This was a very special excursion that I really wanted. Have you been to Disneyworld and seen the Japanese Pavilion with the reddish shrine in the lake? Well, Disney doesn’t build anything by chance. There is a reason. Here goes!
This should look familiar. There is a duplicate At Epcot except the color is perhaps slightly different. But this shrine is just a small part of a Buddhist Temple area. Most of the island is a temple which is really now a tourist destination. Again the lines were huge because it is Golden Week in Japan. Typically Golden Week is annual and most businesses are closed for the week. This year with the Emperor abdicating and his son becoming the new Emperor, japan extended this to 10 days with everyone off work.
This is part of the Temple area. Again notice the crowds. But we could walk through, slowly.
Up close it looked really interesting.
But the island has become home for wild and protected deer. They are everywhere.
Even the cafes in the tourist area includes the deer. It was fun wondering the shops and the temple. One typical item used in Japan is a wooden rice paddle. So they are found in every tourist souvenir shop with pictures and Japanese letters. We wanted one and found a reasonable sized one with the shrine on it. I found a really nice one with the shrine carved into really good quality wood. Of course it was 6 foot tall. Not too practicle to bring home.
Being a tourist area they also sell lots of street food. Like ice cream. Notice all of the colors. What interested Kathy the most was the rally large cone with white ice cram and brown specs. Kathy was wondering with all of the deer roaming around in the crowd, what those brown specs were. There were lots of brown specs on the sidewalks. We avoided walking on them.
When we got back to the ship we were greeted by many of the staff waiting in a line by the gangway. This lady is Beth. She is one of the Viking Vocalists. We have been to a bunch of their performances and all 4 of them know us very well by name. She is from London and we have shared stories about the West End Theater in London. I got a big hug also but no photo.
Johnson's Travel 