Excursion to Ibaraki prefecture

Our good friend Matsuoka-san was taking his family on a tour all the way to Kasama, located in Ibaraki prefecture, about 100 kilometers North of Tokyo. He was kind enough to ask us to join, and we were very happy indeed to accept his invitation.

Our first stop was Izumo shrine, apparently one of the most important religious institutions in Kasama. The most remarkable feature of the shrine is the thick rope that decorates the main building (apparently it forms a bond between the humans and the spirits that dwell in the shrine). The shrine itself is quite new, so not that remarkable (there is an old shrine behind the new building, but it was closed so we couldn't visit).

The shrine is located on a hilltop, so there are quite nice views over the surrounding countryside. The monks even have electric buggies to take them up and down the hill. The touristy stuff out of the way, we headed off to have lunch at a soba place (seems to me that they often have soba shops near temples and shrines in Japan, not sure why?) It was rather delicious, as expected.

Our next stop was another temple - this one we visited since Matsuoka-san's wife's cousin is the head monk there. Or, as it turns out, used to be, apparently he'd changed temples recently. However, his successor was kind enough to let us take a look at the temple in spite of it being closed. I really loved this temple - not sure if it's because we had the privilege of having the main monk explain the history of the place (in Japanese of course, so we were rather heavily depending on Matsuoka-san's explanations here...).

The temple gardens were great, and there was a cemetery as well, with a big bell that one could pay 100 Yens to ring. As you might have guessed, I had to do it to satisfy the urges of my inner child (??). All in all, a very interesting experience!

The real reason for us to come to Katama was actually pottery - Katama is very famous for its pottery, apparently. There are plenty of local producers, apparently, but there is also a kind of pottery center that houses plenty of shops. And next to the shop collection, located on a hilltop, there is the Ibarakai pottery museum, which we ended up visiting. It's a pretty interesting place, there's a kind of observation platform from where you can see the experts working their craft.

Of course, there is a rather big gift shop as well, where they sell the pottery. It was actually quite reasonably priced, considering it's all hand made.

Sadly enough, people seemed to be more keen on playing Pokemon Go than checking out the pottery. Even adults! I can confirm that Pokemon Go has hit Japan in a big way indeed - not very surprising, I suppose...

Our next stop on our little road trip was in Ushiki, which is famous as being the home of the largest Daibutsu (Big Buddha!) in Japan. It stands an impressive 120 meters in height, making it the 3rd highest Buddha statue in the world. However, apparently the statue is a bit controversial, as it's not a religious statue, rather it was constructed (in 1993)  by a Japanese company organizing funerals... Anyway, be that as it may, we were unfortunately not able to visit the Buddha as we arrived too late... So we had to content with observing it over a fence from the car park. Oh well...

Then, it was time to head back to Tokyo. But to finish off a splendid day, Matsuoka took us to a fantastic restaurant located in Adachi, near their house. The food, mainly fish, was predictably delicious.

So, a great day out in the countryside, then. A big thanks to Matsuoka for taking us out on a tour with his family!