wolfie-japan

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The Zao Fox Village in the north of Honshu allows visitors a chance to walk among foxes.  Get there early, because around mid-day they start to feel like naps.  Although they are cute when they are asleep, they’re more fun when they scamper by you.

They seem to like sleeping on raised planks.  There are many of these shelf structures and they were full of sleeping foxes.

I was not aware that there was such a thing as a black fox and a white fox before this trip; I only knew of the red/orange fox.  They are in the final two photos.

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Miyajima is a small island off the coast of Hiroshima.  It is famous for its view of a giant tori gate that appears to float on water, and for its deer population.

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Hiking around Miyajima, you’ll have plenty of sculptures to look at as you climb the steps.  Most of them have been provided with knit hats to keep them warm in colder weather.

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The temple steps on Miyajima have ornate Buddhist prayer cylinders.

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Okonomiyaki is a multi-layered omelette that is said to be the specialty of Hiroshima.  It is cooked on a grill in front of you.

in Hiroshima, there is a building called Okonomimura.  It is multi-story and houses nothing but okonomiyaki restaurants.

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Train travel is key to transportation in Japan.  The museum in Nagoya allows you to see the evolution of trains in Japan.  In 1964, Japan hosted the Olympics and used it as an opportunity to showcase its Shinkansen train moving at 160 km per hour.  For their 2020 Olympics, Japan is working to have a Shinkansen that moves at 500 km in operation.

The trains have evolved from having a shaped like a bullet, to more like a duck’s bill.  They are now using magnets to pull the trains forward.

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Hiroshima and Nagasaki each have a structure that survived the atomic bombings in World War 2.  In Hiroshima, there is a domed building, and in Nagasaki a half tori gate.  The stone tori gate has been reinforced so that it does not fall over.

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Nagasaki holds a lot of history for Christians in Japan.  Christianity was expelled from Japan during the Edo Period.  This monument is to 26 Catholic martyrs who were executed.

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Fukusai-ji is not a significant temple, but I like its design to resemble a turtle.

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Gunkanjima is an island off the coast of Nagasaki.  It was a coal mine island town that was developed at the beginning of the 20th century and then shut down in the 1970′s.  It now looks like Alcatraz with its crumbling buildings.  Going there is very interesting because you get to see some documentaries and hear stories about how people worked hard to build a strong community on the island, and how the Japanese government provided very good incentives to get people to go there.

When the buildings were built, there weren’t elevators, so you’ll see passages between the buildings to save people the effort of going all the way down to ground level on their building and then up to the top floor of the one next door.

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Nagasaki’s nighttime view is said to be one of the prettiest major cities to gaze upon in Japan.

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The Kunisaki Peninsula offers lots of hiking and a chance to see some very secluded stone carvings and temples.

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In Kunisaki, I kept seeing these scarecrows people with bags on their heads.  I don’t know their significance, but feel obliged to include them.

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The Hells of Beppu are a collection of hot water springs in Beppu, Kyushu.  They come in two colours: blue hell and red hell depending on the minerals they mix with, sometimes both colours are found side by side.  The water is scalding, so you won’t be taking a nice dip.  They are for viewing only.

There are lots of sculptures of devils and a big Tengu head that they carry around during parades and leave on display the rest of the time.

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Here are Nagoya and Odawara castles.  They look fairly similar.  Nagoya castle has an actual palace that you can enter and see how the nobles lived.  Japanese palaces are pretty bare, with a series of square rooms connected by sliding doors that open into corridors.  The walls are frequently painted with tigers and gold.

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Around the Choanji temple in Hakone, there is a forest full of sculptures.  If you can’t make it to Miyajima, this is the next best thing.  Many of these guys sport some pretty amusing expressions.

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Shibamata is a small town just one hour ride from downtown Tokyo.  You can experience the old fashioned Japan here.  It verymuch feels like the 1950′s with merchants selling handmade sweets and crafts all along the main drag.  The town is most famous as the setting for the Tora-San film series, which has strong nostalgia value for Japanese.  Characters from the films have monuments in their honour and there is even a museum dedicated to the series.  Even if you are not interested in Tora-San, the museum features some very nice miniatures of town streets depicting the old fashioned Japan.