Impressions

A happy constitutional memorial day!

At least that is what's being celebrated today in Japan. You can see a lot a flags and a bunch of places are closed, including the university. That doesn't keep me away though since this is the only place where I can get internet at the moment. Yes, you heard right. I hope you can accept my apology for not posting anything earlier now...

Apart from the technical difficulties of not having internet at home, I was quite busy with other stuff. New long time arrivals in Japan are required to go to the town hall and register their address, go to the bank and open an account, and get a stamp seal that is used to officially sign paperwork. On top of that I am still in the process of furnishing my new place and getting all utilities in order. Deadlines for scholarship applications are also coming up. On top of that everything is in Japanese. Having to translate every document takes a long time even though my advisor and the other students are helping me where they can. To be honest, I wouldn't have been able to do most of the stuff without them. Believe me when I say that 10 hour work days are currently the norm.

But enough of my struggles. I believe you are interested in seeing some impressions of my new life. Good thing I was able to get a bit of exploring done on the weekend. You see, the name of the city I live in is "Yamagata" which means "surrounded by mountains". Indeed, it doesn't matter in which direction you look there will be mountains. Here is a picture of the upstream direction of the river close to my home.

Downstream you can even see mountains with snowy peaks in the distance.

And of course, being in Japan, a temple is never far away. This is the Yamagata prefecture "Gokoku" shrine. Impeccable condition as expected. Not many people though. Probably because of the pandemic and the rather poor weather. I certainly took this opportunity to thank the gods for finally being able to come to Japan.

From there I made my way to the site of Yamagata Castle, or "Ka-jō" as it is called in Japanese. I was told it was one of the largest flat land castles in Japan, and having walked around its entry castle wall I can attest to that claim. A few cherry trees still bloomed so I was pretty lucky to witness the last moments of the annual season.

Not much of the castle remains except for the large moat, parts of the stone wall, the earthen ramparts surrounding the castle, and some ruins. A few places have been restored but I'd say it is less than 10 percent. In the old days there were two inner rings and an entire castle town. Today there is a big park, some museums and a stadium. Because of all the trees on the wall it has become the best place to see cherry blossoms. Here is the reconstructed bridge across the moat of the second ring.

This is the reconstructed inner gate of the eastern main entrance.

Here I am standing on the eastern bridge across the outer moat. The high speed train, called "Shinkansen" in Japanese, drives right by the castle. This is a famous spot for photographers. There were about five of them ready to take a picture of the next train when I was there.

This is a statue of Mogami Yoshiaki. The Mogami clan was in charge of the province during the era of warring states, "Sengoku Jidai", and afterwards during the time of the Tokugawa Shogunate. He was the one who oversaw the construction of the initial layout of the castle. It was later added on by other descendants of his clan.

I then paid a visit to the "temple town" of Yamagata. Here you will find a lot of temples in all shapes and sizes, each having their own small cemetery. The largest is "Senshoji" temple. Its roof is just massive. I am afraid the picture doesn't quite do it justice.

I have to say though that Japanese cemeteries are very beautiful. As much as I don't like taking pictures of graves I hope that I will be forgiven for my intrusion. If my final resting place looks like this I reckon I could forgive an awestruck foreigner for wanting to share.

What most of the temples have in common are stone lanterns in all kinds of shapes and sizes. I particular like the ones that are just made up out of two large natural boulders with the hand crafted lantern in the middle. I can't really put my finger on what it is I like about them. If I had to guess it would be their simplicity.

Anyway, this is it for now. On Thursday I will meet my old friend Isoji from my last visit to Japan. We will meet halfway in Fukushima (no, not the radiated part) and enjoy our reunion with a local sightseeing tour and a stay at a traditional Japanese inn, "ryokan" in Japanese. I am very much looking forward to it and I am sure I will have more to report afterwards. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Nils