Phase 4: Ootsu

Monday we woke up at a reasonable hour. Having eaten the last of the pop tarts the previous morning we opted to grab something from the local 7-11. Yes, even in Ritto there’s a 7-11 every 5 feet. “Oh thank heaven.” Sparks bought a box of “Doughnuts” and we both got something to drink. We sat outside Tehara station and ate our very sweet breakfast. (The Japanese like to copy and improve things. Doughnuts didn’t need improvement). One finished we boarded the train and headed to Ootsu.

There’s a rather famous Japanese animated film called Ruroni Kenshin which is a fictional account of a samurai at the end of the Edo period. In the film the main character, chasing after his lover who has been kidnapped says “Let’s go to Ootsu” in a delirious state as he follows the kidnappers path. I wondered why the creators used Ootsu as a place you’d want to run away to. Now I know.

Getting off the train and finding a map of the city, we decided to walk in the direction of the lake Biwa shore. Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan. It’s no a Lake Michigan, but it is fairly large. It seems that the street we chose was the Bar district. All the shops here were closed (it being still early in the day.)

Several blocks down hill walk later we arrived on the shoreline. Unlike the day before the sky on Monday was overcast and it seemed as though it would rain. Unlike Saturday, however, we came prepared and brought our umbrellas. We walked along the lake for a while, watching the fishermen and the families picnicking. A bit later it did begin raining. Not a downpour, just enough to be annoying.

We found the Ootsu concert hall which had a very nice overlook. From there we saw “the Michigan” an old paddle boat that ferries people around the lake. Leaving the hall, we found the main Ootsu post office. On a map near the post office I noticed a building labeled Prefectural Martial Art Gymnasium which looked cool so we headed in that direction.

Further down the shore we came upon the building we were seeking. It didn’t look all that open, but the doors weren’t locked so we went in. We removed our shoes and followed the sound of clanging metal into the depths of the building. Turns out what we heard was the janitorial staff sweeping the stairs. But, having gone up a floor we found something incredibly awesome.

So, I knew Japanese archery was a martial art… I have never seen it practiced in real life before. I have to day I was totally blown away. Having taken archery as a class at Michigan Tech I know how hard it is to hit a target with a recumbent (Standard) bow at 10 meters. These kids were using Japanese (non-recumbent) bows and hitting targets up to 60 meters away. The rangers were situated on the roof so that the main part of the range was open air. We sat on the save side of a glass paneled wall and watched the short-range practice for a while. Some of the students took notice and soon they all came out and rushed out to greet us. We said hi and complemented them on their skills. After they went back to practicing we got up and walked around a bit more. The next thing we found was even more amazing than the archery.

On the floor above the archery ranges was a large room with hardwood floors. Nifty, no? Okay how about adding 25 people wielding katanas doing Ieado (similar to Kendo but with… katanas). This we stood and watched until the session was complete. The all of the students here were adults. There was a panel of people in suits in the front of the room. Given this and the (very) little I know about Japanese martial arts, I think we may have been witness to a ranking session (where you test to go up in rank). I’m not 100% though. Regardless it was fun to watch. After it was done Sparks went to the information booth by the front door and got some information about how to perhaps join and take some classes.

Still in shock as to the people with swords behind us we walked to and down the main drag. We got to a large mall like building we went in to see what was what. We stopped at Tower Records and Sparks got a CD he was looking for. Another floor up we found a food court.

“Oh,” you say, “they had lunch at a food court. Nothing special,” right? Actually food courts are a rarity in Japan. Even the big malls in Shinjuku have separate restaurants on a floor instead of a food court. As with all things, the food court was copied and improved. Because most of the food takes several minutes to prepare fresh, when you order you get a beeper. When the beeper goes off, your food is read. Gotta love Japanese ingenuity.

Lunch being over we next headed to a “temple district” that we spotted on a map. After some wandering around we found a temple like building. Inside we were shanghaied into paying a couple yen for and impromptu tour. It turns out this temple was quite old and build for the sake of one of Buddhism’s top dogs. Leaving and turning left we ran into this.

Evidently the first temple was the tiny tip of the mammoth iceberg. The Miidera Temple complex is evidently one of the four biggest temples in Japan and is originally dated to around 672a.d. We did our usual temple check out routine and visited the main hall which was under construction but still accessible. Next we saw the library which had all sorts of old books and records stores basically in open air (thought inside a structure.) From the library we found the pagoda on the grounds. It was a pagoda-tastic weekend.

We then proceeded to climb up YET ANOTHER mountain. This one was a bit smaller and had a very interesting new graveyard half way up. I paused and sat a while whilst Sparks checked out the surrounding area. We then pressed on to another part of the complex. After climbing a slight grade and a set of steps we found (to our dismay) that we had in fact, not knowing it, climbed to the top of another mountain. The point here provided some very nice photos of Ootsu and a soda machine quenched thirst. Once we were done looking around a very steep set of back stairs let us exit without retracing our steps.

When we left the temple complex we immediately entered a covered shopping street. Most of the shops were closed but it was still nice to have the cover of the roof over our heads (as it had been spitting rain on and off all day). As a final stop we found the Ootsu regional courthouse which was alright. Kind of post modern. City Hall next door had a very nice neo-colonial styling and a big cupola on top. Still having some time left we took the easy way out and had dinner in the station McD’s.

Sparks rode with me to Kyoto station and we parted ways at the Shinkansen transfer gate. I ducked outside real quick and got a shot of Kyoto Tower at night before going to my platform.

The return trip was uneventful other than that I got the little bit of homework had for the weekend done.

Since returning most of my time has been spent in class or writing this beast of a post. I just returned from my Wednesday night Kendo practice and am writing the end here. 10 pages in MS Word (without pictures) wow, surely the biggest update I’ve ever done. Hope you enjoyed reading about my trip as at least half as much as I enjoyed going on it. I also hope I didn’t leave anything out... Until next time...

Ja Mata Ne.