DRAGONFLY SUMMERS

One of the things I love about summer and autumn  in Japan is the dragonflies. There are so many different kinds here. Sky blue dragonflies hover over the rice fields. You can see smaller dragonflies with gorgeous metallic green bodies and black wings swooping over flowing water. Less common but  still often seen are red and brown dragonflies, and occasionally a large striped dragonfly. The Japanese word for dragonfly is Tombo.

JAPAN - LAND OF THE TETRA BLOCK

There is far too much concrete in Japan. Houses old and new often have the tiny portion of land they stand on concreted over so that there is not a scrap of exposed earth anywhere. Those with time and inclination then opt for container gardening. Empty land is concreted for car parking. In times of heavy rainfall the city shrugs off the water and carries it away in vast concrete gutters and ditches (some of which are a real hazard to pedestrians and cyclists!)

World famous Japanese architect Tadao Ando designed beautiful concrete buildings, but sadly most concrete buildings (there are lots!) were designed by much less talented people. They overshadow and dwarf the traditional wooden machiyas and temples of Kyoto. Concrete may not rot but it has much greater capacity for ugliness than any other building material I know.

Some rivers flow underground in the cities while people and cars pass above them, and many other rivers flow along paved beds between cement lined walls, both in the city and populated parts of the countryside. Perhaps it's for flood control. An untamed river can do a lot of damage.

Speaking of damage, concrete has also been widely used to stabilize slopes and prevent mud or rock slides. New Zealand's hill suburbs and mountain roads are also vulnerable to slides, and concrete has been used to stabilize slopes in New Zealand too, but there's more in Japan.

Akashi

Then there's the coastlines. I traveled to view the wild Akashi shore mentioned in Tale of Genji, but it has been concreted over. Such portions of the coast not given over to ports for shipping Japan's products abroad have  bleak concrete walls and promenades extending for miles and miles, and breakwaters marring the ocean view. I assume the breakwaters are for protection against typhoons and tsunamis.

Naruto

At Naruto, famous for whirlpools, sweet potatoes and small onions a long sandy beach once popular with surfers has also been given the tetra block treatment. At huge expense too - my friend told me each single tetra block cost hundreds of thousands of yen. Never mind - the sweet potatoes and onions are much safer now.

Miyajima

Perhaps they should consider giving Miyajima the tetra block treatment. Beautiful Itsukushima shrine was badly damaged by a typhoon a few years ago. Surely such a national treasure deserves the same protection as sweet potato farms?





You can also see the ubiquitous tetra block lining the shores of Lake Biwa in Takashima not far from Biwako's own floating torii. I wonder why? Is the shoreline subject to erosion by the lake water?

Lake Biwa in Takashima

Between the tetra blocks I can see pale yellow sand. At first I thought it might have blown there from a pretty sandy beach attached to a camping ground just down the road (where they charge 10,000 yen a night for tiny cabins, and 2,500 yen for tent sites! I wonder if they have hot water showers. The other camping ground I stayed at in Japan did not! But I digress...) I think the sand must be natural because I saw the same kind of sand in riverbeds that flowed into the lake, and also on stretches of coast that don't seem to have been touched by progress yet.

But after all, what does it matter if all Japan's beautiful beaches become distant memories? The population of Japan has very little leisure time anyway, and has been well trained to use what little they have in support of lucrative leisure and tourism industries. If they ever want to go to a beach, there's always Guam or Hawaii.

Shirokawa as it flows in to Kyoto City

BEATING THE HEAT

It's been a hot HOT summer here in Japan. Daytime temperatures of 35 degrees, and nights that don't drop below 30 degrees. I sit in my room with my air conditioner blasting out expensive cold air and think longingly of winter. When I have to go out I am drenched in sweat within 20 minutes. People will tell you that Kyoto is so hot and humid in summer (and freezing in winter) because it's situated in a valley surrounded by hills. But in my opinion the REAL problem is all the concrete and asphalt soaking up the sun and throwing the heat back out. And all the air conditioners blowing hot air outside. Plus the lack of trees and shade, and green areas in general. And the dreadful practice of covering flowing water with concrete. I notice that when I ride my bicyle over Keage hill I can feel cool air flowing out every time I ride over one of the gratings in the path. It's coming from water flowing under the sidewalk. At least once a week I ride along Lake Biwa Canal, and even on the most stifling day it's bearable because of the combination of flowing water and shade from trees. So I believe that nature has solutions to help us live with hot weather.

Hozukyo Bridge & Station

If you live in Kyoto there's a summer paradise just one stop past Arashiyama on JR Saga Line. There's a beautiful mountain stream called Nanaogawa. It's the perfect place to get away from the city for a day, have a picnic or a barbecue, swim in the cool waterholes and soak up the scenery. It's also a fabulous spot for a riverside hike in Autumn.

Turn right here...

along the road...

I last went there in mid-August with a Japanese friend. By subway and train it took about 30 minutes, then a walk of about 20 minutes to the river. We took a picnic. My friend sunbathed on the rocks while I waded in the shade. There were other people there, but it was not crowded. Maybe it never is.

And lucky me - a can of beer came floating downstream. Since nobody seemed to be looking for it I thanked the river, and enjoyed the beer.

down this path...

go through 2 tunnels...

Paradise found!

CHILD-DRIVEN EDUCATION

I just watched an incredible video. As an educator it seems obvious to me that the systems we have (schools, teachers, text-books, examinations, etc) are not very efficient. These systems exclude whole socio-economic groups. They damage or destroy children's interest and creativity. They waste time and resources. It's not that they don't produce any good results, but they do it so haphazardly and unreliably. We absolutely should be looking for a better way, and Sugata Mitra has been doing just that with his research.
Check this out!
http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html

TURTLES OF NARA

In Nara there is a pond called Sarusawa-no-ike. It's the first point of interest on the tourist walking route from station to Nara Park (with the deer and the temple with the huge buddha.) For me the attraction of this pond is it's inhabitants. It is home to lots of turtles. Go there on a fine day and you will see logs in the pond crowded with sunbathers. I was there on a very hot day and there were even more turtles swimming in the murky olive water. Here are some of my photos. Check out the shot of the turtle and shrimp swimming side by side! Friendship or dinner?

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MONUMENT TO ANCIENT ATROCITIES

Near Kyoto Museum stands Toyokuni Shrine, the official tomb of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He is the guy who first unified Japan back in the 1500s. He's the guy who built Osaka Castle. He's the guy who banned Christianity in Japan and had twenty-six christians crucified in Nagasaki. He's also the guy who ordered Tea Master Sen-no-Rikyu to commit suicide.

He also instigated two ill-fated invasions of Korea (his ultimate plan included domination of Asia.) And just down the road from Toyokuni Shrine is a small monument called Mimizuka. The story, as told to me by my friend and guide, is that while fighting in Korea Samurai hero General Kiyomasa Kato had his soldiers collect ears and noses of the Koreans they killed, which were then pickled in brine and carried back to Hideyoshi in Japan. Mimizuka monument marks the place these grisly artifacts of war were buried.

My friend also told me that Korean tour groups often stop at Mimizuka monument to pay their respects, then they go down the road to Toyokuni Shrine to spit on Hideyoshi's tomb. While we were there we saw a group of young Korean tourists paying their respects, but sadly we missed the spitting.

I'm not shocked, just macarbrely fascinated. History is liberally strewn with incidents of this nature. But what I wonder at the motives of Hideyoshi who had the monument built.  Was it out of respect for fallen foes? A warning to his enemies? It seems like a very strange thing to do. But then, by all accounts, he was a very strange man.

The Wikipedia article states that Mimizuka is "almost unknown to the Japanese public". For a long time the incident was absent from High School texts, and is still not featured in most guide books. Kyoto City approved the construction of an aquarium (!!) in Umekoji Park. City officials think it will attract more foreign visitors and give a boost to the local economy. Yet they are overlooking the kind of 'local colour' that draws thousands of tourists in Europe and Britain.... DUH! Would you travel to Kyoto to see an aquarium?! Kyoto is a treasure trove of history. But I think most Japanese see history as a boring collection of dates and names they were forced to memorize at high school. If only they realized that people (like Hideyoshi the Horrible) are interesting. That's why historical dramas are popular. And while Kyoto has a number of World Heritage Sites, it's stories that make them come alive.

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