Japan was such an amazing country and yet so complicated to navigate! I didn't travel all of Japan like I really wanted to do. It was rather disappointing but I was fully exhausted by the time I got to Japan so it was to be expected. I traveled independently only for one day and it was just exhausting to do that. Our first port was Kobe.
The 1st Day in Kobe:
Coming into Kobe was amazing. We were welcomed by a water performance on one of the smaller boats and a band not to mention the city government officials in Kobe came on to the ship and welcomed us personally to Kobe. It was an amazing morning but immigration took FOREVER! We got in at 8am and didn't even get cleared until 12pm! Too much craziness.
Oh yes one last comment: SAKURA SEASON! We came in at the peak of it.
I went to the Bunraku theatre and had to navigate the subway systems to get there. (I am still confused about the subway/train system in Japan. I have to say that Japan should take a few lessons from Singapore and China on how to make the subway system easy for tourists to use too.) The plays at the theatre were interesting even though they were mainly in Japanese. I remembered enough Japanese from anime and Takagi sensei's class to figure out what the play was about. They didn't give us the English brochures until the intermission which was kind of funny but we ended up leaving early before the next play because everyone but probably me had the attention span of a rodent but I liked the play very much. They used puppets that had to be operated by 3 males. On the right hand side of the theatre there would be one male speaker who played the voices of all the characters in the play and then next to him would be another male who played the biwa-lute. It was interesting to just watch as everything took place. I was fascinated and wished I could have stayed longer to watch but that is something that I would love to come back and do as well as the Kabuki theatre that I didn't get to do.
This is the poster that made my night though. Best thing I ever saw. Makes me love anime all the more.
2nd Day in Kobe (Well it was actually spent in Kyoto)
Can I say it rained because I was practically drenched going back to the ship towards the end that I did not go to the Shinto shrine so I could mostly dry off and not be so exhausted. I was a little irritated with myself that I forgot my SD cards for my cameras so I didn't really get to take a lot of photos. So disappointing but I got a few really good ones. I went to 4 temples. My favorite temples had to be the 1st two Sanjūsangen-dō Temple and the Silver Pavillion (Ginkakuji). They were the most informative and interesting. It was fascinating to learn about the gods and just to note a couple which would be the Thunder God and the Wind God. (We couldn't take pictures at this temple)
Sanjūsangen-dō Temple Mini History: Named the rengeo-in originally, it was built by the Kiyomori Taira (political leader of the samurai) in 1164 as an annex to the houkouji Palace where the agency governed by the cloistered emperor Goshirakawa was located. It burned down 85 years later and then soon reconstructed in 1266. Since then, it has undergone 4 major reconstructions over 750 yrs. During the Edo and Showa periods, it was carried out by Muromachi, Momoyama. The Hall is 118 meters in Length. The Roof itself is built in two Japanese architectural styles: Irimoya & Honkawarabuki. At this temple is the following: 1000 armed Kannon (national Treasures), 1001 bodies of the Kannon (cultural properties) and 30 National treasures Taiko (Hideyoshi)
Statue of the Thunder God: The deity probably has its origin in the god of water, "Varuna" who is mentioned in the ancient Indian Sacred writing (Rig Veda). It is said that the image of Varuna was believed to preside over the rain and water and in the course of time, it began to be considered as the thunder god which was believe to preside over the weather. The images of those deites derived from ancient people's fear of the water. This iconography is based on the tect of the Senju Darani-Kyo (Buddhist Sutra) and the fanciful folk belief of the thunder god from the Japanese Middle Ag Statue of the Wind God Fujin: It was introduced in ancient Indian sacred writing (Rig Veda) as a deity who drives a carriage through the air pulled by plural horses, defears enemies, offers fame, long life, fortune and assists in Child birth. Only god that has no influence of Chinese of Indian Iconology and the style of this god is solely based on Japanese iconographic ideas
After leaving this temple, our group went to the Silver temple. There I got to look around at the amazing view of the temple. Once I left and headed down the street, I had free tea and tried a lot of food all the way to the bus. I also went down philosopher's path which is a path leading up to the temple and it is amazing under the blooming Sakura (cherry blossom) trees.
I transited on the ship between Kobe and Yokohama so I really didn't do much else but homework, rest and joke with the crew members. Anyways, moving on to Yokohama!
Yokohama Day 1:
I spent the morning with Emily and we headed out into Yokohama since we were both still really tired from doing a lot of school work the night before and really needed to take it easy because we were excited about doing Mt. Fuji on the last day in Japan. We went to the park and took pictures under the sakura trees, then headed to the doll museum and around the baseball stadium since there was an event going on.
Sakura Trees and Two Parks of Flowers
Doll Museum
Baseball Stadium stuff and lunch
Day 5: Spent in Fuji and Hakone
Well it rained today but I loved it because it was snowing in Mt. Fuji!! J I loved the snow even though we couldn't see the mountain fully from below or vice versa. I wish that we could have stayed longer in Mt. Fuji or Fuji-san. It was so amazing! I prayed at a Shinto shrine at the 5th station of Fuji-san that was known for the goddess of marriage. I found it rather fascinating and learned how to pray at the shrine so I did for the experience. We then went to Hakone which is known for its hot springs and big sulfur deposit area. We took a cable care through the area and we could see the sulfur spots but just barely through the clouds since it still continued to rain. From there we took a boat to another part of Hakone which was rather fun because you know SASers always have a funny way of entertaining themselves and since the ship was wet, we slid around on the decks.
