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Published: March 24th 2006
Everything in its right place
After landing my rock on the gate, I replace the 2 of the people that I knocked off in the hopes of sparing their lives.About 45 minutes from Masuda is this lovely little mountain town called
Tsuwano. I liken it to Canmore because it's nestled in a valley, has only one decent street to walk down, and is a town people visit because all the good places are too far away.
First on the agenda was the Taikodani-Inari-jinja, one of the largest Inari shrines in all of Japan. To see the shrine, you first proceed through a traditional gate and zen-like pathway before reaching the torii tunnel to the top. The custom is to throw a rock onto the top of the gateway for good luck. If it stays up, you're blessed and can continue; but if your rock doesn't stay on the gate, much bad fortune awaits in the form of papercuts and stubbed toes. So I toss my little bum-shaped rock up (really...it looked like a bum!), and it stays, but in the process knocks off two other rocks. I suspect those people have since died horribly painful deaths and the authorities are coming after me. I'm trying to maintain a low profile.
After a five minute stroll to the summit and a hand-cleansing ritual, Denise and I passed through the
Stretch...
Warming up before the big climb through the torii tunnel. entrance. Very well kept but a little underwhelming - they went a little overboard on the exterior restorations. There's not much to it really, just a couple of gift shops (
surprise!) filled with useless trinkets, and a big courtyard with some old trees. After taking some pictures, we headed back down feeling pretty much the same, only a little more wet from the rain.
Unfortunately, it was a rather drab day because it rained the whole time, so that was really the extent of our sightseeing. The drive home saw me get behind the wheel for the first time. Our Suzuki Wagon R is a little cramped, but fun to drive nonetheless. Not nearly as much fun as my Prelude mind you, but this is as good as it's gonna get for a while. Oddly enough, the Japanese are quite good drivers, and most can actually see over the steering wheel as the vehicles here are sized accordingly.
Since then the only bit of exciting news was my encounter with our neighbour. Being woken up at 5:00am every morning all week really pisses me off, especially when the cause is a barking dog. Enough is enough, so this
Majestic Camille
Breathe that fresh mountain air *sniff* ahhh.... morning (Friday, March 24) I got dressed and went for a walk to find the animal and owner. Turns out to be our landlord. The conversation went as such:
Sumimasen!
("Excuse me!")
"Ahhh, hai..." replied the old man.
Anata no inu wa yakamashi to urusai desu.
("Your dog is noisy and annoying.")
"Bag your face!" exclaimed the evil landlord.
I then went on to tell the old man in my ever-so-fluent Japanese that we can't get any sleep and if this matter isn't resolved I will kill him and sell his dog to a Korean restaurant. Challenging my statement, we then engaged in a brief sumo battle, where I defeated him with a throw-down via an inside mawashi hold. He then apologized, bowed, and took his dog inside. If it happens again I will kick him in the nuts.
The weather is finally nice today. It's been raining steadily since my arrival. I wanted to move to Japan, not Vancouver. But when you think about it, they really are one and the same place. Mountains everywhere, on the ocean, and everybody is Asian. The only difference might be the amount of homeless drug addicts wandering the streets. What can you expect, no place is
Cleaning Up
Thou shalt wash thy hands clean of all evil deeds. perfect.
Camille & Denise
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Mom
non-member comment
Be nice!
Only there 3 weeks and already messing with their rock mojo and killing dogs. LMAO at small slow car with big white boy. Love to both.