The case of feeling small beside the ocean

This time on ‘Sarah goes to Japan’ I will take a moment to reflect on the wonderful life I have had the chance to lead up until now since I arrived at the end of March. I’ve danced on beaches and in festivals, bathed in the ocean and in hot springs, I’ve tasted matcha mixed in a tea houses while listening to the koto, wind chimes and distant temple bells. I’ve prayed in shrines once reserved for only the noblest and walked the same paths of pilgrims two thousand years ago. I’ve closed my eyes and felt bliss and peace wash over me as the sun dappled through the trees on my up-turned face and the summer breeze tugged at my hair. I know what sublime is. I’ve been to the top of Japan. I’ve seen water of blues and greens I thought were reserved for water colours. I’ve met people who crossed language barriers to know more about me and me more about them. I’ve had the chance of being a teacher and a student. I’ve laughed and cried and had the time of my life. I am so lucky

And now I take a moment to reflect that two lives have passed me by this summer. In the past few weeks both my Grandpa Bruce and my Granddad Corps passed away. In a way I am relieved. Granddad was in a lot of pain and this was his release and Grandpa has been without Grandma for so long that I like to believe they will be together now. So, my thoughts and love are with them and with my families. To my Grandpa who used to take me on long walks down to the cove by their beautiful house on the Okanagan Lake and Granddad who always made me laugh with his infamous one liners. It’s hard being so removed from my family but I know that we are close enough even still.

So this past weekend was a lovely trip to the Ise Peninsula to the place of the Grand Shrine, the most sacred in Japan, the wedded rocks, pearls and some gorgeous beaches! 

Sheena, and her amazing Japanese abilities, was able to book us in on this really cheap trip that included the six hour bus from Tokyo and back and the hotel and everything. So we woke up early Friday morning and shipped ourselves South through the mountains and green tea fields to a little peninsula. Our first stop after the super long bus ride was the outer Ise shrine. Pilgrims traditionally visit the outer shrine first to pay their respects to Toyouke Omikami, the deity of protection and happiness, who was summoned to this place 1,500 years ago to provide for Amaterasu Omikami, the goddess of the sun, peace and harmony, who is enshrined in the inner shrine which we visited the next day. Fun fact about the inner and outer grand shrine: every twent years, in regards to the shikinen sengu cycle, the shrines are entirely rebuilt. While the shrines don’t have the elaborate beauty of lacquered wood and painted gold and silver it was the simplistic wood structures and thatched roofs green with moss that made it breath-taking. That combined with a beautiful blue sky and sunny day and cool summer breeze made the experience very humbling.

But for now it was just a visit to the outer shrine and then it was off to see the wedded rocks, another famous Japanese symbol. A sacred Shinto rope called shimenawa, made of twisted rice straw, connects two rocks out to see that represent the Japanese parent gods of creation Izanami and Izanagi. It was quite a worthwhile site and any place by the ocean is gorgeous in my opinion!

That was it for day one and we retired to our hotel for the night for a buffet dinner and an onsen for me and Rhee where we spent more time in the cool tub than the actual hot spring that threatened to boil us red! The high lights was when a few young girls came up and asked: “Gaijin desu ka?” Are you foreigners? We kinda laughed and said we were as if it wasn’t completely obvious! 

The next day was more fantastic blue sky and time to go to the inner shrine! It was really neat and even amongst all the people I found a little pocket of peace standing before the Grand shrine. The shrine is in the jingu forest and lays next to the Isuzugawa (river) for about 2,000 years and was the supreme shrine to the Imperial family. It’s too sacred to even take photos and a white sheet blocks easy view of the main buildings where it is said Amaterasu’s sacred mirror is kept, but just as I finished praying a wind blew the sheet perfectly up to see the shrine behind, it was perfect. I stopped and turned my face up and just enjoyed and a Japanese lady asked if I was enjoying myself, I think she knew how I felt…

After we strolled through a little recreated old town and looked at omiyage (Japanese souvenirs) and local delicacies and art. I stopped to give money to a monk and he said a prayer for me and we had green tea and mochi (this stickiest rice sweet you can ever imagine) under a blue sky and radiant sun.

Soon enough it was time to slowly make our way home. We stopped at a pearl factory and saw people cleaning up and setting the jewelry and then we caught a ferry across the bay so we were directly south of Tokyo to head back up north. Our final sight was a gorgeous beach! I ran up and down it and jumped around in the surf with Rhee and zoomed my camera in on some neat rocks with holes carved from the waves and got my skirt soaked and had a blast!

Then it was home for a few days of rest and to watch Transformers 3, which was awesome and epic!!! And tonight there is a firework festival in yukata!