Day 1
Kanazawa is a major city in Ishikawa prefecture, it is located in central Honshu region. From Tokyo, Kanazawa can be reach by taking Tokkaido line Shinkansen to Maibara a transit station after Nagoya then change train to Kanazawa. The Tokkaido line is one of the famous train line in Japan. This line passed through mount Fuji area in which the whole mountain can be seen from the window of the train.
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| Mt Fuji |
Tokkaido line is served by N700 series Shinkansen that has maximum speed of 300km/h. As the train went through corner section, the body of the train was slightly tilted towards the cornering direction in order to compensate the centrifugal force. With this tremendous speed, it took about 1 hour and 35 minutes to reach Maibara Station.
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| Shinkansen (Hikari) at Nagoya Station |
Interesting fact on Shinkansen, it is simply electric train with high power and very efficient electric motor in addition to its sophisticated aerodynamics. It is not a maglev train at all. Until today, the maglev shinkansen still under development and will be fully implemented in 2025.
From Maibara, there is Shirasagi express train that goes to Kanazawa. The scenery was fantastic, the railway goes along the mountaineus area and often goes through long tunnel. Some of the area was covered in snow. The trip took about 2 hours.
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| Shirasagi Express |
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| View at Nagoya-Kanazawa Line |
Although located in the middle of mountain, the Kanazawa city surprisingly is a descent city. The city is designed in very artistic way. Also, there are numbers of high end fashion branded store in this city such as Zara, Luis Vitton and Tod’s.
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| Kanazawa City |
There are several samurai houses in this city. These houses were well taken care of his descendants and turned into a small museum. One of the famous samurai house in Kanazawa is House of Nomura. This house was belong to Nomura Nobusada who was the high ranked official in Kanazawa of Kaga clan. It has small but beautiful garden at the back. Sitting down starring at the garden bay bring peaceful state of mind.
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| Kanazawa Castle |
Kanazawa Castle is a must see place in Kanazawa. This castle reveals the advance of Japanese civilization especially in woodworking. The structure of this castle was built from ironwood with some advanced technique to join the columns and slabs. They made precise snap-on joint so the joint may be made very strong. Also, they often cut the wood in diamond shape instead of rectangular depend on the characteristic of the corresponding wood to obtain maximum strength of the column or slab. Unfortunately, many of the exhibits does not have English explanation however it still can be seen that Japanese already develop such advanced civil engineering since long time ago.
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| Kenrokuen Garden |
Kenrokuen garden located next to Kanazawa castle. This koen is one of the best koen in Japan. This garden has a massive ponds with Japan Alps scenery. The beauty of this garden would be revealed in the spring.
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| Higashi Chaya |
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| One of the teahouse |
Higashi Chaya district of Kanazawa is a Geisha District. There are some teahouses in this area that serve tea ceremony during the day. Although these are seemed like old style red light district, these teahouses closed at 5pm.
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| Kanazawa Castle during the Night |
As the sun set and darkness dominate the night, the beauty of this city was unveiled. The Art museum is glows like huge light bulb in the centre of the town. The lighting at the Kanazawa Castle showed its true beauty during the night. The night vibe of downtown area shows that this city truly an artistic city.
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| Murataya Ryokan |
Staying in Japanese style inn (Ryokan) is an unique experience that considered as a must when travelling to Japan. Murataya Ryokan is the most popular Ryokan in Kanazawa. It has very nice vibe and friendly host that speaks excellent English. Also, Yukata is provided to enhance the experience to the fullest.
Day 2
Takayama is a small town in Gifu prefecture. This town is well known for its home made soba noodles. It is located between Toyama and Nagoya. There is express train to Toyama, from Toyama there only few express train that serve Toyama-Takayama-Nagoya. The local train run more frequent. The Toyama-Nagoya rail line is run on diesel train.
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| Toyama Station |
The diesel train run little bit slower however the scenery was superb. The train going around Japan Alps and through such long tunnel. The trip from Kanazawa to Takayama took about 3 hours by train.
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| Udon with Hida Beef |
Takayama is surrounded by Japan Alps. Unike Kanazawa it does not have any branded fashion store neither fast food. However, there are numbers of restaurant that serve wagyu beef from Gifu Prefecture.
Hida no Sato is a preserved old village complex in Takayama. This complex shows various old style Japanese house as well as lifestyle of ancient Japanese farmer. The snow and the scenery of the lake blend so nicely creates great view seen from the entrance gate.
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| Hida no Sato |
Apart from Hida no Sato, there are numbers of shrines and temples in Takayama such as Hida Kokubunji, Sakurayama Hachimangu and Takayama Betsuin. These shrines and temples can be covered on foot easily.
Currently, Kitayama walking course is closed due to the snow. The path ended at Kitayama park located on top of the hill northwest of Takayama. The fact that the path ended exactly at graveyard site make the trip to this park a bit creepy.
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| graveyard |
Zenkouji Temple is the only temple that has inn in Takayama. The price is reasonable and the master speaks good English. Since this place actually a temple, the vibe is very unique.
Day 3
Shirakawa-Go is a much larger preserved complex than Hida no Sato. It is about 45 minutes from Takayama by Bus. There is a lookout area on top of the hill where the whole area of this preserved site can be seen.
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| Ancient Farmer's House |
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| Shirakawa-Go |
The ancient Japanese civilisation was living from farming. They lived in wooden house with tall roof out of bamboo and leaves. The roof construction were designed in such that the snow does not piled up on the roof. As the snow piled with mass more than its critical point, it will slide over the roof. This prevent the roof from collapsing due to load of the snow.
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| Ruin of Takayama Castle |
Takayama castle was located on the northeast of the Takayama city centre. This castle was demolished by the shogunate around 1600s in order to suppress any rebellion movement. Only the stone wall remained on the site, what a pity.
Day 4
Hida express train is the best option to travel from Takayama to Nagoya. It took about two and half hours of great scenery. From Nagoya to Tokyo, it took about another two hours.
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| Hida Express |
The last day of travelling was spent in Yokohama, it was only 10 minutes from Tokyo with Shinkansen. Yokogama is a fantastic city, it has numbers of high rise building, amusement park as well as industrial area across the bay.
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| Yokohama, Bay Area |
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| Yokohama, City Area |
There are huge shopping centre with numbers of high end branded store in the heart of the town. Unlike Shinjuku which has pedestrian path underground, Yokohama has pedestrian path linking between building. As the sun set, the city light show the magnificence of the city. Perfect for slow shutter photography.
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| Yokohama, Shopping Area |
This is the end of the travelling trip. I had unique experience and learned number of things during this trip. These are:
- Japan is a very convenient country to travel to. The rail network is superb!
- During the nuclear crisis, the media push their best effort to educate their people regarding this issue. None of them are releasing negative news at all which may cause distrust between people and government.
- Japanese level of patience is extremely high. When the public transportation in Tokyo were suspended, People were lining up for train in such impressive manner. The line went about 1km and none of them were complaining although it was 3 degrees Celsius outside.
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| Queuing Line for Tsukuba Express |
- Old Japanese houses are similar with Papuans. They had kitchen inside of the house with minimum ventilation. Hence, the ashes from the wood fire spread all over the house. This is not a healthy house to live in.
- Japanese woodworking technique had been developed well since ancient time. They Realise that wood is an anisotropic material hence they maximising the strength of the wood by various technique. The joints were built with very high precision for a man made product.
- There have been history of conflict between farmer and merchant since 1300s. This sis due to the corrupt merchant and government official. However, the Shogunate was always on farmer’s side and punish the corrupt official and merchant with death penalty.
- the farming method also had developed well since ancient time. They made water mill to ground rice/wheat. Also the fact that they have put on stock for winter push them to think about some inventory management method. Same thing happened on civilisation in any sub tropical area. This is also support my hypotheses that People that live outside tropical area has higher level of thinking naturally.
