A week on the road with the parents
Due to the little hick-up with the site this has now been . . . . 4 weeks? I dunno, pretty long time ago to be writing about it. So excuse me if I get some details wrong. I will ask my parents to edit it as well as write their own report about it. This last bit will be オランダ語で of course, but you’ll just have to stick with that and babelfish it or smthg.
It started on a friday night. I would go to Nara and meet my parents there. Except that . . . my parents were in Kyoto. This was a long time ago you understand. I can still blame my concussion for that eventhough I am perfectly fine at the time of writing this. Being somewhat limited in my dining choices in Sanda I was thrilled to go to a town where I knew some restaurants that serve proper Vegitarian food. So after 2 weeks of their digestive systems getting used to extraordinary amounts of rice they now had to deal with their son’s latest craze.
As I posted the pictures a while ago I will skip comments like: “The ryokan was quite nice” as you’ve already seen it. But I will draw attention to the parents tramping through the city in travelgear. I only met my parents in Kyoto, the first thing we did the next day was head to Nara. I had not yet been to nara, so the only thing I knew about it was that it was the seat of the original Emperor and that it had a lot of deer. Like, a LOT of deer. Besides that it had a lot of temples. In the temples it showed how great Buddha really is. That buddha stands at 14.98m tall and is housed in “reputedly the largest wooden building in the world”. As with most things in Japan there are legends and tales attached to this significant building. One of these stories is that one of the supporting posts in the Great Buddha Hall has a hole that has been bored through the base. Visitors try to pass through the hole which is said to be the same size as one of the Daibutsu’s nostrils. Legend has it that those who pass through it will be blessed with enlightenment in their next life. Children usually have no trouble getting through but adults sometimes get stuck and need to be pulled out.
Insert link to Youtube of singing monks when I upload it here
Next on the list was Koya-san. Koya-san is a holy place in Japan and the birthplace of Shingon Buddhism, one of the major forms of buddhism in Japan. It is also an important buryal place, any buddhist worth anything is burried there. So when the Buddha Maitreya appears they will be there to great him. At this time Kobo Daishi will wake from his meditation (No, after 1200 years he is not dead, just meditating) as his #1 fan.
For us, more important than all of that was the beautifull forest, the burial site’s atmosphere and the rich temples. Not to mention the bonus of getting my parents dressed up in Pyamas in the name of cultural enlightenment. /snigger
Onward to kii-hanto. Hanto means peninsula and peninsula means: Coastal vistas. Lots and lots of coastal vistas. Actually more coastal views than that further down in the photo list.
From Kushimoto we explored the countryside which included Japan’s biggest waterfall. Surrounded by an important temple of course.
From there we went to Shirahama, which only got us more coastal vistas. They sure were pretty to see. Even nicer than the pictures came out. But it doesn’t leave much to describe.
Of course, I had to work the next day so i said goodbye to my parents only to have them turn up on my doorstep the next day. I had mistakenly told them where I lived and the next day, after work, I got a phonecall from 2 distressed parents who were nowhere near where I lived, yet still in the right town. Apparently, the busstop called yurinokidai 4-chome stops in 6-chome. And the busstop in front of my flat (4-chome) is called akahidai (another city district) . . . Go figure.
During the time I spent with my parents I took it upon myself to introduce them to several different concepts of Japan, amongst which not least important was: The Food.
I introduced them to Okonomiyaki, takoyaki, yakisoba, kaiten zushi, ramen, onigiri and . . . natto.
Then it was again time to say goodbye. I will see them again September 1st. Untill that time . . . hmm, I should really call them soon. Untill that time I will ask them to do their own travel blog entry. We have not really heard how they fared in Hakone.
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You’ve been in Japan too long if
…a non-Japanese sits down next to you on the train and you get up and move. You’re not prejudiced, but who knows what they might do?