Japan Itinerary. 13/04/17

April 13, 2017

With thanks for all their advice, support and guidance while we assembled this, to:
Juliet Winters-Carpenter (host, translator and Professor at Doshisha Women’s College, Kyoto)
Susan Meehan (Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation)
Damian Flanagan & Lucy North (writers, translators and mentors)
Florentyna Leow (Walk Japan)
Mami Katsuya and Keiko Yamaguchi (hosts, Kyoto Art Centre)
Shoko Koizumi (host, Lafcadio Hearn (Yakumo Koizumi) Memorial Museum)
Hiroko Okamoto (translator, Kyoto)
Ann Dinsdale, Jenna Holmes and Rebecca Yorke (Brontë Parsonage Museum, West Yorkshire)
Leo Warner and Suzanne James (Fifty Nine Productions, London and New York)
and our generous funding sources:
Arts Council England, British Council, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, Walk Japan and Linda Adams

Arashi no ie Project Research, Japan (Honshu) 18 May – 3 June 2017 Itinerary:

Thursday 18 May
Depart Manchester 8.45am, Swissair to Tokyo via Zürich

Friday 19 May
Arrive Tokyo Narita airport 7.50am
JR Narita Express to Shinagawa (within Tokyo) changing to Shinkansen Hikari for a long ride to Matsue, on the west coast of Honshu

Saturday 20 May
Visit Izumu Tasha – important Shinto shrine, a short train journey out of Matsue

Sunday 21 May
Explore Matsue, visit the Hearn Museum and meet its director, Bon Koizumi, great-grandson of Lafcadio Hearn. View their current exhibition Kwaidan: Eternity of Literature of Retold Stories

Monday 22 May
Visit Adachi Museum and gardens, 20km east of Matsue, then take the train to Kyoto

Tuesday 23 May
10am attend Camelia Tea Ceremony
2pm meet Mami Katsuya, director of Kyoto Art Centre
Meet Keiko Yamaguchi, performer and associate artist of Kyoto Arts Centre for evening meal.

Wednesday 24 May
Get up early enough to walk through Imperial Gardens, on way to 10.30 meeting with Juliet Winters Carpenter, academic, writer and translator

Thursday 25 May
Take train to Kobe to meet contemporary calligrapher Misuzu Kosaka at 12.30pm, and converse with her through interpreter Hiroko Okamoto.
Watch Butoh performance in Kyoto, evening.

Friday 26 May
Things to do in Kyoto:

  • Sanjusangen-Do Temple
  • Fushimi Inari (Shinto) Shrine
  • Bamboo Grove
  • Jakko-In – ‘Hoichi the Earless’ story connection

Saturday 27 May
Train to Tokyo

  • Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
  • Tokyo National Museum

Sunday 28 May
Stacey – Butoh workshop with Yoshito Ohno. Simon & Judith attend as spectators.

Then: split  travels.

Judith:
Steps of Basho: Narrow Road to Deep North, (Walk Japan supported):
Monday 29 May
Tokyo – Nikko/Uramino-taki waterfall, Toshugu Shrine.
Tuesday 30 May
Nikko – Matsushima/ Taga-Jo Castle/Shiogama
Wednesday 31 May
Matsushima – Hiraizumi / Zuigan Temple and caves / Entsu-in gardens/Chuson-ji/Motsu-ji gardens /Konijiki-do
Thursday 1 June
Hiraizumi – Akakura Onsen
Friday 2 June
Akakura Onsen – Mt. Haguro-san / Natagiri Pass / pilgrim’s lodgings
Saturday 3 June
Haguro-san – Takasaki and train to Tokyo / Narita Airport

Stacey & Simon:
Peregrine Falcon Shinkansen on Sunday afternoon to Shimokita
Stay Sunday night in Mutsu
[The Shimokita-Hanto peninsula sports a volcanic wasteland surrounding the terrible mountain Osore-zan with its fearsome temple of Osorezan-bodaiji where dead souls gather by the shore of a silvery crater lake. Osore-zan is one of Japan’s 3 most sacred places (Buddhist).]

Monday 29 May
Bus to Osore-zan mountain, sulphur lake and shrine
Stay night at Bodaiji Temple

Tuesday 30 May
Bus back to Shimokita station
Train to Tono
[Tono is regarded as the birthplace of Japanese folktales, collected as the Tono Monogatari by Yanagita Kunio in 1909. The town of Tono has a Folktale Museum and the valley north-east of Tono displays rolling hills, thatched farms and secretive-shrines-related-to-primitive-cults, ideal for exploration by bike. There is a folk village at Denshoen.]

Wednesday 31 May
Explore Tono valley (bikes?)

Thursday 1 June
5 trains from Tono to Numata, then a bus to Tokura

Friday 2 June
Shuttle bus to Oze National Park trailhead at Hatomachitoge
4-5 hour circular walk to and through Oze marsh, much of it on boardwalk via flowering skunk cabbages.
Shuttle bus return to Tokura

Saturday 3 June
Bus to Numata, then train to Tokyo to meet Judith for final train journey to airport hotel

Sunday 4 June
Flight departs 11.00 (Lufthansa via Düsseldorf)