Kibitsu-jinja

On August 26th, we headed to Kibitsu shrine in Okayama prefecture.  There is a tomb up in teh mountain here that legend states is that of Momotaro. I had explained about Momotaro in the blog post when we went to Megijima, which is also called Onigashima. Some believe that island to be the setting of the story where Momotaro forced the Oni (demons or ogres) out of the cave there.

 A shrine gateway along the path leading to the shrine

 A representation of Momotaro

 Inside, they had long hallways that we were able to walk through

 A side entrance to the shrine

 Yuki trying to get all the luck she can

 The Honden-Haiden is popular in Japan for its unique roof.

Awa Odori Festival

Awa Odori is a summer festival dance that is held in Tokushima. It is very popular throughout Japan, and in fact we saw cars with license plates from as far away as Tokyo, here to observe the dance festival.

 The Owa Dori dates back 400 years, and is part of the Obon, "festival of the dead". This is part of Japan's Buddhist heritage, and the belief that during this time of the year their ancestors can come back to visit.  

 The four day festival consists of 100,000 dancers and is the largest dance festival in Japan, drawing over one million spectators.

 The groups of performers, called ren, consist of dancers and musicians, typically playing the lute, drums, flute and bell.

People of all ages join in the dancing...

 ...from children...

 ...to seniors...

At certain intervals, the spectators are encouraged to join the dancing and travel the dance route with the performers.

Takamatsu summer festival fireworks

Every year throughout Japan, many cities hold summer festivals with fireworks and street parades. We went to the top of Mineyama mountain to watch the fireworks in Takamatsu. Imagine what I could have done if I had one of my tripods in Japan with me!

Planetarium in Niihama

After the stop at the castle, we continued on to the planetarium and museum. This planetarium held the top spot as the largest in the world until March, 2011 when the new planetarium in Nagoya was completed. The planetarium in Niihama is 30 meters (90 feet) diameter and can seat 300 people. The one in Nagoya is 35 meters (115 feet) diameter and can seat 350 people.

Entrance to the planetarium and museum

Once inside you have to go down some stairs and walk a path underneath the water (seen in the picture below). They have plexiglass so you can look up through the water, which gave a nice effect while viewing the building.

What self-respecting planetarium director in Japan would start a program without first showing Hello Kitty pictures? This planetarium has the ability to project 25,000 stars at once.

At the bottom of the stairs that leads to the dome, there is a representation of the relative distances of the orbits of some of the planets in our solar system.

Space suits

A chunk of iron that arrived as a meteor.

They also had a nice dinosaur exhibit.

 Along with many fossils

These are bones, teeth and husk from an ancient type of elephant.

 For those that think all the above is boring, the museum also has a number of more fun for kids style exhibits.

A race car and its engine

 Information on trains

Kawanoe Castle

On July 21st we headed to the museum and planetarium in Niihama. On the way, we stopped off at Kawanoe castle in Shikokuchuo. The castle was originally built in 1227, and fell to Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1585. The castle was torn down in 1611, so this is a replica castle that was built in 1988.

 The gate leading to the castle

 The castle itself, or at least the reconstruction of it.

 A wooden door which I can only guess would have been the entrance to the original castle

 Some old sword blades that are on display inside the castle.

 Samurai armor and weapons, on display inside the castle.

 a view from the top of the castle. The castle is situated on top of a small mountain, so there is a complete panoramic view of the city and the Seto inland sea. This city has a lot of paper factories which were clearly visible from here. 

The view from atop the castle showing the castle grounds with the Seto inland sea in the background.

Tokushima

On July 15th, we headed to Tokushima with Tokuda to see our friend Kohno.

The first thing we did was go to the top of Mt Bizan. From here we got a great view of Tokushima. There is also a ropeway from the Awa Dance Museum to the top of the mountain. We didn't take this since we drove most the way up.

After seeing the city from above, we went back down along the shoreline.

 Then we went to a place that makes all kinds of pottery. From large pots to small plates and tea cups.

 We even were able to go inside one of the furnaces they used for firing the pottery. It is hard to see in this small blog-sized picture, but the brick inside was actually melted.

We then went to a museum for the Bando POW camp. During WWI, Japan held up to their treaty with Britain and attacked German territory in Tsingtao, China. 3,900 German troops surrendered there and were held in camps throughout Japan. At this particular camp, they were given pretty free reign to do what they pleased, and many of them formed orchestras, produced plays, etc.

On June 1, 1918, the POWs performed Beethoven's ninth symphony. This had never been performed before in Japan, and they were able to do this with many instruments that were made by the POWs while in the camp.

When the war was over and the camp was closed, 63 of the German POWs chose to stay. This is how well they were treated. To me, an amazing contrast to the ferocity that Japan would display less than two decades later.

After we left the Bando Camp Museum, we headed to Oasahiko shrine.

One thing setting this shrine apart from many others of its size was the lack of steps.

There were two bridges here that were built by the German POWs from Bando camp. This is the other bridge made by the German POWs.

And with that we left the shrine, said goodbye to Kohno, and headed back.