Today we are traveling from Kyoto to Ise to meet my friend Hisashi to visit his family and the “holiest city in all of the world”!
I am glad that we got an early start because the later train from Nagoya to Iseshi was full.
We are very relaxed now on the Shinkansen.
Shinkansen
It was fairly easy to leave Kyoto because we made an early start. I was very pleased that we had time to grab some food for the train and shop for Omiyage for Hisashi’s family.
Omiyage
We changed trains once and we will soon see my friend, his family and his beautiful home city.
Ise
We are with my friend Hisashi-sensei. He is the best guide in all of Japan and perhaps the world.
He is so considerate to have taken time off of work and plan activities for us all.
Most importantly, I am able to visit his home city and his family home and meet his family.
Our tour guide is teaching us about Japan, Japanese, and introducing us to Japanese people.
Secondarily but also importantly, we visited the Shrine of Ise.
We are also enjoying ourselves very much. We had delicious Ise Udon.
We cooled off after the shrine visit with shaved ice.
Tonight we are going to dinner with the rest of the family.
Dinner
We had the nicest diner with Hisashi and his family.
There are many teachers in the family.
We felt very comfortable with the family.
We had a new dish. Tea poured over tuna on rice.
We all learned a lot this day and made important connections between our two families.
