Back in Japan

After leaving San Diego on the morning of January 4, we flew to San Francisco, and then to Osaka. This time the flight across took about 12 hours, one of the longer flights to Japan that we’ve experienced, probably due to the headwinds we faced all the way across the Pacific. After arriving at Kansai International Airport, we took a Japan Rail train to Osaka Station, and from there a taxi to our hotel in Osaka. After a quick dinner at the hotel, we slept surprisingly well (unusual for our first night here), had breakfast at the hotel, and took a taxi to Shin-Osaka Station.

Bullet trains, nose to nose -- We got on the white one.

Nice way to travel

A taste, from the train window, of what we will find in Matsue.

View from our lunch table at the noodle shop

From Shin-Osaka, we took the Shinkansen (bullet train) west to Okayama, where we changed to a regular JR train for the trip north to Matsue. This trip, which took about 2 ½ hours, carried us nearly all the way from the south coast, on the Inland Sea, to the north coast, almost to the Sea of Japan. Along the way we crossed the mountains and passed through innumerable tunnels. The scenery, as we got away from the cities and into the countryside, was beautiful, and as we went north we began to encounter snow, eventually traveling through a genuine snowstorm. At Matsue we found a thick layer of heavy wet snow already on the ground, with more falling. After taking a taxi to our hotel, we set out on foot, walking past Matsue Castle, to find lunch at a noodle shop we had read about, reaching it just as a heavy combination of rain and sleet began to fall.

Ken at the front gate of L. Hearn's home in Matsue

The front garden through the window of L. Hearn's home

The back garden at L. Hearn's home

After lunch we walked a little farther along the street to the Matsue home of writer Lafacadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo). We found the home very much as he described it in his famous essay In a Japanese Garden, and tried to imagine what it would have been like to live there in 1891, as Hearn did. The house was once a Samurai home, and is in a neighborhood near another Samurai residence, Buke Yashiki, which we also visited. We spent some warm, interesting time in the nearby museum dedicated to Hearn’s life and work, before venturing back out into the slushy snow. Our interest in Hearn (who became naturalized and took the name Koizumi Yakumo in 1985) is related to K’s research on the views of Hearn and the Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki on old Japanese culture and aesthetics.

Matsue Castle

The walk back to the hotel was wet and slippery, and we relaxed and warmed up before having a multi-course dinner, including a number of local specialties (tempura, clams, fish, shrimp, and such) downstairs in the hotel restaurant. We were tired, and went to bed by 8:00, sleeping till 7:00 Friday morning. For breakfast we discovered a 9th-floor buffet in the adjoining hotel building, with big windows and nice views looking out over Shinji-ko, the large lake on which Matsue is situated. After a leisurely breakfast we set out walking again, this time visiting Matsue-jo (the castle). The castle had its beginnings in 1607, with work on it finishing in 1611. It is one of only 12 such castles in Japan that survive in their original condition, and is equipped with some of the usual features of castles of that era (including those of Europe as well as Asia)—such as hidden openings from which the inhabitants could drop stones or boiling water on anyone silly enough to try to attack the castle. It is a beautiful structure, with huge wooden beams, and standing atop a hill on mammoth stone walls. From the top (sixth) floor there are long views in all directions.

Tonight we’ll go out to eat at a little izakaya (old-fashioned Japanese country-style bar) that we found on our walk today. Then tomorrow morning we’ll leave Matsue, traveling to the island of Kyushu and the city of Hakata.