Ise-shi

The ryokan served a Japanese set breakfast on both mornings.
Around Ise-shi, there were 125 shrines in an area the size of Paris. I walked to the Geku shrine which was set in parkland, and then two miles to the larger Naiku shrine, also in a large park. It was a festival day with large crowds, some in black, being supervised by stewards at the most important shinto shrine in Japan. The festival of Kamisso-sai was followed by the festival of Kanname-sai when the first rice was harvested.
At one building, I saw priests performing a service at a distance, but I was unable to take photos of the main shrines and their distinctive rooves due to the high fences around the shrines keeping the crowds out.
The trunks of some of the cryptomeria trees near the shrines were protected with cloth-coverings to stop pilgrims rubbing their hands on them.
There was a wall of sake barrels which had been offered as gifts to the shrine by various locations.
There was a long street leading up to the entrance of the Naiku Shrine (Ise-Jingu) called Okage-yokecho which was lined with shops and stalls. For a morning coffee, I went into the Cafe Cap Juby, and returned around lunchtime when it had started to rain. The cafe had dozens of LPs of rock bands and blues singers such as the Stones, the Eagles, Woody Guthrie, Otis Redding, Dylan, and Smokey Robinson plus Texas-Mexican border music. The owner was a guitarist who had played in a group.
For lunch, I bought a steamed bun with Matsuzaka beef inside.
It was raining steadily so I caught a taxi back to the ryokan to read about Alastair Cook's retirement from cricket on my laptop.
The local restaurants were either shut or full so I bought some items from a supermarket for dinner back in the ryokan.Read more