A day in Ise

Today I heard my first cicada in Japan (I think)!

That means it's getting reallllll hot in the land of the burning sun.

This is my last weekend with my host family (tear) so I spent the day with them touring around Ise Jingu, saw the Pacific Ocean and took pictures of some tanuki!

What in the world is a tanuki?! Funny you ask, as facebook just asked me if I wanted to tag one as someone I know..

..it's tempting..

So Ise Jingu is an old shrine that Japanese people seem to like and foreigners don't seem to know about! Surprise! I was the only foreigner. We passed through a row of shops selling traditional Japanese goods, but mostly food. Mostly ice cream.
There's also a special treat in this area called akafuku. "Aka" means red and "fuku" means luck. Red as in red bean paste. "Fuku" refers to another treat called "daifuku" in which red bean paste is wrapped in mochi. This is sort of the opposite, because red bean paste is on the outside. Recently I watched a drama in which the characters ate "ohagi" which also has red bean paste on the outside, but it is not as smooth and only eaten on vernal and autumnal equinoxes. I actually learned this in my Japanese class! We talked about how Japanese people are picky about their bean pastes being lumpy or smooth. Sounds a lot like some peanut butter fanatics in America...

Well, perhaps I am a little too excited about this, but I really like daifuku, and when Japanese people travel, food is definitely an objective in terms of local specialties. Food tourism is really big in Japan, and it's pretty apparent on television. Recently I've watched shows in which Japanese people go to different countries and eat as much as they can in 24 hours... shows where newlyweds in foreign countries create breakfasts for their husbands... very cultural and educational, just like shows that make up stories to help people remember how to write their own language (these characters get complex after all), but food definitely has a following.

So here is akafuku!
Not.. the most attractive food. not like daifuku, but still very much the flavor. And you can't even see it when it's buried underneath a mound of matcha green tea flavored shaved ice!

Okay, so back to the adventurous part of the story. This shrine is apparently rebuilt every 20 years or so, and people aren't really allowed inside of it. But there are a lot of nice big
TREESaround it that are wrapped in bamboo to protect them from people who always touch them. Why would you touch a tree? To access its source of power, obviously! (nevermind me...)

No one seemed to know why these chickens were here or how they got there. I guess.. if you feed them they will come..?

Afterwards, we drove a little further to the beach! There was an amusement park nearby, and I almost thought we were going to enter, but we just walked to a nearby shrine.

In Japan, it was once believed that small rocks grow into bigger rocks... it's in the national anthem if you don't believe me..

Afterwards we drove back home for the most part but stopped at Shigaraki to check out some tanuki statues, which Shigaraki is famous for producing! Tanuki are raccoon dogs that are really only seen in Japan, and they make up a large part of Japanese folklore. They are rather cunning and cheat merchants, but they're also kind of absent-minded. And alcoholic, as the statues often depict them carrying a bottle of sake.
Other than that, they are lucky, because their name literally means "to surpass others." There are also play on words with owls (fukurou; fuku=luck remember?) and frogs (kaeru=to come home).
I think that the owl version is a little cuter...


Here's a special treat for your knowledge, courtesy of Wikipedia...

The tanuki has eight special traits that bring good fortune, possibly created to coincide to the "Hachi" symbol (meaning eight) often found on the sake bottles the statues hold.

The eight traits are: a hat to be ready to protect against trouble or bad weather; big eyes to perceive the environment and help make good decisions; a sake bottle that represents virtue; a big tail that provides steadiness and strength until success is achieved; over-sized testicles that symbolize financial luck; a promissory note that represents trust or confidence; a big belly that symbolises bold and calm decisiveness; and a friendly smile.

They're so.....friendly

Afterwards we drove home through the mountains. The beach... the mountains... what a perfect day!