Shimizu!

Monday, July 18

So, a little about our cruise.  We’re on an eight-night cruise that circles the main island of Japan, with two days at sea and one day in Busan, South Korea.  Demographics seem to be pretty evenly split between Japanese and the-major-primarily-English-speaking-countries (USA, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK).  Definitely an older crowd, but we’ve seen more people our age or with young children on this cruise than in the past.  We went to dinner totally prepared to make new friends, but we’re actually at a table by ourselves, which is pretty pleasant.

Today we docked at Shimizu, and we did a three-part excursion.  The first part of the tour was to visit a Shinto shrine and black sand beach, with views of Mount Fuji.  A little Shinto background (because we’ve now been to four Shinto shrines, and the narrative is remarkably consistent) – the vast majority (>95%) of Japanese citizens are both Shinto and Buddhist.  Shinto shrines are visited on happy occasions (births, weddings, etc.), while Buddhist temples are visited for more somber occasions, such as funerals.  There are approximately eight million Shinto gods (no one has thus far listed them for us).  When praying at a Shinto shrine, you first ring a bell, to let the god(s) know that you’re there.  You then bow twice, loudly clap your hands twice (again, there are a lot of gods, and you need to get their attention), make an offering, pray, and bow two more times.

The shrine and the black sand beach were separated by a long wooden walkway through black pines.  This made for a pretty pleasant walk, because it was shaded and breezy, while the beach was approximately one million degrees, and massively humid (that’s a theme for the trip).  At the beach there was also a monument to a French ballerina ambassador.  We have no real idea what that was all about – we don’t speak French, and Troy only learned how to say numbers, dates, and articles of clothing in Japanese on the flight over.  Also, there were zero views of Mount Fuji, due to the haze, and the mountain being “shy.”

After the beach, we went to a much larger shrine complex.  The original complex had been damaged by fire, but (according to legend) a golden dragon flew to the coast and brought back water to quell the flames. There were separate shrines for a smattering of the eight million gods (only ten or so), that were all fairly intricate.  This part of the excursion had the smallest impact on me (other than the lack of Mount Fuji).

The final part of the excursion was Shogun Tokugawa’s palace/retirement home, which included representative elements of Japan, including the flowing water of the sea, the flowering trees, and even a mini-Mount Fuji.  We were unable to confirm its likeness.  The garden was lovely, and a nice walk, even in the 9,000-degree 100% humidity weather.  The other part of this stop was the statue of Shogun Tokugawa.  Tokugawa completed the unification of Japan and began a dynastic rule that would last for 200 years (Troy referred to him as a Mafioso).  Our tour guide also told us that if you dream of Tokugawa’s favorite things (Mount Fuji, falcons, and eggplant), you’ll have a good year.  I can’t even make this up.

Tomorrow we’re off to limestone caves and another palace.  Since I’m taking pictures on my phone, and the internet is a gazillion dollars a minute, I haven’t downloaded them to my computer yet – rest assured, they will come.