Week 25

After a long hiatus I finally had a bit of an adventure this week.

Tuesday morning I woke up early, washed up, finished packing, and ran off to the station to meet a friend. The "weekend's" destination? Ise and Nagoya. We boarded the 9:30 express for Ise City then sat back and relaxed for the hour and a half trip.

In Ise we first visited the "Outer Shrine" of The Ise Grand Shrine. The outer shrine wasn't much to look at (in-fact the main shrine is so sacred that commoner's are only allowed to view a small portion of the roof over high walls.) Aside from the main shrine there are several secondary shrines built in the same style which give you an idea of how the main one actually looks. The outer shrine wasn't that big and had an "every other Japanese shrine" feel about it. Being a little let down by the first shrine we stopped for lunch at a tiny ramen shop which turned out to be really good and improved our spirits. After lunch we rented bikes from the local tourism office and rode the 2 miles to the "Inner Shrine". The inner shrine is much larger than the outer and includes a famous wooden bridge at it's entry way. Even though the buildings of the two shrines look the same, the inner shrine is much more expansive and has a nicer landscape. After seeing the inner shrine we wandered down a touristy shopping street nearby. We were able to find a shop that served a local micro-brew (a rarity in Japan) and rested our feet while enjoying a beer and looking out over a beautiful river. Realizing we had half an hour to return the bikes before the office closed we peddled hard to get back to the station area. Making it back with time to spare we next headed off to see the Meoto-iwa (famous wedded-rocks.) As many guide books suggest the stones at Meoto-iwa are smaller in person than photos suggest (though they are still sizable.) Satisfied that we'd done what was to be done in Ise we boarded a train for Nagoya.

We caught the 7:00 train from Ise which pulled into Nagoya some time after 8:30. During my last trip to Nagoya I had found a taco shop that I really wanted to try out again so we started walking in that direction. The shop was much farther away that I remember (though I did eventually find it by memory.) We arrived outside the shop at 8:59 to see a sign on the door that said "Hours: 11:00am to 9:00pm." Heartbroken though we were, I also remembered a "American diner" style restaurant around the corner which was both open and quite delicious. After dinner we made the long (and painful, at this point) hike back to the station where I knew there was a nice capsule hotel. After checking in and getting all ready for the pool-sized hot baths one of the staff noticed that my friend had a tattoo of Astro-boy on his arm and kicked us out of the hotel (their policy on NO-TATTOOS evidently being very strict.) We took our refunded money and our sore feet and went down the street to a business hotel which cost the same though had a tiny shower instead of a nice bath area.

In the morning we woke up and had doughnuts for breakfast before killing time waiting for the local electronics store to open so my friend could buy batteries for his camera. Batteried in hand we boarded a train for Inuyama, 20 minutes north of Nagoya. In Inuyama we switch to a bus which took another 20 minutes to take us to Meiji-mura. Meiji-mura is a collection of Meiji-era buildings saved from destruction, moved, and restored in a scenic location next to a beautiful lake. The area of the park is massive and even moving at a good pace and skipping one or two buildings we barely saw everything in 4+ hours of waling around. Highlights include the Francis Xavier cathedral, Natsume Souseki's house, several early Japanese (Christian) churches, and the piece de resistance: Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel Lobby. Really, the whole trip was an excuse to see hotel lobby which was every bit as wonderful as I had hoped it would be. Having duly satisfied the architecture nerd in both me and my friend we headed back to Nagoya before heading home.

Back in Nagoya while switching train lines; we left the station, grabbed a taxi, and headed to the taco shop again. This time we found it open and went in to enjoy some tasty tacos. Satisfied with our meal we hopped back in a taxi, got back to the station, and rode home to Osaka. In the 36 hours our trip took we walked an incredible distance and saw a lot of cool stuff. All it all it was a fun time.

Back in Osaka it was back to work as usual this week. The work week as brightened a bit by having dinner with my girlfriend on Saturday (which was great after two weeks of not seeing each other.)

No big plans for this week, we'll just have to wait and see what happens...