![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Ise: Day Seven
Mar. 4th, 2014 09:31 amSunday was a free day for the members of Team Ise, and so we broke into various small groups for assorted adventures in different areas. Some people went to Nagoya; some went to Nara; some stayed home; and some spent the day touring Ise. I spent the day with my friend T., who's studying Ise sankei mandara (Ise pilgrimage mandalas), Chieda-sensei, a Kogakkan professor who seems to know everything there is to know about Ise City and its history, and Kirita-kun, one of Chieda-sensei's students (who was super serious, to the point that we couldn't believe he was only nineteen; that boy will become an academic one day... mark our words).
And when I say we spent the day, I mean we spent the day. Chieda-sensei picked us up at 9am for a driving/walking/hiking tour of various spots related to Ise sankei mandara, as well as stops at a number of sūtra burial sites, the Ise City Library, the Ise Shrine museums of art, history, and agriculture, and a wonderful little used book shop. We also had lunch and dinner together, at two delightful and delicious restaurants—the first a washoku (Japanese cuisine) place in Okagemachi (the portion of the Oharaimachi area that is built to recreate the Edo period aesthetic of the city) and the second a little hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant that was run by a friend of Chieda-sensei's. As you can imagine, we had amazing meals and fascinating conversations in both places. And we both found some awesome books in the bookstore.
Throughout the course of the day, as we rambled here and there, we discussed art and history both relevant and irrelevant to our dissertation projects. And of course we talked about our likes and dislikes, varied personal experiences, and travels, and we laughed a whole lot.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable "day off."
And when I say we spent the day, I mean we spent the day. Chieda-sensei picked us up at 9am for a driving/walking/hiking tour of various spots related to Ise sankei mandara, as well as stops at a number of sūtra burial sites, the Ise City Library, the Ise Shrine museums of art, history, and agriculture, and a wonderful little used book shop. We also had lunch and dinner together, at two delightful and delicious restaurants—the first a washoku (Japanese cuisine) place in Okagemachi (the portion of the Oharaimachi area that is built to recreate the Edo period aesthetic of the city) and the second a little hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant that was run by a friend of Chieda-sensei's. As you can imagine, we had amazing meals and fascinating conversations in both places. And we both found some awesome books in the bookstore.
Throughout the course of the day, as we rambled here and there, we discussed art and history both relevant and irrelevant to our dissertation projects. And of course we talked about our likes and dislikes, varied personal experiences, and travels, and we laughed a whole lot.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable "day off."
