Posted by Jackie Hewett on Tue 10th July 2007 at 03:43 AM, Filed in Far East, August
If pyrotechnics are your thing you should put a visit to Tondabayashi City on 1st August on your ‘to do’ list. They claim to host the largest annual firework display with some 100,000 fireworks let off in just one hour – usually starting at about 19.45. The grand finale sees some 7000 fireworks launched simultaneously.
The event started in 1953 at the request of the founder of the PL religious group (or Church of Perfect Liberty) and is staged on the area known as the PL Hills. The Japanese word for firework is ‘Hanabi’, and they even have a hanabi ‘season’ – basically every summer lakes, rivers and even ski resorts all over Japan let off a barrage of explosions with up to 5,000 displays taking place throughout July and August. About 250 of these are large scale events and 50 are held around Tokyo. The Tondabayashi display is famed for its ‘Niagara’ which rises to some 50 meters and stretches nearly a kilometre across the sky to represent a waterfall.
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Posted by Jackie Hewett on Wed 2nd May 2007 at 02:26 AM, Filed in Far East, May
To westerners Japanese culture can seem quite alien and incomprehensible, possibly never more so than when they embark, as they frequently do, on a festival. This nation of usually conformist, and by UK standards shy, people seem to need the slimmest pretext to get their kit off and run around half naked beating drums.
If you are interested in visiting Japan there are some good reasons to time your visit for April / May.
One being Sanja Maturi in May, which is the one of the largest Matsuri parades in Japan. During a Matsuri, Shinto followers bear shrines, called mikoshi, on their shoulders using two poles. Frequently the mikoshi look like lavishly decorated miniature buildings, sometimes complete with verandas, pillars and railings. They can require dozens of people to carry each one. The mikoshi are taken from a permanent shrine and carried on a ‘tour’ around the neighbourhood, sometimes via a dip in a pool, lake or river, before being returned to the originating shrine. The mikoshi contain kami (or deities) and the procession is meant to bring luck and good fortune. It is believed that the rougher the journey the kami experiences the better the fortune is bestowed, so bearers often sway the heavy mikoshi precariously from side to side which can be a dangerous occupation for bearer and spectator.
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This is one of the nicest hotels I have stayed in – ever!
Sayan is very close to the cultural Balinese town of Ubud and the hotel is set in an exquisite location, in a valley with a river at the bottom and terraced rice paddies across the valley. My lasting impression of the hotel is that is it very sympathetically designed to fit in with the surroundings and everywhere you go in the hotel you seem to hear trickling water, whether from the river at the bottom of the valley, or the man-made ‘river’ at the back of the main part of the hotel.
Along with our driver we were a bit bemused on arrival because we couldn’t see the hotel, and weren’t sure we were in the right place! We quickly discovered the hotel is below you – accessed by a wooden walkway that leads to a large circular lotus flower pond which is actually on the roof of the hotel. You walk down some steps through the middle of the pond, past reception and down to a lounge and bar area that manages to be both colonial and modern at the same time.
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Posted by Jill Bowen on Tue 3rd April 2007 at 09:12 PM, Filed in Far East
If I lay down in a darkened room, relax totally, close my eyes, let my mind wander back a few years and dream, a warm, wonderful glow suffuses my whole being.
So, what or where can possibly invoke such strong, evocative emotions?
It’s a hotel, for people who prefer not to stay in hotels!
Where is it? Phuket, Thailand. What is it that makes it so special?
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