What on earth is this you ask.  It's an urban motorway built on top of the river Nihonbashi in Tokyo.  I can't imagine the number of heart attacks there must have been in the conservation community when that plan was put forward.  

I'm staying in Nihonbashi this weekend and if you read this Wikipedia entry you'll find it's been very much a key part of Tokyo since the 17th century.  You'll also learn the comforting fact that they've started work on putting the motorway underground.  Barring accidents and delays the view of Mount Fuji from the Nihonbashi bridge should be restored just in time for me to enjoy on my 100th birthday.

I pottered about on Saturday morning and then met Momo in early afternoon to experience the Mukojima-Hyakkaen Garden Moon Viewing.  Before describing that let me tell you that to get there involved using an underground station where I must have walked the length of Princes St. from entry point to getting on a train.  Avoid Otemachi station when in Tokyo is my advice.

Anyway just as the Japanese gather in Spring to enjoy the cherry blossom they celebrate in early autumn when the nights are warm by gathering to view the moon when it's full (or maybe when it's not, I don't know).  Now moonrise in Tokyo yesterday was scheduled for 18.00 hours so that left plenty of time for thumb twiddling or other cultural activities.

Clearly there was walking round the garden, which is truly lovely and to me at least so unexpected to find in the middle of an otherwise undistinguished part of central Tokyo.  The sad thing is that more or less none of the shots I took of the garden are in focus.  The camera has been troublingly playing up for a few days.  I've now discovered that the lens must have suffered a dunt that has brought it partly out of its seating like a bottle top that's not properly in the thread of the bottle neck.  I don't think I can safely dunt it back into place (I've already tried) and don't reckon my chances of finding an instant repairer on a Sunday are very good so I'll just have to put up with it and use the phone more than I have been.

Here's one though of my friend and teacher which is in focus, even though it's unfortunately just the back of her head taken accidentally by me fiddling with the camera as we walked through a long heavily planted tunnel like pergola.

Then there was the tea ceremony which was brilliant.  I do have some in focus shots of that.  There were about ten of us in the little tea house sitting seiza style.  Well two of the older Japanese, not as old as me I hasten to add, had little low chairs while I tried heroically and painfully to do the right thing until rescued by the provision of a third chair.

There were five people involved in carrying out the ceremony, four women and one man.  One young woman explained what was happening.  It was all in Japanese though she used English a couple of times when for example saying that taking photos was ok but not of faces.  That seemed a shame but I succeeded, here's the proof.  Mind you I didn't want to be snapping away all the time.  I wanted to watch and feel and savour the experience.

Another young woman did all the business of making the tea while the other three people served us a little cake and the bowls of tea.  The whole thing was done in near total silence (apart from the commentator) with much bowing from both punters and tea servers.  It all looked beautiful, the clothes, the equipment, the cakes on their little dishes etc etc.  It was done with the delicacy, elegance and precision that pervades much of Japanese culture.

Of course I don't actually like the result - the green tea or matcha but we went off after that for a proper refreshment.  Then Momo had to go and I went back to the garden for the next treat.  

As the sun set they started to light the lanterns

and get the concert hall set up

and then music filled the air

Finally I saw the moon but that was after I left the garden to head back to the dreaded Otemachi station and something to eat although I could have taken some nourishment in the garden.  Food was available.

There's a large lake called Biwa in central Japan that I caught a sight of in April and decided I'd like to have a closer look at.  The original idea was to get on the water.  There are allegedly boat trips to see and even land on some of the islands in the lake. I failed however to get any really firm information but I did discover that there is a small ski station above the lake.  You can go up in their cable car and admire the views and so forth.  The weather was not too conducive to getting pictures but it was a pleasant outing.

In the picture above you are looking down the lake towards Kyoto and in the one below across the lake over a couple of dark splodges that are islands.

They've got quite a nice way of avoiding fencing you in.  At various viewpoints there is a stretch of water.  They call it their infinity view.
 

Here's a girl living dangerously.

And here's a more relaxed way to view from behind the infinity ditch.  There are some runs up there and people were enjoying the chairlift. 

A zipwire was on offer as well as some other adventurous puruits that I did not pursue.

I had lunch.  The menu was not very Japanese but pasta is cousin to the noodle after all.  They grow vines in that part of the country so I had some of the white which tasted good to me.  I had some blue ice-cream.  It was called tropical milk whatever that might be.  I ordered it because I could remember the Japanese for blue. 

What I did spot was that down on shore there was sand of a colour that we are familiar with at home and I even spotted some beach umbrellas so the season must not be over by the lake.

What I decided to do when I came down was to take a train to the top of the lake and go back via the eastern shore.  I set off but after we had stopped at one small station (they are all small on this line) I found my train was going backwards.  I think what must have happened is that the train split at that point, one part continuing further north and the back end in which I was sitting going south.  I debated getting out and having another go on a later train but the effort reward ratio just didn't stack up.

The next day was my potter about Nagoya day, which I did.  It's a big city, Japan's fourth in population terms and most of it is office blocks and the like with I suppose what you might call signature buildings here and there and some historic buildings too.

My first stop was the tower in the background of this photo. The Mirai tower was built in the 50s.  There was a good display of objects and a house interior in the style of the time that the tower was built.  You can go up it which I did.  You can sleep in it because it contains a hotel.  I didn't, and obviously you've got fine views etc. 

The big building in the foreground is called Oasis 21 and is essentially a bus station but the link will fill out that description for you.  Its USP is that the roof is a pool of water.  You can go and walk around and peer down through it and so.  

This is how it looks from the tower.  The brownish cloured building to its left is an arts centre with concert hall etc.
 

This picture shows that the tower stands in a long park.  It stretches in the opposite direction too and has lots of space for events and general hingin aboot.  I walked the length of it.

The tower looks better from that viewpoint I think.

I had lunch in this Korean restaurant and the picture is just to remind me of how tasty it was.  It was indistinguishable from a Japanese meal.  They served me soup, a dish of lettuce leaves with three small dishes containing a dip, some pasta in mayonnaise and I think another veg plus a big bowl of rice and the main attraction a sizzling cast iron plate of thinly cut pork.

Then I came across a clump of shrines.  It was like a small park between two busy roads. There was one largish shrine and five or six other smaller ones.  I watched one chap pray at several of them before he gave me a cheery wave and got into his car and drove off.

Wending on I found a quiet green spot before getting to this museum of science and technology and whatnot.

I rested there for a while and a Japanese schoolgirl asked if she could take my picture.  I think it was a project or an after school club or something.  There was another girl around and a woman who might have been a teacher. 

She was delighted at having gained my permission and went eagerly about the business, crouching down for an upward shot, taking different angles, fiddling a bit uncertainly with the camera controls but having fun I think.

By pottered enough and went to look for a bus.  I found a stop reasonably quickly but it bore this message.

I couldn't find the roadotherside stop and spent a while wandering about wondering where all the buses had gone since there seemed to a dearth.  Eventually I found a stop which seemed to offer a bus going where I wanted and after a longish wait one arrived.

Now I hadn't managed to fit in a visit to Nagoya Castle in my pottering about Nagoya day so I went there this morning.  First I had to exchange my second rail pass voucher for an actual pass.  I got to the appropriate office at 9.30 to find a notice advising that I was half an hour too early.  In fact when I did get the matter done I noticed a notice saying their opening hours were from 9.  Maybe he sticks one or other out depending on his mood.

In any event I needed to find a locker to put my luggage in.  I had a look around the station but I knew I was wasting my time and should have gone straight to the bus station where the previous day when I went to catch a bus I'd noticed a high availability of lockers.  But it filled in the time and I entered the office dead on ten o'clock and was out five minutes later with my fresh pass and headed for the subway and the castle.

The castle and its grounds were lovely.  Here are a few pictures.

So I had a one course lunch called spicy pork cheesy rice and with it a glass of beer.  When she took my order the waitress asked me if I wanted a bowl of rice.  I said but this dish is rice.  Yes but for the same price I could have extra rice.  I think she found it strange that I didn't want it.

Lunch over back to the subway.  I came out of the subway and followed signs saying bus center (sic).  Well I went up and down and all over, through endless corridors and I thought something's wrong here but ultimately I was in the bus centre but could I find the lockers where I'd left my luggage? No.  The only solution I thought is to get out of here and attack from the station following the route I'd used in the morning, which I did and got to the bus centre and the locker.

The explanation is that there are two bus centres and I'd been to them both on bus journeys without realising that they were not one and the same place.

Much relieved I got my stuff and went for a train.  I had an idle thought as I waited.  On the destination board for platforms 14 and 15 there were six trains listed, all of them going to Tokyo and all of their departures being between 15.29 and 15.43.  Now Nagoya is Japan's fourth largest city and it's 220 miles or so from Tokyo.  Liverpool is England's fourth biggest city and is much the same distance from London.  Today there were scheduled one train per hour from Liverpool to London.  Does that tell us anything about Britain's place in the world?

This is Nanachan, one of the first people I met in Nagoya.  She's busy advertising something so didn't have time to chew the fat with me.  Usually when I get to a new place I try to find my way around it a little on the first day but for reasons to do with the validity of my railpass in the case of Nagoya I'm leaving that till Thursday and am starting with excursions out of town.

Yesterday I went to Takayama.  I had it in mind when planning this trip to do the route laid out in this map from the Pacific to the Sea of Japan and back again but time was the problem and it should really be done in winter.

 

The section called Alpine Route is the jewel of the trip and indeed Keita my AirB&B man volunteered to take me in April at least to see the ice walls that form part of it but I didn't do that either.

Some other time.

Meantime Takayama is a pleasant spot.  They've tried hard to keep their old town in something like its original state.  That's pretty hard when most of the buildings are turned over to selling stuff to tourists.  Modern bits and pieces get in the way and indeed the towns and countryside of Japan may well be clear of litter but are blighted by modern infrastructure.  Poles and cables everywhere in town and pylons and cables all over the countryside. 

I know wonderful things can be done digitally these days but filming a historical drama on location must be a laborious and expensive business having to eliminate or disguise all that stuff.  I find it hard enough trying to frame a snapshot.

Here are a few of my efforts

See what you are up against

I found myself at what the town map descibes as a park but which turned out more to be a mountain covered in trees.  Admittedly at the entry point there was some open space with an imposing statue, a cafe and a small kiddies' playpark.

But then the path led upwards and believe me it was hard work.

But I hoped that when I got to the top, to the site of the castle that had stood there in the 17th century there would be a glorious aspect over the town.  There wasn't. There was a clearing surrounded by trees and in the clearing a plaque explaining how the castle had been laid out but there wasn't even a brick to justify this claim of a castle.

You could just see the mountains over the valley through gaps in the trees.

Oh and did I mention this?

There was a more explicit notice at the foot of the path I started up.  From it with Google's help I learnt that a bear had been spotted in the park in August 2020.  Initially that may seem comforting but what's to stop him or her or their whole tribe from having a September 2023 outing?

I ran through in my mind what I think I've heard about handling bears in the wild.  Don't some advise you to stand stockstill and glare at the animal till it's forced to drop its gaze in submission to the master.  Others perhaps suggest withdrawing slowly backwards whilst communicating apologies with lots of bowing and scraping for having intruded.  There's also the doggie move, lying down on your back exposing your belly and wagging your tail to indicate you'd just love a good tickle.

Why was I not equipped with a bell I wondered as I decided to chance my arm and the rest of me by heading on up.

Coming down was a dawdle and there were some pretty things to see

Today instead of the mountains I went to the seaside

I took a train or rather a couple of trains to a place called Shimizu which is at the seaside though it's an industrial seaside because it's a major port.  But it has its hidden gem.  You get on a bus for twenty minutes or so, head down an unprepossessing road till you get to the Miho Shrine where things start to get more jolly.

The shrine itself is pretty.  Then you walk through it to a magnificent corridor of pines that leads down to the sea

Just before the sea the path enters a pine forest that stretches along the coast for several miles.  I know, I walked it.  Thankfully my walking today was mostly in the shade.

This is the beach.  Nothing as fine as the white sands of the Western Isles or even the golden sands of Portobello.  Even so hardly anybody was making use of it.  A few people were walking but as far as I could see no-one was swimming or even paddling.

Here's one punter doing his thing.  Maybe it's one of those places where there's a summer season, and despite the heat summer is technically over, and when the season ends the toys go back in the box till next year.

But this is what we've all come to see.  The beach is famous as a place for views of Mount Fuji.  I took several pictures.  Here are two more that I like.

And there was a lighthouse.

I walked quite a way over the course of the afternoon.  Most places I passed were closed or deserted.  I heard one man grunting away as he slammed tennis balls towards a non-existent opponent.  I saw some pretty butterflies.  I heard very few birds.  I met even fewer tourists.  I got back to Nagoya and got fed and soon I will go to bed.