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one long stretch on a switchback railway in open carriages with dragonflies and all sorts of exotic creatures flying in to land on us as we travelled thru the seemingly impenetrable mountains and forests. Then we travelled around the Matsue and Lake Shinji area, visiting ancient castles and temples.
Climbed the tallest lighthouse in the Orient and west along the rugged Sea of Japan coast for a few hundred kilometres and then through the high mountain valleys on a steam locomotive that was in perfect condition in spite of it's age, with it's five carriages decorated in their five original themes - all in beautiful polished wood, plush velvet and brass lamps. Then we descended to sea level again and back along the coast of the Inland Sea to Hiroshima.
I'm till not used to the humidity and it's the same everywhere we go and very hot too even on the west coast, temperatures are extreme all over this time of year and the mountain villages which are now suffering this heat and humidity will be covered with snow in a couple of months time.
In all those hundreds of miles I saw absolutely NO animals; no cow, horse, pig, sheep....not even a goat or a CHICKEN! Saw only one dog during the first week and one neko (cat). One of the strange enigmas here.... no live pets but everyone has some kind of doll or cute creature hanging off of their trendy and rather pretentious bum-bags, back-packs and take-way (mobile/cell) phones. You will never see a Japanese walking about with just his/her hands hanging to him/her like me; even the smallest child will be laden with STUFF if only to show off some designer label.
As for the lack of LIVE pets, I can only guess that in this culture of extreme order and harmony a pet would be deemed 'too chaotic`. I miss my pussycat. Haruka, 5 year old niece, asked her aunt `Why does John like animals? after she'd seen me follow that dog just to stroke it (craving.) A strange question for a 5 year old, you might think, but understandable when she and the 9 year old made such sounds of disgust when they saw me pick up a tiny white feather. I told her that I believed that animals and children were the 'real people' of this world and that adults were only put here to look after us. She thought long and hard for a while and then asked me "Are you an animal?" I looked in some pet shops and a dog or cat costs US$6,000, and that's on special!
The paucity of wild birds is remarkable too and when you point out the odd eagle or hawk the locals are not interested and look at you as though you were a weirdo. However, there are carp in every stream, pond and moat and I have seen fully mature adults trying their best to smash the beautiful dragonflies with their fans as they climb the often hundreds of steps to pay homage to the maker of 'all creatures great and small' at his/her temple.
Then I finally saw a BIG dog.... you may not wish to read the next bit (as they say on the news.) The dog was in a tin box on the back of a small truck and it was out in the sun with the 35 degrees heat and 95% humidity and sounded very distressed.... I approached and was warned off by a policeman waving his baton saying "Kiken" (danger.) Then I saw that there were more parked vehicles nearby with more dogs... all out in the sun and the sweat running out of the cages and down the street in rivulets. There were tourists all around who though this was just wonderful as their cameras whirred to the woeful sounds of the distressed dogs.
Nearby, outside a building, I saw a fat woman sitting astride a life-size replica of a dog covered in fake blood and gashes, (the dog, that is, unfortunately) and she was smiling for her husband and his camera. Behind her there was a line of people that included small children, waiting to buy tickets. Miyuki said "Don't look John...this is not for you". It was a dog fight and I could not hide my horror and disgust that not only would they tolerate such a thing in a so called civilised society but even take their small children to see that extreme barbarity. The cages out in the sun were all part of the game to make sure the stressed dogs were driven to madness before the fight.
I met more than one person who seemed to want to legitimise the Japanese whaling which seems to be talked about a lot these days - "Why not?" they asked, though I never even wanted to discuss such politics - "You eat cows and goats!" And I remembered telling my friends there, who had never even seen a cow "How nice it was to hug a cow and smell her warm, milky smell and touch the delicate softness of her mouth and feel her breath on your face." I never told them that, in my travels, some of the best friends I've had were pigs. Pigs that just wandered up to me in Central and South America and we sat there watching the sunset together as we scratched each other and grunted our pleasure.
Almost as surprising as the lack of animals is that in all the hundreds of miles travelled around lakes and along the coasts I've hardly seen a sail of any description even though the weather is perfect for sailing. I did see a handful of yachts tied up though. We just spent a few days around the Island of Shikoku, (Pacific coast), and still no sailing except for one tiny speck out on the horizon. "Too busy working", I was told.
Japan has just had it's annual summer holiday of only one week and there were millions queuing for everything but luckily they're more interested in the `theme park` kind of stuff and leave the rest to
crazy 'gaijins' (foreigners), like me...if I had more time to see it, that is, or the nerve to upset my hosts
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