I arrived in Tenri City around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. My good friend Lewis and the head minister picked me up and brought me back to the church where I stayed for three nights. I dropped some stuff off and then Lewis and I took off on bicycles towards the main shrine for my grand tour of Tenri.
 |
| From July 17 - 20 |
The shrine was very beautiful... And freaking huge. Lewis' dad gave me a book on Tenrikyo, and it has some pictures of the inside of the shrine. I'm pretty happy about that considering cameras were not allowed inside at all. Overall, it was a very interesting experience, and I'm pretty happy that I got to see and be a part of it. I have no intentions of converting per se, however, I realized that just because I do not want to join a religion doesn't mean that I can't learn about it and participate in some of the rituals. Being worldly means being open to new things... No matter how strange they may be at first. I really would like to learn more about Tenrikyo, and I feel bad that I was unable to participate in some of the activities planned.
But alas, I had already made plans to hang out with Lyndsay in Kyoto and Nara for the day on Saturday.
 |
| From July 17 - 20 |
We made it to the top of the shrine... My second time making that particular hike, but since Inari Shrine is my new favorite place I didn't mind it so much, no matter how much I was sweating... You can see it in my hair. I wasn't even wearing a hat like Lyndsay was. That was pretty crazy, let me tell you. And there wasn't even the hot photographer guy there this time! I was sad. And I was scared crapless of the giant wasps around there. Spiders? No problem. Bees? NO. I know, I'm a bit strange... But we already knew this.
After the Inari Shrine we headed into Nara to check out the deer and Todaiji Temple, which houses the largest wooden Buddha statue in Japan (possibly the world, but I'm unsure of that...). I had been there once before, but there was some things I did not get to do, like crawl through the hole in the pillar, which is the size of one of the nostrils on the Buddha statue. My fat ass made it through, barely! There is proof in my photo album... Lyndsay stood by and took a video.
We didn't get much time because I had to hurry back to Tenri for dinner... Which I was like 45 minutes late, but Oku-san (means, literally, WIFE, but that's what we called her... head lady or something) waited for me and ate with me. She was very sweet... We talked a bit, and I found out that she lived in the Congo in Africa for 5 years when she was little and that she used to speak french. People have such cool stories. Soon after, I rode to the main shrine and attended the evening service with Lewis. I guess I forgot to mention that I had to get up at 6 every morning to attend the 6:30 service at the church I was staying at... The morning service at the main shrine started at 5:15. No. Just, no. First off, its at least a 15 minute bike ride to the shrine... Which means I would have to get up at 4:15 to wake myself up enough to get my lazy ass on the bike and head down there. Who knows if I would have fallen asleep while riding that thing... Anyways.
I got back a bit late because I ended up staying for this speech thing about Tenrikyo. It was pretty interesting, but it was a bit distracting since I had to listen to an interpreter since the speech was done in Japanese. I got back to the church at 10:15, hurried and took a bath... Then gossiped a bit with the girls in my room. The older girl is dating Lewis's twin brother so I got to hear some funny things about the family.
... And we forgot to turn on the A/C that night, and close the window.
Well, all the bugs came in and I was bit to death. I think I only slept about 3 hours that night. Lewis's dad was merciful and let me sleep some more after the service and breakfast before we headed out to Osaka for some shopping.
I was so happy when we ate Takoyaki! I don't have any pictures of that, because I was so utterly exhausted even still... I did get some other fun pictures, but Picasa is being annoying right now and taking forever to upload the rest of my pictures, hence the lack of pictures in this post. Sorry everyone! I will give you thel link so you can check it out yourself. I think the rest of this will be text only.
Anyhow, Sunday night was my last night... I hung out with Lewis briefly before the service and went to that with him. I tried to see if I could watch the intrument practice, but they said "NO!" because its pretty exclusively for people in the group that he is in... Plus there are no women allowed for that particular event. So I shrugged it off and biked back to the church... In the rain. Woo! I looked utterly awesome when I got back... But I was kind of happy because the rain made my skirt stop riding up my legs while biking. Sorry Japanese men, no American peep show for you!
So this morning I got up early, again, but left the church by around 8 this morning... Overall it was a really great experience but I think I was happy to leave because I felt so very much out of my comfort zone. I felt like I disappointed Lewis's dad a lot since I didn't really participate in the things he had planned... But I did attend every morning and evening service, and attempted to do the hand movements and dances and what not.
So I arrived in Okayama around 11 this morning and was greeted by Ayumi and her 'sister' at the train station... Her sister was actually her mother, but damn she looked young enough to fit the part. She was very sweet and excited to meet me. I was excited as well but so very tired. They took me to this restaurant that Ayumi used to work at... oh my god it was so good. Its a mix of French and Japanese food... Holy crap, I can't even describe how good it was. Plus since Ayumi knew the owner and the chef, we recieved special treatment and some special added bonuses to our meal... That was the best ice cream I have ever had. And peach soup...?! Well, it was more like a smoothie that you ate out of a bowl and with a spoon, but it was really good.
After the restaurant we went to this really old part of town with Ayumi's neighbor... Went to an art museum. That was really cool. I wish I could show you the pictures right now but AUGH STUPID PICASA.
There were a lot of really cool shops in that old part of town... I really enjoyed it. Ayumi's mom kept wanting me to use the umbrella because of my cold (which is almost gone, save for some flegm), despite the fact that it is hotter than a damn sauna, even with the rain. haha But she insisted so I took it... I finally bought my own umbrella. Well, it was only 200 yen so why the hell not?
We returned back to Ayumi's house and her mother made this AMAZING dinner and we drank some of the Umeshu I was unable to send back to the US... Mmmm, that was good. There was this show on TV about parents sending their 3-4 year old children on errands for them. It was really adorable.
OH and before I forget, I saw a REAL retarded person in Tenri yesterday... He was walking down the street and said, "KONNICHIWA" and kept walking. He was walking all funky, like he had disfigured knees and legs, and he was horribly buck-toothed... And he was wearing very colorful clothes. I wanted to laugh, but I managed to contain myself. I know, I'm going to Hell. But in Tenri, I don't think they believe in Hell... So whatever. =)
This post is getting too long and I'm tired, so to bed I shall go. Okayama is really awesome... Or rather, Ayumi and her family are really awesome.
'Til next time!
Oh, and here is the link to the album.
No comments:
Post a Comment