Naruto tourism sites

I was going to post an entry about all the tiny things in Naruto, but then around 10am this morning my coworkers said, "You must be bored, let's go see the sites." So off we went to visit the first temple on the 88 Buddhist temple pilgrimage on Shikoku and the Naruto whirlpools!!!

On the way to the temple, we stopped in at a store in the region well-known for the pettery made there (not far from my apartment!) The pottery is called otaniyaki - otani is the region and yaki means bake. Here I am standing next to the large pieces that I was told were used as coffins a long time ago. The put the body inside, and bury the whole thing.


This piece costs about $200:


We may go back and make our own pottery there next week!!!!!

The first temple of the 88 temple pilgrimage (for more info look it up on wikipedia) is also fairly close to my apartment. Here is the entrance:


Here I am washing my hands and rinsing my mouth before entering:


Here's the candle I lit for Grandma Rodgers:


A few more pics:



Then we ate lunch and ventured off for the Naruto whirlpools. On the way there, we stopped at a place with a picturesque view of Naruto. Here I am with Jill and Jeff with Naruto in the background:



The shape/phenomenon of the whirlpools is called an Eddy. So all of the tour boats and buses are called "aqua eddy" or "the Eddy"! hehe The bridge that the whirlpools form under and one of the whirlpools:





I was afraid that this would be like whale watching, where you really have to be there to capture the moment because pictures won't do, so I took another video and uploaded it onto google. The big whirlpool is at the end - the link is on the right under links.

I think pictures say more than words, but if you have questions, please ask! I'm so happy you are reading and that motivates me to keep updating this. Thanks! Mary has been asking me about food, so I'm going to take many pictures of food this weekend and post more about that next week. There's more to Japanese food that sushi! Have a good weekend everyone!