Mikimoto and the Wedding Rocks

Again, Chris worked all week so there was not much travelling to do.  We went out with Chris’s co-worker each night.  Chris’s co-worker speaks some Japanese and reads too so we will probably keep him for a little while longer.  While ordering at restaurants is certainly interesting when you don’t have pictures of English, it sure is nice to know what you are going to get.  This week we went to several Izakayas which are popular restaurants in Japan serving a wide range of foods at relatively low prices and often offering unlimited drink deals.  On Tuesday we went to a place called Yagya which looked more like a temple from the outside than a restaurant.  We had something somewhat similar to Shabu Shabu, the main difference being you are not cooking the food in a broth but instead on a small grill in the center of your table.  On Wednesday we went to a Yakatori place right downstairs in the train station.  Yakatori is grilled chicken on a stick; we had lots of different varieties.  On Thursday we were in the mood for something different.  Chris had seen a happy hour sign outside of a restaurant in the hotel, 2 drinks for 1000 yen from 5-7 plus they had a Marriott burger!  We were in the mood for a burger but we figured we would pay a lot for it.  We were right, but it was one of the best burgers we ever had, either because we wanted it so bad or it really was good.  Friday we went back to Tori Tori Tei where we had gone last week and really liked it.  This is a chain restaurant around Nagoya which has a boisterous, smoky atmosphere but they have small, inexpensive dishes that we could all share.  We also had coupons from last week for 105 yen beers (about $1) which we had to use.  We had the hotel make us a reservation because the place like many, is tiny.  We arrived and they sat us immediately and we ate.

 

Some of the little dishes that we all shared

There was a birthday going on.  The whole restaurant joined in the celebration.  What you see here is about a third of the restaurant so you can see these are tiny places.

Outside of Tori Tori Tei.  Chris had to walk into the street to get this shot.

On Saturday we headed out of town for the day.  We took advantage of our rail pass and headed to Mikimoto Pearl Island, which is about an hour and 40 minute train ride outside of the city.  Jackie had mentioned to Chris yesterday that we should buy our train tickets the day before but he didn’t think the train would be that crowded so we didn’t buy them.  We had plans for a 9:35 train.  We ate breakfast and headed downstairs, leaving our room at 9:15.  We needed to first buy the tickets and we had to go to the ATM in the post office before boarding our train.  This train had reserved and non-reserved seats but no green car.  The obvious difference between the non-reserved and reserved is that you are either guaranteed a seat or not.  We went to the ticket office, asked for 2 tickets to Toba (the station we needed to get off at) and we were told no reserved tickets were available.  Not good.  So we headed to the platform not sure if we’d get a seat or not.   With the rail pass on non-reserved trains you don’t need a ticket, you just show your pass.  If you want a reserved seat you need a ticket.  We boarded the train and there were no seats.  Yup, standing room only.  It was certainly not overly crowded but 1 hour and 40 minutes standing was not going to be cool.  After maybe the second stop and about a half hour a pair of seats opened up and we grabbed them.  We arrived at the Toba station, the last station on the line (by now the train was about empty) at about 11:15 and headed over to the Pearl Island.  On the way to the island, which is only about a 5 minute walk from the train station, we saw a pretty cool, Chinese looking boat that was pulling up to the dock.  We were impressed with the intricate artwork, especially on the bow.  We later learned that this boat takes people to an aquarium out in the harbor.

 

According to Wikipedia, the island is known as the birthplace of cultured pearl aquaculture and it belongs to Mikimoto Pearl Museum Co.  The company runs the island as a tourist attraction, and exhibits pearls, pearl craft goods, and holds shows featuring ama divers.  There was a museum inside explaining how pearls are made and cultivated as well as numerous artifacts made of pearls.  We thought the coolest thing to see were the ama divers.  Ama are Japanese divers famous for diving for pearls.  Most of these divers are women and they dive without scuba gear or air tanks.  They can dive well into old age because the older divers are generally able to stay underwater longer than younger divers.  What impressed us most about these divers most was how cold the water was and how little clothing these women had on.  The water temperature according to the sign outside was 48 degrees F and the divers were wearing white, seemingly light suits.  They put on a show for about 10 minutes showing how they dive for the pearls. While this method of collecting pearls is mostly obsolete now due to the dangers involved with deep diving (up to 125 feet) and new methods to cultivate pearls without the need to dive for them, the show was still impressive.

The bridge out to Pearl Island

Divers arriving by boat for their dive

 

First catch of the day

Back in the boat.  Notice the heater in the center of the boat.

After leaving Pearl Island we headed back to the train station and boarded a train for a quick ride one station stop back towards Nagoya to see the Meoto Iwa, or wedding rocks.  Along the short walk to the station we noticed some cool tiles that detailed either the city flower, the city fruit, or the city bird.  We took a picture of the city tree. 

Luckily we did not have to adhere to this warning

Train to Nagoya

About a 15 minute walk from the train station just off shore are two rocks.  Meota means couple.  These two rocks are very sacred to the Shinto religion.  The larger rock is the husband and the smaller rock is the wife.  They are connected by a sacred rope which weighs over a ton.  The rope is replace three times a year in a ceremony which apparently is so important is makes the news every time.  According to Shinto legend the Japanese islands were created by this couple.  Next to the rocks is an interesting shrine, Futami Okitama Shrine.  Near the shrine are many images of frogs.  Each frog shaped figure has a unique aspect to it.  It is said that if worshippers would provide the shrine with an image of a frog then their wishes would come true.

Along the walk from the station

The Shrine

Just outside of the shrine

After visiting the husband and wife rocks and the frogs we were hungry.  Near the shrine there were several places to eat, none of which had English menus, but they did have pictures so we went inside.  It was pretty cold outside so we each got a bowl of soba noodles, Jackie’s with tempura and Chris’s with lobster, which we think is a local specialty.  When we ordered we did not know we were getting lobster but it was pretty good.  We also got a beer and we were surprised to see that the label of the Asahi beer (Asahi is a popular beer in Japan) was localized: it had Ama divers on the label, seagulls, and lobsters!  Now we will be checking beer labels as we travel around the country.

Seagulls, lady divers, lobster and beer!

Our restaurant in the middle

After eating we walked back to the train station and waited for our train back to Nagoya.  We did not get a reserved seat mainly because the tiny train station was not staffed.  But it didn’t matter because when the train pulled in it was mostly empty.  By the time we got back to Nagoya, however, it was standing room only once again.

When we got back to Nagoya we bought train tickets for tomorrow’s trip to Takayama (we learned our lesson).  We were able to get our green car seats.  We also got some dinner which we brought back to our room and we got some more cash.  We then had the unpleasant job of packing all of our stuff up because we are checking out on Sunday (only to check back in on Monday).  The hotel is making us pack our stuff.  They will hold our luggage for us but we guess they want the room to be available just in case.