Line Yoyogi Park station are convenient to access. To walk in 3 minutes. The cafe is TARLUM, which is glassed-in front. If you go through the cafe, you can notice it easily.

A couple days ago I searched the cafe on the Internet. It told me that they could accept pets. What a wonderful environment it is! I went there immediately. The cafe has 3 floors (basement, 1st floor, and 2nd floor). Pets can stay on basement and 1st floor, and it’s forbidden on 2nd floor. The cafe is also a restaurant with fine dishes during dinner time. I ordered white wine brure and cappuccino.I thought that brure might be very sweet before eating, but I was wrong. This brure smelled and tasted wine, and it’s not too sweet. The brure was better than other cake shops around my house.

Other sweets were also fine. Dinner at this cafe would be great. I’ll go to the spacious 2nd floor for dinner next time.

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Chusonji Temple

It took for 1 hour and half from Morioka Station to HIraizumi Station by Tohoku Main Line. The train had two carriages. It’s quite local, isn’t it?

Swallows flew across the green station, which was nostalgic and calm. Chusonji Temple was located 10-minute away from the station by bus. Chusonji Temple is specified a national historic site. It was built by A samurai, Fujiwara no Kiyohira, in the beginning of 12th century and had 40 towers around the temple in its heyday. However all of them were burned out by blaze. Now only Konjikido (golden hall) does exist with original figure.

Matsuo Basho, who was a legendary poet, read about Konjikido in his best work, Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Interior). “The golden hall sparkles with rain drops in May”. Its floor, ceiling, and wall were decorated with gold leaves and noctilucent clams. 12 golden Buddha statues inside of 4 poles were colored gold. Remains of Kiyohira, Tomohira, HIdehira, and Yasuhira’s head were under the golden Buddha statues.

A historical sylvan road had 13 halls and several shops at the entrance of each hall, and I could enjoy specialty incense, tea, and other souvenirs. There was Hakusan Shrine after the 13 halls. I enjoyed Fujiwara’s terrestrial paradise.

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Seafood Club COVO

An oyster bar appeared in my beloved town, Yoyogi, and I went there last weekend. The name of restaurant was Seafood Club COVO. It’s located in JR Yoyogi Station east exit close to DoCoMo Tower. It’s hard for people first visiting Yoyogi to find the off-street restaurant.

I ordered mozzarella pickled in miso, white wine steamed clam, grilled chicken, raw oysters, and steamed rice with sea-bream meat. My favorite dishes were mozzarella pickled in miso and raw oysters.

The texture of mozzarella pickled in miso was totally different from originals and fresh. Its seasoning with salt was just as well. I believe the best beverage for the dish was SAKE. Unfortunately this restaurant didn’t have a wider variety of SAKE. I ordered Kubota. Raw oysters were fleshy and sweet. I tried several kinds of oyster, and Shunko (A name of oyster) was the best. The restaurant gave me 6 sources (nampla, sesame oil, wine vinegar, Japanese soup, citrus & miso, tomato & garlic) to eat raw oysters. I guess wine vinegar was the best match to raw oysters. I’ll try use it at home. Rice with sea-bream meat was steamed by pressure cooker, and it had fine soup and too many bones. I don’t like it because of the bones.

What it comes down to is that raw oysters were great!, a variety of beverage was average, for other dishes some were OK, but some were lazy. If you love oysters, I can recommend you.

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Solo travel in Hachinohe Part2

A continuation of Solo travel in Hachinohe Part1. My next place was a vast park, Miyagi Park. It took for 5 minutes from JR Hon-Hachinohe Station.

The Japanese garden surrounded by Japanese trees of pine, maple, and cherry was tidy. I looked down Mabuchi River running through the town from a hill in the balmy May sunshine. There was a country view with fresh green on my right side and an industrial area on my left side. I thought that our ancestors looked down Hachinohe castle town long time ago just like I did. An old samurai residences with black high wall close to the park reminded me of ancient days.

I looked for specialty seafood downtown after that. Finally I found a local cuisine restaurant, La Plaza. I ordered Hachinohe Senbei Stew. Chicken, whitefish, mushroom, celery cabbage, burdock, and Nanbu rice cracker with soup based on salt were stewed in Nanbu Iron Pod. The dish was good for my stomach and relieved my fatigue.

You probably imagine Tokyo as a sightseeing spot in Japan, but Hachinohe is recommendable as well.

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Solo travel in Hachinohe Part1

Hachinohe is located in Aomori Prefecture, a north part of Japan. I visited Hachinohe alone during the season of new green leaves.

On the first day I worked around downtown. On the second day I got up at 06:00 and went to a morning market in perch. The morning market located at the foot of a panoramic hill, Choja Mountain, opens from 05:00 to 08:00. It closes the road to cars, and market booths align on both side of the road.

Fresh flowers, vegetables (mountain plants were in season), and fish were aligned on tables and sheets on the road. Stewed ODEN in a deep pan was on a charcoal stove, and freshly-fried TENPURA was next. My favorite thing was grilled fish. Skewed fish was grilled slowly, and its skin was crispy and meat was plump. You can taste only in Hachinohe.

I ate SOBA at 350 yen as well. It’s reasonable and tasty. I could also top with TENPURA as much as I wanted. My stomach and heart were satisfied with those local specialties.

I was blessed with spring crisp air and blue sky and felt grateful with the fun moments. This travel keeps going little more.

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Iriomote Island

Iriomote Island is a part of Yaeyama Islands. I described Taketomi Island previously. These 2 islands and Ishigaki Island are main tourist points. Iriomote Island is the second largest island in Okinawa Prefecture (289 sq km). To put it plainly, the island is the jungle.

There are plenty of things to see. Water falls, mangrove forests, hot springs, water buffalo, and more. You can rent a car and drive all around, but some parts of Iriomote Island are hard to go in. Do you like kayak? If you do, it’s perfect. Now you can go everywhere. I rent a kayak and went inside of deep forests. Everything was fresh to me. I encountered about 3-feet eels. Wow! What a big creature it was! A tour guide told me that he saw 7-feet eels before. 1-feet crayfish was also awesome!

It was truly exciting trip to me. My favorite spot was a water fall. It was like adventure. I sailed a kayak into the deep forest. If I didn’t have a guide, I would lost my way. I had to climb hills for 1 hour after sailing the kayak, and then suddenly the water fall appeared. Its view was amazing. My guide took me to the top of the water fall, where I could look around the island entirely. Can you imagine beautiful sky and crystal-clear ocean with deep forest after the adventure. I loved it.

Try to do it when you visit Iriomote Island.

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