Today we took part in four exciting events.  The first activity was visiting the Izume Hachiman Shrine.  At the shrine, we were taught how to properly give offerings to the god of victory.  The offerings were pine branches with special pieces of origami tied to them.  The ritual was fun to learn, even though I messed up the process!  After some apprentices of the shrine performed a very complicated looking dance.  After the dance, we were invited to try on the traditional priest/priestess outfit...

Throughout the trip so far I have had a fantastic and eye opening experience learning about a new culture and lifestyle.  Today, July 27th was probably the greatest experience yet.  I am usually a very grumpy morning person, so fresh-water clam harvesting at 9:30am sounded like a cold, dirty and painful experience.  I felt that way until I began clamming the Shijimi (fresh-water clams) at Lake Jusan Bridge Park.  I was immediately shocked at how much fun I was having.  At first, I only thought c...