金沢: Kanazawa

Just a brief jaunt north of Fukui is a city nicknamed, "Little Kyoto". Kanazawa features some nice temples, some of the most beautiful gardens in Japan and a fairly decent Mexican restaurant.
Don't think I ever saw a Halloween decoration that grand in the States.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, a few friends and I made the brief train ride up for some sightseeing and shopping. The weather wasn't kind enough to allow us a nice view of the gardens, so we stayed indoors for the most part.
Kanazawa has some very scenic side streets. This particular non-descript alley leads into the secretive temple that has come to be nicknamed, "The Ninja Temple". It has no connection to Ninjutsu, the secret art of the ninja (or so they say), but it is an amazing piece of architectural trickery.

This isn't a very good photograph, but it does allow you to see how simple the building appears from the outside. Simple 2-3 story temple, right? Wrong! Inside it is has nearly 30 stairwells twisting and turning about a multi-layered den of traps and pitfalls constructed to befuddle government spies. Imagine a 6 or 7 story building trapped inside a 3 story building's body. Every turn, every door leading into a trap or some guard just waiting to spear, slice or stab unsuspecting trespassers.
And it also served as a religious center for the local nobility.

Thursdays with 芭蕉: Haiku Round 2

On Thursdays now I venture a 1 hour bus ride to the coast to visit a junior high school with less than 40 total students. Classes are small, awake and interesting. I think I'm really going to like it there. The bus ride is scenic with forests and tunnels and fields and mountains. Also, another JET who has become rather popular with ladies because of his perfect teeth and black belt in tae-kwon-do rides the same bus to a school not far from mine. He's an outgoing sort unless if his energy is drained. Either high or low - never in between.

As for me, I'm pretty much always on the quiet side of life. I brought along the book that I purchased in 京都(Kyoto) written by 芭蕉(Basho), a poet who wandered about Japan and let the scenery inspire his work. As it turns out, students in the school are about to read some excerpts from the same book (おくのほそ道：The Narrow Road to Oku). The literature teacher, noticing the book on my desk, asked to me read some excerpts in English to her class. I was struck by a few lines in the opening paragraphs,

"I seemed to be possessed by the spirits of wanderlust, and they all but deprived me of my senses. The guardian spirits of the road beckoned, and I could not settle down to work."

Basho traveled, journaled and wrote Haiku whenever scenery or events inspired him. Reading his works and gazing out into a morning rainstorm on the Autumn mountain forests, I couldn't help but try my hand at Haiku again.

The wind cries against
Teardrop reddened mountain leaves
Shelter is the storm

That's not the only haiku I wrote yesterday. Inspired by the fact that my only pet peeve is culturally acceptable in Japan (slurping), I vented some frustration. I simply cannot tolerate noises during a meal, but in Japan slurping noodles is very polite while silence could be considered rude. This is supposed only to be the case with noodles, but Japanese men tend to make noise eating anything and everything.

One cup of coffee
One hundred desperate slurps
God, please strike me deaf!