The Everything Japan Thread

On my bucket list , a place i always wanted to see.

 

Just avoid summer, the humidity is pretty grim. April and late September is nice weather (like a UK summer) although October tends to be typhoon season! And be prepared for an earthquake, I felt 20 in six months, they're * scary at first but you do get used to them and the buildings are constructed very well. Apart from that... Do it!

 

How much was accommodation? This is normally the thing that costs a lot on the journey? Did you do the JR rail pass?

 

All in I spent £2000 on accommodation. Didn’t use the JR pass. Got the shinkansen from Osaka to Hiroshima and Fukuoka. Flew from Fukuoka to Tokyo and from Tokyo to Osaka.

 

Yeah it's the pricey one. Sounds great though!

 

It was great. Went for nicer places so could easily have done it cheaper.

 

This clip is taken from Samurai Champloo Episode 20 (Elegy of Entrapment).

Description from http://www.spookhouse.net/angelynx/co...

The piece Sara sings and refers to is called "Kuzunoha no kowakare" ("Kuzunoha's Child Separation"), a very long song/recitation created by the famous performer Matsuzaka Saimon.

Kuzunoha was a kitsune, a fox who took human form, and in the guise of a maiden (in some versions a princess), married Abe no Yasuna, a twelfth-century nobleman who had saved the fox from hunters. Kuzunoha bore him a child, who would become the future famous astrologer and onmyouji Abe no Seimei.

Ultimately Kuzunoha was compelled by various circumstances (depending on the version of the dramatization or legend) to reclaim her fox nature and return to her natural home in Shinoda Forest. So with unbearable sadness she abandoned her husband and son, after writing a famous farewell poem on which the song is based.

The poem may be read as:"Koishiku ba / tazunekite miyo / izumi naru / shinoda no mori no / urami kuzunoha" ("If you long to love me, / Search for me in / Shinoda Forest, Izumi Province / with regret, Kuzunoha.").

There is also a pun between her name 'Kuzunoha' and 'kudzu no ha', the "kuzu leaf" (arrowroot) that grows in the Shinoda forest, which is referenced by Anime-Forever in their sub of the episode. --

The recording used in the series is sung by Tsukioka Yukiko, who studied the recordings of the "last of the Goze'", Haru Kobayashi and Shizu Sugimoto, and even traveled a pilgrimage of all 88 temples of Shikoku island to understand the harsh life of the traveling performers.

 

Visited Shirahige waterfall in central Hokkaido today. The water is so blue pics don’t do it justice.

 

Heading back in May for the third time, but first in 9 years. Finishing in Seoul for 3 nights as we saved £400 each by flying back from Korea instead. The KIX to Seoul flight was £50.

Doing Osaka, Tokyo, Fujikawaguchiko, Okayama, and Kyoto, with a couple of day trips to Himeji and Kobe.

My wife has never been so I'm retreading old ground for parts, while trying to fit in some new places.

 

Got an incredible restaurant recommendation for Kyoto if you like unagi. Had one of the best meals of my life here: https://www.yondaimekikukawa.com/

 

Wife finally retires next year so she decided that she will treat me to a holiday in Japan for 3 weeks including a trip to Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix

 

You utter *!

Very nice!

 

Great..I need to go back myself!

 

Oooooh! Nicey!

 

Changed my itinerary to do Takayama / Kanazawa and some time in Izu. Both of which I’ve never been to before.

From what I’ve seen Kyoto is ridiculously crowded these days and I’ve been before myself so cut our stay there to a couple of days. Would quite like to get off the beaten track a bit this time (hence the Izu plans).