Sasebo's Fertilitry Shrine

As some of you might know, Russell and I haven't exactly had the easiest time of conceiving a little one. So when we heard there was a shrine here that we could go to and make a few extra wishes and prayers, we thought, why not! Here are some photos that we took along the way on another beautiful mini island with hopefully a very lucky shrine on it!


This is the front of the shrine. There is a little station on the right of this building where I had to cleanse my hands in the water and then enter the shrine. I went in and bought a charm for fertility. I was told by one of my Japanese friends that I need to hold this with me all the time. I carry it in my pocket or in my purse. We learned in indoc class when we first got here that we could also make a wish.

Since I had to do the hard part (see photos below) Russell decided he would be the one to make a wish for us. You throw a 100 yen coin into that box in front of Russell. You then bow, ring the bell (as he is doing in the second photo), make a wish and then bow again.

In front of the shrine was this little tori gate. I'm sure most of you have seen these and know that they are very important to Japanese culture. Well this one is a mini one. And as the story goes, after you buy your charm from the monks (as stated above), you then have to crawl through this gate 3 times in order for your wish to come true. Once your wish does come true, you are to return to the shrine and give thanks to the monks for praying for you and helping you.

So here it goes! Thank goodness I fit and as you can see, it was a close one!

 

I did this three times.

We then looked around the shrine area and came across this statue of a god or other person of importance I'm guessing. We weren't sure exactly what was going on, but we did see children's drinks, yen and toys around the shrine. Just to cover ourselves and give us the best luck we possibly could, we put three pieces of yen on top of the toy monster trucks.  

This is one of the Okinawan protector dogs that you find in front of the shrines here. Russell even got me a pair from Okinawa to put in front of our front door at home. It is supposed to ward off bad spirits.

This was the larger tori gate decorated for New Years down the hill from the actual shrine itself.  You will see these EVERYWHERE here in Japan.

 

After we were finished with the shrine we decided to look around the mini island a little more. We found a trail and decided to take it! This is where it lead us. Onto a cool looking path with more mysterious protector shrine looking items and amazing views of the 99 Islands National Park.

 

Well on top was an amazing view!!! Look at the color of this water in this cove! It was like a bright teal/green and I just couldn't get over how amazing it looked! OH and this this is where the shrine was, its directly in the middle of that peninsula in the middle of the photo.

This was us on top of the mysterious island. An amazing view!

 

After we came off the islands it was low tied in the bay and the ground was covered in oysters and other shell looking things. These two older ladies were down their picking at them and I would even think that its that nights dinner! Maybe. Anyhow, we walked by them and we said "Konichiwa." They said it back and then muttered something else. I know very very little Japanese, but I could make out a few words. One word was "genki" and another was "ka." Which usually in a sentence means in English translation, "How are you?" "Ka" is actually how they end a sentence in a question. After a few seconds and putting two and two together in my head, I responded with, "Hai, Genki!" Which translates into "Yes, Good/Fine." Haha... I laughed at myself because I had no clue if she had indeed asked how I was. She humbly giggled back and that made Russell and I smile. We then went on our way.  

Once we reached our car again, Russell did his normal and opened the car door for me and gave me a kiss. Once we shut the door he walked over to some wild flowers and picked a few for me. I could see what he was doing so I whipped out the camera and actually got this adorable candid photo of him. He is so good to me and constantly makes me smile.