The Shogun & The Donut
We were supposed to enjoy hanami (a traditional Japanese picnic under cherry blossoms) on Saturday, but it rained so we cancelled
. This left more time to begin a roadtrip!Riccardo often travels to Nagoya for work, and on one such occassion he noticed an advertisement for Kankokyokai, a festival in celebration of a military training held at Okazaki Castle in Okazaki City,
Aichi Prefecture when the capital of Japan was moved from Kyoto to Edo (Tokyo). The festival involves a parade and a re-enactment of the training; the promise of large swords and gunsmoke was enough to produce a good bit of excitement in the boy, and as such, we were off.
Riccardo loves maps. He carefully plotted our course to the finest detail with a huge textbook-
like map. We barely veered off course, though the drive was a little longer than anticipated. All the Japanese people we talked to about our plan urged us not to drive, but in the end we were both glad to have seen the sites.Our course lead us along a pristine mountain road. The winding road saw us through many tunnels and over a breathtaking corkscrew bridge along
the mountainside; at night this bridge was beautifully lit and very impressive.
The drama: At half a tank of gas there was talk of refueling. As we had completed more than half of our journey, we decided to wait. We failed to factor in that Japan closes shop at around 9pm, at least in any towns smaller than 100,000 in population. Our mountain rode was not only in the middle of nowhere, but sparsely populated. You can guess what happened...
My gas-light blinked on miles from anywhere. We became a little nervous after passing numerous closed gas stations and no hotels. We became more nervous after an hour of driving in
these conditions. 
We tentatively discussed where to park if we ran out of gas. We pretended we weren't nervous so as not to scare one another. We finally came upon a 24-hour gas station and refueled. We celebrated and thanked whomever required thanking that we were not stranded in the Japanese wilderness.The next morning we made our way to the parade grounds in downtown Okazaki. We wedged in among the throngs of JAPANESE PEOPLE and even climbed on top of a small metal fence to get a better view.
This man likes donuts. So said Riccardo in a running commentary of the inaudible conversation of the traffic control/security personnel. A snipit:"Mmmmmm, chocolate donuts..."
"No, no, we should get cream-filled donuts."
"Mmmmmm, but chocolate donuts..."
"Chocolate is good, but really (rrriiirrriii), we should at least consider the glazed."
"I want chocolate donuts."
Guess maybe you had to be there. But doesn't he look like he's got an affection for donuts?
The parade featured numerous school bands; town celebrities (mayor, etc.); women dressed as geisha; an army of costumed actors ready to perform the re-enactment. At one point, Riccardo and I were as delighted as school children to have
been spotted as gaijin (foreigners) within the masses by the "Shogun"(ruling lord?) who made a deliberate gesture in our direction
.We followed to procession to the riverside where the theatrical section was held: the training session. There was a galore of marching and gun-fire, all topped with fireworks.
We then visited the castle: a recreation of the original, which was destroyed in 1873/74. The recreation is based on the original design, constructed in 1455, relocated in 1531 and enhanced in 1590. The museum inside the castle showcased various swords, guns, military garb, scrolls, logs (of the book variety) and miniatures of the original
castle and grounds. Among the sakura (cherry blossoms) the castle was magnificent.
After dinner at an authentic Sushi-ya, Riccardo and I hit the highway back to Tochigi (his prefecture). To save time, we carefully chose Expressways, which were not as costly as anticipated. Thankfully I was off work on Monday and I spent most of the day catching up on the sleep I lost over the weekend. Unfortunately Riccardo was not so lucky. Poor boy.Cheers to my travelmate for planning and executing a fantastic trip, and for unwittingly donating pictures to this blog.
Hey, these guys WERE talking 'bout donuts! You could see their mouth water and they were hectically pointing down the road towards "Mr. Donuts" shop - riiiriii!!!
Thanks so much for coming along and for all the laughs! Can't touch this!