Gokayama

The motor coach took up into the mountains outside of Kanazawa this morning to visit a UNESCO World Heritage site called Okayama. As we drove through the valley, rice planting was in full swing.

This is no longer done with farmers bending over to push the rice shoots into the mud. Instead, machines take over the back-breaking labor.

In the mountains, rice paddies gave way to vegetable gardens. Our first stop was the tiny village of Ainokura, known as "the village of the Gassho Style houses." A Gassho house has a thatched roof that is very steep -- what we would call an "A-frame" -- due to the heavy snowfall in winter.

We climbed up the hill to an overlook to get our photo of the village. On the way, there were thin ropes along the path with small bells attached. The sign probably made sense in Japanese, but the English read "For avoiding beasts: By swing the rope, bells ring." We didn't see any beasts, so we don't know what sort of animal problem they have here.

After walking through the village and getting some photos of the surrounding mountains, we continued by bus to Gokayama proper and what used to be the area elementary school. Due to few children, the school has been consolidated and the building turned into a community center.

A few locals here introduced us to the preparation of "mochi," a sweet, pasty rice cake that is made and eaten at the new year, as well as at significant family celebrations such as weddings and births.

Mochi is made with a longer grain rice variety than what is eaten day to day. After the rice is steamed it is placed in a large wooded bowl and beaten into paste with a large wooden mallet.

Someone has to reach in and turn the mass of rice after every mallet blow, so of course, men do the pounding and women put their hands in to risk getting their fingers smashed. We all got to take a turn pounding, and the poor local woman turning the rice hoped that we could all keep the rhythm.

Once beaten (literally) to a pulp, the rice blob is divided into bite-sized balls. Some are dipped in a sweet soy power, and others topped with a savory soy paste. Both were actually quite good.

After our goodbyes here, we moved only a short distance across the village to a washi factory. Washi is a heavy Japanese art paper that is used for calligraphy, for paper screens in homes, lamp and lantern shades, and for a variety of other purposes.

We were shown a video (thankfully with English narration on the sound track) explaining how Gokayama washi is made, what makes it different from other washi, and why it is in great demand across Japan (or so they claim).

The process begins with a particular variety of mulberry bush that grows in this region. The long stems of the bush are cut, steamed, de-barked, bleached, boiled, rinsed, cleaned, beaten, stirred into water, strained, shaken, pressed, and dried into sheets of paper. We wondered how anyone ever figured out such a long, complicated, multi-stepped process!

We were allowed to participate in the strained and shaken steps near the end to create a few little post cards. While they dried, we were of course welcomed into the shop where we could purchase the real washi paper. Some in our group did. We did not.

The motor coach took us to yet another small village in the Gokayama heritage region where we disembarked in front of a tiny restaurant where we were to have lunch. But just as we arrived, a group of young people came by in a dragon parade to celebrate today's national holiday.

The dragon was led by a pickup truck loaded with Taiko drummers, and it was followed by others in some other sorts of animal costumes. All of that was followed by about a dozen folks with video cameras. As soon as the videographers saw a busload of Americans watching the parade, they turned their cameras on us, rather than on the dragon.

Then the dragon parade stopped, and the TV folks pulled us over to interact with the paraders. It was rather chaotic, and it was unclear whether we were the celebrities or the paraders were. One of the TV interviewers pushed a microphone into the face of a woman on our tour and asked why we were here. She lied, and said that we had come to see this parade. That brought a cheer from the paraders.

There were photos and high-fives all around, then the dragon drove away and we crossed back across the street to the restaurant where our food was getting cold. It was a meal of soba, or buckwheat noodles, as well as a variety of other vegetables.

In this same village is the Iwase House. This 300-year-old house is the largest Gassho Style house in the area. The steep roof is pitched so high that there are five levels. Braving the steep and narrow steps in our socks (shoes are left at the door in Japanese houses), we were allowed to explore the bottom four levels.

The family and guests occupied the ground floor. Servants lived one floor above. The third floor was where silk worms were cultivated. And the top two levels were for workshops and storage. As many as 36 people lived under the roof here throughout its history.

The current owner is the 19th generation of his family to have inherited it. His 90+ year old mother still lives in one section of the house, but he and his family live in a more modern house nearby. Their  full-time occupation, however, is the maintenance and interpretation of the property.

Mr. Iwase performed a traditional Samurai hunting dance for us, and his wife served us tea. Their teenage daughter also helped. His English was quite good, and he explained his costume, the dance, the tea, the house, and the history with us.

After leaving Gokayama we returned to Kanazawa where the Gargantua Music Festival had gotten underway today. There are a bunch of ticketed concerts planned over the three days, but also quite a few free ones, mostly featuring amateur or student musicians. The theme was music from the U.S. and UK.

We were probably the only ones in our group who cared to participate, but were able to take it at least parts of five performances. Some junior high-aged kids and their teacher put on a pretty good Taiko drum show. A decent young adult saxophone quartet played George Gershwin, Richard Rogers, and John Philip Sousa. 

We heard a harmonica player trying to do Bach (but we didn't stay long for that), and a group playing Irish music on traditional Japanese instruments (also rather odd). But they finished off with some traditional Japanese music, which made more sense. And we came back after dinner to hear a piano recital performed by a young man who wasn't nearly as good as he appeared to think he was.

It was another full day. If we're lucky, we may get a chance to hear a bit more free music tomorrow.