Day 5 - Kurashiki - First day of 2012 – Jūnihitoe Ceremony and Bikan Area

2011 was in the past and I was already in 2012. On top of that, I was blessed to be in my favourite holiday destination – Japan.

After such a nice day in the mountains and amazing food the first year of the year was going to be a truly religious experience. I went with my friend to give the first pray of the year in 2012.  According to the tradition we went to the most important shrine in Kurashiki called Achi-Jinja or  阿智神社  located on the top of a hill called  Tsurugatayama or 鶴形山.

This hill is located right in the middle of the cultural and touristic area called Bikan. Bikan due to its beauty and proper has been used in many movies and series that are uncommon on this side of the world.

View Achi Jinja - Kurashiki in a larger map

Day 3 in Kurashiki – City Escape to Hiroshima and Miyajima -広島市 宮島

The day before today, whilst visiting the shrine outside Kurashiki in Okayama prefecture, we were joking about doing something different since we had one spare day and we could leave Kurashiki day tour for the 1^st of January since almost everything was going to be closed.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park - 広島平和記念公園

Ise-Jingu 伊勢神宮 (Naikū (内宮) and Gekū (外宮))

Next stop Ise-jingu

I had read a lot about this sacred place and all I have in my mind is that Ise is like the Vatican City for the Catholics. The morning we left Kyoto was also going to be the first time I jumped on a car and hit the road in Japan. Couple of things on the road were similar but some others were definitely not.

The first thing that caught my attention was the GPS. I know, there’s nothing special about a talking GPS but perhaps what I found interesting was the voice and the tiny anime character who was giving us directions. My friend told me it was an old version and that hence she was not going to use it, because some parts of the way to Ise had recently changed.