Four Colours

Juniko

Maybe it’s lethargy after over 14 months of attempting to refine memories into comprehensible records, maybe I’m just useless.

Either way October and November appear to have slipped away on me and yet again I find myself counting down the days until Henry arrives in Japan for our winter trip this year.

In the meantime however, here’s a brief (yeah, I’m lying) overview of what autumn had in store for us.

Earlier in October Andrew, Liam, Steph and myself gathered at Isabel’s house for a viewing sessions of Clue, before we visited Juniko, the 12 blue ponds in Aomori Prefecture the following day. The stunning clear blue waters of the ponds were complimented by the oranges and reds of autumn leaves and as always we relished being surrounded by trees as opposed to rice paddies.

The start of November brought with it a long weekend which saw Steph, Drew, Liam and myself travelling south to Tochigi prefecture to chase the koyo of Autumn. We made a stop in the small town of Mashiko, famous for pottery. The bitterness of Autumn had not yet reached Kanto and so the four of us sweltered in our long trousers that the chill of Tohoku had demanded that morning.

Three Wise Monkeys - Toshogu

Turning back inland we arrived in Utsunomiya city and took no time in locating the local delicacy; gyouza. The weekend turned into a marathon during which we set the goal of consuming 100 gyouza between the four of us.

That night we wandered down to a local Izakaya that was renowned for having monkeys which served beer. After narrowly avoiding ordering karaage made of bees, the stars of the show came trotting out.

None of us have much faith in the way that animals are treated in Japan (a visit to a pet shop is enough to understand) however it was difficult to ignore how much the owner of the restaurant cared for these monkeys.

Guests could sit on chairs as the owner encouraged the little rascals to sit in their laps and finally the oldest and biggest monkey would come and perched on their head for photos. I feel sorrow for Drew’s future children as I don’t believe anyone could have looked more doting or besotted with these creatures.

The other group of guests in the restaurant left soon after snapping out a few photos and so the owner asked if we wanted to go back over and continue playing with the monkeys, he had barely finished asking before Drew and Liam were racing over.

We were able to give the wee things snacks and have them clamber over us. The owner performed tricks with oldest monkey Fuku-chan, getting her to perform a couple of spectacular backflips before doing a ‘sexy pose’.

Shinkyo Bridge

On Saturday we drove further inland to Nikko which is renowned for its beautiful Autumn colours. Our first stop was the Shinkyo Bridge, followed by a morning of wandering through various temple complexes.

Rinnoji temple, under renovation for the next few years, was covered in scaffolding but we were still able to enter and see the shrine roof being laid with shining copper tiles. Next we followed the stream of tourists to Tosho-gu shrine, resting place of the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate and location of the three wise monkeys. The lavishly decorated, gold plated shrine and gates were a stark contrast to the more traditional, simple decorated Japanese temples.

As the rain started coming down we continued on to Taiyu-in Temple, the complex was flushed with autumn colours and between that and the blissful lack of crowds, it was deemed as a favourite.

Our next venture involved being stuck in crawling traffic for 2 hours on a heinously winding mountain road. Consisting of 48 switchbacks, the road to and from lake Chuzenji looks rather comical on maps. Each corner is marked by a hiragana (coincidentally the Japanese hiragana script has 48 characters) though the characters are ordered according to a poem that was popular prior to the modernised ordering in the Meiji period.

Kegon falls

After 2 hours of hairpin turns we finally made it too the Kegon falls look out. An infamous suicide spot, the falls’ most renowned victim was a young student who carved a haunting poem into a tree before throwing himself from the cliffs.

Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misao_Fujimura

A translation of his poem: https://oceanontuesday.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/misao-fujimura-suicide-note/

Formed when the Daiya river was rerouted due to lava flows, the falls stand at roughly 97 metres and are ranked one of the 3 most beautiful waterfalls. After watching the water plummet hypnotically in sheets off the cliff, you understand why.

A lift takes you 100 metres down to see the falls from near the base for a different approach, following this venture (and being sprayed with mist) we indulged in a hot chocolate before continuing on round lake Chuzenji to the Ryuzu falls, a much more modest view of twin waterfalls that separate further up stream before joining again in the falls’ pool.

Toshogu

The following day was our deadline for meeting our quota of 100 gyouza. Our mission ended in a throng of hundreds of people at the gyouza festival where incredibly deceiving signs informed us that the queue was 20 minutes long. It was about 5…

Zao Fox Village

Stocked up on dumpling goodness we continued to the Zao fox village in Miyagi prefecture. Back to animal treatment in Japan…Don’t linger in the indoor section of the village. The outdoor section however, consisted of paths winding through a spacious area where foxes could roam as they please and brush right by you (cue childlike excitement). In amongst the autumn coloured floor you could see little pairs of black ears sticking up from the fallen leaves.

With one road trip down, there was one more to squeeze in before December came, and brought with it the wrath of winter.

Taiyuin Temple

Ryuzu Falls