The Spirit of Old Japan: On the Road to Takayama
After two days in Japan we started our long journey across a bunch of prefectures. We bought some stuff, saw some stuff and heard some stuff. Keep reading for the long winded version spiced with Erick wits and insights. What? You read it and it was neither witty nor insightful? Well exCUSE me! You get what you pay for, which in this case, is nothing. In fact, it is less than nothing because under normal circumstances I would be paying top dollar to bring this to you. So if you want to see what else passes for a witty trip in Japan, then I highly suggest you go and google it. Okay, without futher ado (well besides my email address): the link –>
On the morning of the third day we repeated our routine from the previous day. We got up at the butt-crack of dawn due to the insistence of grandparents who wanted to make sure they did not miss standing in line with everyone else who had the exact same idea. We then ate our usual breakfast for the tour, a breakfast buffet of your usual eggs and sliced meat and bread. For good measure they also threw in a few traditional Japanese breakfast dishes such as miso soup, rice and natto, but few seemed to eat it.
After finishing waiting in line and having breakfast (and then waiting for half an hour due to being made to get up so early) we met in the lobby and got into our bus that would take us to our next destination. Besides my grandparents and me there was also another family of four–a grandmother, her son and wife and their daughter. The grandmother was born in Japan on Shikoku and later moved to the United States. Her son was born in Japan and had been before but not since he was a teenager. He married a Chinese-American and it was her and their daughter’s first time in Japan. Perhaps I have just been in Japan for too long, but I was surprised how aggressive/take charge the mother was. People in Japan just are not assertive in the same way Americans are–and for that matter the rest of the world including Australia and England. Both she and my grandfather have that distinctive instinctual need to take charge and command every situation. Needless to say they got along great.
At any rate the seven of us got onto a big bus usually meant for 50 and headed off northwest to Takayama. Our first stop was at the Japanese equivalent of a rest-stop. The main difference is instead of fearing for your life and your virginity you have about 20 vending machines and a couple restaurants serving everything from curry to soft serve ice-cream…and of course “omiyage”. Omiyage is the Japanese word for souvenir and generally means a type of food distinctive to the area you are visiting. For example in Okayama that means “Kibidango”, a treat from the fable Momotaro (peach boy). In Kanazawa that means stuff with gold flakes. I think this was my grandfather’s favorite part of Japan because he couldn’t go somewhere without buying some. That of course meant that half the time he chose something with a horrid taste he regretted buying as soon as he tried it and spent the rest of the trip trying to trick me into either eating it or taking it home with me. The other main attraction at the rest stop was a view of Mt. Fuji. I also treated Foo Foo to some Dakara, a potassium drink like Gatorade.
We then spent the next four or five hours on the Bus listening to our tour guide talk about some of the spiritual history of the country. I slept through most of the ordeal but I did hear some interesting tidbits:
The emperor or first ruler was given the option of marrying the rock spirit and giving humanity a sturdy, lasting life. However the ruler passed this option and instead chose to marry the cherry blossom spirit. Cherry blossoms are gorgeous but frail and whither come the first wind or rain. Therefore human life is short but sweet.- There are wild monkeys in Japan. These monkeys harass villagers by destroying their crops. Monkeys travel in packs so on Hakone mountain they put a sensor (GPS?) on one of the monkeys. This sensor sets off an alarm whenever the monkeys encroach on a farm and the villagers scare them off by pounding sticks on the ground.
- Sakura Beef is a speciality of Takayama and means horse meat (which is pink like the blossom).
- Colored Goldfish were a of normal carp and first spotted in the Sea of Japan in the 17th Century.
- Although Buddhism and Shintoism are now bound together as a single sort of entity of Japanese worship this was not always the case. When Buddhism first came to Japan one shinto priest aligned his sect with the new religion and started a battle with another priest and his sect. The mixed religion’s side won out and received the Emperors blessing. The Emperor (who is the descendant of the sun goddess and therefore part of the shinto religion) declared shinto and buddhism to be worshipping the same thing. After this time buddhist temples were built alongside or next to shinto shrines and visa versa. This balance between the two continued until the Shogun transferred executive power back to the Emperor towards the end of the 19th century. At this time balanced tipped to Shintoism and its emphasis on worshipping the Emperor. Since the end of World War II when the Emperor shocked the nation by declaring that he was a mere mortal and exactly like everyone else the power and influence of Shintoism has been on the wane.
Japanese people as a general rule are not afraid of spiders. This is especially shocking given that your average Japanese girl here will squeal, scream and squirm and then flee fro the room at the first sight of a fly. This can apparently be explained by the lack of poisonous spiders on the island.- Tree picking is extremely labor intensive. As Japan’s standard of living and average wage rose fruit became more and more expensive to harvest. (Or as our guide explained: families are smaller and when men marry they don’t stay home so families don’t have enough people to pick the fruit themselves). Where America has solved this problem by importing millions of starving mexicans who are willing to work for next to nothing, Japan solved the problem by thinking outside of the box. Instead of paying people to pick fruit, charge them to do it! Most groves are now open to the public, where you and your family can pay a few bucks and have a family tree-picking outing and eat all the fruit you can pick!
- Lastly all freight trucks (big-rigs) have three green lights above their front windshield. The lights help cops regulate speed as each green light that is lit represents 12 mph. It is easy to know that a truck is speeding through the middle of town when you see all three green lights.
- Ancient Japanese explained eclipses with a fable. The sun goddess has a naughty younger brother who had a bird poop on the goddesses house. Crying, she fled to a cave and blocked the entrance with a huge boulder that no one else could lift. The other gods’ pleas for her to come out were not answered. Eventually they decided to get her to stop sulking by holding a huge festival with games and a rooster calling on a perch. Filled with curiosity, she emerged from her cave. This perch can be seen at the entrance to every shrine.
8 means many as well as 8. Apparently your average Japanese person lost 3 fingers in his lifetime. There was also something about Yatsuda (8 mountains) mountain having a bunch of sisters, one of whom was jealous and hit another over the head to make sure she was the tallest (look at the tall peak on the left).
Check back for the next installment detailing my two days in Takayama (Day 3-4).