However, be warned: If you want to read about bragging stories of all those Western guys who get laid a hundred times per day, then you came to the wrong place.
There are tons of blog posts like that out there. You certainly won’t find that here – and not from a foreign girl like me!

Before we start talking about “Dating in Japan” one thing should be crystal clear:

1. Dating is not the same for foreign women and men!

If you’ve ever been to Japan you might have noticed that there’s a tremendous number of (often not so handsome) foreign guys walking hand-in-hand with Japanese women. And at the same time there’s only a very tiny number of foreign (read: non-Asian) women with Japanese men next to them.

You might ask yourself why is that?
Maybe that’s a secret we’ll never quite get, but there are many theories!

A lot of Japanese women want a guy that tells them several times a day how much he loves them. For some reason (maybe through the consumption of too many Hollywood movies) Japanese women think that foreign men are like that! They’re not afraid of showing their feelings in public or telling their girls flat out how they feel about them.

Of course, having a foreign boyfriend is also “cool” and “exotic“. Some just use those poor guys as cute little “accessories“.
The extreme version of this is known as “gaijin hunter” and some will do everything for the sake of having one of those adorable “half”-kids (half Western, half Japanese) just to toss their foreign guy later on.

For foreign women it’s a completely different story.
Japanese men seem to expect certain things from a woman. Things that they fear a foreign woman would not agree to do (e.g. stay home, take care of the kids, always pour new alcohol into his empty glass etc.).
Maybe they also think that a foreign woman might expect from their man that he’s telling his feelings straight out several times a day, something a shy Japanese man just won’t do.

Another problem is that many of the Japanese men seem to be afraid of their English ability and thus fail to approach a foreign woman.
Most foreign men on the other hand, have no issues approaching a Japanese woman in English – or even in broken Japanese.

These are just a few theories by friends, co-workers and myself. I’m sure you have your own and there’s much more behind all this, but that’s it for starters, I guess.

2. Dating in Japan as a foreign man:

As a result, dating in Japan is usually quite easy for men.
At least getting one woman after another into your bed, is really easy, even if you’re quite ugly!
For some reason Japanese women seem to find even ugly foreign guys attractive …..

It might be a bit more difficult if you’re looking for a serious relationship as there are those women I mentioned earlier who either want you as “exotic accessory” or just want your DNA to create a cute “half-child”.

All in all, it is comparably easy for a Western foreign man to find a Japanese woman or to have a nice relationship here in Japan.
For some guys it really gets to their heads and they start bragging about it like crazy as part of the superstar syndrome.

3. Dating in Japan as a foreign woman:

The complete opposite is the case for (Western) foreign women in Japan.
Japanese guys are often too shy, scared or whatever and the majority of Western men is only interested in Japanese / Asian women.
As a result it is extremely tough to find a date as a foreign woman here in Japan.

It is by far not impossible and I know quite a few girls who don’t only have a Japanese boyfriend, but are also married to a Japanese man, but it is still the BIG exception!

Some of us will go through a hard time here in Japan.
You’ll start to feel completely unattractive and ignored at times.
Of course, you get a lot of attention and there’s all this staring, but it’s not because anybody is flirting with you … or at least you don’t know the difference anymore.

It might be a different story in bigger cities such as Tokyo and Osaka with a more international community, but in smaller cities and in the countryside with more traditional ideals it can be very difficult for foreign women.

4. Differences in relationships:

I personally know a few couples where either the man or the woman is foreign and I noticed quite a lot of differences in the kind of relationship they have.

Please note that the following is based on my personal experience and that not everybody out there is like that.

Foreign man, Japanese woman:

In relationships where the man is foreign I noticed that they mostly speak his native language. Although they live in Japan and sometimes even have children together who also speak Japanese, the foreign guys don’t / can’t speak Japanese.

I also experienced that they’re unable to do anything on their own. When I ask them about how they got their cellphone or credit card they just answer they don’t know because their wife did it for them.
Consequently they don’t see the need to study Japanese, because their wives will take care of it all.

One big problem seems to be the fact that in Japan the man earns the money, but the woman takes care of it! The man only gets a small allowance every week or month and needs to ask his wife for permission if he wants to spend any more of his own hard-earned money! Foreign guys often seem to struggle with this system.

Because of  all that I’ve seen couples who got divorced, even when there were kids involved. I noticed that those kind of relationships seem to work out better if they live in his home country and not in Japan.

Foreign woman, Japanese man:

For the opposite constellation you’ll see that in most(!) cases the woman speaks Japanese. She has studied Japanese properly or puts in a lot of effort to improve her Japanese ability even if the Japanese man can speak her native tongue.

They know how to survive in Japan even without the help of their husband / boyfriend who is at work most of the time anyways.

The man seems to accept that she wants to keep working even after marriage. Most of the time those kind of Japanese men who get into a relationship with a foreign woman are more open-minded and have some experience with foreign culture because either they’ve lived or studied abroad for a while. And even those who haven’t seem to accept that there are cultural differences and they don’t expect the same they would from a Japanese woman.

All the couples I know of have a relatively harmonic relationship. Of course, there are enough reasons for disputes, but all in all they seem to manage better than couples where the man is foreign.

5. Conclusion: Dating in Japan

There’s so much more that could be said about this topic and I’d love to discuss it with you some more.
I’m sure everyone has their own opinion and experience with this!

All I want you to keep in mind is that as a guy you should not let it get to your head because suddenly you get all this attention from beautiful women.
And as a foreign girl you should keep in mind that your time in Japan – at least in terms of romantic relationships – could be quite lonely at times.

The post The Shocking Truth About Dating in Japan as a Foreigner appeared first on Zooming Japan.

Visited: April 5th 2012

Nihondaira and Kunozan Toshogu Shrine

As probably everybody is doing the two sights, Nihondaira and Kunozan Toshogu Shrine, together, I decided to also write about them in one blog post.

You can access from either side and start with either sight. I started with Nihondaira that day.

Access to Nihondaira:

Nihondaira (日本平) is located in Shizuoka Prefecture (map) and can be accessed by Shizutetsu Bus in 40 mins from Shizuoka Station or 15 mins from Higashi Shizuoka Station. From there you can walk around to enjoy the various views.

Enjoying a beautiful view of Mt. Fuji:

From the summit observatory you can see Suruga Bay and the Izu Peninsula. On a clear day you can also see Mt. Fuji.
Although I went on a clear day, I couldn’t see Mt. Fuji at all.

If you have a very close look at the photo above, you might be able to make it out. Below one of the clouds you can see Mt. Fuji’s snow-covered top. I was really disappointed because I came all the way and the weather was good, too! Yet I wasn’t allowed to enjoy the beauty of Mt. Fuji.
Apart from the observatory platform there’s also a golf course and a few restaurants.

After enjoying the view of Mt. Fuji – or not – most people move on to visit the National Treasure “Kunozan Toshogu Shrine“.

It can be easily accessed by a short 5 mins ropeway ride that connects the summits of Mt. Nihondaira and Mt. Kuno. A round-trip for an adult will cost 1000yen, one-way 550yen.

Kunozan Toshogu Shrine – A national treasure

Toshogu Shrine on Mt. Kuno (久能山東照宮) is a very important national treasure as the body of the famous Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) is entombed there.

It was built and maintained under the command of the second shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, Ieyasu’s son Hidetada, 19 years before the Great Nikko Toshogu Shrine was built. It’s the oldest Toshogu shrine in Japan!

When entering via the “Romon Gate” you’ll see warrior statues that protect the gate.

Ieyasu Tokugawa overcame all kinds of difficulties in his life which is why he’s respected as a deity for safety for the family, protection against danger, health and longevity as well as academic success. Thus people come here to pray for any of those.

While the spirit of Tokugawa Ieyasu is considered to be the primary deity, called Tosho-Daigongen (東照大権現), there are also secondary ones: the spirits of the famous lords Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) and Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) who were enshrined there after the start of the Meiji period.

Cherry blossoms were at full bloom at the shrine.

There are a few smaller halls and buildings, but the main attraction and the most important one is the “Honden“, the main hall as you can see in the photo below.

The buildings were constructed in the style of Gongen architecture (Gongen-zukuri, 権現造) where the worship hall (Haiden) and the main hall (Honden) form the shape of an “H”.

Using techniques of the Momoyama Era, the buildings were decorated with extravagant wood carvings, gold leaf and colorful Japanese lacquer.

Here you can see a close-up of the wonderful wood carvings.

About 50m behind the main hall, you’ll find the “Shinbyo” that contains his body.

Ieyasu’s grave was relocated to the Nikko Toshogu Shrine by the third shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, Iemitsu. However, a portion of Ieyasu’s deified spirit is considered to still reside on Mt. Kuno.

Here you see the ema (wooden wishing plaque) of the Toshogu Shrine.

Huge barrels of sake, most of them displaying Mt. Fuji.

Not pictured is the “Kunozan Toshogu Shrine Museum” that features about 2000 items, some of them are national treasures such as Ieyasu’s favorite glasses and a Spanish clock. Unfortunately photos weren’t allowed inside the museum.

When you’re done sightseeing, the easiest and most scenic way back is to hike down to the foot of Mt. Kuno from where you can take a bus back to JR Shizuoka Station.

Some people access the sights from here, but as you can see there are a lot of stairs and it’s a steep way up, so I recommend to start at Nihondaira instead and use this route for descending only!

Back down it can be a bit tricky to find the bus stop, so you might want to ask at the shrine before you leave the mountain!

The post Nihondaira and Kunozan Toshogu Shrine appeared first on Zooming Japan.

I hope that some of you can find inspiration for their own Japan vacation.
People also often asked me if it’s crowded during Golden Week. Here you’ll find the answers!

Golden Week 2013 – A short review

As I’ve just achieved my goal of visiting all 47 prefectures and because I’ve been to pretty much everywhere in Japan by now, I decided to go to Tokyo this time!

I haven’t really been in Tokyo ever since 2008 as I’ve explored a lot in my early years here already.

On my first day in Tokyo I visited different flower festivals at shrines. At first I went to the “Fuji Matsuri” (wisteria festival) at Kameido Shrine and later to the “Tsutsuji Matsuri” (azalea festival) at Nezu Shrine which you can see in the photo above.

Tokyo has some really nice spots off the beaten path, you just need to know where to go!

I still had some time in the evening, so I went to the Imperial Palace near Tokyo Station.

You might be surprised to hear that a castle explorer like me has not been there until now!

Photo: Miyakejima as seen from Mikurajima.

I only spent one day in Tokyo. At night I was already in a ferry and on my way to a small island called “Mikurajima“.

It’s a night ferry that will take about 8-9h from Tokyo. I arrived on Mikura Island around 6am in the morning. It’s a long ride and certainly nothing for people who get easily seasick like me!

But there was a reason why I wanted to visit this very small island that belongs to the Izu Islands and is part of Tokyo:

I wanted to swim with dolphins!

Nowhere else in Japan you’ll find so many wild dolphins in one spot, not even on Okinawa or the Ogasawara Islands.

There are around 120 wild Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins around the island.  A dolphin-swimming tour will cost around 7000yen and takes about 2h.

If you need to rent any equipment (e.g. a wetsuit), then it gets more expensive.

My personal experience:

I joined a boat tour with around 6 other people. For all of them it was not the first time and some of them seemed really professional, but for me it was the first time even snorkeling in the ocean. They all gave me a lot of good advice and took care of me. On top of that I was the only foreigner.

The boat would stop whenever we spotted dolphins and then all of us jumped into the water. The first two rounds were quite disappointing for me because I was always too slow and by the time I got there the dolphins were gone.

I took some time to get used to it, but finally I saw them from close-up as well! You’re not allowed to touch them and there are other rules you have to obey, but nevertheless it was a great experience.

I rented an underwater camera, but most of the dolphin photos I will post here in the future were probably taken by the more professional members of my group, so please keep that in mind!

The season is from mid-March to mid-November. The water was around 19°C, so it was ok.

However, getting out of the ocean and sitting in the boat with the cool wind around you, made you shiver quite a bit!

The real adventure actually began on the next day:

In order to get from or to Mikurajima you need to take a ferry. There’s no airport!

There’s only one ferry per day and we were woken up very early in the morning by our minshuku lady, telling us the ferry wouldn’t come today because of strong waves and wind. Quite the shock!

In the end we (= a group of 5-6 people) could take a small charter boat to the next island, Miyakejima.
The island has two ports, so it was more likely that the ferry could get access there.
The trip in the small fishing boat was quite the adventure. The waves were so high that the boat was thrown around like a little toy. Yet we all made it safely to the other island!

You might have heard of Miyake Island. It has an active volcano that just erupted around 20 years ago. Just recently the people returned to the island. And only a few weeks before there were some stronger earthquakes around Miyake Island.
Not the “safest” place to be, I guess.

On Miyake Island a van was waiting for us and brought us to a minshuku where we could stay until the ferry (hopefully) would come in the afternoon. After a small breakfast I decided to explore the island a little bit. After all I was sure that I wouldn’t get another chance to do so!
The other “stranded” people all agreed to join me and so we walked around the island. We found a huge pond (see the photo above) among other things.

My highlight, however, was the “pile of cats” I found right in front of our minshuku.
Aren’t they adorable? Maybe I just found another “Cat Island” without knowing it.

Luckily the ferry came in the afternoon and brought us all back to Tokyo where I crashed into my hotel bed.

Please keep in mind that the ferry often can’t come to Mikurajima in case you’re planning to go there!

On my second day in Tokyo I decided to visit Gotokuji, a cat temple that is said to be the origin of Maneki Neko. It’s a MUST for cat lovers! As you can see there were MILLIONS of Maneki Neko figures.

My next stop was a cat shrine in Asakusa: Imado Shrine.

As I was already in Asakusa I thought I could re-visit a few sights, so I went to the famous Sensoji Temple.

I’m sure most of you have either heard of it or been there already. I can’t remember well, but I think my last visit was in 2007!

I enjoyed the garden there the most – something I haven’t visited before!

Also in Asakusa there’s a really nice “Taiko Shop and Drum Museum“. As I love taiko drums I had to go there!

The best thing about it was that you could play most of the drums there. As I was the ONLY one there (it seems not many people know about this place?), I had a great time trying out all the different drums. I went all out with the huge taiko drum you see in the background!

Finally, I went to Kappabashi. It’s also in Asakusa and famous for its plastic food. I remember going there in 2007.

Let me tell you one thing: the plastic food in Gujo-Hachiman (Gifu Prefecture) is just as good, but much cheaper! I was really shocked to see how expensive everything was compared to 2007!

As the weather wasn’t so good the next day I spontaneously decided to re-visit Hakone.

I hadn’t been there in a long time and still had an old digital camera back then. It was a good chance to take some high quality photos this time!

I also ate some black eggs. Something you’ll only find in Hakone.
They get their black color from the sulfur of the hot springs there and have quite a unique, but good taste. It is said that eating one egg will prolong your life by 7 years. I ate 3 eggs.

I hate the fact that they only sell packs of 5 eggs. What are singles like me gonna do with all of them?

One of my absolute highlights was the Shiba-Zakura Festival in Kawaguchiko! Something I always wanted to see with my own eyes!

From late April to early June you can enjoy those colorful flowers known as shiba-zakura (芝桜) with Mt. Fuji in the background!

It was so beautiful that I couldn’t believe it! The pink was so bright that it almost hurt my eyes!

From JR Kawaguchiko Station there’s a shuttle bus that leaves around every 30 minutes and brings you to the location in about 40 minutes.

It is definitely possible to do a day trip from Tokyo, so if you happen to be in Tokyo from late April to early June, I highly recommend this!

And because I still had some time, I decided to re-visit my beloved Chureito Pagoda in Yoshida, near Kawaguchiko in Yamanashi Prefecture.

You might know this scenery because I have a similar photo in my homepage’s slider selection.

On another day I went to Kawagoe where I have actually never been before!

I tried to find a statue that resembles myself among the 500+ Rakan statues of Kitain Temple.

Kawagoe was packed with people that day. All the popular spots were crowded.

I had to wait a long time to take a photo without too many people in it! Thus I couldn’t enjoy Kawagoe as much as I wanted to.

On the next day I went to Saitama Prefecture yet again (Kawagoe is also in this prefecture). This time my destination was Chichibu where they have another great shiba-zakura park. It’s not as great as the one in Yamanashi, simply because Mt. Fuji is missing, but still very beautiful and closer to travel to if you’re in Tokyo!

Chichibu has more to offer than just that and so I explored the “Festival Hall”, Chichibu Shrine and several smaller temples and shrines. Definitely worth a visit!

On my last day I had to satisfy the castle explorer in me and visited 2 castles in Saitama Prefecture. Both of them aren’t very famous and so I could escape the crowds!

At first I visited Oshi Castle (left photo) in Gyoda City and then Kisai Castle (right photo). Both castles are close to each other, so they can easily be done together.

By coincidence I found out that there was another “Fuji Matsuri” (wisteria festival) near Kisai Castle and so I had a look. I’m glad I went because it was the most beautiful wisteria I’ve ever seen!

And that was my Golden Week vacation this year. You can look forward to detailed posts about each destination in the near future. Make sure to subscribe to my Newsletter, so you won’t miss any future posts!

Travel to Japan during Golden Week: Yes or No?

I was surprised to see so many foreign tourists in and around Tokyo during Golden Week. To be honest I would NEVER deliberately travel to Japan during Golden Week if I had a choice! Accommodation and transportation are more expensive than usual and most interesting spots are PACKED with people so that it’s sometimes hard to fully enjoy them.

This time as well trains were completely full and they had to get out extra buses because not all the people did fit in. That’s how crazy Golden Week can get!

The only reason why I travel during Golden Week is that it’s the time when I have vacation – just like everybody else here in Japan. It’s not something I would recommend.

What’s your personal experience with Golden Week in Japan?
Would you consider coming during that time?

The post My Golden Week 2013 – A Short Review appeared first on Zooming Japan.

Visited: April 5th 2012

Momijiyama Garden: A place of beauty and tradition

Momijiyama Garden (紅葉山庭園) is located within Sunpu Park next to Sunpu Castle in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture (map).

It’s a rather small garden, but nonetheless beautiful and worth a visit if you have a few extra minutes to spare. You can even get a combined ticket for the garden and the castle (check out the “tourist information” table at the end of this post for more details).

The garden displays Japan’s beautiful scenery in 4 different sub-gardens:

Garden of the Village (里の庭: Sato no Niwa）

Right upon entering you’ll see a lot of different flowers, plants and a wooden pavilion. There’s a wooden bridge that is surrounded by irises in late May / early June.

Garden of the Mountain Village (山里の庭: Yamazato no Niwa)

The small hill you see in the photo represents a miniature Mt. Fuji and is located in the center of the garden. If you stand on top of the hill, you’ll have a great view of the whole garden.

In addition, the plants which decorate the lower part represent the terraced tea fields of Shizuoka.

Garden of the Sea (海の庭: Umi no Niwa)

If you stand between all the pines and face the pond with the sandy white beach below, it feels like you’re at the seashore.

The rocks in the pond and on the opposite shore symbolize the scenic Izu area which is known for its beautiful landscapes.

Garden of the Mountain (山の庭: Yama no Niwa)

There are two different, very small waterfalls. They symbolize the beautiful mountain landscape of Japan.

Unkai Tearoom:

There’s also a tearoom (not pictured) which is called Unkai (雲海, lit.: sea of clouds).  It’s a large house that is used for various occasions such as tea ceremony, flower arrangement, exhibitions or haiku parties.

It’s a beautiful small garden, but yet there’s so much to see. Personally I really liked it!

If you have a few minutes and 150 yen to spare, then definitely go!

After spending the early morning in the Sunpu Castle Park, I was off to visit Nihondaira around noon. Usually it offers an extremely beautiful view of the ocean and Mt. Fuji, but stay tuned to see if that’s really true!

The post Momijiyama Garden in Shizuoka’s Sunpu Park appeared first on Zooming Japan.

Visited: April 5th 2012

The History of Sunpu Castle

Sunpu Castle – or Sumpu Castle (駿府城) – is located in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture (map). The nickname of Sunpu Castle was originally “Castle of the Floating Isle.” Other common names were Fuchu Castle (府中城) or Shizuoka Castle (静岡城).

About 650 years ago, Japan was still a group of small provinces. At that time Shizuoka Prefecture was a province called “Suruga” and was ruled by the Imagawa family. The original Sunpu Castle was a fortified palace built by Imagawa Norimasa in the 1400s.

The famous Tokugawa Ieyasu spent his childhood there as a hostage of the Imagawa Family. Yet he received the finest education of that time.

After being freed from captivity, the adult Ieyasu started to gain control over Suruga. From 1585 to 1589 he built Sunpu Castle.

In 1600 he defeated Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the well-known Battle of Sekigahara. As a result, Ieyasu became the first shogun who was successful in unifying all the provinces of Japan to form one peaceful country.

In 1605 Ieyasu passed the title of shogun to his son, Hidetada, and then moved to Sunpu Castle where he expanded the castle layout by constructing a third bailey. The current layout of the city of Shizuoka is based on Lord Ieyasu’s plans from that era.

The main keep of Sunpu Castle had to be rebuilt a few times. After a fire burnt down the main keep (and other castle buildings) in 1635 it was never rebuilt.

Like many other castles in the early Meiji Period (1868-1912) it was dismantled and the moats were filled in.

The Remains of Sunpu Castle

The layout of Sunpu Castle is a typical example of the Rinkaku style (輪郭式, rinkaku-shiki) of Japanese castles where the main keep (honmaru, 本丸) is surrounded by moats and two additional courtyards called “Ni-no-Maru” (二の丸) and “San-no-Maru” (三の丸). Using this style increased the defense force of the castle in every possible direction.

Besides Sunpu Castle, Yamagata Castle is also a good example where this arrangement has been used.

In 1889 the castle grounds became property of Shizuoka City.

The “Ni-no-Maru” became “Sunpu Park” and the “San-no-Maru” has many public buildings standing inside its walls. One of them is the Prefectural Office that you can see in the background.

Rebuilt were only the East Gate (on the left) and the Tatsumi-Yagura Tower (on the right).

The East Gate was burnt down in a fire in 1635 (just like many other castle buildings), but rebuilt in 1638. The current version was reconstructed in 1996 with traditional Japanese architectural methods that use no nails.

Nowadays you’ll find a lot of information about the original castle structures inside the rebuilt  ”Tatsumi Yagura” (Arsenal Tower), like the castle miniature model you see in the photo above.

Tatsumi (巽) means that the tower was positioned in the southeast corner of the castle grounds. Yagura (櫓) describes a storage place for arrows. It was used for storing weapons, food and supplies. It also served as a lookout tower during battles.

It’s a L-shaped tower which is rare in Japan. It was also the tallest tower on the Sunpu Castle grounds, but burnt down in 1635. The current version was reconstructed in 1990.

The arsenal tower also features a detailed miniature layout of the original castle grounds.

This is the third and innermost moat of Sunpu Castle. It was filled with earth and stone in 1896, but later excavations located the aqueduct and the southeast corner of the moat.

A stone in the center of the park with the inscription: Sunpu Castle (駿府城, sunpu-jou)

The park is quite spacious and gives you a good idea of how big the original castle layout must have been. There’s also a small Japanese Garden which will be featured in the next post.

While this is certainly not one of my favorite castles, there’s no doubt that it’s one of the most important castles in Shizuoka Prefecture. If you are in Shizuoka I recommend visiting. After all it’s close to the JR Station and the park is nice for a walk!

Like most castle parks I highly recommend visiting in spring as it’s most beautiful then! If you’re a little bit late, the moats might be filled with pink cherry blossom petals which is also very pretty!

My day in Shizuoka had just started. I managed to see a lot more, so stay tuned to see where I went afterwards.
In order to never miss any updates and new blog posts, I recommend you subscribe to the RSS feed of my blog or sign up for my free newsletter to get fresh and instant updates via email!

The post Sunpu Castle in Shizuoka appeared first on Zooming Japan.

Visited: April 4th 2012

Access to Tanaka Castle

Tanaka Castle is located in Fujieda City, Shizuoka Prefecture (map), but the closest JR Station is called “Nishi-Yaizu”.

It might be a little bit tricky to find the castle if you don’t know any Japanese, so I hope my directions will help you to find it:

From Nishi-Yaizu Station walk straight until you reach the first traffic light, then turn right. Keep walking straight until you reach another traffic light, then turn left. Keep walking straight. You’ll first have to walk under a bridge, then a little later, over a bridge. Walk straight for a while until you pass by a gas station which comes right after the bridge on the right side.

At the next traffic light walk still straight and shortly after that you turn right into a small side street. You can see the castle from the main street already, so it shouldn’t be a problem!

The Historical Site of the Villa of Tanaka Castle

Tanaka Castle (田中城) was built about 500 years ago by the Isshiki family under the orders of Lord Imagawa. The castle was surrendered to Lord Takeda Shingen in 1570. He was the one who ordered to build the moats and modern castle fortifications.

Later the castle was controlled by Tokugawa Ieyasu who sometimes spent time there when he wanted to get away from nearby Sunpu Castle in Shizuoka City.

Four moats were set up around the castle during the Edo period. Because of that the castle grounds have a circular layout which is rare in Japan.

Nowadays you’ll find the Nishi Mashizu Elementary School on the castle grounds.

At the beginning of the Meiji period, Tanaka Castle was destroyed – just like many other castles. The buildings and the land were sold to ordinary people.

Some of the original buildings were donated to Fujieda City when the reconstruction of the villa garden was carried out (1992-1996).

In the picture above you see the entrance gate: Gate of Kabuki.

It was rebuilt using an original blueprint.

The main turret of Tanaka Castle was designated as Tangible Cultural Property in 1993. It is a 2-storied wooden building with a copper roof. The yagura was reconstructed in 1992 to serve as a local history museum.

That’s how the turret looks from the inside.

Old costumes are displayed. As it is all wooden, you’ll find fire extinguishers everywhere!

Of course, you are not allowed to smoke anywhere on the castle grounds.

Here you can see the four castle moats and the circular shape they’re forming around the castle grounds.

The castle is located next to a small river: Rokken River.

The small park around the castle has some more buildings such as a tea ceremony house as well as a small Japanese-style garden.

Villa Garden (reconstructed):

The reconstructed garden is only half of the size of the original one. The original one is said to have consisted of a small artificial mountain called “Tsukiyama”, a miniature lake called “Sensui”, a tea ceremony house and a small shrine.

There’s still the bank of one of the castle moats in the garden nowadays.

Visitors’ Information:

Upon entering through the entrance gate, you’ll find a small information booth to your right. You can only enter the castle turret with one of the guides for preservation reasons. There might be instances where you cannot enter the interior, e.g. bad weather conditions.

The guides there are really nice and there is no admission fee. I received an English pamphlet, but I’m not sure if the guides can speak English.

The area around the castle grounds is also quite nice. On the left you see Rokken River and on the right Tanaka Castle’s turret.

If you have some time, you should take a walk along the river.

As many cities in Japan Fujieda City (藤枝) also has its own manhole cover.

As you can see it doesn’t feature the castle. After all Tanaka Castle is not that famous.

Source: Most of the information found here was taken from the English pamphlet released by the Fujieda City Board of Education.

After visiting so many great sights in one day: Hamamatsu Castle, Hamamatsu Festival Pavilion, Nakatajima Sand Dunes and Kakegawa Castle, the castle in Fujieda was my last destination of the day. I didn’t have to rush at all, so you can probably stick to a similar itinerary!

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“C’mon earthquakes happen almost every single day in Japan! What makes this one special?”, you ask? Read on and you’ll know!

I don’t want to wake up like that ever again

It was early in the morning on Saturday (April 13th, 2013). I was deeply asleep when suddenly I was woken up by my smartphone’s disaster alarm, a loud alarm outside and some terrible shaking! Immediately I was awake and jumped out of bed!

I saw one of my big shelves shaking like crazy while things kept falling down from it.
My heart was beating very fast and I wasn’t sure what to do: “Should I run over to the shelf to catch the items that are about to fall down or should I hide somewhere?”

I rushed under my room’s door frame, just hoping that the shaking would stop!
My body was probably shaking more than the room and the loud alarms were just adding to the scary atmosphere.

After a few seconds everything around me finally calmed down.
Immediately I ran to my laptop to find out what had happened. I wanted to know where the epicenter was, how strong the quake was and if there was a tsunami warning.
As I don’t have a TV or radio, the internet was my only option.

And then I saw it:

M6.3 quake hits Awaji Island

Click on the image for a detailed map.

Map source: tenki.jp

The epicenter was near Awaji Island, a small island not too far from Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture.

It had a magnitude of 6 (M6.3) on most of Awaji Island and M4 in many areas of Hyogo and Osaka Prefectures. As you can see the earthquake could be felt even in Kyushu! Here’s a detailed list of the affected areas. No tsunami warning was issued.

The great Hanshin Earthquake – Round 2?

What makes this earthquake special and what shocked many people is that the epicenter was just a few kilometers away from that of the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995. Back then parts of Awaji Island and Kobe were severely damaged and over 6000 people lost their lives.
The Hanshin Earthquake had a magnitude of 7.2 and is considered to be one of the most destructive earthquakes in Japan in modern times besides the big one in March 2011 (M9) and the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 (M7.9).

Between yesterday’s earthquake and the destructive Hanshin Earthquake there are more similarities than just the location of the epicenter!

It also happened at almost the exact same time! Yesterday’s quake hit at 5:33am, the Hanshin one shook people awake at 5:46am! The magnitude levels weren’t that different either! M6.3 (2013) vs. M7.2* (1995)! (*I’m using the JMA scale for all of these.)

However, the “earthquake’s nature” was completely different. Co-workers told me that the Hanshin quake shook the earth vertically (up and down) whereas this time it was a horizontal quake (shaking from side to side). I’m no expert, so I can’t tell what kind of movement causes more damage.

Because of all these similarities a lot of people were in a state of shock as they remembered what happened back in 1995 and were afraid the same would happen again. An official was so confused(?) that he sent out a missile alert instead of an earthquake alert!

Luckily the infrastructure, the architecture, the alarm systems and security standards have improved a lot in the past 18 years. While a few houses were damaged, there was no major destruction. Around 24 people were reported to be injured, nobody died.
In many parts of Kansai trains stopped for a few hours to undergo security checks, but resumed service later that day. A few households, mainly on Awaji Island, were without gas, water and / or electricity for a while.

Map source: Yahoo Japan

There were a lot of aftershocks on April 13th, but none of them was really strong enough to cause any additional damage. Officials said that there might be more aftershocks within the next few days, so people should stay alert.

Every time I felt an aftershock I froze and my heart was beating faster. Nobody could be sure if the big one in the morning was just a foreshock or already the “real thing”.

Misbelief: Japanese people are used to quakes

I know that people who live in the Kanto or Tohoku regions find this probably rather amusing, but people around here (Western Japan) aren’t necessarily used to stronger earthquakes! Most of my students said it was their first “real” earthquake! For me it was also the first real quake experience since I moved to Japan over 5 years ago!

I think it’s a great misbelief that all Japanese people are used to quakes. Of course, they grow up being aware of the omnipresent danger and they have drills and safety lessons in kindergarten and school, but most of them have never really experienced a strong earthquake!

I lived in Western Chugoku area previously and even the elderly had no noteworthy earthquake experience. I remember that one of my female co-workers jumped under a table when the earth was suddenly shaking for just a few seconds. I didn’t even realize that it was an earthquake and just stared at her, asking what she was doing under the table. And yes, she’s Japanese!

Will Japan be safe in the near future?

It seems that this time there was only minor damage. We were lucky, but who knows when the next big one will hit … and where?

Just recently Russian experts said they predict a strong earthquake in Japan by the end of 2014.

Scientists say that Mt. Fuji might erupt by 2015.

Tokai earthquakes happen every 100-150 years, so the next one is already due – people are expecting it to happen soon.

And there’s also the megalomaniac North Korea that declared earlier this week it would turn Japan into a battlefield and would choose Tokyo as its main target.

Despite all that I’d still say it’s safe enough to come to Japan!

How about you?

• Have you ever experienced an earthquake?
• How strong was it?
• What happened exactly and how did you deal with it?

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Visited: April 4th 2012

Where is Kakegawa Castle?

Kakegawa Castle (掛川城) is located in Shizuoka Prefecture (map) and on clear days you can even see the top of Mt. Fuji from there!

It’s really easy to get to the castle in a short (10-15 min.) walk from the JR Kakegawa Station.

You’ll probably enter through Kakegawa Castle’s Yotsuashimon (Four Legs Gate, 四足門).

There’s a small model of the original castle grounds right next to the gate.

Kakegawa Castle’s origins

Kakegawa Castle was built about 500 years ago by Yoshitada Imagawa who was the lord governing the area at that time.

There were a lot of Civil Wars and the Imagawa family gradually lost their power. Eventually Katsutoyo Yamauchi, who was a vassal of the Toyotomi clan, became the lord of Kakegawa Castle.

Lord Yamauchi renovated the damaged castle and ordered the construction of the first castle tower of Kakegawa Castle.

During the Edo period Kakegawa Castle greatly flourished.

A big earthquake in 1854 destroyed most of the castle (including the tower) and in 1869 it collapsed completely.

The ruins of the castle were used as a park and in 1993 the castle tower was rebuilt. It was the first tower in Japan to be rebuilt with wood.

Kakegawa Castle’s Main Tower

The tower stands nowadays at a height of almost 20m above the ground. From the outside it looks like there are only three levels, but actually there are four stories inside.

According to the Kakegawa Castle pamphlet some experts say that the castle tower’s white-plastered appearance was modeled after Jurakutei (聚楽第) in Kyoto and the black-laquered balcony and railing after the castle tower of Osaka Castle.

“Karahafu” is what the triangular part of the roof is called – formed by the sloping eaves characteristic of the architecture of those days.

The windows of the 2nd floor are in the “Katomado” style, a window type used in zen temple structures.

Here you can see the palace “Goten” that was constructed in the latter part of the Edo era. It was the place where official ceremonies were held, but it was also the official residence of the lord. Furthermore it was used as a government office.

The palace is within the castle grounds and offers a great view of the castle’s main tower.

The “Goshoin-kami-no-ma” is where visitors were permitted to meet the lord. It is the central room of the palace.

It has a typical Japanese “Tokonoma” (床の間), a special alcove decorated with a hanging scroll (chosen according to the season) and flower arrangements.

Inside the palace there’s another detailed model of the former castle buildings.

As you can see the weather was extremely beautiful and the cherry blossoms where in full bloom. I enjoyed my stay there a lot!

In 2012 the cherry blossoms were not as early as in 2013. When I went to Chiba and Kanagawa first, there were almost no cherry blossoms yet, but Shizuoka Prefecture is always a bit earlier than Tokyo and surroundings. You might want to keep that in mind if you ever travel to the Kanto or Chubu area in early April.

The surrounding park is really nice! They have planted so many different trees! I fell in love with the weeping cherry blossom tree you can see in the photo above.

I’m sure that the park will be a blast even if you visit outside of cherry blossom season.

The castle tower is rather small and it’s “only” a reconstruction, but because of its location (so close to Mt. Fuji and on a small hill) I really liked it!

It’s certainly a castle I can recommend visiting if you are in Shizuoka Prefecture. If you are a castle fan, then it’s a must!

The castle park is very clean and is regularly taken care of.

On your way between the JR station and the castle you’ll find these manhole covers that are displaying Kakegawa Castle.

You’d think after I had visited 2 castles, a festival hall and sand dunes that my day was over at that point, but NO! It was still afternoon when I left to explore yet another castle in Shizuoka Prefecture: Tanaka Castle
Yes, three castles in one day! Not too bad, huh?

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Visited: April 4th 2012

 Exploring the Nakatajima Sand Dunes

The sand dunes are located in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture (map), and are only a few steps away from the Hamamatsu Festival Pavilion, so it’s a good idea to visit both in one go. For access information please refer to the information box at the end of this post.

One of Japan’s three largest sand dunes

The Nakatajima sand dunes are one of Japan’s three largest sand dunes besides the ones in Tottori City (Tottori Prefecture) and the Kujuukurihama (Chiba Prefecture, map).

I’ve not been to the one in Chiba, but I’ve been to the famous sand dunes in Tottori and they were really breathtaking! If you ask me the sand dunes in Tottori are the best in Japan! Once I post about them, you’ll understand why.

If you visit the festival pavilion in Hamamatsu, it’s definitely worth to check out the sand dunes as well. If you’ve never seen sand dunes in Japan, it’ll be a nice experience, but for the “real thing” you definitely should go to Tottori instead.

You don’t need much time. I also only spent about 10 minutes there. If you don’t have a busy schedule, I recommend taking a walk.

The sand dunes are stretching 4km from east to west and 600m from north to south. It’s just a few steps to the Pacific Ocean.

Sand dunes in Japan? How come?

The Nakatajima Sand Dunes were created by sediment deposits that came from the Southern Japanese Alps. The Tenryu River brought it all the way into the Pacific Ocean. As the sea currents and wind are quite strong there, sand is brought from the bottom up onto the shore. The wind will constantly change the shape and look of the sand dunes. While the sand dunes have been around for several thousands of years, the area has been decreasing ever since. In the past 40 years the shoreline shrank by roughly 200m.

On a windy day you can see “ripple marks” in the sand.

I was pretty much the only one there on that day. It’s a lot of fun to leave your footprints in the sand!

The Hamamatsu Kite Festival takes place at the Nakatajima Sand Dunes from May 3rd to 5th. It’s also a great place to see a wonderful sunset or sunrise! Many people come to see the first sunrise of the year on New Year’s Day (hatsuhinode, 初日の出).

Since March 2011 you have tsunami warning signs almost everywhere, but I found this one extremely cute!

After visiting Hamamatsu Castle, the Hamamatsu Festival Pavilion and the Nakatajima Sand Dunes I still had enough time to go somewhere else. My next stop of the day was Kakegawa Castle which is also in Shizuoka Prefecture.

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