Northwest Kyushu - Revisited (Day Three) - Dazaifu

On the third and last day of our trip, Jillian and I went to the Ancient City Dazaifu, where the Tenmangu Shrine (Temple of Knowledge~) that I'd visted before is located. Jillian got to try fresh Umeage Mochi, and we also tried some of the strange soft cream flavors. (Hokkaido Melon and Ume - Plum, nothing as adventurous as Wasabi or Tofu, regrettably)

This time, there was a monkey there. My initial reaction was, "Oh god, poor monkey!" but Jillian assured me that some monkeys actually really like the training, praise, and especially the attention.

Being a Saturday, this day was also another day for a packed temple. Although the time for entrance exams had passed, there's still lots of tourists who come to this spot, although there were slightly less students. (Still lots, though) We made it a point to spend more time exploring the grounds, since I hadn't done as much of that last time.

Here's a picture of an Uso, or Bullfinch, that is famous in Dazaifu. Jill bought a little one with a fortune inside, but it was an unlucky one so she tied the fortune up with the other bad luck ones.

The bullfinches are neat because the little totemy-things that you can buy are supposed to have the power to turn bad luck into good luck.

I really, really wanted to find Tobiume, the legendary plum tree, since I didn't get to see it last time. What I'd learned on this trip is that I had actually found the tree, I'd actually stood next to it for a good ten minutes or so without knowing. The problem was that I simply couldn't read its kanji.

Here it is - the Legendary Tobiume!

The tree actually has different kanji than the kanji used for my car's name, though. (The "ume" is the same, but the "tobi" for my car means "flying" while the tree's means, um... something else) Still - cool to see!

Some people inside the temple

Some tourists were actually able to go into the shrine itself, but the line of people waiting to go in was really long, so we decided to go around the back of the temple instead, where there were more shops and tombs and things.

Around back, there were these wooden wish things, or ema. They had a really cool noise when they were all rattled by the blowing wind

Okay, so now I've got a lot of pictures, and some short comments, so this'll be a string of pictures and captions next. (Show them, don't tell them, and for goodness sake, don't tell them you're telling them! You're breaking the fourth wall! Stop it already!)

Also around the back of the shrine... hey, is that a path back there?

Hey, it is! But what do those signs say? Where does this lead?

What's this staircase? After about twenty minutes of hiking through woodland hills, we climbed up these steps...

Whoa, a secret shrine in the woods! This isn't nearly as busy as Tenmangu... but wait, what about what's behind this shrine?

Shock! A third shrine! Behind this little cave was a steep tumble down a hill, so I don't think there was a fourth one behind it, but who knows?

I was really glad that Jillian and I were able to return to Dazaifu, and even more happy that we were able to find the secret, secluded shrine in the woods. Jill commented that Dazaifu kind of reminded her of Leavenworth, where I took her for our six-month Anniversary. In a way, since it's kind of an out-of-the-way place with a social scene completely different from that of Fukuoka, it did seem kind of similar to the little Bavarian tourist town. We both agreed that Kevin, a close family friend, would definitely probably enjoy the natural beauty of the area, which actually made me really homesick. I kind of hope that my family can come to Japan sometime too, but am not sure if they're interested or not. The language barrier would also be undoubtedly difficult, but that's what Jill and I are for, right? There's just so much to experience and taste and see here, but at the very least I'm glad that we can share some of it all with our blogs.

Before catching a bus back to Miyazaki, we decided that it would be good to eat, since we probably wouldn't have a chance to for another five hours or so. Given the choice, I of course chose Okonomiyaki, but this time we were able to make it ourselves!

Whaddya think? Looks pretty good, huh?

Actually, although we had all of the ingredients right in front of us, the fact remained that neither Jill or I actually know how to make Okonomiyaki, so we had a lot of help from one of the waiters. She was really nice about it, and showed us how to mix everything together and the proper flipping technique. She actually did most of the work while Jill and I watched, since we were really hungry, and didn't want to ruin our meal due to lack of proficiency - not knowing how long to cook something is definitely not a good thing! It was of course, delicious.

Whew! So... that's the short story of the trip. We did lots of other stuff too, but I'm trying to cram a lot of things in at once here! Sadly, my trip is coming to an end, and I want to get all of this stuff out there before I return. Things have been really busy lately, (Sean Williams, my gracious professor, warned me about this!) mostly because leaving a place in Japan is much more of an ordeal than simply packing and taking off. Proper farewells need to be made, and everyone has been super kind and hospitable - it's just a little exhausting!

Next up: A New Challenger Approaches! Charlie comes to Miyazaki~~ (Yay!)