Ise / Toba

Having made all these beautiful travel plans during the week, I started turning them into action today by going to Ise.

When I arrived in Ise, there was some kind of St. Patrick's day celebration going on, and the streets were decorated with Irish flags. There were a couple of performers and people making speeches, but I didn't really stop to watch.

Girls preparing for their St. Patrick's Day performance (under the watchful eye of their teacher)

The main attraction in Ise is Ise Jingu - allegedly Japan's most sacred Shinto shrine. So sacred, in fact, that most of the shrine's buildings are blocked from viewing - and entering, of course - by tall wooden fences. It is possible to catch a glimpse of a roof here and there, but for most buildings, that's all you get.

Ise Jingu actually consists of two parts, called Geku (outer shrine) and Naiku (inner shrine). Both parts seem to be made for huge crowds of tourists (or worshippers... or both, probably). Just have a look at the amount of ladles for ritual cleaning - or the amount of toilets available... As you can see from the lack of people in the pictures, Geku was pretty much deserted today.

The building in the next picture is just about the only building in Geku that is not hidden behind a fence. I read somewhere that it is a smaller version of one of the buildings inside, so maybe this is what the "real" shrine actually looks like.

Having seen everything Geku has to offer, I hopped on a bus to go to Naiku which is about 6km away.

Compared to Geku, this place was packed. But, as I overheard some people inside, still quite empty when compared to the beginning of January. As you would expect, the most sacred shrine is an extremely popular choice for Hatsumode - the first shrine visit in the new year.

I have no idea why people stopped to touch these pillars, but many did...

This is the one unfenced building in Naiku

At one point, there was a massive queue of people leading up some stairs. As it seemed to be the only way onwards, I joined the queue. I didn't really know what everybody was queuing for, but as I had seen queues in shrines before, I had a vague suspicion: this might be the queue to Japan's most sacred praying place (which, of course, it was).

In both Geku and Naiku, I saw something strange that I still don't understand (maybe someone who reads this can enlighten me?). There was a small area marked off with a rope. People stood around it and extended their hands towards the center. And in the center was... a stone. As far as I could see, a pretty ordinary stone, too. So why did people do that?!?

I was finished visiting Naiku at around 3pm. As I felt it was still too early to go back home, I decided to continue to Toba. The only thing I had time for in Toba was a visit to Mikimoto Pearl Island - but according to my travel guide, that's just about all there is to see in Toba (apart from the aquarium). I arrived only 45 minutes before their closing time, and the staff seemed to think this was way too short to really appreciate the island. I insisted on going in, and ended up getting a nice discount on the entry fee :-)

The first thing inside was the ama divers show. Ama are women who dive for pearls. Traditionally, they wore nothing but thin white clothes to scare animals away - and dove like this even in winter! As you can see in the pictures, the ama in the show dove in these clothes. Water temperature: 7°C! In reality, however, the divers use wet suits these days.

Next, I went to the pearl museum. On the ground floor, they have some information on how pearls are acquired and processed, and on the top floor there is a jewellery exhibit.

There are some really gorgeous pieces of jewellery on display. Have a look at these two:

The next one is actually for sale in the pearl shop... for a meagre 210.000 Yen!

They also display some other things people have made with pearls, for example this pagoda...

... and a couple of "paintings" like this one:

 The only thing that really made me think, however, was this exhibit:

Apparently, this is how they keep the oysters during pearl cultivation... neatly separated into tiny metal cages. And not just for a short period of time - the cultivation process takes between one and seven years!
If you look at how chickens, pigs and cows are kept in industrial livestock farming today, it should come as no surprise that oysters are no exception to factory farming. But still - they are living beings! Should any living being be subjected to this?

Travel Plans

I looked at my calendar this week and realized - only two more months in Japan! So I finally took the time to decide which places I really want to see in Japan, and wrote down how much time I want to spend at each place. As it turns out, I have just enough time to see everything that I want! (or at least the top priority stuff... I guess you could spend years traveling in Japan and still discover new things) Lucky I made the list this week and didn't delay it any further... *phew*

There are a couple of day or weekend trips left in the Kansai area and western Honshu, mainly Hiroshima, Koya-san, Ise, Himeji - and several visits to Kyoto. I'll do these smaller trips on all the weekends when I'm not on one of my three bigger trips.

For the three bigger trips, I bought a couple of plane tickets yesterday, so most of the dates are fixed. I'll use trains for two of the six journeys, so I still have some flexibility to change or adjust my plans. Buying the plane tickets was very convenient (like many things in Japan... just thinking about the delivery service, for example). The three airlines that I checked all have reservation websites in English. The only data they ask for are name, age and sex - they require neither passport numbers nor addresses, like European airlines seem to do. Payment was equally painless - you can either use a credit card or pay cash in a convenience store. I know how to use a credit card, so I chose the convenience store option to see how it works.

Basically, the convenience store has a multimedia terminal where you can pay for all kinds of things - for example prepaid phone cards and all kinds of tickets. So you use either the flight date, flight number, your name and reservation number (for ANA flights), or the company code and order number (for Skymark flights), and enter them into the terminal. The terminal then prints some kind of application slip which you take to the cashier to pay. After paying, you get a receipt which states your flight data and confirms payment. They say that I'll have to show this receipt at the airport. Well, I'll see how that works out :-)

So, the first of the three trips will take me to Kyushu next week. I'll first visit Aso-san and do some hiking, and then spend a couple of days in Nagasaki. I'm very curious to see the atomic bomb memorials in Nagasaki. From what I've heard, it can be pretty hard and depressing, especially if you're there on your own. I'll let you know how it was once I have first-hand experience.

On the second trip - and I'm really looking forward to this one - I will visit the Ryukyu islands, with Okinawa and Yaeyama being my main destinations. I'll go there at the beginning of April. Sun... Warmth... Nature... I can't wait to get there!

And finally, the third trip will take me to Tokyo! I'll also visit some places around Tokyo, like Nikko and Hakone, and some places that are (more or less) on the way between Osaka and Tokyo. I hope I can squeeze in a day of hiking in the Japan Alps, too. I'll go there just before I leave Japan, at the end of April and beginning of May.

So, now that you know my plans, feel free to poke me when I get behind blogging about any of these trips! :-)

Grass Burning Festival

A few weeks ago, I went to the Grass Burning Festival, or Yamayaki, with a couple of friends. The festival basically consists of setting fire to the grass on mount Wakakusayama. It is held in Nara every January.

Apparently, the origins of this festival are not quite clear: one theory says it could have been due a dispute over territory between neighboring temples, while another says it was a means to drive away wild boars. Anyway, the festival is said to have been celebrated for the past couple of hundred years. The burning hillside looks quite dramatic:

Nowadays, the actual burning of the grass is preceded by a display of fireworks. I felt like the new year had finally arrived - being used to celebrating the beginning of a new year with lots of fireworks, there had been something missing this year because the Japanese don't use fireworks on New Year's.

I enjoy fireworks a lot, so I got a bit carried away with taking pictures (that's why it took me so long to sort through them and write this blog post...). For the pictures below, I used the same technique as for the jellyfish in Kaiyukan - due to the nature of the technique, it works very well in dark surroundings.

Next to the standard fireworks, they also had a couple of rabbits (this is the year of the rabbit, after all) and deer (being Nara's signature animal).

Earthquake!

I experienced my first ever earthquake today, at 3:46pm.

I was just having coffee with a colleague in the 7th floor of our building, when suddenly the building started moving and we heard noises as if somebody was moving furniture about. The whole thing lasted for a about minute, or maybe only 30 seconds, and then everything was quiet again.

Feeling the building move below me was slightly eerie, but also strangely fascinating. The power that nature is able to unleash somehow never fails to amaze me.

The quake's magnitude was only 5.0 (look here or here for more information), but the epicenter was less than 100km away, so it was pretty close. We probably also felt it a little stronger because we were on the 7th floor.

So now the question is - how would I have reacted if the quake was any stronger? I'll take this as an occasion to read up on the topic of how to behave during an earthquake :-)

Birthday

It was my birthday this week (I'm not telling you my age of course, except for this hint: it's a very geeky age), so I'll take this as an opportunity to reflect a little on the past year. At the end of the post, I also have some details on how I spent my birthday in Japan.

The past year was incredibly eventful for me, and since not all of them were good events there were hard times, too. There was my breakup and the subsequent move to a new apartment; a great and long holiday in New Zealand (with a couple of additional days in Sydney due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland); the completion of my PhD; my first triathlon and the couple of months training for it; my grandpa's death (now all my grandparents are gone); my move to Japan; and, of course, everything I experienced here in Japan - read the rest of my blog for details :-)

What I haven't really covered in the blog is that I've met many unbelievably kind and decent people in Japan and had great conversations with some of them. Some of them really changed my way of thinking, some inspired me to read books I would never have thought of reading, some gave me new perspectives to think about. So far, it has really been an eye-opening experience - which I hope will continue! - and I'm really thankful to everybody I've had the chance to talk with.

I also began to doubt if what I'm doing now is really what I want to be doing in my life. The process is not nearly finished, but it looks like change is in the air. I thought a lot about what I value in my life and I realized that I need to start living according to that. I think I have a lot more to discover, so all I know right now is that I want to do something more meaningful, and actually help to make this world a better place.

Ok, so enough with the reflections for now, on to the lighter topic of how I spent my birthday :-)

On the evening of the day itself I was invited for dinner at a friend's house. It wasn't really a birthday dinner for me, but a farewell dinner for another friend, so I was quite surprised - and delighted - when it turned out they had gotten me a birthday cake with candles and everything. Have a look:

I even received some presents, among them an incredibly cute squirrel (neither live nor stuffed, but I won't go into details - just that: squirrels are my favorite animals).

Two days later, we had a big party which was primarily a farewell party again (for the same person as above), so we decided to kill two birds with one stone (is talking about killing birds too martial to describe a party??) Anyway, the party was at a very nice sushi restaurant, there was excellent food, plenty of fun, and good conversations.

Being a farewell party, however, the sad part was of course saying farewell at the end of the evening. The weather seemed inclined to underline the sadness of the occasion, and it was raining heavily when we left the restaurant. On my way home, I got completely soaked from head to toe. The rain went straight through my jacket (which I had always thought of as more or less waterproof... have to correct that assumption), and my shoes took two full days to dry. Ah well... at least I didn't get sick! :-)

Valentine's Day

So, Valentine's Day in Japan is a little different from what people do in Europe. Apparently, the custom here is that girls give small boxes of chocolate to guys - and not only guys they are romantically interested in, but basically everybody. There seem to be two different kinds of chocolate boxes, one being reserved for the romantic interests or partners, and the other for everybody else.

Of course, the chocolate industry is very happy about this custom and produces special (meaning extra expensive) chocolates just for Valentine's Day. I managed to buy two boxes for less than half price - I went to the nearby convenience store around 11pm, and apparently there is very little demand for them once Valentine's Day is (nearly) over. The packaging is super fancy, of course, and they give you a small paper bag (with matching design) for each box you buy.

As for the taste, at least the ones I got are very nice! Pretty decent chocolates, especially for the Japanese standard of chocolate ;-)

And because the chocolate industry likes the profit they make on Valentine's Day, they invented a payback day: the guys are supposed to return the favor exactly one month later, on March 14th.

Shopping, part 4

The past Friday was a holiday in Japan (the National Foundation Day, to be precise), so instead of going to the lab, a friend took me on a shopping tour of Osaka. I hadn't really bothered with shopping (other than for groceries), so it was like discovering a new aspect of Japan for me. We visited many, many different shops, but I'll only pick out some of the more interesting bits (the ones where I remembered to take pictures, mostly).

One thing that I noticed in several clothes shops was how neat and tidy everything looked. Just have a look at the picture below - I don't remember stacks of trousers being quite so meticulously arranged (and sorted!) in Germany.

Another funny thing I saw was this t-shirt:

What is this slogan supposed to tell me? Is there anything special - or particularly desirable - in working in an office? Or is there some hidden meaning only accessible to Japanese people? Or is it just the translation that made the slogan weird? As the sign on the top left says, they apparently believe that the designers are brilliant geniuses. Maybe too brilliant for me?

A little further on our way, we came across this building:

Apparently, this is a wedding chapel. From this perspective, the only thing that looks really wrong are the trees on the roof - the original buildings that this one is modeled after did certainly not have a flat roof! Once you look at it from the other side, however, it becomes clear just how much of a fake the building is:

Notice how they kept up the front part just long enough so that it would look good from the front. Apart from that, everything is very cheesy of course - designed so that the wedding photos will look good, if nothing else.

The next stop was Den-Den Town (geek town would maybe be an appropriate translation), an area consisting mainly of shops selling everything related to video games and computers. The shops resemble normal supermarkets - with the difference that they sell CPUs instead of rice. Just as in Germany, however, the prices in real-world shops can't really compete with the prices you get online. Here's an impression from one of the shops:

On the way back home, I noticed a small hardware store that was displaying a selection of pretty plain-looking screws and nuts in a glass case. Yes, one of those display cases that are usually reserved for the really special and pricey items in a shop. And no, I don't think the screws were all that special - or pricey. Just regular Japanese weirdness, maybe? Unfortunately, I didn't stop to take a picture, so you'll just have to believe me like this ;-)