Tokyo Day 5 - Going out of the way

On this fine day, I went eastwards. My actual destination was Sawara 佐原 but after checking the routing, it would pass by Narita anyway, so I re-visited Narita. When I went with my bestie a couple years ago, she did the silly thing of locking her Goshuin-book with her luggage at the coin locker, and apparently the Temple there gave out hand-drawn stamps. She has a super special Goshuin-Cho. Hers is made of wood, so only the hand-drawn Goshuins would look nice, if she had to stick a paper onto it, it would ruin the aesthetics. Anyway, since I commenced my Goshuin journey as well, I decided to go there.

Familiar road, familiar buildings, familiar shops. Narita-San Shrine.

Same steep stairs (not photographed).

When I went to get my Goshuin, I saw this map... so I decided to go on a quest and get them all. I don't know what part of human nature this is, say it's a set and you'll want to get them all (Pokemon, pop mart or any blind boxes, gachapons, etc...)

I saw this beauty along the way, this guy was huge. I didn't have time to get my raven plushie charm out to take a photo with... I assume that's a raven, I think it's too large to be a crow?

So, I found out while the main temple had hand-drawn Goshuins, all the others only gave out paper Goshuins.

Even though it's all one temple cluster it was a bit of a walk.

Once i got the last Goshuin I decided to have a wander in the forest. I have Austrian blood flowing in me too, I like to Wandern!

Nice and breezy in here.

Walked the wrong way here and had to go back.

Had a quick pause for a cold drink and a snack, then went on my way back to the station. Had to wait 20 minutes so I started reading, and then it sort of dawned on me, if I brought my regular sized e-reader I wouldn't take it out in this situation. So I think getting this tiny e-reader and bringing it on this trip was a good call. I posted in my book club about the joys of this small sized e-reader and apparently a sort of debate started whether an e-reader should have a backlight or not. I'm in "it doesn't matter but I like it without backlight" camp. I noticed my Kindle and Kobo with the backlight the screen looks like it's raised. Then people started to use words like purists and such. Ooops.

Arrived Sawara! I decided to immediately take the bus and go to the furthest point I was going, and from there make my way back.

Arrived Katori Jingu Shrine, this also had a bit of a maze-like walk.

Very nice shrine here. Also had Goshuin. Before I left, some ceremony was going on, so I stayed on the far-off sidelines to observe a little bit.

While waiting for the Goshuin to be drawn, I saw this huge tree. It's probably nothing compared to another tree my bestie wants to go see, but, I still found this tree impressive.

The hand-drawn map made it seem like this special rock is a huge one, but it's a tiny rock.

Maps wasn't too helpful with finding a way back, so in order not to get too frustrated, I went to get some food. Cold noodles with dorodoro! Grated yam, I loved it. And Warabimochi, they claim to be No.1, so I had to try. The lady gave me a plastic bag for when I finish and can put the paper plate away.

In the end I took the same bus that brought me here, but the return route. I stopped half way to walk to the my next destination.

It was quite a walk and on the way I saw a poster looking for a lost dog. You see? What did I say yesterday? I hate these stories, and it's happening live in front of me. I teared up a bit thinking about the lost dog and how scared it must be. Anyway, I reached the local Float Museum

So, similar to Kawagoe, Sawara was also a merchant city, so they had similar festivals. This museum was obviously older than the one I visited in Kawagoe, but this one had more international support. Signage's were also available in English and maybe Spanish (I didn't look well) and there was a movie time that they called me to go watch. Since I was the sole audience they let me choose the language lol. So I watched the movie in English. Nice to have a 15-minute sit down.

I'm going to have to ask my bestie to try to plan a Japan trip to see one of these floats festivals, sounds like a very interesting thing to be in. Though maybe if I ever go, on the day I'd be like "ugh... too many people...." lol

Continued my walk to look for the...

"JyaJya Bridge"! It's actually called the Toyo-Bridge ("Toyohashi Bridge" just means Toyo-Bridge Bridge). I don't know from where I read it but it's called the JyaJya bridge because of the sounds it makes? At certain times of the hour it would start flowing with water (like a waterfall).

Well, can't not do a river boat tour right? It's very safe, with life vests.

Quick visit to the Inoh Tadataka's Former Residence. And who is Inoh Tadataka? I forget if it said whether he's the first or not, but he's a Cartographer.

I probably didn't research enough about the place. I know it's the Soy Sauce and Sake city, but I couldn't find any shops selling that. Also Peanut Ice Cream. Found an ice cream place but it only had the fancy sorbet type stuff, not proper old-school ice cream.

Anyway, it could also be that I chose the wrong road to go to the station so I missed all that. There's always a chance for next time, right?

Back in Tokyo, I went for... Indian dinner! The naan I had at Kawaguchiko was still the best so far, but I also liked this one because usually the garlic naan I have is very oily. This one is nice dry, garlic crunch, oh yum yum! I asked for the minimal spicy but it was still too spicy. I was half done and the guy wanted to change, I said no need, I'll finish it. Also did my final tax free shopping, as I need to start planning on how to pack my back. Everything (including the new small suitcase) can fit in the one suitcase, I just need to weight it to see if it goes over.

Tomorrow is my last full-day here in Japan, I have a local tour planned, so hopefully it's going to be easygoing than the past few days.