The Things People Write On Clocks...

World's Loudest Prius

In 2012, apr, one of the big teams on the Japanese GT scene, decided to do... Well, I'll just tell you what they did, you can make your own opinion: they took a Toyota V8 originally designed for American open-wheel racing, which was due to be used for Toyota's return to the Le Mans 24 Hours, plopped it in a mid-rear position on a race chassis, cobbled together a hybrid system with various parts from production cars in the Toyota range, and covered all this with a Prius-shaped bodyshell with an ultra-aggressive aerokit.

To me, the result is both brilliant and ridiculous in equal measure. Brilliant because it worked: as the first full-time hybrid competitor in the Japanese Super GT Series, the mid-engined Toyota Prius apr won 4 races, scoring 16 podiums, and finishing as high as second in the GT300 championship twice in a 7-year career.

Ridiculous because it's the complete antithesis of a road-going Prius, to the point of being the loudest car in the field! When I first witnessed the Prius apr at Motegi in 2016, I could only gasp and laugh; there's no way a Prius should be this loud! And it was a joy to see it again testing at Suzuka in 2018, in what would be this version's final season.

In 2019, the next-generation Prius apr would not be mid-engined, as per the rules that forced manufacturers to put the engine where it is in the road car, and the screamer was replaced by a growler - still ludicrously loud, and I wouldn't want my Prius race car any other way! By the time I visited Super GT a third time at Fuji Speedway in 2023, the Prius was no more, but I jumped on the chance to get a miniature of this remarkable car.

For more on its history, development and results, Roflwaffle has a 35+ minute video on it.

Ruine Schauenburg

My hike in July took me to the South side of Oberkirch, while on the North side sit the ruins of Schauenburg castle. It's a short, but steep, climb from town centre (or you can drive up).

The castle was built at the end of the 11th century by the Duke of Swabia. It saw action mainly in disputes between local lords, most notably after much of the land around the castle was sold to the Margrave of Baden-Baden, around 35 km to the North. It became a ruin following a French invasion in 1689.

Today, a restaurant sits beside the ruin. When I was last there, there was a camera stand to take a clean selfie - you know, the one where you set a timer instead of holding at arm's length. That's where my photo on my professional website comes from.

As is the case from the South side, the castle has a good view of the Rhine plains, and Strasbourg cathedral sticks out. It would have stuck out even more back in the day, without the modern tower blocks. The lords of Schauenburg would have seen the massive gothic cathedral and its monumental spire being built... over the course of a few centuries.

I failed to mention this in the original post, but Meiji-jingû is also a high point of sumo culture. Newly promoted yokozuna, the highest rank in the sport, perform their first ring entry dance there, before their first tournament at that level. This would be their first appearance with the "horizontal rope" (that's what yokozuna means), in the shimenawa style, around their waist.

That's just happened, with the 74th yokozuna making his debut.

NHK WORLD

Hoshoryu performs first ring-entering ceremony as yokozuna | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News

About 3,500 people gathered at Meiji Jingu shrine in Tokyo on Friday to see sumo yokozuna grand champion Hoshoryu perform his first ring-ent

The New Year shrine visit: Meiji-jingû

A common New Year ritual in Japan is to go to a shrine, possibly a large one, a visit known as 初詣, hatsumôde. NHK reported that Meiji-jingû in particular was very busy. Of course, I would avoid that, so here we are with a more tranquil time, closer to the Autumn festival.

Meiji-jingû was, as its name suggests, founded to enshrine the spirit of Emperor Meiji after his death. The first Emperor of the post-Edo period presided over sweeping societal reforms, such as the abolishment of classes like the samurai, as Japan re-opened to the rest of the world and sought to catch up. The Imperial attachment is symbolised by the Chrysanthemum crests on the torii.

One of the things that can be wished for at Meiji-jingû is a happy marriage and family life, particularly at this dedicated spot with two camphor trees planted in 1920, linked with sacred rope - these are called "married trees", 夫婦楠 Meoto Kusu.

Here we are: Miminashi-yama

When I visited Kashihara, looking to explore some deep Japanese history in the former province of Yamato, I expected to move around a bit, but there was actually enough in Kashihara itself to make for a busy day.

First up was this curious green round space in the middle of a residential area on the town map I'd picked up. It just seemed conspicuous to me, I decided to check it out.

This is Miminashi-yama, one of the Yamato Sanzan, or Three Main Mountains of Yamato. Though it stood out on the map and it does stand out in the plain around it, it's not huge, and it's a short climb to the top where a shrine awaited.

In that shrine, a sangaku geometry tablet is displayed. By chance, based on a whim, I had found one! Nearly six years on, I've finally solved it - it's not very difficult mathematically, it's just taken me this long to get on with it, having said that, even today I'm still figuring out extra things on it! - and will be presenting it at a conference tomorrow. I wouldn't have thought it at the time... I guess curiosity didn't kill the cat that day!

Another edge of a fog bank on the bridge between the Port du Rhin and Citadelle sectors of Strasbourg. The railway is a freight line, I'm not sure if it's used much. The river, however, regularly sees barges passing by. Anyone or anything on the river had to be on the lookout that morning...

Running around Koblenz station the other evening, I couldn't resist the cute message on this local train. Instead of a deadpan "depot" or "not taking passengers", this train is "going to bed"!

To rebuild or not to rebuild? The case of Fujiwara-kyô

While travelling along the Rhine, we've covered a few castles which have been rebuilt and repurposed, unlike many forts in Alsace (links to some of those in that post). In Japan, the rebuilding of castle keeps to house museums was common after the Second World War, though some have remained ruin sites (further links in there). But what about a whole Imperial palace - scratch that, an entire capital?

Well, let's not get too excited: Kashihara, which was the Imperial capital for just 16 years between 694 and 710, has not rebuilt the old palace. By the time excavations began in the early 20th century, this area to the East of the town was farmland, and actually locating the lost palace and city was part of the problem.

It turns out Kashihara was the first city to be planned in the Chinese style: a grand palace at its heart, and a grid of parallel and perpendicular streets around it. In 710, the capital was dismantled and moved to Nara, before moving again to Kyôto in the late 8th century - and the grid street pattern can be found there, with numbered parallels going North to South (Nijô, Sanjô, Shijô...).

Today, the site of palace buildings are marked with these arrays of pillars (photo above with Miminashi-yama in the background), and a small museum sits on the side. There don't appear to be any plans to develop further, unlike what has been done at the palace site in Nara, which we can talk about next time.

History on the high street: Honnô-ji

Similarly to the other examples mentioned in a previous post, a temple sits at the North-East end of Teramachi shopping street, with traditional-style gate and buildings. But this is more than an ordinary temple, as it bears the name of a pivotal moment of Japanese history.

I say "bears the name", because this is not the actual location of the Honnô-ji incident. The original Honnô-ji was built a few kilometres to the South-West, nearer to Shijô (the 4th East-West street South of the castle; the current temple is North of Sanjô, or 3rd street). It was there that, in 1582, Akechi Mitsuhide, a general in the force aiming to unify feudal Japan, rebelled against his leader, Oda Nobunaga. The importance of Oda Nobunaga would be its own series if I had the material, but if you know, you know; I'll concentrate on Honnô-ji.

Akechi's forces laid siege and burned the temple down, and it is widely believed that the trapped Nobunaga committed seppuku - however, his body was never found. Akechi, meanwhile, had underestimated other generals' loyalty to Nobunaga. Toyotomi Hideyoshi swiftly brokered a peace treaty with the lord he was fighting in the West to rush back to Kyôto, and ran Akechi down just two weeks after the coup.

Hideyoshi was accepted as the new leader of central Japan, and went back to expanding westward. He also ordered that Honnô-ji be moved to its current location and rebuilt in 1591. It has, in fact, needed to be rebuilt several times since, each time after fires ravaged the capital. Beyond its function as a Buddhist worship site, the new Honnô-ji includes a mausoleum to Oda Nobunaga, as the decision was made by his successors to honour him there.

I remember passing by this temple in 2016, during my first trip to Japan, a three-week work visit in Kyôto. I had no notions on Japanese history at the time, and it was only a while later that I realised the importance of Honnô-ji. So, as an aside to Gion Matsuri in 2023, I decided I had to go back for a closer look.

To end the "Canal Contraptions" mini-series, here's a brief look at the Keage Incline on the Lake Biwa canal in Kyoto. Located near Nanzen-ji and its famous aqueducts, it's apparently a popular sakura spot, not that I'd know visiting in July...

Boats were loaded onto wagons at one end of the slope, and hauled by an electric engine up or down before being unloaded back into the water at the other end. Thinking about it just now it sounded rather ludicrous to me, but I was picturing long European-style barges, but the boats of Meiji period Japan were probably not that big, as a picture of the surviving wagon shows.

We didn't go down to the incline, it was just something the friends I was travelling with that day brought up between Nanzen-ji and our next destination. Something to go back for...

Shionomisaki: Honshu's southernmost point

Southern Kansai is probably best known for the Kumano Kodô, the pilgrimage routes related to the Nachi shrine and temple complex with one of Japan's most famous waterfalls. But Southern Kansai is also Southernmost Kansai, and the Shionomisaki peninsula, part of the town of Kushimoto is as South as it gets for the main island of Japan.

Beyond this lawn and those rocks is the Pacific Ocean: just water for thousands of kilometres in this direction! The nearest substantial landmass due South from here is Papua New Guinea, 35° latitude lower, or 10% of the Earth's circumference!

That's a nice lawn by the way, it would be a shame if someone...

Shionomisaki is basically Honshu's version of "Land's End" or "Finistere", and there is a little leisure complex to mark it. The recent Geopark Centre is good, but the blue buildings in the previous shot, the shop and restaurant and the observation tower, are from a different time and showing their age - case in point, the children's cups in the restaurant with the mascot of the 1998 World Cup in France!