The perfect way to start the trip. We arrived late and woke early so we could enjoy a relaxed day of sight seeing. We made our way out of the hotel onto the streets of Osaka, which were filled with parked bicycles and this gaggle of students.
We took a couple of trains and a bus to get ourselves out to Ise Jungu Shrine, the largest Shinto shrine in the world. It was wild to visit this site again after 4 years because we got to witness the new ‘Re-construction’. It is the tradition to completely tear down and reconstruct all of the temples from scratch. No nails or screws are used in the construction of these buildings and so, by rebuilding every 20 years, they maintain the skills and technique through the generations.
There are so many more pictures from Ise Shrine but I will have to post those later when we get to a more dependable internet connection.
Then it was time for lunch. ? We wandered around on the little shop street until our group of 14 could decide on where to go for lunch. This blog will not be complete until I capture something that we eat every day. This was my delightful lunch. Complete with a charcoal warmed clay pot of rice with fish and Akka miso soup.
After lunch we got to walk along the ‘boulevard’ and enjoy sake samples from different makers, Mochi treats with houjicha tea (below), and a little souvenir shopping.
After we wore ourselves out with shopping and found ourselves a little tipsy from the sake we sipped along the way, we hopped on the bus and trains back to Shin Imamiya station to enjoy Spa World for an hour. 8 floors of hot bathing adventures, from Turkish to Greek, Iranian to Balinese, salt sauna, steam herb sauna, indoor and outdoor baths. That was just the most perfect night.
And, of course, the relaxation was followed by an Okonomiyaki meal with “ichi masu birru, por favor!” (To quote Kento from the last trip)
Today (4/10/15) we started the day with a quick stop at the fast food noodle restaurant for breakfast.
We were so quick that we even had time to follow our udon and soba noodle breakfast with a delightful stop at Mister donut for a quick coffee and a donut as we get ready for our visit to Tanioka Sensei’s clinic.
Let’s see…. I’ll have the body paint, every morsel of food that you ordered, and the baths. Thanks for sharing your fabulous adventure. What is so totally cool about this is that now all of your patients are going to benefit from the hours, and hours, and hours of study and technique you learned. Thank you so much!!
Wicked cool! Glad you are having a blast, take me with you!!! (Oops, too late)
Cool pictures of the shrine. For more history, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ise_Grand_Shrine .
Glad you are having fun!
Glad you are having such a good time. The different “baths” sound very intriging
I’m so glad to see you both having such a good time, and what a great experience. More pic please.