Leaving Nasu
On a chair in Niki Museum
(Please note that this was posted 36 hours after originally intended)
Hello everyone!
I mentioned in my previous post that we saw some fireflies on our first night in Nasu. I was able to snag one of Renato's photos of them. :)
04 July 2009 was a wonderful day in Nasu! We did many things and even took a few photos along the way. :)
After breakfast at Arutany guest house, we made our way to Niki Museum, dedicated to the works of the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle. I'm afraid that I have no appreciation for most modern art, but I know many women who would apprecaite seeing her feminine artwork. Some of her art seems to have been crafted in anguish, and that is the stuff I found most disturbing among the pieces of hers which were present. She and her life-long partner createed many large outdoor works, including many both inspired by, and quite close to each other, in Tuscany.
After that, we went for lunch where I had among my dishes one of my favourite Japanese foods, konnyaku. Yum yum! :) Leo basically passed-out for the entire time we were at lunch.
After lunch we drove to a different place in Nasu (which is like a large rural connection of small villages) to see, and maybe enter, some onsen (hot springs, 温泉). After driving for some time, we found a place which apparently is the source of water for many of the onsen in the area. Its strong aroma of sulphur may serve as a deterrent for many tourists, but the area was relatively busy. We encountered a relatively long (but thin) snake along the way so we changed our route. The meeting with the sname was serendipitous because we eventually made our way along the alternate route to the Onsen Shrine (温泉神社).
After taking photos of the main shrine, we descended some stairs and made our way to a distinctly Buddhist area. From there we saw many statues of the bodhisattva Jizo (地蔵, Skt. Ksatriya) along with a sacred stone which, according to legend, had previously been a fox with nine tails. According to Hanako, the legend indicates that the fox was defeated only after she had been shot by 8000 arrows. This didn't kill her, so she was bound by a Buddhist monk and was subsequently turned into a stone at the source of the sulphurous onsen.
After leaving this area we decided to go to one of the local onsen, Ka No Yu (鹿の湯; I'm not sure the Romaji are correct). Sorry ladies, but I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside. To prepare for my entry into the onsen, I had applied in the morning a waterproof bandage to my right calf in order to cover my tattoo (tattoos are relatively taboo in Japan, and they are aparently forbidden at most, if not all, onsen).
After Renato and I entered the 42-degree Celcius pool, which seated four comfortably, I had the strangest feeling that my back was much more sensitive to the hot water than the rest of my body. Every time I'd further my immersion into the pool, the part of my back at the top level of the water was in pain. I thought that I'd perhaps acquired some strange medical condition by which my back had become incredibly sensitive to hot water! Or perhaps the temperature of the air immediately above the water was so much cooler than the hot water (at my back) that the temperature differential was causing pain as I bobbed up and down. Then a nice gentleman pointed-out that I was immersed precisely where the HOTHOTHOT water was being poured into the onsen. Onto my back. Oy.
After that was solved, Renato and I had a wonderful conversation with two Japanese gentlemen, one of whom was perhaps in his early 60s, and who had visited almost 50 countries, and the other of whom was probably in his early to mid-thirties, and who'd lived in Autsralia throughout eight years. Renato's Japanese is worlds beyond mine, so the first part of the conversation was mostly in Japanese, but the conversation eventually turned towards being mostly in English.
After about half an hour in the onsen, we left for our next meal, which consisted of steak made from Japanese beef and veggies. Oh, my, that was wonderful steak. After sending the steak to be cooked well done (mine was done medium despite my request), it was incredibly good. The ony drawback is the amount of fat in it. Mine was cooked well enough that the fat had been rendered from the meat, but it was served in the small cow-shaped grill in which it had been cooked, so the porous meat served as a fat-sponge. It was still quite tasty and tender, and the fat which hadn't been rendered from the meat was quite well charred. Yum yum!
We decided to return to the village where we'd gone to the onsen because, on our way to dinner, we saw a couple of stores which offered local alcohols. We chose the second one we'd seen wen leaving the village, and that turned-out to be quite serendipitous. The gentleman who owned the store was not only quite knowledgeable about the sakes, but he was also incredibly friendly. We ultimately spent quite a bit of money there, and we shared a bottle of sake last night with the wonderful owner of the guest house where we are staying in Nasu.
Well, it's almost time for breakfast so I'd better wrap-up this post with a bunch of photos from in and around Nasu. :) I hope to be able to post again when I'm in Nikko.
Hello everyone!
I mentioned in my previous post that we saw some fireflies on our first night in Nasu. I was able to snag one of Renato's photos of them. :)
Fireflies
04 July 2009 was a wonderful day in Nasu! We did many things and even took a few photos along the way. :)
After breakfast at Arutany guest house, we made our way to Niki Museum, dedicated to the works of the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle. I'm afraid that I have no appreciation for most modern art, but I know many women who would apprecaite seeing her feminine artwork. Some of her art seems to have been crafted in anguish, and that is the stuff I found most disturbing among the pieces of hers which were present. She and her life-long partner createed many large outdoor works, including many both inspired by, and quite close to each other, in Tuscany.
The entrance to Niki Museum's property
The entrance to the museum-proper
Murasaki Shikibu
After that, we went for lunch where I had among my dishes one of my favourite Japanese foods, konnyaku. Yum yum! :) Leo basically passed-out for the entire time we were at lunch.
This is where we ate lunch
The god of fortune
Yum yum!
What is Stu studying?
What are those cranes doing??!?
After lunch we drove to a different place in Nasu (which is like a large rural connection of small villages) to see, and maybe enter, some onsen (hot springs, 温泉). After driving for some time, we found a place which apparently is the source of water for many of the onsen in the area. Its strong aroma of sulphur may serve as a deterrent for many tourists, but the area was relatively busy. We encountered a relatively long (but thin) snake along the way so we changed our route. The meeting with the sname was serendipitous because we eventually made our way along the alternate route to the Onsen Shrine (温泉神社).
After taking photos of the main shrine, we descended some stairs and made our way to a distinctly Buddhist area. From there we saw many statues of the bodhisattva Jizo (地蔵, Skt. Ksatriya) along with a sacred stone which, according to legend, had previously been a fox with nine tails. According to Hanako, the legend indicates that the fox was defeated only after she had been shot by 8000 arrows. This didn't kill her, so she was bound by a Buddhist monk and was subsequently turned into a stone at the source of the sulphurous onsen.
After leaving this area we decided to go to one of the local onsen, Ka No Yu (鹿の湯; I'm not sure the Romaji are correct). Sorry ladies, but I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside. To prepare for my entry into the onsen, I had applied in the morning a waterproof bandage to my right calf in order to cover my tattoo (tattoos are relatively taboo in Japan, and they are aparently forbidden at most, if not all, onsen).
After Renato and I entered the 42-degree Celcius pool, which seated four comfortably, I had the strangest feeling that my back was much more sensitive to the hot water than the rest of my body. Every time I'd further my immersion into the pool, the part of my back at the top level of the water was in pain. I thought that I'd perhaps acquired some strange medical condition by which my back had become incredibly sensitive to hot water! Or perhaps the temperature of the air immediately above the water was so much cooler than the hot water (at my back) that the temperature differential was causing pain as I bobbed up and down. Then a nice gentleman pointed-out that I was immersed precisely where the HOTHOTHOT water was being poured into the onsen. Onto my back. Oy.
After that was solved, Renato and I had a wonderful conversation with two Japanese gentlemen, one of whom was perhaps in his early 60s, and who had visited almost 50 countries, and the other of whom was probably in his early to mid-thirties, and who'd lived in Autsralia throughout eight years. Renato's Japanese is worlds beyond mine, so the first part of the conversation was mostly in Japanese, but the conversation eventually turned towards being mostly in English.
After about half an hour in the onsen, we left for our next meal, which consisted of steak made from Japanese beef and veggies. Oh, my, that was wonderful steak. After sending the steak to be cooked well done (mine was done medium despite my request), it was incredibly good. The ony drawback is the amount of fat in it. Mine was cooked well enough that the fat had been rendered from the meat, but it was served in the small cow-shaped grill in which it had been cooked, so the porous meat served as a fat-sponge. It was still quite tasty and tender, and the fat which hadn't been rendered from the meat was quite well charred. Yum yum!
We decided to return to the village where we'd gone to the onsen because, on our way to dinner, we saw a couple of stores which offered local alcohols. We chose the second one we'd seen wen leaving the village, and that turned-out to be quite serendipitous. The gentleman who owned the store was not only quite knowledgeable about the sakes, but he was also incredibly friendly. We ultimately spent quite a bit of money there, and we shared a bottle of sake last night with the wonderful owner of the guest house where we are staying in Nasu.
Well, it's almost time for breakfast so I'd better wrap-up this post with a bunch of photos from in and around Nasu. :) I hope to be able to post again when I'm in Nikko.
Nasu Stained-Glass Museum
Foot-onsen
Inside the Onsen Jinja (温泉神社)
Outside the Onsen Jinja (温泉神社)
The fox-turned-stone
Many statues of Jizo
The nine-tailed fox
Where we bought our sake
The man from whom we bought our sake and his wife
posted by Jean-Guy! at 7/04/2009 03:06:00 PM
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