1985/7 Japan

5 January 1987
USA Academy, 238-6 Izumida, Okayama-shi, Okayama, Japan
Posted 19.01.87; received 02.02.87

Hello there

My first day back at work and my first day of my first cold in this the year 1987. Yay!

As usual travel in Japan proved to be more expensive than anticipated. But parts of Shikoku are very beautiful and totally unspoilt. I was away five nights in all – three of which were spent in temple or shrine Youth Hostels. These are my favourite. Not only are they usually beautiful, but the food is usually very traditional and very good. On each night I was the only foreigner present. Nice except for New Year’s Eve, which proved to be a little dull. Fellow hostellers watched an overly extravagant, overly emotional television extravaganza and then took turns to sing songs. By 11.30pm I had succeeded in offending an English teacher by refusing to discuss apartheid on New Year’s Eve – these people offend so easily – and was bored and sleepy. I stayed up just late enough to drink the cup of sake provided by the hostel and to think of all the kisses I was missing out on – none of that takes place here. And so to bed. I plan to make up for it next year!!

Way down south of Shikoku I visited a shell museum which displays apparently 50,000 different varieties. Many were familiar and many quite lovely. Then took a ride in a glass-bottomed boa to admire bright, bright blue fish swimming over some beautiful coral reefs. I was dropped at a place called Minokoshi and left there to wander for an hour. It is an area of amazing rock formations, sea and sunshine. And fishermen. One old fellow was dropping in his line and pulling it up immediately with a little captive fish. He had a whole basket full. The Japanese ea anything fishy, any size fishy. (Much to the annoyance of the Alaskans and Canadians apparently.) So although these fish looked to small to do anything of a culinary nature with in SA, they were obviously delightful to him.

Central Shikoku is really beautiful. Very mountainous. Very lush. A large clear green river flows here through a gorge along which the railway too runs. Tiny, isolated villages cling to the mountains and overlook the river cliffs and beaches. The temple I stayed in here was marvellous. Situated in the forests and overlooking a deep valley. Lots of stone images, a Japanese garden, a friendly priest, a WARM common room (most unusual in temple YH where you are usually left to freeze!) and English music piped throughout. Someone there is quite a photographer and has hung his work in the YH. Photos depicting the local flowers – especially the lovely pale pink lotus that blooms there in the summer months.

In the town of Ino I attempted to find a factory in which paper is made by hand. I went into a restaurant to ask for directions and was driven by the proprietor’s son to the factory – which was closed. So they phoned a friend who opened her shop so that at least I could shop for some paper even if I couldn’t watch the process. The son also gave me a print of some Japanese hero done on hand-made paper – as a gift.

On New Year’s Day I went to see hybrid roosters, bred in the area for their very long tail feathers. Now a dying art. In the old days when a feudal lord travelled he was proceeded by a servant carrying a pole with a feather attached to it. The longer the feather, the greater his prestige. At one time these birds had tail feathers between six and ten metres in length!! Anyway, I really must remember not to get caught up in these stories in future in Japan – I always get upset at the way the animals are treated. These birds were kept in glass cages in which they couldn’t move except to eat. The cages were designed in such a way that the tail feathers were displayed: (drawing with a hook to take the tail weight).

One morning I hitched a ride to visit the enclosed bridge. It is the oldest surviving ivy suspension bridge left in Japan. You have to pay a fee to cross it and looking down into the valley below you suddenly feel exceedingly grateful for the re-enforced steel cables that have now been interwoven with the ivy. The distance between the cross-beams and the cries of very small, very frightened children add to your fear almost as much as those children who have reached that totally fearless, feelingless, senseless age at which they take pleasure from terrifying their elders by JUMPING up and down on the bridge and SHAKING the railings. In retrospect of course I enjoyed it. But I was glad to reach the other side.

That’s about all. I trust you enjoyed your holiday.

Lotsaluv
Gail