Kasama

On Friday I woke up early from jet lag. Not wanting to waste my morning I decided I would got pottering somewhere outside of Tochigi Prefecture for a change. It was a beautiful morning. Not too muggy. You could tell that the worst of summer was behind us. Past those days when you didn't even want to go outside because of the heat and humidity. No, Saturday was a nice reprieve.

Threw the bike on the train and set off for the neighboring prefecture of Ibaraki. Prefectures in Japan are about the size of counties in the States, so going from one to another is not far geographically, but it can be psychologically. I shook off my cabin fever and satisfied my wanderlust by getting MOVING.

First it was off to Oyama, my transfer point about 40 minutes south of Utsunomiya. I got on the Mito Line for the first time, not really knowing what to expect. It was a very local line. About four cars, a few passengers of  mainly old and young, but not too many middle aged folks and no reader board to look at for station names. I had to listen for them over the PA system.

The train didn't take off immediately. Local lines never do. There was about a fifteen minute wait and then we set off. Oyama is near the Ibaraki border so it wasn't long before our westbound train crossed the border into Ibaraki. I passed through Chikusei, famous for its pear apples, known as "nashi" in Japan. They are at their best in September and October, with two favorites, the Hosui and the Nijuseiki.
But today wasn't for Chikusei, it was for Kasama.

On and on the train went. Through rural countryside of ripening rice fields, small sleepy villages, bamboo groves, woods and low mountains. Many of the stations along the way were unmanned. Paying or swiping one's train pass was on the honor system, a system that is scrupulously upheld here.

After an hour or so I arrived in Kasama. The area around the station was not particularly busy. I put my bike together in front of the station and was off to the old part of town. Town development in rural areas takes on a common pattern in Japan. Usually the stations in older towns and local cities are located far from the original town centers. This was done for safety reasons as in the days of steam locomotives, sparks from the train could start fires in densely packed housing areas. My guess is that Kasama is an example of such development as its station is far from the more interesting old core.

The old part of town is about a ten minute ride from the station, fifteen if you're not sure where you're going. The central part of the city has an eclectic mix of many old buildings, some of them from the feudal era such as the shrine and some from the early modern and modern periods. A lot  of these older buildings now house shops and restaurants. Antiques and accessories seem to be big businesses here.

Kasama was a castle town at one time and though it no longer has a castle, it does have many potters. In feudal times potters provided tea-ware for the nobility. Each area had its own local pottery aesthetic determined by the color of the clay, types of kilns used and tastes of the local lord and other tea ceremony aficionados.  These days of course their target audience is the tourist. Kasama-ware is light gray and very restrained as befits a style originally meant for tea ceremony culture. There are many pottery galleries in town.

I had lunch at R Hana, a cafe and accessory shop, and then walked around the central business district taking in the huge shrine to the fox god, the god of business here in Japan. The shrine is home to many homeless cats who approached me with hungry meows. In a corner of the wall a mother cat was nursing kittens. Japanese aren't very good at having animals spayed and the results can be heartbreaking.

After walking about a bit, I rode back to the station, folded my bike, threw it on the train again and headed back home. I found Kasama to be a great little town, worthy of another visit. If you have friends or family who like pottery, antiques and old buildings, Kasama is worth a stop. I also found out that they have rental cycles so that will be an option when I go again with