Fri, 03 Oct 2014 20:08:45 +0000 Jayne http://www.bucketlisttraveller.com/?p=127
Saturday 27th September. Today we arrived back at Yokahama at 5.30am. At the port were a bride and groom getting their photographs taken so we watched them over breakfast while the ship was docking. A lot of passengers left the ship today, mostly Brits and a lot of new passengers joined the cruise – over 700 Japanese passengers.
Australians are now the second largest group onboard – over 400 of us. We took a tour for the morning and first stop was The Great Buddha at Kumeraka, It was cast in bronze in 1252 and covered by a temple. The head of the Buddha was originally covered in gold has worn off over time. In 1498 the temple covering the statue was swept away in a tidal wave. In 1923 the foundation stones were damaged after an earthquake. The statue is out in the open and as you look at it you can see the clouds slowly moving in the background and birds flying around which creates a very peaceful, calm atmosphere, unlike the busy temples we’ve been to.
Then we visited a Shinto shrine – built by one of the Shoguns. It was huge! Much bigger than the first one we saw. We were very fortunate that there were many ceremonies happening at the time we visited. There were children of about 4 years at the shrine to have another dedication ceremony. Their kimonos were just stunning! Richly embroidered in beautiful patterns and colours. They arrived with their families ready for their blessing and obviously excited about the
occasion. This little girl was thrilled to have her photo taken and she was striking different poses and thoroughly enjoying the attention.
We saw another family bringing their baby for his ceremony.
We saw some bride and grooms waiting to be blessed – accompanied by their friends and families.
And we watched a bride and groom in traditional clothing for the Shinto ceremony and their guests making their way along the raised pathway into the shrine that runs through the main shopping area. The pathway starts after the first Shinto gate, which is in the shopping area and goes to the second gate which is the entrance to the shrine. The pathway runs the length of the main shopping street, in between the roadway. So the bride and groom and their family and friends all made the walk from the first gate, through the centre of town, to the entrance of the shrine. A lot of the family and friends smiled and waved to us as they walked along.
Once you walk through the second gate at the entrance there are two huge lily ponds on either side. Of course there are steep steps (over 60) up to the main shrine area where the ceremonies are conducted. Once there you can toss a coin in as an offering, then you clap twice to get the ‘gods’ attention, bow while you make your ‘request’ and then clap again. People do this while ceremonies are being conducted inside so you regularly hear people clapping their hands. The Shinto priests wear a white robe and carry what looks like a white mop which they wave around the person they are blessing. We even saw a car pull up at one of the side entrances and the priest came out and I assume ‘blessed’ the car and the people in it by waving the ‘mop’ around. Then we went to the fortune telling part of the temple. It cost $3. You shake up the fortune telling sticks in a box, pull one out which has a number on it and then they get that number fortune and give it to you.
If you don’t like the fortune you get you tie it on a tree and leave it behind. You can also buy a small piece of wood, write your request on it and tie it to a board.
After time at the Shinto shrine we spent some time shopping. It’s quite easy to shop here, people are very friendly and helpful and even if they don’t speak English we manage to communicate. The money is fairly straightforward to work out and a lot of the shops take credit and debit cards. Prices are cheap. A bottle of water is $1.20. Ice cream is everywhere! Food is everywhere and a lot of it looks great even though I can’t eat it. You can get often get an ice cream and a beer at the same place or you can get a beer in a vending machine along with water, hot coffee soft drinks and smokes. Then then we drove back to Yokahama port. It was a really great day and we were so fortunate to see so many people at the Shrine for ceremonies when we visited. In the evening we went up on the top deck for the sailaway. The harbour at Yokahama is just beautiful in the evenings – really stunning when it’s all lit up. I think it rivals Sydney Harbour at night. We’ll be back here again in nine days and will do some touring on our own then. 127 2014-10-03 20:08:45 2014-10-03 20:08:45 open open yokahama publish 0 0 post
At sea again. http://www.bucketlisttraveller.com/at-sea-again/ Sat, 04 Oct 2014 22:58:07 +0000 Jayne http://www.bucketlisttraveller.com/?p=143 Sunday. 28th September Another relaxing day at sea!
143 2014-10-04 22:58:07 2014-10-04 22:58:07 open open at-sea-again publish 0 0 post 0 Cruising Diamond Princess Japan _edit_last 1 Kushiro – Hokkaido. http://www.bucketlisttraveller.com/kushiro-hokkaido/ Sun, 05 Oct 2014 02:50:36 +0000 Jayne http://www.bucketlisttraveller.com/?p=151 Monday 29th September Well today the temperature has dropped quite a bit as we head up to the colder parts of Japan . This area gets heavy snow for most of the winter – about 5 metres high, and some parts of the ocean freeze over. We dropped from high 20’s the last few days down to 15- 18 degrees today. This island of Japan is relatively modern. There are huge areas of marshland and the indigenous people of the area were the main population up until the last 200 years or so. We spent most of today outside today and did a lot of walking which was nice. We started the day visiting the Japanese Crane Reserve which was set up to save the Red Crowned Crane from extinction. Numbers have gone from 10 in 1924 to over 1200 now. The birds are quite tall and very graceful.
After this we went to the Zoo which was a mixed experience. We walked a lot and saw a lot of birds and some lovely ‘bushland’ areas which was good. But when you’re used to zoos that look like Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo where the big animals are outdoors and free to move about it’s a bit difficult to see them in smaller cages and areas. The brown bear was huge and Tony got a picture of it looking straight at him through the glass.
Then we got the bus into town and left the tour so we could go for a bit of a walk around on our own for a while which was good and then made our way back to the ship for more coffee, hot chocolate and sitting about watching the
views.