I Want to See The World ! : The fine Japanese culture.....

Yes.... the neko (cat) shop....

Evidence Vivian was in Oharaimichi

One of the restaurant at Oharaimichi

January 9.... After trying to wake Vivian up and took forever of course, we managed to make it in to Nagoya station and make our way to Ise Jingu. Ise Jingu is one of the biggest Shinto shrine in Japan, and the beauty of this shrine is the architecture is still traditional Japanese. The shrine was rebuilt every few years, and this time it was due and should be done sometime this year. Once the new shrine is up, the old shrine will still be available for people to visit for sometime until it gets torn down. The trip was somewhat far, 2 hours by limited express train on Kintetsu line then we have to continue by bus. Nobody really speak English in this area..... The day pass ticket for adult cost 1000 yen and half price for children. Thought this will save me money. We stopped by Oharaimichi, the road on the way to the shrine full of shops for souvenirs and restaurants. This is the most entertaining part I think, and the most dangerous! The fact that most vendors do not take credit card is the only thing that makes it less dangerous. I had to control myself when I went to a store full of maneki neko (the beckoning cat, usually found at the stores to bring good fortune for business). Good thing they're expensive and takes no credit card so it wasn't hard to only buy 1 cat (^^).... I was gonna buy a shopping bag full :D. There are many food vendors, most food were made of fish... :( We didn't have much time (and I need to get out of there before I come out with 3 shopping bags full of stuff) so we headed to the shrine. We decided to go to Naiku, which is the inner shrine because we won't have time for Geku (outer shrine near Ise Shi station) The surroundings was very nice, however, the construction made it not as enjoyable. I thought, sitting around at Oharaimichi will be fun, but not only it was cold, but it was really dangerous if I keep hanging around there..... :D

Oharaimichi consists of shops in old Japanese buildings...

We headed back to Shinji's house, and this time I took the express train. Cost arm and leg, but worth it for the speed. The express train saves you around 30 minutes of travel time, and because it was late I just wanna go home straight away. When we all met, Shinji said a friend of his wanting to meet up with all of us. So we did, his name is Nao and he was a very nice guy, very relax and comfortable to be around with. We went out for dinner, to a restaurant that serves mostly western food such as pizza, pasta, etc. We hung out and eat there for a bit. I think for Japanese my use of tabasco was a little overwhelming :D .... Sense of spiciness is quite dulled when you grow up in Indonesia.

Like this one too ...

We went to Village Vanguard, another fun shopping place in Nagoya. Kind of reminded me of San Fransisco in Saskatoon. The store sells funny and interesting items, but at the same time all aren't things that you need... quite expensive too. Some funny souvenirs I would like to get for my friends back home, but since we still have ways to go with our trip and the items are very bulky, I think I have to wait for next occasion. Average of 'cheap' items are around $3 .... I was doing well not to come out with any shopping bags ....

Yumminess like this all along the street

The most fun part of the night was meeting Nao and having his company. His English is limited and my Japanese is limited, but at the end of it all .... everything was good! I think, without words, kindness is one thing that can be understood universally without words. I guess it was all about body language and interactions that made any words meaningless.... Words sometimes complicate things, but gestures of kindness and genuinity could be understood even when people don't speak the same language.... It goes to everything we do where ever we are. Gestures such as smile, can be understood universally as sign of kindness and friendship. I was told a story once of American soldiers in either Iraq or Afghanistan, where a group of soldiers patrolling through a village and the villagers gotten scared and became defensive. The captain, instead of telling his soldiers to be caution and ready for combat, he told them to put down their weapons and give the villagers a big smile, to show them that they don't mean any hostility towards the villagers. The villagers and soldiers avoided unnecessary blood bath because of a smile. Words are overrated sometimes, and it made us forgot the most basics of human interactions.... body language and genuine heart. We ended the night around 2230 or so and Nao took us all home. Bed never felt so good.... ZZzzzzzzzzz