Adventure in Japan

“I would have got away with it if it hadn’t been for those pesky time-travelling racoons!” Not a sentence one uses every day, but in this case it fitted the situation perfectly.

I was exploring Kitakyushu, on Japan’s southernmost island, with my husband and a toy Womble, called Bungo.  My husband’s continuing mission was to explore the parts of the world that had given Wombles their names. My continuing mission was to humour him and keep him out of trouble.

Kitakyushu

Bungo had proved something of a challenge in terms of Womble-related place names. Initial research had identified a Bungo in Angola, but even after meeting the author of a new Angola guidebook, who told us how good elephants are at crossing minefields, I was not keen. 

Eventually we found that Bungo was also the old name for an area in southern Japan. This seemed a more promising holiday destination. When our travel agent mentioned  the Bungo channel, which separates the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, I thought we could tick this one off the list by the simple expedient of taking a ferry and then have a nice relaxing holiday enjoying the cherry blossom and historic buildings. It started well: we visited the Peace Park in Hiroshima and the sacred island of Miyajima, where deer walk the streets, and then travelled down to Matsuyama on the island of Shikoku, where we visited the castle, donning the outsize plastic mules provided before attempting to scale the terrifying vertical wooden ‘stairs’.

Then we took the ‘Ferry Cross the Bungo’ and arrived on the island of Kyushu. Exploring the northern part of the island, we found ourselves at Kokura castle in Kitakyushu.  Unlike Matsuyama, this is a modern (1950s) reconstruction, so the stairs were not scary at all. There was even a stairlift, so it was fully accessible. Inside were a diorama of the castle in the 17^th century; a motorised replica of a palanquin so that you could experience what it would have felt like to travel in one and a reconstruction of a  samurai strategy meeting. On the fourth floor was a little theatre where they showed animated films about the history of the castle. One of these, ‘The Story of Kokura Castle’, starred a time-travelling raccoon family.

Bungo and his bridge

There is absolutely no way that a Womble-obsessed Doctor Who fan could resist time-travelling raccoons, so we stayed to watch the film.  However before they showed the raccoons there was another film, ‘Express Messenger Mr Gen’s side trip travelogue on Kokura castle town’ from which we discovered that there was a Bungo Bridge in the town.  All we had to do now was find it. My hopes of a cup of tea and a sweet bun rapidly evaporated.

A helpful tourist map showed us that the bridges in Kokura all have nicknames (Bridge of the Sun, Bridge of the Moon, Bridge of the Seagull, Bridge of Wood etc.) We walked along the river bank, checking them off as we went. Some of them had artworks which reflected their names, which helped. The Bridge of the Sun had a sun mosaic, the Bridge of the Wind had a wind sculpture. Bungo’s bridge, the Bridge of Sound, had none of these, but there were at least some plaques indicating the name in English, so we could be sure we had found the right one. As I dutifully posed for a photo with Bungo and his eponymous bridge, I knew we would never have even realised it was there if it hadn’t been for the raccoons.

Trailing Around Hull

Fish, Ale, Old Town and Poetry: Finding the connection between these subjects seems like it might be a round on the BBC quiz programme Only Connect. In fact they are all the subjects of ‘trails’ which can be followed round the city of Hull.

Hull's Fish Trail

The poetry trail of course relates to Hull’s most famous modern poet, Philip Larkin. Andrew Marvell, who was born near Hull and attended the local grammar school only merits a mention in the leaflet for the Old Town Trail. Larkin, who moved to Hull in his early thirties, gets no less than twenty-five plaques on places associated with his life and poetry, all in and around Hull.

On a recent weekend, I followed three of these  trails around the Old Town.  Whilst they cover something of the same ground, it is surprising how many things you can miss first time round. 

The Seven Seas Fish Trail is perhaps the most unusual of the Hull trails.  It was originally commissioned from the artist Gordon Young by the City Council for the Hull 1992 Festival. It comprises forty-one separate representations of different fish species (from Anchovy to Zander) in the pavements of the old town. The free Hull Old Town and City Guide includes a handy guide to the trail, with a paragraph about each fish, and a location map. The map also shows the Ale Trail locations, so you can make your choice as appropriate. Back on the Fish Trail, each artwork is in a very different style.  The Eel sculpture comprises 14 steel eels (try saying that after you have been on the Ale Trail!) set into the decking of the boardwalk alongside the Hull river.  Whitebait are stamped into the paving bricks around the corner of George Yard. Garfish is carved into a slab of slate near the Victoria Pier. 

Well, would you call this a 'window'?

The Fish Trail takes in many places of interest around the Old Town, but in order really to understand the history and landmarks, you need The Old Town Trail leaflet produced by the Hull Civic Society, which can be purchased for £2 from the Tourist Information Centre in City Hall, at the start of the trail. Without the aid of this leaflet I might never have found England’s smallest window at the George Hotel. I had ventured into the remarkably-named ‘Land of Green Ginger’ earlier in the day, but completely failed to spot the ‘window’.  In my defence, I think it is less a window and more of a slot with delusions of grandeur.

Larkin Trail

The Larkin Trail is the longest of the Hull trails.  It comes in three sections which cover the city centre, the wider city, and the surrounding area.  I only followed the city centre part, but even so it covered rather more ground, from the Paragon Station and the Royal Station Hotel to the Hull History Centre.  At each location there is a plaque explaining its significance, and a relevant line  from one of his works.  One plaque is inside Marks and Spencer in Whitefriargate, the ‘Large, Cool Store’ of Larkin’s poem, where

“Bri-Nylon Baby-Dolls and Shorties
Flounce in clusters”

If you follow this trail online at thelarkintrail.co.uk with a smartphone, you can click on each location for text of a related poem and more general information, including sound clips, such as an excerpt from Alan Plater’s play about Larkin, or some of Larkin’s beloved jazz.

Whichever you choose, following a trail is a great way to explore.