Shirakawa-go, Gifu, Nagoya

Shirakawa-go:

Beautiful sleepy little village, unesco heritage site. Has a lot of tourists of course. Set in a valley, old style thatch housing, just three small streets. It is extremely small, literally just three streets but it has genuine character and is extremely calm. Lovely little hill that overlooks it as well.

What was most memorable though was the road there which was a winding, ropey, mountain ascent with lots of blind 300 degree turns that really put poor Suzuki cervo through her paces. The distance as the crow flies is only about 30km but it takes over an hour to go over the mountains, which should explain the level of ropiness.

The narrow non toll road up and over the mountain is actually gated to stop people going through it when the conditions aren’t good enough. Really fun, slightly riskier on the way back, was stuck behind a slow mover for a piece of it and there was some rain and a hefty amount of fog actually which shortened the visual range as well. Bit of condensation inside the car as well going through the cooler air. Great craic, would recommend the drive.

Gifu:

Place is a grey concrete hell, went there for a conference which was a real festival of boredom. There is nothing that can possibly make sitting in a poorly ventilated room illuminated by LED white lights, listening to someone talk quite lengthily on the value of “silence” (irony), in anyway entertaining. Great presentation on compliance which was the most entertaining (irony again) and plenty of dark Emerald Isle humour sprinkled in there which went over the heads of most but certainly brought some levity. No free lunches, no free dinners, not expected of course but still, free food wins over the troops at a very basic level. Anyhow, not a lot of exploring to be done in Gifu, just a monolithic grey concrete commuter feeder hellscape. There is something unsettling about the bigger cities , a level of grime and a haze which settles in your sinuses in a way. Plenty of nice places to eat and all the rest but a lack of a soul. Architecture purely devoted to function, nothing to please the eye, aspiration toward beauty, built purely for the purpose of allocating units to their workstation or their reststation or feeding facilities. It has the feeling of a commuter town, well serviced public transport, massive motorways and square block layouts. No pictures obviously, just google search “concrete apartment block”. Possible I missed the character of the place, was only there a day.

Nagoya:

No shortage of concrete here either. 4th largest city in Japan, lovingly referred to as the armpit of Japan. Hot, humid, extremely busy. Stayed in a slick hostel, very modern with capsule beds. Fully delineated areas, showers and lockers in one floor, completely silent area with capsule beds in another, reception on the bottom. Nice showers, free toothbrushes etc which is always nice. Slept very well here after a long time walking around the cities busy areas. No red light district as such but an extremely large amount of pushers in the busy areas, seedy looking clubs with seedy looking folks slinking in and out of them. Always entertaining but gives one strange greasy heeby jeebies to be even in the same area as such base activities. Could call it a white/pink light district I guess, not full on prostitution but certainly adjacent.

Overall not a lot to report from Nagoya, place had about 9000 tonnes of bombs dropped on it during the war so nothing really left after that. Didn’t get to see it all, it’s massive. Went to the castle, massive queue to get in, went to the art museum, same deal. Wasn’t keen on lingering in the heat and humidity so I skipped them on this occasion. Art museum had an old space rocket outside it which was cool. Building was also interesting, had a big globe in the centre of it.

Found a cafe which allowed you to smoke inside which was awesome, gives the atmosphere of an old detective movie or an old saloon, something cinematic about the haze of smoke indoors. Also found nightclub with the same deal, just a much better experience when there’s tobacco in the air (unless you’re asthmatic or genuinely care about your health of course). It’s an extra layer of party and freedom in some way, not for everyone of course but it gives off a more relaxed atmosphere or something. It’s the similar kind of appeal of coffeeshops in Amsterdam, a relaxation of the rules, a bit of freedom and a lack of scrutiny. Before leaving for the orient, I had the pleasure to chat with a friend in a dingy bar in Copenhagen where we were allowed to smoke inside, tobacco provided for us even. It was a pleasant surprise and there’s something about the nicotine or the ritual which unlocks another layer of conversation or makes it more memorable in some way. Apparently people used tobacco for thousands of years in a ritualistic sense in the Amazon alongside other things to mark rites of passage or ceremonies, I think I can understand the appeal. Just my opinion, of course it kills you eventually and you shouldn’t do it. Interesting though.

So all in all, Nagoya is nice, actually had a bit more soul in it despite the concrete, one thing though was a real pattern of not being let in to eat in places. Must have been 3/4 places in a row that took one look at the rambling mongrel crawling in their door and politely declined its custom. Not a major issue, found a chicken place which served up a plate of chicken skewers. I mean the whole chicken - gizzard, skin, breast, wing, neck, liver, heart. All delicious but some really questionable textures.

Not a lot more to add, I’ll probably go back here, it’s only 2 hours away. Hopefully less queues.

Thank you for reading.

More to come soon.