Vaucluse Dreamer

After stopping at Magome-Juku last night, we wandered in this morning for a coffee from the excellent coffee shop there, before heading on again.

Last night, over supper, we had decided to head North-West, making our way to see the spectacular castle of Gujo Hachiman, in its stunning position high above the town that has built up around it.

It would be a relatively short drive (about 90km), so we would be able to take our time and enjoy the trip across.

Not long after setting off, I noticed a sign to the Ryujin waterfalls, and suggested we head there just for a little walk, as we were in no hurry.

It proved to be a good decision, and after negotiating our first Japanese car park payment machine, we followed the signs for the falls. The path took us alongside another crystal-clear river running over white rocks, the water looking turquoise in the pools that it formed along the way.

Over the river was a pretty, red bridge, which reminded me of the one in Monet’s Garden, and with the Acers just starting to change colour, I’m sure that it will look even better, in a few weeks time.

The Ryujin Falls were a torrent of water spiralling over the edge of a 12m drop, which is the fabled home of the White Dragon, which is represented in various ways around the site. Ryujin means ‘Dragon God’ and the story is that one day, after being disturbed by a ‘bad man’  a white dragon rose up from the falls, infront of the local people and flew off to heaven, hitting the mountainside, a little higher up, where its scales fell, to create another fall.

Even without the myth, it is a stunning and powerful fall, but with the legend, it is even better.

We carried on past the falls, and skirted around the gate where it was announced that the road was closed to traffic and that bears were a danger too, and continued up the hill towards the other falls.

We found 2 more

before we realised that time was starting to slip past

And made our way back down, marvelling at just how beautiful the area will be , when all the trees wear their full autumn-colours. It would almost be tempting to return.

But we had a castle to see, so continued on towards Goju, following roads that took us through magnificent alpine landscapes, passing through pretty villages too.

We stopped for lunch by a river, sitting on the bank watching the Japanese Wagtails, and White Herons as we ate, before continuing on again, on a road that started to climb, seemingly without end.

I know we have our bikes with us, and we are really keen to ride, but so far the roads have either been busy or far to steep to be enjoyable. We love cycling, but mile after mile of 10-13% climbing is not our idea of fun!

Eventually though, we seemed to reach the top of the pass, and as we came around a corner, saw something sitting in the road. At first, I thought it may have been a Raccoon Dog, as there had been warning signs for them, but then we realised it was a monkey, and it ran off with others into the woodland, with us squealing excitedly as we passed. Honestly, you would imagine we should just take this in our stride. But. Monkeys!!

Then it was a steep and hairpinny descent that seemed to plunge us down the side of a mountain, into Gujo, and on the way down, we caught a brief glimpse of the castle, which looked almost surreal against the surroundings. It was quite a sight.

After a nail-biting drive down, we parked and walked into town, making our way up to the Castle. It’s quite a climb, following steps and snaking paths up the steep hill, on top of which sits the fortress.

We passed a tranquil temple,

where there is a bell that is rung at regular times during the day, even now.

Somehow, it always feels better to walk up to sights like this, as you have a real sense of how it sat in the landscape, and what efforts any attackers would have had to go to to make an assault on it. All we can say is that this would have been incredibly tough, as the hill was steep, and would have been totally overlooked from the castle walls.

We had expected the castle to be busy, but there was just a handful of other visitors, and we were able to take our time, exploring the site.

The castle is an astounding site. It was originally built in 1559 and saw it change hands between rival clans over the following centuries, before it was finally demolished by the Meiji Government in 1870, with just remnants of the original fortifications remaining.

In 1933, the castle was rebuilt, and sits proudly on its hilltop,  at the heart of the town, and now houses a museum.

It is an stunning reconstruction (and has recently been re-engineered to deal with earthquakes), and houses 3 sets of armour that were worn by different heads of the Clans.

They are exquisite pieces of work, and the detail in each piece is quite amazing. They are colourful, striking and beautifully made, for such a violent purpose.

Climbing the steps, you understand what a defensive position this would have been, with clear views of the surrounding hills and valleys. It would have been easy to see attacks as they were launched, and exhibits detail some of the battles that took place here.

I know that the castle is not the original one, but even the replica is nearly 100 years old, and there are very few surviving castles left now. But, this is a great place to visit for its history, views and also the work that went into re-creating it.

After a while, we started to walk back down into the town that sits in the valley below, and found a thriving, pretty place to explore.

With great manhole covers again too.

Ridiculously, by the time we made our way back to the van, it was starting to get dark, and we still had to visit an Onsen ( a daily task, when in a campervan with no washing facilities), and had to find a laundry too.

Happily we found one, next to the other in a small town about 15 minutes away, so headed there and killed 2 birds with one stone, enjoying a shower and a soak, whilst the clothes washed and dried.

Then a final drive to the place we had picked for our park-up for the night. By the time we arrived it was pitch-black in the forest and we are at a slightly jaunty angle tonight, with things sliding down the table and us having to turn the bed around, so that the blood doesn’t rush to our heads when we sleep.

Our learning point from today is not to enjoy ourselves as much and to make sure that we are parked and settled before night falls.

Let’s try to stick to that tomorrow, wherever we end up!