The View from the Towers 塔からの眺め A web log by Nigel Ruddock of life in Germany as an expat, with excursions to Japan and the UK.

Tag: asia

  • Japan Flashback : 📮Nostalgia なつかし

    Late April 2025 年4月

    Warning! This is a long read. You may need two cups of coffee….

    Random Notes: Do you chew your toothbrush? don’t. You never know what you might be eating…..

    歯ブラシを噛まないでください！

    Do you like fermented Natto for breakfast?  (er….no)  Grab the offer whilst it lasts….

    納豆は好きですか？

    Same day service.  Mr. Quick-san will fix it…..

    Quick-san. Hodogaya. 自転車の修理

    Saw these in Ena city – best described as “container hotels” !?

    エナの小さなホテル

    Need  a nostalgic TV to fit into your bag?

    🌏

    It was seven years ago when I made my first trip to Japan⛩️.  I did it the hard way – alone, and determined to practise the language. As I don’t like tourist spots I decided to stay in an ordinary town in Gifu Prefecture. It had an interesting river gorge nearby. Ena  (恵那市).

    Nobody had heard of it, and when I mention it to my Japanese friends now I always get this quizzical look, like “where’s that?” or “why would you want to go there?”.

    Never be put off by a railway station. Even on the Chuo Line……

    恵那駅

    And never be put off by “significant delays”. In Japan this means the train might be 3 mins. late or something. But don’t mess with earthquakes. Get the earthquake app.

    It was a unnerving but eye-opening experience 🤔 (I mean the trip in 2018, not the significant delays): The shock of entering the breakfast room of the hotel to see everyone tucking into noodles, fried fish, salads and goodness knows what else; the sense of achievement in borrowing an old bicycle from the local bike shop (no bike apps then) and sailing off on two wheels 🚲 down a country lane without an internet connection.

    So this year I decided to revisit the scene of my former adventures. Even using the same hotel.

    私が初めて日本を訪れたのは7年前のことでした⛩️. そこで今年は、冒険の舞台となった岐阜県恵那市にある同じホテルを再び訪れることにしました。

    The hotel has been smartened up a bit, but there are still no cereals for breakfast, and I had to ask for butter (what a wimp!) . The view from the room has not changed – a “western” clothing store sign….

    素晴らしい景色

    But how much more relaxed I feel, with some command of the language! I even find the bike store. The couple who run it are pleased to hear that I was a former customer, and point out the dog, who is now snoozing in the corner. The guy gives me an old but perfectly good 3-gear town bike and charges me 300 yen for the afternoon. That is about 1.85 Euros. Taking the same route as I did in 2018, I head for the Ena gorge and its dam. I am seeing so much more this time, not being worried about getting lost or making some faux-pas or other.

    A rural postbox…..

    田舎の郵便ポスト…..

    The route to the dam….

    恵那ダムへのルート

    It has been an unusually dry spring here, so the water levels are low on the Kiso river.

    水位が低い

    A pause to think thoughts….💭

    考え

    Years ago, when I first started doing calligraphy classes in Germany with Rena Kato, one of the first characters she taught us was this:

    石

    it’s a simple character, so I recognise it immediately here on this sign. Stones.

    危険

    Being in red, the warning of falling stones is a little disconcerting. Further on I discover the remains of the old suspension bridge crossing the Kiso river. That was 1907.

    木曽川にかかる古い橋

    In 1926 they built the dam, then much more recently: this road bridge. Confident and inspiring…..What about that for a nice piece of civil engineering…….take note GdLL 🙂.

    素敵な新しい橋

    On the subject of engineering, there are impressive road improvements underway nearby…….

    日本のエンジニアリング

    Riding back past a screen of bamboo…..

    竹の壁

    This is hot work. I park the bike and take a well-earned slug of green tea……

    一時停止

    They don’t seem to sell postcards here any longer. So on the way home I am denied the fun of slipping one into this postbox……(“Greetings from the paddy fields of Gifu Prefecture. Wish you were here……”)

    ここではポストカードを売っていません。残念です。

    The next day I board a local train to get to the start of my planned hike. But first it’s time to charge my transport card. The platform machine quite clearly displays the notice: 1.000 yen only. As if 1.000 yen would get me very far. Oh what the. I’ll stuff a 10.000 yen note in and see what happens…….

    ナイジェルはミスを犯す

    Naughty Nigel!  A red light flashes🚨 and a piercing alarm goes off. Out of a nearby door a uniformed station master pops like a jack-in-the-box 💥 Boing 👨‍✈️ !

    With a degree of self-assurance which I never had before I just say “don’t worry – I just put the wrong note into the machine….”. But he has to open the machine, type a code in and clang the thing shut before peace can then descend on Ena station. Honestly. These foreigners.

    I have to alight at a place called Nakatsugawa, where a bus takes me up into the mountains……..

    “Welcome to Natsugawa” is written in a local dialect. Better not tread on it…..😂

    行きます!

    Off we go. It’s a local bus, but it is modern, comfortable and air-conditioned with, I noticed,  UV protective glass. It goes without saying that the windows are crystal clean. Not a spec.

    We wind up into the hills, getting higher and higher, until at least we grind to a halt at Magome- juku. This little town has retained much of its Edo-era charm, however it feels a bit sanitized. There is no horse dung in the street, the loos are automatic and there are no prostitutes in the back alleys. But it is still a hotch potch of wooden houses and shops clutching to a steep winding street. It was a post town on the Nakasendo – the trade route built by the feudal lords in the 18thc. The Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868). “Nakasendo”  – it sort of rolls off the tongue, conjuring up a wild mountain pathway in the age of the Samurai. Haha. Today it’s mostly tourists. But it is fantastic.

    馬籠宿。中山道

    There was another route down in the plains called the Tokaido. But this one, as its name suggests, went over the mountains. But it wasn’t just a road. It spawned a cultural phenomena. Artists arrived to draw it – The famous woodcblock illustrator Utagawa Hiroshige, for example. In his prints you see labourers struggling along with huge loads, and the occasional daimyō  (feudal lord) on horseback. The surface of the road was mostly stone slabs, which must have made it hard work in wet weather (a bit like the Appian way in Rome). This print rather romanticizes the whole thing.

    歌川広重

    It’s all very picturesque (かいがてき  絵画的). Somehow these mountain villages avoided the Japanese post-War economic boom and subsequent construction mania. Power lines have been hidden. However, there are strict rules for residents. Even if a historic building is decaying and you as a foreigner offer to restore it, you will face immense bureacratic hurdles.

    素敵。でも、きれいすぎる

    I pass a colourful field of clover further up the hill,

    クローバー畑

    a Buddha or two to help you on your way…..🙏

    仏

    The trek is easy for me, with my modern hiking boots, bottle of green tea and iphone in the rucksack….

    著者

    Soon I had left the village behind me. Along the way some eccentric local was actually inviting people to come into their garden…..

    ニース 🙂

    Where whimsical things abounded…..

    offerings invited….

    I climbed up higher into the forest towards the boundary of Gifu and Nagano Prefectures. Those cedars….phew!

    中山道の杉

    Those bears……(you ring this to warn them off)…

    🐻!

    Ocasionally the modern road bisects the path. The mirror is there to help you. Except that this one was totally opaque. I’m sure Hermione Granger would have known the spell…….

    Those flowers. It’s as if a god has picked up several National Trust Gardens in the UK and scattered them around the mountains here. Of course in history it was the other way around.

    ….cherries are still blooming up here (the’ve long since disappeared from Tokyo)

    in so many varieties….

    …this looks like a wild orchid…..

    …and then, just after the Magome pass…(which is actually not very dramatic)….

    790 metres

    …. those waterfalls…..there are two quite near each other…

    Medake Falls

    Odake Falls

    It was a hot day. Needless to say, the cool water was delightfully refreshing…..

    素敵な冷たい水

    The route is not really a wild hike and is always clearly marked.

    Japanese families with their teenagers were ambling along in what looked like nothing more than town shoes. I met a father sitting on a rock, mopping his brow. He said his wife and daughter were faster than him………I think he had been persuaded to come, and would have preferred to be on the sofa at home watching baseball….

    🔩

    I often see a pride and fascination with all things mechanical here in Japan. As I left Ena in the morning I had passed a monumental steam engine parked outside the library……

    Then later in the day whilst walking I discovered this strange foot-operated machine. I hope one of my violinmaking colleagues  (Paul? John?) can work out what it did. I couldn’t….

    これは何ですか？

    And later on at the end of the trail, after I had passed through Tsumago en route to Nagiso station, there was another steam engine. An even bigger one this time…….just sitting there.

    南木曽駅。帰りの電車。

    The notice explains…………

    蒸気動力

    Back to the Nakasendo. They “do” decay well here. There was no hope of a coffee at this establishment….left to rot in the woods…..

    ここにはコーヒーはありません…

    メールもなし

    About 9km later I entered the post town of Tsumago. Could almost be a film set. Except that it is genuine. An elegant family drift by…..

    This has been a long post, but there is so much to write about! I will leave you in a Japanese lane…….

    As always, thank you for reading, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do send it on.

    読んでくれてありがとう

    See you……. matane!

    Nigel 🖋️

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com.

    https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

    THE END 　終わる

    Oh, just a few more buddhas to send you on your way…..

    THE END 　終わる

  • Japan Flashback ⭕ Circle Line 名古屋

    This is the third in a series of posts which was previously hosted by WIX, a server based in Tel Aviv which has been the subject of an international boycott.

    April 25th 2025年4月25日

    As you can see below, the city of Nagoya has a very convenient circular metro line. Easy-peasy. Like in Tokyo or London, it’s the line for lost tourists. It has a clockwise service, and an anti-clockwise service (called the counter-clockwise service in American).

    Wow, this is easy I thought, and hopped on. Ah no, Nigel. Just to keep tourists alert, the line sometimes branches off….and of course that’s what happened to me. I branched off. To the port of Nagoya. It wasn’t painful, and I did get to where I wanted in the end. The end being a famous Shinto shrine called Atsuta Jingu (at about 7 o’clock on that purple line). Now there will be no carry-on there, understand?

    もう一つの翻訳の失敗

    Bad translations here are a constant form of amusement (or irritation) for me. I was using Nagoya as a convenient jumping off point for the Nakasendo, an old 18thc. road that runs through the mountains.

    But before going into the mountains there was time for sightseeing and a concert. I had picked up the Karlsruhe Musikhochschule link and was going to hear Maine Takeda (soprano) sing in the Aichi Arts Centre. Three other prizewinners were also performing.

    As I approached the ticket desk and gave my name, a certain ripple of worry seem to flit across the face of the elderly man in charge. But the moment was saved by the stage manager, who recognised my name and led me up personally to my seat (not before he had primed the seat attendant to look after me….). So it was that I was able to sit back and enjoy Maine-san sing two songs from Mahler’s Das Knaben Wunderhorn; Handel’s “Lascia ch’io pianga”; an aria from The Marriage of Figaro “Deh, vieni, non tarda” and “Nun eilt herbei” from Carl Nicolai. Very enjoyable. And, as is so often the case in Japan, in a smart new concert hall with excellent acoustics.

    Emerging from the concert hall, I meet Nagoya gleaming in the night……

    …..and discover the Sakae area the next day…….

    Sakae 栄 Centre

    As it’s pretty flat, lots of people use bikes here. And there are handy bike lock zones – this one outside the NHK  broadcasting house……

    名古屋で自転車を駐輪する方法

    This how you do it…..easy when you know how…..😉

    名古屋の自転車駐車場システム

    Nagoya is the home of many of Japan’s big names – Toyota and Kawai  to name just two. But I am neither going to buy a car nor a piano. No, not even this one…..

    名古屋の自転車駐車場システム ( 😂 )

    I had a tip to follow – to that 7 o’clock on the metro map. Quite a trek to get there, but Nagoya is big.

    The Atsuta shrine is one of Shinto’s most important shrines. And it’s huge. Big enough to warrant it’s own metro station….

    It enshrines the Sun Goddess Amaterasu and stores the sacred sword Kusanagi – part of the imperial regalia. So in I tread with awe, bowing my head and clapping once under the huge Tori gate.

    最初の鳥居

    The vast complex of shrines are set in a thickly wooded park, so I often have to refer to the maps to orientate myself. The atmosphere is calm, the weather benign. Young couples wander hand in hand; a mother guides her little girl along. The child is more interested in making patterns in the gravel than paying obeisance to the gods. Quite understandable. A group of middle-aged women chatter away from under their sun hats. It’s a Sunday afternoon stroll after all, gods and all. Cameras are clicking 📷…..

    And however secular society may seem in Japan, Shintoism and Buddhism sit naturally in daily life. There is no fuss about it. No hang ups. At the shrine office (Juyo-sho) it is obvious what is on offer here – an ideal wedding venue.

    理想的な結婚式の場所

    It costs of course, but every young couple want the perfect photo-op don’t they?

    I’m not expecting to actually see anything at the shrine. There will be a set of closed doors and that’s it. But that’s not the point. You can’t see gods anyway, and it’s up to you how you manage them.

    神社の正面 Hongu Main Sanctuary

    It’s advisable to have time when you come to a place like this. None of that “be back at the coach in 1 hour” business. Oh no. I turned left and right in the shady woods, never knowing what to expect…….although I was aware of a restaurant behind the trees. What is this dish they are serving? Let’s try it…..

    きし麺 😋

    OMG. Seriously now. I cannot remember when I tasted such a delicious meal…..it’s called Kishimen, the kanji translating as something like “Go stone noodle” (the noodle used to be shaped like the stone in the game Go).These thick flat noodles seem to catch the flavour of the soup and…well…I think the gods were smiling down at me…..

    Thoroughly revived by this simple but intensely satisfying meal, I sat on a bench and took in the scene…….

    That’s what these gardens are for. For slowing down and contemplating. Under Shintoism, everything has a spiritual dimension: the rocks, the trees, even the cars…..

    This old camphor tree has the Shimenawa (rope) wrapped around it for ritual purification, and is decorated with Shide (paper streamers) to demarcate it as a holy place and to ward off evil spirits…..

    What a tree!

    標縄/注連縄

    Some of the trees here look as if they could have inspired Hayao Miyazaki for one of his Ghibli films…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki.

    Around one corner the chief priest had parked his car (well, he probably had it parked for him)…..hmmm….Well, we are in Toyota’s homeland here. In fact I would not be surprised if the car was donated by the company. A goodwill offering if you like.

    祭司長の車ですか？

    An architectural curiosity here…heavy stone slabs have been used to support (?) or relay (?) the downward thrust of this hall’s roof….

    興味深い建築技術

    Before I left I noticed these Sake barrels………

    酒

     and a nice piece of modern craftmanship on the door of a smaller shrine…

    Even today, the Japanese entrust their prayers for health, love or good exam results to small ema (votive plaques). This an old one which I saw in the Yokohama Museum…a wish for good breastfeeding….the gods are represented by a small cloud…..

    Here in the Atsuta shrine someone had left a prayer…..“may the white bird carry my wish…..” or words to that effect….

    goodbye Nagoya…..

    名古屋 さようなら

    I’m now off to the mountains of Gifu…….🥾….sayonara…..

    As always, thank you for reading, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do send it on.

    読んでくれてありがとう

    See you……. matane!

    Nigel 🖋️

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com.

  • Japan Flashback 🚅 Sendai 仙台

    12th April 2025年4月12日

    Sendai is about 360 km north of Tokyo – that’s about 21/2 hours with the Tohoku Shinkansen (bullet train). First, I give myself plenty of time to navigate Tokyo station………..

    忙しい旅行者。東京駅

     and find my platform……..

    私の電車はどこですか？

    A Shinkansen glides in smoothly……..

    新幹線が到着する

    The smartly dressed cleaners are ready with rubbish bags (holding them out to passengers as they disembark). One has a small hoover. Announcements are made. A civilised queue waits on the platform. When I think of Frankfurt Station….no…don’t..

    If you are not sure which is your train just get on the one which is going at the time published. It will be the right one….

    印象的な

    A cool wind greets me as I step out of the train at Sendai a few hours later.  I walk to my hotel, crossing the bus lanes and other traffic on high overhead pedestrian bridges. I’m not good at heights, but the hotel 8th floor is bearabIe. It could be worse……..

    仙台のホテル

    It’s only early afternoon, so I decide to walk to the castle (or what’s left of it)…..It was a stiff climb, but well worth it……

    仙台城

    At the top, Masamune Date, the powerful feudal lord of Sendai, glares out imperiously over the countryside and the sea….

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_Masamune

    He chose a good site for his castle, I must say…..

    街の素晴らしい景色

    Add a few early blossoms and he doesn’t look quite so fierce…..

    東京より遅い開花

    At important historical sites in Japan you will often see these great cedars – more of them anon….

    大きな杉

    Sendai is not really a tourist destination, but the place is a-buzz. Come evening and the Izakayas (pubs) and restaurants are heaving with young people eating, drinking, talking animately and laughing. Whilst outside the buses and taxis and cars seem to weave past on a sort of smooth wave……..

    仙台の夜

    A shopping mall…..

    The next day I used the circular bus route which links most of the historical sites around the city. The old feudal lords of Japan always found good spots to be laid to rest ( a prime example is the last Shogun’s -Tokugawa Ieyasu – shrine in Nikko, Tochigi ). The lord of the Tohoku region was no exception – Masamune Date. His mausoleum – the Zuihoden, originally built in 1636,  is a blaze of extravangant colour unlike anywhere else in Japan. You start first with a modest temple in a small garden….

    From here it’s a steep climb up to the mausoleum itself…..(the more important the ruler, the tougher the climb. Well that’s my experience).

    You pass the Nirvana gateway (as all good Buddhists know, Nirvana means reaching a state of enlightenment where worldly desires are no longer an issue and you escape the cycle of birth and rebirth)………..

    The mausoleum – front view

    藩主の瑞鳳殿

    派手な色彩

    The adjoining museum, which has relics of the pre -1945 original…….

    It may disappoint Europeans to learn that this whole complex is actually a replica of the original. But this doesn’t seem to worry the Japanese. There are colour postcards of the place pre -1945, and it looks exactly the same. Obviously the Americans wanted to destroy the port of Sendai, but fire bombing a 17thc. historical site, way outside the city?

    Leaving the precincts of the areal I took a woodland walk back down the hill.

    私は丘を下って森の中を散歩しました。

    At one point I came across a graveyard for children of the ruling classes….

    貴族の子女の墓地

    …. some of these cedars are about 380 years old….

    杉の樹齢は約380年です

    Before I had left for Sendai there was a job I had to do. I have a little friend who has just discovered the joys of pulling a bow across a string. But she is still not yet 3 years old! So did I have a violin small enough for her? As luck would have it, yes –  and it was easy to smuggle it into the overhead locker on the plane. Time to do a delivery in Sagamihara…

    Making someone happy. Is that not one of the greatest joys there is?

    幸福 🙂

    Meiko-chan was soon grabbing the bow – none of that beginners’ pizzicato for her….

    最初のステップ

    …and her brother was not to be left out…giving me a cheeky smile across the table…..

    小さな波

    Of course you soon end up on the floor….

    Kotaro-chan

    音楽一家

    As always, thank you for reading, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do send it on.

    音楽一家 🎶

    ~

    読んでくれてありがとう

    See you……. matane!

    Nigel 🖋️

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com.

    https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

    THE END 　終わる

  • Japan Flashback 🌸 Hodogaya &  Sumida 保土ヶ谷, 墨田

    7th April 2025 年4月7日

    There is an expression here (in Germany)…..”mir fällt die Decke auf den Kopf ” (lit. The roof is falling on my head )……😣….in other words, I need to get out of my little town – now  💨 So…………………

    off we go……..Two stops to Dreiech-Buchschlag station, then a bus to the airport…..

    空港に行く

    I’ve found a new route to go east. First go to Copenhagen and then get on an SAS flight. I’d never used SAS before, but was impressed. The aircraft was new and the crew were a friendly bunch with a very Danish sense of humour……

    SAS

    The food was excellent. However, I had to ask my fellow passenger what an upcycled  banana was……. (apparently, instead of throwing away brown bananas, the Danes put them in cakes- an excellent idea).

    「アップサイクル」は私にとって新しい言葉です

    We “lost” a night, and caught up with the dawn somewhere over China……

    …avoiding Russian airspace on the way….

    Japan was rather cold and damp on arrival, but that at least meant that the cherry blossoms and camelias were somehow more intense in colour than usual.

    星川

    カメリア

    My home base is always with the Kanakura family in Hodogaya Ward, just outside Yokohama. After I had complimented my host on the new tatami mats in the guest room, I wandered into town to do some shopping and get a simple meal. The local department store did the trick….some tasty mackerel in dark sauce…very yummy and as usual far too cheap for the quality….

    イオンでの簡単な食事

    Aeon department store…

    It seems you never have to go far in Japan before you meet some little surprise or other.  I smiled to myself when I came scross this little mini in a parking lot….

    有名なイギリス車…..

    Quite apart from it being a shining collector’s item, the Mini is ideal for Japanese cities….and what a nice colour……

    I have never seen any tourists in Hodogaya, except for the students who stay at Misako- san’s house. The Katabira river separates the area in two, and has a nice promenade running down one side. There are no crowds here, so you can enjoy the cherry blossoms in peace…..

     …whilst of course taking advantage of the numerous eating places en route. Like this Ramen shop, for example……..uncomplicated and good…..cabbage and bean sprouts in a yummy soup…..

    天王町の美味しいラーメン

    …….free water is a given, as well as lots of sauces to pep up your Ramen if you feel the need….

    The street is a classic Japanese side street with lots on offer….(not only food…er…..)….

    天王町

    Nice to see my feline friends again……

    4匹の猫のうち2匹だけ

    So what’s new in Hodogaya? Well, more houses are being ingeniously squeezed onto the hillside….

    巧妙な日本の建築

    …..although odd relics of post-war housing still exist…..

    古い家

    …and house renovation firms are busy……

    仕事がたくさんある

    And whether it is a kindergarten play session, a baseball practice or old folk playing a sort of croquet, there is always something happenening in the local park…..

    峰岡公園

    Apropos baseball (野球 yakyu)……..in a local sports shop……

    野球

    There is peace to be found up the hill at the local Buddhist temple……

    Koeisan Hossho Temple

    光栄山法性寺

    Around town.……The well known delivery service Kuroneko (black cat)

    ……Greetings from the Yokohama City Fire Dept.

    It’s hard to describe, but everybody seems uplifted by the appearance of the cherry blossoms……….

    Later in the week, when I had recovered from my jet-lag  jisaboke  時差ぼけ, I meet up with my Sensei (teacher) in Tokyo. First we went up to a 32nd floor to a view point next to the Tokyo Skytree. Here you can look down on the Sumida district and further……

    A short walk brings us to the Sakura Bridge Bashi  ( featured in the film Perfect Days https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzZBbX5A1FA )

    ..and a stroll down the banks of the River Sumida, where people are enjoying themselves. It is a very Japanese scene.

    にほんぽい

    There is no loud music or commercials; but picknicking, walking, talking and eating……a nice vibe…..Hanami  花見

    花見

    😋

    The names of sponsoring firms are tastefully displayed on the lanterns…..

    The author……feeling good…..!

    良い気分

    Later on we end up in a seafood Izakaya near Shinbashi station. Without Miki-san I would have had my work cut out ordering food…….

    Sashimi – oysters, squid, octopus, yellowtail, tuna…..with tempura on the side (battered pumpkin, leek and shrimp)

    刺身 – 牡蠣、イカ、タコ、ハマチ、マグロ…天ぷら（カボチャ、ネギ、エビ）

    I think we need a close-up……

    Delicious 😋 (except for the baby squid, which I still cannot manage, even after several years).

    Some Sake is essential after such a meal…..

    Shinbashi……simply countless eating places….

    新橋

    As always, thank you for reading, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do send it on.

    読んでくれてありがとう

    See you……. matane!

    Nigel 🖋️

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com.

    https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

    THE END 　終わる