Hatsumōde

On one of the first days in the new year people in Japan traditionally go to a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple to pray, buy good luck charms for the next year, and burn the good luck charms they bought the year before. This visit is called hatsumōde. Two popular places in Fukuyama for hatsumōde are the Fukuyama Hachiman Shrine and Kusadoinari Shrine. So many people visit these shrines in the first few days of the new year that the parking is crazy and there are long lines to buy fortunes and charms.

Fukuyama Hachiman Shrine

Kusadoinari Shrine

Since we don't go to the shrine to pray or buy fortunes we don't bother fighting the crowds and instead walk over to our little neighbourhood shrine on the nearby hill. It is about a five minute walk and the kids love adventuring over the semi-neglected, bamboo covered hilltop. 

On our way up the hillside

Dustin, the caveman that he is, was instantly drawn to this bonfire burning off to the side of the shrine. The men there were burning all of the old woven grass ropes that decorated the shrine since last New Year's Day.

The boys helped the men with their fire for half an hour or so and then we headed back down the hill.

On the way down the trees open up and you can see most of downtown Fukuyama laid out in front of you. The night before had been unusually cold so there was a fine dusting of snow on everyone's roofs.

Later in that day, our neighbour brought by a branch of nanten covered in red berries. This small bush grows just about everywhere in Japan and is often used in New Year's decorations. Here is Bosco and the nanten wishing you all a very happy Year of the Sheep!

Adventures in Oita Part II

This post will be primarily photos since our trip to Oita was less about packing in activities, but more about relaxing, catching up with family, exploring the countryside, visiting friends, and eating delicious food. Not too many things to write in detail about, but lots to see.

William and I exploring

Beautiful countryside

tasty shiitake!

Theo, Dustin, and his father went on a hike of the nearby mountain trail

and saw a bit of wildlife in the form of this colourful millipede

and evidence of boars from the traps

We also strolled around Usa Shrine for a bit

We left the day before Easter, so we decided to have a little egg hunt before heading off

It took William a little while to realize that there was candy and chocolate hiding in the bushes for him, but when it comes to food, especially treats, he is a pretty fast learner.

Just having discovered his chocolate bunny

At the train station, heading back to Hiroshima

Goodbye Oita, we hope to see you again!

A pox on us all

So, in the last week we have all managed to get some form of sinus cold or infection and while we are mostly on the mend it has seriously affected our blogging schedule... for that I apologize. So while this post may not be as riveting as it could be, I assure you that there are in fact several posts in the works that will be significantly better this one. That being said, here is what I offer you today:

Several weeks ago on on one of my runs, I stopped by the largest Shinto shrine in Fukuyama

 

to test out our new camera in some slightly more difficult lighting situations, namely the dark. The result was some rather interesting photos, that without sounding too self congratulatory, actually turned quite well.

Torii Gate lead up to the shrine itself.

One of the out buildings.

Same out building with a little extra lighting

This is probably my favorite photo. 60 sec. exposure with
the moon in the background.

Finally the entrance to the complex itself with some selective coloring.

Miyajima Continued

After a quick exploratory walk around the town, we were able to find a small grocery store where we bought breakfast. We found a small shrine nearby that miraculously didn't have any deer wandering about and we ate our breakfast without being harassed.

Theo, attracting a few weird looks while finishing his breakfast

The tide was low, so after breakfast we headed over to the Itsukushima Shrine to take a closer look at the huge torii gate. There were coins placed as an offering into all of the small tidal pools surrounding the torii and imbedded into the base of the pillars. Theo was very interested in all of the little invertebrates that were in the tidal pools. There were crabs of all sizes, hermit crabs, snails, and I am sure lots of other creatures crawling around.

Dustin, the kids, and I beneath the torii at low tide

Offering money imbedded amongst the barnacles on the torii

Theo exploring the tidal flats

Karlee and William with the torii

Mid afternoon as the tide came in

After we had our fill of gawking at the shrine and torii, we found a much less crowded beach and let Theo swim and play the beach. It was a very sunny day so our skin could only handle a couple of hours on the beach before needing to seek shade.

Theo enjoyed making all sorts of jewelry out of seaweed

He also spent a good hour pretending that he was riding around on a jet ski

Theo made a birthday cake out of bits and pieces he found on the beach. Sand cake with seaweed frosting, snails, shells, glass and pine cone decorations and bamboo candles. Here he is blowing out the candles after singing "Happy Birthday" to himself.

We spent the rest of the day wandering the shopping streets and trying out various regional foods. Some local specialties that we nibbled on were salt water eel (anago) cakes, oysters, and deep fried momiji manju. Momiji manju is a specialty in Hiroshima prefecture and is a maple leaf shaped little cake filled with sweet red bean, custard, cream cheese, sweet green tea paste, chocolate, or a lot of other fillings. There were quite a few shops in Miyajima that made their manju fresh with an awesome machine. Some places even sold them battered and deep fried on a stick. It was heavenly.

The momiji manju machine in  action

Taunting William with the sweet goodness of custard filled, deep fried momiji manju

The torii at sunset

We had really wanted to hike the mountain on the island, which has bands of wild monkeys living on it, but since we decided to not spend one more sleepless night on the island, we didn't have time. We headed back to the mainland on the last ferry and had a long and tiring train ride back to Fukuyama.

Myooin Temple

The path we took beside the Ashida River

It has been almost an entire month since we have arrived in Japan, and I have been trying to keep Karlee, the kids and I fairly busy every day and weekend. I don't want Karlee to get back to Canada and feel like she spent a month and a half sitting around our apartment putting up with our kids. I have been trying to find all of the must see touristy spots that are in and around our city and plan little day trips to check them out. Because of this, I really feel like I have been on vacation for a month.

One of our little treks last week was to the Myooin Temple which is just across the Ashida River at the south end of town. There is actually a whole Shinto shrine/Buddhist temple complex in the area, so we just wandered from one to the other and enjoyed all of the beautiful buildings, cool architecture, and great statues. Here are some of the sights we saw:

The red, double peaked bridge that we crossed to the temple grounds

Once inside, we discovered the extremely friendly temple kitty. Theo showered her with all the attention she could have ever asked for.

We also found a fantastic and huge praying mantis. It was about 20 cm. long.

The small Temizu basin at the first temple

William enjoying everything from the confines of his stroller

The five storey pagoda is the fifth oldest in Japan.

The Temizu basin at the next shrine was an awesome metal dragon with water coming from its mouth.

A wider view of the last Shinto shrine that we visited. 

It was a swelteringly hot and humid day and we were all very sticky and thirsty by the time we walked back to the apartment. All in all a great day!