Hello, I am Rei Furuya, a teacher at this school.
At the beginning of this year, my sister and I took a trip to Izumo by plane.
Izumo is located in Shimane Prefecture.
It was my first time to visit there. It was cloudy, but when we arrived at Izumo, the sun came out and the light shining through the clouds was so beautiful that I was very impressed.
We visited Izumo-taisha, a famous shrine in Japan.
To visit Izumo-taisha Shrine, it’s official way for visitors is to get sand from “Inasa-no-hama” beach, and to deliver the sand into a wooden box at “Soganoyashiro”. This is because 8 million gods come into ”Izumo-taisha” from this beach.
We took our time to wander around the shrine.
The accommodation was a luxurious hotel where we had delicious meals and drinks.
The view from the window was beautiful, and there was a Kagura performance at night. In the open-air bath (“Roten-buro”), snow was fluttering while we were taking a bath, and it was quite beautiful.
I haven’t traveled in about 10 years, but I enjoyed 5 trips in the latter part of last year and at the beginning of the new year! One of the reasons I did not go out was to care for my grandmother who lived with me. At that time, I was doing tsumami zaiku just to keep my peace of mind.
It was very hard to see my beloved grandmother getting smaller and smaller, not being able to get up from her bed, and not being able to eat. Tsumami zaiku was my stronghold at that time.
Now that I can finally move, I wish to experience as many beautiful things as possible. I used to think only of traveling abroad, but now I want to explore Japan.
I’m delighted to spend time researching and getting excited thinking about where I want to go.
If I go somewhere again, I will share it with you!