We hopped on the bus at 8:30am and our Japanese teacher/guide took us around Sasebo and Hario!
The lady at the very front is Eriko. She is awesome! So funny! Directly in front of me is my new friend Sue. She's awesome. To bad we wont be living on the same base. :( Oh well, if we get the house I think we are going to get, I'll be inviting them over often!
For the tour, our first stop was a nearby shrine. I can't remember for the life of me the name of the shrine but it was beautiful. You can find shrines all over Japan dedicated to spirits and contacting them for good wishes. They come in all sizes but you enter each one through a Torii gate. The gate represents the entrance to the spirit world.
A Torii Gate has to pillars and two deals going across. We are about to enter the other side....
As we were going through this, our Sensei was teaching us stuff but I was so busy taking pictures I completely forgot what she said. Whoops! I'll get a book later. haha. I'm pretty sure she was just going into depth about the shrine, its meaning, its purpose, and stuff like that.
Ahead is the main shrine. To our left is a fountain. That is where you cleanse yourself to be able to talk with the spirits at the shrine and make a wish. Here's Jordan cleansing himself...
Once we cleansed ourselves, we headed to the main shrine where our Sensei showed us how to speak with and ask the spirits for help and good wishes.
So this is the shrine. When you wish to speak with the spirits, you first toss 5 yen into the box. It is a peace offering. (or a way to help fund the shrine. You decided. lol) You can see it on the right of the Sensei in the bottom right picture. Second, to wake the spirits up, you must ring the bell, on either side of the shrine, four times. The rope you see in the bottom right picture connects to the bell. Then you bow twice, silently make your request, then clap twice. Cool huh?
For 500 Yen, you can write your wish on a board and hang it up next to the shrine. If your wish is granted within one year, you can come back and take your board. If not, pay up buttercup for a new wish or the same one. Haha. You can write it in any language you want. I found this particular one hilarious!
At the shrine you can do more than just make requests from the spirits. Shrines are also used to celebrate certain things. One common celebration is of your children at ages 3, 5, and 7. It is common for young kids to have a rough go at life and many do not make it pass 7 years of age. So at these ages, there is a celebration and blessing held at the shrine. Traditional Japanese marriages also happen here. The ceremony only last 10 minutes but preparation can take up to 2 hours. Did you know that as a gift for the bride and groom you only give money? Yeah. No less than 10,000 Yen ($100). If you are just a friend, its like 30,000 Yen. ($300). I may have that backwards but you get the gist.
After the shrine, we drove to a dock that has fancy boats that will take you for a cruise around the 99 islands. The islands are just off the coast of Kyushu. There are actually over 200 of these little islands. I forget why they choose 99 though. On September 19, it is day 99. If you look at the date...9.19...you see 99. So of course, the Japanese have found a reason to party!!! A festival will be held that day to celebrate. I kinda wanna go!
Didn't take many pictures there. Moving on. Next, we went to a place called Huis Ton Bosch. I may have spelled that wrong. But its a theme park themed as a Dutch town. Weird huh? What is cool though is that there is a big section of the park that is absolutely free and a separate part that requires a fee. We of course visited the free section. Some new friends and I took some pics of course!
See the picture with the clear balls? Yeah, kids are in those playing on top of the water. Where the hell is this little adventure in America?!
Of course some Anime guy caught me in his powers. Haha.
Below that is a picture of something...I don't know what, but it was big. That's my friend Sue!!!
It's hard to see what it is, but there is a freaking Sbarro!!!! What?!
Below that is where we got a little snack. Different kinds of meats on sticks. (Let the jokes begin) haha
It was SOOO hot there. But very cool. I want to visit again!
Once we were done there, we headed to a big shopping store known as the EON. There might be an A at the front of that...not sure. Anyways, this place has EVERYTHING. Literally. Its like a mall kind of. This particular one had several levels. There's a huge ass grocery store, clothing stores, arcade, electronics and on and on! It's where we had lunch.
The first place we saw in the food court was this:
We ended up eating at a place next to it. I have no idea what it was called but it had everything it served on display in a huge window. All the food was plastic of course but looked VERY real. We had to actually take a picture of what we wanted to let the staff know because the menus were all in Japanese with no pictures. Hahaha.
As we sat down, our Sensei talked to our waitress. We aren't 100% sure what she told her but we assumed it was along the lines of, "They don't speak Japanese. They are learning. Don't speak English to them." Haha. The waitress freaking laughed so we were all in trouble. We did our best though with the Japanese we learned.
We held up our phones, pointed and said, "Kore, koudasai" Probably spelled wrong but it means, "I would like to buy this please." Then we said, "Domo" when she jotted down the order. That means, "Thanks". To order more water we said, "Mizu, koudasai" which is, "Water, please."
Sue was the first to get her meal. She hasn't mastered the art of chop sticks but she got pretty good towards the end. She was afraid to try some of the food so I lived through her and made her try stuff. I kept pointing at her food and saying, "Try that!"
Alright, so she has a lot going on here and we had no idea what was what. For example, there is a cup that is sitting directly in front of her but behind the noodles that look like worms. Then there is a saucer with shit in kitty corner from the worm noodles. We could not figure out what food dips into what!!! 3/4 of the way into the meal we found out the fried food should be dipped in the saucer and the noodles should be dipped in the cup. Hahaha. The waitress had a good laugh!
What I had is on the top. Fairly standard, nothing crazy. I had tea and a soup plus all this! Below that is a pic of our check. Total bill for lunch? $11.30. For two of us.
Really, depending on where you go, you can get a lot of food...GOOD food even....for very cheap. People say its pricey here but Jordan and I haven't experienced it. The cost of living though is very high. As far as utilities and rent go. But really, everything else isn't any different than Seattle.
Things to keep in mind when eating Japanese food. Chopsticks are never to be stuck in your food standing up. It symbolizes death and the sticks represent incense used at funerals. Don't leave your sticks in your food! Don't talk with your chopsticks in your hands either!! Very rude. If you aren't eating, set them down next to your food.
Like to share? Don't grab food directly off of someone else's plate. That is dirty. If you would like to share, place your food on a separate plate and hand it to the other person.
Now this might seem bizarre to you and it will go against EVERYTHING your mother ever taught you...SLURP!!! Yes, SLURP! The Japanese understand that eating noddles is tough with chop sticks. So grab what you can and slurp it up! Keep the bowl close to your mouth is ok too! It isn't always easy to eat with chopsticks!
Still not fluent with chopsticks? You should get these...
3 Way Chopsticks!! Getting frustrated with them? Flip them around and you have a fork and spoon! Hahaha.
Now...this is a Where's Waldo kind of picture. Can you spot the hat that doesn't fit in with the rest?
I'm not going to tell you what it is...but when I saw it I just about DIED!!!
And that's it! That's really all we did but it was awesome. So much fun. I spoke Japanese. Ate some Japanese food. Saw some crazy things. Visited a shrine....want to know what I have in store for the weekend?
There is a typhoon headed this way!! It may actually HIT Sasebo and I heard that that hasn't happened in decades. I mean, the area itself has two declared typhoon seasons and we usually just get the residual effects of them...but not one that actually HITS the city. We will see if it actually does or not. If it does, I'll film it outside my window!
Have a great day guys!
Sayonara!!!
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