Silver Week: Japanese Kansas is much more interesting, specially with Vulcanus! (Part 4)

Back to track Ozzies!

Silver Week, Day 3. By far, the most stressful day of the whole trip. I would like to check on a map the distance we travelled, but in any case there were way too many train hours. But that's because we had a tight schedule! From Kurashiki to Matsue, from Matsue to Izumo, from Izumo to Hagi. The whole lot using local trains (= slooooooooow connections).

So we got up pretty early in the morning and left the hostel at around 6am. One of the main cons of having myself as tour operator is that I tend to be quite stressful at some points (and for this, I publicly apologize from here: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. There, I said it!), and I push people to go around places fast fast fast, without spending time on "silly things" such as...breakfatst. Of course, most people are not of the same opinion (I wonder why, lol...) and there was a small strike for food rights just before stepping on to the first train. Nothing which could not be solved with some "bread" (circus was already being porvided, 24h/7). We took the first train to Matsue. Around one hour. Carrying for the whole day all the bags was going to be hard stuff (just fyi - for your information - we had only been like a couple of weeks in Japan, so we were not fully equiped (at least I wasn't) for the whole "hit the road Jack" road trip...and it is something you pay by the end of the day, I can tell you!)



Look at the kids, all of them sleeping. Sooo cute...

I don't know why, so far I have not managed to sleep on trains, buses, or any other transport vehicle without taking sleeping pills (no, I'm not addicted, it's called necessity!) I hope that by the end of the year  I will be able to do like the Japanese and sleep standing up and holding to the hangers of the metro. That is very cool: should have asked that for Christmas!


"Freshly" arrived to the station, the walking begins: from the station to the castle, and its gardens, from the gardens to the samurai district, from the samurai district to the private train station where the Izumo trains were taken. Around 5 hours of intensive running (some time constraints regarding train schedules asked for it). We even missed the train to Izumo and had to wait for an hour at the station. But that was because the nearby restaurant took too much time to prepare tonkatsus (yes, when Paul and I came back with the food, you could feel the love in their faces, lol).

Anyway, back to Matuse. Frankly speaking, it's a villa worth coming to Japan to visit. I know, I know, when you travel to Japan you just have enough time to see the typical stuff (Tokyo and Kyoto). But there's so much more to see! And sometimes, much more worth it. I truly believe so. Like Matsue and Izumo, of course. But let's not rush.

So we were talking about Matsue. From the station, the city doesn't look that spectacular, but it is located in a privileged position. It's between a lake and the sea (have to check this out again, maybe it's two lakes). And you can see both from the castle. I don't need to say it, but the views are superb. Matsue's castle must be one of the few which has survived to Japan's monument-destructive history. So paying the entrance to take a look at the interior is not such a bad idea. Plus, foreigners get discount! This applies to all the museums in Matsue and Izumo. Never seen this in Japan apart from here, which makes the area even more attractive!

Now, this is very common when you ask a Japanese to take a picture for you: they will take the picture, but only the group will appear. Not a single trace of the background. Do you imagine, taking a 12-hour plane from Europe, then a 3-hour train from Tokyo, and another 2-hour train from Hiroshima (a total of 17 hours) to get to Matsue, just to take a group picture of the people you're traveling with, and no sign of where you've travelled to? Well, for them it kinda makes sense...Maybe that's why hardcore tourism rhymes with Japanese-style sightseeing!































More pics, more pics of the castle and its views:































Monika, Alina and Pedro (and a bit of Pepe! We're a bit tired of carrying the $/&$//%& bags, so could you please take pictures of %&"$·" ? Thanks...)









After the castle, we headed for one of the National Geographic's guide recommendations: a shinto temple located near the castle, dedicated to a fox-god (if I'm not wrong...). And when you get there, you wonder: Are these the same guys who take jaw-dropping pictures and talk about astonishing trips into mysterious places in the middle of nowhere? I don't want to be mean: the temple was ok, but not something worth making the detour, to be honest. Anyway, you can take some nice pics:

Could some one explain to me why are we doing here?

Oh! And after this, our first encounter with mochi! Right after the castle, getting grilled near a fireplace. At first it looks weird, specially if you don't know what it's made of and what's the funny sauce covering it. But the taste is good (later we knew it was made of a rice paste, covered with a soy sauce or a beans sauce, so no worries!).

Not much time left, so we made a quick tour around the samurai district, we peeped inside one of the houses (turned into a museum) and headed to the station.Unfortunately, we were unable to find Meimei-an, one of the most famous Tea Houses in all of Japan. I forgot to mention it before, but all of this area (and not only Okayama) is famous for the skillfulness of its Tea Masters and the quality of the Tea-ceremony utensils.

A foot onsen, near the train station. It feels sooooooooo good (but it's a bit hor!!!)
































Next stop: Izumo. The mother of all the Shinto Shrine temples. I believe it is the oldest in Japan, and the second in importance after Ise Shrine.

The train from Matsue to Izumo. High-tech, isn't it? After all, we live in the country of the latest technologies, isn't it?

Of course, Silver Week + very old famous temple means...Yes! Millions and millions of Japanese. Way too many...

This shrine is the only one where you clap four times (instead of two) when praying to the gods. The reason: Izumo's shrine is dedicated to Okuninushi, the kami of marriage, among other things. So when you come here, you pray for you and for your couple (2 times 2 makes...4!!). Praying in a shinto shrine goes as follows: first, you throw some coins (the amount is not important, what matters is throwing money). Then you clap your hands twice (here, four times), and you pray. Finally, you bow, and then you leave. Simple, hum?

Part of the Shinto shrine.

One of the priests in the Izumo shrine.

Izumo shrine is also famous for its huuuuuge shimenawa (twisted straw ropes). They say that if you manage to get a coin inside it, gods bless you with good luck.  You can imagine, we stayed there until we made sure we were bringing home some luck (but some coins fell down from it during the process...I hope you don't get unlucky for that...).

We could only stay here like an hour, and I think it deserves at least half a day. But time is time, so...

The guy and the kid are the special guests of the day. They happened to be there, and we asked them to join the picture. Soooo funny!

Today's trip ended with a 5-hour trip on local trains from there to Hagi, our next stop. You cannot believe what they call in this country "local trains". The moment you're not traveling in the shinkansen, you go straight back to the 30s. This was one of the metal boxes we took.

Most of the group had a nap (which, once again, I was unable to take), but some others went for some "on the field" Japanese practice. Like Davide! He spent at least 2 hours talking with a Japanese girl who ended up giving sweets to everyone. I must say, for only one week of Japanese lessons, he managed to last long using only his pocket dictionary and a notebook!

Another bad thing about traveling using local trains (the first one is that they are crappy), is that many times you need to take more than one train. In this case, we had to take two, so we used the time between them to eat in the station...

This is Paul, trying one of the weird Chinese dishes that are so popular in some Ramen restaurants. It consists on an omelette which contains rice inside, surrounded by a thick sauce of a sweetie flavor. The rice is just white rice, so the dish is in fact quite flat...Anyway, just for the fun, it was a good shot Paul!

We arrived to Hagi at 10pm or 11pm. Everything closed, no one on the streets. Evidently, we got lost a couple of times (specially once, where we took a path straight into the woods...lol). And at some point, maybe it would have been better, because Hagi's Youth Hostel was...but that's part of the next post's story.


Sleep tight Ozzies!