So sorry about the delay in my writing! I have gotten caught up with a lot of things and haven't really had much time to write! I will try to catch you up on the past month in a few blogs this week. I can't believe I let myself get so far behind!
Where do I begin? GOLDEN WEEK.
In Japan, Golden Week is a week in the end of April and beginning of May where there are many national holidays that come in a row and the entire country is off of work or school. Many people visit their hometown and traveling to somewhere new is also common. That is also the reason it is one of the most difficult times to try to travel in Japan.
Despite all of the bad things we heard about travel at this time of year, my friend Anthony and I decided we were going to brave the crowds and take advantage of one of the few weeks off that we are given a year. The destination we chose was Kyushu Island. Kyushu, for those of you who don't know, is one of the five main islands of Japan ***Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa***
We made loose plans for the first few days, but because we were booking so late there weren't a lot of hotel rooms to be had in the northern part of the island for the end of the week. We decided we would try to wing it and head out there anyway. We took the *bullet train* to Kyushu and switched to a Special Rapid train the Beppu. The second train we were on was awesome and looked like something straight out of a space movie.
That is something interesting about the train system in Japan. There are generic trains for every region, but there are also local train companies that run some pretty crazy and interesting trains, old, new, with wood seats, with no seats, one car or fifteen cars. It's luck of the draw really.
After we got to Beppu we switched one more time to a local train to get to our location we would stay for the next two nights. Miyazaki. In Miyazaki we only had two goals. We wanted to go to Aoshima Island and we wanted to go to Udo Jingu Shrine. We knew that we weren't going to be in the best location hotel-wise but we still wanted to make the most of our time in Miyazaki before moving on to Kagoshima. We arrived at our hotel late and checked in with no surprises.
The next morning we headed out> While Anthony headed to his usual breakfast for the trip (Mister Doughnut) I headed into a local bakery. I ended up purchasing two things. The first was a small pastry and the other looked something like a pizza. I get something like this at my local bakery as well and it is very delicious. However, upon taking a bite of it, I discovered it was nothing like my bakery and was in fact brushed over with curry. Let me tell you, if there is one thing that you don't want to be eating in the morning it is Japanese curry on your pastry. I settled for some OJ to get the rancid taste out of my mouth and we hopped on the rapid train for Aoshima.
When we arrived in the super small town of Aoshima, we were surprised that no one was even at the JR station to take our ticket. The trains only ran twice an hour also and we figured this would be the case because the train we arrived on only had one car. We figured it would be okay and just headed toward the shore. When we finally reached the water it was beautiful. There were rocks that piled upon rocks all the way down the small island and a bridge to walk out to it. This Island town used to be the most popular honeymoon destination in the past for Japanese couples but since has been nearly deserted as many people head abroad for honeymoon with the strength of the Yen.
I decided I wanted to get out onto a giant rock that was in the middle of the water so I slowly walked out and climbed up on it. The view was stunning and the sun felt so good for a change. I walked along the beach and collected shells, which reminded me of my mother and father and our trips to the beach. The beach here was different though because the sand was black from the volcanic ash, which was beautiful but made your feet tarnished. It was well worth it.
After spending some time in the sun we headed over to the island. On the way over on the bridge, we noticed all of the rocks that were layer upon layer all the way around the island. How they were created was very interesting. Since Japan lies on tectonic plates, when they shift they push the rocks upward like this forming this amazingly beautiful rock formations. These specific rocks had been formed over thousands of years and they were referred to as something that translates to The Ogre's Washboard. :)
Next, we went to the shrine on the island. It was small, but was probably one of the most interesting shrines I have seen in Japan in my recent months here. Due to the Children's Holiday, there were many colorful fish flags hanging around the entrance to the shrine. The sea breeze kept them blowing in the wind as if they were alive and the bright blue skies seemed like their ocean.
Inside the shrine the thing I found most interesting were the offerings. At many shrines, there are completely different styles of offerings. here there was something unique. I found two ropes both covered in bright colored twine, threads, and wires. As I more closely inspected the ropes I realized that each one tied on a yen coin with a hole in it. There are only two yen coins with holes in them: the 50 yen *about 50 cents* and the 5 yen *about 5 cents*. The entire ropes were covered in offerenings and it was bright and vibrant, just like the island setting it was in.
After we left the jungle shrine (I call it this because it was in amongst trees and was probably the most tropical setting for a shrine I have ever seen), we decided it was time to try to head back and find our way to the Udo Jingu Shrine. This was going to prove to be difficult because not only was it not in any of our tour books or on any of our maps, but we were in a town where the train ran once every two hours and no one spoke English.
Please check back for more story and photos tonight... I must depart for work at this time so I hate to leave you all hanging... but this entry is TO BE CONTINUED>>>>>
