After that last post, I decided to try to go into Nagoya and go to the Atsuta Shrine. So I googled directions by train on how to get there. After staring at the train schedule for about 5 minutes I had figured out which stop I needed. I went over to the automated ticket machine to buy my tickets. The machine (once set to English) was pretty self explanatory and I was able to get my tickets. Now came the hard part, figuring out which train was the one I was supposed to get on. I used my 'stare at a sign until it makes sense' method again and was able to figure out the right train. The only problem was the train I got on was a reserved ticket only train, which wasn't too big of a deal except I had to pay an extra ¥350 on the train. The train itself was an experience. At some points the train was literally inches from the buildings that were on either side of the train. I couldn't help but notice how close all ofthe buildings were to each other either. From what I could tell, they were mainly houses with like a few feet in between any of the houses around it. I tried to snap a picture on the train but they didn't turn out. After about 25 minutes I had reached my stop (Jingumae). I got off the train and luckily there were signs every few feet pointing me in the right direction towards the shrine.
The shrine ended up being right across from the station so there were no problems there. I wasn't sure what to expect from the shrine but what I found was much bigger than I would have thought. The shrine was placed in a large wooded area that had city pretty much surrounding it on all sides. I walked in one of the entrances and found a few paths and a large building that looked like some kind of like banquet center I want to say but I did not venture over that way because I didn't feel I was dressed appropriately compared to the people walking in and out of it. I walked towards the paths and just chose one and walked. I kept seeing these almost lantern like structures throughout the woods and tall wooden archways (I'm pretty sure these are one of the main symbols of Shinto). After seeing this for a while I stumbled across some stands that sold toys, masks and candy but they were closed because it was still pretty early on in the day. Beyond that there was a raised stone trough of cool water with wooden ladles laid upside down on a rack over the water. There were people using the water and ladles so I decided to observe before I tried doing anything to avoid looking foolish. People would walk up to the fountain, take a ladle and pour water over their hands, one at a time, some would rinse out their mouths as well, then they would replace the ladle to it's rack and dry their hands. Once I had observed a few times I decided to try myself. I had remembered reading in one of the books from the library that this was some kind of purification ritual before going to the shrine. After doing this I decided to go deeper into the shrine. I found another building that people were going into and entered myself. This was the building that this sword was kept. I remembered reading somewhere about this sword, and it turns out that it was the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, this was one of the three sacred treasures of Japan. This sword was HUGE. the blade had to have been like 8 feet long without the handle. I admired the sword for a few minutes then continued on. Next I found this large structure that had a fence in front of it. People would stand in front of the fence, bow, throw a coin into a box on the other side of the fence and then clapped twice followed with more bowing. I decided not to try to do this because I felt that this was something that might offend people if I messed up, but I kept observing and came to the realization that this must be the main shrine. I found this fascinating and wished I knew more about their religion.
I walked around the shrine more but kept coming back to places I had already seen, so I decided to leave the shrine and go wander Nagoya more to see if I could find anything cool. I walked back toward the station and found a map of the area. After some more intense sign-staring, I went off in the direction of what I thought to be the center of the city. I must have walked about 2 miles down the street I was one with little to no luck of finding much open. I was a little surprised by the lack of activity but I remembered that it was a Sunday morning. Also, there must have been some sort of vending machine every like 15 feet. It was crazy. I started to notice that the sky was getting darker. I wanted to keep venturing because I really had accomplished nothing since leaving the shrine, but I had this sinking feeling that if I went much further I would get caught in a storm. My compromise was that I would turn and take a different route back towards the direction of the station. This direction seemed to have a bit more liveliness to it. I found a large park with a baseball field and a large dirt plot that had some older people playing a game with what looked like large golf clubs and some kind of ball, I still have no idea what they were doing but they appeared to be enjoying themselves. When I was walking, across the street was a game center, but of course it was one of those streets that could only be crossed with an elevated walk way. I wanted to try and get over there but the sky was still making me nervous so I continued to move on. A little further down I saw a van with speakers on it. There were a few people inside and one was talking over the speakers. I couldn't understand really what she was saying but they waved which was nice. At this point I was getting a little paranoid that somehow I had overestimated my sense of direction and was not heading back towards the station, but after about 10 more minutes of walking I found myself back at the shrine. The sky had lightened up a bit so I decided to wander off in the opposite direction I had just came from but I didn't get too far when the wind started to pick up so I started walking back and just made it into the station when it started sprinkling.
I caught the train that I thought was going back to the airport, and I probably would have been okay except I decided to start writing this on the train and didn't notice until I was already like 6 stops past the point where the rail line I was on split off, one direction going towards the airport, where I needed to go, and one going off into the suburbs. Luckily I figured this out and was able to get off and take a train back to the station where the rail splits and get on the train to the airport.
By the time I got back, I was pretty tired. I decided to try to take a short nap so I wouldn't get too off on Japan time, but I ended up sleeping from like 3pm to 8:30pm. Whoops. Tomorrow is the big day: Move in to JCMU! Cannot wait to get there and meet my roommate and classmates!
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