Saturday 8th
Took off on foot today and walked remorselessly for several
hours. Started off at Nijo Castle, which was expensive and somewhat
disappointing. The most interesting aspect was the wooden floorboards that
squeak when you walk on them. I can feel your excitement mounting . These were apparently designed to sound the
alarm when an intruder (or pizza delivery boy) walks on them. They are called
Nightingale boards and my ornithological adviser has advised me that the squeaking
sounded just like birds. It had impressive
walls, moats, watchtowers, gates and buildings of the 1660 period. It is full of gilded screens and
carvings. It even had an avenue of trees
in blossom..YAY!
The main palace entrance
Have to show you at least 1 Japanese garden a day.
Look . . . blossom!
The beautiful main gate
More blossom
This was interesting. On wall panels inside was a very exotic looking palm tree. Quite out of place amongst all the usual Japanese style artwork. This is the palm. Trussed up and blanketed for winter. Amazing.
Look at the size of the hinges.
We then enjoyed an unexpected and unpublished interlude. We
veered off the main street to have a look at a side street market, which ran on
for several hundred metres. Instead of returning to the main roads, we then
turned left and proceeded down a parallel backstreet, which we found to be much
more interesting, far more relaxing and almost totally uninterrupted by
traffic. Walking along the main streets you are constantly interrupted every 50
to 100m by red lights making way for mostly non-existent traffic entering the
small side roads. This was like being suddenly plunged into a quiet suburb,
surrounded by small houses and people going about their business. Some of the cars
were pretty expensive and several houses had been done up in very good taste.
Cars usually had to be parked 3” or less from walls to leave space for passing
traffic. Several times we saw much smaller car-lifts allowing double storey
parking for 6 or 8 cars.
Front door and carport under main house. All the space you need.
I could never park like this.
These are cool and this is a small one. Have seen some 4 cars high and much wider. It seems so long as a space is left vacant you can move the cars about till you can get your one on the lower level.
This is the biggest engine I have seen while here so far. Where is Fireman Sam?
Japanese cars tend to be very snub-nosed and puggish. Sort
of like a Fiat500 hatch. There are hardly any SUVs or larger cars. Even the
BMWs and Mercs tend to be very compact. There are also a lot of bicycles,
nearly all very functional and basic – no racing or mountain bikes and few with
gears (who needs them when the cities are flat?) The other thing about cars is
that they are VERY quiet. Some of them have no exhausts at all and must be
electric and many display signs that say Hybrid but you only get any sense of a
combustion engine when they accelerate hard. Somewhat unnerving for pedestrians
(like China) because they sneak up on you.
The first temple of the day, Nishi Honganji, has a number of
very large separate buildings scattered around a large expanse of
gravel-covered land. The 2 main prayer
halls are built to host thousands of worshippers. There was
a repository for a large number of ancient religious scrolls, two huge wooden
temple buildings and sundry other ancillary pagoda-topped buildings. The inner chambers are what sets it apart and
were once part of Fushimi Castle. (You have to apply in advance to get to see
them)
Janine headed off alone to the Sanjusangen-do Temple in the afternoon. By the time she got there it was after 3.30pm
and they would not allow any further admissions for the day. She strolled back via a picturesque laneway
along the canal nearby. The temple has
1001 images of Kannon, the Buddhist
Goddess of Mercy. (Wish she had taken mercy on my poor sore feet)
The following pics are just things I found interesting:
Cemetery
This is the rubbish bin. Saw this in Osaka as well. Just mesh bags with the rubbish - only put out on collection day. No wheelie bins.
This building/shop is so narrow. Only wide enough for 1 person in front of the counter and 1 behind. It had a full length counter selling sweets.
The following pics are BRILLIANT IDEAS. (Yes I know they are toilet related - but I said I might put more pictures)
Somewhere to stow your baby while you use the toilet. Fits into a normal size cubicle. Awesome.
In female facilities - a mini urinal for your little boys. Brilliant.
This is the lovely heated loo in our backpacker hostel. Best bit with this one is the sink above the cistern. As soon as you flush the water pours from the tap so you can wash your hands and it also fills the cistern. Water saving brilliance. (These are available in Australia as one was installed in one of those renovation tv shows.)
Editor: Sorry . . couldn't stop her :(
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