Ever wondered how Japan’s Meiji era looked like? In Meiji Mura, architecture as well as lifestyle is simulated to the glorious modernization era helm by the Meiji emperor for 45 years.

The Meiji open air museum is open-air architectural museum/theme park in Inuyama, near Nagoya in Aichi prefecture, Japan. It was opened on March 18, 1965. The museum preserves historic buildings from Japan’s Meiji (1867-1912), Taisho (1912-1926), and early Showa (1926-1989) periods. Over 60 historical buildings have been moved and reconstructed onto 1 km² (247 acres) of rolling hills alongside Lake Iruka. The most noteworthy building there is the reconstructed main entrance and lobby of Frank Lloyd Wright’s landmark Imperial Hotel, which originally stood in Tokyo from 1923 to 1967, when the main structure was demolished to make way for a new, larger version of the hotel.

The Meiji era was a period of rapid change in Japan. After centuries of isolation, Japan began to incorporate ideas from the west, including building styles and construction techniques. Meiji Mura’s goal is to preserve these historic early examples of western architecture mixed with Japanese construction techniques and materials. Incidentally, many of the buildings were saved from demolition during the post World War II period, another time of transition and rapid progress in Japanese history.

In addition, notable buildings of historical or cultural importance including those of later eras are preserved as well, including a few Japanese style buildings. Nine of the buildings are designated as Important Cultural Assets, and nearly all the rest are registered as tangible cultural assets. The museum includes buildings from Hawaii and Seattle in the United States, and also Brazil. A steam locomotive and street car, along with shuttle buses and horse-drawn carriages, provide transportation within the grounds. An operational historic post office is included among the 67 buildings (as of 2005). Though some buildings are somewhat empty, others have displays showing the history of the building and period, period furniture, and other displays.

The former Imperial Hotel was moved from Tokyo between 1967 and 1985. Though only the entrance and lobby remain, it is the largest structure in Meiji Mura.

Other structures preserved at Meiji Mura include Lafcadio Hearn’s summer house from Shizuoka (1868) and Kyoto’s old St. Francis Xavier Cathedral (1890). The former Cathedral is available to rent for weddings.

Meiji Mura is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from March to October, and until 4:00 p.m. from November to February.

Official Meiji Mura website

Japanese Edo period castles are everywhere in Japan but the Matsumoto Castle is a very nice one to check out if you’re in Matsumoto city. Matsumoto city is the second largest city in the Nagano perfecture and is the perfect grounds to start your hiking trips to the Japanese Alps, i.e. Kamikochi.

Places to checkout while you’re in the city are:

- Matsumoto Castle
- Nakamachi
- Japan Ukiyoe Museum
- Kamikochi
- Alpine Route

Matsumoto City Official Website

It is the official season for climbing Mount Fuji, 1st July – 31 August. The weather is perfect and the view is clear. It is during this season that experience and inexperience mountain climbers throng the Fuji. It is recommended that the inexperience climbers climb Mt. Fuji during this season as visibility is good and the weather less harsh.

There are five routes you can start out with to climb Mt. Fuji:

Kawaguchiko 5th Station (Yamanashi Prefecture)

Altitude: about 2300 meters
Ascent: 5-7 hours
Descent: 3-5 hours

This is the most popular base for the climb to the summit, and the most easily accessible 5th Station from the Fuji Five Lake region and central Tokyo. The road to this 5th Station, the Fuji Subaru Line, is a toll road (2300 Yen), which gets closed to private vehicles during the peak of the summer holidays (August 9 to 19 and 23 to 24, 2008).

The Yoshidaguchi Trail leads from the Kawaguchiko 5th Station to the summit. Lots of mountain huts line the trail around the 7th and 8th stations, and there are separate trails for the ascent and descent. The sunrise takes place on this side of the mountain.

Subashiri 5th Station (Shizuoka Prefecture)

Altitude: about 2000 meters
Ascent: 5-8 hours
Descent: 3-5 hours

This 5th Station is located only at 2000 meters above sea level and is the base of the Subashiri Trail. The Subashiri Trail meets the Yoshidaguchi Trail around the 8th station.

Gotemba 5th Station (Shizuoka Prefecture)

Altitude: about 1400 meters
Ascent: 7-10 hours
Descent: 3-6 hours

This is by far the lowest 5th Station, and the ascent to the summit is accordingly much longer than from the other 5th stations. The Gotemba Trail leads from the Gotemba 5th Station to the summit. There are about four huts around the 7th and 8th station.

Fujinomiya 5th Station (Shizuoka Prefecture)

Altitude: about 2400 meters
Ascent: 4-7 hours
Descent: 2-4 hours

The closest 5th Station to the summit, the Fujinomiya 5th Station is the base for the southern approach via the Fujinomiya Trail. It is easily accessible from the railway stations on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line between Tokyo and Osaka. There are about half a dozen mountain huts along this trail.

The road to the Fujinomiya 5th Station is toll free and gets closed to private vehicles during the peak of the climbing season (July 15-17 and August 5-14, 2006).

This website is a good place to start if you want to contact an operator for your Mt Fuji expedition: Viator. It sets out from Tokyo, which is convenient for all.

For more resources, click here.

Hōnen Matsuri (豊年祭, Hōnen Matsuri) (Japanese for Harvest Festival) is a fertility festival celebrated every year on March 15 in Japan. The most well-known of these festivals takes place in the town of Komaki, just north of Nagoya City. Hōnen means rich harvest in Japanese, while a matsuri is a festival or holiday. The Hōnen festival and ceremony celebrate the blessings of a bountiful harvest and all manner of prosperity and fertility.

The festival’s main features of interest are Shinto priests playing musical instruments, a parade of ceremonially-garbed participants, all-you-can-drink sake, and a 280 kg (620 pound), 2.5 meter (96 inch)-long wooden phallus. The wooden phallus is carried from a shrine called Shinmei Sha (in even-numbered years) on a large hill or from Kumano-sha Shrine (in odd-numbered years), to a shrine called Tagata Jinja.

The festival starts with celebration and preparation at 10 a.m. at Tagata Jinja, where all sorts of foods and souvenirs (mostly phallus-shaped or related) are sold. Sake is also passed out freely from large wooden barrels. At about 2pm everyone gathers at Shinmei Sha for the start of the procession. Shinto priests say prayers and make blessings on the participants and mikoshi which are to be carried along the parade route, as well as the large wooden phallus.

When the procession makes its way down to Tagata Jinja the phallus in its mikoshi is spun furiously before it is set down and more prayers are said. Everyone then gathers in the square outside Tagata Jinja and waits for the mochi nage, at which time the crowd is showered with small rice cakes which are thrown down by the officials from raised platforms. The festival concludes at about 4:30 p.m.

One of Japan’s three most beautiful festival, the event does not lack tourists and visitors in participation. The Shinto festival is held twice in a year, spring and autumn, in the old town of Takayama. This year’s spring Takayama festival will be held on the April 14-15 2008. So do try to catch it because it is a sight to behold. The throngs of people visiting the old towns brings the sleepy place to life.

There are usually evening and morning events with beautiful processions, floats and performances in traditional costumes.

Check out the routes for the festival:

Courtesy of Japan-Guide

Omicho Market has a history that dates back to the Edo Period. This open space market sells excellent fresh fish that is a must visit for anyone who is traveling to Kanazawa.

Kanazawa is well-known throughout Japan for its traditional cooking, which is called Kaga Cuisine. The seafood is a specialty, the jumbo shrimp in particular. Sushi and sashimi are also excellent. The Japanese sake produced in this region is of high quality, smooth and sweet. The quality of the local sake derives from the excellence of the rice grown in Ishikawa Prefecture as well as the considerable precipitation of the Hokuriku region, allowing for an ample supply of clean, fresh water. This is why in Omicho, most of the shops there sell seafood. The market is a favorite place to purchase the best that Kanazawa has to offer.

Through much of Japan’s history, the Kiso Valley was used to connect the former Mino and Shinano provinces. However, it came to be known as a difficult route because of its steep climbs. The Shoku Nihongi recorded that the Kiso no Yamamichi (岐蘇山道) was opened in 702. The same route was again mentioned in a 713 article, but it was then called the Kisoji no Michi (吉蘇路). The Kisoji (木曽路) would eventually follow the same path. However the official Tōsandō did not run through the Kiso Valley; instead, it ran from Mino Province towards the Kamisaka Pass and into the Ina Valley. During Japan’s middle ages, the Nakasendō, an old trade route, ran through the valley, which led to the creation of eleven post stations along the route. Since the Meiji period, the Chūō Main Line (for trains) and Route 19 (for vehicles) have been cutting through the valley.

Today, Kiso Valley is a historical site where a beautifully preserved post town lies.

Food. People. Street processions. Happy faces.

Geezus…this will cure my fear of height forever. Check out activities at Mount Fuji here.

Micro flying, i’ve always wanted to try you. I saw you on TV and the sense of euphoria you leave people after they’re done with you. I bet trying you out around Mount Fuji, one of the most beautiful places in the world, would be excellent.

Look at them sitting in the hot spring on cold winter’s day. You know what they say, it’s true that when your bum is covered, you’re all good to go. On a different note, if I ever visit Japan, this is one of those place I want to visit – Jigokudani Monkey Park, Nagano. The monkey park is situated in Yamanouchi, Shimotakai District, Nagano Prefecture. It is part of the Joshinetsu Kogen National Park, and is located in the valley of the Yokoyu-River, in the northern part of the prefecture. The name Jigokudani, meaning “Hell’s Valley”, is due to the steam and boiling water that bubbles out of small crevices in the frozen ground, surrounded by steep cliffs and formidably cold and hostile forests.

The heavy snowfalls (snow covers the ground for 4 months a year), an elevation of 850 meters, and being only accessible via a narrow two kilometer footpath through the forest, keep it uncrowded despite being relatively well-known.

It is famous for its large population of wild Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata), more commonly referred to as Snow Monkeys, that go to the valley during the winter, foraging elsewhere in the national park during the warmer months. The monkeys descend from the steep cliffs and forest to sit in the warm waters of the onsen (hotsprings), and return to the security of the forests in the evenings.