Wakayama Maigo – Day 1

Upon landing in KIX, it proved to be much colder. The KIX airside main concourse had undergone a major renovation and I made a note to check it out on the last day.

Wakayama proved to be much closer than it might seem. It took a transfer at Hinano, then the all stop local service was just 40 minutes, and ran every 15 minutes. 

After throwing the luggage at the hotel, only maybe 3 minutes walk, I returned to Wakayama station pondering, being an hour earlier than expected. The weather was not good, even a little drizzle. I studied the station front bus stops, puzzled if it made sense to go to the castle as planned. 

The snap decision was made to swap the Kishigawa Cat Railway from last day to then. Taking a train ride and visiting cats did not require good weather. 

The problem was Kishigawa line was not easy to find. Being a snap decision I had not the chance to look into the details beyond it started from Wakayama station.

Turned out the line was actually within JR station and needed a internal transfer gate. Wasting me going to the east side of the station to see if the entries are located there. The gate would also cause some headache later as it meant one had to tap into the station then tap off when entering the Kishigawa platform. 

I made the train just in time. The Kishigawa ticket staff, seeing an obvious tourist, had the day pass ready and handed it to me, without me having to figure out how to buy one. He also handed me a stamp collecting card they were running which despite spending much of the time looking up the railway and timetables to the rocking of the old chuggington themed train, I still did not figure out the stamp collection required a stamp on the train themselves.

The ride is just over 30 minutes. Everyone got off the train and immediately had their excitement checked by the freezing wind. 

Kishigawa sits in a semi-rural area, a mix of houses and farmlands in fairly open grounds. The sky was overcast and little warmth from the peeked through sun. Everyone quickly shuffled underneath the cat eared station building. 

It’s the time to discuss why there’s a cat eared station here and why I’m here.

Kishigawa line or Wakayama Dentetsu, I keep mixing them up and call it Kishigawa Railway; technically Kishigawa is the sole line owned by the Detetsu.. anyway. The line is famous amongst those with even the slightest interest in Japanese railways. It’s one of the most successful story of a local railway rebranding to promote tourism amidst fall in regular commute ridership with declining local populations and widespread car ownership. 

The story went that the line was due for closure under its former Nankai railway owner, the local communities took over it and turned it into a local municipality supported private railway. Exact ownership is abit wonky as it’s owned and operated as a subsidiary of Okayama Electric Tramway, that’s a rabbit hole for another day.

Back to the story. After the railway was restructured, Kishi station turned into an unattended station and there were questions over the station building’s future. A local shop that had been taking care of a cat that lived in and around the station asked the new railway company to allow the cat Tama to continue living in the station. 

Then came the brilliant idea to appoint the cat into the station master since it was going to live in it. The old ticket office was turned into its home where it could laze about. The cat went viral and people from all over flooded in to look at the cat. 

With the jump in visitors the company leaned into it, with full attire for the cat, with its cute little station master cat, rebuilt Kishi station in the shape of a cat with shop and cafe, and Tama themed train liveries. 

Tama passed away in 2015 but lived on in its successors, Ni-Tama, Yon-Tama and Go-Tama, Tama the II, IV and V, who had undergone training at the railway line’s other station Itakiso with their own little cat station master office.

I would have come much earlier had Wakayama had some more to do. As it stand Kishigawa railway is by my own view Wakayama city’s only first rate tourist destination; by itself it is not worth a two hour train ride down from Osaka. 

After Tama passed away the train line lost some of its luster, and covid hit the railway particularly hard. I could imagine how the station and trains might have looked 10 years ago at their peak of popularity, how bright and full of energy everything must have felt. I get a feeling the railway does not have the capital to do a branding refresh in the face of the deficit incurred from covid, and is barely holding on with its old methods. 

One side of the station is a Tama themed cafe, the other side the railway’s souvenir shop selling Tama goods and plums, a local delicacy. The Umeboshi plum train is one of their newest themed train so the plum is them testing the waters to branch out from just a cat railway.

There’s not a lot around the station. There’s a small shop doubling as a local tourism office across the road, selling local produces and fruit products like jams. A sign in english and chinese advertising the yakiniku restaurant just down the road, with emphasis that they have A5 steak. My eyebrow raise at who might come here, sees the sign and decide they might as well have a bbq feast, but judging from how well the sign is maintained and reviews on google, that sign is doing wonders with getting foreign customers.

There’s also a few Kofun, old burial mounds, from the 5th century a few minutes walk nearby.

The weather got far too cold and after doing a quick walk about I visited the cafe. The menu is all cat themed simple snacks. Coffee, ice cream, cookies, the like. The cafe itself is very nicely decored, with cat mosaic and tiles on the walls and several cabinets full of memorabilia. 

I got the coffee float because it had a 3d cat floating on it, I thought was fresh cream but turned out to be ice cream which I did not mind. The cafe was very warmly heated and the icy beverage did not bother me, though perhaps the cookie would have been the better choice.

I took the opportunity to recollect my thoughts and properly plan out the rest of the day. The stamp I finally figured out after seeing the stamp table outside, required 4 stamps in total. 3 from the stations, Wakayama, Kishi and Itakiso, and one from any of the train fleet. Itakiso was going to be a problem, the train was a problem too though not because of the stamp.

Itakiso was in the middle of the line, it was also where the station master cat in training is located. Getting off to visit it though is very challenging, particularly as I will need to wait a long time here already if I wanted to take the Tama train back and not just a train with sticker, such as the chuggington one I arrived on.

After a few more minutes staring at the timetable, it all then made sense. I could take one train to Itakiso, then there’s another Tama train that departs from Itakiso. I could ride both the Umeboshi and the Tama train. 

It was a plan. And it meant I would not have to wait for much longer before leaving. About an hour all up at Kishi was all I would be staying.

There’s not much to be gotten from the souvenir shop, I settled with getting a stamped keychain coin. It’s a complex process of buying the coin token, buying the chain, and finally buying an engraving. Technically beyond the coin it’s all optional.

There’s a set of shrines along the platform dedicated to the late Tama, who has been enshrined to always be watching over the railway it was home to and saved. 

There is also an Omocha (Toy) and Ichigo (Strawberry) shrine, it’s not very clear why there are these two shrines. They do match the train names (or former train names), that didn’t seem like the reason. The Tama shrine itself was treated quite seriously, with its full enma board and people putting up all different wishes, and you could even get a goshuin from the cafe staff. It’s a full fledged shrine! Kind of.

The station master on duty was Yon-tama, who napped merrily during the entire time I was there. Ni-tama has gone on permanent break due to age and health and sadly passed away at time of writing. 

The cold got to me once more and I spent the last 15 minutes in the cafe with a cup of cocoa. The price was definitely tourist price, it was 400Y for a photo with a paper cup with cats on it. It was justifiable to some extent since a vending or convenience store would have been about 200Y, then plus the location, staff and being able to wait for the train in comfort. It was well worth it to be out of the cold for me. 

The Umeboshi was their second newest train. The Tama Museum was unfortunately in maintenance. The Umeboshi was very well crafted for a local train line. There are display shelves showing goods and other local produces, the seats are cushioned, and handle rings are made of wood and the windows are covered with noren. The quality was one might expect from JR Kyushu or one of the private rail tourist trains.

Me and a crow of other tourists gathered around a delicately curved table and got our card stamped. 

To think this train would be what the locals take regularly, must be an incredible feeling and pride.

Pride, I think that was a key ingredient to the railway.

Despite the glowing publicity, the railway, especially in recent years, never did turn a profit and the covid hit was harsh enough that the line’s future came into focus once more. There was no doubt that the railway will continue, perhaps just with a model that had more government support. The railway is the only internationally recognised first tier attraction in the city, and a source of local pride. There was no way the city would not keep the line running no matter the cost. 

At Itakiso I got the stamp, watched people crowd around Go-Tama who was much more actively climbing up and down the cat ladders. I headed off to Itakiso shrine to have a look. It was getting dark and the slight shower was not helping. I barely had time to walk up the shrine steps before it started to really come down and I made a hasty retreat back to the station.

It was just as well as the Tama train pulled in a minute later. The 15 minutes gap in the timetable was not enough to visit the shrine, I found. 

The Tama train was clearly the forebearer of the later Umeboshi, carrying much of the central concepts such as display shelves and designed seats, but to a much lesser extent. Half of each carriage was fully styled while the other half remained more traditional, the walls and windows were still standard train carriage, the lights and seats having some Tama theming. 

On reaching the borders of the built up area of Wakayama city, the train became more crowded, not having to stand but the seats were pretty full. 

At Wakayama station I finished off my stamp collection. On exiting the staff handed everyone a fare adjustment ticket. It made some sense since people would need to go through the JR concourse to exit the station so some evidence of a transfer from Kishigawa line. It began to dawn that I may have messed up with the Suica card when I entered.

Indeed I could not swipe out with my Suica card, throwing in the adjustment ticket opened the gate. I knew then I had messed up since the Suica card had me registered as entering but then went nowhere.

I would have to fix this but first check in and dinner. 

Seino a well known local ramen is in the adjacent Kintetsu department store. Wakayama being famous for its soy sauce carried it to their ramen which was said to be much more richer in sauce. 

It had a lot more soy sauce body in it, somewhere between a rich tonkotsu and a chinese soy sauce stew. It’s a balance I appreciate, often tonkotsu can be too oily and a shoyu or shio too plain. 

To fix the Suica card would need an attendant, so best I did it while the station had more staff on hand. I tried to enter the station and as expected, it buzzed me back. The staff checked my card and asked where I’ve been during the day, which I mentioned I took the Wakayama Dentetsu. That was enough for the staff to get what happened and she corrected the records on the card and asked me to enter again.

It worked, then I realised I now had yet another problem. I was now IN the station, and as expected it won’t let me swipe out when I tried at another gate. Embarrassed to go back to the same attendant, it came to me that since I still had the Kishigawa line day pass, I could take it for one station then back. It would also give me a chance to confirm my mistake was not tapping off the Suica when transferring to the Kishigawa platform.

And it was confirmed. To use Suica in combination with the Kishigawa line, one had to tap into JR, then tap off again when entering the Kishigawa platform which would result in a 0Y charge. Then one could enter Kishigawa line with the day pass or whatever one way ticket as needed. Very confusing, make sense after doing it once.

Luck was with me as there was a train ready to go in less than 5 minutes, and the first station was just 500m away. So I simply walked back from the first station, as a bit of night sightseeing.

Near the hotel was a supermarket. I paused and got some supplies. Instant coffee and some ramen, bread.

The rest of the evening was spent doing the laundries and getting into bed early. There’s a long day tomorrow and the trip really begins.

Wakayama Maigo – Day 0

The trip to Wakayama happened almost by accident. 

Originally the trip was meant to be to Kyushu. Before that there was meant to be no trip at all.

I already had some leave booked in in November and then my parents suggested I take a trip back to Taiwan for some matters and in the meantime a chance to visit Japan, albeit shorter than usual. 

Kyushu had some thinking, thanks to some youtuber I had the idea of a ferry between Kyushu and Osaka in my mind, which would fit well as a trip in from Fukuoka and exit Kansai, or vice versa. 

Within a few hours of looking up the time tables, it became clear that it was going to be very difficult to even book a ferry ride, short of the horribly positioned one that leaves from Kagoshima that’s actually about 2 hours away from Kagoshima city. Turns out it was very close to a Japanese long weekend.

And like the ferry, hotels were in terrible scarcity, having started my search 3 weeks out from when I might fly out. What hotels were left were godly expensive. It’s unclear what is going on in Fukuoka, it was super expensive on top of other already expensive holiday rate cities in Kyushu.

Some attempts were made toward a triangle trip without the ferry, going from Fukuoka to Kumamoto, then to Nagasaki. It was sadly, futile. The hotels in Fukuoka was too challenging. Staging out from Kumamoto or one of the other city was a possibility, not that they were full of great hotel choices very near stations, essential for such a plan to work. 

After just one day I gave up. I did however notice in my searches that hotels in Kansai were no where near as packed. Perhaps with the long weekend people were leaving the city, which goes some way to explain Fukuoka’s extremeness, but not entirely.

That curiosity aside, my focus shifted to what I could do in Kansai instead.

Spending time in Osaka or Kyoto was out of the picture. I want to visit Enryakuji and a few other temples but not in this climate where everyone and their drones are clamoring over Kyoto. 

The choices were then somewhere in the Seto Inland sea, perhaps Onomichi, or… Kumano.

Kumano made an odd choice initially. It was an area I’ve done significant research already as part of my Ise trip, the main staging points and attractions were known. The area is fairly sparse and not much picking and choosing of things to do. It was simple to plan for, caveating that no attempt to do the Kumano Kodo walk which would take months to pre-plan and book accommodations along the trail.

The choices went. Train and bus or drive. Staying in Hongu, Shingu or Nachi Katsuura. 

Train and bus was cheaper. The bus pass and train tickets round trip about 20k yen. The time table was not going to be fun. The express train ran once every 2-3 hours. The bus once every hour to two. That’s before considering the time the train and bus took. 

The area was accessible by public transport, barely if one had the patience and meticulous scheduling. 

I thought about taking the train one way then driving back, the one way rental surcharge was very considerable and it dawned on me that even with the extra effort, it was going to be easier to do the whole trip by car. 

All up for driving, including the express way toll it would be about 36k yen. Certainly more than public transport, the hours saved along just on paper were about 5 hours, not accounting for buffers and waiting time for trains and bus. 

An added benefit as I found also, driving meant I could access more and cheaper options at these rural areas where they may not be as centrally located.

Between Shingu and Nachi Katsuura it started out as Shingu, but as the schedule shuffled Nachi Katuura just worked so much better being close to Nachi Kumano Shrine. 

Hongu I lucked out with a guest house that must had saw someone cancel last minute, and I nabbed a place that had a single room instead of open bunking or spending a fortune on a ryokan which I almost did.

The booking in Hongu anchored the dates and meant I do the trip in a clockwise loop and allowed a final adjustment to compress the trip within just 4 nights and avoid the super expensive Saturday accomodation. 

The key dates locked in, the rest were minor scheduling and given the fact I was driving afforded plenty of flexibility. Outside of the shrines and points of interests were Shirahama, the Gyoro Kyo canyon, and the southern coast including the southern most point of Honshu. Shirahama in particularly could be visited either on the way to or back, with its proximity to where the mountain path and ocean road diverged.

Suzume

Disclosure, I’ve been to the Suzume exhibit in Tokyo before seeing the movie. To the exhibit’s credit though they really didn’t spoil much. I was aware of some of the characters that showed up, and they showed two edited clips from the movie’s two climaxes, so I knew roughly that something was going to happen but had no idea of the context nor the words that accompanied those scenes. 

Now on to the movie itself. 

First impression is how short the film felt. The movie started, went right to the plot then never stopped, kept up the pace and tension all the way to the end, which did feel a little sudden. From a pacing perspective this is very different from Your Name or Weathering with You which both had a distinct intro, musical montage transition, reveal, buildup then climax, with notable pauses in between them. Suzume instead came in very quick segments owing to its road trip structure. There is a late climax reveal followed by a longer segment but even that was fairly short. 

It is debatable whether this new structure made the film better or worse. It’s better in that it definitely kept things moving, the flipside is it never quite gets enough tension built up to blow it up in magnificent fashion like Your Name did. It’s more gripping throughout the experience but doesn’t leave as strong an impression, at several points I’m left wanting the scene to last just that much longer to properly absorb what was on the screen. 

Thematically Suzume is as predicted, Shinkai’s retake on Child Who Chase Lost Voices, about coming to grips with deaths and losses. It’s a very difficult theme which Shinkai flubbed in Lost Voices. In Suzume, there are still some issues; the foreshadowing isn’t laid out too well and the emotional beats felt like they were moved on a tad too fast for them to land solidly. The problems are mostly in the execution rather than how they are envisaged, tonally and story wise they are incredibly well for what is a very difficult topic. 

There are a few other elements that played to varying degrees of success. Suzume’s relationship with her aunt was a surprise; it was hinted at early on and still caught me off guard how heavily Shinkai leaned into it, with some of the best dramatic and poignant scenes of the film. The romance with Souta (seriously Shinkai did you really have to give him long hair too like Shun?) is good but not great, their interactions are very cute and sweet and the first climax did hit quite hard (but not hard enough). There’s not enough runway to let it reach the same depth as Your Name with Suzume’s main focus elsewhere. 

Your Name had at least 4 dramatic rollercoasters that were all devoted to Taki and Mitsuha’s fate and relationships (Itomori reveal, sunset to pen drop, train scene, open hand) followed by 10 minutes of masterclass trolling at the end with a final ultimate gut punch and name drop. Suzume only really had two, one at each of the climax sequences and the closing scenes were fairly tame. It had to lend other dramatic moments to Suzume and her aunt’s climax and Suzume’s past reveal, and let Suzume have the final moment for resolution too.

Suzume’s romance isn’t the focus and perhaps it’s unfair to judge it too much on that. At the same time I do recognize that Suzume didn’t lend enough moments for Suzume’s personal journey to fully land either. Essentially there were two main plots. The romance and Suzume’s relationship with her past and those around her, each done well but not enough to shine as brightly as the magnified focus of Your Name.

Shinkai apparently mentioned that he originally wasn’t going to have a romance in it and it was going to be two girls on a road trip. From a PR perspective it does explain why romance took a backseat but I’m not convinced the film was going to have no romance at all, two girls on a road trip sounds yuri-tastic to me. The playful relationship between Souta and Suzume with some edits make for the perfect more-than-senpai-kouhai relationship.

Music wise it is the weakest of the three films by RADWIMPS. To be precise it’s the one with the weakest song. Since Shinkai dropped the MV styling this time there isn’t a place for RADWIMP to insert a song. The Suzume theme song is quite hummable and recognizable for the short segments they are allowed to shine through, but won’t be revealed in full till the credits. 

Ignore the songs, the music score is much better than WwY and better than YN in places, if not as recognizable as something like the Itomori tune or Date. It’s interesting that Shinkai chose to rely on music and not song to carry the emotional weight of key moments, perhaps a signal that he is more confident in his ability to let a scene speak for itself. 

A departure from the whimsical jpop of the previous two, there’s added elements of traditional instruments, chorals, that all gave a very different feel. They evoked a mystical, unsettling atmosphere and fuels the tensions during the action scenes. During the Tokyo scene the music instilled fear like invisible tendrils that reached beyond the screen, still the air and caressed one’s spine. 

In terms of visuals there are some notable call backs to Your Name with the starry skies of the other world, and a few harbour town seagulls and boat scenes practically lifted out of Crossroads. 

Two things stand out. There isn’t a scene that was made just to show off visually like the firework scene in WwY or the falling comet in YN. Overall the quality was raised higher even if the lack of a showcase piece made it hard to point out any scene specifically. 3D effects are used more liberally (and perhaps too liberally, some places especially flowers could better have been done as 2D composites). The 3D animated Shouta as a chair is a thing of marvel, and I was surprised how much emotion the chair could convey as a wooden chair without deforming into an anthropomorphic nightmare. 

The other is that the cuts are long. Shinkai’s previous works tended to have rather quick cuts as transitions, but Suzume had a lot more tracking and zooming shots from the use of 3D and long action sequences. There is so much running and flying Shinkai has to be testing the waters for a more action oriented film, a brave direction as that is not his forte definitely. 

Two scenes really stood out to me, one is the skies over Tokyo with the visual intercut and doom it managed to evoke, that disaster is ever so near yet people went about oblivious and hapless. 

The other scene is Suzume in the shower and then getting dressed, fine as a hairlined and unbroken vase. 

Suzume is a film with a lot more subtleties and plays with a more delicate touch compared to the laser focused Your Name. While Your Name contains more symbolisms and layers, as a theme that is being tackled, the approach is a lot more direct. With Suzume’s theme Shinkai had his work cut out for him, it’s much harder to distill down, or to even describe. Best exemplified by the tagline. Your Name was simply Searching for you whom I have yet to meet. Suzume’s was… On the other side of the door exists all times, which while true it’s more a descriptor of something that exists in the film than its theme. And it seemed the promotion team couldn’t decide either and sometimes promoted with the words ittekimasu.. Ittekimasu, which roughly translates as “going now”, “I’m leaving and will be back”, are words that actually prove to have multiple meanings that ties into the theme. 

On the surface level, it’s a word to suggest Suzume starting out on her journey, throughout the film it also relates to Suzume finding her determination to depart on her last quest, then somberly for all those who said the words in the morning but could never say “tadaima” or “I am home/back” on 3-11, and finally for closing the wounds of the past and moving forward to a bright tomorrow. 

It’s a faceted tagline fittingly viewed from many many angles, the problem is by itself without context, it doesn’t evoke that same poetic beauty. At least it’s better than Weathering with You. 

Back to the tagline, there are too many ways to look at the overall message of loss, acceptance, remembrance and embracing the future, it’s hard to be distilled to a single sentence. 

A lot of things that happened or shown throughout the film adds their light touches that weaves finely on the side of the line that is the obscure. It feels like a lot of elements could be removed without impacting the plot, but ultimately makes the film weaker overall. And I think that is what makes Suzume such a hard film to assess, because it is a film not just about a single story or an event, but about society, about people, about experiences, about the past and future and connections.There’s many mundane moments in Suzume that works in the end because they provide a portrait of daily life in the past, present and future. Ask people what makes a society, and there will be an infinite number of responses. 

For me, Shinkai did succeed in conveying the message he wanted. In a very strangely reminiscent of the Shinkai of old, that tranquil emptiness. I wasn’t happy, nor particularly sad during the first viewing. None of the moments brought me to tears or made me cry out with amazement. But something lingered long after I walked out the theatre. A calmness, full and unfulfilling. That made me thinking back again and again to what happened, enough to drive me into going back to watch it again the next day, even at full ticket price; something I had never done before. 

I am not from Japan. Though I love Japan and go there almost every year, my understanding and affinity to the country is distant. I was not there when 3-11 happened. My memory of that event was the horror of seeing the tsunami on the news, that Madoka (and many other animes, but mainly Madoka) was postponing their episode release. Followed by the lengthy distant worry of happenings at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

I went to Japan the first time later that year, at the close of the year. Already then the earthquake felt like a distant memory. The Christmas light shows in Tokyo went on as usual. There were prayer candles as part of the light exhibit in memorial and solidarity with the Touhoku regions. But like the dirtied banners draped across pedestrian walkways, they felt more ceremonial than heartfelt, at least to me. 

When I later visited the Touhoku a few years later, the aftermath of the earthquake felt a little more real. Sections of the local train lines remained inoperable, and there was a sense of economic hardships long from the bubble collapse exacerbated by the quake. 

3-11 was always distant to me, it was something I understood, but never affected.

I was there in Taiwan on the night of 9-21 quake, when I was still little. I still remember being woken up by my mother, and running down the stairs of the apartment. Driving our car out to an area clear of highrises while the orange flames of the oil refinery burned against the dark cloudy skies. We didn’t know whether the refinery had exploded or not at the time, fortunately the flames were from burning off excess fuel as part of the shutdown procedure. 

I remember the next few days watching the news of search and rescue going through collapsed buildings. Not much more beyond that, I was still too little to understand the gravity of the situation.

Maybe in some small ways the scenes of earthquake and the loss in Suzume struck me more than I realises and its message burrowed deep within.

The theme and the goal of remembering the event and other unfortunate events in life, and how to find closure and continue on, was worthy of praise for even daring to tackle. 

There’s a lot of small details that adds to that sense of loss, wrongness and overcoming them. The chair is missing a leg, the butterflies that accompanies Suzume, the red spider lily flowers, the odd things about Suzume that’s hard to put a finger on the first time watching.

Shinkai poured a lot of detail into Suzume and it’s without doubt his best and faceted character.

Her design isn’t as recognizable as Mitsuha with her braid or Hina with her hooded vest, which made her characterization all the more amazing. 

She is very colourful both in personality, expressiveness and appearances. She’s a bit more mature but doesn’t lose that youthful girlishness. Throughout the film she does what she likes, whether it’s skipping school to look for a handsome young man, or running up a departing ferry chasing after a cat and a chair, or deciding to hitchhike across Japan. She relies on Souta as Souta is the closer who knows about the mimizus and doors, but is also quite happy to pull him in directions she wants, pointing out Souta is just a chair and in no position to refuse her help, pulling Souta over to sit on him so as to not leave him out of the party. 

Yet she’s still vulnerable and have that youthful innocence to her; not being able to tell wine glass from water glass when pulled to help out at the night bar whose owner had given her a ride from Shikoku to Kobe, being frightened when she almost fell out of a ferris wheel, or longing to see her mother, or at the end shriveled up shyly not sure if Souta is going to just leave her on the platform. 

In outfit she has two main sets, a school uniform and a casual outfit with an open denim jacket, white T and short culottes, and switches often between unkempt hair, ponytail, braid and a very sisterly half-up small ponytail, and a fully down straight hair. 

It’s a really sweet combination, especially with the hair, that allows her to be presented in many different ways, whether it’s mature, frail, playful, frightened or forlorn. 

She is the most human of Shinkai’s characters so far, her lack of a distinct style makes her memorable, not as a striking poster girl but deep within the heart, how much like a regular person she is. She is very plain, and very special. 

She’s the one actively driving the story forward as the main character. Souta is arguably a side character. And that goes for the romance also. 

From the first moment Suzume crushes hard on Souta, skipping school to look for him, calling him a handsome man, before laughing at herself for basically hitting on him. Throughout the journey their relationship remain one sided, Suzume tries to kiss Souta on multiple occasions, sits and steps on him, admittedly with him as a chair. Souta on other hand felt like he appreciated her as a companion but hadn’t gotten to inspect his own feelings. 

And throughout, the way she calls out Shouta’s name shifts gradually, and notably in one scene multiple times in very stricken longing fashion. In short, Suzume is likely a little rotten inside but that’s just fine with me. 

More than her general appearance though, it’s what’s deep beneath her that is troubling and captivating. 

At the very start, the moment her eyes saw Souta, she was immediately drawn to him. When she went to search for him in the abandoned resort, she called out that she feels she has seen him before. This was immediately brushed off by her laughing at herself for making a cringy pick up line. This ended up being much more by the end. 

When the worm came out the door, she ran to help Souta without much hesitation despite facing a danger never seen before. This happened again at the abandoned school, and Souta admonished her asking is she not afraid, to which she replied curtly she is not. Suzume said this again and with more elaboration to Souta’s grandfather, that she is not afraid, and death is only a matter of luck. 

This is a pretty odd take from a 17 year old girl in hindsight, even if initially it might be seen just as the heroine effect. 

After losing Souta, she falls out of the darkening sky in a mesmerizing scene of tearless quiet. Her eyes covered by wind swept hair, her beautiful form still and accepting, embracing the death that is to come. Full of distress and terrible beauty.

This aspect of Suzume is something Shinkai could have emphasized more, that there is something odd about her view of life and death. It’s there, but too subtle. 

Suzume isn’t afraid of death because of her survivor issues which skewed her view on life. To her it didn’t matter if she ends up in a situation that cost her her life, it was all a matter of fate and luck, and she was more than willing to give her life up for Souta.

Through of her experience with Souta she realized how much she wanted to live. What she said to Souta’s grandfather that she was afraid of a world without Souta, and what she said when saving Souta were.. a little awkward, to be honest, during my first watch. They were strange to say even in a romantic context, you’d expect something more direct, more about the importance of the person, not about being scared. But on reflection, the scene isn’t as much about her love as about her finally finding something to grab on to, to fear losing, especially since it followed grandfather’s question on is she not afraid of going to the afterlife. 

On her romance with Souta, it’s definitely a little quick and can be unconvincing. On first watch it did feel forced to me, especially the aforementioned scene about being afraid. On later viewing I had time to notice the subtleties and with the knowledge of what is to come, her infatuation with Souta actually feels really sweet, even more than Taki and Mitsuha. The problem is it really takes the full context fo Suzume’s past and that won’t be revealed till the end. I don’t know if there’s a better way to portray it, either beating over the head with foreshadowing or giving up the reveals early and lose the impact.

It’s an innocent first crush rather than a full blown romance. Souta being turned into the chair was an interesting take, on surface it seems to make some audience hard to understand the infatuation, but in a way shouldn’t love be about what’s within and not outside? 

I find the chair being a brilliant way to bring Suzume closer to Souta. The meaning of the chair (being the last memento of her mother) would have transferred in part to Souta, and with Souta being a chair, Suzume can be more daring in expressing her feelings. There’s no way she would try kissing, sitting or hugging Souta if he were in his human form. 

Souta comes to her aid multiple times and never blames her for releasing the keystone that ultimately led to him being cursed. Even as a chair his gentle and thoughtful nature shines through, and after the ferris wheel incident Suzume visibly becomes much closer to him. 

He incited the events that led to her running away from home and embarking on this amazing journey across so many different sights. To her, he came into her world and change everything. 

On subsequent viewings a lot of the initial issues was lessened. For Your Name, the plot twist was so great the first viewing was incredibly entertaining even without knowing the subtle things. I think that’s the problem Suzume has. A lot of issues aren’t issues in full context, but they feel weird on first viewing and the other things aren’t interesting enough to keep them in the back of the mind. 

It’s a film with more issues and less entertaining than Your Name, but Suzume is one that I love a lot more and look forward to seeing again and again more. 

I long to see Suzume being swamped by the two little devils and Souta stepping out to her rescue, to see Suzume falling asleep while hugging Souta on the shinkansen and later complaining about missing the chance to see Mt Fuji. To see Suzume leap after Souta onto the mimizu. To watch Suzume cry out in despair in the sky over Tokyo. To see her broken and fall through the air. To see her wash and dress herself with somber and fierce determination. To hear her cry out for Souta again and again. To see her blackened diary, and her little self search for her mother. To see her launched into the air, invert and tumble against the backdrop of a burning world, and prepare to drive back the mimizu.

With Suzume, Shinkai has branched into even more cinematic tracking shots and almost action like sequences, something rarely seen in his works. I think it’s a good balance between the new and the familiar, and with Suzume almost a closure on his message regarding disasters, the next film looks to be a new chapter in Shinkai’s life. 

Kansai Maigo – Day 3

Day 3 in Kanazawa. I was glad that I had cleared most of the city’s attractions the day before. The fair skies had been replaced by a light drizzle.

There was no time to go out for breakfast. I had some coffee and rice ball bought from the Family Mart the night before and hurried checked out and headed to the only remaining item left on the itinerary in Kanazawa. Myoryuji, or the ninja temple. 

The temple was tour by reservation only. It was possible to register on the day of course but there was no guarantee for a spot. I had booked months ahead for a place in the first tour of the day. 

Originally I had wanted to bike down there but it was raining, I boarded a bus from the station and got off a few stops early at Katamachi. I had left early to give a good buffer in the event there was traffic and given time to have a stroll along the cherry blossom lined riverside. 

The south end of Katamachi nestled up against the north bank of the Sai river. The shorefront shaded by branches of pink that drooped over verdant floodplains. The riverside had been reshaped into a public green space. People came for walks, or as a shortcut getting across the city without bothered by roads or traffic. 

I was just another umbrellaed passerby in the morning drizzle. The blossoms themselves slumbered in the sound of rain, unaware of appreciating gaze. 

Round the south east I crossed to the other bank. The bridge’s railings were pink, I noted absently how well it matched against the flowery backdrop.

My pace picked up. The flower or the rain had slowed me down more than I had allowed for. I bounded up back to the main street and turned south to Myoryuji. I watched my progress on google map, counting the streets before I needed to turn into some alley. I missed it, doubled back, and somehow passed it again. I looked about the empty parking lot near a convenience store and compared it against google map. Finally I fixed my eyes on two parallel rows of storm water drain running perpendicular to the main street. It could not be wider than a metre and a half, yet, this had to be it. My gaze followed the storm drains in and sure enough, there was a small opening in the walls of the neighbouring block which had to be the alleyway.

The alleyway turned into an L shaped bend which at its corner, was a small gate that had the name of the temple written on a small plaque. The temple could not have been any easier to miss. 

I went in and circled to the front of the temple where a large mob was already waiting. The majority of them were foreigners, each just as puzzled as I am as to where we should be waiting and looked to each other as assurances in number.

Eventually some temple staff came out and herded the crowd into the temple. Shoes off, as many places in Japan required. And they took the roll and the 1000Y fee on the way in.

Behind the office there’s storage space for our bags. In the main prayer hall, two gas heater burned warmly and we crowded around it appreciatively. No photos allowed within.

We were asked to split into foreign and local groups. For us they handed out english guide pamphlets to be returned at the end of the tour. I gave it a quick flip through; it was numbered and contained short descriptions of the rooms and clever defenses we would soon be shown.

The Japanese went off in one direction and we went in the other. The guide’s english was passable, not great, but definitely better than the average Japanese english guides. He went through a couple of rules necessary due to the confined nature of the many passages and rooms.

The guide was quick to first dispel the notion that the temple had anything to do with ninjas despite how it’s commonly called. A nickname which I was certain the temple administrations had no small part in promoting. 

The prayer offering box was built into the floor. It seemed a little odd at first look but seemed innocent enough as an aesthetic choice; in fact during times of danger the offering box’s cover could be removed and then in the dark room becomes a pitfall for any enemies who charged in. 

Like many temples the hall consists of a central portion with elevated high ceilings reflecting the heavens, and beyond the ring of pillars was an outer hallway space. Between the pillars were decorative boards that divided the space overhead between the outer and inner hall. Here a secret room had been built behind the dividing boards so the daimyo could visit and pray at this temple without being seen by the regular worshippers. 

Why a temple was built with these strange contraptions was because of the complicated political situation of the Kaga domain in the early Edo period.

In the Edo era daimyo was only allowed a single castle and were not allowed to raise additional fortifications. This removed the ability of any daimyo who dared to challenge the shogunate to resist an invasion. This presented particular danger for the Maeda clan for while they were awarded for their contributions in the Battle of Sekigahara, the clan had historically not been closely affiliated with the Tokugawas. In fact one brother of the Maeda clan had fought for the opposite side. Their award for fighting for the Tokugawas made them one of the largest daimyo in Japan and simultaneous made them a potential threat to the shogunate for they now held too much power, and relationships between the daimyo and the shogun was uneasy and the domain was ever under watchful eyes for its every move. Things were serious enough that the shogunate had drawn up plans to suppress the Kaga domain.

Under these circumstances, the Maeda clan was forced to take measures to defend themselves. Myouryuji was one of several temples built by the daimyo for such purpose.

Seen from the outside as an inconspicuous two level temple, it was in truth an anchor in a series of temples and houses that formed a defensive network. The temple itself was actually a six level fortification built to resist attacks and safeguard its inhabitants. It was ready to defend Kanazawa castle without drawing attention from the agents of the Tokugawa such it’ll give the shogunate the excuse that’ll force the temple to serve its intended purpose. 

Thankfully such fierce fate never came to pass, and the temple became just a curious marvel of architecture.

The main wing of the temple circles a large well, it’s said that this allows most rooms a direct access to the well where people could hide in, and it’s rumoured that within the well, a secret passage leads to the castle.

Contraptions complex and simple are scattered all over the temple, their purpose to confuse and deter enemies and buy time for the defenders. 

A small passage between a concave in the raised half level, at ends end was a flight of stairs leading up. But remove the planks of the passage and it’s revealed the stairs continue down into the basement. The stairs also had their own special designs. The rise was not made of wood but translucent paper, the shadows of whoever step on the stairs would be quite visible to those hiding beneath the stairs, aiming with a sharpened spear ready to thrust through the floorboard. 

A side entrance to the building was built in a funnel like angle, from the outside the right hand side of the sliding door was angled outward while on the inside the double door was flat, this left a small triangular space between the outside and the inside. In the triangular space was a slight of shallow stairs leading to the level above. If a defender was retreating from the enemies from the outside, he would dash in, close the door behind him and run up the shallow stairs. When the enemies follow in and open the door, it would naturally slide over and cover up the stairs leading up, leaving the enemies looking left and right at the empty corridor in confusion. 

Closer inspections would, no doubt, draw attention to the strange dimensions of the sliding door and reveal the hidden stairway, but not before the defender had escaped upstairs to raise the alarm and prepare a defence. 

Since the temple had to have the appearance of two storey construction on the outside, the inside was a series of half levels. The main reception room was connected to the guard’s room via the top half of a closet. The ceiling for the rooms were also lowered to hinder the swinging of swords and spears. 

There were some twenty odd rooms, many of them interconnected and accessible through many different corridors from different approaches, providing multiple avenues of escape and confounds the enemy. 

The main tea room was painted a verdant blue, which I had learned from Higashichaya to be a most luxurious colour was the pigment could not be obtained locally. The main tea room was connected with another room in the back via an arch bridge, perhaps to depict a bridge over great waters. Above the tea room was the formal tea room, accessible only through a concealed stairway hidden behind a wall. This might have been where the daimyo treated his closest vassals and supporters.

Because the temple had to maintain the facade of a two level building, the tea room could not afford more than a small slit of windows. Guests could not be entertained with magnificent gardens or distant mountains. To overcome this they carved a vista of Mount Fuji into the wall itself, layering a shelves as clouds within the circular alcove, and the back wall hollowed in the shape of Mount Fuji, taking advantage of the neighbouring corridor to give it the feeling of depth and space, one could appreciate the tea and gaze into the distance. 

Atop the tea room was a watchtower built into the roof space where defenders could look out the slits in the ridge cap of the roof and observe happenings outside. From here they could monitor both in the direction of the castle and the main approach to it across the Kaga plains. Due to the deteriorating condition of the structure of the watchtower, regular visitors were forbidden from going up. 

Toward the back of the building down the middle of a narrow flight of steps, a small room extends off to the left, its door small and the room cramped. Within the room is another room. Together the pair was isolated from everything else in the building. It’s said that this was the room for seppuku. When everything else fails and escape was impossible, the lord would retreat here with his most loyal servants. While his men defended the outer room with their lives, the lord would prepare for ritual suicide and kill himself in the inner sanctum to the honor of his house.

But a samurai is cunning and death is a last resort. The aim is to escape. Behind the main buddhist altar is a secret panel that opens up to the floor space beneath, from there someone could choose their direction of escape and emerge from under the building. The panel is concealed and cleverly secured by integrating the rails for a cabinet door right into the floor panel itself. While the cabinet door is closed it sits on the panel locking it in place and prevents anyone, especially anyone who has crawled under the house from the outside, from lifting it while also concealing the cut in the board. Only when the cabinet door is opened to one side is the panel free to be raised. Making both the cabinet door and the panel as a kind of one way lock combination.

There were many other secret passages and hidden doorways, the geometry of the walls ensuring one could never be sure where one was within the structure. It was unsettling for someone usually fairly good with orienting oneself within unfamiliar space and directions such as myself. 

The thoroughly entertaining tour took just over an hour. It was great insights to the ingenuity of past craftsmen and the historical context of the time that compelled a daimyo to go to such lengths to protect his rule. The only shortcoming that could be nickpicked would be that the guide was pretty much reading off the script; I would be keen to hear what the Japanese group side heard, perhaps some small funny stories or rumours to the temple’s past. 

It was still raining so I took the bus directly back to the hotel and took out my luggage. I first went to the station and bought my ticket to Hikone. The Hokuriku rail pass covered my journey down to Tsuruga but after that I had to pay the difference. I had been a little concerned with purchasing tickets in this way, with part of it covered by a pass, but the lady at the counter seemed quite familiar with such usage and as soon as she saw my pass and my intended destination, she punched in the tickets I was expecting.

After this I considered my options. Here my decision to not buy the gold leaf ukiyoe the day before was starting to haunt me. The station’s Hakuichi store to my disappointment, sold only the high priced gold leaf lacquerwares and not the ukiyoe sets. I could go back to Higashichaya but that will be close to an hour round trip, in the rain no less. 

Perhaps the better choice would be to see what other gold leaf items I could find in the other stores. The agitation had gotten to me and I spent an unreasonable time going back and forth between the handful of shops selling gold leaf souvenirs, closely looking over all the items trying to find one suitable. 

Finally I settled on a pen holder with five pointed leaves and cherry blossoms, symbolizing the spring and autumn.

The delay made me miss the initial train I had planned to be on, the next one was due in just over half an hour. Time perhaps to squeeze in a lunch to make up on lost time. It had to be within the station though, and fast. 

I settled on Go Go Curry. I already went past it the night before while looking for the ramen place and since it was the most well known Kanazawa curry shop, it would serve a good point of reference to Turban Curry. 

The shop was not very busy which was good, the last thing I needed was pressure to finish my food. The menu was very similar to Turban, just with more choices in portions and toppings. 

The standard curry I chose came in no time. It was also strongly flavored as Turban was, but lacked in the same depth in richness. The terms to describe some delicate differences was beyond me, other than there was some lack of attention or enthusiasm in Go Go’s Curry that made it feel a decidedly plain affair. 

The stack of take home curry packs arranged on a table by the entrance did not escape my attention. Was it its taste that allowed the chain to be known nationally, or was its success in commoditizing that allowed it to expand and assume the face of Kanazawa curry.

The train from Kanazawa to Hikone was just over two hours, with most of the journey on the white egret Shirasagi express, with a transfer at Maibara for another 5 min on a local train. 

Around Fukui I fell asleep and woke up as we approached Maibara. Maibara, the station in any case, I’ve been through several years ago while visiting Toyosato on my K-On pilgrimage. The transfer presented little of note.

I reached Hikone close to 1pm. Right outside the station Ii Naomasa greeted from atop his bronze horse. The great general and warrior was a favored retainer of Ieyasu and he was given the lands around Omi province as rewards for his bravery in battle. The clan ruled this vital junction on the Tokaido road and built Hikone Castle as their seat of power.

Hikone Castle was one of 12 castles in Japan that still retains their original keep, and Hikone contains many features rarely seen elsewhere. 

Situated about 800m away, it’s a straight line down the main street. I first lock up my luggage at the tourist centre at the bottom of the stairs on the left. As usual there was a shortage of coins, solved by exchanging with the tourist help desk. 

A few Hikonyan welcomes and directed guests toward the castle. The street was fairly empty and one glance told the tale of a town in an economic spiral. The awnings and shop fronts were old and rustic, yet the sidewalk was well paved from hotpodged and ineffective attempt at revitalization. 

Hikone was just an hour from Kyoto, as a bed town it was not facing depopulation but since most retail needs could be better served by the city and local business had little hope of competing. Then its semi-rural surroundings meant households had to have a car and every day shopping needs shifts toward the outskirts near main roadways. The town center lacked the means to remain the center of livelihoods. Even with the famous castle, the lack of shops aimed at tourists would suggest that numbers were not great, or tourists saw the castle as a single point of interest with no need to linger. 

During planning Hikone had always remained a marginal choice. It was just far out of the way that coming out here required dedicated effort. For a castle town that should be steeped in history, the town strangely had no well known sweets or confectionaries, no local crafts or cuisine. The town lacked a story, a story like Kanazawa had successfully woven around it, true or not. Other than the castle I could not identify any other attractions of appeal. 

Hikone also needed to compete with Omihachiman. The other major attractions on the east bank of Lake Biwa. As two towns with similar background, one being a castle town and the other a canal town, and only twenty minutes apart, they should complement each other. Unfortunately their proximity to Kyoto seems to just as often relegate both to half day trips, with Omihachiman coming out on top. A whole day was just too much to ask when one had an endless number of temples within Kyoto, and for day trips places like Hifune and Uji inevitably ranks higher. 

Hikone and Omihachiman was not first rate attractions. It only made the list since I passing Lake Biwa from the north anyway so Hikone was not that big of a detour and I’ve already got a good collection of castles so I might as well keep up the stamps. 

In any case, I reached the outer edge of the castle in less than 10 minutes walk, where a gokoku shrine was. From here on the castle moat was lined with cherry blossoms, though they were slight past their full bloom compared to Kanazawa. 

The castle was protected by a set of double moats, creating an outer perimeter sandwiched between the two. Within this protected space the lords of Hikone had built a garden on the north side and remains of the barracks and stables can still be found in the south. 

The stable was one of its largest kinds still found intact and considered an important cultural treasure. The building was in an L shape and had space for keeping as many as 21 horses. Above each slot was hooks for hanging up the saddle and reins. 

The path was lined with giant festival lanterns written with the names of the sponsoring business embraced by the season’s pink flowers.

Upon crossing the inner moat was the ticketing gate. I went with the 1200Y complete set which included entry to the castle, the garden and the museum also. 

The museum was host to a large collection of the treasures of the Ii family, including the national treasure Hikone Folding Screen which was only put on display this time every year. The screen was painted on gold leafs and depicted the pleasure quarters of Kyoto. There was woman playing shamisen, men and women playing board game, an early example of the genre as usually such scenes would be considered too crude for adherents of the formal painting schools of the time. The screen was very well known and often depicted in other paintings..

The Ii family was well known for the red armors the warriors under its banner ride into battle in, many wore by successive generations were on display, some menacing, some fierce. 

Within the museum is a real Noh theater from the Edo period, built in the 1800s, and performances are hosted here several times a year. 

The former residence of the daimyo has also been restored as an extension to the museum. Visitors can admire the rooms and connecting hallways and the views of the surrounding garden they afforded. The main building was the lord’s living spaces and where he might have entertained some of the guests. Deeper in the sanctum through a long hallway, was the lord’s private space and study, adjoining was a small two level building, the only one in the complex, where the ladies of the household lived. 

Upon leaving the museum, I was confused by a crowd ushering into the now open gates next to the museum into the lord’s garden. I followed them and soon found the answer. It was Hikonyan, putting on a show on the engawa of the residence. 

Hikonyan is basically a white cat mascot wearing a horned red samurai helmet similar to one worn by the Ii clan in the museum’s collections. It was based on the legends told of the 3rd lord of Omi domain, Naotaka. It was said that during a storm the lord was beckoned by a white cat to take shelter in a temple and was saved from a lightning strike. 

The performance was… hard to understand. The mascot could not speak and it relied on the host to narrate, the lack of context made it difficult for me to parse out the words. 

I broke away from the performance and took the opportunity to head up to the castle while the crowd was occupied. 

It’s a steep climb up to the top, the steps were laid in uneven gait, said to foul up the momentum of those charging up to the castle. Near the top the path goes between two stone walls and underneath a wooden bridge. The path circles about onto a ramp from which connects to the castle’s main gate over the bridge. 

This is the only place in Japan where this castle bridge design can be seen. The bridge could easily be destroyed in war time to prevent access by attackers. 

The approach and the bridge was defended by a long row of hoarding with many arrow slits and gun ports. 

From here up to the honmaru was another flight of steps that passes a time bell, said to be amongst the best 100 sounding bells in Japan. 

Within the honmaru were many more cherry blossom trees, providing that postcard perfect view of the keep towering above canopies of pink. The keep has three levels above the stone basement. The exterior was decorated with different gables creating an intricately layered appearance. In total there are 4 design of gables, two for each north-south, east-west facing.

From the top of the keep one could see the western courtyard known for its thousand cherry blossom trees, a rolling canvas stretching from the castle keep to the distant watchtower. If the sun was out it would truly be a sight to behold.

The back trail circled down the hill to the garden on the north side. The Genkyuen was a garden built by the daimyo for entertainment. By this point it feels like just about every castle of note have a garden. Which was only reasonable of course, as this was really the only means for daimyo to experience lands far away without embarking on travels expensive in both time and money. Even a trip to the nearby mountains was an endeavor in the past.

The garden was modelled on the gardens of the Tang dynasty, there were ten supposed sights, at its center was the pond with four islands interwoven with nine bridges. Not as large or well maintained as the major gardens, the many bridges and twist and turns did make the garden very interesting, and the islands and bridges could be viewed from many different angles. 

Next to the garden was the Rakurakuen, the residence of a later daimyo. It was undergoing renovations so it could only be viewed from the outside. 

After this I headed to the west side, where Yume-Kyo-Bashi, a shopping street restored in the appearance of a castle town street, with old wooden shop frontages and well paved sidewalks. 

It was past 3 by this time, the shops were starting to close on a regular week day and short of a handful tourists the street was without spirit. 

Then I discovered that due to the incredible amount of schedule shuffling I had forgotten the chicken restaurant I had my sights on was closed on Wednesdays. I dragged myself to this side of the castle for nothing. 

Annoyed, I went back to the station, hoping I’ll figure out the next plan during this time. I took the path around the main part of town instead of doubling back through the castle, it took me through the two supposed shopping streets of the town. Neither could not even be described as struggling.

The train to Kyoto takes at least 50min and the next train was not due for almost twenty minutes. Thus I could wait at least an hour and 10min to get to Kyoto before finding some food, or I skip the next train, use some time till the one after that to find some food, then when I do get to Kyoto I won’t need to be hungry while sorting out check-ins and buying the things I need.

There’s not much choice near the station, which was good in this circumstance. I picked the only eatery, checked the menu and went in; an item on the chalkboard had caught my eyes. Omi-beef suji curry udon with rice. I didn’t know what suji was at the time. The word was not unfamiliar to me, just temporarily failed to connect in the context of food. What mattered was that it sounded good at the time.

There was only one other customer. I found myself a seat and sipped on the cold water offered. The Japanese eatery was an old couple operation. No fancy affair but very homely. The space was neatly cluttered, the tables old and shone with decades of attended care. For the state the township had looked the eatery looked to be in good shape.

The old lady asked if I wanted rice with my beef-suji udon… which had me confused, wasn’t it meant to be included? Either way, we were able to meet an understanding that yes, I would like rice.

The udon was covered in a curry dark and saucy, with a generous garnish of spring onions. I poked around at the strange glutenous substance and realized that suji was, of course, tendons. I had ordered a beef tendon udon.

The mystery resolved, I quickly enjoyed my 930Y dinner. Using the rice to balance the curry. It was excellent, though mostly unremarkable. 

After the meal I used the remaining time and poked around the Heiwado retail complex opposite the station. It’s a bookstore home living shop.

I arrive at Kyoto almost at 7pm. It felt much later, it had begun to rain. My stay, Smart Stay Shizuku is one major street block down the main station front street and a small block off to the right.

The Global Cabin I had stayed at last time in Tokyo was more of a bunk with private study space, so Smart Stay Shizuku was the first true capsule hotel for me. It’s a fairly new hotel that looked pretty slick from the website images. The reason I chose it was two fold. 

Firstly, hotels in Kyoto with good locations is very hard to find, especially around Kyoto station. Most of the new low cost hotels that sprung up in the wake up of tourism boom congregated around the retail district of Kawaramachi, where old buildings are aplenty for conversion. 

Kawaramachi is by no measures a bad location to stay in Kyoto, it’s by the bank of the Kamogawa river and close to Kinshichi market, Gion and Kiyomizu temple. It has access to Hankyu and Keihan private rails that links to points of interests south of Kyoto such as Fushimi and Uji, and further south to Osaka, and the metro is not unwalkable at Karasuma. Being the heart of the retail district it’s also a foci for buses that spans every corner of Kyoto.

Kyoto station works out a little better for me because I had to bounce in an out of Kyoto so the less transfer needed the better, and Kyoto station had plenty of lockers and even luggage keeping service if it came down to it. 

The other reason was because I booked really really early, I managed to get off-peak price for the capsule hotel in the middle of cherry blossom season. It’s a steal at one third the price which rendered a lot of other factors moot.

And right now a third reason, for most of the way it’s connected by an underground passage. There’s an underground passage from Kyoto station, adjoining the station front underground mall, and runs beneath the station front street for one major block, so I was spared from the weather for the most part. Underground connections always contributed to my considerations though never did I appreciate it as much.

From the end of the passage it’s a mad dash up the stairs to street level and about four buildings down the side street. I ran past a small izakaya and thought how cozy that looked. But, I digress. Onto the hotel.

Shizuku’s street front was of modern Japanese style, with a small rock garden before large glass panes illuminated with the warm wooden glow of the interior. Immediately on entering is a foyer raised about 10cm from the ground, there’s a ramp so dragging luggage is no concern. On the walls of the foyer are shoe lockers where guests have to lock up their shoes. The shoe lockers comes with a key that need to be handed to the front desk for the access wristband, and on heading out the access wristband for the shoe locker key. It’s a labor intensive but clever process that ensures the access wristband is never taken out of the hotel and people entering and exiting the hotel have to pass through a staff member to filter out any suspicious person. 

I announce myself, got my wristband and paid for the stay at the nearby machine. There’s also an options to include breakfast. I saw no reason to pre-order since breakfast can also be paid on the spot the next day at the same price. Who can tell what I feel like tomorrow, I’ll look at what’s on offer and what time I wake up before deciding. 

The staff quickly gave some rules and instructions and introduced the layout of the hotel. Room on level 5, shower and bath on the first floor down a passage next to the lobby. Lounge and breakfast on third. 

The hotel’s key is a wristband with a magnetic knob which is needed to gain access to points throughout the hotel, such as the elevator, the shower and the door to your capsule’s floor. Such control is pretty common for modern capsule hotels and makes me feel pretty safe leaving behind luggage and keeps the genders separate for security.

The capsule floor’s entry door didn’t respond to the wristband initially and took some tries. A fellow guest saw my struggle and opened the door with his wristband, giving me a big grin. I laughed appreciatively and made a comment about the stupid wristband. 

The floor was neat and utilitarian, the black and wooden themed space lit with relaxed dimness. There’s subdued quietness, the long hall swallowing up any noise both in and out.

Along the wall are luggage spaces where there’s a bar with cable locks on them where one could secure luggage to. It won’t protect against anyone rummaging through them but it does prevent a quick snatch and dash. 

There’s two doored away areas, one is the toilet room with generous number of stalls and another a washroom, a much appreciated separation. In the washroom are basins lined both sides with mirrors and disposable toothbrushes, shavers and other amenities,. 

My capsule is the lower one. It was easier to get in and out and to organize luggage; could simply pull the pack right up along the capsule. The capsule measured 1.1m wide and high, and depth of 2.1m, it’s more spacious than the average capsule hotels, many are only 1.05 or 1m. It feels more spacious than I expected, I could sit up, could roll over or curl up, all without worrying about running out of space.

The width is actually even wider as the capsule design here included a cleverly utilized side cavity. At the center of the sidewall is a nook about 15cm deep. In it hung the TV and the nook acts as a bedside table which I’d later find immensely useful for placing phones, glasses, toothbrushes, breakfast buns and other various small items. Beneath the nook was a slide out table, also of good size, enough to balance my chromebook on it plus a drink. The nook space made the inside of the capsule less claustrophobic and the eyes have something to look into. 

The feature most valued had to be the small lockable cabinet occupying the space by the nook. It’s deep enough to fit in my backpack with space left on top to cram in a jacket, a camera, a book and whatever other things I have out. Throw in the luggage cable key and lock up the cabinet, then all I have to carry while inside the hotel was the wristband and the cabinet key, which I’ve found easy enough to tuck under the wristband also.

Not all capsule hotels have lockers, and not all that does have the locker right within the capsule. Some provide storage space but no locks. Smart Stay Shizuku’s design allowed me to keep the backpack within easy reach without taking up precious sleeping space, while secure enough to not require it be carried everywhere within the hotel. 

I feel comfortable enough to leave things in the cabinet for short stints away from the capsule without taking the important things with me. Going to the toilet, checking on the laundry, a coffee break at the lounge. It made the experience much less stressful for one overly cautious like me.

The only shortcoming was the location of the laundry and bath. Located at the back of the first floor it was impossible to go there without bumping into freshly arrived guests coming in from the reception with huge suitcases. It made for uncomfortable pass bys, carrying towels and changes of clothes or bag of laundry. 

The number of laundry machines was also gravely inadequate, only 2 sets of washing machines and dryers. The washing machines was not such a problem but dryers take at least 2 cycles to get to moist-enough-to-hang-up-overnight dry and had far less capacity than the washing counterpart, it made for awkward waits. There was, at least, the vending machine right next to the laundry to get a drink to pass the time. 

I hit the bath, taking a quick shower. The shower and baths are very well equipped and kept to a very high standard. Then I threw my accumulated clothes into the laundry and went upstairs for a coffee.

The third floor was Shizuku’s statement for what image it wished to impart on its guests. Split into two halves, the back portion was a manga lounge with shelves of free to read manga, other books, comfortable couch chairs and massage chair, and TVs. 

The front half was the bar and dining area. The bar served light meals such as curry and pastas, dishes that did not require a full kitchen to prepare, and alcohol and non-alcoholic and snacks. There were plenty of tables and row of window counter seat as well as seats at the bar counter, enough for one to enjoy some personal space. 

The lounge and bar level made the hotel feel a little piece of home. One is not confined to the small capsule and had plenty of space to lounge out, read, relax, have some food, chat and make friends. 

The nice thing about Shizuku was that I did not even need my wallet with me to purchase a coffee from the bar. The staff took my order and scanned my wristband. Any purchases made was paid on check out. 


The coffee was typical Japanese black, with added cream. The bar did claim it was their own roast and indeed it was of decent quality, better than I expected for a capsule hotel. 

I sat down with my laptop and coffee. I was now in Kyoto. It was time to plan.