1 post tagged “shrine”
While still staying in the Navy Lodge, we were in the laundry room doing the most boring of chores when I spotted a magazine with a uniquely Japanese cover. I thought I'd stumbled on one of the employee's secret stash of literature, but instead, it was a magazine of the different tours, sporting events, and festivals that the various divisions of the Navy's morale program hosts. I made of list of the seemingly interesting ones, but the one that stood out most to Hub was a tour to another shrine and then on to a sake factory.
Surprisingly to me, and to I'm sure quite a few people, the tour itself is extremely inexpensive. For just $8 apiece, we were offered transportation and a guided tour/explanation by Eriko-san, a Japanese national who works for the Navy's morale program as an interpreter and tour guide. On what would normally be Superbowl Sunday (but instead which becomes Superbowl Monday morning for us), we boarded the cutest little bus you've ever seen and found that our seats were assigned, placing us directly behind Eriko-san.
I'll pause here to mention, yet leave out, the gory details of how Hillary does not travel well on public transportation. Needless to say, only Hub knew of the weakness as I am quite experienced in preparing myself for just such an occasion. Because of this, do not ask how we got there or what we passed along the way. I do not know. Leave me alone.
Continuing.
Eriko-san warned us that since we would be on the bus for a little over an hour each way, she'd brought along a movie that she hoped we'd enjoy that she'd picked up at the local convenience store. Curious and a little excited, I did a mental "Woo-hoo!" that we'd been assigned seats so close to the tv monitor in the front.
It was Cars. Not quite what I was expecting.
Not paying much attention to the country-side we passed, I was surprised when we pulled into a rather worn parking lot with the announcement that we had arrived. Hub gave me the, "This is what you dragged me here for?" look, I kinda gulped, and then we hopped off the bus trying to smile while being more than a little confused. Seeing the look on all of our faces, Eriko-san laughed and said we had to walk a little piece in order to get to the shrine, but, as she reminded us, nothing in Japan that is worth seeing is easy to get to. Off we went.
We walked through a little pedestrian street lined with local Japanese at booths selling their wares, which I enjoyed, before we got to a large stone gate flanked just behind by stone foxes. Knowing that such a gate signaled an upcoming shrine, I started craning my neck to see what was coming up. Soon, we passed through another, more formal, gate with a large building behind it. Off to the left stood the washing well where one is expected to use a ladle to scoop the cold, clear water into first their right hand, then the left, and finally, making a cup out of your clean right hand, your mouth so that you are clean and any words spoken in the shrine are clean as well. On the right of the gate was a beautiful koi pond
Ahead of us stood the minature shrine where wishes are made. At this place, after washing, you walk up to the short, flat table, cast in some coin yen (the bigger the wish, the bigger the donation!), ring the bells at the top of the shrine using the ribbons that hang down to awake the gods, clap twice to get their attention on you, wish, then bow three times. On each side of the wishing well were two masks: one with its mouth closed to hold in the good spirits that reside at the shrine and one with his mouth open to release any demons or ill will that people might have brought with them. All of this came before the actual shrine itself.
This is the third largest shrine in Japan, the Yutoku Inari Shrine located in Kasimae. Many years ago, the capital of Japan was Kyoto, where the largest shrine still exists. One of the emperor's daughters was given to the lord living in Kyushu (my province of Japan--the very southern-most of the mainland islands) for marriage. While she loved Kyushu, she missed her shrine in Kyoto very much and so had one built to emulate it, although never to the same heights so that it would not rival her home. Rather than the traditional guardian dog to grace the entrance (one with mouth closed as if to say, "Mmmm" and one with mouth open as if to say, "Ahhh"--both holy sounds in Japan), she chose the fox for its wisdom and cunning. Because of that, the region around the shrine and the products that come from there are called Inari, which means fox in Japanese.
We stayed at the shrine, marvelling at the sights and talking with the local vendors on the streets for a few hours. I had my first experience at buying something from someone who could not speak English (her only word was, "American?"), but with gestures and the bit of Japanese we've managed to learn (numbers and niceties are a beginner's love), we managed to buy a few sticks of yakitori. Yakitori is grilled meat on a skewer that is cooked in front of you on a tiny grill and then dipped in a teriyaki-like sauce; true yakitori is only chicken, and the Japanese frown upon white meat, preferring dark for its tenderness, but it has come to mean any meat cooked in such a fashion. In fact, the options we had in front of us were beef, chicken, pork (a thick bacon), chicken SKIN, and chicken meatballs. Other vendors were offering the same as well as squid and various fish, but with my delicate stomach and Hub's allergy, we stuck with chicken and beef. The Japanese are also extremely fond of sweets, especially crepes, of all things, and they make them with both meat inside or desserts (fruits, ice creams, gelato)...or occasionally, you can find one with both meat and desserts.
Leaving the shrine on our mini-bus, we drove for 10 minutes past rice paddies to a tiny little shack where we stopped, surprised again, and found the sake factory. Inside, Japanese people bustled through the shop area, buying various bottles and eating sake ice cream. We were ushered into the back to the large vats that house 5000 bottles (1 to 1.5 litres apiece!) of sake EACH! We listened as Eriko-san translated the owner's description of the sake-making process, ending with us in front of several tables with various bottles and tiny porcelain cups laid out. This factory is known for one particular type of sake that is said to be blessed at the Inari shrine we had just visited and thus was able to ward away, with just one sip, Alzheimer's Disease. I'm not sure about the claim, but did have a sip, just in case. I prefer my sake warm, but being cold, it had a rather bitter aftertaste. Hub found that rather than sake (rice wine), he prefers shoju (rice whiskey)--much stronger than American whiskies with a different taste, but it offers absolutely no hangover the next day whatsoever. When the tour finally finished its taste test, this was all that was left of the display!
From there, after buying a bottle of shoju and a couple of porcelain bottles of sake to send home, we headed home. :) The End!
