Ya! Russell finally gets to enjoy one of the tours offered by the base here in Sasebo. I've taken quite a few and this one is going to be extra special because it's his first! Here is a picture of us on the bus together not worrying about how to get there, traffic or how much gas is left in the tank. We just sit back, look out the window and drool over the breathtaking scenery and enjoy each others company.
Today we took a tour that was not far from Sasebo, but made us feel like we were in entirely different world. This is the Yutoku Inari Shrine in Kashima City. It's the third largest Inari shrine in all of Japan and was about 3 stories high! However, you could climb even further up the side of the steep mountain above it. We did!
This is us in front of the tori gates protecting the shrine entrance way.
This is one of the larger entryways leading up to the actual shrine itself.
As seen in other posts about visiting shrines from our blog, you have to clense your mouth and each hand before entering.
This is Russell and I praying our new years wish. I'm pretty sure everyone knows what our wish is in this year of the mighty dragon!
Here it is!!!! The big one! That is us and our group of friends that we toured with on this trip in front of the Yutoku Inari Shrine.
They had rows and rows of tori gates leading up the side of the mountain as you got higher and higher into the summit. Really and amazing site to see and walk through! 
It was a rainy day and very slippery as we made our way up the stairs!
Once you got past the big 3 story shrine there were no more nice even stairs. It turned into a very steep, uneven, old, slippery rock pile. It was pretty much straight down for a good 10 minute hike.
After the shrine, the tour took us to a saki brewery called Happy Princess or in Japanese: Sachi Hime. We got a behind the scenes tour on the process of making saki and then we got all the free tastings we wanted. The photo below is my friend Ema and I "compai"-ing. Also known as Cheersing!
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