This past weekend, my brother and I made a trip to Kyoto. Along the way, I finally got to see the thousand torii gate place, otherwise known as Fushimi Inari Taisha, otherwise known as the Shrine to Rice, otherwise known as the place in Memoirs of a Geisha.
Rice is pretty important in Japan, so naturally there's going to be a pretty awesome shrine dedicated to it. Apparently the Emperor himself comes out for a little rice festival in June. I mean, that's a big deal.
The messenger of this particular deity is the fox, sometimes depicted holding a key in its mouth for the rice storehouse or a sacred jewel that represents the spirit of the gods. Apparently the fox became associated with the shrine for one of two reasons:
1. A really attractive fox couple visited the shrine so frequently that they HAD to be messengers of the gods
2. A fox gave birth to a healthy litter, making the farmers and everyone see that the shrine was associated with healthy offspring --> healthy rice production
Either way, they stand guard at the front of the various torii gate passenges and look like they might kill you before they ever let you give it the message you wanted passed along. In a creepy note, apparently the Japanese believe they can possess you; I guess a popular route of entry is underneath the fingernails. Ewww.
I was pretty excited when I came to the first grouping of torii gates... the iconic image of the two paths, complete with perplexed Japanese man staring at us.
Each torii gate was donated by a business, and they would inscribe their names on it.
On to the best part, where where Joel and I realized that the shrine is actually a shrine on top of a mountain (233 meters above sea level). Sherpas and oxygen bottles were purchased, and I wondered how much life would change for us if we made it back down alive.
It wasn't that bad, but I definitely wasn't expecting a crazy hike upwards for 2 hours.
It gets a little sad when you finally make it up a flight of stairs, and then you're greeted with this...
More stairs. :(
Eventually we did make it to the top to take our congratulations photos.
Successful in our quest to summit Mount Inari, we then returned to the safety and comfort of Kyoto.
How to get there:
From Kyoto Station, take the JR Nara line towards Joyo and get off at the Inari Station (should be two stops). From the train station, walk across the street and you'll see the large torii gate.
Ahh, this blog post represents probably the most effort I ever put toward seeing anything in Japan. Friends, I had to wake up at 3:30am just to catch Time Travel's #1 thing to do in Tokyo -- see the Tsukiji Fish Market. Well, specifically the tuna auction, which is the only reason you'd wake up at 3:30 to stand in line at 4am to wait until 5:30am and then be done with it all by 6am.
The tuna market is actually just a small piece of the entire wholesale market (the rest of which opens for non-fish-buying folk at 9am), but is the most iconic part of the market... and also the biggest pain in the ass.
The actual auction starts at two times, the first being at 5:25 and the second being around 5:55. BUT. Yes, there's a but. It's like one of those rap guy's girlfriends. BUT... You must be at the Fish Information Center (Kachidoki Gate) no later than 4am to get a spot as they only allow 120 people (60 each group) to go. Yeah...
The map below gives a rough idea of where the information center is, but I recommend getting there the night before to save yourself the possibility of getting lost, losing your spot, and making that sad discovery that you've been awake since 3:30 am for nothing. The red dot is the center, the purple one is part of the fish market.
Once we successfully grabbed our vests and sat around for 1.5 hours, we were ushered in a neat and orderly line to the center of the auction.
The magic, my friends, was not quite seen yours truly... we saw the huge tuna but we weren't allowed to get close to them. The buyers would taste the tuna flesh, jam it with their pointy sticks... there is no way to not make that last sentence weird.
I only saw one actual auction, but you can experience it yourself via this google translation from the very website itself:
At 5:30 a.m. the tuna auction
starts. “How much do you bid?” The auctioneer of a wholesale firm asks in a
loud voice. Answering this, a lot of middlemen and authorized buyers bid
against each other. The tuna received on the day sell out rapidly.
This stolen photo gives you an idea about the tuna set up, though there were not nearly that many when I was there.
After that, I tried some sushi at 6am... it was delicious. Apparently there are some awesome places actually inside the fish market but we never made it that far.
The rest of the market (or the "intermediate sellers market") was not open to visitors until 9am... and I made the unfortunate mistake of sleeping in until 10am and missed most of the action. From what I saw left over, there were quite a few interesting things... live octopus, squid, various fish. It was easily more entertaining than the tuna auction in my opinion. Another stolen photo gives you a good idea of that:
It was also a matter of life and death in there... if you weren't paying attention you could get run over by a death machine! I managed to escape with my life intact so that I could pass on this treasure to you.
How to Get There:
From Tokyo Station, take the Marunouchi Line toward Ogikubo and get off at Ginza Station (1 stop in between). At Ginza station, take the Hibiya Line towards Kitasenju and get off at Tsukiji Station. From there it's a 5 minute walk.
Ah, time to start up the blog… now that Christmas (ahem… "Holiday") break is over I will begin my weekly trek to find something new in Japan.
Today is all about a little island that is only a few miles away from me… its name? Look at the blog post.
Enoshima Island has a pretty complicated history with its many ex-girlfriend goddesses. Apparently, the Emperor Kinmei built a small shrine dedicated to three goddess (Tagitsuihime, Ichikishimahime, Tagirihime) in a small cave… the original shrine shown below:
You can tell it's legit because of that little placard I left in the picture. You're welcome.
At any rate, Yorimoto Minamoto came along and wanted to defeat this rival clan. To do so, he built a shrine to the goddess Benzaiten. I guess he chose the right deity because he ended up winning the battle.
Access to the island doesn't even require a ferry! Simply cross the Benten-bashi bridge and you're practically at your first temple named Hetsunomiya. This is one of three shrines on the island and this one is reserved for the god(dess?) of music.
We moved along, bypassing the escalators to the top of the mountain. Yes. There were escalators built in. Of course, you had to pay to use them, and since I'm feeling a little chubby from the binging of the holiday season we decided against them. My only regret is of not taking a photo… sigh.
The best part of the island were these little stands they had for people who wished to take THE PERFECT iPhone photo complete with posing ideas in case you weren't that creative, you see.
I used it for my mega camera and got a picture of the the Nakatsunomiya Shrine, of which contains the goddess Ichikishimahime. Shaun and I originally tried to use it to get a picture of ourselves, but some kid just walked right into the photo. Rude.
After that, we came across the Yama Futatsu, an area dividing the island in two. It's thought that the island was split in two by the waves constantly crashing into it… just like a miniature Grand Canyon.
There was another shrine dedicated to Tagarihime, and apparently I missed a creepy painting of a turtle who stares at you… wherever you are standing. Awww yeah. :(
But I did NOT miss this awesome little shrine, for which it belongs, I do not know. It did include an iPhone photo thingy though.
That's like straight out of The Hobbit!
We moved along to a cute couples area where single people will be shunned forever because they're so gross and pathetic (just kidding). It's a bell dedicated to "The Heavenly Maiden and the Five Headed Dragon"… I've taken the liberty of showing the story for you below:
Honestly, I'm a little surprised that the only reason she refused him was because of the bad things he did… because I would think the biggest reason would be because… ya know… dragon. Maybe I'm just old fashioned.
Since there was an iPhone station with an example picture of how to pose, I forced Shaun to pose (much to his chagrin).
Seconds later, Shaun rang the bell with the most force possible, scaring everyone around us with its loud clanging and forcing me to cover my ears in pain. True Love.
At any rate, the bell was surrounded by locks, which were supposed to be placed by a couple. The lock signifies the permanent love of the couple. I didn't know about that, and also due to the loud painful ring of the bell, I decided I didn't feel like putting a lock.
Moving away from the love shrine, we made it one of the coolest parts of the island - the Iwaya Caves and Chigogafuchi! Chigogafuchi is a place dedicated to a tragic love story. A young trainee named Jikyu was on his way from a hundred-day pilgrimage and met a young seducer named Shiragiku, a servant. Because their love was forbidden (I'm assuming because it was homosexual in nature), Shiragiku and Jikyu decided to kill themselves by jumping off the cliff. Incidentally, this is also where you can catch a beautiful shot of Mt. Fuji during sunset, or possible move to higher grounds because of a tsunami.
Next we found the caves. Apparently locals say they look like the inside of a woman's vagina. I'm not so sure, though we did have to crouch to get through a few parts.
As you can tell, the dragon plays a big part in Enoshima's history. The end of one cave had a cool dragon sculpture that allowed you one wish. You hit the drum next to it, and if you were able to create lightning twice your wish was granted! The neat thing about this was that the drum was hooked up to some sort of light switch so you almost always got the lightning. Aw yeah.
Lastly, there was a little stone called the Kameishi or "Turtle Stone." It's apparently a little carving engraved by a stonemason named Kametaro Nakamura, depicting a turtle making its way back to the palace of the Dragon God. Also, "I Like Turtles".
With our adventure completed, we were just about at sunset. Below are a few pictures that just didn't fit in elsewhere with the blog.
Wow… it has been a really long time since I've graced your presence with my exquisite writing. Be still your beating heart. And this post isn't even about a temple! I know, I know, I've really outdone myself this time.
I'm here to talk with you about one of the waterfalls in Nikko, called Kegon Waterfalls. Kegon Waterfalls are among the more famous of the waterfalls in Japan. The water falls from 97 meters (318 feet for us Americans). This last paragraph read like a 4th grader's geography essay.
On to the best part… the haunted history! Legend has it that it became a popular spot for suicide after an 18 year old boy (Misao Fujimura) leapt to his death in 1903. He apparently wrote a farewell poem on a tree just before his death, which I have rewritten for you below:
"How mightily and steadily go Heaven and Earth! How infinite the duration of Past and Present! Try to measure this vastness with five feet? A Word explains the truth of the whole Universe - unknowable. To cure my agony, I have decided to die. Now, as I stand on the crest of this rock no uneasiness is left in me. For the first time I know that extreme pessimism and extreme optimism are one."
Romantic. It also must have taken a long time to carve that into a tree. At any rate, the falls have now become a famous place for the Romeo and Juliets of the world -- thankfully I saw no suicidal lovers when I was there.
Time for the photos!
Around that area was also a lake (Lake Chuzenji)… the weather was so insane that it honestly looked more like a bay of an ocean.
My next post is not about me in Japan but about me in Korea! No, I will not be changing my blog title to "Kelli in Korea", though I enjoy the alliteration. Due to leave restrictions, I spent my time in Busan, South Korea.
After my attempt to go to the DMZ failed (apparently we're not allowed to wear shorts), I decided I had to make up for it by going somewhere else that was cool... after some internet sleuthing I decided on Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. I know, another temple. I just can't seem to get enough of it! So much so, that I endured a 20 minute bus ride with a driver who brought out his anger about his job by passive aggressively making brutal stops and turns. I nearly fell down at least five times!
So why Haedong temple? Mostly because it's literally right by the sea... I have never seen a temple where there were massive waves splashing on the rocks below it.
The story of this temple's creation revolves around the dream of a monk named Naong. In this dream, a sea god of the East Sea appeared and told him to build a temple at the edge of Bongrae Mountain and the nation would strengthen and become awesome. You see, Korea was apparently in the middle of a big natural disaster (famine, drought, etc), so Naong took the god's advice and built a temple. Unfortunately, the original temple burned down when those damn Japanese came and invaded Korea in 1592. The temple was rebuilt and renamed to its current incarnation.
When you first enter the temple grounds, you run across statues of the twelve zodiac figures. They are supposed to help protect the temple. I took a picture with my zodiac animal, the Rat!
After that, I came across a nine-tiered pagoda with an accompanying tire that you could pray to for traffic safety. I probably should have spent more time there.
On one side was a gold buddha statue. I'm not quite sure what it stood for and thus far my search has been fruitless.
After that, we came across a turtle statue thingy where you could throw coins and get good luck! Shaun tried but couldn't get any coins in. Fail.
After that, we came to the main temple area. There were statues of two big gold pigs, one dragon (for the Dragon King) and a giant golden dharma.
There was also a cool painting of a dragon that is probably related to the story of the temple's creation but I'm not quite sure how.
Once we climbed up some stairs, we saw the statue of Haesu Gwaneum Daebul ("Great Buddha Goddess of Mercy"). Apparently if you say her name 33 times, you can get good luck! Too bad I didn't realize that at the time.
