Japanese toilet seats
In Japan the toilet seat is an electric appliance. The seat is heated and the heat is controlled by a thermostat. It has a nozzle, which extends under you, after you have pressed the button and sprays a water jet at body temperature at 38 degree angle against your behind to rinse it clean. The jet can also pulsate for that nice massage effect. Most seats also have a nozzle at the front for the ladies. An extra feature is a loudspeaker that produces flush sounds when you are seated. Japanese find it very embarrassing if the sounds they produce while using the toilet can be heard by others. To mask that, they flush frequently during their visit to the toilet. That costs enormous quantities of water and this feature prevents that. Sometimes a blue light shines within the bowl, illuminating the smallest room in the house in blue lime light. The most luxurious models feature a movement sensor, which  initiates the lid to open when you enter the toilet which means that you do not have to touch anything with your hands. The next level will be that the toilet will make a urine analysis and send the results via internet to your family doctor.
Only very rarely you will still encounter a traditional Japanese squat toilet. For those familiar with the French squat toilet, this piece of sanitary heritage may cause some confusion about how to use it. And Japan would not be Japan if there would not be clear instructions for the ignorant foreigner or postmodern Japanese.
In Japanese homes and in traditional hotels there will always be a pair of toilet slippers ready for you behind the door. You slip out of your house slippers before entering the toilet and you change into the toilet slippers. Upon leaving toilet you leave the toilet slippers behind, but do mind to leave them facing the visitor, so that he or she can slip into them without any trouble.

At night we eat at the shopping arcade behind Fukuya Dept store in a cellar restaurant. It belongs to a Briton, who chats us into entering. Inside we step into a different world. We are seated around a barbecue with exclusively Japanese guests. The room is thick with smoke. A hyper active woman takes our orders. When the food is ready your meal is handed to you by the chef by means of some sort of spade with a very long stick. Quite an experience and cheap too.  

Weather: sunny and warm, 27°C/81°F.

Saturday 25 May 2013

Hiroshima - Kobe: 304km (190mi), 1:18 hours (train)

The Shinkansen train departs (on time of course) at 9.50 am to Shin-Kobe. We arrive at 11.08 hours. Our hotel, the ANA Crowne Plaza is situated opposite the station. We enter a world of luxury. Our room was not ready, but if we pay an extra 4000 yen (€ 30) we can immediately move into a larger room. So we do that. On the 18th floor we have a very spacious room with a large bathroom en suite. The view over the city is magnificent. We take the ropeway (cable car) up the mountain to the Nunobuki herbal garden on the slopes of the mount Rocco. From up there - and also on the way up - we have a breathtaking view of the city. We look around and eat a simple but relatively pricey lunch. Up on the mountain there are many day trippers. Herb plants and rose cuttings are for sale in the shop. After enjoying the view in the blazing sun we go down again with the cable car. Once at ground level we take the regional train to the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution. From the train station on the Hanshin Iwaya-line is a 15-minute walk to this particular institute, which is dedicated to the great Kobe earthquake on January 17, 1995. This earthquake, which is also known as the Great Hanshin Earthquake had a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was 20km away from Kobe. The quake lasted no more than 15 seconds, but it took 6,400 lives. The damage amounted to more than 100 billion euros, 2.5% of Japan's gross domestic product at that time. The exhibition starts on the 4th floor with a 7-minute film that gives an impression of the natural disaster and its effects on the city. Our jaws drop in shock. This show is followed by a movie about the consequences of the disaster. From the perspective of a 15 year old girl we hear the story of the disaster, rescue work and reconstruction. We are struck by he resilience of the Japanese society. The rescue effort starts very quickly. Nearly a million volunteers bring aid from all over Japan. After the rescue and emergency relief attention is shifted to clearing the rubble, setting up emergency housing and reconstruction. Much attention is being paid to the social aspects. A team of social workers visit the victims for years after the disaster to assist them in picking up their lives. In the reconstruction, the people are closely involved. In any case, this results in better buildings and the wider streets. After this film we come to a floor where the story continues supported by figures and images. Volunteers, older men, who speak English take us under their wing and lead us through the exhibition and tell us their experiences and more facts. Striking is the speed with which the city got back on its feet again. Within three months the train was running again and after a year the Shinkansen was back in Kobe! The last evacuees could leave their temporary accommodation after 5 years. Another floor down we get more geological information. About the force of the earthquake relative to other earthquakes, such as those in Szechuan or the latest one in Fukushima (2011). The latter was much stronger, but also further away under the ocean floor. Also, the phenomenon of ground water being forced up to the surface by the earthquake is being demonstrated. The last volunteer who helps us even speaks Dutch, because he has lived in Antwerp for some time  

In the evening we take the subway to the Meriken park at the port. The maritime museum is architecturally interesting, as is the Meridien hotel, which looks like a cruise ship. We then take the subway to Sanomiya, the central railway station in Kobe. This is also the entertainment center of the city. It is a short walk to the teppanyaki restaurant Misono. It sits on the 6th and 7th floor of a building with more restaurants. The restaurant prides itself to have been inventor of teppanyaki style cooking in 1945. Whether that is true or not we do not know, but the atmosphere is great. We sit at a round table around the hot plate with city views behind the chef. The cook is understated and friendly and even knows where Rotterdam is and that it is a major port - just like Kobe. We order Kobe beef and a salad and fried vegetables. Kobe Beef is a specialty. The beef has a structure that resembles marble because of the thin strings of fat that run through it. It is also very costly. It is all wonderfully well prepared. The beef is very tender and the garlic that goes with it is delicious. Finally we get some bean sprouts with crispy beef. An experience! We have coffee at Starbucks opposite the restaurant and are then off to the hotel. In the bar on the 36th floor we have a cocktail with a magnificent view of the city.  

Weather: sunny and warm 27°C/81°F. 

Sunday 26 May 2013   

Kobe - Kanazawa: 300km (186 mi), 2:52 hrs (train)   

Today we have the most extensive breakfast on our trip. The breakfast buffet is unprecedented in choice of food and drinks. The staff is running back to front to stock up everything and it tastes delicious. Even a bread toaster, very unusual in Japan. After breakfast we want to drink coffee, but oddly enough that is not possible in the hotel, at least not at 8.30am. We check out and walk to the station. No problem getting coffee there. We also buy a bento box, a lunch box. Ours contains tasty sushi.  

We take the Shinkansen Hikari ("Light") to Shin-Osaka. Because our reservation left us not much time to make our connection, we take a train earlier, on a unreserved seat. There are always at least three cars with unreserved seats on a Shinkansen train. In Osaka we change to the Thunderbird Limited express to Kanazawa. That is something like an express train. It is a long journey – in total, almost 3 hours. We come through Kyoto and ride for a long time along the lake East of Kyoto, which is, on a Sunday, full of people having fun: anglers, water skiers, jet skis etc. We arrive around 1pm in Kanazawa and take a taxi to a Ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. Our original booking at Yamamuro was cancelled because of a death in the family. The alternative booked by them at Nakayasu across the street is very disappointing. It is jaded and the old owner is not very friendly, unlike his wife and children. It is also a very warm place to stay. There is a group of young athletes in the ryokan, but they behave exemplary. We decide not to stay three nights - as the plan was - but only one night and book a room in a nearby hotel online. We go there to take a look to see if we could check in early the next day. It is possible, but only after intervention of a charming English speaking waiter from the hotel restaurant. Then we relax a bit in the park near the Kanazawa castle. We drink coffee at Starbucks, do some shopping and have dinner at a small food stall near the market. When we come back to our room, our futon beds are made on the floor and a yakata (night robe) laid out. We go to the communal bath, where we are joined by three guys of the sport team. They shower and chat with each other endlessly. That's how they do it here, apparently. After our shower we dip in the hot tub. There we sit for a while until the water gets too hot for us. It makes you feel relaxed though.  

Weather: very warm and sunny 29°C/84°F. 

Monday 27 May 2013  

We are the only guests who get the western style breakfast in the morning and it is not bad at all: cereals, fried egg with bacon, bread with jam, tea or coffee. The daughter of the house, who speaks excellent Englis, spontaneously offers to call us a taxi. After brushing our teeth and packing our suitcases we are ready for the taxi to our new stay, the Kenrokusou hotel.  

We drop off our suitcases at the hotel and go to Kanazawa Castle. It is a large complex that has burned down many times, due to acts of war and lightning. The last time in 1881. In 2001 the reconstruction was started, costing more than 5 billion yen. The reconstruction is still going on. It is a beautiful complex. In the courtyard a modern Japanese garden has been laid out. For reconstruction of the building, the original drawings used and the old building techniques were used. Inside the castle there is not much to see. The rooms are, except for a few panels with information, rather empty. The castle belonged to the Maeda family, until it was taken away from from them during Meiji Restoration. The Maeda were one of the top three noble families of the Edo era.  

After having seen the castle extensively we go to the Omaya Jinja shrine. The most beautiful Shinto shrine in Kanazawa. It is located in a park. A group of older ladies in the temple park is busy with Japanese flower arrangements, Ikebana. In the shrine a ceremony is in progress. What kind, we do not know. The gate of the shrine is also special, because in the turret above, are stained-glass windows that were made in late 19th century by Dutch engineers. We take a long walk to a gold leaf workshop. Kanazawa is known for its gold leaf work. 90% of the gold leaf in Japan comes from here. We find the studio and shop called Katani and buy some souvenirs. We take a taxi back to the hotel. The driver speaks fairly good English and says that he remembers the great Anton Geesink, the first non-Japanese to win an Olympic gold medal in Judo in the free category at the games in Tokyo in 1964.    

At 2.30pm we are picked up at the hotel by Kiyoe Nagashimo, a volunteer guide of the Kanazawa Goodwill Guide Network. Following a request from us via the website of the Network, we have been linked to her. She takes us to the Kenrokuengarden, which originally belonged to the castle and was the private property the Maeda family. The family still exists and lives in Tokyo, where all the noble families had to move during the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century. Since then, the garden is open to the public. The garden is known in Japan as one of the top three garden designs of the country. We start with the Kotojitoro lantern. An icon for the Japanese. There is a live TV camera focused on it 24/7. Every news broadcast starts with live images of this lantern. In the garden the six values ​​of beauty are brought together, which on the face of it cannot go together: space and shelter, artificial and authentic, water and panoramic views. Everything has been thought out and everything is so well maintained. The irises are in bloom. We see many pine trees (symbolizing longevity), cherry trees and a few teahouses. In one of the teahouses, Shiguretei, we attend a Japanese tea ceremony. The tea house dating from 1725 has survived the great fire of 1759. Sitting on a tatami a kimono-clad lady puts a bowl of tea in front of us. Kiyoe demonstrates for us how we should do it. With great attention to detail and respect for the person who has prepared the tea we drink the tea. The last sip has to be taken with a slurping sound. This garden tea house has only sliding panels with paper windows. In winter it is very cold.   We walk through the garden again and now exit in the directon of the Nagamachi Samurai district. In the neighborhoods around the castle the members of the samurai class of soldiers lived. These districts were and are a maze of streets. This is intentional to make more difficult to storm the castle for a hostile army. We visit a number of the houses that were once owned by middle class samurai. Most samurai families have left their homes after they had lost their position, mainly because of the extremely high inheritance tax. Many have even committed suicide because they could not cope with their loss of status. Many bodies were found in the former castle moat. The houses are traditionally furnished. The largest central room is arranged for receiving guests of equal or lower class. Smaller rooms are for sleeping, living and eating. The gardens are beautifully landscaped, with carp ponds and beautiful trees and plants. Samurai also used edible plants for their garden design as an emergency ration. It is now after five and we are tired. Fortunately, we are almost at the end of the tour. We say goodbye to Kiyoe, which has given us a great afternoon  

Weather: morning sunny and warm. In the afternoon cloudy and cooler. Very humid. 24°C/75°F.

Tuesday 28 May 2013  

Kanazawa - Ogimachi: 90km (56mi) 1:46 hours (car)  

Today we hit the road again with a rental car from Times Car rental. The rental office is near the station. First we go to the train station to  change our train reservation for tomorrow. We have seats reserved for the afternoon, but we would rather leave in the morning. That's no problem. The clerk of Times speaks only a smattering of English, so it's a bit difficult. We show our international driving licenses and passports. A Dutch driving license is not valid in Japan without an international driving license (available at the Automobile Association). Oddly enough, those of Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland are valid with an authorized translation. After completion of the necessary formalities we get a large Mazda Atenza. First we get an explanation of the navigation system and then we drive to the regions of Gokayama and Shirakawa-go. These are two areas where there remain a few villages with traditional A-shaped houses with thatched roofs. It has been designated a Unesco World Heritage site. It takes a lot of effort to maintain the houses. The villages depopulate, because young people leave for the city. Previously the whole village helped to replace a thatched roof within a day. That is no longer possible and owners of these houses must now place advertisements to invite volunteers to help from across the country  

We turn off the road at Suganuma. This hamlet consists of some 10 houses (Gassho-zukuri) with rice fields between them. We have to pay 500 yen for the parking and an elevator takes us down from the parking lot to the village. The cottages can be visited individually, but costs a bit extra. Some are inhabited. After we explored the village, we drive to Ogimachi. When we get there we first eat at a traditional restaurant. We sit on the floor and are presented a Japanese menu, we is not much use to us. The waiter has a handy translation app on his smartphone and so we can order our food  - despite some odd translations . It tastes great and is not overly expensive, but more expensive than we usually had to pay so far. 3800 yen (€ 30) for two. We can leave your car (for free) at the restaurant and do not have to drive to the see the traditional houses here. The Gassho Zukuri Folklore park is more like an open air museum. The houses that we see here have been moved here from elsewhere. It therefore has much less character. It has started drizzling and that makes it all a bit gloomy. We still see most of the houses. The visit of the houses is included in the ticket for the museum. You have to take off your shoes every time you enter a house.  

Next is Ainokura and that is back in the direction of Kanazawa. This is a real village, where people arel still living. The cottages are indeed not open to visitors, but they look much more authentic. The residents are busy farming their rice fields. There is only one eatery cum souvenir shop. The village is very picturesque between the mountains, some of which are covered with snow. It still drizzling, but we do not mind. After having seen the village we the expressway back to Kanazawa (toll 1400 yen).  

In Kanazawa we go to the hotel, where we can park for 500 yen. We have a rest and then take the bus to the Higashi Chaya, one of the three districts where there Geishas work and train. Unfortunately, we see no Geishas walking the streets, but it's a nice district to see, with narrow streets and old houses. Kanazawa has not suffered from American bombing during the ware just like Kyoto.    

Weather: 22°C/72°F, overcast and occasional drizzle.

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Kanazawa - Nagano: 252km (158mi), 3:31 pm (train)

We have a remarkable breakfast again. Erik has a western breakfast. That means two slices of bread, a soup and a ceramic pan heated by some sort of solid fuel in  which he can fry his own egg. I have a Japanese breakfast of noodles, soup, rice, and a small fry pan over a fire with a soup, vegetables and some tofu pieces. After breakfast we bring the car back to Times Car Rental in the pouring rain. At the railway station we take the limited express train Hakutaku to Naoetsu (1 hr:44 min). There we have 11 minutes lay over before our nextslow JR train Shinetsu that brings us to Nagano in 90 minutes. The scenery is beautiful. During the first part we ride along the coast of the Japanese sea for quite some time. Then the train goes inland into the mountains. Those are high and snow covered. Unfortunately it rains for most of the trip. When we arrive In Nagano it has become dry and we walk about 10 minutes to the hotel Chisun Grand  which is located close to the railway tracks. It is a modern business hotel, which was built here for the Winter Olympics of 1998. We have a spacious room for only 75 euro (without breakfast). We rest for a while before go out exploring the city. We drink coffee at Starbucks and see some stores.   We go back to the hotel only to go out later for a cocktail at an Italian Bar. Here, the staff does not speak anything but Japanese, but with some difficulty, we manage to order two cocktails. From there we go to a tiny pub, stuffed with  a huge amount of junk – they prefer the lived in look aparently - where you can eat reasnoably well  for little. India za Supaisu it is called and it is close to the London double decker bus that seens to have been  stranded on the Chuo-dori.  

Weather: cloudy with some sunny spells and showers. 25°C/77°F

 Thursday 30 May 2013  

I get up very early, at 5:20 am for the morning ceremony in the Zenko-ji temple . To get to the Temple on time I take a taxi and get there at 5:45. It is still very quiet, but with time more and moreworshippers from all over Japan gather around the temple square. At 6 o'clock a bell is sounded, and the priest enters the front yard. He is protected against the (absent) sun with a huge red paper umbrella. The worshippers kneel down on his left side and he strokes there heads in passing with a kind of rosary. A diligent police officer tells me not to film the scene, but I have done it anyway. The priest and his entourage go into the temple followed by everyone else. The worshippers kneel on the tatami mats, the rest stay behind a low fence. The monks gather around the shrine chanting their sutras. The priest climbs a few steps in front of an altar and at one point a screen is pulled up revealing a statue. The priest performs a number of rituals and sounds a bell. After that, the screen goes down and the singing continues. This is repeated a couple of times in more or less the same way. Halfway through the ceremony also the priestess makes her entrance. At some point some of the believers are allowed to come closer at the sacred shrine. Some of the monks have already left. There is beating of drums, sounding of bells and many sutras are sung. After a while, the first group of believers leave and a second groups gets a go. The whole ritual is repeated. Then the ceremony is finished and the priest leaves the temple grounds with his entourage. Again believers line up along the priest’s path. The Zenko-ji Temple is one of the last places of pilgrimage Japan. It dates from the 7th century and Nagano was built around it. The temple dates from before the time that Buddhism in Japan split into various sects. It therefore welcomes followers of all sects. The temple is now run by the Tendai and Jodusho-sects.   The Tendai sect sends the high priest, the Jodusho the high priestess. The priestess is usually a member of the imperial family. The main Buddha image is a Hibutsu, a hidden Buddha, which is not shown to the public, even the priest will not see it. A replica is displayed every six years. I take a taxi back to the hotel. We have breakfast together on the 12th floor of the hotel. It is a beautiful tatami room, but with low tables and chairs. The breakfast is fully Japanese: noodles, fish, meat, rice, vegetables, prunes, pikkels, lettuce, egg and much more. After breakfast we go r to the Zenko-ji temple together. First, we have a look at the residence of the priestess, then the residence of the priest. There is a statue of guardian god for the aborted and stillborn children. The fence behind it is covered in baby clothes and toys, left there by grieving relatives. We walk on and pass a row of six Buddha statues, representing the six states, which is a true Buddhist must endure, i.e. hell, hunger beasts, carnage, humanity and heavenly existence. In front of the temple is a pot adorned with an image of a lion, in which incense is burned. Visitors wave the smoke towards themselves. It protects them against all kinds of illnesses and evils. We go into the temple. It is a lot quieter now. I buy a ticket to the inner sanctum, the Okaidan. That's a pitch-black tunnel, where you can find the way to eternity, if you find the key. It is more likely that you will find the doorknob. You can not see a thing and by touch I reach the exit again, without finding the key, though.  

In the afternoon we take the Dentetsu line to Obuse. This is a private railway, so the JR Rail Pass is not valid. Obuse must be a very nice place, but in the rain it loses much of its charm. A number of artists have lived and worked here. Furthermore, the village has a thing with chestnuts and chestnut wood.The sidewalks are paved with it. There are also many apple orchards in the area and two Sake distilleries. We have lunch first and then go to the museum of the artist Hokusai (1760-1849), who worked here the last seven years of his life and painte beautiful pencil drawings on canvas and has decorated two floats for a local festival. The drawing of Mount Fuji, which is printed on our Rail Pass was made by him. After the museum we do some Sake tasting at a Sake Brewery. I take a dry sake, suitable as a digestif. The glass is completely full to the edge and you need to put some salt in your mouth before drinking. It tastes quite good. We take the slow train back to Nagano.

Weather: rainy, 19°C/66°F

Friday, May 31, 2013

Nagano - Yudanaka: 33km (20mi), 45 min (train)

We take the train run by the Snow Monkey Nagano Electric Railway line (Dentetsu) to Yudanaka. We are going to see the wild macaques who hang around Yudanaka around a thermal spring. At the Yudanaka station we are approached by an elderly volunteer, who gives a brochure with the bus schedules and refers us to the counter where we can buy bus tickets. The bus drops us off at the stop Kambayashi Onsen. From there it is a half hour walk to Monkey Park. First a steep stretch of road, then a mildly rising path through the woods of the Jigokudani valley. It is a pleasant walk through nature. Along the way we see pictures of birds that live here, posted on the trees. The "park" has an entry fee of 500 yen. A sign warns that the monkeys are not always there. They are, after all, wild and do what they want. However, we soon see the first monkeys. They belong to a group of wild macaques, who lives here in the area at 850 meters altitude. They hang out mainly in and around a thermal bath, since they were here fed once by a hotel owner in the 1960s. There are a few dozen. In winter - a third of the year the area is covered in snow - they are mainly in the warm thermal natural pool, which is how they got their nickname Snow Monkeys. Now they most of them sit around the pool. They play and groom each other and are oblivious of the people. A lovely sight to watch. A few take a bath in the warm water. After half an hour we have seen it all and walk back to the main road. We eat in a small eatery, which specializes tempura and noodles. Then we walk to a bath or Onsen for a dip in a thermal rotemburo. An Onsen is a bath facility with a tub filled with hot water from a thermal source. The natural or landscaped tun is called a rotemburo. It is very quiet, we have the bath to ourselves. After a thorough wash and shower seated on a low stool, we step into the warm water and take a seat in the shade of an umbrella. Men and women are separated here too and this time the water is very hot. Up to 50°C (122°F). We dare not move. In the distance we see some snow-capped mountains. After the bath we take the bus back to Yudanaka and from there the express train to Nagano.  

In the evening we eat at Saya Gaya, near the hotel. There is no English menu, but the waiter was so kind toexplain things. Erik takes beef and I have a fish, which the waiter called Plouwe or something.  

Weather: Hot and sunny. In Yudanaka, in the mountains about 23°C/73°F degrees in Nagano 27°C/80°

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