The Inaka

What's the "inaka" [e-NA-ka] ?  That would be the word for "countryside" in Japanese.  As in a rural area where life is slow and the nights are quiet (well, except for the frogs).  I live in the inaka. 

And if you find yourself in the inaka there is a great website devoted to cataloging all the small-town sights you might otherwise miss.  The Inaka Project is a picture-heavy travel guide website, in English, that focuses on small town sights, restaurants, onsens and festivals.  There isn't one author, there are many, contributing from all over Japan.  I highly recommend you check it out and contribute if you live here.

P.S.  If you look hard, you might see an article or two with a familiar byline. :)

Japan's Castles

(I think it's been a month again.  <sigh>  I always hate it when bloggers slack off.)

So when you think about castles, ruined or otherwise, you probably think about Europe.  They've got all the castles, right?  Well, as it turns out, they do not.

Japan is literally covered in ancient castles.  You may recall us visiting one in Okinawa in 2011.   I mentioned a quasi-castle in my last post.  There are so many castles that there is one about 15 minutes from my house (close to the children's park I blogged about here).  Is there a castle 15 minutes from your house?  I doubt it.

My local castle is called Kanayama and is in ruins.  It was constructed on a mountaintop in 1469 by one Iwamatsu Iezumi.  It was attacked a lot in the 1500's but stood strong until it was "decommissioned" in 1590, whatever that means. It's a national historic site and one of the more famous castles in this region of Japan.  In person it's an interesting area to walk around, very nicely maintained and popular for walkers/joggers. 

this reflection pond is part of the remnants of
a rather massive irrigation system

you can't really tell, but just past that sign is a really deep ditch.  it was
designed for invading samurai armies to fall into when they charged the mountain.

there are lots of informative sign maps, all in Japanese

the irrigation system

at the top of the mountain, no idea who it is

mostly, it's a lot of stone walls

For more on Japan's castles there is a great website called J-Castle that maintains a really thorough database of them all.  I hope to visit a few more before our time here is up!

The Temple of Bannaji

A couple of weeks ago I drove over to Ashikaga to document Bannaji Temple.  Bannaji is adjacent to the Ashikaga Gakko, which I visited last spring.  I just recently learned that it's technically considered a Japanese castle (you can find it listed as Ashikagashi Yakata), although I think the term "fortified samurai residence" is more apt.  It is surrounded by a very castle-y moat with some particularly voracious carp.  It dates to the mid-1100's (have I mentioned that stuff here is really old?) and is a national historic site.




the temple main walk and main hall

not sure what this is....maybe the library?

a really old, really big gingko tree



the moat



they follow you, snapping
their jaws ominously
 



and some statuary



the bell tower

 



The area around Bannaji and the Gakko is interesting because it's kind of like an old town square.  The streets are cobblestone (poor Cora nearly got her little brains rattled out in her stroller) and there are lots of interesting (read: international) restaurants and little shops.  There are also one way streets--- I learned this the hard way by going down one the wrong way and having a little old lady on a bicycle waggle her finger at me.  When we were there it was a little hot and buggy but I really enjoy walking around that part of Ashikaga--it's very picturesque.  It's what I wish all of rural Japan looked like.  Maybe one day I'll go back and just take photos of the streets around the area.