Japan in July

Top 10 things to do in Japan in July

Well, we're finally finished the amazing trip and can think about the highlights.

Everyone has a top ten and I think this is mine although it's very hard to choose and it's in no particular order:

1. Staying at a ryokan in Koya-san and visiting okunoin: Beautiful scenery and an amazing buddhist cemetary. It is hard to convey what a fantastic experience this is, especially if you stay in a temple ryokan and go to morning prayer. It's unlike anything you will do in the West.

2. The red torii at Inari: these gates are on lots of postcards but have to be seen to be believed. It's a (less than a) day trip from Kyoto. For info on how to get there, click here.

3. The Todaiji Temple at Nara: a day trip from Kyoto with one of the largest wooden structures in the world and 1200+ deer roaming the gardens. It's just fabulous.

4. Be waited on as a "master" at a maid cafe in Akihabara, Tokyo: one of the weirdest things you can possibly do in Japan. Not for the faint hearted.

5. Go to a really good izakaya: in Tokyo, I highly recommend Gonpachi (Nishi-Azabu, book ahead), Yui-an in Shinjuku or Bistro 35 Steps in Shibuya. In Kyoto, we loved Bamboo Bar and Bistro Zuzu but seriously wherever you are, just ask around or google and find a good one.

6. Some sort of bath or onsen: if you can get to a traditional onsen, then do it. If you can just try a public bath or a bath at a traditional hotel, then take the opportunity. Just work out where you are going to be staying and google. For etiquettetips, click here.

7. Sumo wrestling: it's not on all year round but if you're lucky enough to be in Japan for a championship then do whatever you have to, to get there. This online service is great for organising tickets in advance from outside Japan.

8. A day of shrines and temples in Kyoto including the Golden Pavillion.

9. Lunch, dinner or a drink at the New York Bar and Grill at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo. This is where some of the scenes in Lost In Translation were filmed and it is utterly perfect with a remarkable view of Tokyo. A drink will set you back regular top end hotel drink prices (although there's a cover charge after 8pm). Lunch is around 6,600 yen which is a great splurge really for a appetizer and dessert buffet plus a la carte main. Park Hyatt is easy to find in Nishi Shinjuku but be sure to book ahead if you want a table by the window- 5323-3458 (or check website for more info).

10. This is cheating a bit because it's a catch all but ... Crazy shopping in Tokyo - Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku: wherever is convenient. Just get the subway and soak up the amazingness.

Japanese people like construction so much, they make it arty

This was in front of a worksite near the Imperial Palace.

Nagoya = Sumo

We were all really excited about making our way to Nagoya for the sumo.

We had arranged tickets through an online service (BuySumoTickets) which delivered them to our hotel. Brilliant. It's normally quite tricky to arrange tickets but these were happily waiting for us when we arrived at the Royal Park Inn Nagoya.

We hotfooted it straight to the sumo.

There is A LOT going on in a sumo match. If you're interested in the rules, click here. Basically, two enormous guys face off against each other, stare each other down, then try to slam each other out of a small ring.

Of course it's not that simple at all. The stare down is very complicated and can go on for minutes, there's throwing of salt (if the wrestlers are senior enough to earn this privilege), the referees sing the wrestlers names, there's grappling with the wrestlers loin cloth (mawashi), there's washing of faces, there's the bout and the eventual declaration of the winner by the referee pointing a fan at him. And that's if the five judges don't get called in to adjudicate.

Here's some footage from the start of the juryo section (the second to top) when the various wrestlers walk in and do a routine with their aprons:

It is utterly compelling and we sat from noon until 5pm almost without a break just watching the craziness.

We were particularly keen to see Harumafuji who is thought to be just about to qualify as the top grade of sumo (yokozuno). He won the bout that we saw him in although he lost the next couple so he may not win the tournament and won't go up the level.

The foreign sumos (such as Harumafuji who is Mongolian) are quite controversial from time to time and for a while, the Sumo association froze the entry of foreigners. The various wrestlers (foreign and Japanese) have different reputations for example for showing emotion/having elaborate preparation routines (Takamisakari), and doing crazy stuff off the field in mode of AFL footballer (Asashoryu).

This is a sport I would definitely like to see on Foxtel. As usual, Coke is a sponsor:

Miyajima

Today we went to Miyajima which is an island on the inland sea of Japan where these famous torii (or Shinto gates) are the located along with a host of aggressive deers. Yes, you read that right.

There are signs up saying that the residential deers (by which they mean "domesticated" and for the record I don't know either of those words in Japanese so who am I to judge?) should not be fed or petted because they need to learn how to survive in the wild. Clearly the deers had not read the signs as they tried to eat Alex's t-shirt then his er, tackle before hunting me down like Arnold Shwarzenegger in the original Terminator movie.

This was a boon for Jess whose deer dislike I have already documented as it was (1) amusing and (2) distracted the attention of the deers away from her.

Anyway.

We all felt that apart from the torii, which are a lot smaller than we expected them to be, the island was a bit of a dud, until we hit the main shopping drag which is filled with all sorts of knick knack shops and street foods.

I had a black sesame soft serve and these terrific little cakes called manju which are shaped like a maple leaf for which Miyajima is famous. Here is a random stranger who has helpfully filmed them being made on miyajima and her eating them.

We saw a guy wearing this t-shirt:

...and we saw the world's largest rice paddle. Alex tried to do one of those shots where it looks like he is holding the paddle but I didn't understand so gave him the thumbs up and it now looks pretty odd.

Alex had a baked oyster which was wrong town.

And one of the souvenir shops had a whole lot of very wrong cat toys. This another example of the strange tension in this country between classy, understated, contemplative gardens/people and incredibly noisy and wacky kitsch which I don't think I will every fully understand but I adore:

Benesse Art site Naoshima

Just heard from a friend that a must see while in Japan is the Benesse Art Site at Naoshima - a small island in the South of Japan.

Borrowing text from Metropolis:

You could hate contemporary art and still love Naoshima. It's a romantic destination in Japan's version of the Mediterranean-a lush island with crescents of coarse sand lapped by the transparent-green Seto Inland Sea.

For art fans it's even better. Perched high on a southern cape looking across the water to Shikoku is the Benesse House Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum. Cai Guo-Qiang's Cultural Melting Bath (1998) exemplifies the mood. The interactive installation-a Jacuzzi surrounded by Chinese limestone boulders set in a seaside forest-is perfect for watching the sun set behind the distant Seto Ohashi Bridge.

There are no bridges to Naoshima. The journey into art paradise starts with a short ferry ride, a liquid buffer between harried city and island calm. You wind past small islets and through a narrow channel to arrive at a village. A 15-minute bus ride later, you reach the museum complex.

There's a Flickr series here.

To get there: from JR Okayama station in Okayama we take the JR Uno line to Uno Satation.  From here walk 2 minutes to Uno Port. Take the Skikoku Kisen Ferry to Naoshima Miyanoura Port. From the port take the Naoshima town bus to Bennesse House: Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum.

See also http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/naoshima/index.htm and the official site which is very arty.