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Tenkawa-mura – the river under heaven – is a village deep in the mountains of Nara prefecture. It’s south of Yoshino, and also is a staging post on the arduous Mount Omine pilgrimage.
Dorogawa hot spring
On a recent trip to Yoshino, a town in the south of Nara prefecture famous for its cherry blossoms, we managed to get to meet one of Japan’s ‘National Living Treasures’. Designated so because of their outstanding accomplishments in traditional arts and crafts, many are the from families that have carried on their profession down the generations.
We met Masayuki Fukunishi, who together with his father Hiroyuki Fukunishi (the National Living Treasure) run the Fukunishi Washi (Japanese paper) studio.
Fukunishi-san explained the process of making washi. From the growing of the plant, washing it, spreading out the pulp, and drying it using the old Yoshino method, on wooden boards.
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The Hongu-do trail is part of the network of trails known as the Kumano Kodo (Kumano Ancient Trail). It links the Grand Shrine of Kumano at Hongu with the sacred Ise shrine to the north.
Over three days I walked from Kumano city on the coast, through the remote mountains of Kumano to Hongu, and then finished off with a hike along the Nakahechi-do trail.
On the first day I passed an old couple preparing their paddy field for the planting. In some parts of Japan there are two plantings per year, and in some just one. As you might expect, there is a lot of manual labour involved in owning a rice field. First of all, there is the red tape. You can’t just grow rice, you need to have the correct paperwork. After that, there is a lot of maintenance throughout the year to keep it free of weeds, etc. Most people own rice paddies that are near to those of their neighbours, so if they don’t maintain them properly, it affects their neighbours too!
This trail is less walked and less well-known than the Nakahechi-do, so many locals asked where we were headed. They were always extremely polite and friendly.
From the coast we entered the mountainous Kumano forests. Small wayside shrines known as Oji are placed at regular spots.
The attention to detail is one thing I have always loved about Japan. Even the wood is neatly-stacked, almost like it will be entered into a design competition!
The terraced rice paddies at Maruyama are something special, and now a mini tourist spot in their own right. They were created over several hundred years.
The warm climate of Wakayama and Mie make it one of the best places in Japan to grow oranges or tangerines. Here they are being sold in a ‘mujin-hanbai’ stall (honesty box stall).
Kyoto is a wonderful place to eat, and the diversity of food is incredible. It’s probably one of the best places in Japan to be vegetarian, owing to the good number of vegetarian restaurants. Most regular restaurants still don’t have may vegetarian choices, however.
Outside the specialist vegetarian restaurants, the general understanding of what it is to be vegetarian is limited. They make think you can eat chicken and fish, and often do not take into account that many dishes in Japan are made with sauces combining fish with other ingredients, or pork. It’s odd, since eating vegetarian food was actually very common, based on Buddhist beliefs. If you visit a shukubo (temple lodging) today, you will normally be given vegetarian shojin cuisine. Indeed, beef has only been eaten in Japan since the middle of the 19th century.
A very well-known vegetarian restaurant in Kyoto is Café Proverbs 15:17.
Cafe Proverb 1517
Café Proverbs 15:17 is a very modern café restaurant located near Demachiyanagi station on the Keihan Railway. From the centre of the city (the Kawaramachi area), walking from Sanjo station along the Kamo River to Demachiyanagi takes about a 15-20 minutes and can be very relaxing.
The unusual name of the café derives from the Book of Proverbs Chapter 15 Verse 17 stating ‘Better a small serving of vegetables with love, than a fattened calf with hatred’. This passage is the motto of their restaurant. The restaurant uses only organic ingredients. Their menu consists of various fusion dishes combining Mexican, Chinese, Asian and Italian. The Soy Milk Ramen (Chinese noodles in soy milk soup) is a very popular menu and a must try dish at Proverbs. Some of their recent menus include cow’s milk, honey and cheese but vegan dishes are also available. During lunch time there is usually a line of people waiting so if you do decide to go an early lunch is recommended.
Walking the old historic trails of Japan is our passion, and we often escape the confines of our office to explore ‘new’ trails.
The Hagi-oukan (萩往還) is a 3-day trail that links the town of Hagi on the Japan Sea coast with Yamaguchi city and Hofu to its south. Hagi is somewhat off-the-beaten-track, on the coast but surrounded by mountains and off the main trade routes in Japan. The trail was used up until the Meiji period to link hagi with the city of Yamaguchi and the coast of the Seto Inland Sea where the main east-west trade route was located.
Suisen-an is a ryokan in a remote valley north of Kyoto. Run by a couple who left Osaka some ten years ago, it was at first a project to restore an old ‘kominka’ farm house before it became a ryokan.
The ryokan is now run exclusively as a ‘one group per night’ ryokan. In effect it is a private ryokan, catering to one group of people from one to eight per night. The price rises the fewer people, and there are 2 rooms used for guest accommodations. However you have the complete accommodation to yourself in the evening, once the owners have finished clearing away your evening meal and retired to their separate house.
The beautifully-restored building has a sweeping view over the valley below; rice fields and a few farm buildings stand against the forested mountains beyond, which catch the evening sun.
Said to be Japan’s oldest road, the Yamanobe-no-michi (literally ‘path beside the mountains’) is a trail skirting the hills along the eastern edge of the Nara plain. Within easy reach of Nara or Kyoto, the trail leads through small farming communities, agricultural land where rice, vegetables and strawberries are grown, past temples, and ancient burial mounds.
Historically, the large plain where Nara is situated, is very significant, being the site of the first of Japan’s permanent capitals such as Asuka and Nara itself.
Many of the sites along the Yamamobe-no-michi are associated with
the kojiki, 古事記, “Record of Ancient Matters”, which cover the events (or myths) of the founding of Japan. Written down in the 8th century, the kojiki form the basis for much of the native Shinto religion and are connected with the Imperial Family.
Asuka was the first capital of Japan during the very earliest part of Japan’s recorded history. It preceeded both Nara and Kyoto, and ended a period during when the seat of government was changed each year. 
Nachi, in Wakayama, is famous in Japan for its 133 metre high waterfall, and Nachi Grand Shrine. On the south-east coast of Wakayama Prefecture, in the Kii Peninsula, this whole area is steeped in myth and legend. Nachi is part of the Grand shrines of Kumano UNESCO-registered World Heritage site, and one of the Three Grand Shrines of Kumano, which deify the three mountains of Kumano. Now worshipped as part of esoteric Buddhism, the religious significance goes back to the pre-Buddhist period in Japan, when shintoism was the only religion. The difference between the two religions has become somewhat blurred. You may see pilgrims, dressed in white, making their way to Nachi- it is at the eastern end of the Nakahechi, of the ancient pilgrimage routes known as the Kumano kodo. If you are not arriving on foot, then the train from Osaka to Nachi is the logical alternative. The journey itself is dramatic; the train hugs the coast and you see the open Pacific as it laps at the rugged coastline and small villages. At Nachi, a bus takes you up the small road for 30 minutes to the shrine and the waterfall. In July, the famous Nachi Fire festival is held. 50kg torches made of pine branches are held and set on fire. The fire is meant to purify the mikoshi, portable shrines, that are carried by men up the stairs leading to the Nachi shrine itself. In the past, yamabushi, mountain ascetics, would come the waterfalls to undergo penance. They would immerse themselves in the icy water in winter, in an ordeal known as taki-gyo. (more…)
Takachiho in Miyazaki Prefecture. Takachiho is associated in Japan with the creation myths that are connected with the Japanese Imperial Family. According to these legends, the Imperial Family traces its roots back to the first recorded Emperor, Jimmu, who was born in Miyazaki, and set out on a voyage which eventually took him to Asuka near present-day Nara, where his burial mound now stands. For many Japanese, Miyazaki is the cradle of their civilisation, and you can find many sites throughout this part of eastern Kyushu that are associated with the myths. There seems to be some truth behind the legend of Jimmu’s voyage from Miyazaki, but Takachiho’s part is perhaps more difficult to prove. According to the Kojiki chronicles, Jimmu’s great-grandfather was the god Ninigi-no-mikoto, himself grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu-no-Omikami. Amaterasu is associated with Takachiho Gorge, in the famous Cave legend, where she went off to sulk in a cave after a prank by her brother. Being the sun-goddess, as she entered the cave the world was plunged into darkness. In order to tempt her out again and bring light back, another goddess named Uzume did a dance for the other gods outside the cave entrance. The curious Amaterasu peeped out and the cave door was shut quickly behind her.
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