Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Guess what? More Ise- Okage Yokocho

The evening of our arrival, we finally settled down to rest after an interesting journey and a delicious dinner. The fun didn't end there- I was excited to see this very old TV, I believe it was the first model ever sold in Mie Prefecture...
As this is a family blog, I will spare you the details as to why Ritsy had to make this mask- let's just say there was no fan in the restroom...
The next morning we had a nice breakfast and headed back to the Naiku gate region to check out the ancient looking shopping road known as Okage Yokocho. Apparently according to the link Okage means appreciation- so the road is the road of appreciation leading up to the ancient temple.
All of the shops have an ancient Japan feeling and it was really quite cool to walk down and get a taste of what an old shopping hub would look like in Japan. Naturally we couldn't walk all the way to the end as Ritsy, of course, has a bit of an extra load to carry and got tired pretty quickly.
The area is famous for it's rice cakes covered in sweet bean paste (if you have been to Japan you know that a lot of places are famous for a similar combination) called aka fuku. I thought it must mean red clothes, but I have been told it means Red Luck. Either way, we bought it and enjoyed it later. The above picture is the main headquarters for AkaFuku.
Finally, I liked the visual effect of standing under this loosely-woven straw roof. the light effect actually made me feel like I might be standing in Cambodia or Thailand or something like that. I have never been to either place so I am not sure why I had that feeling.

Our time in Ise had drawn to an end and it was time to head back home. We did make one stop off before hopping on the ferry- so stay tuned for Toba Aquarium Highlights...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Damn that's an old telly. & in a lovely shade of vanilla cream too. Was the remote an old woman on a string?