Inuyama

Despite waiting so long to write this post, I can still vividly remember driving with my host parents into the nearby town of Inuyama, seeing its castle in the distance as we parked the car and began walking up the mountain. This event took place on the 19th of October, 2008.

Our walk led us to a shrine, still decorated for the "Shichi-Go-San" festival, or "Seven-Five-Three," which celebrates girls turning 7, boys turning 5, and both genders turning 3. Traditionally these ages were when many infants would have already died of disease, so it's a young coming of age where families dress kids up in kimonos and even suits to bring them to Shinto shrines to pray for their continued health. That must have been why my host parents dressed me up and took me there, because we did some praying too! Those kids in kimonos were so cute. haha


We eventually made our way to the castle, which was a step back in time to ancient Japan. Unlike Nagoya castle, this one has been preserved from when it was originally used, and rather than being filled glass casings and shops it was quite plain apart from the occasional artifact. One of my favorite parts of the castle was getting to the top and looking over the town and land in general. It was really an incredible sight, and site, so please take a look at all the photos.


The latter half of our adventure for the day brought us into the town of Inuyama itself. If I was thinking at the time that we would simply be looking for an early dinner and leaving, I couldn't have been more wrong. lol We firstly entered a building that manufactured dolls, very intricate and mechanized dolls used for everything from serving tea to waving at people and doing tricks during the festivals. Another building held the tall floats that are famously carried in matsuris, and of course models of those floats right next to them.

The town of Inuyama (literally translated Dog Mountain) was very interesting. Like its castle, it looks like it was picked up and dropped right into modern Japan. The streets were narrow and the houses had that certain feudal architecture made almost entirely from wood. We walked through one model house that still had a tub that you heat by fire and tatami mats that covered the entire floor.

One lady that we met made the entire trip to town worth it. We were walking past her shop and she called us in, asking about whether I was studying abroad and whether the couple with me was my host family. She then introduced herself as a calligrapher who hosts students from around the world who come to play instruments. Her English was almost non-existent, but she said that they communicate through music. It turned out that she was an expert calligrapher who goes around the world herself doing demonstrations, and she even offered to write my name in kanji as a gift! Luckily my host parents and I had already decided it would be 愚冷倶 - which means something like foolish cold group, giving a kind of yakuza feel - and we took pictures and videos of her writing it on a block of wood. Just, wow. She's one of the people I think about when I remember how nice everyone in Japan is. I would eventually return to pay her another visit when Jasmin came to Japan.


The last place that we went, after the sun had set, was a shrine called Tagata Jinja that my host parents told me was famous all across Japan. "Why's it so famous, anyway?" I asked my host parents. "It looks rather small, nothing special." "Oh..", they looked at each other. "You'll understand soon enough." As we made our way down the path I could tell that the rocks had some weird formations, and when we arrived at a small building my suspicions were confirmed. It was a fertility shrine.


Specifically, a male-oriented fertility shrine. There's a matsuri that goes along with the shrine, as well as a supermarket nearby that sells edible souvenirs. You know what I'm talking about. My host parents said there was a female version not too far from there, but they thought I would have a nose bleed if they took me there first. XD

And that concludes our fantastic trip to Inuyama.

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Video on YouTube