島根 September — Matsue Morning

I returned today from four days in Shimane prefecture (島根県); the occasion was RubyWorld Conference 2009. I came back with a few stories and a ton of pictures, so I’ll wrap the former around the latter for the next few days.

While I’ve been going to Japan regularly since 1991, dozens of times and months in aggregate, I’d never previously managed to escape the Tokyo agglomeration, so this trip was a major thrill. Matsue (松江) was surprisingly less surprising than I’d braced for; more or less what one might think a small and fairly remote Japanese city might be like. The surprises I did encounter were fairly few and each has a story, which we’ll get to.

Members of the Ruby community who aren’t offended by assiduous photography or meandering narratives may find this series interesting because Matsue is where Matz comes from and he appears in a few of the stories, as do other notable Rubyists.

The organizers flew in seven foreign speakers for the event and took just grand care of us. The conference was Monday/Tuesday; they arranged for us to arrive Saturday night so that we could spend Sunday recovering.

We were at the Matsue Tokyu Inn, which is just fine and I recommend unhesitatingly. On the Sunday morning, six of us got an early start and took to the streets.

The big deal about Matsue is that it’s on Lake Shinji, Japan’s seventh largest, so that’s where we went. I don’t know what if anything the ceremonial structure is celebrating, but it’s a nice peaceful spot, a good place to read your morning paper.

Just off the shore is a little island that is conveniently to Matsue’s west so you can watch the sun setting behind it.

Having seen the lakefront, we decided to visit the famous castle. It was a little complicated getting over the river, but we were rewarded by evidence that we were nearing a shrine.

Whenever you’re in Japan and go by a shrine, I recommend taking the time stop in. Many are remarkably beautiful and they’re unfussy about gaijins in shorts wandering around taking pictures.

Here’s the interior of the main building.

It’s a source of embarrassment to me that, while I’m reasonably well-informed about the major flavors of Buddhism and have even read a bit about Shinto, I’ve never actually had a conversation with a Japanese person about their religion and haven’t the remotest idea either about the details of this sort of obviously-complex system of worship, or their own feelings on the matter.

The shrine’s front gate included some wonderfully graceful and thoughtful woodcraft.

Next it was on to the castle, but that’s enough pictures for now. Here is the membership of our Sunday expedition, excluding your humble servant.

From your left to their left: Bruce Tate (head in shadow), Tom Enebo, Charles Nutter, Evan Phoenix, and Abigail Phoenix.

A lot of Ruby talent in that picture, and all interesting people; great fun to walk around a small Japanese city with. My thanks to all of them for their company.

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