Today we arranged an off-ship walking tour. Through Viator with a firm called Edge of Niigata, this was one of the few we scheduled that has worked out. Due to the current shortage of guides in Japan, we’ve had several canceled, making it much more of a sure thing to arrange through the ship. I know some people arrange things off the ship to save money, but my objectives are usually for a more personal, flexible experience. In any case, we really appreciate having professional guides when traveling in a country with such a language difference. Our British/Italian guide was married to a Japanese man and had lived here for more than 30 years.

It had developed there were going to be others on this tour (again due to the guide shortage). We found one of the other couples from our ship and shared a cab for the 15-minute ride into town to meet our guide. It was about $13; there is no tipping here and cab doors are opened and closed by the driver (which I keep forgetting). We were early, so had a nice stroll along the river while we waited.

Temps were in the 40s and rain was in the forecast. We learned a bit of history by the waterfront and saw a restored area that revealed the canal system originally an important part of this coastal city.  There was also a historic former bank building that is now empty. The doors are left open so anyone can enter. It’s kept clean and in perfect condition by the city and was a stunning contrast to what would happen if a similar building was left unoccupied and open in the US.  

We wandered off through residential areas to get to the Minato Inari Shrine. The lovely Shinto shrine featured an entrance flanked with some very unusual lions that could be rotated on their pedestals.

Continuing our journey through residential streets we were struck by how tidy, clean, and incredibly quiet it was on this Saturday morning. Eventually, we reached the Ozawa Family residence, built in the 1860s and occupied until 2002. The seven buildings housed the family’s very successful shipping business, as well as their living quarters. It was lovely and featured a beautiful collection of art work and figurines as well as a display of dolls and toys celebrating a special girls’ day held earlier this month. A similar boys’ day is a national holiday.

Our next stop was the Kotohira Shrine which had good examples of raffia-wrapped figural guards. I think these were lions- at the last shrine they were foxes. Binding raffia pieces together is unique to the area, and is done to ask for successful relationships – whether in business dealings or personal.

Niigata still has a Geisha District, but here they are called Geikos, and we were able to see one of the country’s few remaining districts with clubs and tea rooms where Geikos perform. These highly trained women are not prostitutes and excel in the arts of dancing, singing, playing musical instruments, conversation, and games.

Jumping ahead to say that later, back on board our ship, we were able to watch three perform and with a translator, answer some questions. It was so interesting. The singing was pretty jarring to my ears, but the dancing lovely. There are only 19 Geikos in Niigata and two of the women were still in the eight-year training phase. When asked to describe their typical day, I’m not sure the translator got the question right – this first to answer said she loved to watch Netflix! Not the answer we expected!

Back to our walk:

It was beginning to rain and we still had one more stop, the Saito Family Villa, a more modern home dating from 1918. It was beautifully designed and featured incredible gardens with views from every room.

My takeaway from seeing these homes is that they are freezing.  Really cold. Since you take off your shoes, it’s even worse. They have no central heating or insulation. I don’t know how anyone lives like this. Our guide said even visitors from colder areas of Japan complain about how cold the residences are in Niigata. At least summers there are hot.

The rain was pretty steady, so we made our way to the city center and caught our ship’s shuttle bus back to warmth and a bowl of hot soup.

Despite the weather, I loved our brief time here and felt more understanding of the Japanese way of life. BTW, some of the lovely plum trees were blooming!