23 minute read
TRAVEL
From deeply traditional to surprisingly quirky, Japan is filled with incredible experiences that demand to be sampled. Veteran travel writer KERRY HEANEY shares her personal experience in a variety of unusual, fascinating and fun situations.
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Cut through the ice and go fishing.
Dress up like a ninja, bathe in the sand or forest, eat the most amazingly fresh sushi, or meditate at a shrine but do take the opportunity to try something outside your comfort zone and dive deep into Japanese culture.
Here are nine surprising experiences you will only find in Japan TRAIN LIKE A NINJA The location of the Ninja Do training hall in Sapporo is strictly on a need-to-know basis to confuse their enemies. Students arrive on kerbside to be greeted by a man dressed head to toe in black and ushered into an unmarked building. It’s straight down the stairs to a basement door with a large lock on the outside. It’s all very mysterious and slightly dramatic like you are extras in a Monkey Magic (a classic 1970s television series shown alongside The Goodies and Roger Ramjet) remake.
Next, there is a lot of clothing to put on and tie up. Pants, top, headband and wrist guards and then suddenly you look like a ninja! Then you learn to walk silently and swiftly, blow a dart and a ninja star into a target and escape from your enemies. SAND BATHING Forget the sauna or even the sea, sunamushi, or sand bathing on the southern tip of Kagoshima is the ultimate healthy experience. Volcanic hot springs line the coastline of Ibusuki, warming the sands to about 50-55 degrees Celsius. Resorts along the coastline offer a sand bathing experience with regular hot springs to soak in afterwards. You wear a light cotton yukata to sand bathe and lie a shallow depression on the beach. The attendant protects your face with a towel and shovels warm sand over you until you’re buried, up to your neck, in the black sand. Only your head is exposed to the air. After ten minutes or so, you emerge warm and relaxed. Then, you can shower at the beach or explore the nearby hot springs. WINTER FISHING Cut a hole in the ice, admire the snowkissed mountains, dangle your fishing rod and try smelt ice fishing in Mt. Akagi. It’s worth the effort. Your catch goes straight to a nearby restaurant to be turned into delicious golden tempura. SUMMERTIME FESTIVALS Summer is also one of the main seasons for festivals in Japan. Akin to Mexico’s ‘Day Of The Dead’, Obon (also known as The Bon Festival) is one of the largest summer festivals where Japanese people pay tribute to lost ancestors. In Nagasaki, there is the Shoro-Nagashi ‘Spirit Boat Procession’ where boats are painstakingly decorated by the grieving family members of the people of Nagasaki who died that year. STAY IN A RYOKAN Ryokan or Japanese inns is where you will find rice paper shoji doors, tatami flooring, futon beds and natural hot spring baths. Catering to all budgets, they can be found throughout Japan but most commonly in the countryside outside urban centres.
Wakayama prefecture’s Ryokan Musashi is consistently rated as one of the top onsen ryokans in all of Japan. Some rooms even boast a private hot spring tub with ocean views.
RELAX AND RECHARGE AT A TRADITIONAL TEA CEREMONY The tea ceremony tradition has remained a cherished Japanese ritual for centuries, bringing people together in an environment of tranquillity to enjoy freshly whisked matcha tea. Shizuoka is home to some of Japan’s best tea and the beautiful surroundings just below Kakegawa Castle. Ninomaru Teahouse is one of the best places to experience this meticulous tradition.
Beware! Ninja Kerry is ready for action. EXPLORE ANCIENT TEMPLES, SHRINES AND CASTLES At ancient shrines and in the heart of historic cities, Japan’s rich cultural heritage lives on as something not just to be admired from afar but actively Immerse yourself in the volcanic sand. appreciated. Home to the Soto school of Zen Buddhism, Hakujukan is a ryokancum-temple lodge in Fukui prefecture. Here guests get a taste of traditional Japanese hospitality and can join monks at the monastery for a Zen meditation session.
DEVOUR WORLD-CLASS SUSHI Sushi is probably the most recognisable Japanese food and has exploded in popularity worldwide. For under 600 yen ($7), you can walk into any supermarket in Japan and pick up fresh sushi. You can also spend upwards of 60,000 yen for a three Michelin star omakase (chosen by the chef) course.
FOREST BATHING Forest bathing or ‘Shinrin-yoku’ is a centuries-old tradition where you immerse yourself in nature. It took off in the 1980s when busy, over-stressed city workers needed help to wind down and recalibrate. It offers an eco-antidote to tech-boom burnout and inspires people to reconnect with and protect the country’s forests.
For more of Kerry’s travel stories, visit eatdrinkandbekerry.net
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A raft of big names will wow visitors, with ARIA Award-winning Dan Sultan and Triple J’s 2021 Unearthed Artist of the Year King Stingray leading the music program.
This year’s film program offers a retrospective of acclaimed filmmaker Warwick Thornton’s work.
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You can join your coach or taxi for the transfer to Brisbane Airport where the adventure begins with a flight (Qantas of course) of just over two hours covering the 1200km to Longreach.
Arrive mid-afternoon to settle in at the Albert Park Motor Inn where you’ll stay for the next two nights.
This afternoon we meet Outback Dan and the Walker family (who hosted the Queen and Prince Phillip at their property Camden Park), and you will experience a working sheep and cattle station.
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See the full itinerary at cttravel.com.au
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While many Australians hit the road over the past two years, Outback Queensland is calling on travellers to book an outback holiday because there’s even more to explore, as the region launches its 2022 tourism season and new Travellers Guide.
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BILL MCCARTHY I was quite conflicted reading this biography. Unlike Anne Richards, when I was eighteen I didn’t know the difference between a Trotskyist and a Troglodyte. I have to admire her commitment as a radical socialist, to just causes such as the Vietnam conscription, apartheid and welfare of local indigenous children. She was willing to be evicted by her father from home because of her beliefs.
Her story makes hard reading at times; the death of her boyfriend, existing in dreadful squats and scavenging for food.
On the other hand, the constant drug taking, endless late nights, drunken discussions protesting about anything, and everything seemed to me to be wasted space and effort. As was the soul searching about whether to complete her exams as a protest against authority. As an aside, I was not aware of the shocking violence inflicted by Bjelke Peterson’s police force on protesters. MARY BARBER I enjoyed this trip through Brisbane’s student politics of the late 1960s and 1970s. Anne Richards had strong convictions and stood by them at great personal cost. Her first protest actions were about the conscription of young Australian men into the Vietnam War. The book has many examples of the unfettered police violence. Peaceful protests to express an opinion contrary to the government’s opinion, were dealt with harshly. It was Joh’s time.
It was an awakening too. When these students and others protested against the Springbok tour, Aboriginal people rightly said, “Hey, you are standing up about Apartheid policies in South Africa, what about us?” And so new allegiances were formed between black and white Australians.
SUZI HIRST Hmm, A Book of Doors - did I enjoy it or not? I was really looking forward to reading this book when it arrived as I know very little about the history of the student activism in Australia during the late 60’s and 70’s. The book is a very easy read and follows the author from the last day of school, defying her father and being thrown out the house. Then bed hoping her way through university, falling in love, joining student activists, anti-Vietnam rallies, and protests about the Springbok tour, Aboriginal rights. What the book did do for me was made me read up on the history of these events to educate myself and gain a deeper understanding. 8/10
BOOK review
A BOOK OF DOORS Anne Richards
This is a memoir about radical student and cultural movements at the University of Queensland and inner-city Brisbane in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a young woman, the author faces personal consequences after her involvement in the Vietnam Moratorium protest. From the violence of the Springbok tours, the growing Black Rights movement and the 1973 Nimbin Aquarius Festival, Anne Richards weaves her personal story of family breakdown, coming of age and a tragic love story with the radical political and youth movements of the time. TONY HARRINGTON This well written memoir about Anne’s life, a time of political and social change at the University of Queensland UQ in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s was a trip down memory for me. I began study at UQ the same year as the author and while I wasn’t a radical activist I was a strong supporter of the anti Vietnam war, aboriginal rights and anti Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s conservative government. The Janis Joplnesque picture on the front cover sets the time and tone for what follows. Eviction by her father from her family, the radical speeches and great bands preforming inside and outside the UQ refectory, drug experimentation, international revolutionary music and ideas, the protest marches and living rough with Uni mates are well narrated and something I have lived. I think the doors in the title refer to the doors of choice, doors to change and the doors of perception. Well done Anne! 9/10
JOHN KLEINSCHMIDT This memoir is set mostly in the time I completed a trade apprenticeship and was conscripted into the Army for National Service. With a country upbringing in a family with a strong education and work ethic very little thought was given to the activities of the ‘radicals’ at Queensland University who seemingly spent their time protesting about Vietnam, Indigenous Land Rights and Apartheid. Anne Richards was one of these activists and recounts her experience in detail, including family breakdown, confrontations with the Police, smoking dope and other illicit pursuits. A good reflection of the times but I read nothing new and little of interest. JO BOURKE Anne Richard’s book reads like a novel with family defiance, communal living and personal loss, but the sobering truth is that the accurate facts speak volumes. It is almost impossible for a young person reading this book to realise there was no social media, no mobile phones at that time. That protests occurred at all was a miracle and a testament to the trailblazers of the period like Anne and her fellow students
During the period described I, like many, was a young married mother with a large family. Our lives were sheltered, many of us had not yet bought a television, our news came via the radio and newspaper. We were told only the information those in authority wanted us to know and that news was boosted by the power of the Church which brainwashed us non-stop via weekly Mass! Anne’s banishment from her family by the authoritative father is utterly believable and so sad for her to have endured. Thank goodness the majority of us have since thrown off those shackles! This is a book for young and old readers. Definitely worth reading.
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