Living in Tokyo for any length of time tends to instill certain expectations in a person. For example, I have come to expect a great variety of fascinating things to do and see wherever I go. Another expectation I have is that each of these places will have already been filled with enough people to populate a small nation by the time get there. It was with this surprisingly erroneous expectation that I, along with my wife and a friend, embarked on a trip to Ise.

Continue reading A Blast in the Past

Recently, I had the good fortune to be able to go on a trip to Ise with my wife and a friend of ours.  Ise is a very old and traditional place in Japan with a great deal of historical significance.  It’s also very cold.  Our main objective was a visit to Ise Jingu, the large Shinto shrine there.  Apparently it was a good idea, because the rest of Japan decided to join us there.  As anyone who has ever lived in Tokyo knows, it’s a very rare case indeed to go anywhere without a hazardously large amount of people.  I had hoped that Ise, being far out in the countryside, would be different.  It was not.

Continue reading A Trip to Ise