Old Japan exists, ...in a few places. The Noto Peninsula

The Noto Peninsula, facing the Japan Sea, is one of the places you can go and see old Japan. This peaceful place is full of wild coastlines and little fishing villages. The rampant concrete development so visible in the rest of Japan is largely absent.

A highlight is the most northern town of Wajima. It features one of largest daily markets in Japan. Staffed mainly by a swarm of chatty grannies who gossip and enjoy the morning sun while try to persuade you that their sea urchins are the best.







The market winds through the streets, as in a French town, and a huge variety of local produce is available.

Squid, scallops and conch shell freshly grilled make a great breakfast snack.

There's dried octopus looking like an alien invasion as well.

Here the famous Venus de Granny.

A now abandoned art gallery providing a strange contrast to the surrounds.







There is a great tradition of a special sort of Taiko drumming as well. The troup in this
village are world famous. Long ago when they were threatened with an invading army the fishermen dressed themselves with wooden masks and seaweed hair and drummed in the forests all night. The appearance of these "ghosts" scared the invaders away.

I've seen Taiko drumming before and frankly could take it or leave it. This however was something very special.

 The area around Wajima is also one of the few places in country where salt is made in the traditional way. In the past the locals were too poor to provide rice to the authorities as taxation, so salt was used instead. This naturally produced salt is very good, and now very expnsive.

The seafood is exquisite and very cheap and of course as fresh as is humanly possible.

Barcelona in the heart of Tokyo

As anyone who has spent any time here will tell you, Tokyo is simply the best place in the world to eat, and of course drink. There are some 200,000 bars and restaurants in this city alone and the range of foods available is incredible.

The Michelin Guide has once again this year awarded Tokyo more stars than any other city in the world. And indeed when they come here they barely scratch the surface. Many of the best restaureants they haven't even heard of, let alone reviewed.

One of the most impressive things is the way that you can eat European food frequently much better prepared than in the host country. In a way more authentic than the original.

One fine example of this is the amazing Spanish restaurant La Playa. I have been going to this place for 25 years and it is always simply marvellous. Incredibly, and dangerously, it is three doors down from my current Japanese school. This makes the choice of lunch venue very easy.

Toru Kodama is a cook of great skill and runs the place by himself with the help of one waitress.  Shibuya outside is all crowds and office blocks. You walk downstairs into La Playa into a different world.

The jamon hanging from the ceiling is home made, the place is cosy, chaotic, crammed with books and bits and pieces. Lovely music is playing softly.






As he finishes cooking he pulls up a chair and opens a bottle of something special. The talk is of books and the world,  it is like being home.

With deflation for the past 20 years and lots of competition and a minimum hourly wage of $8.50/Hr, food is surprisingly inexpensive.
Lunch at  La Playa, including soup, salad, paella, dessert and coffee is about $12 AUS.

Horse archery festival in Moroyama

Every Spring and Autumn a Yubasame, horse archery, festival is held at the shrine in Moroyama. Last week on a perfect autumn day we went along.











The event dates back about 1,000 years and, unusually, in this festival very young boys shoot the first arrows. They are splendidly costumed and chosen to represent the three ancient clans of the area.

It is a great community event with all the usual food stalls and sideshow stands.
 I was the only foreigner I saw there amongst the thousands attending.

 

To begin with there is lots of parading back and forth and bleesing of the area by the priests.

Each of the three boys representing each clan shoots the first arrow for his side.
Then successively more agile and older riders show off their skills.

Textures and Materials

 There are beautiful things everywhere. Not least the patterns of materials used in everyday life.

The photos here were taken rather randomly over a period of a week's wandering around.

Wood stacked for the pottery kiln

The appetiser of a $15 lunch in Kurashiki, you should have seen the rest.

A wall in Kanazawa.

A warehouse wall in Kurashiki. This sort of construction was introduced when they got sick of the wooden ones burning down.

Wooden walls that have been purposely charred to act as a protective coating.

The screens at the entrance of a house.

Screens of an inn at night with amusing cut-outs.

This is where you sweep the dust outside in an old house, also ventilation. Korean restaurant in an restored ancient house.









The thatched stucture of a temple roof in Shirokawago.

 

Shingle roof in Kanazawa.

The Lapislazurli decorated wooden ceiling of the  Sei Son Kaku, Kanazawa.

Fence facing the sea, Noto Peninsula.

Eating materials, near our house.

The world's most beautiful roof

The Sei Son Kaku is a marvellous palace built for Shinryu-in the dowager of the Maeda clan in the middle 1800's. It is in a beautiful park on a hilltop in Kanazawa.

Kanazawa, the ancient lair of the Maedas, is an old city full of historic treasures. In fact so full that there are all sorts of wonders off the main tourist path that almost no-one seems to go to.





Such was the case with the Sei Son Kaku, we had the place  to ourselves. Also, unlike many tourist spots, the place was pretty much as it was when the owners left it.

 You can walk around and get close to the furnishings and ornaments and really get the feeing of what it must have been like to live there.

But the really amazing thing is the roof, ....oh the roof. It is made out of  millions of wood shingles about 8 x 15 cm overlain to seven layers and held together by millions upon millions of bamboo nails.

The effect is quite mesmerising it is like feathers or fish scales or the scales on the wings of  an insect.  It shimmers in the light and incredibly folds seemlessly around corners and into valleys and dips. All this punctuated by copper gutters. It must have taken an unimaginaeable amount of fine workmanship and a very long time to create. It was a warm day and with the screens open on the second floor the breeze was perfumed with the smell of cedar from the roof.