Ise Jingu

This Friday we didn’t have class in favour of the program’s Spring field trip to Ise shrine in Mie prefecture, about 3 hours away by bus. I had, in fact, been to Ise before during Fall break with my friend (and reported on it here!) but it was still amazingly fun. Well, the bus ride wasn’t very fun, but I in general don’t like car trips. We did, however, have a very nice tour guide (who I think came with the bus) who pointed out things as we passed them and told us little stories to keep us from getting too bored. Our first stop was for lunch at this aquarium and shopping area near the shrine with the two big rocks that have the rope between them. Here some friends and I had ‘Ise Udon’ which is like a thicker version of normal udon noodles with a light soy sauce on them. Very tasty. After eating we went out to take a look at the rocks and the shrines on the shore across from them, one of which is for a frog deity and the other of which is supposed to be at the cave that the sun goddess Amaterasu hid in when she got angry at her brother. I was using the later when I heard a bunch of older Japanese women behind me, when I turned around they were surprised and started laughing, and when I said ‘hello’ and ‘excuse me’ to them they laughed harder. What I believe happened (based on my friends’ accounts) was that the women had been talking about how long my legs were, so when I turned around they got embarrassed, and then when I spoke Japanese to them they got even more embarrassed. I thought it was pretty amusing myself. After this we went back into the shopping area and tried some of a treat called ‘Akafuku mochi’, which is a famous brand-name sweet that originated at Ise shrine some 300years ago and is still considered a must-have souvenier. The last time that I was in Ise, however, there had been a controversy about its freshness, which meant that all of the brand’s locations were shut down. I have to say that it really is quite good, though simple. It is basically sweet glutinous rice cake with thick, smooth red bean paste hand-pressed over top. They served it with roasted tea, which suited it well. As we were heading back to the bus, we noticed that outside of the aquarium in front of its sealion tank they were having a little show of sorts. The seals inside the tank jumped and made faces against the glass by sticking out their tongues, and were very adept at catching the fish they received in return. For me, however, the most amazing thing was when they took the male seal out of the tank so that we could all get a closer look at him. He was MASSIVE. I looked at the small child standing in front of me and could only think that if this seal wanted to eat the kid he could just swallow her whole. After leaving the plaza, stop two was the Mikimoto Pearl Island. Now, if you don’t know, Mikimoto sells some of the world’s most expensive and beautiful pearls, and it is based in Ise, where the company first invented the technique of making cultured pearls. Here we first walked through an exhibit about the process of pearl-making, which was very well done, with some of the best English that I’ve seen since being here. After that it was time for the pearl divers’ demonstration. Pearl Oysters have been traditionally collected in Ise by female divers who, with their floating bucket tethered to one ankle, dive deep into freezing cold water wearing only cloth suits and head coverings and no shoes. After being very convinced that I did not have a future in pearl diving, I went to look at the museum, where Mikimoto has collected examples of pearl jewelry from all over the world and a vast range of time periods, almost all of it stunning, though some of it just strange (three-dimensional jack russle terrier, anyone?). The second half of the exhibit was all things that Mikimoto had made, and most of it was extremely beautiful (I thought that the pagoda made out of pearls was a bit much) and had me very prepared to go to the gift shop. Apparently aware that only a small fraction of their guests could possible afford an actual string of Mikimoto pearls, the majority of the gift shop was given over to less-expensive pearl options, one of which I availed myself of. After leaving the island it was time to go to our hotel, which turned out to be very nice. We were split into groups of five people, and each given a little cabin with its own bath, living room and kitchen and more than enough sleeping room for everyone. Before dinner we all decided to go to the hotel’s ‘Aqua palace’, which was basically a series of different pools of varying temperatures that had jets that would focus on different muscles. After this was dinner, where I ate entirely too much and enjoyed myself thoroughly, and then back to our lodge to watch some DVDs and hang out with the other students. One of the people on the trip had arranged a wine party, which was a lot of fun, mostly because the majority of the people tried to keep it classy and not get too drunk. Since the public hot spring bath closed at 11pm, a few of us left a little early to make sure that we got our turn. It was very nice in the outdoor tub (once one actually got from the door to the water, that middle part is really not fun), a nice cool sea breeze, hot salty spring water and fun people to talk to make for a good time. We also met some Japanese girls who had just graduated high school and were very energetic and nice. Post-bath we returned to our lodge, watched some more DVDs and fell into bed.
-Male seals are enormous and I hope that I never meet one in the wild.
-I still don’t like car rides, and will thus most certainly NOT be taking the 6-hour one from Kyoto to Tokyo, no matter how cheap it is.
-Somewhere in Shiga prefecture there is a massive, self-contained horse training centre that is essentially its own town.
-The Amaterasu myth, for those who don’t know it is this: The Sun Goddess had a brother who was a real problem and bullied her mercilously until, in a fit of anger, she locked herself in a cave and refused to leave. Because there was no sun, everything died and people starved, and the other gods, seeing this, tried everything to get her to come out. Finally, Ame no Uzume, another goddess, jumped up on a bucket and danced wildly and stamped her feet. All the gods laughed and cheered and Amaterasu, hearing the noises, peeked out of her cave to see what was going on, bringing light back to the world.
-My host sister mentioned before I left that recently the Akafuku had been better than it ever was pre-scandal, and I have to say it tasted extremely fresh.
-Akafuku’s trademark is that the red bean paste on top has impressions on it from being hand-packed onto the mochi.
-The Mikimoto exhibit made me want a tiara, but the gift shop did not have a single tiara on sale. This should be remedied.
-You can get a fairly decent Chilean wine at the 7/11 here for under $10.
-A large percentage of the people in the program don’t drink at all.
-Bathing in hot saltwater kinda stings after a bit.