The Nakasendo Way * Part 4

*The Nakasendo Way - We begin the long walk






Today we will meet John. We need John because he is going to be our guide on the Naksendo Walk.






We also meet five other walkers, four of whom are English, and one, a wild Irishwoman.
There is a very good reason why John has a parasol, but that is another story.

Noh Theatre

We will put our faith in John as he has lived and taught in Japan for ten years and also because he has an amazing repertoire of Noh grimaces. We figure he can extricate us from any bother.






We also have our first experience of playing musical shoes. We must take our boots off and slip on plastic slippers each time we enter an inn. But we must not wear these slippers into the bathroom or toilet. There are other slippers for that. Neither can we wear them in the bedrooms on the tatami. Over the next twelve days we are destined to make many slipper faux pas.

Kinkaku - The Golden Pavilion

John wants us to see the Golden Pavilion Temple - Kinkaku-ji and the Ryoanji Zen Rock Garden before we leave. The top two stories of the Kinkaku pavilion are covered in pure gold leaf.

Ryoanji Zen Rock Garden

Of the fourteen rocks, surrounded by moss, on the neatly raked gravel of the Zen rock garden only thirteen are visible at any one time. It's true, I checked it out.






The simple mossy garden adjacent to the Rockery felt a lot more zen-like after the bustle and snapping of cameras in the enclosure next door.

Naka Sen Do - Middle Mountain Way

This sign says Nakasendo. It is a sign we will get used to over the next twelve days and one that we will be constantly on the look out for.




At Hikone, on the shores of Lake Biwa, our walk begins in earnest.


The castle town, or jokamachi, of Hikone would be a two day walk for the samurai of the Edo period, but for us it is a pleasant 55 minute train ride.

Hikone Castle

On the Nakasendo walk we spend most of our nights in traditional inns. Many of these inns have near vertical wooden staircases to access the second floor bedrooms. These stairs test both our strength and agility. I learned that it was easiest and safest to descend backwards. I also learned to take only what was absolutely necessary upstairs and leave the travel bag below.
Occasionally we will stay in a hot spa ryokan or small hotel.





The inns provided a mix of private and shared bathrooms but all came with the requisite Japanese bath, which require the bather to follow a stringent bathing etiquette, distinctively Japanese.





After the completion of the evening bathing ritual we would dress in our yakata (rather like a cross between a dressing gown and a cotton kimono), provided by the inn and assemble in the dining room - ravenous for a feast. We were never disappointed.





Of course we ate with chop sticks. Unfortunately we did not have these guidelines to direct us.





Japanese dinners provided by the inns were beautiful, artistically presented banquets of many and varied dishes.

Here are some of the things we dined on:

Various cooked fish including carp
and sashimi,
wild boar stew,
crunchy roasted soy crickets,
unusual savoury custards,
steamed pumpkin,
many salad vegetables,
duck,
horse sashimi,
noodles,
spinach,
tofu,
roasted chestnuts,
sweet potato,
poached figs
and grapes

Rice always accompanied the meal but was intended to be eaten only as a filler.
Asahi and sake were both plentiful and inexpensive.

Leeks
Home grown
washed by monsoonal
summer's rainy weeks,
How chill and white, how fresh and
green, are leeks

Basho

One Asahi please

Sleeping on a futon on the floor with miniature seed pillows that feel like bags of dry mung beans (they probably are) became a pleasure. After a long day's walking I think I could sleep anywhere.

I want to sleep
swat the flies
softly please

Shiki Masaoka

In all this cool
is the moon also sleeping
There, in the pool?

Ryusui

*