A much shorter travelling this time, as it was a purely day trip affair. Also much fewer pictures this time, as I'd forgotten my camera, and Lena only uses good old fashioned film. Apologies about that, time to dust off that old imagination thing again.
This time around I went to Ise, a small city in the prefecture slightly southwest of Nagoya, famous for its mightily impressive wooden structures, preserved old-town, forests and the Ise Naiku, or the Inner Temple, dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu, thus making it one of the holiest spots for the Shinto religion.
Further on the Naiku: Amaterasu also happens to be the mother of the the Imperial line, and as such the Naiku houses one of the Imperial Regalia handed to the emperors by the gods - a Sacred Mirror (Yata Mirror), in which you are meant to be able to see the image of Amaterasu. It's not, and probably will never, be on display though - only emperors and certain priests are allowed to see it. The closest we even got was the outer wall of the area that contained the building, replete with another wall. It didn't seem the most secure of places to keep such an important object to the Imperial institution, but then again we could only just see the actual building itself, which for all we know could have been made of reinforced titanium.
Anyways, Ise is very reachable from Nagoya by a shortish hour-and-a-bit train journey, and then a quick bus journey from immediately outside the station. This lands you in front of the forest in which the Naiku resides, alongside the enormous wooden tori (those immediately recognisable gate like features you find all over East Asia) and the huge, ancient-seeming wooden bridge. Having said that, ever-faithful Wikipedia assures me that the entire complex is rebuilt every 20 years, Shrine, bridge, tori and all. Ah well. Still feels good to be walking over an almost purely wooden bridge in such beautiful woody surroundings.
Once over the bridge, it was a nice walk through the forest, taking in the fantastic amount of greenery (such a long time in a major city has that kind of starving effect), the peacefulness of it (no huge pushing crowds like at Tokyo/Kyoto this time) and just the general relaxed ambiance. The shrine itself was well enclosed, and visitors weren't even allowed photos, but it's certainly worth a visit if just for the area itself.
Having done the Naiku, we walked through the old-town area, full of curio shops with very low roof beams. Feeling happy at the traditional-seeming district, I managed to get a small bit of tourist shopping done, including some region-famous (meibutsu in Japanese) plum wine to send back to Blighty.
From the small town, the famous Wedded Rocks were only a short bus journey away, and while being accosted by a strange, very enthusiastic old man (he told us where the bus stop was, then even sprinted after us later to make sure we got the right one - said he was a bus driver on a day off) we made it to the stretch of coast where they could be found (right next to some enormous aquarium/prison for seals, in case anyone else gets a bit lost).
Now, just a short aside. I was fully expecting the sight from all the many pictures of Japanese touristyness - of two enormous rocks far out at sea, with a colossal rope stretched between them, a marvel of Ancient Japan and a stunning work of art. Got it? Ok. We rounded the corner of the cliff to this magnificent sight.
My word, look! There they are! But wait, is that sand?
Yep, they were a pesky few metres away from the beach, let alone a small number of metres tall. They'd even included a miniature tori to really throw people off the true scale. Here are a few more pictures just to show you what we're talking about.
Feeling cheated, we then walked further along the coast, before realising that actually it was quite dark now and we probably should head for a train station of some sort. The best strategy we reached was to simply head inland through whatever housing estates till we found a station or some tracks, which surprisingly worked, leading us exactly to a deserted station with a train back to Nagoya due within a quarter hour. Perfect.
Just a last note - Nagoya station does some great light displays over the Christmas period, and I really should have got a video, but this dodgy picture will have to do. All the lights were on/off, but there were such an incredible amount that the whole display was fully animated.
