For every place we went to, a group of people did a short presentation so we would have a vague idea of what we were getting ourselves into. This means that we all had to write up a report, but it was pretty low key and low pressure. Not nearly as strenuous as I thought it would be.
Day 1, Stop 1
Our first stop was Myojoji Temple, which is the head temple for a certain Buddhist sect in the Hokuriku region. All the buildings in the complex are quite old, with most of them being built in the 1600s. There's a 35 meter tall 5-story pagoda that immediately catches your eye, but I think I found the nearby graveyards much more beautiful.
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| The pagoda! |
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| Graveyard protected by old trees and bamboo. So beautiful and serene in person. |
Day 1, Stop 2
Our next stop was Kesha Taisha, a 2000 year old shrine to Okuninushi, the god of finding true love. All the ema (wooden plaques where people write their wishes and tie them up) had hearts or arrows, so it was a bit like walking into a Valentine's day themed shrine. Not really my jam, so I mostly just contented myself with exploring a bit of the sacred forest behind the shrine and enjoying the old, old trees and moss.
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| No idea what this kanji is, but here's one of the few ema hanging around that didn't have hearts or arrows on them. |
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| The shrine's main building where wee got to see some sort of exorcism? I think? |
Day 1, Stop 3
Next was lunch at a restaurant that was set next to the ocean on the Chirihama beach drive, a really long stretch of the beach where cars can drive (due to the very small grains of sand or something like that?). It was fun and I mostly spent the hour and a half running in and out of the ocean, picking up sand dollars, and playing frisbee with friends. The beach was probably my favorite place to go (besides Kagaya ryokan).
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| Lunch consisted of sukiyaki, miso soup, some odd seaweed stuff, and noodles! Quite a lot and all very delicious |
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| I was very surprised that cars could just drive down the beach, PC Claire Willliamson |
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| I was having a LOT of fun! PC Claire Williamson |
Day 1, Stop 4
After lunch and frolicking in the ocean, we headed to Ganmon, a natural "gate" worn out into the surrounding rock formation. It was quite rocky, and also looked a bit like a scene from Porco Rosso.
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| Rocks! And bigger rocks! |
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| More rocks! |
Kagaya ryokan
Around 6, we finally got to Kagaya ryokan where we were greeted out front by a line of the workers there. After a brief tour, we went to our rooms which were in the traditional Japanese style. There, we were served matcha and wagashi, and then the workers dressed us in very beautiful yukata. Kagaya ryokan is well known as the best ryokan in Japan with the best customer service (omotenashi). To be frank, it was a bit uncomfortable how deferential they were, but I could definitely see in all the little things and big things that they did for us how their omotenashi is number 1 in Japan.
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| The outside of the ryokan |
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| The room we stayed in |
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| Complete with a stunning view! |
A side note for all you non gender binary folks out there: My gender identity is butch, or masculine, or really anything but feminine. My gender expression is quite masculine. So when they came out with all the different yukatas for us to wear, I had quite the moment of panic. As beautiful as the yukatas were, I really felt only dread until it came time to put on the yukata. And as beautiful as everyone else looked in their yukata, I felt wrong. Like I was squeezed into a skin that was not mine, and however much I tried to pretend that I was okay with it, it just didn't feel right. And didn't look right. There was another dude here who felt the same as me, so after getting out of the onsen we went to the senseis to ask if it would be okay to change into the men's yukata. I was a bit hesitant at first because the gender binary is something I feel is protected and enforced in Japan (there is a whole rant that I can go into about this, perhaps for another day) and at such a traditional Japanese style hotel, I felt like asking to change into a men's yukata would be quite rude and not very respectful. However, I realized that not asking for the sake of not being rude and offensive was not a good reason to make myself unhappy. So we went to ask the sensei if it would be alright to ask the staff to switch. The sensei was very understanding of our situation and went right away to ask a staff member to see if it was ok. There was a bit of trouble at first with the staff member saying that the men's clothes were for men and women's clothes were women, but eventually they did allow us to switch. I must say, the moment I put on the men's yukata, it felt like a great weight was lifted from my shoulders and I was right in my body. (Side note on this side note, the men wore black socks as opposed to the white socks the women wore, and their yukata came with pockets. Pockets) I am thankful that the Kagaya staff were so understanding of us and allowed us to switch. I can't imagine that this request comes too often, and a testament to how great their omotenashi that they would let s wear men's yukata even though they follow very traditional Japanese ideals.
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| So thankful for the solidarity! |
After the onsen, we went to a welcome party where they outfitted us with ridiculous light up ears and fed us snacks and drinks. Dinner was fabulous and long and quite the feast (and you can see what I ate in my previous blog).
The next day, we woke up very early and ate yet another feast for breakfast. After that it was goodbye to Kagaya and onwards to a very tired day
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| Us Yalies working the blinky ears |
Day 2, Stop 1
Our first stop this second day was the Wajima Morning Market, an open air market that sells traditional Wajima lacquerware, other souvenirs, and seafood. It's got a lot of history and has stuff to fit any budget. It was quite interesting to browse and see all the beautiful lacquerware, and I walked away with a small lacquerware sake cup that I am proud to call my own!
Day 2, Stop 2
After that, we went down the road to the Wajima Lacquerware Museum that showed the process of making lacquerware and the huge amount of work and artistry that goes into making lacquerware. There were also several different exhibits with lacquerware from all over Japan on display. (Bit of a frustrating side note, they separated us based on gender to go through the museum which I found quite ridiculous. Very ridiculous. They didn't even let us mix groups on our way through the small museum.)
Day 2, Stop 3
The third stop was yet another museum. This time it was the Kiriko museum, a museum on kiriko, giant lanterns that are carried around and lit on fire in the summer festivals in Noto. They can weigh over two tons and go up to 15 meters tall.
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| PC Claire Williamson (Yep, continuing the tradition of stealing pictures from friend to make up for my laziness) |
Day 2, Stop 4
This stop, we went to the Senmaida rice fields, named so for the thousand-plus rice fields built into this hill. It was a bit smaller than I thought it would be, but still quite breathtaking. Apparently in the winter they light up the fields at night with LEDs, which I can imagine being very, very beautiful.
Day 2, Stop 5
The last stop we went to was the Okunono Salt Field, where they still produce salt traditionally. We watched a documentary on the salt making process there, and it looks quite complicated. Very, very complicated. We also went into the house where they boil off the concentrated sea water to get salt out, and it felt like a sauna. It was pretty cool and interesting to be able to see the process of making traditional crafts in person.
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The second day was a battle against exhaustion, and by the time we got back to Rifare, nearly everybody was sound asleep, dreaming of their beds back home and not thinking about the homework due the next day.
Thanks for reading, and DFTBA!
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