this is where this happens and you can really imagine it in this place
it feels as if this shrine is floating on the sea from here... and I could even enjoy some hot tea in
the garden just surrounded by that beautiful view .... and the view has taken our breath away
Hey guys and girls on Ask Japanese it's CathyCat do you like Japanese culture? When many foreigners
I ask "What do you like about Japanese culture?" they can't quite put their finger on it straight away
to help you with that we're gonna go and travel to Shimonoseki to explore some cultural parts
historical pots of Shimonoseki that show you a little bit of the heart of Japan so let's go
All right for the next place we have to take a boat and look at this beautiful view you can
go outside the deck and see around the Kanmon straight... ah so pretty...
Or so you thought! The reality of it is it's very windy but anyways we were taking a 10 minutes ride
and visited a very special island that you might even know from anime manga or history
Now this place here is known amongst people who know anything about samurai everyone knows this
place because the famous samurai Musashi and Kojiro had a battle here like an epic samurai
battle right on this island, so people who for example read Vagabond. They love coming
here to the ground where this actually happened in real life... now Musashi and Kojiro were supposed
to have the battle here at 8 but Musashi was late he kept him waiting until 10 so their
battle started at 10 and Kojiro was already kind of angry so what he did was he pulled his sword
and threw the sheath away ... and then that moment Musashi said "Because you did that
you're gonna lose..." and so so that happened. Kojiro did actually lose the battle in the end
To translate that: the reason because this the sword didn't have a place to go back to the sheath was gone...
Meaning Kojiro also wouldn't have a place to go back to
Surprise Raccoons!
There are Tanookiis on Ganryujima... over there and actually they're well fed you can see they're
a little bit chubby... it's like a raccoon yeah wild raccoon Japanese raccoon... if you manage to
see one of these raccoons they say you're lucky so they're the lucky raccoons on this island here
But even nowadays there are loads and loads of things to do on this
island there are marathons there are festivals and
it still has a very traditional Japanese feel to it when you walk around
This is soo cool.
You can imagine it right here: their hair blowing in the wind they are ready to fight to the death
they pull their swords this is where this all happens
this is where this happens and you can really imagine it in this place
Check out our instagram for this snap!
Just across the street from our hostel is the Akama Jingu
and this shrine is built in mind thinking of a castle of the ocean inside or outside of it.
The Akama Jingu shrine was built in 859 and originally it was a temple
About a thousand years ago in front of the building there was a big
battle of samurais between the Heike clan and the Ga enji clan and this conflict is
very famous and many legends and tales are spoken still nowadays around that fight
During that battle the Heike clan was going to lose and the grandmother saw
that the young emperor Antoku was only 6 years old and she didn't want him to fall
in the battle to the enemy. So she embraced the young emperor and said "We are gonna go
to your palace in the seas" and jumped with him into the Kanmon straits. This tragic story is
actually inspiring quite a lot of fairy tales and this shrine of the Akama Jingu shrine
was built in the imagery of a "palace of the sea" where the young emperor and his
grandmother can now live in peace.
And after making your prayers turn around you can see the ocean it is absolutely beautiful
and it feels as if this shrine is floating on the sea from here
Fugu (pufferfish) as the messenger of the gods ... now here at Kameyama Hachimangy there are some wishing plates called
"Ema" but the ones here at the shrine are special
Normally the wishing plates are shaped like this but the wishing planes here at this shrine
are shaped like puffer fish! Look at it!! So you can write a message to the gods on here and the fugu
shall deliver it to the gods... One of these please! Thank you.
We wish for one million subscribers on Youtube pleaseee. Where should I put you? Where shall I put you?
As an extra little bit of trivia there's a mystery here if you look up in the sign of
Kameyama Hachimangu you can see that there is a baseball stuck in the "Yama" in the mountain middle part
of the symbol it's been stuck there for over 20 years and no one knows how it happened to be there.
Now as a Lolita fashion girl I usually like to dress up as a lady but this time I'm gonna get
the chance to transform myself into a Japanese court lady a "Kanyo" let's find out how that looks
I'm super excited... especially surrounded by this garden it's going to be amazing
Now here at Chofu Teien they do something very special at this garden the 31,000 square meters
of the garden you can book a traditional fashion dress up in advance and then
walk around the Japanese gardens, take pictures, take in the culture, the view, the history as if
you slip back in time so this time I dressed up as a Kanyo and that is a servant who would serve
the higher clans: such as empresses or princesses of a clan. And since a Kanyo is a very high class
maid and they are higher ranked they would also wear more lavish garments than the ordinary servants
And I can tell you guys I felt real special walking around that garden
I felt totally immersed in that moment I felt like the whole garden became my photo studio and
I didn't have to worry there was so much space there were so many places I could take pictures
it just was a real treat and a real invitation to go and take pictures there
To be honest this style was so beautiful in that wonderful surrounding when I uploaded the
picture on Instagram I got such an overwhelming positive response from you guys thank you all
so much for your comments and your likes I was really surprised. And to be honest there
was even a young artist named Angela she drew a beautiful artwork of it and i'm so so grateful
so thank you and thank you all for that much support I felt so special...
I changed my clothes
into a beautiful kimono and right now we're in front of the Mori residence. We're gonna
have a look inside and maybe even get some tea because I really wanna have some green tea now
This is where an ancient and honourable history of the samurai
played and I really love to walk around these wonderful traditional places, these old houses
and I could even enjoy some hot tea in the garden just surrounded
by that beautiful view, like maybe people have done it before me for many many years.
This time it was
also the autumn season so the leaves were warm colored it was beautiful and the Japanese garden
matches the nature color by season. I definitely want to visit and see it in another season too
We just saw... oh my gosh... out of words we just saw a shrine right here in the mountains on
the way back from the livestream and the view has taken our breath away
This is wonderful! Shimonoseki is amazing!
Look and again the sea this is ... oh my gosh... I can't believe how lucky I am to be here
Some of the most amazing discoveries are sometimes done spontaneously
Like how we found this shrine... it's so beautiful I feel like crying is so beautiful
So we are back here and I hope by looking at the culture history and spots in Shimonoseki you found
out a little bit more about the heart of Japan and the culture people love so much
and I promise you guys that I'm gonna take you on another Japan adventure here very soon if you are
subscribed so be sure to hit that subscribe button and tick the notification bell, would
be great to see you in a future video which spot did you like the most and which one touched your
heart the most? Let me know in the comments down below. Looking forward to reading it. This was
Cathycat from Japan and I hope I catch you soon see you guys bye don't forget to give us a like
you