- Shibata,Murakami Area
- Niigata,Aga Area
- Nagaoka,Kashiwazaki Area
- Uonuma,Yuzawa Area
- Joetsu,Myoko Area
- Sado Area
[ Travel report 7 ] Claytonian's Blog 20091218
Update:2010.04.02
Day 1:
As I detailed in yesterday's video, I'm in Niigata as of this morning, blogging on assignment. I'll be making plenty of YouTube vids of the experience later, but for the time being, here's some pics.
Our first day was spent around Niigata city. They have a tourism site in English here.
Shortly after arriving via shinkansen, I met my chaperon (a guy who's a salary-man usually) as well as my fellow blogger in arms (a German woman who writes freelance travel articles).
After dropping our bags off in the hotel in Niigata city, we headed out to the Northern Cultural Museum [map, vids and pics][website]. It is actually what remains of the estate of the once powerful Ito family. At one point, the land they owned could have contained 300 Tokyo Domes, but eventually a land reform act forced them to downsize.
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Here's the view from the entrance to the grounds.
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While there, we ate at the in-house restaurant, Misogura. The meal included Niigata rice, which is famed for its taste. I have to agree that it is pretty good. It was also pretty fresh batch. Quite a change from my usual conbini rice.
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This is a huge rice cooker from way back in the prime of the estate, when the staff and family ate about 50 pounds of rice a day.
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This pic is from later, when we were in Shibata city [map] nearby. A number of stores were participating in a campaign where, for 500 yen, one can purchase a cup and get it filled five times with nihonshu, another local specialty (you just need to find stores with the pretty rabbit sitting on the moon). Speaking of which...
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This a pic from a distillery. Until the mid 40s, it was forbidden for women to go through this sort of gate (note the Shinto touches), due to the holy nature of the area. Even now, it is only the men that offer nihonshu to the gods.
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This is a pic of hyōko [map], a lake where birds come for the winter. The giant swans and smaller birds battle it out for food. I got some good video footage of the feeding frenzy to upload later.
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Finally, this is a small part of the spread from dinner at a fish restaurant [link]. I caught one of the fish myself later in the in-house pond.
Niigata is pretty cool so far. See you tomorrow!
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Day 2:
My joyful assignment to travel and blog around Niigata continues...
I can already tell that this trip is going to make me get fat if I'm not careful. There is so much food we've tried. Luckily today's first stop was to a senbei (rice cracker) place, and such things probably don't have too many calories.
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Rice? Better put some vinegar in it and make sushi!
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Well, it's time for sleep. I must leave the Nikko hotel [map] tomorrow to travel to Sado island. Maybe I'll run into Jenkins (a guy that once defected to North Korea)!
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Day 3:
My commissioned trip took me and my companions across the Sea of Japan to Sado Island today.
Sado is an island not too far from Niigata city, and famed for its gold mines. That's where we spent most of the day, but first we stopped at the Crested Ibis preserve in the Toki Forest Park [map] [ja website].
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This is a stuffed one; the live ones were a bit removed to protect their endangered nervous hearts, but I got some video and binocular views of them. The thing about ibises (of the nipponia nippon variety, called 朱鷺 [toki] in Japanese) is that they are very rare these days. So this place, the Toki Museum, is one of the few places you can see them.
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We had a brief lunch at a small soba shop called tontonsaka (とんとん坂 [map]). It had kamosoba, which is a kind of soba which you mix the boiled noodle water with the sauce after you eat the noodles. The cool thing about the owners is that they are farmers who grow most of their ingredients themselves. Speaking of farms, most of Sado--which is a considerably large and densely populated island--looks a lot like normal inaka (countryside) in Japan, but the houses seem bigger and older. Sado has a long rich history after all. And when I say rich, I can't help but think of gold. More on that later, but first was Myosenji (妙宣寺) [map].
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This is the gate to Myosenji . There are many pieces of paper adhered to it. They act as both a sort of "dudes, I totally helped build this" marker, as well as a purifier of the heart. Don't question it! Demons out in the name of Taro Construction inc.!
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This is a view from inside the grounds. There is a five story pagoda and a former castle/current temple in this huge area too, but I dug the straw-roofed structure the most. The inside was blackened from years of soot.
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Kodomo-tencho (子供店長) visited the straw-roofed place too, as these photos attest. You can see plenty of him on YouTube if you search.
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Our next stop was the 金山 (kinzan, gold mines) [map] [website]. See that cleft in the mountains?
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It's quite an interesting collection of 廃墟 (haikyo, ruins) and tunnels, only unlike regular haikyo, you can legally explore some parts.
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This veinly-looking thing is an old map of the mines, which started in the 1600s and were once among the top mines in the world. In total, they produced about 78 metric tons, or one short tour guide's height cubed, but the gold is just too deep to be dug nowadays.
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They held masked Shinto ceremonies whenever a new vein of gold was found. I confirmed that there is a relation between these masks an Hakata masks in Kyushu. No word if one of these priests became the first tokusatsu hero.
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If a mine tour didn't end with a yuzu (a citrus) and gold-laced, hot drink, I would be outraged. Luckily, they anticipated my need to line the toilet bowl with gold flakes.
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Day 4:
Today started in Sado too [website].
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Last night made for quite a feast at the Ohsado Hotel & Onsen [map][website]. It was outdone, I feel, in terms of pure luxuriousness, by tonight's hotel/onsen, Yamaki [map][ja website]. Above is Ohsado's spread, but below...
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Is Yamaki's luxurious feast. However, Yamaki is probably haunted. I mean, the halls are deserted (it is the off season) and have a The Shining type of feeling, the phone is rotary and probably rings in that creepy way that rotaries do, and my pillow appeared while I was at dinner. Oh well, it's a small price to pay to take a bath while viewing the ocean.
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Our day started with going along the coast and spotting odd rocks that have been carved by the sea.
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We ended up at an awesome location [map]. Apparently a famous movie was shot there, and I can see why. The sea was a brilliant blend of blues. Truly this was aquamarine!
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After playing with the fish at the aquarium, we hopped in a tub and paddled around. As you do.
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Nearby, we spotted a bridge that I think is famous. Or maybe I am thinking of another bridge. EDIT: yeah, this is totally the bridge that appears on posters. It looks best from a distance surrounded by tub-women.
The water was great here too.
We stopped at what looked like a temple, but was a rebuilt place where important gold-trade dudes used to held court.
Literally, they held court. I was sentenced to die for bad blog jokes. Didn't learn my lesson.
As befits a rainy day on the coast, we next went to a small town that had been around for ages and incorporated ships into its buildings [map]. Just around the corner, we saw this:
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We saw this ship in the village museum [map]. It's built the old fashioned way, and boarded it to experience the cramped life of a sailor. There was an attached museum section that held Saga (a prefecture in Kyushu) pottery the ships had brought in days bygone. As a former Sagaite, I squealed at the sight. We Sagaites get that way.
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We ended with panning for gold at the Gold Park [map] and I found 8 flakes of gold and had them saved in a card.
Sado is brilliant. I want to be a tour guide here someday... Just gotta find a permanent residency visa first.
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Day 5:
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I was so happy to wake up to snow this morning. For you see, Niigata is the yukiguni (snow country), and needs frozen precipitation.
But I had to bid farewell to Sado and its haunted hotels with doting servants for the mainland once again.
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As I crossed the sea and gazed upon the undulating beauty of the waves, I felt something that I like to think is akin to what Hokusai felt when he made The Great Wave, though I was on the wrong side of Japan.
We headed to a new city, Sanjyou [map], and were greeted by a new guide. For the past few days we've had older taxi drivers as defacto guides, so it was nice to have a pretty young lady guide us around today. Ow! I just felt the wrath of my gf.
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So first we went to Honjyouji [map] [website], a temple that rivals the best that Kyoto has to offer. The monk that guided us around what kind enough to let us in holy areas that people aren't normally allowed in.
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For instance, we got to encounter and pet cow statues, carved by my new favorite artist (Ishikawa Unchou, see day seven for pics that do him justice) in a back room. He is buried here too.
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We had lunch at a local ramen place. Curry ramen is all the rage around here, so we had that. The funny thing is, I unknowingly invented the same thing a few weeks ago, but the restaurant does it better. I noticed that the noodles were eggier and the curry sweeter than normal and remarked so to our guide. Later the cook came by and mentioned these qualities. Our pretty guide related my observances of these very qualities, much to his surprise. I'm on my way to being a bi-gurume (b [weird] -rank gourmet)! Here's a map with tons of curry ramen places.
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We stopped by a local... Uh... Nailry? Nail-beatery? Something like that. Anyways, I made two nails. We watched the old men there start a knife--one of the products this town, Sanjyo, is known for. I guess that makes it a knife-beatery as well. The town does copper-goods too.
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Tonight's feast beat even the extravagance of old haunted onsen land. Tonight's place, an onsen named Minoya [map] in a village removed from Sanjyo by distance and mountains, also wins due to the karaoke rooms. If you want to practice some of the songs I sung tonight, just find the karaoke link at the top-right of this blog's sidebar.
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Day 6:
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The phrase 海の幸、山の幸 (umi no sachi, yama no sachi) has crossed my mind a lot this week. It may translate as "the happiness of the sea and blessings of the mountains." 幸 is a character used in 幸せ (shiawase, happiness) and other felicitous words.
What comprises the happiness? Seafood. And the blessings? Veggies, mostly. Whatever food you can gather from either, really. I have also heard 海の幸山の恵み (umi no sachi yama no megumi), meaning the same thing as far as I know.
Niigata is covered in this happiness, but you know, there can be too much of a good thing. I and my companions have been eating the best that Niigata has to offer every day, and our tongues need to taste things besides fish.
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We ended the night with simple yakitory in a dingy bar that is older than the war. After all, to appreciate the finer things in life, sometimes you have skip them.
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Day 7:
Goodbye, Nagaoka, we hardly knew ye. Hello, Echigo! What have you got for us?
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Oh, just the most badass artist ever. Ishikawa Unchō (石川雲蝶) was a guy that didn't let having the character for butterfly in his name tarnish his image. The dude liked his drinking, gambling, and women, so the temple Eirinji, known as a gambling temple at the time, was perfect for him. Don't ask me why there was a gamling temple. Above is a detail of a warrior taking down a 化けた (baketa, twisted and changed) dragon. Hell yeah. This guy's work makes me want to live in this town. Best day of the trip. This one was at Eirinji temple [map][translatorized website].
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Here are some of his Oshikawa's women. The guide-monk said Unchou liked his women sakura-pink, but all his carvings were white.
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There are also a few spooky stories he depicted for the Kaisandō at Saifukuji temple [map][ja website]. He filled the whole place with masterpieces. I took lots of video to lavish upon you later.
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Then a short train ride later we were in the town and ski resort of Yuzawa [map]. The snow is a bit lacking as of yet; give it a few. The hotel, Naspa New Otani, is pretty fancy. Like, I feel like a ski preppy, and need a ski underdog to pick on fancy.
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Before we ran out of daylight, we made tracks to Untoan temple [map].
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It lacked the cool carvings and paintings of the others in many respects, but made up for that with moss. I'm a mossophile, and the environs gave me a total mossgasm.
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Moss!
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Untoan is a perfect place to practice zen meditation. This is the zazen room.
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We ran into the traditional media again back at Yuzawa station, but this time they weren't content with filming pretty girls in the snow this time. No, they were there to film us.
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Here I act for the local news with a drunken mascot, as one must. The Yuzawa station has a sake-tasting store in its new shopping center, so the statues are there to be like, dude, you know what's around the corner *hic*. They sell 96 Niigata brands.
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And then later a stop at a onsen/cafe/hotel on the shopping street, just outside the station. Look at the knockers on our table!
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Finally, a fancy French meal back at the hotel. Quite a good contrast to the washoku (Japanese style meal) feasts of the past week (nice though they were). Snowboarding death tomorrow! Goodnight.
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Forgive the delay on the last day; I didn't take many pics with my iPhone on this day, and so had to get them from my camcorder. Plus, I wanted a little suspense about whether or not I survived snowboarding.
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I knew that if it finally properly snowed, my boarding fate was sealed. We woke up to a white Christmas at the Naspa resort [map], then headed to the Gala ski grounds [map][website]. Both are in Yuzawa, the setting of the famous novel Snow Country.
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This is a shinkansen ticket gate right in the Gala building. For about 20,000 yen, you can make a quick package deal journey, with train and ski tickets together, to Gala from Tokyo in a very short amount of time. So if you weather permits, like mine did, you can zip right up to Yuzawa.
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I was actually a bit anxious because I haven't boarded since I was a gangly teenager. But now I am a gangly man, and a blogger for hire, so I did my duty and went up that mountain. That beautiful, murderous mountain.
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But you know what? I did good! I managed two runs without falling that morning! A snow storm came along while I was between runs and provided us with some wicked powder to help too.
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After a hard day of boarding, enjoying seaweed-laced soba is a nice reward.
Soon, I will be making videos. Actually, one is rendered and scheduled to be uploaded today. But I hope theses posts come to be of use to people out there that are thinking of going to Niigata. As for me, I want to live in the Echigo area near Yuzawa now!