Hirado
15 May 2005
Japan has something with the Netherlands, and that is very obvious. Besides the "official" memories to the Netherlands, like Dejima in Nagasaki, there is Huis ten Bosch: a big park with copies of Dutch buildings like the Dom tower and of course Huis ten Bosch. This weekend we visited CAS Village, what, despite only being opened in March of this year, already has the nickname Holland Village.
This is not surprising, since it is a park with copies of Dutch houses, like you find in Alkmaar. There is no cultural reason for this, Holland Village is a big shopping center. At first we couldn't believe that a new park would be built like this, just to serve as a shopping center, but that is exactly what it is. Not a regular shopping center but a place where you can buy all kinds of "specialties".
They have real Dutch terrasses on the waterfront, and a real pond that takes you to another island, with more shops in Dutch houses.You can celebrate your wedding day here and everything will be taken care of, for this they have a special "bridal desk", a kind of Japanese wedding planner. But we are not interested... so our journey continues to Hirado. Hirado is located on an island, connected to Kyushu ("our" island) by a bridge.
It looks like a copy of the Golden Gate bridge, and it is equally impressive. Hirado is a cosy little place with a lot of green and things to see, like, surprise, surprise, the remains of an old Dutch trading post. We have a map of the city and it tells us what to find where in English, handy! We walk from church to castle, and from temple to tombstone.
A lot of care was put into the memories of times gone by, and where possible a park was created around it. Despite the fact that we are walking in the city, it feels like we are out in the country. Thru the information bureau, we found a ryokan. This is a traditional Japanese hotel, where you sleep in a tatami room.
A tatami room is a room which has mats on the floor, instead of carpeting or a wooden floor. It is traditionally decorated with a low tea table and cushions on the floor. When we arrived, they served us cold thee in our room. During our walk thru town, they had made our beds. This means that thin mattrasses were put on the floor, with pillows and an eiderdown.
We got two thin mattrasses on top of each other, probably because we are foreigners, and that was highly appreciated. Although it sleeps harder than in our own bed, it sleeps comfortably. Breakfast was a traditional one as well. Miso soup, rice, cold fish, tofu, a fried egg and a small salad. With this they served hot and cold green tea. Not all green tea is the same, sometimes there is a coffee taste to it. As was this time, so it wasn't so bad that it was a small tea pot. It takes a bit getting used to having a hot meal for breakfast, but it was good. We continued on to Ikitsuki island. This island can also be reached by a bridge. This time a blue one, but at equally impressive as the copy Golden Gate bridge.
Ikitsuki eiland is not so big, so we decided to take the coastal route to explore the island. There are lots of lookouts on the way. The cliffs are very steep and on the north side of the island one can see whales.Unfortunately, no matter how hard we looked thru the binoculars, we didn't even see a fin break the water.
We walked along the coas, up the mountain, down the mountain. Sometimes the path took us so close to the edge, we wondered whether that was safe. Especially since we saw earlier that a part of the cliff could break off any minute, exactly at the spot we were admiring the view. But, we survived and it was worth it.
This is not surprising, since it is a park with copies of Dutch houses, like you find in Alkmaar. There is no cultural reason for this, Holland Village is a big shopping center. At first we couldn't believe that a new park would be built like this, just to serve as a shopping center, but that is exactly what it is. Not a regular shopping center but a place where you can buy all kinds of "specialties".
They have real Dutch terrasses on the waterfront, and a real pond that takes you to another island, with more shops in Dutch houses.You can celebrate your wedding day here and everything will be taken care of, for this they have a special "bridal desk", a kind of Japanese wedding planner. But we are not interested... so our journey continues to Hirado. Hirado is located on an island, connected to Kyushu ("our" island) by a bridge.
It looks like a copy of the Golden Gate bridge, and it is equally impressive. Hirado is a cosy little place with a lot of green and things to see, like, surprise, surprise, the remains of an old Dutch trading post. We have a map of the city and it tells us what to find where in English, handy! We walk from church to castle, and from temple to tombstone.
A lot of care was put into the memories of times gone by, and where possible a park was created around it. Despite the fact that we are walking in the city, it feels like we are out in the country. Thru the information bureau, we found a ryokan. This is a traditional Japanese hotel, where you sleep in a tatami room.
A tatami room is a room which has mats on the floor, instead of carpeting or a wooden floor. It is traditionally decorated with a low tea table and cushions on the floor. When we arrived, they served us cold thee in our room. During our walk thru town, they had made our beds. This means that thin mattrasses were put on the floor, with pillows and an eiderdown.
We got two thin mattrasses on top of each other, probably because we are foreigners, and that was highly appreciated. Although it sleeps harder than in our own bed, it sleeps comfortably. Breakfast was a traditional one as well. Miso soup, rice, cold fish, tofu, a fried egg and a small salad. With this they served hot and cold green tea. Not all green tea is the same, sometimes there is a coffee taste to it. As was this time, so it wasn't so bad that it was a small tea pot. It takes a bit getting used to having a hot meal for breakfast, but it was good. We continued on to Ikitsuki island. This island can also be reached by a bridge. This time a blue one, but at equally impressive as the copy Golden Gate bridge.
Ikitsuki eiland is not so big, so we decided to take the coastal route to explore the island. There are lots of lookouts on the way. The cliffs are very steep and on the north side of the island one can see whales.Unfortunately, no matter how hard we looked thru the binoculars, we didn't even see a fin break the water.
We walked along the coas, up the mountain, down the mountain. Sometimes the path took us so close to the edge, we wondered whether that was safe. Especially since we saw earlier that a part of the cliff could break off any minute, exactly at the spot we were admiring the view. But, we survived and it was worth it.