I went to the coast to visit the most holy of all Shinto shrines in Japan, Ise Jingu. It is said to contain the sun goddess Amaterasu, and only the Emperor and high priests can enter. This is the outer shrine, Geku.
The style was very simple and basic, but had a special atmosphere, especially in the rain. You can only get in till the second gate, beyond that white veil is the inner sanctum. It reminded me a bit of european druid culture.
Next day was the Kagurai-sai Matsuri, a festival with Sumo on the temple grounds.
Even the current champions made an apperance, and the crowd went wild! Really, old ladies running from one side to another and screaming and applauding.
I was too poor to get a ticket for the matches, so only saw the (free) ending ceremony. They are sooo buff, it was freezing!
The right one is Bulgarian and very popular.
Another ceremony. I've been told the white thing weighs up to 10 kilos.
The Judges. (nice hair!)
Afterwards people rushed forward to take pictures of the place of impact.
And then to my surprise there was another event!
I think it was the local archery club, but they looked like masters.
I took about two dozen pictures of this girl, she was so cool.
The middle green guy looks really serious, but turned out he was a total loser. He dropped the arrow right before firing!
!!
I loved that guy on the left! He was trembling to keep the bow up!
These faces are just amazing to me.
SOOO badass, the front guy was the teacher I think.
After the demonstration they paraded to the temple...
... where a mysterious swapping of arrows took place. It was like they were trading football cards or something.
Finally they entered and all managed to get their shoes off without losing hats, bows or balance.
The symbolic white roosters they keep at the temple. (there's also a white horse but couldnt find it)
The shopping area leading up the temple.
A fish/snack shop with very loud saleman.
And weird decoration...
They sold about anything on a stick, including cucumbers... 300 yen for a cucumber on a stick??
Taiko and flute performance.
This guy was SO intense...
10 minutes by train, I caught the sunset in Futami...
.. home to the famous ' wedded rocks '.
Turns out the whole thing is TINY!!! the little gate on top is about 50 cm max.
aww, rocks in love..
At the hostel, my roommate Alexandra and I managed to make a nice mess within minutes.
Then we had a little activity club, worked on our diaries and she made me an orange origami pinguin.
(experimenting with black and white and wide frames.)
How bizar, the mountain was just.. eaten.
So it took me 5,5 hours of trains and buses, but this was soo worth it: the natural miracle that is known as Kawa Yu Onsen. You might wonder: Where is the onsen? Why is she standing in the middle of a freezing mountain stream?
Well this IS the onsen! In the middle is the cold river, but on the sides are hidden hotsprings everywhere. See the whitish water, thats hot mineral water leaking into the river.
You dig out a hole and create your own instant hot bath!!
(I didnt dig this one myself.. )
Inside the stones you could just see and feel it bubbling up, not just warm but HOT.
Carps for the Boys festival on May 5th.
A really nice family I met here. They own a traditional restaurant, she normally wears kimono every day. She showed me pictures on her cellphone of the eldest son doing Sumo.
3 km uphill is another onsen town, Yunomine.
So relaxing and nice to go out in the yukata from the ryokan (well, the whole town is just one street, but still.)
Next to the river was a place where you could boil eggs and veggies in the hotspring water!
You cant really tell, but there is steam coming out of one of the rocks. The whole town smelled of eggs, but not in an unpleasent way. Gave you an appetite.
My room.
Dinner (!!)
Tempura.
Fish on a stick without the stick.
Sashimi, Konaku and a really nice egg/mushroom pudding thing.
The view from my room.
The private onsen of the hotel. The owner explained to me while pointing at the pool on the right: ' FISH. NO BATH. FISH! '.
Breakfast: Seaweed miso soup, pickles, roasted fish with ginger, various pickled stuff, half raw egg, rice soup? Maybe hard to believe, but it was absolutely delicious. Especially the egg and rice combo is great breakfast basic imo.
Hongu Taisha with their symbol: the three legged crow.
A lake on my 4 hour bustrip north.
People in the countryside are CRAZY...
Swinging ropebridge.
After a train, a smaller train, a REALLY tiny train, I had to get a cablecar to reach my next destination, Koya san.
To me it felt really isolated, but of course there are roads leading there as well...
Koya san is the place where Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon buddhism in Japan, is buried (or still meditiation and climbing out of his tomb one day.) As a result, about half the town consists of temples. You can also sleep at them, like I did in this one.
Maybe not the prettiest or most glorious of the 110 temples, but it had a very homely feeling to it.
The monks even had a dog around named Nikoh.
The corridor and garden.
In some spots it felt more like a hostel than a temple, in a good way.
My room, with super cozy heater-table.
Vegetarian dinner.
Really soft tofu with wasabi, sweet red beans, vegetarian tempura of lotus roots, potato and carrot, pickles.
Rough tofu with soy sauce, mushroom sesame seed salad, more types of tofu and bamboo.
They had many daily ceremonies and were quite busy combining it with all the guests, but were so welcoming and friendly, you really felt like a guest and not an intruder of their lifestyle. This lady could ring the 5 pm bell.
The service was just insane, they brought the food all the way into your room.
Breakfast.
One of the bigger monasteries.
Lonely planet says there are still 7000 monks living in Koya san.
I love this picture so much!!
This one perhaps even more.
It really was a very peaceful, happy place to be.
This modern temple lodging stood out a bit, and then I noticed even the sign had a matching little roof.
GOOD
Please do me a favor and zoom in on this AWESOME map of Koyasan. They've drawn buddhist saints doing soccer and tennis.
The highlight of KoyaSan is the enormous ancient cemetary around Kobo Daishis tomb. It's been a very popular spot for ages because everybody wants to be close by in case he'll come back to earth.
You see stones so old that they're almost completely covered in moss, and others like the're less than a year old. It takes about 40 minutes to walk from one end to the other without the detours.
We even saw some 'sponsored' stones, like Panasonic, and a stone stupa in Thai style.
This family was batshit crazy, they carried the dog around in a special basket.
He even had a little pilgrim outfit!!
Apparently there is a monument here somewhere, built by a pesticide company, to comfort the souls of the billions of ants they killed! (too bad we couldn't find it)
Melanie from Montreal, in the local sweets shop.
Look at that little vase.
Going back to Osaka. Next week: last album from Japan!!
