Walking Nozaki History - May 14

Our visit to Japan coincided with the Golden Week. We were a bit cautious and wondered if we would be trapped in crowd or couldn't find tickets on trains or accommodation. Truly, the accommodation was a challenge in city area i.e. Osaka as many people flock to Osaka too. Not sure about the rest. However, being in the Golden Week also allowed us to participate in local festivals - one of which was the Nozaki festival.

We read about the festival especially on the "300" stalls along the stretch leading to the famous temple Jigenji Temple in Nozaki. What amuses us was really the stalls - however, we were worried if the tourist's pamphlets were just "advertisements". There was a blog by a European couple saying that they could only find a couple of stalls when they visited the place during Christmas. Seasonal?

When we took the local train to Nozaki, my wife said there seemed to be many people heading towards the same direction. Well, one of the stops was a University and so the train was pretty crowded Xp. The moment we stepped on Nozaki station, we knew it that it would be "exciting". Families all walking towards the exit. 

Gosh, we were early and the pathway was crowded already. Many colourful stalls lined up all the way uphill to the temple. Japanese traditional music in the air, coupled with laughters of children and shoutings by some stall owners. We appeared to be the only foreigners. Hee.

Some stalls were really colourful. Things they sold were also quite traditional and hardly seen at cities' shopping centres. A variety of stalls and some games for children. It seemed that the stall owners were doing charity work too as they encouraged children to play games to win "fish", and even "chicks".

We saw a young boy who was very gd in catching the goldfish. Using a paper net, he skilfully caught and threw the fish in the bowl. 

 

My favourite stall was the chick stall. I loved to keep chicks at home. I find them very adorable and I rem it was 50cents per chick during my childhood days. My mum, however, disallowed as she asked who would be taking care of the roosters or hens when they grew up. So, we didn't keep any - except once when we were doing school project and each pupil took turn to keep the chicks we bought together using class fund. My eyes beamed for a while watching the kids catching or hooking the chick up, and we stayed there a while.

My wife, however was more interested in another stall - the "surprise" gift bag shop. Red-coloured bags for the girls and blue ones for the boys. Kids would choose the bag by paying a token of money. My wife was standing there with her sweet corn observing how a group of girls choosing and opening their bags. Some were excited and some were not. Haha. The person manning the stall was a young chap. Maybe that also explained why only girls flocked to the stall, haha. 

We "meandered" our way up to the temple, passing by some makan stalls. Steep stairs ahead and up we climbed. The temple was also crowded. 

Besides the temple, there were a singing performance and we were absorbed in the nice song and music, totally "feel" the atmosphere of the festival. I guessed my wife was touched by the strong atmosphere. 感动！ 

Up at the temple, there was also a magic performance but the magicians' music box appeared to be having some technical glitches. So, no performance yet. I was afraid to be arrowed to help so asked my wife to see the stalls nearby. That's when we saw spider and the macaron coin purse. Too bad we didn't take a picture of the purse (my wife lost it in SGP).  The stall was manned by a group of old japanese aunties who could manage to speak a bit of English. They were surprised that we were foreigners - guessed they didn't expect to see foreigners coming to squeeze in this festival? We bought a macaron from them and my wife loved it. 

We saw two uncles sitting up a slope enjoying forest side chat. Japanese were well known for long lives, and they must have gone through tough war times and lots of experiences to share. Getting away from the crowd and climbing up the slope to see the wide angle view of the city of Nozaki. What a way to relax for the folks of Nozaki.

So fun to catch the festival with my wife. It's an unforgettable experience. Truly Japanese style on 3 May 14. My wife even carried her "Made In Japan" Hello Kitty bag when she went to this festival. With her long dress, and my "Japanese" look, no wonder we could blend in nicely without people thinking that we weren't locals. 

Walking Kyoto History - May 14

Kinkaku

Kyoto - To me, it used to mean a lot of UNESCO temples and sites. I have tried to use the tourist map to catch as many temples as I could during my last solo trip to Kyoto. I ended up visiting some key ones - just like trying to see all the exhibits in European museums. This time, we decided to see a few UNESCO temples and try our luck to meet any Geisha. 

The first temple was the "Golden" Kinkaku. During my last trip, it was under restoration. I told my dear this was one of the temples I liked. The reflection and the surrounding. Of cos, as we were in the start of the Golden Week, we didn't have lots of space. Bumped into a Russian couple and a Russian guide who helped take a few of our photos with the Kinkaku in the background. One of the photos became our iMAC wallpaper.

With the Kinkaku, we moved off to the silver Ginkaku. 

Ginkaku

This Ginkaku, a bit "moody" as compared to Kinkaku. It still worths a visit. We climbed up the slope to get a panoramic view of the temple in the forest. Wondering how it will look like in the flowering season - Autumn. Wow.

It was drizzling the day and we managed to cover the outdoor sites before heading down to the Old Streets. It should be interesting like the old streets in old japanese shows/movies with Samurais walking around and Geishas moving quickly for appointments.  

We saw quite a few ladies in kimono but they were not Geishas of cos. Walking through the old streets, we chanced upon a theatre where we could pay to see a performance by a real Geisha! Without much hesitation, we queued and used up our fund (No visas/masters allowed for payment). Gosh, lucky we were not very hungry then. The queue was relatively long with a lot of tourists from tour group. I can't rem the amount per person but the theatre looked like the one in Hanoi showing water puppets. Free seating and we took the second row.  Dunno why I just dun like to be in the first row, be in exam or performance. 

There were a series of shows including "imperial" dance, performance by a young geisha. Initially, we thought the focus was on the geisha's performance. However, the last show involved a very skilful puppet master who played his puppets skilfully. This one really attracted my dear who had put 100% attention. 

I didn't realise she was enjoying the "art" so much. For me, my attention span was dropping as hunger was kicking in slowly. When she told me it was superb, I decided to do some imitation of the moves to entertain her - obviously she wasn't impressed. 

Though some "arts" may have lost their attractiveness, we understand that the Geisha's lifestyle is still being pursued. They are a mysterious group who would only show up by appointments and it isn't easy to secure an appointment unless you have some acquaintances. Hmm. This makes them mysterious. The Geishas' training is not easy too as shown in the documentary in the queuing area. Tough work. I told myself maybe next Kyoto trip, we can try to see if we could have an appointment to understand more about the Geisha's life. 

We wanted to dine along the river with the backdrop of old japanese streets.  However, many of the "shops" were in Japanese and seem to be fully "booked". We ended up eating grilled food in a small restaurant before catching our bus and train back to Osaka. 

Beppu has onsen, Kyoto has geishas and temples. Maybe that's why we like to travel to Japan with its richness and uniqueness.