Golden Week, Mountemplefest 2010 Day 2: Who could have known that Nobunaga had already learned of the coming of the feline aliens in 2317?

Unlike potato chips, sometimes one majestic purple mountain is enough for a person. On day 2 of my journey through Japan I teach women about Christian love, save a kid from an exploding mochi factory, and become mayor of Ise city.

There isn’t really that much in Ise (besides the Ise Shrines) so I went directly to Geku (外宮, outer shrine).

Both main shrines (outie and innie) are sacred so you can’t enter nor can you even take pictures of the shrines from inside the gate. I kept trying to secretly take pictures in the anti-photography area but they had many snipers set up to headshot anyone trying to pull that; after respawning a couple times I just gave up, deal with it.

Chase uses camera shot, it’s not very effective…

The main shrine, Naiku (内宮, inner shrine), is far away from the outer shrine (partially because the Japanese of 7th century Japan knew of the existence of cars in the future and were big proponents; however since Japanese people don’t live 1300 years they themselves never used any motorized transportation). Situated in the same area as the main shrine is the prime tourist-y shops. They’re mostly restaurants and gift shops but most of them hold a special, tasty surprise that makes them crowded most of the time, Ise udon. This is basically regular udon soup with a more concentrated sauce so if you don’t like Japanese flavors you probably won’t like this at all.

You can’t get to Naiku until you cross the river styx, which can be very scary at this time of year (so many lost souls).

The father the son and the holy gundam.

Although Ise is small and mostly boring, it’s still worth the cost of a train ticket to visit at least once. Since the Ise temples (and bridge) are rebuilt every 20 years some of the best times to see the temple occur every 20 years. Personally, I hope to see the temples when they are rebuilt in 2013. Then again, if it takes me exactly 4 months to do 初詣 (Hatsumode) I have a feeling that I might not make it.

A whole new wooooooorld.