Boog's Blog

A bit cooler and overcast

A bus day visiting shrines. A number of steps, possibly numberless, involved.

First, shingu shrine, pictured. One without a thousand steps to heaven. We got to witness a Shinto service, chanting, some sort of ritual with two women, beautifully dressed in white, holding branches with leaves, going through a kata like set of slow movements.

Nachi shrine. A great bit of heaven. Guardians guarding with great views.

The shrine and temple are adjacent. Until the Meiji Restoration there was little separation between shrine and temple, then some legislation or politics and the formally separated.

Pagoda part of the same complex.

In Album 11/1/15

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Similar weather.

Walk is to a small rural ryokan, just three rooms, no services. Nice people, first really excellent Japanese bath. Felt very good after a hard days walk. Tough surface today; surface, to me, matters more than ascent and descent.

Tried to sit at the dining table while they were setting up. Explained room too warm because Sharon was chilled. He understood and closed off part of the tatami room and opened a window. No way was I going to sit there and just read my email.

Forest walk with a few decent rest stops.

Ryokan pictured as well as the onsen from last evening.

In Album 10/31/15

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Sunny,warm

Early breakfast after a night on futons.

Hossinmon-oji a gateway to the grand Hongu Taisha. The latter one of the five great shrines.
This is a world heritage shrine and the path we are on is marketed with the Camino in Spain. Scallop for one, cross with three feet for the kumano.

Generally easy and interesting walk with a few rough spots.

Onsen has usual private baths, nice hot water in the bath, but no water pressure for the shower.

In Album 10/30/15

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Same weather continues.

A bit confused about Japanese bath etiquette. I have been observing the system. Some come in rinse off quickly and then sit in bath washing up thoroughly afterwards. Others the reverse which is how I was taught. Are the rinse firsters lazy cheaters?

Pictured is a local speciality, a sour of apricot, heavily soured pickled. Hard to eat a whole one but bits with the morning smoked fish were OK. Clearly an acquired taste.

Walk started off wonderfully, lovely forest path, steep but road surface excellent for a forest. Got harder, meaning rocks and roots and steepness with rocks and roots.

In town found a public feet soaking bath. Pictured with some of the other walkers, belguim,France,Hong Kong, Aussie. The German woman left before the picture.

Shared please ice and then beers and cultural conversation. Little too no understanding of our disfunctional government. Have enough problems with their own.

Ryokan is a very simple one. Large tatatmi may room, few amenities, bath water was emptied by a previous guest- all rooms sharing the same bath.

WiFi better than xfinity at home.

In Album 10/29/15

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Sunny a little cooler

Subway, train, and then bus to the start of the trail. Several hours of travel to get to there, there being the location of the first Oji shrine, at Takajiri, location of one of the five Grand shrines.

http://www.tb-kumano.jp/en/kumano-kodo/kumano99ojis/

Figured out all the stops and tickets and started at the beginning of the trail.

A mountain trek of cornwallian difficulty. Vertical 1000+ feet, down a bit less, up very steep steps and trails… Point made.

Shrines, statutes, bodhisattvas along the path.

This is the land of unlimited water use. Great showers, baths, soaking tubs, and lots of water pressure.

In Album 10/28/15

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Sunny warmish

Mostly a rest and shopping day; saving the feets for the morrow.

Out lasting impression will be the density of shopping. Everywhere.

Spent time today getting cash. No bank atm would take our card. Headed to a trusty 7 eleven. Worked as expected. The 7 eleven chain is a good strong brand outside the USA. Here it has a great atm machine plus required conveniences.

We did not have the pancakes.

Dinner at Din Tai Fung, one of our favorite restaurants; soup dumplings. Have eaten at ones in Shanghai (two different locations), Sydney, Vancouver.

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BSJ Kasugo Shrine

In Album 10/26/15

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BSJ Isuien garden Nara went there due to recommendation of a local

In Album 10/26/15

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BSJ. Todaiji Temple Nara

In Album 10/26/15

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Sunny a little less warm.

Morning Japanese bath report: 107.6

He was ascetic thin, ribs almost bursting through, a smidge less than six feet, sitting in a lotus position, back so perpendicular it makes one think of a right angle training machine, smate (rag for those not from NYC) on his head, meditating rock still in the sauna before, after a rinse, continuing in the cold pool. I suspect that he went for two grains of rice afterward but ate only one.

Walking is quite a challenge here. Very large number of bicycles weaving in and out on the sidewalks. Far far more than I remember from Tokyo days. Osaka thing to bike or will we see so much of it in Tokyo? Stay tuned.

We had read that Osaka is a shopping town. Nothing prepares one for what that really means. We have never in all our travels seen so many retail shops; no empty storefronts. Hard to believe the density of shops.

In Denden city, the electronics section, a bit like akihabra, at least in theory, we went into a manga shop. Tens of thousands of mangas. Five floors of books sorted by genre. Impressive 3D printers at Japan Computer, also five floors. Tokyu Hands has seven floors

QB entered a shop, pictured, with so many plates on the floor I expect that we would be purchasing the ones broken after broken field walking. This is on a street of kitchen supplies, knives, bowls and ….well everything you can imagine.

In Album 10/25/15

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