Today was absolutely fabulous. After morning meetings with the superintendent of the Tanabe City Board of Education and with some parents on a local Parent Teacher Association, we spent the afternoon hours driving through lush, winding mountain roads, visiting several of the most famous Shinto shrines along the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage route. The weather was ideal, sunny but not too warm or humid, with cool breezes all day. I marveled at the skill of our bus driver who made turns along the sharp cutbacks of the narrow mountain roads. There were no guard rails to give us the appearance of safety, and deep gullies ran along the edges of the roads so as to catch heavy rainfall, or your car tires if you aren’t careful! We actually gave our bus driver a standing ovation as we departed, unscathed.
We visited many smaller shrines along the way and learned the rituals regarding when to wash your hands and mouth, then ring the bell to let the gods know you are here, bow, clap twice, make a wish, bow again. I was fascinated.
By far the grandest shrine we visited was the Hongu-Taisha shrine. We ascended perhaps 100 steps with white flags fluttering along the full length of the stairway.
I washed my hands at a beautiful fountain guarded by a dragon.
Pilgrims joined us, announcing their arrival with large conch shells
and then entering the main shrine to pray.
At a later stop, we walked through a gargantuan torii
into a large park where a woman sat playing her flute, surrounded by whispering trees.
On the bus ride back to the hotel, we even saw a wild monkey on the hillside which Timi, an art teacher, drew a sketch of.
It was truly a magical day.
0 comments:
Post a Comment