Nigel

Jul 19, 20245 min read

🧭 East of Tokyo 東京東部

2024年7月19日

Now I don't mind admitting it: I'm pretty hopeless at Kanji - those Chinese characters used in Japanese. But there is one which I know instantly, and that is ......

休

Yasumi

.....which means rest, day off, vacation etc....

It is a wet, warm day (The rainy season has not ended yet).........

（梅雨はまだ終わっていません）

It had started well with some 'cello practice. Misako-san had gone up into the attic and found a music stand for me (despite other members of my host family proclaiming that there was not one in the house!).......

ホストファミリーは屋根裏で譜面台を発見した

In the afternoon I was looking forward to meeting Emi-san and Taihei-sans` new baby boy, who is only a month old. But then I got the news - a friend of mine had rung to say that she had tested covid-positive. I had spent the whole day with her a few days ago, so the sensible thing was to cancel my "baby visit". Shame 😓.

友達がコロナに感染したので予定をキャンセルしなければなりませんでした。代わりに温泉に行くのはどうですか？

Well, let's do something positive shall we? How about going to that Onsen (bath house) which Misako-san was talking about yesterday? It's only two stops up the line at Kami-Hoshikawa. So off I went, armed with a fresh towel and a determination to really enjoy this. The place looked really good, with various types of baths and a nice restaurant. I alighted at Kami-Hoshikawa. And there it was, that well known kanji........休....

今日は運が悪い日だ...

It's a rare day off. We are closed. "I told you so but you didn't listen" said the cat who had been guarding the towels at home.....

This is not my lucky day. I almost thought of jumping into the river in desperation. You've got to remember that everybody here is walking around in a blanket of warm, wet air with a humidity of 100%.....sweating...

I noticed a nearby bicycle. It seemed to be being slowly recycled in a wave of luxurious weeds......

この自転車は自然によってリサイクルされている

Nature was taking over in this primordial soup.....

Ok. So let's go home. And now good things started to happen. As I sweated my way down the stairs to the railway platform I was delighted to see that I could sit down in a waiting room (take note Deutsche Bahn - what are those windswept things you are meant to sit on at Langen station....seats?).

A waiting room.

What was that? something you used to see as a child on the London Brighton & South Coast Railway. Amazing! And....what's more...it was air-conditioned....my luck is turning 💦!

ああ、なんて素晴らしい！駅のホームにエアコンの効いた待合室がある

Back home, a quick visit to the supermarket yielded some fresh sushi and a cold beer.......and there was still some home-made tomato soup on the stove...👍

このおやつは私の気分を高めてくれました

......and we musn't forget the cheery Ohayo ("hello") crème brulée......

Now my spirits revived. It can rain all it wants now for all I care.......

今はどれだけ雨が降っても気にしない

▷▷▷▷▷▷▷ ⟦ SCENE CHANGE ⟧ ▷▷▷▷▷▷▷

We are heading to Chiba Prefecture. To the little town of Sawara (佐原市), about 100km east of Tokyo. This little town was an important transport hub in the 19thc. and earlier, transporting rice shipments to Edo (Tokyo). And a lot of the old town has survived. Shops, warehouses and residences line the canal which runs through the town. It was a wealthy place.

And twice a year they have this big festival, once in summer, the other in autumn. To get there we boarded a special train at Tokyo Shinjuku station.....

Which whisked us in quiet comfort straight there......

passing through many a rice field enroute.....新宿から直通の佐原まつり特急に乗車

The heavy, damp heat seemed to have retreated a bit as we arrived. We followed the canal to the centre of town, passing several of the "Lucky Gods" ( しちふくじん七福神 )......on the way......

I noticed that a lot of the buildings were in their original shape - unravaged by fire or wartime bombing. The warehouses have very thick walls composed of clay set on a wooden frame. If you look at the windows you will see how thick these walls were....

厚い壁の倉庫

Sometimes a name or sign is to be seen.....

名前でしょうか?

Trees are carefully maintained along the roads.....

Inside the old shops, huge rough timbers - or whole tree trunks, are part of the construction...

(Today the shops sell a very interesting selection of craftwork, designs etc.).....

...looking up....

Want some Geisha sandals? here you go......

I saw very few foreign tourists. Maybe they were all in Kyoto. The odd loud American, yes, but the majority of visitors seem to come from not too far away. It had the feeling of a family event. At the Shinto shrine, the Yasaka Shrine, there was a pool for catching fish.......It's a classic at festivals, and has remained unchanged for decades....The children still love it. You can't hold a smartphone and catch fish at the same time....

........and children are still fascinated by a chamber of horrors. This little girl is just coming out. "Come , little sister....it wasn't real you know....."

恐怖の部屋。(それはおそらく良い翻訳ではない).

"aargh....!!!"

But the main attraction of this festival has to be the procession of ten huge floats which are pulled through the streets....Here is one - a Dashie　だし (山車)

Young children, boys, girls, adults and even old pensioners take part.......

幼い子供、男の子、女の子、大人、さらには年金受給者までもが参加します。

The streets were relatively clear in the afternoon. Many young people were wearing that light cotton version of the kimono - the Yukata. ゆかた. It must be the ideal thing to wear in this summer heat. Read on.....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukata