The Beauty of Bizen

Now, finally, we arrived at Kurashiki, Okayama prefecture. The city is not far from Bizen district.

Kurashiki is designated as a aesthetic area. Many old, traditional buildings are preserved as a national heritage. I’ll show you some pictures of Kurashiki.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The style of this white wall is called “Namako-kabe” (”Wall of Sea Cucumber”), which is unique to Okayama prefecture.

 

 

 

 

And these are my favorite shop specializing in Bizen pottery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bought some Bizen stoneware at those shops. Here are two of my collection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second one is called Tehineri Bizen. The potter of this work didn’t use a wheel to make the cup; instead, it was made only by hand.

 

And also, Ohara musium is located in this area. It contains many famous works of pictures, ceramics, and sculptures created by both domestic and foreign artists.

 

 

 

 

And this is the end of my trip. I focused on traditional arts and history of Japan, as well as Bizen pottery in this trip. I was surprised at the fact that so many old buildings and artworks still remains in Japan. Next time, I really want to go Bizen district to visit some famous potters and see their works.

 

 

As I introduced before, Himeji once flourished as a castle town. Because the central power was once back to the emperor in 1868 and gradually the country had became a democratic society, the warriors were practically extinct at this time. This is one reason of decline of Himeji.

However, there is a world treasure, Himeji castle (often called White Heron castle). Many tourists visit this place through the year. To me, it was the first time to visit Himeji so that I was really excited.

Here are some pictures that I took at White Heron castle.

I cannot believe that the castle was built over 670 years ago. Both the inside and outside of the castle have been restored frequently.

 

This is a view from the donjon of the castle. The fish-shaped thing is called “Shachi-hoko.” I don’t know what it means, but all of the Japanese castle has this stuff at the top of the castle.

Not only the foreign-style buildings, there also many old temples and shrines.

 

The picture above shows the entrance of a shrine called “Kitano Tenmangu.”

This is a shrine called “Minatogawa.” It’s one of the biggest shrines in southern Japan.

Inside the entrance, there is a big main building.

By the way, there is a Chinatown in Kobe. This is one of pictures that I took in the Chinatown, and many Chinese people live in this place. Chinese culture has been greatly influenced the scenery of Kobe.

On the third day, we moved from Kyoto to Kobe by train. And the picture below shows New Kobe station. It’s a harbor town so that many buildings were affected by foreign cultures. The city is really close to Kyoto, but the cultural backgrounds are quite different. It’s rather similar to my hometown, Yokohama.

Here are some pictures of old, foreign-style houses in a district called Ijingai. These buildings were build several hundred years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are some antique shops in the city of Kobe, and you can find many stuff in relatively low prices. One of my favorite place is shown in the picture below. The shop handles various kinds of pottery.

 

 

 

The night view at a harbor was so beautiful.

 

 

 

 

This is called Kobe Port Tower.

Next day, we went other parts of the city of Kyoto. Fisrt, we got on a tram.　This tram is operated only for tourists.

 

Inside the tram

 

The final destination where thousands of bamboo are planted is also popular for tourists. It seems to me that many Japanese love silence and nature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At night, we went back near the hotel and went a restaurant. The restaurant is located in a street called “Ponto-cho.” We ate meals called “Kaiseki.” It’s a Japanese version of full-course dinner, which was formerly a strictly vegetarian meal for Zen buddhists. It’s really expensive (actually we spent $200 only for dinner) but the service and time as well as the meal was really graceful.

 

 

This is appetizer. I forgot to take pictures of other dishes, because I was so impressed and kept eating…

 

 

This is a small alley in Ponto-cho.

On the first day, I and my friend went to Kyoto by Shinkansen. This is inside the Shinkansen. The picture shows one of my favorite thing called “Ekiben.” An Ekiben is a boxed meal sold at stations and on trains. Each station has its own unique meal, and this is really popular in Japan. The history of Ekiben dates back to the late 19th century.

(Continued)

This is not directly related to my trip, but first, I’d like to introduce my hometown, Yokohama.

Yokohama is the capital city of Kanagawa prefecture, which is located south to the Tokyo. Facing Pacific Ocean, the city was historically one of the important entrances for foreign countries. There are over 3.6 million people living in the city, and it is Japan’s largest city after Tokyo.

 

 

 

This is a picture of a building called Land Mark Tower, one of the popular places where people go shopping or go restaurants.

And the building on the center is Intercontinental Yokohama Hotel, built next to Land Mark Tower.

Near these places, there is the Yokohama Musium and a huge park.

And subways and other kinds of train stations are close to the musium. These are super express trains called Shinkansen, and my trip began with a Shinkansen Nozomi. I took a train at Yokohama, and first went to Kyoto.