Japan (日本) Week 11

It was a really long and busy work week this week. I Left the apartment on Tuesday and didn't return till late Friday night. Did I mention that these guys work from about 8:30 am to about 9 or 10 pm?



First Kazuyo and I took the Shinkansen south to Osaka where we met Minami-san. A little hazy, but was able to get another picture of Fujiyama.










In Osaka, Minami-san took me to a famous open market (so you could see the size of the fish, I had Kazuyo stand in). There was also lots of Billiken (you rub their feet for good luck).

I saw a Sumo picture I couldn't resist. This was all by Tsutenkaku Tower (like the Tokyo Tower), evidently it has been featured in movies as a robot monster.

We saw many hospitals all week as we drove west to Hiroshima then on to Yamaguchi. I was able to get some great pictures of Mt. Daisen and we were also able to see another Ji (Temple) and Jinja (Shrine) along the way.

We then doubled back through a mountain pass to Okayama. Going up and over the mountain pass there was a snow storm - while the snow was slushy and mostly wet, it caused chaos over here as most were chaining up?

In the Okayama prefecture we went to the Kurashiki, which had beautiful canals and very old traditional Japanese homes as well as the only Roman Architecture in Japan I have ever seen.

We spent the last couple of days in the Shikoku area which is the only part of Japan I had not been able to see. Now I can say I have officially been all over this country - Literally!

In the Kagawa area we went to the Kotohira-gū-Jinja that seems most of the way (literally half way) up Mt. Zozū. To see it all, you have to climb about 1,400 steps (now I see why some people get carried). This is one of the oldest (First Century) and most popular shrines. But it was well worth the climb, as once again to my amazement there are horses there (That are sacred of course) that BOW!! Check out the "bowing horse in Japan" video below - the video isn't great, but believe me it would bow back when we bowed. I still can't believe a horse that bows in Japan!

All in all it was a busy work week filled with a lot of really interesting things to see.