Even the Monkey Needs a Raincoat

Matsuo Basho, Yamadera

The summer's grass!

All that's left

Of ancient warriors' dreams.

The title of this blog comes from a poem by Matsuo Basho, one of the greatest of all Japanese poets. He was born in 1644, during Japan's Edo period. The son of a samurai, Basho went into the service of Todo Yoshitada, who introduced the boy to the world of poetry. Basho's first poem was published in 1662. In 1666, Yoshitada died and Basho's life as a servant came to an end. Shortly thereafter, Basho turned his back on his samurai status, abandoned his father's home and set out for Edo. His motivation for this decision is unclear, but one theory is that of a possible love affair with a Shinto priestess (miko).

Wrapping dumplings in  

Bamboo leaves, with one finger  

She tidies her hair.

In Edo, Basho continued to study poetry. He also started to teach and gathered a crowd of disciples around himself. Said disciples built him a hut in Fukagawa and planted a banana tree in the garden. (The Japanese for banana tree is 'basho' and it was from this that the poet took his pen-name.) Basho was uncomfortable with success, however, and became increasingly reclusive. In 1682, his hut burned down. His students rebuilt it, but it was not the same. In 1683, his mother died. In 1684, he abandoned his life in Edo and set out to wander the countryside alone. 

A monkey in need of a raincoat, Sendai

On this road 

Where nobody else travels

Autumn nightfall.

Travelling alone was dangerous, even more so, if, like Basho, one strayed from the beaten path. Many, including Basho himself, expected him to be murdered by bandits or to simply expire in the middle of nowhere. In the event, however, the trip did much to improve Basho's spirits. His journey took him from Edo to Mt Fuji and on to Kyoto and, along the way, he met many friends and gained a greater appreciation of nature and the Japanese countryside. He returned to Edo reinvigorated, with a new store of poems composed on his travels. He resumed teaching, but inwardly he was already planning another long journey.

The old pond: 

a frog jumps in,- 

the sound of water.

To be continued...

Four Months in Toyohashi

Toyocky (aka Honokuni Yoshida) is the official mascot of Toyohashi City. The character's design, that of a red robotic Oni (demon), is modelled after the kanji character "豊" used in the name Toyohashi (豊橋市). Toyocky signifies the city's achievements in the field of advanced technology. He can be found outside the ticket offices of Toyohashi station, but, despite the fact that I walk through the station practically every day, I'd been here for almost two months before I spotted him.

I've now been living and teaching in Toyohashi for four months and I've grown to like the city very much. Not too big, not too small, neither too crowded nor too isolated, Toyohashi is, in a word, comfortable.

I've seen so much in my short time here, met so many people who have welcomed me with open arms to their city, and yet I feel there's so much more waiting to be discovered. I look forward to many more exciting surprises to come.

In the meantime, here is a selection of pictures of the city I currently call home. Look out for a new blog post at the weekend.

Inuyama Redux

About a month ago, I blogged about my visit to Inuyama (The Secret of Monkey Island). Well, recently I went back to see the Inuyama Spring Festival.

One of the oldest festivals in Japan, it first took place in 1635 as a festival of the Haritsuna shrine and quickly became an annual event. Held on the first weekend in April, it sees thirteen three-tiered floats, each twenty-five feet high, parade around the city accompanied by the sounds of flutes and drums. At night, each float is lit up by 365 lanterns. Combine this with the fact that the festival usually coincides with the height of the cherry blossom season and you have a truly amazing sight. 

People come from miles around to attend the festival. Roads are closed to traffic and there is a real party atmosphere as people follow the parade. Live music is played and food stalls line both sides of the street, selling squid, takoyaki, chocolate bananas, okonomiyaki, toffee apples, fried chicken, taiyaki, cucumber on a stick... the list goes on and on. Oh, and there's beer too for those who are interested in such things.

Enjoy the pictures...

Sakura

Spring is a magical time in Japan for a number of reasons, but chief among them is the arrival of the cherry blossoms (sakura). Depending on where you are in Japan, the blossoms will most likely arrive between late-March and mid-April, though Okinawa can see them as early as January and in Hokkaido they have to wait until May. Japan's Meteorological Agency tracks the cherry blossom front (sakura zensen) as it spreads across Japan and its advance is reported by major news agencies. (And not just in Japan. Last year, I noticed even BBC News in the UK reporting on the spread of cherry blossoms across Japan.)

You have to be quick if you want to see the blossoms, though, since they only bloom for a week or so. As I type this, the cherry blossoms in my area have fallen like snow with only a few determined stragglers still clinging to the branches.

Cherry blossoms are ephemeral. They shine brightly, but die so very quickly, in a way that seems to symbolise our own mortality. In the eighteenth century, Japanese writer Motoori Norinaga coined the term "mono no aware" (an empathy towards things) to describe an awareness of the impermanence of all things and the gentle sadness felt towards their passing and towards the realities of life. The cherry blossom is a symbol of Japan and can be found in music and art both ancient and modern.

Hanami is the Japanese tradition of flower viewing. It can be as simple as a stroll through a park, but it often involves a picnic or barbecue party under the blossoming cherry trees. Since the best picnic spots are heavily fought over, it is not uncommon places to be reserved long before the party begins. A picnic sheet is spread in the early morning and someone is left to stand guard over it all day until the rest of the group arrive after work.

As well as being beautiful, cherry blossoms are also edible and are used as ingredients in many Japanese recipes (especially sweets).

(Photos taken in Toyohashi Park and Mukaiyama Park in Toyohashi.)

City of Music

(Sorry, this should have been posted two weeks ago, but stuff happened.)

The city of Hamamatsu is a half-hour train ride from Toyohashi. The musical instrument industry flourishes in Hamamatsu, to the extent that the city has a monopoly on the production of pianos in Japan. In front of the station stands the Act Tower, a 45 storey skyscraper designed to resemble a harmonica.

Possibly the most famous building in Hamamatsu is Hamamatsu Castle, built by Tokugawa Ieyasu during the sixteenth century and it was where Ieyasu lived for seventeen years. One of the most famous shoguns in Japanese history, Ieyasu seized power following the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and so ushered in more than two and a half centuries of rule by the Tokugawa shogunate (a time also known as the Edo Period). A fictionalised account of Ieyasu's rise to power can be found in James Clavell's novel Shogun.

In addition to castles and music, Hamamatsu is also famous for its eels (unagi), with a history of over one hundred years of eel cultivation, and eel restaurants are everywhere. The recommended omiyage or souvenir from Hamamatsu is unagi pai (eel pie) which is a type of cake or cookie made with eel bones. It is delicious. 

Two Month Anniversary

I arrived in Japan exactly two months ago today. How time flies.

I feel I should mark this event in some way, but I'm all out of fireworks so you'll just have to settle for this picture of cherry blossoms by night.

Regular blog posts will resume soon.

Treasure Island

This afternoon, I visited Takeshima Island, off the coast of Gamagori, which is a short train ride from my home city of Toyohashi. The island is tiny - it is possible to walk all the way around it in just half an hour - but it is home to over 238 species of temperate plant species. The island was declared a national natural treasure in 1930.

A 387 metre long bridge links Takeshima Island to the mainland. Just before the bridge meets the island, it passes beneath a stone torii and I've read that this is the only place in Japan where a bridge runs through a torii gate.

No one lives on Takeshima Island. The only building is the Yaotomi Shrine at the very top of the island. The shrine is dedicated to Benzaiten, goddess of music, eloquence, wealth and good fortune. She is also one of Japan's "Seven Lucky Gods", whom I mentioned in a previous post.

The shrine was founded by Fujiwara no Shunzei in 1181 and it is said that worshipping at the shrine will provide good luck in marriage and childbirth. Since I'm due to become an uncle in the next few months, I'm hoping that Benzaiten's blessings will reach halfway around the world to my brother and his wife.

The Secret of Monkey Island

Today was a national holiday in Japan to mark Shunbun no Hi - the Vernal Equinox - and, as a result, I had the day off work. I took advantage of my free day to go to Inuyama and visit the castle.

Inuyama is one of the oldest castles in Japan and one of 12 still in existence that were built before the Edo period.

The steps inside the castle are very steep. On entering the castle, it is necessary to remove shoes, which makes the ascent treacherous since socks don't grip very well on polished wooden floors. It's even more unnerving on a day like today when very strong, very cold winds are rushing through the open windows. The views from the top are worth the climb, though.

Having descended from the castle and having fortified myself with some fried chicken, I trekked eastwards to the Inuyama Monkey Park.

The Monkey Park is a combined amusement park - with ferris wheel, roller coaster and various other rides - and primate zoo.

With some species, visitors to the park are allowed to enter the enclosure and see the animals up close.

With the squirrel monkeys, this wasn't much of a problem, since they are timid creatures and had a tendency to run for cover whenever a child toddled over yelling 'Kawaii!' at them (which happened quite often).

The ring-tailed lemurs, on the other hand, were far less shy.

Umbrellas are provided for visitors to shelter under, but it's more than a little disconcerting when a lemur launches itself through the air and lands with a thumb on the umbrella's canopy right above your head.

It's even more disconcerting when the lemurs realise they can clamber under the umbrella as well...

It was a really cool experience, though...

On the way back to the station, I stopped off at Inuyama Naritasan Temple. The temple is dedicated to Fudo-Myo-o ('Immovable Wisdom'). Among other activities, the temple performs a prayer for vehicles. Cars line up in the car park in front of the temple to receive the blessing of traffic safety from the temple's patron deity.

All in all, it's fair to say that Inuyama is a great place in which to spend one's day off.