Journeys in Japan S2010E09 - Toyokawa, Aichi

In this week's journeys in japan, we visit the Toyokawa Inari in Aichi Pre, the one of largest Inari temple in Japan. Many of temples and shrines are protected by special guardian deities which is foxes. The animals are also believed to be messengers of the gods. Such temples and shrines are called Inari. At first they visited Toyokawa Inari temple to pray and see. After pray they got to offer "Syoujinryouri" which is a type of special vegetable cuisine, the meal temple priests typically eat. Also they visited "Reikozuka" where the visitors whose prayers at the temple are answered leave stone fox statues here as an expression of gratitude. There are almost 1000 statues here now. After all they met people who are members of a society for preserving traditional dancers in Toyokawa. They enjoyed to dance with the team. The street in front of Toyokawa Inari is lined with about 60 shops. A local specialty Inari-zushi is sold in these shops. They went to taste 2diffrent kind of Inari-zushi here. Also there are souvenir shops here. They visited a shop where sells traditional fox mask. There are some people from shops who want to activate the town. They are called "Chindonya". They make up as a fox and parade the town with music. Essam and Nozomi joined the parade in this time. After they looked around relating foxes, they went to see real fox to the zoo. This zoo is traveling zoo which is very unusual zoo in Japan.