Post by Ella
Grubb grabbed my title “shrine hopping” but that’s what the day entailed. No climbing treacherous mountainsides, no slip sliding, no cursing because the up kept on going. We left that all behind. Today was bus, shrine, train, bus, shrine, temple, sacred waterfall, bus, boat. Topped off by a soak in an Onsen situated in a cave overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
We saw two of the three most revered grand shrines one of which has a world heritage designation. We skipped shrine number three because 528 uneven stone steps most of which are seriously steep. Giving the Buddhists a nod, a three story pagoda temple with a great jolly Buddha sat next to one shrine. I’m leaving detailed and illuminating prose to Grubb. Here are some random photos from the day.
Shrine and torii gates = Shinto. Temple and pagodas = Buddhist
This is beautiful territory. The pink and white cherry blossoms are in full bloom, the red camellias provide striking contrast, the evergreens, the ornamental persimmons, the bright yellow, purple and blue flowers. I am a little sad that we are heading back to Osaka today (which is April 1 for us, March 31 for all of you).
I was wondering what the bento boxes were like. They look good. They mostly look like sushi. I was imagining bento boxes that had inside divisions. Loved the expiration time. That’s quite a waterfall in the penultimate photo.
I also like the bento boxes and since I like sushi it wouldn’t be a problem for me. Question: what do you do with the box itself after you’ve eaten the contents? They look like they are made of bamboo. I’d hate to just throw them away, they look so elegant. In America you would get styrofoam or something equally ugly and wasteful.
See reply to Charlie for our best guess at the contents. These boxes were cardboard but printed to look elegant. There are few public garbage cans so we have to carry the empty until we get to our night’s accommodation. Still wasteful but perhaps they’ll get recycled.