Snow!

This morning Daniela and I look out of the window and it is snowing! Crazy, because yesterday it was one of the warmest days we'd had so far.

Just outside our apartment on the main street

We walked around then decided to go see the imperial palace where we had been to the day before. The walking was beautiful but very slow because it was slushy wet snow, about 4 inches deep and you sometimes couldn't tell if you were walking on the sidewalk or about to step off. Plus, it was sometimes slippery.

This is what it had looked like the day before:

Odaiba and the Onsen

Well, Bill left yesterday for some meetings in Singapore and we girls called it a Spa Day, or rather, an Onsen Day, the Japanese hot springs. We took the monorail this time. Unbelievably Tokyo doesn't just have three overlapping metro systems intertwined with several competing train companies and the many Shinkansen lines, it also has a beautiful, modern monorail that goes to the airport as well as to the man-made island of Odaiba where the onsen is. 

First we stopped in at a fun house.

Checked out the Statue of Liberty

And then we were ready to experience the hot springs.

They provided coats for the outdoor foot-massage, i.e., walking on the painful rocks!

Soaking our feet in the hot outdoor pebble pools.

The actual hot spring bathing we did in a woman-only part of the facility. First you wash up then you soak in all sorts of different rock-pools and tubs. Some with water jets, some hot, some hotter; some indoor, some outdoor. There is also a dry hot sauna and a hot steam room, plus a cold pool.

No photos are allowed in here because everyone is nude. After you decide you are done you dry off and go relax in a tatami room or go eat from a variety of offerings. You stay as long as you want.

We did the therapy fish for 15 minutes. Crazy tickly at first but then pleasant and a smooth result.

If you have a tattoo though. you can't come in.

Yokohama

Today we decided to take the train to Yokohama to visit Rani in her city. Although it is Japan's second largest city with 3.7 million residents, it felt empty compared with Tokyo's 13 million. Rani lives in a cute little residential hilly neighborhood about half an hour by metro from the center of Yokohama. (And half an hour by metro from Tokyo, so she is actually in between the two.)

One of the neighbors has this crazy garden and he invited us in to look at it.

We saw the 'social apartment' where Rani lives; sort of like a dorm with a large communal kitchen, living room and workout room. But one of the attractions of Yokohama we went to go visit was the Cup Noodles Museum, dedicated to Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant Ramen and CupNoodles.

We got to make our own flavor in a cup.

He is considered a very famous inventor.

Kamakura

Who would have guessed that the 4.5 million people who visited Kyoto with us would now appear in this other town, Kamakura, one hour away, on the same day that we decide to go? When Rani visited back in October, she had the place to herself. We, on the other hand, on this first week of the new year, were accompanied by hundreds of thousands of people who need to visit temples and shrines to start the year off right. It took us almost 15 minutes just to inch our way out of the tiny train station.

Luckily, there are many dozen temples, shrines and gardens to chose from so we wandered as far as we could from the madness and managed to find less crowded and lovely gardens, shrines and temples where there was beauty and peace.

This Daibutsu (great Buddha) was cast in 1252 and is about 35 ft tall.  In 1495 a tsunami washed away the temple it was in.

Back in Town

Because the first week of the new year is one of the busiest travel weeks in Japan, basically all reserved seats on the Shinkansen were taken for the entire week. We had been extremely lucky to have found 5 seats on the outbound leg (it was a sudden cancellation) but for our return from Kyoto, our options were to stand in line and try to get on a standing-room only car for the 3 hour ride back to Tokyo, or to board a pre-dawn train that still had open and reservable seats. Mind you, Shinkansen trains depart Kyoto for Tokyo probably every 10-15 minutes all day long and into the night, but still, we decided to go the safe route and board that morning 6:30AM train. Too bad we couldn't stay longer in Kyoto, but our consolation was this awesome view of Mt. Fuji from the train.

Back in Tokyo we walked over to a lovely  Shogunal Palace garden with a tea pavilion where we sat on the tatami mats on the floor of the pavilion which was on a tiny island in the middle of the small lake.  The garden was peaceful and in its Winter color; that is, the lawns were all straw-golden, the deciduous trees mostly dark silhouettes, the ponds and lakes with thin ice sheets. We decided to have the whipped matcha tea in the pavilion with a kneaded bean sweet as a breakfast treat.



That evening Rani showed us how to rock the Karaoke!

Ringing in the New Year

Guest Post by Daniela

There are many ways to celebrate New Year's. This year we celebrated it the Japanese way--with millions of other Japanese--in Kyoto. By dumb luck and a lot of persistence we managed to get seats on the Shinkansen to Kyoto. With some more luck, a map, and help from a few strangers we managed to find our Ryokan (a traditional Japanese Inn--shoes off, yukata (robe) on, tatami mats underfoot, and green tea sipped sitting on the floor around a low table) where we stayed for 4 luxurious nights.

Looking into our Ryokan

Trying on the Yukata

Tea Time on the floor

What struck me most about Kyoto was how quiet it could be. In a garden, or a shrine, or the empty street in the morning there is a peaceful stillness and silence that was more powerful than any silence I've ever experienced before. Tokyo also manages to be amazingly quiet in some places (the surprise gardens you stumble upon with their bare trees, and low grey winter light), but Tokyo has the disadvantage of being a metropolis, so the quiet just isn't as serene. I worked out early in the peaceful morning at a barren park across the street from our Ryokan. My music was on the lowest setting above mute because the silence in the city was so thick. And as I did my lunges and push ups, a few snow flurries settled down on my gloves. It was magical.

Kanon watching over the silence

But to balance the moments of silence, Kyoto at New Year's is the most crowded place I have ever been. Literally millions of Japanese flock to the temples here during the first 3 days of the new year (year of the snake!) to pray at the temples and shrines. We were some of the few Gaijin amongst the throngs of Japanese.

The Crowds Never Stopped

A temple is a Buddhist place of worship and a Shrine is a Shinto place of worship. The the religions mesh together well and people practice both. What I like best about their traditions is that prayer is very active--you wash your hands, toss a coin, clap your hands, ring a bell, and bow. You walk through thousands of Torii Gates. You waft incense over your head and rub it on places that need healing. You dress up in your nicest kimono and wear two-toed socks with extremely-hard-to-walk-in flip flops. You buy fortunes and if they are good you take them home, but if they are bad, you tie them to a tree, a rope, a fence and leave them there. You rub different statues for health and healing. You circumambulate prayer stones.

Rub the Heads of Nene and Hiroshi for a Happy Marraige

Put on your best Kimono

Walk from one love stone to the other (about 15m) with your eyes closed to find love

Write your troubles on the paper and let them disappear in the water

Ring the bell

Burn Incense 

Leave your bad fortune behind

Ring a larger bell

Pass through the Torii Gates

Feed/pet the deer (messengers to God)

Visit Buddha

Kneel down and take a moment to reflect

Wash your hands and mouth

Visit the beautiful Temples and Shrines

And when you get hungry or tired of being devout you can visit the hundreds of food stalls that pop up right outside the temples and shrines serving octopus balls, fried noodles, cakes, chocolate dipped bananas, questionably fishy things, and mochi on a stick. Or like us, you can pop into any nearby convenience store and stock up on some chocolate.

Fish Snack Anyone?

The apex of the celebration on New Year's Eve is the famous ringing of the Chion-in bell. It takes 17 monks a number of hours to ring the bell the hallowed 108 times to symbolize the 108 human sins and get rid of these 108 worldly desires. Without really knowing what we were getting into, we got into line and just barely made the cut-off of the crowds of people that snaked through the complex and got to pass the bell and watch it be rung a couple of times before moving on for the next group. Lucky for you, here is a video.