One of Matt’s disappointments with Japan has rubbed off on me.
“Old Japan”—you know, the romanticized, harmony-with-nature, Eastern mystically scenic version of Japan that adorns such movies as “The Last Samurai”. It’s difficult to find these days.
It’s frustratingly hard to go anywhere without some sign of modern civilization within sight. There’s a famous cycling road—the Kibi Road—that winds 20 kilometers or so west from the Sports Park. It zigzags through rice fields, neighborhood streets, and past several famous landmarks. There’s a shrine or two, a collection of burial mounds, and other interesting tidbits. But it never feels like Old Japan. The shrines have vending machines. The burial mounds, though scenic by themselves, are surrounded by modern buildings. Houses, cars, and power lines are everywhere.
I suppose there are some things you have to give up. If Old Japan was still here, I wouldn’t have been able to skate the Kibi Road today. At best it would probably have been a poorly marked dirt trail. But maybe it would have been more scenic. (Besides, a dirt trail might have provided better skating than some parts of the Kibi Road today. Blech—too many skater-unfriendly patches of “pavement” for my liking. I tried taking the highway on the way back, but that wasn’t any better with the narrow shoulders and impatient drivers.)
Maybe the closest you can get to Old Japan today is to hike a mountain where there aren’t any homes. The trees stifle almost all the city sounds, so if you close your eyes and imagine, it feels a little more like the Japan of one or two hundred years ago.