life @ enhasa

Yasuzumi Shrine was founded in Shoutai 2 (CE 899) by Arai Yoshiaki, and I believe it’s still managed by the Arai family. Revered here are three gods from Osaka’s Sumiyoshi Grand Shrine, as well as Empress Jinguu, who lived from Seimu 40 to Shinkou 69 (CE 170 – CE 269). After the death of her husband, the Emperor Chuuai in CE 200, she mounted an expedition to Korea, and, by the grace of the Sumiyoshi Sanjin, she and her Imperial Army returned triumphantly. They are, thus, enshrined together.

The structures now on the site were erected, maybe, in Houreki 4 (CE 1754), and in Showa 53 (CE 1978) were designated as Prefectural Important Cultural Assets.

In Heisei 2, to commemorate the enthronement of the new emperor, they acquired two golden liondog statues (which I somehow missed on my visit) which were made by the same guy who made the Nagasaki Peace Statue.

To celebrate the 1100th anniversary of the founding of the shrine, a new Torii was erected, and it is now, according to the people at the shrine, the largest Torii in Kanto.

The shrine’s traditional music and dancing has been designated a Municipal Intangible Cultural Asset.

The golden lion dogs are allegedly in that gate down there that I didn’t go to. Ah well, I’ll go again some day.

The shrine is a really nice place. Beautiful, quiet, serene, AND THEN YOU SEE THE HIDEOUS WEDDING HALL THAT HAS BEEN RECENTLY BUILT. OH JEEZ WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA? There must be moneygrubbing Buddhist clergy involved in this idea.

I collect safe driving charms, and so here’s the one I bought at this shrine.

It’s springtime in Japan.  Well, nearly.  The snow and the frost pretty much a memory now, at least in my part of the country.  Spring rains, cool and fresh-smelling, have begun.  I can have my windows open and enjoy the feeling of the breeze and the scent of new life.

This sort of weather always awakens something in me.  Wanderlust, I guess is what we call it.  I just want to pick up and go.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that I’ve been recontracted, and I’m relieved to be able to spend another year here in Tochigi.  It’s nice to have a place to come home to, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go on a voyage.

It’s become a bit of a tradition for me.  Come March, I start to plan (either in my head, or more concretely on paper and through travel booking sites) an epic weeklong road trip for Golden Week.  In 2006, I went to Shikoku, and it was excellent. In 2007, I went to Kyoto, Nara and Ise.  In 2008, I circumnavigated Kyushu, and completely fell in love with the place.  In 2009, I reinforced my feelings by returning to Miyazaki and Oita.

This year, because in my new job I don’t have the luxury of taking one of my 20-32 discretionary holidays whenever I want (because I’m the main English teacher instead of an assistant, despite my job title, and because I only have 5 discretionary holidays), I won’t be able to swing an epic road trip in Golden Week, and that makes me… a little sad.

These days, when the warm breeze blows and I get a noseful of spring, I close my eyes and suddenly I’m driving the streets of Kitakyushu, or the Phoenix Route in Miyazaki, or the road through the Oboke Valley in Shikoku.  I remember the places I’ve been, and I long to return, and to find new places.  But it’s not even the destinations, a lot of the time.  I’ll close my eyes and suddenly I’ll be driving the San’yo Highway through southern Yamaguchi, turning a bend and realizing I’m in Shimonoseki and about to cross the bridge to Kyushu; for me, the destinations are important, but what really sticks with me is the driving.  If I could afford it, or if I could somehow get paid to do it, I’d drive all over this country, to cities, to small towns, on highways, on backroads, on dodgy mountain paths.

These are what I see when I close my eyes in the spring, when the wanderlust comes for me.  Though I can’t, I long to give myself over to it, drop everything, and go.  The world at large isn’t conducive to the fulfilment of such dreams, though. Too bad.

Well.

The bit at the side of the page, the sort of… theme of this blog, I suppose, suggests that I’m ready for hellos and new experiences.  Yet, since August, I’ve been chillin’ at home in my (admittedly nice and comfy) apartment instead of going out and experiencing my new life here in Tochigi.

The best way I can explain this, I guess, is that, since my contract was only until March, I didn’t want to invest tooooo too much in my life here.  I didn’t want to go out and make new friends only to have to say goodbye again before I’d even had a chance to get to know them. I wanted to save money, in case I found myself homeless and unemployed. Stuff like that.

But now, I’ve got absolutely no excuses.  As of Friday, February 26, 2010, at 17:24 JST, I have a contract through to the last school day of March 2011.  So now I CAN go out and try to make friends, and try to experience Tochigi and try to live for a change.  This extra time also gives me the chance to possibly finish my Giant Trees of Tochigi photo project.  The fact that I now have 4 or 5 months without having to pay health insurance either (due to the way the system is structured), I can save money / pay down debt at a really good rate, if I keep living nearly as frugally as I have been.

So things are good.

Now, how do I make friends?  Twenty-nine years, and it’s a skill I still haven’t really mastered.

I wake to find that snow has come; so cold
it is within my tiny cell. Would that
you were in here with me I wouldn’t find
it so; but you exist in summer fields
beside the sea — cerulean, the skies
above in which you yearn to fly. Your hair,
its like a raven’s cloak, so dark, yet light
and free; the salt sea breeze does blow it so —
you brush it from your eyes. Your eyes, as green
as finest jade, are flecked with earthen tones.
At night, the stars are brighter still when viewed
in those deep orbs. To kiss your lips, so soft,
so full, so warm I felt it in my soul…

These memories I’ll keep with me
within my deepest heart.
This way, my love, I’ll keep you safe;
we’ll never be apart.

Ah, the snow is melting.

Raspberry & Passion Fruit Kit Kat

Saw this at the supermarket today, and thought I’d Give It A Go.  Dark chocolate and raspberry would be nice, but the passion fruit hint… I’m not sure if I like it or not. What it needs is marshmallow, but that’s a different type of sweet cookie thing I’m thinking of!

Morinaga Milk Cocoa Bun

Normally, when you’re in a supermarket or a convenience store and you see a chocolate bun of some sort in the bread section, it LOOKS delicious, but when you buy it, it’s dry and bitter and disappointing.  This thing, on the other hand (which I got for 30 yen off!) is moist, soft, and sweet, with some chocolate whipped cream inside. Easily the best chocolate cake-like thing I’ve ever had in Japan.

Grand Canyon French Fries Pringles

As I’m a sucker for limited edition special wacky flavours of, well, pretty much anything, I just had to give these a try.  For some reason I thought they’d be mustardy, which makes 0% in retrospect, because I don’t eat mustard on my fries, and no one else I know does either. Clearly, the old brain wasn’t working too well that day.

Anyway, if you want to try these, and don’t live in Japan, but you do live in, or near, Canada, there’s a very simple thing you can do.  Go to a Canadian supermarket or convenience store. Buy a bag of ketchup chips. Eat those, but imagine that taste in a Pringle, and without the red fingers afterwards. There, I’ve saved you a trip to Japan.

Number: 4
Name: The Giant Ginkgo of Jougan Temple (成願寺のイチョウ)
Type: Ginkgo
Height: 30m
Trunk Circumference: 5.9m
Age: 500 years
Location: 栃木県宇都宮市西刑部町（成願寺） (36° 29′ 56″N 139° 55′ 53″E)
Date of Visit: 2010-1-31

If you head eastward out of Utsunomiya on the new-ish National Route 121, just past the Industrial Park at Shimokuwajima-machi, on the right (south) side of the road, you will see a large Ginkgo.

Much like the Gingko, Jougan Temple is a splendid temple. These days, the temple and the grounds are undergoing improvements and work. Thought I tried to avoid it, the pylons of this work could not but find their way into some of the images.

The temple was founded in Tempyou-jingo 1 (765 CE) by Shoudou, who also founded temples in Nikko. The road the passes the gate, Municipal Road 406, has been called Jougan Temple Highway since time immemorial. This Ginkgo was surely a landmark for people walking the road.