Field Trip

(A traditional looking house at Edo "Warp" Station)

Last Saturday (November 21, 2009) was our field trip with Murayama-sensei (History professor) to go to three places: Edo "Warp" Station, Temple, and Kashima Shrine. It was such a fun experience, especially the Edo Warp Station, because it showed me how the Edo Period looked with the traditional houses, boats, and bridges. Another thing that is interesting about this place is that they film dramas and movies there. Two of them are Jin and Sakuran. Unfortunately, they were not filming when we went because they were trying to fix some parts of the place.

(Imitation of the Gate of the castle during the Edo Period)

Our next stop was at a temple (sorry I forgot the name of the temple). The temple was built 300 years ago and some of the parts of the temple are still preserved. There was a monk who was kind enough to tour us around the temple and explain the nuances of the things around the temple like how the garden (にわ) was made in a way to calm the people who are visiting the temple. The place had a peaceful feeling and it was an honor to be able to visit such an old, historic site.


One of the most interesting things that we have seen during our trip was the Big Buddha (大仏).

One of the exchange students from Fresno was so fascinated by it that he researched about this Big Buddha. It is called Ushiku Great Buddha (Ushiku Daibutsu) and it is apparently it was twice as big as the Statue of Liberty!

(Picture with the priestesses of Kashima Shrine)

Our last stop was at a shrine called Kashima Shrine. It was very fun because that was the first time I have gone to a shrine. I got my first omikuji! Omikuji (おみくじ) is a fortune slip that you can get from a shrine. You usually pay 100 or 200 yen depending on what you want to know. Omikuji usually includes one's fortune about life, love, family, money, and work. The fortune slip will tell you if your luck is great, good, not so good, or bad luck. When a person gets a bad luck, he or she ties the slip to a string, so your bad luck will disappear. My luck for this year is "okay," so I hope that the rest of this year will be okay.

(My so-so omikuji)