In the morning KIT's anthem woke us up, and first thing after brushing our teeth we went outside for a flag raising and some morning exercises/stretches acompanied by radio music. Then we had breakfast. They served toast, fruit salad, hard boiled eggs, corn chowder, and tea, and it was all really good. Then we boarded the busses to see some other places.
Our first stop was Wajima, a town known for it's Japanese Lacquerware. We went in the morning, and it must be a big shopping time for them on Saturday morning because all the shops on the streets had carts outside of their shops and were actively peddling. There were a lot of really old ladies with a small booth or maybe even just towels and newspaper to put their goods on and an umbrella to shade themselves from the sun. There was this one european looking building that was really out of place also:
This European style building was out of place
At one point, Xander bought what was basically a cooked squid or octopus on a stick with some sauce, and all the shop owners were telling him to eat it fast because the birds would try to take it. We thought they were joking, but later we did see an eagle divebomb one of us to try and get some food. We also found a hawk nest in one of the trees:
Hawk nest
After we were done buying souvenirs and food, we went to a nearby foot spa:
The water was pretty hot, but it was pretty comfortable. They had a few fountains outside and even a mini bath for pets. Next to that place was another Shinto shrine, so we went and looked around at that too:
Shinto Shrine in Wajima
We went to a restaurant to eat and then left for Sojiji Soin Temple. While we had seen a few Shinto shrines already, we hadn't seen any Buddhist temples yet. This one was pretty fancy.
The woodwork was apparently done without metal nails, just pieces of wood that fit together, and there were a lot of old artifacts and tons of valuables in the areas where you pray. Someone will have to explain to me why Buddhism, a religion in which one of the main pillars of their beliefs is to not want material goods, has so many gold and other valuables in it's temples.
Place where you pray
The Senseis were also telling me about how since the last time they were here there was a big earthquake that was centered nearby. You could see a lot of cracks in the floors and a section of the place was blocked off because it had been destroyed. They were rebuilding one of the buildings too.
There was a pile of the fancy Japanese "shingles" they use which I imagine were going to be for the new building. They were allowing people to write messages on them, perhaps in exchange for a donation:
'Shingles' for the new building
When we got back to the school, I went out to eat with Pei, student from RIT from Malaysia, to "Hige Cho" which I think means Long Beard and serves Taiwanese food. I got some green vegetables and spinach in sauce, and some maybe bean sprouts, and a bowl of rice and a half pint beer. The whole meal was only 550 yen or about 5$. The place was pretty fancy, and had a giant TV that was showing a soccer match between Japan and I think Thailand. Then a lot of us stayed up and partied with the SGE students.