Mie
Travel Blogs from Mie, Japan
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Lion Rock
... postcards and other Lion Rock omiyagi - perhaps a squint and a correct angle shows the lion.. It was just down the road from here that we saw a vending machine on the side of the road that didnt work! The only one I saw my whole 18 months in ...
Goodbye Japan!
... here with my bags packed, apartment mostly cleaned, trash taken out, clothes in piles to be donated, etc...I can't believe my 2 years in Japan is coming to an end! I'm ready for the next thing in my life and am grateful that I had opportunity to have ...
weekend with monks in the mountains
... session with monks breakfast, another meal of various types of tofu, miso soup, tea and rice Touor #2: cemetery(largest in Japan!) and Kobo Daishi mausoleum Drive down the mountain 2 hours, stop in small town Ryujin for homemade pizza/ famous onsen, ...
Ise
... taking tourist and oooh and aaaah at appropriate times. The next stop was the real deal. Ise shrine is arguably Japan's most important shinto shrine and a popular place for both gods and Japanese tourists to visit. Despite the crowds we ...
The Japanese Face
I was thinking today as we sat on the train opposite a middle-aged couple wearing their Scuderia Torro Rosso caps, on their way to a fun day out at the Grand Prix, how the Japanese face has a remarkable capacity for sorrow. As if some profound sadness is ...
Buffoon in a Typhoon
... - a typhoon dumped a lot of water on the area while I was there. No matter, it was the first authentic place I found in Japan. Maybe its the seafaring genes I have in me from both sides of my family but I felt very connected here. I felt like it ...
Lazy Days at Lake Toba
So after spending an absolutely amazing time in Bukittinggi, it's no surprise that the next place I visited just couldn't compare. I've had absolutely no regrets on where I went on this trip, I wouldn't have done it any other way...except maybe I should ...
He deserves a good parping
Had a wonderful day today visiting Meotoiwa wedded rocks and Jinju Naiku shinto shrine but for the first time I started to get pissed off with the Japanese. Their extreme politeness, their ritualised humility and their strict observance & obedience ...
Una Semana en un minuto
Shoryo ha terminado, la gente ahora tiene que ir a los clubs y la mayoria tambien tiene que ir a clase, porque tienen que estudiar (clases de apoyo) asi que no se porque llaman a esto "vacaciones de verano" porque en realidad no lo son... quieren hacer ...
The worst travelling companion
I am apparently the worst travelling companion. The comment came yesterday when our hot water was delivered to our room by comic-book-smile-guy. In traditional Japanese honourable fashion, when Beth slid open the screen following the barely audible ...
Finally - tourism
... were not. Ise Grand Shrine is a Shinto shrine dedicated to goddess Amaterasu-ōmikami, located in the city of Ise in Mie prefecture of Japan. It is in fact, a shrine complex composed of a large number of Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines. ...
koya-san (work in progress)
Last week Akira and I went on a short trip outside of Kyoto reminiscent of those we used to take together two years ago. On the first day, we headed for Koya-san, the most important site for Sengushu Buddhism. This area has almost a thousand years of ...
Mountain of Monkeys
... in a nearby store filled with porcelain figures and stuffed animals. It was our first brush with consumerism since arriving in Japan, and the consuming came in the form of a veritable army of Totoro products, all for considerably cheaper than you ...
Ise Jingu (Naiku)
Without map, expectation or knowledge. A phenomenal Shinto shrine-compound set in sparkling forest. A huge complex in which we seemed to be the only privileged Westerners walking around a Wonderland of a religious temple. The whole complex is torn down ...
The smallest city in the world...
... and your close) If you dint know or didn't really care I am informing the general population that I am living in Tsu in the Mie Prefecture in Japan. (Tsu-shi, Mie-Ken for those Japanese amongst us) Yes about a month ago I took up a decision to leave ...
Apr 26, 2010
Cardboard Sledding Mayhem
We made it to Churui for the 9:30am registration time. The first event of the day was the speed category but we couldn't get underway with that until we did a good ol' Japanese warm up. It was the typical one stretch here, one stretch there to the sound ...
Train from Ise-shima to Tazawako
... . Everything is folded and pressed, plaited and tied. Edges are defined and made crisp and farmers leave their fields without the slightest trace of mud on their pristine clothing. Agriculture in Japan it seems is just another branch of origami. ...
F1 Japanese Grand Prix - Qualifying?
Today has been the first day in weeks that both Beth & I have been feeling simultaneously well. Or at least it would have been if the five hours sat in the typhonic rain had not taken its toll on Beth, confining her back to bed by nine for another ...
Fishing Villages and Dodgy Dodgy Theme Parks
After an action packed day of Temple sightseeing to the max in Nara, I headed south west to a tiny fishing village near Ise, which is known solely for its shrine. My hostel looked out over a foggy bay, which I predict harbours a Japanese Loch ...
Meotoiwa - The Wedded Rocks
... look across the waters of the Irago Suido straits which lead into the Ise Wan bay, and witness the rising sun (the symbol of Japan) surface out of the distant hills on the far shore. More than this, if the weather is clear, framed between these two ...
Push the Button
The whole of Japan seems to be like one giant spa town. I feel like an invalid, shuffling around in my yukata (robe) and house slippers, the soothing smell of the tatami (reed matting), bathing in neck-deep plunge-pool baths - water flooding over the ...
Whats that coming over the hill is it a Ninja?
We later stopped at Iga, one of the birthplaces of Ninja and saw a ninja house and museum. Yoji and me were Ninjas for the day and i even got stuck in a ninja revolving ...
Kicking back on the Kyushu coast
... of smellies! We did find some time to absorb some culture - we visited two of the city's shrines. The oldest Zen temple in Japan, Shofuku-ji was originally founded in 1195 by Eisai who introduced tea to the country from China. Tocho-ji is home to the ...
Teaching English!
We´ve slowed down our travelling to spend nine days on Santa Cruz, the principle island in Galapagos. We had heard about an English school here run by Chris and Katy, respectively a Canadian and a Brit, and we were happy to volunteer in their school ...
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