Japan Part 4

After leaving the hotel we took a slow train, across Japan, from the southeast coast to the northwest coast. Along the way we saw small towns with rivers and signs of farming activity, like greenhouses, but it was still early spring so everything was brown. When we arrived in Tottori, we headed straight for the main attraction: giant sand dunes on the ocean. The sand dunes were huge, the largest one measuring 90 meters. Next to the main dune was a large, very cold, very blue pond. I tried to climb up the dune, which was exhausting. Once at the top I had fun rolling down the dune. We walked by the beach and picked up trash. We could walk around barefoot even though it was cold because the sand was warm from the sun. 

Once we were really tired and sandy we walked to the bus station and took a bus back to our ryokan. At the reception there was an interesting figurine of man with a an eyeball for a head: “eyeball guy” (who we later learned was from an anime series) who I quite liked. We bathed in the indoor hot springs and relaxed. Then we went to have dinner with Ando, Camille’s old aikido teacher from years ago in Honduras. He lives in Totorri and works at the University there. We ate at a traditional Japanese restaurant. We sat in out own private room and dangled our feet in the foot depression mentioned in a prior blog. He taught us many eating customs, one of which was that when serving sake a Japanese rice wine, you must always serve each other instead of yourself as a symbol of selflessness and friendship. After dinner we went back to the ryokan and slept a nice, deep sleep.

The next day we took another train to the Izumo shrine, one of the biggest and most famous shrines in Japan. After a lunch of cold udon noodles, we walked to the shrine. Ando explained that no body was supposed to walk in the middle of the wide path that led upon to the shrine, since that was the place for the gods to walk. We also learned that when entering any entrance you must take your first step with your outward foot as to not insult the gods with your rump. In front of the entrance was a fountain with two long narrow trough-like containers where people would drink a ladleful of cold water and then wash their hands in it. We walked around the grounds of the huge temple. Ando explained to us that historically the temple was even bigger, but since the trees they used to make their massive columns (6 meter thick columns by the way) died out, they were unable to rebuild it in the same way(which is every 40-50 years, to keep the building traditions alive). Here’s what people think it may have looked like, based on archaeological evidence: