We visited the hugely famous shrine In the city of Izumo yesterday, the day the typhoon was hitting Tokyo. We were on the other side of Japan so only got gray sky some rain and a lot of wind. It didn’t stop our guides from volunteering to drive us 2 hours to see the shrine and Mr. Nagata’s dye studio. Trains were shut down and we could never have gotten there on our own. Besides the guides translated for us. this is a shrine not to be missed. It’s impressive straw structure is its distinguishing feature in the guidebooks. [click photos to enlarge]
The roof structure is also well known. Note the threatening sky.
I couldn’t resist making a video of the sound of the wind and the blowing of the little white wishes tied on the wires.
Waiting for the bullet train on the platform takes experience. You have to know where to stand for the cars with non reserved seats. And you want to be first in line if there will be a lot getting on. The bag shown was holding the place first in line while its owner found a bench to sit on. We took an express train to Okayama and then the bullet train on to Kyoto today.
The sky the day after the typhoon was dramatic at first then just sunny with clouds in Kyoto later in the day.
The moon came out over Kyoto tonight after a breezy fresh day of blue sky, puffy clouds, and about 70 degrees. Even though the typhoon didn’t actually strike here the air seemed remarkably fresh and clean.
We saw an excellent exhibition called, “Dress? Code: Are You Playing Fashion?” today at the National Museum Of Modern Art. These socks in the museum shop tickled me. Enlarge do you can read all of the titles.
So glad you missed the typhoon – it was a big one. The Izumo shrine looks very beautiful!