Adventures in Japan

Day Thirteen? Ise and Kashikojima

The days, as I have mentioned, are all blurring together. I guess it's not so much the days. I can remember most of what we have done so far on this trip. Maybe I might screw up the order, and there's no way I'd be able to tell all the names of all the cities and towns we've been to. Or how we got to and from them. But I could compile a fairly complete list of deeds done.

It's the nights and the mornings that screw me up. All the hotels look basically the same. Some have nicer television sets. Every morning is a slow scramble to check out with all our stuff intact. Every evening is spent blogging and moving stuff off of cameras and planning the next leg of the trip. The nights always go late. The mornings are always too early. We are constantly lacking in sleep.

Which is one reason why I can fall fast asleep during a five minute train ride. (And all the train sleeping during the day makes it hard for me to fall asleep at night. When, I ask you, when will this vicious cycle end?)

Which is also why I am not sure how we got to the Ise Grand Shrine. The Ise shrine is actually two shrines. An Inner shrine and an Outer one.

Oh! I remember why I don't remember getting to Ise! That stupid overnight bus! Anyhoo...

We went to the Outer shrine first. It was within walking distance of the station. Gekuu, it is called. The two shrines are basically the same, one is just bigger than the other. We started with the smaller of the two. Note to everyone else: don't bother with the Outer Shrine. Not that it sucks or anything, but it's just a shrine. Peaceful and green and nice, but kind of underwhelming. If that's a word (I know it's not 'cause I looked it up)


But the Inner Shrine (Naiku by name) is lovely. Bigger. Greener. More people yet more peaceful. Better in every single way. The neighbourhood neighbouring the shrine grounds is also quite nice. Full of old buildings repurposed into restaurants and shops. Full of funky tchotchkes and tasty snacks. And locally brewed beer. Tummies thus sated, we entered the park/shrine.

To enter the shrine grounds you first cross over a large wooden bridge that spans the Isuzu gawa (yup, gawa means river). The Isuzu river is clear and cold and looks refreshing as all get out. And it was sparkling like a parking lot in a bad part of town.

Crossing this fast flowing river is supposed to wash away all the crud that a person's spirit accumulates between shrine visits. Once you're across you can actually make your way down to the banks and literally wash yourself in the river.

I could try and describe all the structures and such on the shrine grounds, but that would bore both you and me. They looked like shrines and such. All shriney and what not. The grounds themselves definitely exude a sense of history (they should, they've been around almost as long as AD), but the buildings are all new. All the buildings, all the utensils used for building the buildings , all the utensils used inside the buildings, all the robes and clothes, all of it is rebuilt every twenty years. Using only the techniques that the original builders used. No nails. No electricity. No fooling. Every building on the shrine grounds has a vacant lot adjacent to it for its replacement to be erected upon.


There is a big ceremony every year when all of the ancient religious iconography (which is not rebuilt every twenty years) is transfered from the old shrine to the new. All the old wood is holy, so it cannot be burned, it is shipped off to other shrines around the country to be used in repairs and such.

The are at least a couple reasons for this twenty year cycle. One is to keep the ancient traditions and knowledge of such traditions alive and well. The other is that the renewing of the shrines every twenty years also renews the gods' blessing on the people of Japan.

I used to be a teacher.

After all the Ise shrines we caught a train to Kashikojima. Which is a quaint little port town. We stayed at the Puchi Hotel Kashikojima Harbour, and it was awesome. The least money we've spent on this trip got us our biggest room by far. With a nice view of the bay. And the owner was super friendly, even though his English was fairly limited. He told us the best place to take in the sunset (which are said to be fairly fine) and recommended a place to eat. Kashikojima is not that jumping a joint, especially in the off season, so an insider's knowledge was nice to have.


We walked over to the bridge that had been recommended as a good sunset watching place and watched the sun set. We didn't stick around for the whole thing, the sun ducked behind some clouds before it ducked behind the horizon, but what we saw was lovely. The bay was all shimmery, and there were boats about and jet skis and it was all just so dang... pleasant.


Our meal was more than pleasant, it was fantastic. All kinds of katsu. Katsu are a kind of Japanese cutlet, but with a lighter batter. Scallop katsu is just frickin divine.


As we were walking happily home from our scrumptious supper, the owner of the hotel pulled over to the side of the rode and gave us a ride home. Now that is service!

As soon as we were back in our room, I flopped onto the bed and within five minutes was fast asleep. This was at about 8 in the evening.

Carla stayed up and kept planning the rest of our trip and charging what needed charging and being a trooper. I would've loved to help, but I was just done. The night bus followed by a full day of shrineing was just to much for me to take. For us to take. We need a break from all this historical sight seeing. We need some dumb fun. We need