Tuesday, 27 February 2007, 10.00 am JST
sotd: Move, Wanna Fly To Be Wild
cotd: RR5 Honda Elysion Prestige SZ
Despite having the best cellular phone handsets and some of the best cars in the world (two things which have undoubtedly consumed a lot of my attention in the last few years), sometimes I still wonder why I packed up and left the comforts and perfect tropical climate of home to settle my ass in Japan, what with its four seasons, ignorant people, and highly discriminatory social infrastructure.
Well, let me just put it out there that days like yesterday go great lengths to reaffirm my conviction that coming here is “worth it.”
After Sunday’s 2-hour-long graduation ceremony in the freezing school gymnasium which was basically just like a normal school assembly in format and rather like a funeral in appearance (really, we could try to pick a theme other than Men In Black), Monday brought 代休 (daikyu, the beloved “substitution holiday”) and the day that Taniguchi sensei and I would Go To Izushi.
At roughly 9:30, Taniguchi sensei picked me up in front of school (me having gone outside at 9:20 to get a drink from the vending machine), where we were immediately off to the Co-op confectionary to get some pastries for the Ido residence (and the inhabitants therein). At about 10:20, after some heavy fiddling with the Peugeot’s navigation system, we were off . . . to the north. The furthest north in Hyogo I’d been heretofore was Aogaki, and even then, it’s still part of Tamba. You can imagine how much I feared for my body warmth. Nevertheless, we made our way to Izushi Town in Toyooka City (兵庫県豊岡市出石町), where we finally arrived at the Ido residence (construction completed, August 2006) sometime before 12. After having coffee inside and me no longer wanting to go back to my crappy apartment, Ido sensei took the two of us to partake of Izushi’s most recognized export, 出石そば (Izushi soba), which is eaten in servings on small dishes and dipped into a sauce of egg, green onions, yamaimo (mountain potato), and shoyu, instead of the usual sauce, which is just shoyu. After this, we walked around the main part of town, which is a traditional 下町 (shitamachi, or town below the castle), and includes two famous highlights, the 辰鼓櫓 (Shinkorou, a famous Meiji-period clock tower, and either the first or second oldest of such clock towers in Japan), and 出石城 (Izushi Castle, the only authorized castle in the Tajima area after the one castle per area directive of 1615). After a short stopover at the Ido house, we were then off in the direction of Kinosaki Onsen (兵庫県豊岡市城崎町). Along the way, we tried to get into the Hyogo Prefectural Homeland for the Oriental White Stork (兵庫県立コウノトリの郷公園), but alas it was closed due to scares of bird flu. What storks have to do with chickens I know not, but oh well. Next time. Side note: the Oriental White Stork (コウノトリ) is also the official bird of Hyogo Prefecture. After this, we passed by and stopped at 玄武洞 (Genbudo, a natural cave formation along the side of the Maruyama River) and then finally headed for the hot springs.
Famous as it is, there is no one bath house called “Kinosaki Onsen.” Rather, it is simply the name of the area, with tons of individual bath houses scattered throughout the town. Kinosaki is simply the name of the town (formerly self-governing, it is now under administrative jurisdiction of Toyooka City, as a result of complicated mergers and dissolutions of districts, towns, and villages, a giant geographic and political reorganization process started a few years ago by Mr. Koizumi), and the bath houses are part of it. Anyway, I digress. We stepped into (though not back-to-back, for fear that we all might melt) 柳湯 and 一の湯, two of the more famous ones. (Though who really knows, they’re all famous, of course.) Emerging into the twilight of northern Hyogo sometime after 6, we left the car park, which at an astounding 200 yen for a major national tourist area almost gave me cause to faint, and were back to the 井戸家.
Once there, we were treated to a home-coooked (home-prepared, I guess) sukiyaki dinner, complete with Tajima’s other famous food, 但馬牛 (Tajima beef, which (trivia alert!) is actually the true name and origin of so-called Kobe beef). After stuffing ourselves full of prime meat and fresh vegetables and then cramming in the pastries I had bought in the morning, Taniguchi sensei and I were back off to Tamba, trying once again to navigate the reverse trip, only without light. We still managed to get back in about an hour.
And that concluded the best day in Japan in my recent memory. Next time, back to old news.
Let’s go back. I want to go to their house, too.