Day 6 (Saturday) was set to be the busiest day so far –
Yamashita San’s road trip. With plenty planned and a long journey ahead of us,
this required a 06:00 start. While
waking up at such ungodly hours is what
I do during weekdays when I’m working, the plans we had for the day would
certainly make it worthwhile. The previous
evening, Yamashita San came around and ran through the plans for the day. Courtesy of my laptop, and HDMI cable, Kyles
large screen TV and Google Maps we were able to view the route in all its
glorious detail and pull up details of the various places we would go (that
last one courtesy of Wikipedia, mainly).
On the morning of our grand quest I was my usual cheery
self. By that, I mean any attempts to
wake me were met with comments such as “Feck Off!”. After getting washed and dressed, I made sure
to gather a few supplies for the day and we met Yamashita San in the nearby car
park. Prior to setting off, we took the
step of gathering a few bottles of water from the vending machine outside the
local Book Off, those who have experienced a Japanese Summer will understand
why (though air having an air conditioned car made the journey more survivable).
The journey was part of the adventure, at times like these
we were able to see more of the Japanese countryside. Rice fields as far as the eye can see, the
Kanto Plain is a very agricultural area.
I guess this makes perfect sense, there is very little flat land
available in Japan so it makes sense that much of it would be used for
agriculture. We were told by Yamashita
San that around 40% of food in Japan is grown locally, for such a small and
densely populated country that’s quite an achievement.
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| The Kanto Plain |
First stop on our quest was the beach. Surprisingly, in the two and a half years
Kyle has been working in Japan, he hasn’t been to the beach. Seeing the coast may not seem particularly
important, but I find that there is something significant about seeing the
boundaries of an island nation. Maybe it’s
because I'm from an island nation, I’m not exactly sure, but it was an
enjoyable sight.
Before we could head down to the beach, we first needed to
find a place to park. In this instance,
we were determined to find somewhere free to park. There was no way we were going to pay to
leave the car for, what would at most be, 30 minutes or so.
While looking for places to park, we at least managed to
look at a few interesting areas. We saw
houses by the beach (I imagine those would command a hefty price), what looked
like abandoned houses and structures that more closely resembled modern art
than houses. I still have no idea
exactly what that concrete cube was.
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| I don't think it's a house, some kind of government installation perhaps? |
Eventually, our mission was accomplished and we could start
exploring the beach. While descending to
the beach, Kyle appeared to start sinking.
Exactly how could this be happening? That wasn't even quicksand! Either
way, there’s no way I'm letting Kyle live that one down any time soon.
While walking along the beach, we noticed a warning
sign. The sign warned swimmers of deep
water and strong currents at the coastal defences (bringing back memories of
geography lessons and long shore drift).
Kyle, ever the English teacher, pointed out numerous grammatical mistakes
in the sign.
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| Grammar Lesson From Kyle |
The next stop on the journey was the Kashima Shrine (Kashima
Jingu – Jingu as it has a connection to the imperial household). The city is Kashima (Ibaraki Prefecture) I
have to say is an especially beautiful city.
Yamashita San was able to arrange a tour of the shrine with
a guide who was able to speak some English.
For some of the more complex details that she was unable to translate,
Yamashita San was able to help out with translation. It was certainly a very informative
experience. Besides the great amount we
were able to learn, the grounds were absolutely beautiful. I’d say quite similar to the Meiji Shrine.
No rest for the wicked, next stop was a mini Edo style
village. Although most of the buildings
were modern in construction, it was interesting to see the style they were
constructed in.
While wandering around, we found a small museum dedicated to
Ino Tadataka. He, in 1785, began using
western astronomy (which he learned at the age of 52) to begin a process of
mapping Japan until his death in 1818.
Surveying continued after his death, producing a map in 1829. Seeing a comparison of his map and a modern
map was quite amazing, there were only relatively minor errors in his map, a
considerable achievement for someone with no access to GPS and other modern
technologies (a sextant and maths were the only tools available). That was certainly worth the 500 Yen price of
admission.
After the Edo village, it was time to head back to
Misato. This wasn’t the end of the day
or the adventure, we had plans to meet Yamashita San at a local fireworks
festival (by local, I mean in Matsudo).
It was incredible the number of people who were attending, the train
station was certainly not a pleasant place to be (hot, humid and crowded) and
it didn’t help the Kyle and I arrived early (embracing the Japanese concept of
never being late).
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| The Fireworks Festival Is A Very Popular Event |
After some initial difficulties in communication (don’t you
love cellphones?) we rendezvoused with Yamashita San and followed the crowd to
view the fireworks. Compared with the
fireworks I've seen at school and in Roundhay park, these were in another
league altogether! In the distance, we caught glimpses of similar fireworks
festivals organised in other cities.
Hanabi are indeed popular in Japan!
The fireworks, in total, lasted almost two hours. At the
conclusion of an incredible spectacle, it was time to part ways. As Kyle and I were still a little hungry, we
decided to get food at the traditional restaurant in Misato before heading home.
Many thanks to Yamashita San for an absolutely amazing day!
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