Day 17 - Mitsuke Juku, And Shippei Taro The Mascot Dog, Walking The Tokaido Road In Japan
Day 17 - Mitsuke Juku, And Shippei Taro The Mascot Dog, Walking The Tokaido Road In Japan
Today, I was happy to have a rest day.
My plan was to check out of the hotel, go to Hamamatsu station and sit at the Starbucks for a few hours, so I could work on my notes, then take the train back to Iwata station and walk along the Tokaido to our new hotel.
I planned a short day of walking so I could hopefully get some rest and start healing.
For the last few days, Wendy has been asking me to change the walking plan, so we would not have to walk long days with our backpacks.
Her preference is to either leave the backpacks at the new hotel and adjust the walk to go backwards, or leave the backpacks at the train station and retrieve them at the end of the day.
But this is not really possible on many days, and our backpacks are so very light, that finally I told her to find a way to do it herself, while Jules and I will keep carrying our backpacks.
Wendy decided to skip our planned rest day, and instead to walk to the new hotel, leave them their backpacks and then take a taxi ahead, and walk back to the hotel, in order to shorten some of tomorrow’s walking distance.
Tomorrow we will walk with our full backpacks for more than 20 kilometers.
For Jules and I, it is no big deal, even as sick as I feel, but for her, it is too daunting, especially since the map shows a hilly terrain.
In Hamamatsu, there are three Starbucks cafes within the train station complex.
We chose the most comfortable Starbucks with the best seating, and sat there for over two hours, drinking tea, writing and catching up with our pilgrimage notes.
When it was time to leave, we took the train back to the town of Iwate, where we stopped walking yesterday.
We bought some food for our dinner tonight, because our hotel for the night had no vegetarian options in either of their restaurants.
It is an awesome hot springs hotel, with luxurious rooms which I love and wished that all of our hotels would be as awesome.
But as for food, they have a small French restaurant and a Tepanyaki restaurant, both not great for vegetarians.
From the Iwata train station, it was only a short walk north to connect back to the Tokaido road.
Iwate is a small and clean town, with comfortable sidewalks and lots of shops.
We arrived at Mitsuke Juku, and I walked through a gate that was labeled “The medicine gate of Mitsuke Juku.”
We also saw the site of the old Inn.
During the Edo period, honjin (Japanese inns) were designated as lodging facilities for feudal lords and nobles traveling along the highways at post towns.
Wakihonjin (Japanese-style inns) were accommodations to supplement the honjin (Japanese-style inns), and were second only to honjin in size and prestige. This inn, called Omikawaya, was originally a Honjin inn, but became a Wakihonjin, in 1805.
Mitsuke-juku during in the Edo period, had rows of houses along the Tokaido, including the inns.
Even today, it is a beautiful little town.
Wendy texted me that there was a cool cafe along the way, where they had eaten a good lunch.
I estimated that we could eat there also, although it would be a very late lunch.
As we got to the cafe, we met a mother and her daughter, who started chatting with us.
They were so curious about what we were doing in their town.
They told us that their names were Ayako, who is 13, and Hiroko, Ayako’s mother.
We told them that we were walking the Tokaido, and that we planned to eat lunch at the cafe.
Ayako said that they were also going to eat there, and that we must share a table.
Ayako, who had spent a few years in Canada because her father’s job stationed him there, spoke perfect English and was very happy to speak English again, now that she was back living in Japan.
She insisted on helping me order our food, even though I could do it easily in Japanese, and we sat for a long and energetic conversation.
Ayako and Hiroko insisted that after lunch, we go visit the local Mitsuke Tenjin shrine, whose cherry trees were now in full bloom, and also the statue of the dog Shippei Taro.
Shippei Taro, the mascot dog of the town, has statues seen all over the town.
And so it was decided.
After a lunch of grilled cheese toast and fries, we all crowded into their car and watched, terrified, as Hiroko drove at high speed through the narrow streets and dead end roads, to show us the local shrine.
The dog statue at the Mitsuke Tenjin shrine is a fox-like canine known as Shippei Taro.
It is deeply loved by locals.
He stands guard over Mitsuke Tenjin’s entrance, where he greets visitors.
Inside the shrine grounds, the Sakura trees were in full bloom and the atmosphere was very beautiful.
Visitors leave wishes on wooden boards with Shippei’s smiling face painted on the front.
There is even a smaller shrine on the grounds dedicated solely to pets.
Visitors bring their cats or dogs to the shrine, to be blessed for good health.
I suggested that Ayako also write her own wishes for her future on one of these wooden boards, and that we hang it up on the wall along with the others.
But these wooden boards are a way the shrine raises money from visitors, and it costs $10 each, and Ayako, who is very aware that her parents don’t have much money, was reluctant to pay for it.
I bought two boards, one for her and one for us, and asked her to write her innermost wishes for her future.
Jules and I filled our wooden card with wishes for enlightenment, self realization, perfect health and happiness, longevity and abundance, while Ayako thought a lot and finally wrote that she REALLY wished to improve her Japanese language skills and something about being finally able to eat squid, because she heard it is very delicious.
I was disappointed by her lack of imagination, but I didn’t show it.
We joyfully hung up our boards and continued our walk around the beautiful grounds.
Within Iwata, the lovable mascot Shippei can be found all over the city on signs, pamphlets, billboards, and even on official city documents.
The lovable white dog often makes appearances at local festivals.
The legend of Shippei Taro begins many, many years ago…
A traveling priest was passing through a small village when he decided to stop and rest.
As he walked in search of somewhere to sleep, he could hear crying coming from one home.
He noticed that there was a crowd of people gathered around a little girl. Everyone gathered was crying.
The priest asked the people why they were crying.
A man explained to the priest that his daughter was to be sacrificed to a mysterious demon who lived in a shrine nearby, in seven days, or else the demon would curse that year’s harvest.
Upon hearing this, the priest was aghast.
He offered to go talk to the demon, even if he would be the sacrifice instead of the young girl.
As the priest walked towards the demon’s temple, he could see the silhouettes of strange creatures who seemed to be huddled together.
The priest quietly walked closer, and he could overhear them talking to each other.
They seemed to be talking about a certain “Shippei Taro”, and they seemed quite worried about him.
The priest began to wonder about “Shippei Taro”.
Who was he?
And why were those strange creatures so scared of him?
The priest thought that if he could only find this man by the name of Shippei Taro, that he could potentially save the girl from being sacrificed.
The priest left the temple and began to search for Shippei Taro. As he walked to a nearby village, he asked a man if he knew any person by that name.
The man looked at the priest and laughed.
He informed the priest that Shippei Taro was his dog, a large, white dog as big as a cow!
Confused by this news, the priest asked if he could borrow Shippei Taro.
The owner agreed.
The priest returned to the demon’s shrine, this time with Shippei Taro. The strange creatures were still congregated at the temple, eagerly awaiting the young girl’s sacrifice. But when they saw Shippei Taro approaching instead, their faces twisted in horror.
Shippei Taro sniffed the air and started to growl.
He ran straight towards the creatures and began to rip them to shreds until they were no longer moving.
The priest advanced towards the shrine in order to finally take a closer look at the creatures.
He glanced down and noticed that they all were baboons.
They had disguised themselves as deities in order to receive sacrifices of food, and maliciously caused much suffering to the villagers.
From that day on, the villagers no longer had to make child offerings to the demons.
Ayako and her mother repeatedly asked us if we wanted to see Ayako’s school.
We were not so interested, but we could clearly see that it was important to them, so we agreed.
Hiroko drove so fast, often stopping abruptly as she noticed the red traffic lights, that we had to close our eyes and pray.
They took us to Ayako’s middle school, called Shirayana middle school, and showed us the flower garden, where students learned to plant and weed, the sports field, the classrooms, and the common areas.
I asked if they had a music room, but Ayako said that being 13, she was too small for playing the Tuba, which is the instrument she likes.
Besides, she said, musical instruments are too expensive and the school doesn’t have any to loan students. They have to buy it and they cannot afford it,
For now, she is focused on her academic studies.
She loves science and technology.
With a child’s enthusiasm, she detailed her dally schedule, from the moment she wakes up, what she eats, how she walks to school, her life as a student and her after school activities.
Because I was feeling sick, I was eager to get to our lovely hotel and relax, but they were so excited to share their lives with us, that I didn’t mind the time it took.
The mother is originally from Toyama, and she was excited to show us YouTube videos of her hometown, which looked very beautiful indeed.
They took us to see where her father works, at the local Yamaha motorcycle company, and where we could get a delicious pizza for dinner.
We noticed that in the area, signs were written in Japanese and Portuguese.
This was surprising, because usually the signs are in English or Chinese or Korean.
Hiroko told us that many Japanese Brazilians live in the area, and that there are even some Brazilian restaurants.
100 years ago, many locals moved to Brazil and intermarried, and some have returned home to Iwata.
Our hotel is fabulous and new.
It has a beautiful modern stylish design, with warm wood accents.
It also has a great hot springs Onsen, with brown waters that leave the skin silky.
Our room was beautifully designed with a huge window wall overlooking the well lit garden.
We sat in the dining area in our room, and ate our humble dinner of rice balls, pickles and a yuzu tart.
A great and simple dinner for pilgrims.
Sending you love and healing,
Tali
Today’s Stats: half a rest day
Steps - 9,549
km walked - 6 km
Total walked: 323 km
Old Post Towns Visited:
Mitsuke Juku #28
