Okazaki Castle

Sunday, July 13, 2008
Okazaki City, Japan

Yesterday morning I hooked up with the Texas Three, as I’ve come to think of the little group of friends consisting of Amelia, the Aussie Phd candidate studying at Rice in Houston and Chris and George from Dallas. Chris is very quiet, while George is an amazing social organizer and extreme extrovert whose parents were from Taiwan. He speaks and reads Chinese fluently. Amelia is fluent in Japanese. She studied it in Australia and did a home stay here while in high school, then majored in it at college and is now here to improve her kanji reading skills. These three are super traveling companions. Together they can pretty much decipher any sign or find out about where, when or how on any topic. I feel really lucky to have “fallen in” with this talented young group.

At about 11:00 am yesterday we headed for Okazaki Jo, the restored feudal castle famous as the birthplace of Iyeyasu and the Tokugawa Shogunate. (Above is picture of a bridge over one of the moats and a view from the top of the castle, see the picture in my first posting for look at the castle). The original castle was demolished during the Meiji Restoration when the feudal clans were abolished in 1873-1875. The current donjon and annex were reconstructed in 1959. The view from the top is impressive. The surrounding park is a wonderful oasis of green shade in a sea of urban cement.

Beside the castle was a Shinto shrine that seemed to be especially important for children. People were posing with their newborn infants in front of the bell rope for pictures. We also saw a car being blessed. The shiny new Prius was standing with all the doors open and the hood lifted as a white robed Shinto priest (or was it a priestess?) intoned the blessings and shook a large paper “rattle”. Out of respect for the solemnity of the occasion we did not take pictures or stare, but would certainly have liked to.

On to way to the castle, we took my first bus ride on a Japanese city bus. The driver was so helpful as we fumbled with the ticket system. He also made sure we got off at the right place. At the front of the bus was a digital display that showed the coming stop as well as the fair at that stop depending on where you had gotten on the bus. Once you got the hang of it, it was a very helpful set up. Thank goodness George was able to figure all that out. For lunch, we shared some sushi from a food court in the basement of a big department store/shopping center. There were so many interesting looking things to eat!

While out on the sidewalk the temperature was in the high 80’s (high 20’s C), the shops were refreshingly cool so we popped into one every few minutes to cool down. On our way back to the train/bus station we investigated the shops selling elaborate home shrines for the ancestors, (some costing millions of yen), a rice cracker shop, a German bakery, a bookstore, a mini market and a gift store. Because giving gifts is such a big part of the culture here, there are shops and sections of shops dedicated to gift items all wrapped up and ready to go. When we went into the gift (omiagi) store at the castle, unlike a western souvenir shop, we had to look hard before finding the post cards!

Today we are going go to Gamagori, a tourist destination and fishing port on the coast, not far from here. I’ll let you know how it goes.