Shilba Weeku

This year a couple public holidays fell one right after the other, so it was dubbed "Silver Week" in Japan. A 5 day holiday! So me, Tom, Chris and Dave took to the street of Japan and went on a sightseeing adventure. For 2 days we visited Nara, the original capital city of Japan eons ago. The city itself was pretty drab but there was a beautiful park in the middle of the city. Nara Park was home to over 1200 deer, one of which decided that Chris' pamphlet would be an excellent lunch. By far the best thing about Nara was Todaiji, which is the world's largest wooden structure, but it also has the world's largest Buddha inside. It was really awesome and really really BIG! We went to a couple other temples in Nara, we also saw Japan's second tallest Pagoda (only 2nd by a few inches). Overall, Nara was good, but a one time visit is enough. We couldn't find a hotel or hostel in Nara so we decided to stay overnight in Osaka, which was only about 1 hour by train away. We stayed in a CAPSULE HOTEL! This was my first experience in one! I figured we were going to be shoved into a coffin sized room, but it was actually pretty roomy. It was definitely long enough for me to stretch out in and high enough for me to sit up. It was fully equipped with a TV, radio and alarm. Of course, not to forget a couple mini shelves and a light. When you stay at a capsule hotel you keep all your stuff in a locker and change in the locker room. They have Japanese style showers and bath (communal) along with a sauna. The girl's shower room was pretty gross, there was just hair everywhere (no doubt most of it could have been mine), but that's always something that creeps me out about public showers. It was a really awesome experience and I'll definitely go back. It was really convenient to stay in Osaka, which gave us the flexibility of going out at night and eating some good international food!

After two nights in Osaka (2 days in Nara), we went to Koyasan. Koyasan is the Machu Picchu of Japan. Koyasan was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004. It's a small town in the middle of the Koya mountain range, it's absolutely breathtaking! There are about 120 temples in the small town, some of which you can spend the night at. This is exactly what we did. The monks are incredibly kind and to my surprise some of which spoke perfect english. We visited the Okonuin Cemetary, which is one (if not the) most important Buddhist cemeteries. It's in a cedar forest, surrounded by cedar trees in their hundreds. At first we went during the day, and walked all the way to the big temple at the end. We then went back at night to see it creepily lit up by lanterns. It's a serene place, that is both incredibly sad and humbling as well as powerful and full of solemn energy. The temple stay was great, we had dinner and breakfast in our rooms, both meals we had to laugh our way through trying to swallow the food...it was quite....interesting. We tried to bargain with each other, trading one gross thing for another. We woke up at the crack of dawn to watch their morning ceremony, which was also very calming and peaceful. It lasted about 2 hours and I didn't understand a thing, but the soothing chants and smell of incense was strangely comforting.

From Koyasan we tried to make our way to Ise-shi. Ise is the sun goddess of Japan, otherwise known as Ameterasu (Yay, Religious Studies Degree!!!). The shrine is a common pilgrimage site for all japanese people. The shrine itself is in a forest, behind a wooden fence. So yes, you can't actually see the shrine. Inside one of the 3 jewels of japan lay dormant, the emperor's mirror. Only the emperor is allowed to go inside the shrine, as he is considered a direct descendant of the goddess Ameterasu. I was extremely pleased by the whole experience, but Chris and Tom weren't so much...They both had expected to be able to see the shrine and go inside...Considering that it took us a good 4 hours from Koyasan to get there, for them it was pretty dissapointing, but I loved it!!

We decided to head back to Onomichi that night (tuesday) so that we could get a good night's sleep in our own beds and have a full day of holiday on Wednesday before returning to work. Overall, it was a great, educational, vacation. Next stop: London and Dublin! In only 11 days!!!