Using Google maps I found a major shrine to the south west of Takamatsu. As such I decided to make a day trip out of it. It's about an hour ride from where I am staying inside Takamatsu. This first shrine is Kotohira-gu.
Some pictures on the way there and then of course more pictures as I'm there. I don't have a whole lot of time to get stories done tonight so it's going to be short!
Met a kind old lady while waiting for the train. She made her way to me with hesitance, I could see her coming out of the corner of my eye, and finally got close enough that I said hello. Then she was all about talking. Sadly for both of us, my Japanese is horrible! I did at least do well enough to give her my name and ask for hers. She was very sweet. We parted ways after getting on the train but she came and sat by me to say "Farewell" when her stop came up. That's when I got the photo with my phone. First genuine attempt at a conversation? If I can call it that. I enjoyed it either way. It doesn't really bug me to not have any idea what's going on.
It's just me getting myself around and I don't really have anyone to ask questions. Which lead me to the apparent back way up to the shrine. There's two: the stairs below. And then the winding road that comes back around. Guess which is easier, quicker, and used by everybody else? Oh well, I got some nice shots of the forest as a result. You should aslo
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as well as
. Blogger doesn't really handle those too well yet so it's better to see them on Google+. The first is a side path in the forest.
Sorry the photos may not be the best. I have to kind of blind fire as the chromebook doesn't really like to look at large image files. So I'm going off of thumbnails. In the bunch somewhere is a cute little girl. She was reaaaaaaally cute and so shy when her mother had her say Hello after I had. I wanted to offer to give her candy but didn't want to overstep my bounds. Super cute though.
Someone with more knowledge than I or the time to look it up right now will have to tell me why there's all the boats going on at this shrine. At the top there was a submarine. Don't ask me! Not a clue! I feel bad for whoever carried it up there though. Also I imagine the black and white horse have some significance.
The blossoms are juuuust barely starting to show here. In Takamatsu castle area there's tons of trees ready to go boom. Makes me a little sad that I'm not here later. But I'll see more and will be back around this area (but in Osaka/Kyoto/Nara) right at full bloom. Tomorrow I think I'm heading to Hiroshima if not farther south to see as much as I can of the blooms there.
Some foods, ice cream with a honey syrup. And my solution to my phone dying. Since I'm using it to get around everywhere it doesn't make it all the way through the day. I got back to my hotel tonight with ~2% left on it. And that's with me trying to conserve the juice. The portable charger will hopefully give me some of the freedom I want.
Beef udon (at least that's what it tasted like. Think if you mixed beef jerky with a miso and added noodles. That's about what it was. And yes, it was good).
And a little extra surprise! It's entirely raw footage mind you, so don't expect too much.