My friend was visiting from the States, and as a Japan veteran she wanted to choose an area neither of us had visited for a quick trip.  With the insanity of the spring anime season about to hit the timing was good, so we headed off to Shimane prefecture (birthplace of Mizuki Shigeru) for a couple of days.  It’s one of the prefectures I’ve never been to, and relatively easy access to Kyoto (unlike say Okinawa, the big outlier on my checklist).

It’s not as if Shimane doesn’t have a lot of good sights, too.  Matsue Castle is one of the finest original donjon in the country, and Izumo Taisha is the second-most important (and possibly oldest, though that’s a matter of contention) Shinto Shrine in Japan.  First we checked off a few favorite spots in Kyoto, among them Shoden-ji.  This was noted Japanophile David Bowie’s favorite place in Kyoto (he memorably wept when filming a commercial there).  It’s possibly mine too – the garden is absolutely perfect, incorporating Hieizan in perhaps the finest example of borrowed scenery I know.

Izumo is where the Gods head for their 30-day retreat every fall (they have a hall set aside for their lodgings).  It has quite a different vibe from primordial, reverent Ise (the holiest place in Shinto). Izumo is elegant, almost festive, with an air of whimsy.  It also has a big rabbit theme, as Ookuninushi – son of Amaterasu and one of the Kami enshrined there – in legend saved a bunny from the jaws of a shark.  It’s a striking place and we were gifted with superb weather (after several days of utterly crappy conditions in Kyoto).

Another highlight of this trip was the Adachi Museum in Yasugi.  This has frequently been voted as the finest garden in Japan, a very competitive competition.  The unique aspect here is the way the museum itself and the garden are so seamlessly intertwined.  It’s pretty stunning, one of those Japanese places where you get the sense that not a single weed or grain of sand is where it is by chance.  The art itself is entirely Japanese modern (20th Century to the present) and itself quite interesting, but it’s the gardens and the way the buildings interact with them that make the Adachi special.

As for Matsue itself, it’s a mid-sized burgh known as the “City of Water”.  It sits on the Sea of Japan, and the cityscape itself surrounds the beautiful Lake Shinji (Shinjiko), known for some of the most beautiful sunsets in Japan.  Matsue Castle, completed in 1611, is a designated National Treasure and in stunningly fine condition for a non-reconstructed Japanese castle.  The grounds are filled with sakura and the views (including of these nesting Aosugi in the trees below the top floor) spectacular.  I also enjoyed a sojourn to Tamatsukuri Onsen, a 1300 year-old hot spring town inside the Matsue city limits.

On the return trip we stopped off in Kurashiki, the splendidly-preserved merchant town near Okayama.  It’s best-known for its canals and the kura storehouses which give the city its name, now converted into shops and restaurants.  Both of us has been before but we wanted to take the ultra-touristy punt ride on the canal.  We also hit a few Kyoto spots I’ve highlighted here before (like Nanzenji) and one I haven’t been to (the lovely private Hakuryu-en Garden, on the Eizan Line high in the foothills of Hieizan).