Nagoya: Feminine, Sweet and Delicious Dialect

This gay, lovely, prosperous, old-new city of one million inhabitants has long been reputed as the "Middle Capital." It is the greatest city between the two giants of Tokyo and Osaka (234 miles from Tokyo and 118 miles from Osaka on the Tōkaidō trunk line).

It is of course hardly surprising to learn that Nagoya has her enemies, that is those who envy her progress in the present and her proud history in the past. But is this not true of any progressive city, just as it is true of any woman who makes her progress in the world? Her competitors will always accuse her of having succeeded either by her wiles in the present or by making capital of her past. Whatever the cause, Nagoya, like every successful woman, has made history. Of course it is true that, again like every woman, Nagoya has a past; yes, and is not ashamed of it. It matters therefore little what the envious may say, for Nagoya is a city of which Japan is proud, and what is equally important, she is a city proud of herself and whose citizens are proud of her.

What, however, the rest of Japan loves about Nagoya is its sweet dialect. It is singularly feminine and delicious. If the Tokyo dialect is the best in which to quarrel with one's superior in the office and get fired, the Osaka tongue befits a street auctioneer foisting junk on unwary strangers, and the Satsuma dialect is good for policemen scolding drunkards, Nagoya's is the best language in which to make love. No mortal man can resist a beautiful woman whispering in the dulcet accents of Nagoya.

The secret of this tongue consists in its endless flow of incomprehensible cadence; it goes on winding and twisting like an eel, ungraspable and interminable, in which you can make neither head nor tail of a single sentence, and in which "yeses" and "noes" are so intermixed amid a maze of honorifics that you cannot tell whether the speaker is paying you compliments or gibing at you. But such is its mysterious power that it convinces without your understanding a word.

From Kyoto To Tokyo, To Mount Fuji, To Kyushu Island, To Korea

Cherry Blossoms, Heian-Jingu Shrine, Kyoto, Japan Photographic Print
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From Kyoto

Thanks to its perch in the relatively high latitudes, northeast Asia is the only part of the region that enjoys four distinct seasons-a climatic oddity that makes it curiously familiar for Westerners traveling in Japan, Korea, and parts of northern China. Cherry-blossom time is perhaps the best season to visit Japan (though beware of the crowds), and fall the best for Korea (where the colors easily rival those of New England). In China's north and Russia's far east, high summer or midwinter are best-warm sunlit evenings in July or magnificent snowy vistas in December.

Forget Tokyo as a base: Its monstrous international airport, Narita, happens to be so inconveniently sited-at the very least, two and a half hours from the average Tokyo hotel room-that it is actually the very last place to choose. By contrast, Osaka's handsome new airport proves a very good jumping-off point and is well connected to its neighbor cities, and not least to the exquisite old Japanese capital of Kyoto-which means that you can spend a meditative morning communing with the stones in Ryoan-ji Temple or strolling the Philosopher's Walk from Eikan-do to Ginkaku-ji before setting out, via what is called the new Kansai airport, on your adventure.

There ate--two further practical advantages to Osaka. First, flights from the Kansai field to Tokyo land not at the far away Narita but at the much handier Haneda Airport, only minutes from Tokyo's city center; and second, Osaka-where there is a brand-new Imperial Hotel that is well worth seeing-is nearer to the major centers of South Korea, essential destinations for anyone wanting to have the full picture of what northeast Asia is all about.

To Tokyo

This, of course, has to be the prime destination, but it is invidious to offer specific sites of pilgrimage-the Imperial Palace, the Ginza, the 5 A.M. auctions at the Tsukiji fish market. Better to suggest things to do, such as Kabuki theater (marathan sessions are held at the Kabuki-za Theater in Ginza), or No drama (at the nearby Ginza No-Gakudo), or simply the amazing nightlife in such areas as Shinjuku or Roppongi. Whereas in smaller Japanese cities and towns it's a good idea to have the (incredibly expensive) experience of staying in a local inn, a ryokan, in Tokyo you are better advised to stay at a Western-style hotel, of which the Seiyo Ginza and the Imperial remain among the best.

To Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji and the nearby hot spring region of Hakone are well within the two-hour range for train journeys from Kyoto. You climb the mountain (in Japan they say the wise man climbs it but only the fool climbs it twice), taking about four hours up, two down; warm clothing is essential if you climb at night-as you should, in order to witness goraiko, the sunrise, from the summit.In Hakone, where you can stay at astonishingly costly hotels like the Fujiya, one ofthe oldest Western-style hotels in the country, the attractions are legion-lakes, mountains, mud baths, ancient forests, and, if you're lucky, morning views of Fuji-san looming over all.

To Kyushu Island

Here is where you come to know Japan best of all, however, by experiencing her traditions and her curiosities rather than by seeing her cities and her sights. But doing this demands same valor on the part of the casual visitor-nowhere more so than in the sampling of the onsen, the open-air bath. Try Beppu, where you can either bathe in a variety of types and temperatures of water or be buried up to the neck in hat sand on a volcanic beach. In Yufu-in, inland and near-by, the scene is more genteel and more beautifully and classically Japanese, and there are plenty of smaIl hotels with adjoining baths.Also on Kyushu is the reborn town of Nagasaki-famous for its role as the first open city in pre-Meiji Japan and as the second city to be devastated by the American nuclear attacks in 1945. Hiroshima, two hours by train southwest of Osaka and still on the main island of Honshu, is equally well worth visiting.The two other main islands of Japan-the small and temple-filled Shikoku and the large and largely agricultural Hokkaido-are less frequently visited. For those with time (six weeks if on foot, a day if by bus), there is a memorable pilgrimage route that takes in all 88 temple site s on Shikoku; and for those with wintertime energy, the skiing around Sapporo is excellent. The Shikotsuko Hokkai Hotel here offers one of the few affordable Japanese ryokan experiences in the country.

To Korea

From Osaka Airport, it is quick and easy to reach Seoul, Pusan, and, with a little more effort, the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. While the sight of the Cold War, still very much alive and well at the armistice village of Panmunjom, may enthrall some, the little-known countryside of South Korea remains spectacularly beautiful: The unforgettable temple of Haein-sa near the city of Taegu is among the most notable places.Within locked rooms and guarded by monks lies one of the original Buddhist woodenblock libraries, the Tripitaka Koreana, carved in the thirteenth century; and the temple itself sits in a dreamlike panorama of misty mountains of unparalleled beauty-the perfect spiritual link to the fragile loveliness of the Kyoto temples.

The Japan Alps

There is not one of the twelve National Parks but has a strong element of mountainous scenery. Even the Lake Park, Towada, or the Inland Sea Park has mountains close at hand or in the background, to heighten its general pictorial effect. The Japanese term for scenery is often written with two characters meaning "mountains" and "waters," and the Japanese idea of a garden or park is incomplete without a mountain either in the foreground or as a backscreen. Moreover, one of the necessary accessories of the miniature mountain in artificial gardens is the stone lantern, preferably moss-covered and oldlooking. The idea of it is to lend a sacred air to the mountain, the stone lantern being an indispensable feature of any temple of god or Buddha. Thus, the mountain, an integral part of a perfect Japanese park, is emblematic of religious piety. Great saints of Buddhist and Shinto religions have at all times sought refuge in the fastness of mountains for prayer and contemplation, as Abraham, Moses and even Christ Himself did. Hardly a mountain in Japan which is not sacred in one sense or another, and mountain-climbing in old days was almost exclusively the sacrament of priests and devout folk.

Bearing such a fact in mind, we can best appreciate the modern character of the Japan Alps Park, both in name and character. Most other mountains are chiefly linked with temples and shrines, surrounding landscapes of historical and legendary memories. Not that the Japan Alps are not without attractions of scenery, hot springs, etc., but the Alps differ from other mountains in this, that the Alps' principal boast is the scope they give to mountain-climbling under most propitious conditions. Their very name is exotic to the Japanese ear, with a secular and alluring appeal. The name "Japan Alps Park" contains "sacred" mountains, to be sure, which, however, the exotic word "Alps" seems to kill. They add a "new" flavor, illustrating the national craze for mountaineering among the youth of the nation. In short, the Japan Alps Park has been chosen as an ideal mountaineering resort which both its great size and variety of scenery, and its wealth of characteristic mountain grandeur justify. Fine gradient slopes, steep precipices, gorges, lakes, hot springs, noble panoramas, etc., are all there perfectly represented in the Japan Alps Park.

The Japan or Japanese Alps is a generic term, coined, it is said, by the Englishman, Mr. William Gowland, half a century ago, to which Rev. Walter Weston gave the sign and seal of authority, so to speak, by writing Mountaineering and Exploration in the Japanese Alps in 1896. The Japan Alps then covered only some portions of what has since become generally known as such. Today it includes the three great ranges--Southern, Central and Northern Alps --extending through the central and the widest part of the main island to the very edge of the Pacific Ocean and the Japan Sea. Of these three the Northern Alps alone have been designated as a National Park.

The Park covers an area of 427,770 acres, extending over 98 miles with a width of 37 miles. It contains more than 100 peaks, of which about forty have altitudes of over 8,000 feet. Of these the most popular climbing peaks are Yarigatake (10,430 feet), Hotakadake (10,332), Ontake (9,801), Tateyama (9,632), Shirouma (9,385), etc.

The Park abounds in good hot springs -- evidence of the volcanic nature of the mountains -generally located on the slopes and in the valleys. Of such by far the most popular is Kamikōchi--a plateau of nearly 5,000 feet above sea level. It is a delightful long belt of 10 miles from east to west with a maximum width of a mile, screened with towering peaks, double its own height. It possesses all the best features of a mountain resort--some comfortable hotels with radio-active hot springs, beautiful lakes, crystal-clear rivers, lovely alpine flowers, as well as wild mountain scenery. Its cool climate, seldom above 60 degrees F. in midsummer, and its bracing mountain air make it an ideal summer resort, as well as a comfortable starting and arriving stage for more ambitious Alpine climbers. This beautiful oasis in the Japan Alps Park is only 28 miles from Matsumoto, where Alpine-bound visitors generally alight, the distance being covered by motorbus in 2 hours. Seeing that Matsumoto is only 156 miles from Tokyo, Kamikōchi is within ten hours' easy journey of the capital. It is a triumph of quick and comfortable traveling never dreamed of by our forefathers.

Nagoya

This gay, lovely, prosperous, old-new city of one million inhabitants has long been reputed as the "Middle Capital." It is the greatest city between the two giants of Tokyo and Osaka (234 miles from Tokyo and 118 miles from Osaka on the Tōkaidō trunk line).

It is of course hardly surprising to learn that Nagoya has her enemies, that is those who envy her progress in the present and her proud history in the past. But is this not true of any progressive city, just as it is true of any woman who makes her progress in the world? Her competitors will always accuse her of having succeeded either by her wiles in the present or by making capital of her past. Whatever the cause, Nagoya, like every successful woman, has made history. Of course it is true that, again like every woman, Nagoya has a past; yes, and is not ashamed of it. It matters therefore little what the envious may say, for Nagoya is a city of which Japan is proud, and what is equally important, she is a city proud of herself and whose citizens are proud of her.

What, however, the rest of Japan loves about Nagoya is its sweet dialect. It is singularly feminine and delicious. If the Tokyo dialect is the best in which to quarrel with one's superior in the office and get fired, the Osaka tongue befits a street auctioneer foisting junk on unwary strangers, and the Satsuma dialect is good for policemen scolding drunkards, Nagoya's is the best language in which to make love. No mortal man can resist a beautiful woman whispering in the dulcet accents of Nagoya. The secret of this tongue consists in its endless flow of incomprehensible cadence; it goes on winding and twisting like an eel, ungraspable and interminable, in which you can make neither head nor tail of a single sentence, and in which "yeses" and "noes" are so intermixed amid a maze of honorifics that you cannot tell whether the speaker is paying you compliments or gibing at you. But such is its mysterious power that it convinces without your understanding a word.

Nara The oldest city of Japan

The oldest city of Japan, founded in 709 A.D., and the first permanent Imperial capital ( 710-780), Nara remains in no sense a city of ruins. Though possessing a thriving population of some 373,000, which is fast increasing, and with the latest aspects and improvements of modern civilization, Nara is essentially and unmistakably an ancient city. Many parts of great cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, even Kyoto, have their counterparts elsewhere in Japan. There is a small Ginza and a small Dōtonbori in almost any large city. Nara is unique. There is no larger or lesser Nara anywhere. Japan is worth visiting from across the four seas if only to see this ancient capital.

Of the various features that constitute the lure of Nara, three stand out pre-eminently. The first is its world-famous giant bronze Buddha, the largest and oldest in the world, through one of whose nostrils a full-grown man can easily pass. It is an image of Buddha seated, cross-legged, upon the lotus flower. It was completed in 752, after repeated failures. It is 53.5 feet high, its face 16 feet by 9.5 feet, its eyes 3.9 feet long, its ears 8.5 feet long, its mouth 3.7 feet, its nose 3.9 feet long, its nostrils 3 feet in diameter, its thumb 4.5 feet in length. The lotus flower on which the image sits is 10 feet high and 68 feet in diameter. It is recorded that the casting required 438 tons of copper, 8 tons of white wax, about 870 lbs. of gold, and about 4,855 lbs. of mercury.