Final Japan report:
Owing to my not reading the guide book properly I missed out on the original samurai houses in Kanazawa, so that’s a good reason to return.
We went from Kanazawa to Tokyo by the Shinkansen (bullet train) which was exciting and we arrived in beautiful sunshine.
We were staying in the north, near Ueno Park, where the cherry blossom was out, so we popped along to see the blossom (one way system along a double avenue of trees) and the hordes of happy people, many sitting on huge tarpaulins under the trees having a picnic often involving sake. There were food stalls under the cherry trees in other parts of the park. It was quite an experience.
The following day it was tipping it down, so we went to the museum of Western Art also in Ueno Park, in order to see the “Vermeer” that’s there. (We are trying to see all the available Vermeers in their ‘home country’- we’ve done the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, and now Japan) I put it in inverted commas because whether it’s by Vermeer is “disputed”.
There was a wall of paintings that were definitely not the best works of the artists, but there were some lovely other paintings including a beautiful Klimt painting of water and a couple of gorgeous Laura Knights - of Cornwall.
To our delight, there was also for the first time in eight years an exhibition of the Museum’s full set of 46 first edition prints of Hokusai’s “36 views of Mount Fuji”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-six_Views_of_Mount_Fuji
including the famous “great wave“. I really love Japanese wood block prints (to quote the catalogue of an exhibition that’s on in Manchester at the moment Ukiyo-e — meaning “pictures of the floating world” — were colourful woodblock prints that captured scenes of travel, nature and popular culture during a time of peace and creativity in Japan’s history. From towering waves and rushing waterfalls to quiet roads and distant mountains, these works reveal moments of beauty, drama and movement that still feel strikingly modern today.) and had hoped to see a lot in Tokyo but this was actually my only opportunity, because every Museum that reported to have them seem to be closed. Still I now know that there’s an exhibition on Manchester so I might go to that!
I started to love Ukiyo-e after I’d started to follow this wonderful account on Twitter: https://x.com/japantracul?s=21
Another day, in the morning, it was raining again so we did a little light shopping for my son, in Shibuya, which has vibrant bits but where we were was a quiet area, with some very interesting shops. He bought some lovely shoes and raincoat that were made in Japan. The coat was by a brand called Nanamica, which seems to be owned by The North Face, and they do nice women’s clothes too. But I had bought a lot of clothes just before I went to Japan so all I bought for myself was a T shirt with an unusual deeply scalloped hem, in a department store. By the afternoon, that day the sun was out and we went to a pretty area with a canal, which had lots of cherry trees all out and lots of people strolling under them. Not as many as in Ueno Park. It was a very pleasant atmosphere.
We went all over, by train metro and on foot, including to Ginza which is where the big brands (yawn) are, but also there’s a well-known stationery shop on many floors there to which we paid homage - such lovely paper.
I must say in Japan I felt like I was back 20 or 30 years, in some ways because there are some lovely department stores with lots of choice, as well as some excellent small specialist shops. We also just walked around a lot, looking at places and visiting temples and gardens. There were some areas where there were lots and lots of huge skyscrapers, and elevated walkways, roads, and railways all crossing each other like in a children‘s comic from the 1960s showing the future, and then other areas where it was just two storey buildings on a human scale.
My son left after three days and then I was on my own. I went to an amazing place called teamLab planets, that is a hugely expanded version of the immersive installations that the Tate had recently by Yayoi Kusama. There was a huge room full of strings of LEDs that changed dramatically and was stunning, but there was also one where we had to wade through water and there were apparently Koi Carp and flowers in the water but it was actually just projections from the ceiling. There were so many things to see, including one installation where live orchids moved up and down as you moved so you were constantly surrounded by orchids. It was a fine example of using technology to create beautiful, imaginative and varied experiences.
One aspect of Japanese culture that I had been unaware of before I went is public baths/onsen, which originated with the thermal springs that are all over the country, and which inns/hotels are often built around, and lots of people soak together in hot, sometimes very hot, mineral water. These are onsen, but they are so popular that even if there is no thermal Spring, there are now ‘public baths’ where the water is heated separately. There was a public bath in our hotel in Kyoto and it was glorious to be able to relax there after a hard day’s sightseeing. I found a proper Onsen in Tokyo, which turned out to be a. a wonderfully relaxing place and b. located in the middle of an entertainment complex which included an enormous big dipper and water dipper - right in the centre of Tokyo.
These are only a few of the things I experienced. It really was a very interesting and enjoyable holiday, and all the people we met were lovely - some really went out of their way, and I would love to go back.