Ise and a wonderful Ryokan

September 5, 2023, from the itinerary: Today, you will explore Ise, which is best known for the shrine of the same name. The inner and outer shrines are the two main shrines on the island. Formerly known as Kotai Jingu, the inner shrine houses the Shinto sun goddess and is considered Japan's holiest shrine.

The inner shrine is said to have been built over 2000 years ago. Both the inner and outer shrines are rebuilt from scratch every 20 years according to an ancient Shinto tradition. The 62nd reconstruction was completed in 2013. The 63rd reconstruction will take place in 2033.

Tonight's hotel was Ise Ryoan

Amazingly the weather app said 80 degrees and feels like 80

Breakfast was in my own- mochi, green tea, salted snacks, rice triangles.

I had a beautiful 2 hour train ride up the coast with clouded mountains on land side. All I could think of is how glad I was I didn’t need to be climbing them.

There were so many mountains along the coast that the majority of the trip felt as though it was through train tunnels.

The description of the day's activities wasn't quite clear to me, so when I arrived at the station I went straight to the Tourist Center to get more information. The Australians a few days before asked me if I was going to see pearl divers in Ise and I wasn't sure if this was possible in my schedule. Amazingly, the tourist center was able to get me directions to Toga, near the Mikimoto Pearl Island and then bus to the outer shrine and walking to the inner shrine. Before I did this, I had to find the luggage transfer service at the station to get my bags transferred to the ryokan which sounded like a much better idea than hauling them all around. Here are some shots around the train station

I had some second thoughts when I got to their office and they didn't appear to know where my ryokan was. So, deciding this was all part of the adventure, I left my luggage with them against my better judgement.

I just made the train and headed out to the island in miserably hot, but sunny weather. I am SO glad I followed up and went to the island. The island was beautiful, as one would expect from Mikimoto. They had a really nice museum with some beautiful pearl jewelry. I went to the pearl diving demonstration. Pearl diving is very relaxing- the Ama (pearl divers) whistled to expel carbon dioxide when they brought up the oyster and put them in the bucket. Ama traditionally wear white, as the colour represents purity and also to possibly ward off sharks. Traditionally and even as recently as the 1960s, Ama dived wearing only a loincloth, but in the 20th century, the divers adopted an all-white sheer diving uniform in order to be more presentable while diving.

After the island I caught the bus back to the outer shrine. It was a beautiful area, but I think I had seen too many shrines and got through the shrine area in about 30 minutes, instead of the 2 hours suggested by tourist information.

A crowded bus got me back to the inner shrine. This shrine, and my last of the trip, had probably the most interesting history of any and the most holy of the shinto shrines. The bugs had me moving through this area in record time, as well.

I was in walking distance of the hotel and interested to see if my bag actually was delivered (It was). It was an oasis in the middle of a city which didn't look like it had changed too much over the last 50 years.

The Inn itself was built in 1830. I had quite a big suite of rooms and a private onsen.

and there were tea and a cake when I arrived.

I was really ready for a bath, but couldn’t figure out how to get water faucet to work and was too embarrassed to ask the lady, so I just used the bath water to rinse off the soap. One doesn't go into an onsen when one is soapy....

Dinner was really good and tonight was my last in a Japanese style room. Tomorrow I really do go to Tokyo.