Shaved ice, a shrine and Shaku
My friend Tawanda invited me to go and see the castle today and since I had two free tickets burning holes in my pockets, I gladly accepted. The tickets were from my moving in pack that I was given at the city hall when I registered my residence along with some free tickets to the gardens, museum and gallery which I plan to explore before they expire at the end of next month.
We decided to meet at noon and head for some shaved ice from a local shop：
Shaved ice is a very popular summer time desert in Japan; it is flavoured with fruits or sometimes other flavours and is a very light and refreshing desert so since the temperature has not dropped below 34 degrees, it was a welcome suggestion.
When we arrived, we were given an order card and number which meant that we had a time slot to come back to get the shaved ice as the shop is obviously very well known and many people come to enjoy the deserts. With our number in hand, we departed to kill some time before 13:00 when we could go back to order.
On the same street, we walked past a few places that showed off the history of Hikone with Samurai armour and a wall mural in one of the shops caught my eye.
Wandering down side streets and gawping at people's fantastic gardens like this one,
we came across a shrine where the monk was watering the gardens. He invited us in as he could see us hesitating at the gate and we started to look around. The gardens were very well cared for and the space was used very well - there were water features and statues even in such a small space. I asked if we could take pictures and came away with a few but they don't quite do it justice:
We weren't sure if we could go inside so our tried and tested method of hesitating in the doorway until we were invited inside saw us looking around the inner shrine. Once again, the gracious monk allowed pictures.
But this time, he one-upped himself and got us some garments to wear and what I have researched to be a Shaku (ritual baton) for our pictures inside the temple.
Despite the language barrier, he was very accommodating and told us how the white criss cross paper ribbon is to protect from and ward off evil spirits and taught us the correct way to approach a shrine. He said the Japanese approach by bowing twice, gently clapping your hands together in front of you twice, then bowing once more.
Although I could have stayed and chatted for longer, we were sweating like mad now as the heat reached it's zenith 36 degrees so we set off for the shaved ice. The menu was so tantalising, we wanted to eat it all but both settled for melon and it did not disappoint!
We decided to meet at noon and head for some shaved ice from a local shop：
When we arrived, we were given an order card and number which meant that we had a time slot to come back to get the shaved ice as the shop is obviously very well known and many people come to enjoy the deserts. With our number in hand, we departed to kill some time before 13:00 when we could go back to order.
On the same street, we walked past a few places that showed off the history of Hikone with Samurai armour and a wall mural in one of the shops caught my eye.
Wandering down side streets and gawping at people's fantastic gardens like this one,
we came across a shrine where the monk was watering the gardens. He invited us in as he could see us hesitating at the gate and we started to look around. The gardens were very well cared for and the space was used very well - there were water features and statues even in such a small space. I asked if we could take pictures and came away with a few but they don't quite do it justice:
We weren't sure if we could go inside so our tried and tested method of hesitating in the doorway until we were invited inside saw us looking around the inner shrine. Once again, the gracious monk allowed pictures.
But this time, he one-upped himself and got us some garments to wear and what I have researched to be a Shaku (ritual baton) for our pictures inside the temple.
Despite the language barrier, he was very accommodating and told us how the white criss cross paper ribbon is to protect from and ward off evil spirits and taught us the correct way to approach a shrine. He said the Japanese approach by bowing twice, gently clapping your hands together in front of you twice, then bowing once more.
Although I could have stayed and chatted for longer, we were sweating like mad now as the heat reached it's zenith 36 degrees so we set off for the shaved ice. The menu was so tantalising, we wanted to eat it all but both settled for melon and it did not disappoint!
{It was more green in real life - I didn't eat yellow ice!}
It was delicious and we even got some chunks of melon too which were really fresh. The lady who ran the shop told me that the ice comes from Nikko which is roughly 7 hours away! It really hit the spot and I felt cool from the inside out - of course, it wasn't to last...
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