The Grand Japan Road Trip: Final Part

OK, so I know we've missed to free game Fridays in a row now, but this is the final part of this story, so I'll try and get something special for you next week.

Anyway, after finishing up our business in Kyoto, we headed to our penultimate destination, Ise Jingu, also known as Ise Grand Shrine according to Wikipedia

So what Ise Jingu is in simple terms, is a huge ass temple thing.  It's an extremely pleasant place to be and there is quite a lot to see as you walk around the temple grounds.  For those who enjoy their Japanese video games, the shrine is dedicated to Amaterasu so you should get a kick out of the shrines religious lore if you're into shit like Okami.

There isn't really a lot to say about Ise Jingu, it's something you really just have to see and experience for yourself, so if you want to know everything about this place you might want to book a plane ticket, although there are a few things I can talk about.  At the entrance to the shrine, there is this bridge over a very pristine looking lake. 

After you cross it you get to walk around the temple grounds, covered in greenery and general pleasantry.  Even if you don't give a fuck about shrines, you'd still get a kick out of this place if your into scenic walks.

So the first stop we made after getting into the grounds was this place

I'm not too sure the religious significance of this thing, I think it has something to do with purifying yourself, but I won't pretend like I'm clued up on the whole thing.  What you did was pick up a water scoop thing and pour the water from the big stone basin over your hands.  I may be ignorant to it's purpose, but what I can say is that it was the most refreshing feeling I've ever had.  It was so much purer and cleaner than just regular water and you could feel it, I wanted to dunk my face in it but that would have been disrespectful.

The stop after that was another coin box up a staircase

If you remember what I said in the last part about the 5 yen and the little prayer, it was more of the same thing.

The final stop as part of the whole shrine thing that we made was a little thing of stones not too far from the exit.

I was told that these things are power stones, and that standing near them is supposed to give you energy or something.  Nearby there were a few people holding out their hands towards the stones, so I thought I would try it myself.  I'm not usually one for this kind of thing, and maybe it was some kind of placebo effect, but I swear I felt something on the palms of my hands, weird stuff indeed.

Anyway, the last thing we did in Ise was hit up another old timey road and eat something called Akafuku

It's this sweet thing made of Mochi and Anko.  Mochi is extremely chewy and Anko is very sweet, and while I didn't think I'd enjoy eating something like that, it was actually pretty tasty.

So after walking around there for a bit, we hopped in the car again and headed to the beach.  There isn't really much to say, it was a classic trip to the beach with swimming and getting burnt to death and not being able to see anything due to salt water in the eyes, but it was really fun.

After that, we headed back to Nagoya and I got dropped off at my apartment, where I then immediately made a blog post!  So that concludes this story of my road trip round Japan!  I hope you've had fun with it, and starting from tomorrow its back to the gaming.