| A Tourist in Japan Part 5
Bullet Trains, Kiso Valley, Mount Fuji
Most persons who have read about or been in Japan, know about the “bullet” trains called Shinkansen. We used them only once for about an hour and a half. These trains run at speeds of up to 300 km (187.5 miles) per hour and have a distinctive, sleek looking design. What is less generally known is that the Shinkansen are owned and operated by a separate company which uses the Japan Railways stations, and that they require the substantial co-operation of passengers. One cannot simply hop on but must buy a reserved place ticket. The ticket shows the date and time of the train and the particular car in which the seat is located. On the platform there is an indication as to where the various will stop and the passenger lines up at a specific point for boarding. When the train arrives, disembarking passengers are all allowed to leave, after which the boarding passengers enter in single file. On the line, which we used, there was a train every six minutes although they run less frequently later in the day and at night. The ride is smooth even on curves.
 Towards the latter part of our tour we spent two days and nights in the Kiso Valley. This valley has quite steep, forested sides and the bottom is just wide enough for the bed of a foaming river, a road, a railway line and, in some places, small villages. We stayed in Narai, a village that has been designated by the national government as a heritage site. The houses, stores and inns are all made of dark wood and are mostly two storeys high. The village spreads out along both sides of the highway, widens somewhat at the village hall and post office, and ends with a Shinto shrine. It is particularly noteworthy that Narai was one of the principal post towns and travelers used its inns for centuries as the village is situated on one of the most important roads, the Nasenko, which runs between Kyoto and Edo (later renamed Tokyo). From all appearances the stone-paved road was passable by horses but not carriages. The travelers were primarily pedestrians, some of whom carried heavy loads, and probably were very tired before they reached our Ryokan. When we bedded down on our mats we had the feeling that we were following hundreds of travelers through the centuries. The Nasenko went over a mountain pass before reaching Narai and we made the hike to the next village beyond the summit. It took about two hours and the steeper parts were made easier by hairpin turns. We had been told that the forest contained both monkeys and bears. Although we saw neither, we did see a number of fairly large bells hanging on trees near the summit which travelers were invited to ring to announce their arrival to the bears. It seems that neither human travelers nor bears wish to encounter the other. Unless the bells were a joke played on the unsuspecting, I was happy to see a very low-tech solution work in a very high-tech society. Hirasawa, a village one train stop from Narai, is traditionally famous for the lacquer goods which it produces. The stores there attract foreign and Japanese tourists in considerable numbers. The bowls, plates and boxes, all similar and very attractive, are of varying prices, depending on the number of coats of lacquer which have been applied to a particular piece. I was unable to detect any differences among them.
Before going on to Tokyo we were to spend two days and nights at the foot of Mt. Fuji in the hope that we could see the famous mountain and perhaps climb all or part of it. Mt. Fuji’s influence on Japanese art and culture is very great.  The two most famous Japanese painters and printmakers Hokusai (1790-1849) and Hiroshige (1797- 1858) each created a collection of more than thirty views of Fuji which represents only a tiny fraction of serious art and photography that has the mountain as its subject. Mt. Fuji, a dormant volcano, is the highest mountain in Japan (3,776m /12,390 ft). In earlier times only priests and pilgrims were allowed on the mountain and women were barred until well into the 19th century. Mt. Fuji, not surprisingly, has created a tourist industry in the surrounding area, and we stayed in the town of Kawaguchi on the shore of a large lake of the same name. Unfortunately it was overcast or raining and we saw only the base of the mountain, the rest being hidden by clouds. Kawaguchi, with its well-kept promenades and lakeside parks, reminded me of parts of Lake Geneva and the Lake of Zurich, yet it seemed to lack any focal point. That was also true of a number of small towns and villages we had visited, while the larger Japanese cities had many features which gave them their character. In Britain and continental Europe, the principal church and square beside it, is often the core of small towns and villages. However, Kawaguchi is not a honky-tonk place with only souvenir shops. During our stay we visited two museums, one of which is famous for its display of paintings done directly on kimonos. An unusual incident took place in Kawaguchi. We had walked, in the drizzle, around the end of the lake to one of the museums. After lunch there, we decided to take a cab back to the Ryokan. We gave the driver the card of our destination; it even included a small map! He had a choice of two bridges and took the wrong one by mistake. It did not make a great deal of difference in terms of time, perhaps five minutes. When he noticed his error, he turned off the meter and wound up charging us less when we reached the Ryokan than the fare would have been normally. Had we known the language we would have offered to pay the difference. As it was, we thanked him and were impressed. | | |
