Kii Katsura day 2

On our second day staying at Hotel Urashima we started with a buffet breakfast (with some western food luckily, fish for breakfast didn't sound that appetizing to me). After we ran around a lot to try and figure out bank cards we headed out on the bus to one of the UNESCO temples for the area ( Kumano Nachi Taisha). The whole area is full of temples and old pilgrim ways. You can walk all the trails connecting the temples (the Kumano Kodo) and we did a short trip walking up from Daimonsaka. In the rain. It started pouring rain during the night and didn't let up the entire day. We borrowed umbrellas from the hotel and never put them down! From Daimonsaka up to the temple it was old stone stairs, very beautiful, especially in the rain actually, all the mist and fog hanging in the trees and bamboo.

The bamboo parts of the forest were really different to see, as tall as the trees and something I've never seen before (well, except on tv).

First we saw a Shinto temple with a priestess and priest who were performing a ceremony for a Japanese couple with their child. There were lots of people who would come up to the temple to pray.


You would first wash your hands (purify) using water that came out of a dragon mouth fountain and filled a basin.

Then you would approach the temple, throw in some money in the collection box, ring the bell, bow twice, clap your hands twice, pray and end with another bow. Around the corner from the Shinto temple was an old buddist temple (if I remember correctly it was 460 years old but older buildings had stood there before but been burned down).

As we continued walking we saw the three storied pagoda temple with the waterfall that was associated with the temple. From my vague recollection (and there is very little description in English), Shinto is associated with nature worship and the object of worship in the region was the (very pretty) waterfall. I think it is also the tallest waterfall in Japan. This is why the temples are all around.

After walking to view the waterfall we caught the bus back into Kii Katsura and then on the little boat to the hotel. We tried the hot baths again, the second bath I tried was more dramatic, it is cut into the cliff face, a big cave cut into the rock which opened out directly with a view of the Pacific Ocean. The edge of the bath was in stone and the waves would sometimes splash up to the height of the bath. I could sit leaning against the rocks and watch the sun set over the ocean (yes, it was still raining, apparently there was a typhoon making it's way landward).

There were instructions in English about how the Japanese take a bath. There are the bath pools, and along the walls are low plastic stools with buckets (all made to look like wood) next to facets which have an attached shower head. You first enter the bath with only a small towel and sit on the stool (you aren't supposed to stand) and rinse yourself. Then you go into the bath to warm up, then get out and wash yourself with the supplied shampoo, conditioner and soap, rinse and go in the bath for a final soak. When you are in the bath you can put the small towel on your head or carry it and leave it on the stones near where you sit. I must say, I had seen various parts of the process in the various anime that I have seen over the years, it was interesting to see that it was relatively true to life.

In the evening for the buffet dinner it was in a different room, still full of people, most who were wearing the hotel supplied bathrobes that you also wear when you go to the baths. We ate more sushi and other asian dishes and there was a cook in this room who cut the tuna. They had two huge tuna fish (on ice) which had been gutted and it was announced that the chef was going to prepare the next tuna fish. Many people (including me) gathered around to watch him cut it up with what must have been a very very sharp knife since it slid through the fish like butter. There was applause as he made his various cuts and the remains of the fish were set out with a spoon for people to pick the meat off.