Monday, August 20, 2012

Week 34

A pretty great week this week. A very fun summer vacation this year.

Last Monday, as planned, a number of people gathered at a friend's house where we all played "Magic: the Gathering" all afternoon. We went out for dinner together at a fun, chain, curry shop that adds squid ink to their curry to make it turn black.

Tuesday I was up at the crack of dawn so I could get to Gifu (prefecture) by mid-afternoon. My early-rising was all for naught, however, as when I arrived at Shin-Osaka station to board the rapid-service train I found that all trains going in the direction of Gifu had been canceled due to heavy rain earlier in the morning. This sometimes happens and I waited around for about an hour to see if service would restart before giving up and going home. At home I took a nap and another look at my travel plans. Shortly after noon I looked at the JR (Japan Rail) website and saw that service to the East had been restored. I made up my mind to give it another try that day. When I once again arrived at Shin-Osaka station I found out that the local trains were running but all rapid-service ones were still canceled. This meant that a three hour ride on a slightly busy train became a four hour ride on a packed train with no hope of getting a seat. It turned out not to be so bad though. After Kyoto a lot of people got off and a seat did open up. In Maibara (in Shiga prefecture, next to Kyoto) I changed trains from JR West to JR East and rode the rest o the way into Gifu city. I arrived around 5:30 and headed to Gifu City 43, the tallest building in Gifu, located next to the station. There's a nice, free, observation deck on the top floor that offers a great view of Gifu city, the Japan Alps to the North, and even Nagoya city in neighboring Aichi prefecture to the South. After waiting around and snapping some sunset photos I found my way to a Tex-Mex restaurant I had read about online. The food was pretty good but a little expensive considering they used un-flavored Doritos for chips and "Old El-Paso" seasoning and shells for the tacos. After dinner I did a little wandering around, looking for a hotel. The Comfort Inn by the station was out of single rooms, so I found a business hotel instead which turned out to have the largest "single" room I've ever seen in Japan. It was still  little early when I settled in so I popped down to a convenience store for a beer and watched TV for a while.

 The residential section of Gifu city.
Gifu city at night.

I slept in Wednesday morning for the first time in a long time. After spending the night in a gloriously air-conditioned hotel room my camera lens fogged up the instant I stepped outside. After letting my camera and myself get used to the humidity I started walking North to the Gifu castle area. It didn't look that far the previous night from the Gifu City Tower but in the rapidly increasing morning heat and humidity the two mile walk ended up taking a lot out of me (mostly water, which I sweated out in extreme amounts.) Now, some of the shops were closed for the summer holidays, but the one thing I noticed during my walk is how many empty store-fronts there were. It really seemed like a ghost-town. Finally I arrived at the Great Buddha of Gifu. I'm not sure when I became a fan of Great Buddhas but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see this one. It's much smaller than the Great Buddha of Nara and even a little smaller than the one in Kamakura but is still pretty impressive. I relaxed in the shade of the hall for a while before heading across the street to the foot of the mountain where the castle was. Quite impressively the castle was built at the top of the mountain which is most easily accessed by cable car these days. After the cable-car ride one must hike the last 200 meters up to the summit on foot along old foot-paths. The castle itself is a reproduction made of concrete with a museum on the first three floors. The forth floor observation deck offers both a beautiful panorama of Gifu city and surrounding mountains as well as a cool breeze which made it the most comfortable place in Gifu that day. After taking a large number of photos I reversed my path back down to the foot of the mountain. At this point the sun came out from behind the spotty clouds that had prevailed in the morning and made the day unbearably hot. I chose not to walk back to the station and caught the next bus I saw. After lunch in the station I walked around the shopping arcade in front of the station. I was a little weirded out to find every single shop closed. Again, I'm not sure if it's a summer thing or if the area is slated for demolition or something. Hopping on the train my next stop was Hikone city back in Shiga prefecture. It was late afternoon and I was tired when I arrived so I grabbed a cab over to Hikone Castle. I was glad I did as I arrived about an hour before closing time and had just enough time to snap some pictures. I tried to climb to the top of the main tower but the combination of the heat inside the tower and the long line to climb up a near vertical stairway put me off the idea. As I was leaving an afternoon storm poured down a cooling rain. Realizing from the ride over that the station wasn't that far away I decided to walk back. Next, I hopped on the train to Nagahama (also in Shiga.) I found a room for the night at "Yes Nagahama", a reasonably priced business hotel. After putting my things in my room I took my camera and walked around a bit before actually settling in for the night.

 The Great Buddha of Gifu (front view)
 The Great Buddha of Gifu (side view)
 Gifu castle sits atop Mt. Kinka.
 A nicely landscaped garden at the foot of the mountain.
 A squirrel petting zoo. This is what happens when you have no large native squirrel population.
 Gifu Castle.
 The Nagara river which flows through Gifu city.
 The foothills of the Japan Alps.
 Nagoya as seen from Gifu Castle.
 Hikone Castle.
 View of Lake Biwa from Hikone Castle.
Hiko-nyan, Hikone's mascot.

Thursday morning I woke up fairly early and lounged around the hotel room for a bit - as most of the day's attractions didn't open until after 10 o'clock. When I finally did get on the road I noticed that it was one of those days where it was boiling in the sun but cool in the shade. My first stop was to investigate taking the ferry to Chikubu island located out in lake Biwa. Unfortunately it was a bit more pricy than I was expecting so I went on to point number two, Nagahama castle. This castle too was a replica made of concrete (as opposed to Himeji castle which is made from wood and plaster.) And here too the observation deck was blessedly cooled by a breeze, this time off the lake. After taking the requisite load of photos, the next stop was the Kaiyodo figure museum in the down-town area. Kaiyodo is a famous Japanese model and figure maker. The museum was fun and had some really rare figures on display. The gift shop was a blast and I couldn't help but buy a figure that I'd been searching for for  long time. After lunch at a ramen shop near 'new' Nagahama station I checked out the Old Nagahama Station Museum. Evidently housed in the oldest standing station building in Japan, this museum had a few small displays about Japan's rail history. Having done most of what there was to do in Nagahama I hopped on a train back to Osaka. Here I lucked out - getting a seat on a rapid train going right to Shin-Osaka station. Back home I took a nap, unpacked, and sorted photos.

 Nagahama Castle.

The Lake Biwa shore seen from Nagahama Castle.

Friday was mostly spent recuperating and avoiding the heat by staying indoors. I did go out in the evening to play "Friday Night Magic" in Nipponbashi again. I did a little better this week.

Saturday afternoon's big event was a terrible thunderstorm that laster over an hour dumping so much rain that I could barely see the building across the street. After things had cleared up in the evening I went with a group of friends for dinner and to see the new Avengers movie (which was just released here in Japan.)

Sunday morning I cleaned my apartment before a few people came over in the afternoon for a games day. A lot of people were otherwise busy so it was a fairly light showing but we still had fun and played a lot of games (including a new one one of the guys brought over.)

Monday I got up and did my Monday morning routine and started writing this post. I got a bit distracted mid-afternoon and ended up watching TV and playing video games all afternoon. It was a pretty great summer-vacation day.

Today (Tuesday) I figured that I should probably finish up this post before it get's too far behind. As this is my last full day of vacation (I have training for two hours tomorrow) I'm thinking hard of what to do with it. I might go to the castle or the zoo... ut will likely end up lounging around again.

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