Bear with me now people, this post is going to be a marathon!
Bright and early on Sunday morning all 47 PII students plus accompanying teachers and staff piled into two charter buses and set off for Noto--the northern region of Ishikawa. Before arriving at our ultimate destination--a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) complete with hot springs--we stopped at various cultural locations.
Stop 1: Myojoji
Myojoji is a Buddhist temple that was founded in the 1200s by a man named Nichizo. None of the current buildings are quite that old, but they were all constructed around the 1600s, including the temple's most famous building: a five-story, 35m tall pagoda.
Random building in the temple complex I found attractive.
Me in a snazzy new T-shirt in front of the pagoda.
I also confess I spent a fair amount of time chasing frogs around and trying to get good photos of them, instead of looking at the buildings...what can I say, I like amphibians.
Stop 2: Keta Taisha Shrine
The next stop was a shrine that's well known for being the shrine where people come to pray for love, marriage, babies and all that jazz. According to the head priest, the emperor and several diplomats had visited the shrine and he was quite proud of that fact. We were seated inside the main shrine where two shrine maidens performed an exorcism (of what? I have no idea...) and then we were free to wander.
Ema--wooden placards that people write their wishes on and then hang at the shrine. Note the hearts.
Main building at the shrine.
Stop 3: Lunch and the beach!!
After a giant giant lunch, all of us were let loose on the beach for an hour to run about, take pictures, splash in the water and play frisbee:
My friend Kat jumping for sheer excitement: check out her blog AT THIS LINK.
There's me with my windblown hair attempting to look cool.
Fortunately the weather was obliging to our shenanigans.
Fourth Stop: Ganmon
Ganmon is a sea cave that's 60m deep. The whole area is rocky and appears to be volcanic, though I have absolutely no idea if it is or not.
The ferryman, obviously not knowing that we all speak some Japanese, called out to us as we passed, "how about you gaijin (foreigner) san?" Except "gaijin" isn't always the most polite term so...who knows. I would have been interested, but there wasn't enough time.
Finally at 5:30 or so we arrived at the onsen (hot spring) resort: Kagaya. We were greeted by a line of women wearing kimonos that bowed and greeted us with "irasshaimase!" or "welcome". This resort is constantly ranked 1 or 2 in the entirety of Japan for its hospitality, but I confess that this level of treatment makes me feel more awkward and out of place than welcomed. Maybe it's a foreigner thing. We were given a tour of the resort which is completely FABULOUS. The first floor is all shops, there's several bars, karaoke rooms, a game room, several show rooms, and of course the hot springs...then we were taken to our rooms, which are Japanese-style rooms i.e. tatami mat floors, you sleep on futons etcetc. There was a woman waiting for us there who served us tea and then helped the five of us in my room into yukata:
Of course we all wanted to go straight into the baths, so we promptly removed the yukata that we of course had no idea how to put back on and went bathing. It's a wonderful bonding experience, and the conversations that happen in the baths, stay in the baths.
We got some help getting back into the yukata later, and went to the welcome dinner the resort had prepared for us. We were all handed flashing, sparkly, animal ears to wear and after a slew of photographs we were seating in a large room where a ten course meal awaited us.
Even the teachers got in on it...all authority...gone...
That was just the beginning of a meal that seemed endless. I had to start refusing food towards the end, I got that full...the best part was the made-to-order tempura you could get...piping hot, with a little bit of salt and I'm in heaven.
While we were eating there were several performances: one of taiko, performed by men in scary demon masks, one where two men made mochi (pounded rice) and a traditional dance performance.
And after this long long day I was completely happy to just crawl into my futon (which they nicely laid out for us without even asking) and sleep...until 630 the next morning when we had to be up for breakfast...
Noto Trip Day 2 installment coming soon!
Bright and early on Sunday morning all 47 PII students plus accompanying teachers and staff piled into two charter buses and set off for Noto--the northern region of Ishikawa. Before arriving at our ultimate destination--a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) complete with hot springs--we stopped at various cultural locations.
Stop 1: Myojoji
Myojoji is a Buddhist temple that was founded in the 1200s by a man named Nichizo. None of the current buildings are quite that old, but they were all constructed around the 1600s, including the temple's most famous building: a five-story, 35m tall pagoda.
Random building in the temple complex I found attractive.
Me in a snazzy new T-shirt in front of the pagoda.
I also confess I spent a fair amount of time chasing frogs around and trying to get good photos of them, instead of looking at the buildings...what can I say, I like amphibians.
Stop 2: Keta Taisha Shrine
The next stop was a shrine that's well known for being the shrine where people come to pray for love, marriage, babies and all that jazz. According to the head priest, the emperor and several diplomats had visited the shrine and he was quite proud of that fact. We were seated inside the main shrine where two shrine maidens performed an exorcism (of what? I have no idea...) and then we were free to wander.
Ema--wooden placards that people write their wishes on and then hang at the shrine. Note the hearts.
Main building at the shrine.
Stop 3: Lunch and the beach!!
After a giant giant lunch, all of us were let loose on the beach for an hour to run about, take pictures, splash in the water and play frisbee:
My friend Kat jumping for sheer excitement: check out her blog AT THIS LINK.
There's me with my windblown hair attempting to look cool.
Fortunately the weather was obliging to our shenanigans.
Fourth Stop: Ganmon
Ganmon is a sea cave that's 60m deep. The whole area is rocky and appears to be volcanic, though I have absolutely no idea if it is or not.
The ferryman, obviously not knowing that we all speak some Japanese, called out to us as we passed, "how about you gaijin (foreigner) san?" Except "gaijin" isn't always the most polite term so...who knows. I would have been interested, but there wasn't enough time.
Finally at 5:30 or so we arrived at the onsen (hot spring) resort: Kagaya. We were greeted by a line of women wearing kimonos that bowed and greeted us with "irasshaimase!" or "welcome". This resort is constantly ranked 1 or 2 in the entirety of Japan for its hospitality, but I confess that this level of treatment makes me feel more awkward and out of place than welcomed. Maybe it's a foreigner thing. We were given a tour of the resort which is completely FABULOUS. The first floor is all shops, there's several bars, karaoke rooms, a game room, several show rooms, and of course the hot springs...then we were taken to our rooms, which are Japanese-style rooms i.e. tatami mat floors, you sleep on futons etcetc. There was a woman waiting for us there who served us tea and then helped the five of us in my room into yukata:
Of course we all wanted to go straight into the baths, so we promptly removed the yukata that we of course had no idea how to put back on and went bathing. It's a wonderful bonding experience, and the conversations that happen in the baths, stay in the baths.
We got some help getting back into the yukata later, and went to the welcome dinner the resort had prepared for us. We were all handed flashing, sparkly, animal ears to wear and after a slew of photographs we were seating in a large room where a ten course meal awaited us.
Even the teachers got in on it...all authority...gone...
That was just the beginning of a meal that seemed endless. I had to start refusing food towards the end, I got that full...the best part was the made-to-order tempura you could get...piping hot, with a little bit of salt and I'm in heaven.
While we were eating there were several performances: one of taiko, performed by men in scary demon masks, one where two men made mochi (pounded rice) and a traditional dance performance.
And after this long long day I was completely happy to just crawl into my futon (which they nicely laid out for us without even asking) and sleep...until 630 the next morning when we had to be up for breakfast...
Noto Trip Day 2 installment coming soon!
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