Saturday 1st September 2012
Today may theoretically have been the first day of Autumn in northern hemisphere, but in Mie Prefecture, Summer showed no signs of backing down today.
Despite us being in Matsusaka for a month now, I still had not visited the town in which my wife works, so this morning we decided to go visit a festival to be held in the morning in this small town of Iinan, in Matsusaka... except that it isn't really in Matsusaka; it's a good 40 minute drive away... but the journey proved to be absolutely spectacularly worth it!
Matsusaka is itself, a relatively flat, broadly painted city. What I mean is that the population density is relatively low, although the city sprawls for a wider radius than it's relatively small population would suggest. Iinan, is technically a part of the Matsusaka municipality, but is quite far away, nestled in valley between mountains that cut it off from the larger cities nearby. The town if Iinan is, what is known in the business as "inaka", meaning "Japanese countryside".
So at about 10 o'clock in the morning we set off for Iinan, which required us to drive away from Matsusaka towards the mountains. Soon, we had passed through two tunnels that had been bored through the mountainside.
On the other side of these prepubescent mountains, the landscape was quite different. I felt transported from Matsusaka's mosaic of residential properties, small business premises, and surprisingly frequent rice paddies, to a beautiful countryside of undulating rivers, far fewer Japanese homes and far more bamboo forest!
The first stop on our voyage was Iinan High School. Below are some pictures taken at Taryn's school.
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| The entrance to Iinan High School |
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| Iinan's long drive way is bastioned by pine trees. |
As you can see below, the view from the entrance of Iinan High School is absolutely beautiful!
Beautifully planticured (yeah, I just made that up) bushes line the entrance to the school.
The baseball pitch of Iinan High School is located just outside the entrance of the school. The line of trees on the left edge of this photograph is the same copse of pine trees shown above.
Iinan High School is composed of three parallel buildings. Here you can see the beautifully tended lawns that separate two of the buildings.
For some reason there are moments when Japan's flora makes me feel like character in a Dr Seuss story.
No real field trip in Japan would be complete without a harrowing tale about an eight legged monster. Seriously... they're everywhere, and scary as hell. It probably doesn't help that I'm constantly reminded of their presence, either when walking though their webs or even when relaxing and having a good ceiling stare, only to be yanked back to a conscious state by an adrenalin burst that would make Mick Jagger stagger.
Nestled in a corner behind the current Iinan High School is the Old Iinan High School building.
Close to the Old Iinan High School building are some beautiful tall bushes. (No they're not trees.)
Taryn and I had some fun taking some Where's Wally pictures :D.
Can you find her ;)
This photograph is honestly not a composite photograph, although I totally look Photoshopped into the photo.
So while we were at the school we found out that they would be performing at a community festival in Iinan during the evening. We found this out just after noon, and decided that we would support the brass band, so we stuck around in Iinan all day, and got to explore the area a bit more, and took the opportunity to take some beautiful photographs!
Once again, the photograph above is an unedited original. This portrait-orientated panoramic photo was taken a few minutes walk from an Onsen (Japanese Hot Spring), and was also coincidentally the location of the evening's festivities.
While Taryn was taking the photograph above, I got a close up of the breathtaking bamboo forest.
This landmark marks the location of an Onsen. I wish I could tell you a romantic story about it's history; but while such a story may exist, I still don't understand enough Japanese to be able to hear it... Maybe next year folks :P.
The people of Iinan was very hospitable and they made us feel very welcome at their community carnival.
Taryn's school band performed to the delight of the crowd. The seeds of goodwill we sowed that day may really have found fertile soil, as Taryn's students and co-workers seem really to have appreciated our support.
As part of the festival, gifts are distributed to the children in the crowd that gathered like pigeons at the foot of this pedestal. I was really surprised at the volume of gifts given out, and this redistribution (by four or five men working in parallel) took about five minutes before they ran dry.
As it got darker, the light of the lanterns grew brighter by comparison, which reminded me of Christmas lights and our community festivals back home in South Africa.
Between six and seven that evening Taryn and I, exhausted from a long day of exploration, drove back through the winding mountain road, along the undulating river and through the tunnels that carve through the hillsides, back to our new home in Matsusaka.
It was a beautiful and rewarding experience. I really like Iinan. I can understand how many people may not feel comfortable living there, but perhaps is because of this very reason that it maintains its aura of community and timelessness.
But more than anything, I am so happy that the place my wife will be spending most of her waking hours, will be a place filled of extraordinary beauty.
