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| The Crutch is almost purely decorative now. Not as pretty as the landscape though |
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| You can see a statue of people dressed up as |
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| Cheery Blossoms almost finished here. Much warmer than Nagoya. |
Cultural Observation: Food Presents
The Ryokan guy organised bike rentals for us and we are a day early for horsie excitement. I figure that means we can eat some of the local delicacies. It seems every town in Japan has it's own food thing and apparently internal food tourism is wildly popular.
When you go somewhere I think there is a bit of an expectation you will bring some of these tasty treats back for the suckers that stayed home. We have a dojo which includes children so a couple boxes will be needed.
No Colour Coordination at all. I despair at times.
Most places where there are shops will have places specifically geared to this custom which sell the local speciality nicely wrapped and ready for present giving.
Rating: 8/10 (By being pre wrapped we don't have to go into the complexities of Japanese Wrapping Paper meaning)
Tsuwano has the interesting manhole covers as well. I have started using them as a guide to what the locals are most proud of. Or at least what their local council thinks will reap them the most tourist dollars. As far as I can tell the Big Things for Tsuwano are: |
| Models of Kiddies dressed as Herons at the one room museum (we are good at finding tiny museums which are kind of weird, this time there was no guide so just made up our own stories) |
- Cranes. They have a festival where they dress up as cranes and dance around. It isn't on now and I think most of Japan thinks Cranes are cool anyway. Except it could be Herons but I think it is Cranes. Anyway they are on the front of our bikes. (I just found out they are Herons)
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| Definitely Herons |
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| Main Street with the first block of Internal Tourists, they are all looking at the Carp in their little canal. We saw at least 6 coaches pull in and disgorge people here for a few hours. |
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| Carp in their canal |
- Carp. Tsuwano is called Little Kyoto by someone. I think this is because they have the little water ways beside the main street which are teeming with carp. Oh and I think Kyoto had the same thing or maybe still does. Unlike the Cranes (or Herons) the locals think Carp is a tasty treat and one restaurant hauls them out of the little canal and carves them up in front of you for dinner. Tsuwano should get a sister city in Poland. They could have a delightful Christmas Feast Of Misunderstandings.
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| Ducks biting Carp in their canal. Ducks are either Insanely Optimistic Omnivores or Right Royal Dickheads as far as I can tell from these two. |
- Genji Maki. Crepes with a red bean filling. From naginata I know maki means something to do with twisting / wrapping. There are two Genji Maki shops that have identical signs and both signs proclaim their Genji Maki as the best in town. One of them must be lying. I am starting to like the red bean paste flavour. I doubt it will become my Source Of Sugar when I turn into the ravening dessert monster but at least it seems like I ate something sweet now.
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| Shrine Entrance. |
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| Ewa was practising her counting in Japanese but she lost count. That's okay as she was probably counting Years or Round Things or Small Things or Hours and not using the correct numbering system for Big Red Gates |
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| Probably Lanterns On Red Poles has a different counting system as well. I like to think it is either One or Lots as they seem to be the only functional requirements for that counting system |
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| I don't think these gates are part of the thousand as you would have to be tiny to get through. |
- Taikodani Inari Shrine. There is a big shrine to the Fox God on the hill side which has a thousand red torii gates to pass through on your walk up. Or you can drive up and I think you get just one big gate. That ought to teach those people polluting the world. Inari is the Shinto god of Blacksmiths, Warriors and Sake. So I think we better go there. See if Shinto can knock Zoroastrianism out of #1 spot for "Religions I would choose if choosing a religion made any sense at all".
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| Children avoiding my eye level cigarettes. I told you they were cunning. |
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| We copied them for how to wash our hands. I am hoping they didn't trick us but the Fox was a Trickster God I think, so if they did it was just observing religious rituals |
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| Lots of Red |
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| Inari has a bib so some kiddie got better I think. I think the scroll means she got an honorary doctorate in Metallurgy |
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| Ubiquitous Communicator For Rent? I'll take two! (Was just an audio guide and was free) |
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| Chair lift to the ruins makes it a bit of a cheat but we walked to the temple so I figure we are okay on physical exercise for the day |
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| Free Walking Sticks!!! |
- Tsuwano Castle. For such a tiny place (currently about 10K people) the area was apparently a good provider of food. Enough to support at least 43K people way back when they were grumpy with each other. They used to measure money in koku. 1 Koku is the amount of rice that will feed one person a year. Mind you everyone here is pretty damn skinny so I guess their koku would not last me a year. That form of currency would make international trade tricky.
As they were so rich the local Clan built a castle on top of the hill. The ruins are scraping the bottom of the barrel as a Tourist Draw card but the view is nice.
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| Leg is not actually that good yet |
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| Dapper Little Fellow |
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| Looks easy to defend against a large force so I think the castle must have been of a show piece than regularly used military thingy. The entire valley floor is exceptionally flat, flatter than Poland. We surmise that is has become that way because the Paddy fields would be more efficient that way. If your field was higher than your neighbours he would get all the water. And water is an easy way find a (close to) perfect level. So they gradually flattened everything out over time. |
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| Traditional Saddle with terrifying looking stirrups. |
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| I am glad pillow technology has advanced. |
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| We went down to the Yabusame course to check where it was and the beginners were having practice day. They still went at full gallop. Sometimes the Horsies went quicker than the riders. |
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| And the Yabusame course has another shrine. We should have just come here in the morning. |
- Yabusami. Horseback Archery. I thought this would be a much bigger deal than it turned out to be. At the Ryokan some local guys didn't even know it was happening. Granted I do tend to hang out with inebriated people and often they are as smart as me so this may be a somewhat self selected sampling.
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| And the run out area is pretty small. One of the guys at the end has apples though so I guess nothing could go wrong |
Tsuwano has some other small attractions. The small museum. A dojo which apparently has Spear training which I couldn't say enough Japanese to make myself understood so I didn't get to find out if they were still active, would be training or anything.
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| Ewa Made Paper! |
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| Gold leaf and Silver leaf with leaves. It has symbolic meaning I think or maybe it just looks pretty. |
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| The side streets are tiny. |
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| Which explains the love of short wheel base cars. |
Sign Review: Sonic Death Monkey (On Holidays)
Rating: 8/10 (Even he needs a break from city life)
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| No Idea what it means! But Much Love! |
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| Lunch was an ice cream sandwich and a Something Which Is Red sandwich. Pretty sure not Carp or Heron. |
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With Sake that is neither Heron or Carp flavoured. Happily.
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Evening approached and we were having discussions regarding dinner. Ewa was partial to the idea of the place which hauls carp out and makes sushi. I had seen the menu pictures and I didn't think I was quite ready for sashimi with the head beside it which also looked like it was still moving.
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| I started singing Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto. |
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| They didn't even have hot food at the convenience store, we are certainly in the country. |
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