Japan Day 7

We're in our host prefecture of Ibaraki and we went between the capital city of Mito to the our host city of Kamisu.

First, we were received at Ibaraki University where we first met with the University President before dividing into 3 groups to have discussions with university students about the higher level educational system and their concerns. Ibaraki University has a pretty accomplished and established agricultural program. As always, the people that we've met have been courteous and extremely curious about us.

After our university stop, we took the a side trip to Kashima Shrine on our way to Kamisu city. This is a beautiful shrine like all the other shrines I've visited. However, this shrine is nestled deep within a forest and is home to deer. There's something special going on here. I've definitely got to go back. Also, every shrine I've visited uses a particular crest or mon, to identify the shrine. Kashima in particular uses the design with three "tomoe". Tomoe are supposed to be a swirly image with a large round head and a elongated tail...kind of like a tadpole...however, they are actually depictions of snakes. In Japan, snakes are believed to be very spiritual animals. In fact, the yin and yang sign is made of two tomoe.

Then, we rolled up on Kamisu City and had the meet and greet with the Mayor, Vice-Mayor, Superintendent, and their posse. They were really gracious and even gave us these cool lanterns as gifts and took us on a tour of a pond that was called "God's Pond". This was interesting since it used to be a much bigger pond and they reclaimed a whole grip of land for development. Nevertheless, the pond was pretty lake sized still yet.