The following Sunday I started my long awaited summer travelling! I used the ju-hachi kippu only available during school vacations. These tickets are basically an all day pass on the local train lines (not shinkansen) for $23. So I spent Sunday on seven different trains, travelling for 12 hours, finally arriving at Hagi at 7 pm exhausted.
Hagi is an interesting town. It was a center of unrest leading up to the Meiji Restoration and many revolutionaries in the Restoration were born and educated in Hagi. (In few words, the Meiji Restoration occurred when Japan realized that by remaining isolated from the rest of the world, they had fallen way behind in terms of industrialization. So in 1868, the Emperor Meiji reclaimed his imperial power from the shogunates who were running the country and brought the country into the modern age.)
However, what Hagi is famous for is its very well preserved samurai quarter. Lonely Planet sums it up well: It's ironic that Hagi's claim to fame is its role in propelling Japan directly from the feudal to the modern era, while its attractions are principally its feudal past.
I was up bright and early on Monday morning (I blame the lack of curtains in the youth hostel), rented a bicycle and began toodling around town.
My first site of the day was the ruin of Hagi Castle which was torn down in a display of loyalty to the Meiji Restoration.
After that I cycled through the samurai part of town, stopping every few feet to take photos of the varied walls.
I visited the Hagi Museum which had a large exhibit about beetles (the insects) and not so much about the history of the area as I had hoped.
Next, I went to the Aiba watercourse which was just a little canal along a roadside but with some historical houses. The homes along the watercourse had an opening to the canal to draw in water. (Hard to explain, see photo)
For lunch, I stopped at Mos Burger (a Japanese hamburger chain) where I ate a "taco". Don't worry Taco Bell, there's no competition here! I'm not really sure what spices and seasonings they used and couldn't quite identify the liquid "cheese" squirted on top.
After lunch, it started pouring rain. But that didn't stop me from visiting Tokoji, a temple which has the tombs of the odd-numbered lords of Hagi. There are about 500 stone lanterns which were nicely moss-covered.
One of the things that caught my eye all over Hagi was the shachi. These are the mythical fish on the roofs which are supposed to spout water in case of fire. In Himeji and other parts of Japan, these are typically just on castles and temples. But here in Hagi, they were also on rooftops of homes.
No comments:
Post a Comment