Touring Tohoku

Drop your money in a bin, ring the bell, bow once, bow twice, clap once, clap twice, bow once again and make your wish. That’s Shinto style prayer. I wished for- surprise- prosperity at the Shiogama Shinto shrine this morning as we started our first official day in our prefecture. From the shrine, we traveled on a bus to the Zuiganji Buddhist temple complex in Matsushima where we took our shoes off and toured the 400-year-old national treasure and adjacent museum. Then, we took a boat ride across scenic Matsushima bay back to Shiogama and walked through the “Marine Gate,” a terminal full of concessions and restaurants, on the way back to our bus which was set to take us to the Tohoku History Museum. (Tohoku is the north eastern region of Honshu, the main island of Japan, where I am staying.) There, we had lunch, listened to a speech by the head curator and toured the museum, which includes an actual Edo period farmhouse. We saw artifacts from the prehistoric Jomon period on through recent times. Then, we went back to the Grand Palace hoteru (hotel) for a bit of a rest before heading out for dinner. And what was that, but more SUSHI. (Breakfast was fish, rice, fermented beans, and seaweed.)

I am having lots of fun and learning bunches of stuff. Wish I could spend more time at the temples and shrines. Wait 'till you see my "temple stamp book"! At each shrine or temple I visit, a special seal is stamped and hand painted into a blank accordian book, which I purchased at Kamakura. It's really beautiful, like so many things here.