31 March 2009

Today was our day trip to Ise to see the famous Ise Shrine. We met Don in the lobby at 7:45am and caught the Limited Express train to Ise at 8:45am in Kyoto Station. The train ride took a little over two hours to arrive at our destination, with one transfer along the way. I slept for the latter part of the train ride once it began to be less scenic. Once in Ise, we began by visiting the Geku Outer Shrine. This was a Shinto religious compound, but it did not hold the famous Ise Shrine. Photographs were not allowed within the main shrine’s walls, so we were only able to photograph the secondary structures and nature around the premise. It is amazing because all of the religious structures are rebuilt every 20 years on a site immediately adjacent to the existing building, and the craftsmanship is unbelievable. After visiting Geku, we took the bus to the Ise Inner Shrine, which was located about 4km away. By that time, it was a little past noon, so we decided to get lunch in the Ise street markets before entering the Ise Inner Shrine compound. The feel was Ise was much smaller than that of Kyoto, but there were plenty of new things to see and try. For lunch, I tried a shrimp and onion flavored fish cake on a stick for 250 yen and a beef-filled steamed bun for 350 yen. They were both amazingly delicious! The market was very small, but the city itself was surrounded by beautiful green mountains, a river, and lots of greenery.
In the Ise Inner Shrine, the structures looked very similar to the ones we saw at the Geku Outer Shrine. Before long, I couldn’t even tell them apart, but it was nonetheless, amazing. While within the first walls of Ise Shrine, we actually got to view a woman of high status be taken into the second layer of Ise’s walls. Don said it either meant she had a lot of money or was of a higher status. She followed the motions of a Shinto monk, and a crowd gathered to see the ritual. It was very short, but I was very impressed. Very few people are allowed anywhere within the walls, so it was definitely a rare opportunity. After we were done touring the Inner Shrine grounds, we wandered around the Ise street markets a bit longer, then took the bus back to the train station.
The train was very full, so the only seats Don could purchase for us on the Limited Express train were in the smoking car. It didn’t seem like it would be that bad, but as that train filled up on the journey home, it got very smoky in the car. My roommate and I feel asleep for the majority of the two hour trip, but we were all miserable by the end of it. Our eyes were burning, and our skin felt waxy from all of the smoke in the unventilated car. I really hope we don’t ever have to do that again!
Once back at Kyoto Station, Don let us do as we wanted for dinner since we were done with the trip. I hung around the station with two of my classmates, Scot and Zach, and we got Japanese food. I ordered a combination with tempura tendon, hot soba in dashi, and tsukemono. It cost 880 yen but was very very filling and tasty. The apartments we are moving to in a week are right near Kyoto Station, so I think many of us will be eating there a lot in the next couple of weeks. After dinner, we were able to figure out the subway system to take the two lines we needed to get back to that hotel. We were all tried out from a long day, and all I could think about was showering to get the smoke smell off of my clothes.