Long time since I posted but blog almost done. Onward.
Today plan composed of going to Mitsumine shrine with a friend. He had recommended this shrine before so was interested to see what it looks like. Ironically shrine is located in the Chichibu so we would be going back where I had just came from. Haha.
For breakfast and lunchbreak we had this kind of stuff...That's Japanese version of bread. Bit different to Finnish bread but either way tasty :D
Also banana+yogurt.
First time we used train(before travels have been with their car). On road I spotted this Buddhist statue. This is the kind of time I wished I had proper camera with good zoom.
Bus could take us all the way but it's much more fun to hike along so we dropped off at the base of the mountain and started from there.
Torii gate so pathway to shrine.
Early going was through pathway like this.
And bear signs again. Not that I was that worried. For one the bear population isn't THAT big and for second what's the point of worrying?
Photos never show up how steep things really are.
This is looking downwards...STEEP!
Arriving here friend washed his face. I thought "hey that's not bad idea!" so tried it myself. First attempt ended up in hilarious failure as I forgot to remove glasses from my eyes! After laughing hard tried again with better success and indeed I felt surprisingly refreshed.
Incidentally before coming to Japan he had said "let's climb peacefully". His "peaceful" doesn't seem to be related on the pace! I thought I was fast climbed but I certainly had to take the climb seriously to keep up with him!
Guess his knee has recovered from the surgery he had last year!
We stopped for a quick lunch. This is bread with peanut filling. Tasty!
(I have incidentally been ignoring Japan's pan department pretty much completely. However these might be very handy quick snacks to keep while walking the Shikoku pilgrimage. Good to keep in mind)
And the views got better as we got higher. We are in agreement that climbing UP much more fun than going down. For one views keep getting better the higher you climb while they keep going more mundane as you go down!
This is not a temple or something. Rather seems it's actually normal house. Got to be most remote house I have ever seen! I'm pretty sure whoever lives here doesn't come here from where we came but from up to which he presumably goes by bus. Either way shopping must be pain in the butt.
Can you spot the bird there? Zoom would be handy. The one thing my phone's camera is bad at.
Give me views like these and I'm happy. Wish photos would show the grandiose bit better though.
And then we arrived to the shrine finally! Didn't take all that much time in the end but then again todays goal wasn't making tons of km's ;)
Statue of nughty warrior named Yamato Takeru from in Japan's history. There's funny story I read about him in the guidebook I received at the last temple. After coming back from defeating some non-Yamato tribe he got lost in mountains. He was saved by wild dog/wolf that guided him back to civilization so after building shrine here he installed "o-inu-sama" statue(your most honorable dog :D) for him. Seems monthly they offer rice and other offerings to the statue. Author of guidebook(Geoffrey Tudor) notes wouldn't good juicy meat or bone be better offering for a dog ;)
Does explain btw why I had been seeing statues of dogs a lot...
Guess this is the most honorable dog?
Second extremely colourful shrine I have seen.
The details are quite excelent.
Hot day, nice climb, cold beer. Good!
This was excelent find. That's potato with mix of mirin+soy sauce+sugar coated and then grilled. Seems fairly easy to do so got to try that in Finland on next barbeque session. Excelent tasting. Ate two sticks. Was tempted to eat third one too...And maybe fourth...
We ended up skipping some park nearby to make sure we got to next bus. Park might have been nice but it was still long time to get back to his home and reunite with his wife as well and being together is also very fun and bus don't run up that often. We MIGHT have been able to make it but if we miss it...Better to be safe than sorry.
And then some pictures of the excelent dinner. Words cannot express gratitude for being treated on this tasty dinner.
And again these tasty seafood! (btw not their usual choice but seems they received some from a friend recently)
As can be seen day trip wasn't THAT long.
Odd spike there. GPS isn't quite that accurate.
Anyway Rest of day we talked, talked and talked. I'll summarize rest of the trip since there's not much to say about that anyway.
Sunday I went to meet with another friend and her family. I was particularly happy to see their daughter and newborn son whom I had yet to meet face to face. I opted to bring in my full pilgrim outfit figuring to surprise the daughter but as it turns out it was husband who got bigger surprise. Well come to think she is so young maybe she didn't really understand what kind of an outfit I had ;) It's not like you see that outfit in modern Japan and she has just started school so hasn't seen it yet in history lessons either(assuming one seens that in japanese school books. Obviously I haven't studied in Japanese school so I have little idea what kind of school books they have or what contents! I do know state and religion is separated so not sure how much religion related things they have in school?).
To my surprise the boy didn't seem to be shy of me at all. Often this young babies are bit shy toward strangers and men in particular(my little brother was bit of an extreme in that regards!).
We did ceramics experience(guess that solved what to give as a mother's day present! Albeit bit late). Quite difficult and needed help couple time from the teacher when my cup started to wobble(too dry maybe coupled with too high speed). Teacher does it and it's dirt easy. I do it and it's nightmare to keep it pretty :D Experience shows...
I got to do one HUGE cup and one smaller. Daughter meanwhile did 3 small ones. Her hands being smaller size she could do was bit limited but she did get 3 cups in return :D Father commented she probably will only eat MORE rice now that she has self-made rice bowl ;)
Afterwards sushi dinner(first time sushi this trip). Day spent merrily chatting and having fun. Doing pilgrimages fun, having fun with friends even more fun.
But alas all things end eventually and I had to head back and eventually had to go to sleep. Felt bit melancholic going to sleep knowing next day I would have to head home.
But at least trip back was easiest I had so far. Early wake up but there was recently opened bus line from station very close to friends home so with them having bought(though I paid back obviously) bus ticket from net in advance I had jolly easy time getting to the airport. Actually I was AHEAD of time as check in counter wasn't yet open. Neither was post office. Check in counter opened first so after dropping bags(and verifying my hat was okay to take with me into the plane) I waited for post office to open to send my staff to Finland. That would NOT have been okay for free and like I would pay 80e to take it to airplane as 3rd luggage when post office does same for like 14 euros(albeit with week or so time but that's no biggie).
Got last souvenirs bought(candies for kids, books for me) and boarded the plane. 10.5h later I was in Finland.
One more trip to Japan over...Looking forward to the next one. If things go as I hope next is the big one walking the Shikoku Pilgrimage!
