XVI. Golden

Now that Golden Week has come to an end I can only come to one conclusion: Japan must be one of the most beautiful and impressive countries I have ever travelled in. In just one week I have seen everything from snow-capped mountains and forests with Macaque monkeys to surf beaches and picturesque wooden houses and bridges. I have several hundreds of photographs to organize and will probably write a lengthy travel story in time, but here I will focus on the highlights of our trip.

Together with 3 other JPP students I spent the first leg of our Golden Week vacation in Takayama. This village in the Japanese Alps was praised by my colleagues as a connoisseur’s choice. They were right- it was great. We slept in a former temple turned into a youth hostel, but still with its characteristic features intact. There’s nothing like the feeling of bare feet on clean tatami mats after a long day of walking! The town itself was equally picturesque. With its wooden houses, narrow streets, traditional restaurants, morning market and countless rickshaws Takayama seemed almost untouched by modern times. Even more so was the secluded mountain town of Shirakawa-go, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its Gasshozukuri style houses. Walking around the green village in the blazing hot sun it was difficult to imagine that from November to April, this town is covered in several metres of snow, making it as isolated as Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country.

We did manage to see some snow during our trip when we went hiking at Kamikochi. This area is famous for its natural beauty- and rightly so. With the snowy mountains in the background, our hike past the river was amazing. Large chunks of snow lined the road, Macaque monkeys were foraging in the woods and the walk through the Takazawa marsh (walking on elevated wooden walkways) was very atmospheric. All in all, this was yet another great hiking experience in Japan- unbelievable how such a densely populated country can have so many areas of exceptional natural beauty. And the greatest thing about enjoying nature in Japan is that you can soak in an onsen afterwards, even if the water is so sulphuric you have to wash your hair twice to make sure it doesn’t smell afterwards.

The second part of our holiday was spent on laid-back Izu-Hanto, as we wanted to include some relaxation in our holiday as well. At the coastal village of Shimoda we relaxed on the beach and explored the exciting nightlife of the town (aka the Cheshire Cat Jazz Club, which was very cosy albeit a bit quiet). As this was also the landing place of the famous Black Ships, we decided to go and visit the Shimoda Historical Museum as well, which featured a large exhibition on Perry and Harris, especially on the latter’s maid Saito Kichi, whose tragic life story has been the subject of many books and plays. The exhibition also included a fairly large section on Harris’ Dutch interpreter Henry Heusken, who was assassinated a few years after their arrival in Japan. It was interesting to see how the Americans used several interpreters working in Dutch as well as Chinese to communicate with the Japanese.

The last stops on our journey, Matsuzaki, Dogashima and Shuzenji, are less historically important but were still nice. Highlights included joining the locals to pick flowers in the fields surrounding our gorgeous wafu youth hostel in Matsuzaki, taking a boat tour round the cliffs at Dogashima where I saw my first flying fish ever, soaking in a tiny cliff-top onsen with an amazing view, taking a stroll through the very picturesque village of Shuzenji and drinking matcha in the sunny garden of a small teahouse in the hills overlooking the town. I must say, the traditional red bridges and bamboo grove at Shuzenji were exactly what I imagined Japan to look like when I was a kid.

All in all this holiday was just what I needed and it has inspired me to plan more trips for our last months in Japan. I can’t wait to go out and travel through this country again.