Takachiho

Oh! Something I wanted to mention before - Jillian's dad, Harry, taught me that Blogger actually shrinks my pictures itself, so I don't really have to make them so small. However, if you want to see a larger image, you can just click the picture and it'll open it up into a larger window. Cool!

A cloudy day in Takachiho

Takachiho, about a four-hour drive from Miyazaki, is probably most famous for its gorge. While not the size of the Grand Canyon or anything like that, it's still really beautiful. (Jillian has visited Takachiho once before. You can read about her first visit here, if you like)

Takachiho Gorge, as seen from above

Satomi, Jillian's tutor, and Yuuki, Satomi's boyfriend, were kind enough to make the long drive with Jill and I as passengers to visit Takachiho gorge, and the surrounding area. The water at the gorge was so amazingly clear, and the rock formations were really interesting, too. Not too many people were out that day, since it was a bit cool and rainy, but this worked to our advantage since we were able to view the area without having to deal with crowds or lines.

Satomi and Yuuki

Something kind of interesting about Yuuki, Satomi's boyfriend, is that he speaks with a really strong Miyazaki-ben. Although my listening comprehension skills are far from flawless, I can usually catch at least a gist of what people are talking about, but between Satomi and Yuuki, I was having often getting really confused. I'm not really sure how to explain a ben exactly, but I guess it's kind of in between a dialect in the Philippines and a strong New York, Midwestern, or Southern accent in the states. In Japanese classes in America, we're usually initially taught a polite, standard form, which is typically how Japanese is spoken in the Kanto area, or the area around Tokyo and Yokohama. Different areas have different bens, so the Kansai region, (Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, etc.) and Miyazaki prefecture have their own bens as well. Jillian told me that sometimes Satomi would say that she couldn't understand her boyfriend either, since his accent was so strong. It's not exactly like the differences between accents between British English and American English, so to speak, but probably a lot more complicated. In any case, both Satomi and her boyfriend are really fun and kind, so even I usually can't understand Yuuki, he's a really nice guy in my books!

Because it was so cold and rainy, Jill and I actually had the opportunity to take a little rowboat into the Takachiho gorge while nobody else was in there. Because I wanted to take pictures, (and because Jill likes to row) Jill did all the hard work while I just had to focus on keeping the camera still in the rocking boat.

Takachiho Gorge, as seen from within

After visiting the gorge, Satomi and Yuuki took Jill and I to a few mountain shrines around the area, including Ama no Iwato cave that I'd really wanted to visit, but didn't know we'd planned to go to on this trip. Although I'd really wanted to see this cave, I didn't know exactly where it was. I knew that it was somewhere on Kyushu island, but hadn't really taken the time to figure out how to get there. At one of the shrines we went to Takachiho-Jingu, you can sometimes view a Kagura dance, but they weren't performing on the day we went. (Jill's first Takachiho Visit post has more details about Kagura here) At this shrine, we were given a tour in Japanese that was difficult to understand, but Jill and I were given a summary written in English to simplify things for us.

Jill and I at the Takachiho-Jingu (Shrine)

According the Japanese legend, Amaterasu, the southern sun goddess, hid in a cave after she was upset by her brother, Susanoo, the northern wind god the who was always up to one awful thing or another. Because Amaterasu had hidden, the world was plunged into darkness, until she was eventually lured out Uzumeno, another goddess who performed a wild, fantastic dance to get Amaterasu to bring the world into light again.

Ama no Iwato Cave Shrine, from the Outside

Because of this legend, there's a small shrine built within the cave, and surrounding the cave are thousand of little stacks of stones that people build to embody their wishes. It's sort of a hike down into another gorge to get there, but it's totally worth it to see all of the little wishes that so many people have left behind. Unfortunately, these pictures aren't too clear since I was shivering as it was pretty cold that day, but you can kinda see some of the little stone piles in the picture below. These are only a small fraction of how many are in the surrounding area near the shrine, though.

Amo no Iwato Cave, from the inside

Despite not having the developed, architectural appeal of a other shrines or chapels I've been to, this particular shrine definitely put me in a state of much more powerful spiritual awe. Just knowing that so many people had come here throughout history and experienced the same kind of hope and joy really blew me away, and the simple, natural beauty of the area is extraordinarily breathtaking. For me, to leave a place like this in its natural state and still have it be so powerful was really moving, and I'll never forget how in tune with things and at peace I felt there. Satomi, Yuuki, Jillian and I all made little wish rock-stacks before moving on.

A house we passed by on our way back from Takachiho

On our way back to Miyazaki, we also stopped to see from Christmas lights along the way. While Christmas isn't as major of a holiday here as it is in the states, some people still decorate their homes like this for the season, and most cities have some kind of light display. (Though not all as amazing as Kobe's Luminaria) Miyazaki also had a big light display, but Jill and I never managed to go see it.

I'll talk a bit more about the holiday season later, since it's kind of a complicated subject. For now I'll kind of wrap up by saying that the drive home was a peaceful one, (Jill and I napped while Yuuki and Satomi switched off driving) and we had a tasty, tasty meal at this great Okonomiyaki place called Tape (Tah-Pay) on the way home. Okonomiyaki is a kind of mixed batter-cake with a selection of ingredients fried into it. Some things you can choose from include various kinds of seafood, vegetables, noodles and meat. Jillian and I each got one with udon and cheese. It was pretty much amazing. Okonomiyaki is easily one of my favorite Japanese foods.

Tape's Udon mo Chi-zu Okonomiyaki

The trip to Takachiho was amazing, and I'm really grateful to Satomi and Yuuki for taking Jill and I there. It was neat to visit a mountain-town that was even more remote than the area around the college, and even the drive there was spectacularly scenic. On the way, we'd actually passed through a tunnel called the "Totoro Tunnel." I tried to take a picture of the sign, but I couldn't get my camera out fast enough.

Next time - Christmas and New Year's in Japan!