Iinoyagu Shrine and Ryotanji Pt. 1

Well, in great contrast to yesterday, today was quite lovely!  We did a lot and I took over 200 pictures, so there are a lot in this entry!


I was running a bit late today when I left for Hamamatsu.  I figured that I would just swing by the post office, get what was being held for me, and go to the station.  Well, I got to the post office, and was told to go to the other one.  Good thing I happened to know where the main post office was because I found it one one of my excursions.  I parked and went an and the lady saw the slip in my hand and told me I was in the wrong line, and that I should go out toe door to my left.  Uh... okay.  I was totally confused, so I went out... there was a window there, but no one at it.  I went outside and tried to call my IC to ask her about it.  It was loud and I couldn't really hear her, but it sounded like maybe I woke her up, so I told her I'd figure it out.  I went back into the main part of the post office and looked super confused and they shooed me back the other way asking if I'd pushed the button.  No one said anything about a button!  >.<#  So I found the small white button labeled in Japanese and Portuguese and pressed it and waited for the attendant.  She took my slip and got my thingy.  Then she wanted my alien registration card.  Sorry, lady.  Don't have it yet.  So I offered my passport/visa, and she took that.  Yay.  As suspected, it was my bank book.


I got into my car and tried to make my way to the station.  I missed my turn and tried to do the sensible thing and go up to the next light and turn left and try to get there that way.  Of course, I wasn't thinking.  Japanese streets are insane.  I ended up way on the other side of town somehow.  So I got back to the station, and couldn't figure out where to park!  I found my way out back and found a parking lot (where it's 500yen to park your car!).  It would have been a little less stressful if I hadn't had someone on my tail the whole time.  D;


The trip to Hamamatsu isn't bad at all.  It's 320yen and only about 20 minutes.  I was surprised how many people were on it at 11am on a Monday.  I met up with Nicola, Joel, and Steven in the lobby area of ACT City, and we waited on Josh before progressing to the top to the observation deck.

View from the elevator.  The observation deck is on the 43rd (?) floor, so it was rather a way up!  The courtyards at ACT City are gorgeous!  To the left, you can see how close we are to the station.

Hamamatsu City.  That dark thing on the horizon is the Pacific Ocean!

Hallway in the observation deck.  You can get married up here!  They have a small chapel at the end of the hall.  O_o

Hamamatsu from the other side of the tower

I super-cropped one of the pictures from the observation deck and was pleased how clearly you can see the castle and the cherry blossoms!

Steven, Josh, Joel, and Nicola on the Observation deck.

(As a side-note, while I'm writing this, I'm having some 'Peanut Cream' on bread.  I bought this under the impression that it was peanut butter.  This is not the case.  It's more like the stuff you get that's intended for fruit dip.  About that consistency and VERY sweet.  I may require a care package of Peter Pan.  Just sayin'.)


We enjoyed the view and chatted for a while, then decided to get on with our day's plans.  We inquired at the tourism place about how to get to Ryotanji and decided to get lunch first.  The guy was full of great advice, btw.  He said we should stop at the castle on the way home and enjoy the cherry blossoms.  And have some sake.  Nice guy.  XD  He asked where we were all from.  I think I've talked to him every time I've been in there.  Well, no.  Once, I talked to the chick.  She was useless.

My lunch.  Zaru soba and tempura.  (Together - ten-zaru soba).  I made the mistake of seeing the special which was this plus rice and assuming that to get this - sans rice - would cost less.  Not the case.  It was another 70yen more than the one with the rice.  >.<#  I traded Steven and Joel for their eggplant in exchange for my shrimp.

After lunch, we scooted over to catch the bus for our one hour ride to the temple.  We had a good time on the bus and were probably rather generally annoying with our happiness.  At one point, I was laughing to hard I snorted.  What a lady.  We got off the bus where the tourism guy said to and were rather generally lost, but Steven's GPS helped get us on the right track (on the third try or so).

View from Jinguji Bridge.  Unfortunately, you can't see the very pretty cherry blossoms off to the left.  Imagine them.  ^_^

We entered the area at Iinoyagu Shrine and saw some tori gates (as expected at a shrine) and sakura.

We stopped to purify ourselves by cleansing ourselves in this rather cold water.

Rinse one hand, then the other, then your mouth.  I never do the mouth part, honestly. <_<

There's a little chart with shows the process.

We made our way into the shrine.  We saw a priest dressed in his SUPER COOL traditional clothes, but he was rushing about and I didn't want to be rude and try to take a picture.  :I  Being polite can be pooey.  We drew our fortunes.  I got small luck, Joel and Steven got big luck, Nicola, got average luck.  I forget what Josh got... did he draw a fortune?  O_o  


To help contribute to the upkeep of the shrine, we made donations in the box.  None of us follow Shinto (that may be obvious), but is can be interesting to observe their practices.  

Nicola ringing the bells - which sound more like rattles - after making a donation.  Ringing the bells gets the gods' attention and they like the sound.

Then we wandered around the grounds a bit.  The architecture is gorgeous, even if you're not really into things like that.  And the flowers were so pretty!

There's a small path which leads from Iinoyagu to Ryotanji.  Itnoyagu is a Shinto shrine, but Ryotanji is a Buddhist temple.  It's very common to find them practically on top of each other.  We walked around a graveyard there.

Since the temple is so old, there are some very old graves here, but also newer ones.

Offerings such as flowers, incense, and sake (you can see the One Cup there behind some leaves) are left for loved ones.

Grave upkeep is in the hands of the families.  This is a place providing buckets, water, and other cleaning tools used for grave cleaning - usually on the anniversary of death or special occasion, but no particular time is needed to make sure a grave looks nice.

Many of the graves here were cool because they had family crests on them.

I'm going to stop here for the night because I'm tired and there's still much left to tell about today - our private tour around Ryotanji, looking at the cherry blossoms at Hamamatsu Castle, and a visit to the Interac Hamamatsu office.  I don't really have any plans for tomorrow, so I'll work on it and have a lovely, picture-ful entry for you!

Ryotanji teaser - this was our first glimpse from the graveyard.

Hamamatsu-jo cherry blossoms teaser - an office flower-viewing party.