Kyushu Island, Japan

On Tuesday , we flew to Kyushu Island in the south west of Japan where we would spend the next few days immersed in Japanese culture. Along the way to our first night's destination, we visited a shrine in Aso. All of the shrines have little altars where you can pray for good health, a good marriage, or whatever you feel you need, and each has its own particular rituals of bowing, tossing coins, walking in circles, etc. Tonight was spent at a Japanese resort where we all dressed in yakatas (robes) and obi sashes for kaiseki,  traditional Japanese dinner with nine courses. The menu included some strange things: raw horse meat, tofu wrapped deep-fried chestnuts, raw shrimp and sea bass with lime juice, sashimi including whelk, snapper, scallops, mackerel, cuttle fish, and amberjack. Also, a steamed dish of eel and root vegetables, a hot pot for cooking at the table beef and red rock fish!

Next day we headed to Yufuin and along the way stopped at a monastery to spend the morning with Buddhist Monks. We had a calligraphy lesson, participated in a meditation experience, and the highlight of our visit, a fire ceremony. After we each wrote a wish on a stick, the monks led us to their Buddist temple where we were privileged to be a part of their fire ceremony by tossing our sticks into the fire as they performed a ritualistic service. Lunch both today and yesterday were at small rural family run restaurants where we ate simple meals of a main course of chicken, beef or tofu accompanied by miso soup, salad and rice.

On to Yufuin where we will spend two nights at a traditional ryokan. I am now sitting in the living room of our ryokan at a table less than two feet off the floor, on a seat that sits on the floor, with my legs stretched out underneath. We do not sleep on the floor although there are mats in the closet for those who choose to. We have beds laid out on platforms. It is indeed just as you see in pictures and movies. This morning we visited a cultural center where we watched demonstrations in the arts of indigo dying, wood turning, paper making, and glass blowing, and four of us had fun dying our own
scarves. Later we all had Yufuin burgers for lunch.  ;)

Shinto Shrine

Traditional dinner, wearing yukatas, with Keiko, our interpreter

Buddhist Temple

Beginning of Fire Ceremony

Fire Ceremony

The two Buddhists

Living area of the ryokan

Paper making

Indigo dying teacher with my scarf