Going to Ise: Things on Google Maps Are Closer Than They Appear

Turns out that I was at the outer shrine that first day in Ise.

I'm going to Ise Shrine today with some friends, but I remembered that I still hadn't finished writing the post from my last Ise trip. At that time, I had thought that I had visited Ise Shrine, but maybe I hadn't really. We'll find out today. Either I'll be going to the exact same spot, or finding a new treasure.

"What is so special at Ise?" you may ask. That is a valid question, but one I will allow Wikipedia to take over. Wiki, what are your thoughts on the matter?

 Bird view Area of the Jingū(Naikū)

Ise Grand Shrine (伊勢神宮 Ise Jingū^?) is a Shinto shrine dedicated to goddess Amaterasu-ōmikami, located in the city of Ise in Mie prefecture, Japan. Officially known simply as Jingū (神宮^?), Ise Jingū is in fact a shrine complex composed of a large number of Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, Naikū (内宮^?) and Gekū(外宮^?). 

Bird view Area of the Jingū(Gekū)

The Inner Shrine, Naikū (also officially known as "Kotai Jingū"), is located in the town of Uji-tachi, south of central Ise City, and is dedicated to the worship of Amaterasu-ōmikami. The Outer Shrine, Gekū (also officially known as "Toyouke Daijingu"), is located about six kilometers from Naikū and dedicated to Toyouke no ōmikami, the deity of agriculture and industry.^[1] Besides Naikū and Gekū, there are an additional 123 Shinto shrines in Ise City and the surrounding areas, 91 of them connected to Naikū and 32 to Gekū.^[2] 

Purportedly the home of the Sacred Mirror, the shrine is one of Shinto's holiest and most important sites. Access to both sites is strictly limited, with the common public allowed to see little more than the thatched roofs of the central structures, hidden behind four tall wooden fences. The high priest or priestess of Ise Shrine must come from the Japanese imperial family, and is responsible for watching over the Shrine.
The two main shrines of Ise are joined by a pilgrimage road that passes through the old entertainment district of Furuichi. The region around the shrines consists of the Ise-Shima National Park and numerous other holy and historic sites including the "wedded rocks" (Meoto Iwa), and the Saiku (the site of the Heian period imperial residence).^[3]

Nice work, Wiki. That will be all for now. I think that I may have gone to the outer shrine before, which means if today is the inner shrine, I would have seen it all!! Mwahahaha!! But how did I go to the outer shrine before? Isn't Ise far away from Shima? Well, it all happened on Google Maps...

A really cool building I found in Ise. Satoko says
that it is a boarding house for foreigners.
I'd love to see the inside!

... My city (which is much more of a town - sorry, Shima, but let's be honest with ourselves, okay?) doesn't have many things that larger cities do. Oh, it has things, and maybe imitation places of the larger towns, but not exactly the same thing. For example, we have banks here. And some of the banks are related to other banks in the larger cities in that they are all in the same network or company, but aren't exactly the same. So if you have an account at one of the larger city banks (like I do), you can withdraw money at the smaller ones, but you can't do anything else. And for banks in Japan, if you want anything changed (I feel like I've said this before), you have to be there in person on regular business days between the hours of 9 and 5 with all forms of identification and all documents relating to the items you wish to change. I wanted to change my address, the spelling of my name, and get a new cash card, so I had to go to the closest bank I could: Ise.

Finally in Ise I found the entrance to the
outer shrine.

Trying to live on the cheap, I went to a nearby, but surprisingly small train station. On the map, it looked really close, but I needed to get on these side streets and nothing was straight and there were these hills, and Japan doesn't believe in street signs, so like any good foreigner, I ended up getting lost. Wandering around for a bit, I started to head back in the opposite direction, when I heard the sound of an engine. It was the first car I had seen all day, so I stuck out my thumb hoping to get some proper directions at least. The owner of the car was extremely concerned that I wouldn't get there, so he offered me a ride. This may seem extremely dangerous, but let us all remember that I am in rural and safe Japan. It is actually better that I hitch-hiked with this little Japanese grandpa because he had such a heavy old person's accent and dialect that I couldn't understand 60% of his banter as we went up and down the roads. Something about his daughter.....English.....living in Japan.....fine weather today.....going to the market..... But he seemed happy for me just to smile and nod, say "really?" and "ooh, how nice" a lot.

Would you like to sweep this ENTIRE walkway
(it was very long) for a living?

As I said, he took me to the very small station, but it wasn't a station at all. It was a platform. There was nothing else there. Next to the platform, there was a small pond. With ducks. That was it. There was nothing else there. I don't even remember seeing a timetable. There was a machine that asked you to take a ticket, which I did, and you were expected to either pay when you got off or pay the conductor. I'll be going back there again today, so hopefully I don't get lost again.














The rest of the day was rather uneventful. I had brushed up on my bank terminology before going and I already had the maps set and ready to go, so I was able to get to the bank and then to the post office easily. I had everything in hand, so I changed all my information, update my bankbook, and chatted with all the people so that I would be able to access my money from Shima without more frequent trips to Ise. I finished all of this around noon, so I treated myself with a trip to the Outer Shrine, which was very close to the post office.

Not a riveting story, perhaps, but some interesting insights into life here in the land of the rising sun.

The bridge leading up to the outer shrine and a viewing area for the shrine lake.