Better than you think. Ekiben.

Though I'm just in the early stages of planning this trip, one thing that I do know already is that we'll be taking the train to take us from one place to another.

This being Japan, even the food that is served aboard trains is taken very seriously.

The bento, or lunchbox, is the Japanese solution to eating on the go.  A kind of bento sub-genre, or some might say a whole separate cuisine, is the "ekiben."

The word comes from "eki-uri bento," which literally means "station box meal"  and they are sold at train stations across Japan and are standard fare on Shinkansen (bullet train).

Ekiben come in countless styles, varying by ingredients that reflect both the season of the year and the location that the box originates in.  Amazing to think that the food in the box actually changes with the season.  In the US, the contents would be the same all year round.  We're so boring.

Ekiben are served in all sorts of containers (is there a Hello Kitty one?) but mostly in the style of the basic bento -- a shallow box divided into sections with different food in each, along with a portion of rice.

The history of the ekiben is that it originated in the late 1800s as the rail network spread throughout Japan. Local stations competed to offer bentos to the passengers and to show off their local delicacies.

Originally, they were sold by peddlers to passengers who called out to them from the carriage widows. Later, speed became the focus of the train schedules, and it became impossible to stop long enough to buy the local ekiben, but the tradition continues. Today,  ekiben are served on Japan's express trains and "shinkansen" bullet trains and ekiben can be bought from kiosks located all along the station's platforms.

Ekiben are easy to buy and relatively speaking, cheap eats.  Prices range from as low as ¥300 for a small snack bento to above  ¥3000 yen for elaborate bentos. Most full meal size bentos are in the ¥700 to  ¥1200 yen range. 

They say that the best ekiben provide a small window into the regional cuisine and culture of the place where the bento is produced and that the people who make and sell these bentos do so with great thought and pride in what they do.  For me, they'll be a fun way and hopefully, a tasty way to enjoy what otherwise might be a very boring train ride!

Only in Japan. Is it real?

Doesn't that picture of sushi look yummy?  Drool on all you want because you can't eat it.  Why?  Because it's fake.  Yep, plastic to the core.

Japan is known for its fake food....usually seen in the showcase window of a restaurant.  Of course, the displays of fake food are intended to attract customers, advertise menus and whet appetites. In our case, they will likely serve as things we can point to indicate to our server what it is we want to eat since we can neither read nor speak Japanese :-)

For some inextricable reason, I love the fake food.  To me, it's art - realism in 3D.  

There is a history to how all this got started in Japan.  Turns out what has become a custom was born from contact with the West.

As told in an article from http://www.japanwelcomesyou.com/,

"In the Meiji era at the end of the 19th century, Japanese restaurant-goers were frequently confounded by the strange new Western cuisines flooding into the country. Even with Japanese translations of menu items, most guests had no idea what they were ordering. To help, many restaurants took the expensive and space-consuming means of preparing samples for their customers to peruse. To cut costs, some restaurants provided elaborate drawings or photos. But these one-dimensional presentations did not pique many appetites. The Meiji era slowly gave way to Taisho and then to Showa with little change.

Enter an entrepreneur from Gifu. Takizo Iwasaki was a young man bent on making an impact in the business world. By 1926 -- the first year of Showa -- Iwasaki had yet to find his niche. So he left Gifu for Osaka in search of his fortune.

Life was hard for Iwasaki in Osaka as well until one day -- perhaps while eating a rice omelet in a crowded lunch shop -- something clicked in his imagination. He remembered the wax models of the human body on display at most Japanese apothecaries and the wax fruit and vegetables used in school nutrition classes and thought: "Why not!"

Iwasaki hurried back to his cramped apartment and -- after days of trial and error -- finally perfected a wax model of a rice omelet. Other models followed. Then he loaded them on his bicycle to see if any shops would buy his replica food. To his joy, they all did.

Even among imitators, success leads to imitation, and Iwasaki soon had competitors across Japan. Yet the company he founded in his Osaka apartment -- Iwasaki Be-I -- remains the largest purveyor of replica food to this day.

Wax eventually gave way to high quality plastic."

.....and Japan has not been the same since.  But let's be real, there's plastic food being made all around the world but I think few people would dispute the fact that the Japanese have taken it to a whole different level.  I read somewhere that there are even competitions to find the *best* fake.  I've seen replicas that are so realistic that if not for the plastic sheen on them, you wouldn't know the stuff was fake.

Apparently, pieces that are  displayed in a restaurant's showcase window are often exact copies of the restaurant's entire menu.  The fake food is meticulously hand modeled after the real thing and so it's not cheap to make.  Duplicating a restaurant’s entire menu could cost anywhere from hundreds of thousands of yen to more than a million.  So, not surprisingly, there is an entire industry that makes its money making fake food which is sold throughout Japan.  In Tokyo, there is a district called Kappabashi where there is a concentration of establishments that sell supplies to restaurants and it's where you can go to buy fake food.

I have to go to Kappabashi to pick up a fake piece or two that I will display as artwork in my kitchen. Now if I can only convince my brother that going to Kappabashi is a good thing!

Where shoguns lie. Nikko.

Although I'm sure there's plenty of stuff to see and do in Tokyo to keep us fully occupied, I'm thinking of squeezing in a side trip or two. When I did a search on "side trips from Tokyo", Nikko kept popping up.

Located just 125 km and short train ride north of Tokyo, Nikko is a small town nestled in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture in Japan. Nikko is situated among Japans' most spectacular lakes, hot springs, waterfalls and mountain scenery.

Strolling through a serene forest will be a welcome break from pounding the concrete pavement in Tokyo. Some peace and quiet. Tranquility. In fact, Nikko is home to Cedar Avenue which is a 35km long road lined with with approximately 13,000 cryptomeria (cedar) trees, known as Sugi, the national tree of Japan. Cedar Avenue has the distinctio of being listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest tree-lined avenue in the world. It is also the only cultural property designated by the Japanese Government as both a Special Historic Site and a Special Natural Monument. And you thought it was just an ordinary tree lined road :-)

The cedar trees were planted approximately 400 years ago by Matsudaira Masatsuna, a feudal lord serving Tokugawa Ieyasu, who donated them to the Nikkō Tōshō-gū. This monumental project was begun around 1625 and required about 20 years to be completed. It is estimated that some 200,000 cedars were planted at this time

But more historically important, Nikko is most famous for the mausoleums of the Tokugawa shoguns, which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List and has been considered to be a sacred place since the 8th century, when a Buddhist hermitage was established here.

The Toshogu Shrine is the main attraction of Nikko.  It is a Shinto shrine that is the burial place of Tokugawa Ieyasu who founded the Tokugawa Shogunate, a military dynasty that ruled Japan from 1603 to 1867.

Tokugawa Hidetada built Toshogu in 1617 to enshrine his father Tokugawa Ieyasu, in accordance with instructions in his will. Later, Iemitsu, the grandson of Ieyasu, carried out extensive renovation work on the shrine to give it its present form. The shrine took 2 years to complete with the efforts of 15,000 workers

The Shinto shrines in Nikko are reputed to be gaudiest shrines in all of Tokyo and I think Toshogu tops the list.  It has been described as a riot of color, gold, and carvings, with birds and flowers, dancing maidens, and sages encricling the building.

The most famous symbol of Toshogu is the Yomeimon Gate otherwise known as the Gate of Sunlight.  Yomeimon, which is an incredibly ornately carved gate with over 400 carvings squeezed in, is considered by many people as the most beautiful gate in Japan.  Yomeimon is designated an Important Cultural Property by the Japanese government and a World Cultural and Natural Heritage site by UNESCO.

Another of the  famous elements of Toshogu is the Sacred Stable, where a white imperial horse is kept (a gift of New Zealand). The stable's fame derives from the original carving depicting the three wise monkeys, "Hear no evil, Speak no evil, See no evil.".  Apparently, the carving of the monkeys has become so popular that it overshadows other more historically signficant elements of the shrine.  They are kind of cute though I never thought the saying was Japanese in origin.  Who knew?

Other famous carvings at Toshogu include a sleeping cat and an odd rendering of an elephant by an artist who had apparently never seen one.   I have to find the sleeping cat and take a picture of it for my friend Lei who is a cat lover.

Located nearby to Toshogu is Futarasan Shrine. Futarasan Shrine was founded in 782 by Shodo Shonin, the Buddhist monk who introduced Buddhism to Nikko and who also founded nearby Rinnoji Temple.

Futarasan Shrine is dedicated to the kami ("Shinto gods") of Nikko's three most sacred mountains Mt. Nantai, Mt. Nyoho and Mt. Taro. Futarsan is the oldest Shinto shrine in Nikko.

Rinnoji is a complex of 15 Buddhist temple buildings located stone's throw from Futarasan.  Rinnoji is Nikko's most important temple. It was founded by Shodo Shonin, the Buddhist monk who introduced Buddhism to Nikko in the 8th century. A statue in his honor graces the temple park. In its heyday, Rinnoji was a popular retreat for ascetic monks to meditate in the mountains, and it increased in importance until at one time it had 500 subtemples under its rule.
 
The temple's main building, the Sanbutsudo, houses large, gold lacquered, wooden statues of Amida, Senju-Kannon ("Kannon with a thousand arms") and Bato-Kannon ("Kannon with a horse head"). The three deities are regarded as Buddhist manifestations of Nikko's three mountain kami ("Shinto gods") enshrined at Futarasan.
 

Nearby Sanbutsudo is an extensive and beautiful Japanese meditation garden, Shoyoen Garden, which of course would be a must-see for us.

For ¥1000, we can buy a ticket that covers admission to Toshogu, Futarasan and Rinnoji.  Entry to Shoyoen Garden is an exra ¥300.  Not a bad price to pay for the opportunity of seeing three UNESCO World Heritage sites.


Okay, after having read up on Nikko, I've decided that spending a day in Nikko is a must so I'll now have to figure out how to work in a side trip from Tokyo!

I love a festival! The Takayama Sanno Matsuri.

The tiny town of Takayama, located in the region of Japan that is referred to as the Japanese Alps, plays host to two seasonal grand festivals (or matsuries) each year - the Sanno Matsuri in spring and Hachiman Matsuri in the fall. By all accounts, the Takayma Sanno Matsuri is one of the most beautiful festivals in Japan.

The Takayama Sanno Matsuri began about 350 years ago as a simple village ceremony.  It is the annual festival of the Hie Jinja Shrine which was originally built in 1141.  Today, the matsuri still takes place at the shrine but it's no longer a small village ceremony.  It's now a major event for this town and draws visitors from all over Japan as well as from around the world.

The Sanno Matsuri takes place on April 14th and 15th and is held to pray for a good harvest.  The highlight of the two day festival takes place on the second day and it's a procession of twelve magnificent wheeled yatai (float) dating from the 16th century which are pulled through the strees of the town.

The festivals are famous for the large ornate floats, or yatai.  The floats date back to the 17th century, and are sumptuously decorated, both on the outside and the inside, with intricate carvings, gilded wood,  detailed metal-work, rich tapestries, and lacquer finishes.  There are 25 floats in all; 12 are for the Sanno Matsuri, 11 for the Hachiman Matsuri and 2 are reserved for other functions. 

In olden days, the wealthy artisants and tradesmen of Takayama were prohibited from using their wealth to upgrade their social standings. So, they used their wealth in beautify their daily lives. The festival was one outlet for their wealth. Several households would come together to construct a yatai with each member donating his share according to his means.  Thus, each float was jointly owned by a community.  Over the years, the yatais became more and more extravagant and each community of float builders larger and larger.  Today, each of the floats represents a specific district in Takayama.

Although the festivities don't begin until six weeks later, the Sanno Matsuri actually starts on March 1st, when the order of the proccesion of festival yatai is decided.

On April 14th a ritual ceremony takes place at Hie Jinja shrine.  If the weather is not rainy or dreary (to prevent damage), the yatai are lined up before dusk. Once evening falls, Japanese lanterns are lit on each of the floats and a procession with hundreds of towns people wearing traditional costumes, begins.

April 15th is a highlight of the festival.  Leading off the procession of the 12 dazzling floats is a procession of towns people performing traditional music and dance. 

A unique feature of several of the yatais are the karakuri (marionettes) tthat adorn the float.  The marionettes are skillfully manipulated by teams of puppeteers, ridng inside the float, using a complex arrangement of cables and levers so as to make the karakuri move in a lifelike manner, with gestures, turns and other movements.

I found a snippet of the performance of this marionette on a YouTube video.  Watch how the face changes from the start to the end of the performance.  Amazing!


The festival finishes with another ritual ceremony at the shrine. 

After having read and seen all the images of the Takayama Matsuri, there's no doubt that I have to witness this unique ceremony.  Crossing my fingers that we make it happen!!