Osuka

Sacred Tree

September 8, 2006

Day off today. I went to check out osuka or yokusaka. Seems to go by two different names. There is a children’s matsuri going on next week so I went on a fact-finding mission and a location check. Didn’t want to waste the occasion by getting lost or something stupid. Plus I heard that it was by the ocean so I thought it might be a nice place to check out on a day off. After what seemed to be a one-hour bus ride away, I arrived in a small town and considered leaving right away when I realized there might be problems returning back home, bus wise.












As soon as I arrived, I cane across a man that was working on an omikoshi, or perhaps okishiki might be the correct term for it, but it was a matsuri thing and I could hear taiko being played nearby. I asked the man about the matsuri for next week and he confirmed that there would be taiko going on throughout the weekend, all day until 9 in the evening. This seems to be the standard. Everything shuts down at nine – matsuri wise. I found out this information right away and I thought, since this is a really quiet and small village and I know all that I really need to know, perhaps I should try and grab that potentially last bus. Game plan, except that bus was not going anywhere far. So I decided to check out the shrine further and the town as well. I said a prayer at the shrine and took pics, it seems to be a pretty standard thing – the shrine.

Mikuma Shrine and old map of Osuka

Dragon Basin

They are everywhere. I admired the dragon water basin area and examined the map, trying to figure out how I could get to the ocean. The village was very quaint and quiet so it was nice to walk around. I admired and took pics of the architecture; I love the roofs, and the flowers. I could not find the ocean and it was bloody hot and humid – does this never end?









WE LOVE OSUKA

On my travels back to the bus stop, I admired the many bonsai trees. There were a lot of beautifully groomed trees. There was a stupendous huge tree and it turns out to be mystical tree as I found an old shrine and a dedication plaque nearby. A woman on a chari rode by and bowed her head in a very solemn and ceremonious way, which gave me additional hint that this was indeed a much-revered tree. If only I could read Japanese, so that I could make out what the placard said.

Sacred Tree and the shrine and plaque at the trunk

I grabbed the only bus leaving town and was somewhat dismayed to find that it would not return to Kakegawa. It was going to Daitou and I knew there would be a bus there that I could grab to Kakegawa. I am starting to feel like a pro around this area. A wonderful feeling. You have to consider that there are so many little villages along the hour ride and I can make my way home somehow, a considerable feat I believe, for a foreigner.