Having Ruu as a friend is GREAT because she’s awesome, AND because she knows of all the cool things going around this prefecture and the next that I would never ever know about otherwise. For example, in Nagano, there’s a shrine called Zenkouji that has a statue that was made by an ancient Buddhist person in India way back when. This statue has never actually been seen, nor is it allowed to be seen, but it’s kept at this Zenkouji shrine in Nagano. A replica of the statue thing was made, but even that is sacred, and is only shown for a month or so once every 7 years!! Guess what guys?? I saw that replica!! Ruu booked a classic Japanese bus tour for herself, Jenelle, and I that took us from Niigata to Nagano. Aside from the weather being nothing but RAIN, it was GREAT to finally experience another stereotype of this country. On the itinerary, we were to first stop at shrine for 10 minutes, then move on to a bread house for 3 minutes, a cave for 25 minutes, a souvenir shop for 20 minutes, then back to the bus, drive to where we would be provided with a soba lunch for 40 minutes, souvenir shop, and then Zenkouji for a group picture, a quick explanation, a chance to see a little bit of the shrine, meet up again to go to another souvenir shop, stand in a line to stake out of good spot to be blessed, race to get in line to be able to see the closing ceremony of the day, stand in line to get blessed for the second time by the same nun, back to the bus to drive to a shabu-shabu dinner of vegetables, pork, beef, and horse meat, and then bus ride home being forced to listen to the tour guide tell us for the billionth time that we should use caution when getting our bags together when we leave the bus in 2 hours!! Haha, I had fun J
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1 comment:
Wow! Nothing more relaxing than a Japanese bus tour! (See Big Bird in Japan). That is AWESOME that you got to see that though! Have you checked out the mummy near itchu yet? You can see that any day.
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