Wajima on the Sea of Japan

Here I am looking out on the Sea of Japan, in my kimono, in my tatami room, having been to the world heritage village, Shirakawa-go, ate two wonderful Japanese meals and just finished watching the masked drummers.  About as good as it gets.  

The day started early with me going out to see if I could get better images in the morning light and without a lot of people.  I got lost, got my pictures and found my way back just before we loaded up and headed to Shirakwa-go. It is an example of how a remote village in the mountains, without resources could thrive first by cultivating mulberry trees and silk worms.  People still live and work there.  We had a couple of great hours before the tour buses swarmed in. There was still more to see but after a beautiful lunch in a very old restaurant we headed out. I didn’t mind because it was getting too crowded to photograph and it lost it’s ancient feel with the crowds. 

It was another tunnel trip, one after the other with glimpses of the mountain valleys in between. One tunnel is 11 kilometers long.  The amount of blasting, cement pouring and labour that went into building these boggles my mind. We finally came out on the coast and followed up to Wajima.  Our hotel is right on the ocean and a couple of us went for a walk along the sea wall.  It was dark and windy, the waves were splashing up over the wall and it felt good to be out there after a long bus ride.

We had another wonderful meal, cooking on our own burners.  Afterwards we visited in the lobby before we went to see the masked drummers dance and beat out a story of the evil spirits of the sea. We sat on a cross between a church bench and a sofa and others directly on the tatami floor. It felt like we were at a pajama party, all dressed in hotel kimonos.  We were the only white group at a very Japanese entertainment event.

One of the guys read me what he wrote about our day.  It was lovely, I realize my writing is so pedestrian, nothing poetic. In this land of Basho I am embarrassed. I will try harder to be less ‘stream of consciousness’ over the next week.

Shirakwa-go

The sacred trees and our intrepid lecturer Beatrice B

Not happy about the invasion

Here come the tour buses, of course we didn't come on a bus ;-)

Just one of many dams along the valley

The Sea of Japan

A great way to walk off the trip

I love my tatami rooom