Day 24 - Shirakawa-Go

Shirakawa-Go is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with many houses built in the gasshō-zukuri style ("clasped-hands"). The roof space of many of these buildings were originally used for the cultivation (is that the right word?) of silk worms.

This place is very heavily visited by tourists, and we are told that this is one of the few rural settlements like this to actually see an increase in its resident population - due mostly to the economic impact and the need to service the tourism industry.



There is only just over a week left to go on the training course now, and things are still very busy, but as you can probably tell by the posts, very interesting, exciting and enjoyable.

Day 23 - Hida-Takayama

We are away for a few days at the moment, and today we are in the town of Takayama, a place with some registered historic precincts, and an annual shrine festival day that is happening today!

It made for some crowded walks about town but was great to see.





And I thought it was about time I put in a food pic - this was a pretty exceptional meal we all shared together in the evening:

Day 22 - Meiji Mura Open Air Museum

Today we traveled to Nagoya and visited Meiji Mura Open Air Museum. This was a very interesting site visit where we saw many buildings from the Meiji period that were scheduled for demolition earlier in the 20th Century, but were moved to this site to provide a kind of 'snapshot in time' of the architectural styles and practices in this very early period of merging japanese and western aesthetics.

Day 21 - Kyoto

Just a quick post to say I finally got to Kyoto for a visit - it was a national holiday today - National Sports Day - so things were very busy but a good day out visiting nonehteless.

Day 20 - Osaka

I wanted to visit the Vaka Moana Exhibition that had come to Japan from the Auckland War Memorial Museum while I was in Japan. I was extra please that the exhibition was showing at the Osaka Museum of Ethnology, which is within a reasonable distance of Nara, and in the former grounds of the 1970 Osaka World Expo. I had recently been to see the "This is New Zealand" re-mastered doco at the Film festival so it was pretty cool to see the place where it all happened.

There is now an amusement park in part of the grounds, and the museum at the other end - I can just imagine all the wee Japanese children brought here by their parents, hoping for a roller-coaster ride and getting lumped with a selection of 329 different types of hair comb from around the world...

[Some of the many combs for kids to enjoy]

Day 17 - Toshodaiji Temple

We have been busy with practical training the past fews days, documenting and recording an old farm house in Nara. Nearby is Toshodaiji Temple - another one of the "Big 8" important temples in Nara.

Toshodaiji is currently under reconstruction. This means that a huge scaffolding building is erected around the temple, then it is mehtodically taken to bits, numbered, assessed, repaired if need be, and put back together.

Our group photo here provides an opportunity to see the roof structure in detail - a view that is available once every 300 years or so...

Day 13 - Todaiji Temple

I have skipped a few days for your own good, nobody wants to see photographs of powerpoint presentations or Ellen contemplating buying a new pair of shoes and then talking herself out of it... and that is basically all that happened the past few days.

Today however, I had a really great Sunday out and about with two of the assistants on the course Yoshido-san and Itaya-san.

It was pouring with rain all day so they were both very nice not to cancel our day trip around Nara, and we didn't get all the walking done we had planned, but it was still a busy day.


We walked through Nara park (note the obligatory image of the deers) and headed up to Todaiji Temple - the largest wooden building in the world.


It's pretty big (can you see the people in the photo?)... the statue of Buddha inside is about four stories high, and all in all it was a pretty impressive visit. The rain deterred many visitors which was good in a way. I haven't taken any photos of the models of the building for you this time, but one showed the original size of the structure which was actually a third larger.

At the temple they had men with fortune telling devices, so I had my fortune told. you shake a wooden container and a piece of bamboo comes out with a number on it, which corresponds to a piece of paper given to you by the man. My fortune told me I would make new friends in travel. It also said "You lost something that was very precious to you; you will not get it back" most of the family will know that I instantly thought of my pounamu tiki.

Once you have read your fortune you fold the piece of paper up and tie is to this rail for the monks to collect and burn in a ceremony.


This last photo is the inverse of the first photo on this blog - looking down on the area of Nara from the place I was was looking up towards on the first day.

Day 9 - Kobe City

A couple of years back I did a course on natural hazards and traditional buildings, and I decided to write one of the papers on the Kobe earthquake. It was really great to get the chance to visit Kobe, and also meet the person who had written much of the research that I have worked with in the past.

You must excuse the photo-of-a-photo but I have put in here the before and after pics of one of the buildings 'damaged' by the earthquake. We had lunch in the reconstructed building that day



(you may have noticed it is rather western looking? it is the former American Embassy)

Day 9 - Sawanotsuru Sake Museum

How convenient that one of the best restoration projects post-earthquake they could show us was at a sake brewery. Much to the amazement of many friends and family, I have never tried sake before. I kinda thought I didn't know enough about it to choose a good one to try and all that... but my first lesson in the world of sake was "there is no such thing as good or bad sake; only sake you like or don't like". I like it already.

Sake (酒) is an alcoholic beverage made from rice (also called nihonshu 日本酒 here which translates to Japanese alcoholic beverage). It is often called rice wine, but the informative presentation I watched tells me the production process is slightly closer to beer than wine.

I bought some sake, tried some sake, bought some more sake, and also bought some Shōchū, which is more like a spirit than a wine. Apparently you can get kumara Shōchū - I must hunt this out! but as you might guess I am rather sleepy right now...

Day 8 - Uneme Matsuri

Just a quick post to show peter he finally had success showing me how to work my camera in full manual mode.

Uneme Matsuri is a festival held at Sarusawa Pond, which is right next to Kofukuji Temple (yesterday's temple-of-the-day).

The Uneme Shrine stands with its back against its Torii gate. It is said that the shrine was constructed to console the soul of Uneme, who had drowned herself in the pond out of disappointment for her unrequited love with an emperor. The legend states that the shrine could not directly face the pond out of sadness caused by her suicide, it turned around overnight.

Day 8 - Heijo (Nara) Palace Site

I am starting to learn a bit more japanese, and starting to understand how words are made up. I figured out that the 'ji' bit at the end of all these temple names means 'temple' (so yes, we have a bit of tautology in my blog but hei aha...) and today I have learnt that 'kyō' means capital.

The former name of Nara is Heijokyo - now you probably see the pattern developing with Heijokyo, the Kyoto, and now Tokyo. Our site visit was to the palace site, which was only rediscovered as the former palace site in, er, gosh I have forgotten, but i think it was the 1950s (must do some homework).

Since the actual site of the palace was not known earlier, the local railway line runs through the middle of it (as pictured)



The site is like an experimentation ground for different ways of displaying archaeological heritage - whether to mark out floorplans, foundations, plantings or to reconstruct elements for scale. Since I am well aware that this is not likely to be very interesting to any of you I will not go into detail on Nabunkan presentation styles and so on. I will just add a picture of the portion of the temple they have decided to rebuild - it should be complete in time for their 1300 year celebrations in 2010.



Lastly, I think I have figured out how to add video, so here is an explanation of the base isolation system that has been constructed in the foundation system of the structure to protect it (and people!) in the event of an earthquake. It gives you a glimpse into what my day to day learning experiences are like here in Nara:

Day 7 - Kofukuji Temple

Today is a public holiday in Japan, to celebrate the Autumn Equinox. I thought I might head out in Nara and visit a temple...

This time I went to the middle of Nara City, to Kofukuji Temple, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The most famous building in this complex is the Goju-no-to, the five storied pagoda, which stands 51m high and was built in 1426.



The Tokon-do (East Main Hall) was built in 1415 and is beside the five storied pagoda. As you can probably tell from the photos, it was raining today. It provided a welcome drop in temperature, but happened to coincide with the first day I didn't put my umbrella in my bag. of course.



Kofukuji Temple is within the grounds of Nara Park, which was established in 1880 to conserve the natural surrounds of many of the historic temples. One of the famous aspects of the park is the deer that roam freely.



The deer are described as tame, but the japanese-only signs around the park seem to provide a different view of the animals - I am sure this sign actually says "don't be fooled, the deer are EVIL".

Or perhaps it says "deers may become aggressive when struck by lightning".

Day 6 - Saidaiji Temple

Today I decided to take a short train ride to visit Saidaiji Temple which is just west of the main city.

Saidaiji was originally founded by the Empress Shotoku in 765, but the buidlings here have succumbed to fire numerous times, although the current main hall (Hondo, pictured below) and Aizendo Hall have been here since the Edo period - so prior to 1867.



This was my first visit to a temple alone, and also my first visit to a temple that has no english signs anywhere... I was within the temple walls and knew that I should be paying someone the 400 Yen entry fee but couldn't find a soul (I then started to think I was in the wrong place, as I also hadn't seen any foreigners), I followed a red arrow thinking it might be directions to the information centre, but all I found was a public toilet.

Eventually I realised that I actually had to go inside the Hondo, and so I took my shoes off (good move) and inside was the man I needed to see - my japanese phrases came in handy, and I got to see some very beautiful sculptures and lanterns (but you can not take photos inside the temples so you will have to imagine for yourself).



This temple is associated with the Tea Ceremony, and apparently is the home of an 'extreme' tea ceremony where all of the accouterments are seriously oversized (so the tea cup you drink from has a 30cm diameter) - I am yet to find out exactly why, but apparently this event happens only 3 times per year, one being in October, so maybe I will get to see it.

Day 5 - Horyu-ji Temple

It's Saturday, but we decided to take an excursion to one of the temples on the outskirts of Nara, as Hata-san our interpreter offered to guide us. It was seriously hot - with about a 2km walk from the station to the temple site I realised I need to keep a check on the potential for sun-stroke.

The journey was well worth it, and we were early enough to be leaving as bus after bus of tourists started arriving in the height of the heat.

Horyu-ji is a Buddhist temple in Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, and widely acknowledged to have some of the oldest wooden buildings existing in the world. Although there is much debate over the actual age of older wooden structures like this (as maintenance may at times involve replacing wood that has deteriorated - therefore adding a bit to the building that is not original), dendrochronological analysis has showed some parts of this building to be made from trees felled prior to AD670.... woah.

The temple was originally commissioned by Prince Shotoku, and was dedicated to Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing.

Day 4 - Imai-Cho Historic Area

It is surprising the number of similarities between the processes and protocols for historic places in Japan and New Zealand. Today we had a lecture about the documentation and community consultation process associated with registering an historic area, with a site visit to Imai-Cho, in Kashihara City, which is in the Nara Prefecture, but approximately 40 minutes bus ride from the main city.


Yesterday I learnt about the tradition of architectural model-making in Japan, and how a model of a builidng can potentially be registered as a historic cultural property - they were often made in preference to drawn plans for the construction of buildings, and sometimes lasted longer too. The tradition certainly isn't dead and many of the visitor centres here include scale models of the sites you are about to visit.


Imai-Cho was originally established as a temple town in by the 1500s (the Tenmon Period) a substantial jinai-cho (a town within the precincts of a temple) existed. During the Edo Period (1603-1868) Imai-Cho developed into a prosperous merchant town, and many of the registered buildings in this area are former merchant houses.

Day 2 - In Lectures

I have decided I will learn 3 new Japanese words or phrases each day while I am here - I'm not sure if I will be able to keep up but I will try. This morning I learnt 'good morning' and I exchanged this with one of the Japanese assistants on the course for the equivalent in Maori. I gave him 'ata marie' which he liked because it sounds a lot like 'be warm' in Japanese.

Today was a full day of lectures in at the centre, it was good and interesting, not too easy/not too hard, so I am pleased about that. There are 15 participants on this training course, all from different countries, many of whom are traveling abroad for the first time. While we are getting our mouths around all the different names we all often refer to each other in the beauty-pageant approved format, which is what I will use for blogging purposes. The line up includes (in alphabetical order of country, which is how we are ordered here):

Mr Cambodia
Mr China
Miss Indonesia
Mr Iran
Mr Lao
Miss Myanmar
Miss Nepal
Miss New Zealand (yep! eat your heart out Lana...)
Mr Pakistan
Mr Papua New Guinea
Miss Philippines
Miss Samoa
Miss Sri Lanka
Mr Thailand
and Mr Vietnam

please note there is only one person I can talk about the rugby world cup with, I need to find a place to see the games...

Day 1 - Warm Welcomes

It's about 34 degrees C in Nara today, which is certainly a bit of a change from Sunny Dunedin. Today was mostly spent inside though, with an opening ceremony for the course, including speeches from various important people associated with the centre, and a visit to the vice-governor at the Nara Prefectural Government Offices. They have incredible views of the World Heritage Sites based in Nara, and are kind enough to open their roof-top up to the public for taking snapshots of the Primeval Forest and the stunning Todaiji Temple (which I will write more about when I actually make a visit).


In the evening we had a opening reception dinner at the Royal Nara Hotel, the food was very good... ....mmmm very very good with lots of sashimi, sushi, karaage, katsu, and immaculate looking desserts. Oh, and I can't forget to mention my first Japanese beer in Japan itself! after all these years drinking Asahi in kiwiland it is no longer export-priced! in fact it is under $2 a bottle and available in vending machines. I learned how to toast in Japanese, and how to say when I have had my glass filled enough times (I also worked on 'thank you' and 'sorry/excuse me' earlier in the day).

All in all it was a very nice way to start this course.

Day 0 - Dunedin -Wellington -Auckland -Osaka -Nara

Aside from a surprise breakfast-in-bed from your loved one, I think I have discovered the nicest thing anyone can do for you before 7 o'clock in the morning;

"...aahhh, Miss Andersen, it looks like we have upgraded you to business class."

I didn't actually think this really happened - I can now confirm it is not just and urban legend! I was lucky enough to get an upgrade on an 11 hour flight that went right through the day.

It was a very nice way to start my time on this month-long course on conservation of wooden architecture in Nara, the ancient capital of Japan.