Myriad Charms

COVER STORY
© Shiromasa Kuyama
COVER STORY
Discovering Japan’s
Myriad Charms
In addition to its long history and rich cultural tradition, Japan is
also a global trendsetter in fashion, anime, and other aspects of
modern culture. What do overseas visitors regard as being Japan’s
biggest tourism assets, and how can the country emerge as an even
more attractive travel destination? This month’s cover story looks
at the many charms of traveling in Japan.
Japan’s
Green
Tourism
The beauty of the seasons and the traditional
lifestyles of rural Japan are an important part of
what attracts visitors from overseas. Japan
Echo reports on how a farmhouse inn is enabling foreign visitors to experience the fun of
green tourism.
4 Highlighting JAPAN
through articles
H
ida Ichinomiya is a small village in the
mountains of Gifu Prefecture. Although it is just 10 kilometers south of
the famous historic neighborhood of
Takayama (and administratively part
of the same city), Hida Ichinomiya sees
relatively few visitors apart from during the ski season
and a few days each spring and fall, when the Takayama
Festival and its famous mechanical dolls bring a sharp
increase in tourism.
It was this state of affairs that prompted 66-yearold Mitsuyoshi Mizuno, owner of the Minshuku Mizunoso inn, to answer a call from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries for more “green
tourism” that would offer visitors hands-on experiences of the area’s agricultural traditions and natural
beauty. Green tourism gives city dwellers a chance to
stay in a rural environment and interact with local
people and their culture. In 2006 Mizuno visited Germany, France, and Switzerland to experience green
tourism firsthand in the movement’s birthplace.
“In the countryside just outside Frankfurt I got to
experience life on a farm and visited farm shops selling
local produce and foods. In France I stayed in a farm
guesthouse where guests could work with the animals
and help out in the wheat fields. And in Switzerland,
where the geographic conditions came closest to those
in Takayama, I had a great time
making my own sausages and
dairy products.”
The next year, Mizuno put
what he had seen in Europe to
good use, founding the HidaTakayama Green Tourism Council
in partnership with local farmers
and fellow guesthouse owners. By
teaming together, the local community is able to offer visitors a
wide variety of rural experiences
throughout the year: collecting
wild vegetables and planting rice
in the spring, potato digging and
trout fishing in the summer, and
mushroom picking in the fall. Activities available year-round include the chance for tourists to
make their own soba and udon
noodles, to bake fresh bread and
pizza, and to make handicrafts
from wool, silkworm cocoons, and
straw. There are also events where
visitors can get to grips with Japa-
nese culture at close quarters: by
practicing their chopstick dexterity with a meal of nagashi-somen
(thin noodles plucked up as they
shoot by down a long bamboo
flume), or wielding a traditional
mallet and pounding sticky rice
into mochi cakes. The council’s activities have the enthusiastic backing of the city government, which
has launched a website to spread
the news to people in other parts of
the country. As a result, several city
schools have started bringing their
students to Ichinomiya for a firsthand taste of life in a rural community.
It was not long after Mizuno’s
first encounter with green tourism
that foreign travelers started to arrive at Mizunoso in surprising
numbers. The Tokyo Hilton had
apparently taken to recommending the inn to guests planning to
visit Takayama. Mizuno created an
The route taken by Marco and Patricia
on their journey around Japan.
Kyoto
Hiroshima and
Miyajima
Nikko
1.5 hrs
by bus
2.5 hrs
by train
3 hrs
by train
2 hrs
by train
Osaka
2 hrs
by train
Tokyo
30 min
by train
1.5 hrs
by train
© Shiromasa Kuyama
English website to try and attract
more visitors from overseas. The
site was listed on the official website of the Japan National Tourism
Organization’s “Visit Japan” Campaign. Shortly afterward, Mizuno
hosted a team of monitors who
were part of a project to assist foreign tourists advanced by the
Organization for Urban-Rural
Interchange Revitalization. The
organization has recognized the
region as a model area for international green tourism, and Mizuno’s
inn now serves as a gateway for attracting tourists to the area.
Praise from Overseas Guests
Matsumoto
Takayama
Mitsuyoshi Mizuno
Mount Koya
2 hrs
by train
Fuji Five Lakes
Marco Kneymberg and Patricia
Burggraeve, a couple in their thirties from the Netherlands, were
guests at Mizunoso in late October.
“We’d visited a lot of different
countries,” says Kneymberg, “and
this time we decided to come to Japan. We’re here for four weeks in
all. So far, we’ve seen Tokyo and
Nikko, the Fuji Five Lakes, and
Matsumoto, before coming here to
Takayama.
“We first found out about soba
making on TV back home,” he continues. “We spoke to a local travel
agent and said it was something we
December 2009 5
COVER STORY
COVER STORY
Nara’s 1,300-Year History
definitely wanted to try while we
were here. Mizunoso came with
glowing recommendations. The
wife of the guy who runs the travel
agency is Japanese; she’d been here
before and said it was absolutely
fantastic. They told us it would be
easy to fit Takayama into our itinerary after visiting Matsumoto.”
Accompanying the couple to
the soba-making workshop was
Mitsuyoshi’s wife, Miyoko Mizuno.
The 62-year-old is one of Japan’s
top 100 “country inn mothers,” as
selected in a national contest to
find the best family-run accommodations in rural Japan. Miyoko’s
motto is simple: “Make people feel
at home.” She is enthusiastic about
getting to know her guests and doing what she can to contribute to
cultural exchange. She was on
hand to coach Patricia through the
various stages of the soba-making
process, and gave her a joyful,
motherly hug when the noodles
were finally ready.
“I often make bread at home,
so I’m used to kneading dough,”
Patricia said after the lesson. “But
soba was difficult! The dough has
to be stretched really thin. Getting
the dough even, and then cutting
the noodles so they were all the
same thickness was tough. But I’m
really glad I did it—it gave me the
chance to experience something I
would never be able to do back
home.”
Miyoko spoke about the challenges of making foreign guests
feel welcome. “The language barrier means that sometimes the only
way to communicate is through
gestures. Once a guest wanted to
know why o-hagi [a confection
made from glutinous rice] are
round. I phoned someone I know
who speaks English and had them
explain for me. The tourists were
really pleased to have their questions answered, and I was so happy
6 Highlighting JAPAN
through articles
The year 2010 marks the 1,300th anniversary of the establishment of Heijo-kyo in present-day Nara
Prefecture as the nation’s first capital, and a variety of commemorative events are planned throughout the prefecture, reports Japan Echo.
T
A Dutch couple try their hands at making soba noodles.
to be able to get across what I
wanted to say. Since then I’ve been
making a special effort at mealtimes to serve guests things they
won’t find anywhere else but here
in the countryside.”
Her husband Mitsuyoshi adds,
“Foreign tourists who make the effort to come all the way out here to
the countryside tend to be very
friendly, easygoing people. Not
having a language in common has
its disadvantages—but on the
other hand, it makes people much
more open with each other, and
both sides try really hard to communicate the best we can.”
When asked what it was they
had liked best about their stay at
Mizunoso, Kneymberg and Burggraeve reply: “We became quite
close with Miyoko thanks to the
soba-making class. The evening
meals were great, too, and Miyoko
and her husband really went out of
their way to explain to us about
what we were eating. It was nice to
be able to communicate in that
© Shiromasa Kuyama
way. We’ve found Japanese people
very welcoming. We wanted to
meet as many people as we could
during our trip, so we’re definitely
glad we made the decision to come
and experience the countryside.”
For their evening meal, the
couple change into yukata (cotton
kimono) for an impressive feast
of Hida beef and other local specialties, accompanied by a bottle
of Mizunoso-brewed doburoku
(cloudy, unfiltered sake), which is
dispatched with relish. It is an experience that would be hard to
replicate anywhere else, and the
two visitors evidently enjoy making the most of it. From here, they
plan to visit Kyoto, Osaka, and
Mount Koya, before moving onto
Hiroshima and Miyajima.
“We want to experience as
much as we can of Japanese life—
not just the big cities. Hopefully by
traveling to different parts of the
country, we’ll be able to see lots of
different aspects of Japanese culture.”
he remains of the ancient Heijo Palace are
located 15 minutes on
foot east of YamatoSaidaiji Station. To the
south of the newly restored Main Hall of the Former
I m p e r i a l Au d i e n c e Ha l l
(Daigokuden) spreads an expanse
of about 1.2 million square meters
that is mostly covered with lawn
and native grass. The restored Suzaku Gate can be discerned about
1 kilometer in the distance. This is
the site where Japan’s first fullfledged capital city—Heijo-kyo—
was built in 710. At that time, the
70-meter wide Suzaku Avenue ran
for about 4 kilometers south from
Suzaku Gate, and approximately
100,000 people lived in the city.
The 84 years from the founding of Heijo-kyo until 794, when
the capital was moved to presentHeijo-kyo remains
Nara City
Todai-ji
Toshodai-ji
Asuka
Yoshino
Nara Prefecture
The newly rebuilt Daigokuden of Heijo Palace.
© Nara Prefectural Board of Education Office of Cultural Properties Preservation
day Kyoto, are known as the Nara
period. During this time Japan incorporated the legal codes of Tang
Dynasty China and formed a nation
of centralized authority with the
emperor at the legal and religious
center. Heijo-kyo served as a symbol both in Japan and abroad of the
birth of a legal system in Japan.
The capital was built on an
area measuring 4.3 kilometers
east-west and 4.8 kilometers
north-south and was divided into
“left” and “right” along Suzaku Avenue, at the northern end of which
stood Heijo Palace. This is where
the emperor lived; it also included
the Daigokuden and various government buildings where the affairs of state and ceremonies were
conducted. Both the “left” and
“right” capitals were partitioned on
a grid by large streets running eastwest and north-south. This was
modeled on the layout of the Tang
capital of Chang’an, one of the
world’s major centers of civilization at that time. Within the walls
of the capital were governmentestablished markets; residences for
the nobility, government officials,
and commoners; and temples and
palaces.
The Association for Commemorative Events of the 1,300th
Anniversary of Nara Heijo-kyo
Capital, established by the prefectural government and other organ­
izations, is planning various commemorative events throughout
2010. One of the most notable will
be the opening to the public of the
rebuilt Daigokuden on April 23.
The hall is a massive structure
measuring 44 meters by 19.5 meters and 29 meters high, and it was
rebuilt over a period of eight years
primarily by using the construcDecember 2009 7