So come out of your cave walking on your hands

We live in a town called Zushi, which is directly east of Kamakura, which I've raved about many times. They are divided by mountains, on which there are many hiking routes and some historical sites. Since Kamakura was once the seat of the shogunate, these sites date back for centuries. One of those sites only opens a few days a week for a few weeks of the year, if at all, and we were able to jump on the opportunity to visit!

This is the Mandarado complex of yagura, which are manmade caves for the memorial services for the dead dating back to the samurai era between the 13th to 15th centuries. The dead would be cremated nearby and then buried or memorialized in the caves. There are more than 150 caves here, making it the largest of such clusters!

I love this handsome face.

We finished our outing with some delicious burgers - some of the best we've found in Japan. Mine had 5 different kind of cheese on it, and it's really good our cave visit involved a bit of hike to balance that out.

Local friends, this is only open Saturdays-Mondays until December 17, so if you want to see it, go soon!

Look around, look around!

Back in January we did one the best things we've ever done in Tokyo - a puzzle scavenger hunt in and around the Tokyo Metro. We were super excited to find out that it was back with all new adventures and puzzles! And, once again, the Tokyo Underground Mysteries did not disappoint!

Many other people doing the same thing we were doing - trying to interpret a series of windows!

We got a late start in our day, so we started with lunch while we figured out the first puzzle and then we were off!

Fried rice (chahan) from Pepper Lunch

Godzilla Road with Godzilla in the background!

Subway buddies!

Once again, my favorite part was the mystery train ride. We got on a the train, per instructions, and then had to answer questions solvable only during the ride between each stop until we knew where to get off next.

Watching the board for answers and clues

Puzzle book in one hand, train handle in the other, pencil had to go somewhere!

Not a puzzle, just an amusing sign outside of a restroom

Dialing for a clue

Chocolate pecan waffle break

Found an excellent view of the Shibuya crossing!

It took us a little longer this time, but we worked well together and definitely wouldn't want to do this alone. Once we'd acquired all the clues, we headed home, took a break, ate Thanksgiving Dinner Part Deux, and then spread everything out on the dining room table to solve the final puzzle. It took some trial and error and even a little serendipity, but we did it!

More windows = more clues

Hooray!

For those in the Tokyo area or visiting before the end of January, I highly recommend this adventure!

I'll be your candle on the water

This morning, Blake took me on a little adventure to a place here in Japan that he had been to but I had not, which is a rare occasion here. Our destination today was the Kannonzaki lighthouse. The first lighthouse at this location, built in 1869, was the first lighthouse in Japan and designed by the same French engineer who designed the base for the Japanese that we currently use. That first lighthouse was destroyed by an earthquake in 1922, and the second by the great Kanto earthquake in 1923, so this structure is technically the 3rd one, built in 1925.

It's a short little hike from the bus stop and a climb uphill at the end, then stairs in the lighthouse itself, but the view of Tokyo Bay is incredible. Lots of ships and boats were out on the water today and even though clouds obscured much of the view on the other side of the bay, it was still lovely.

On the way down the stairs, Blake told me some of the best trivia I may have ever heard and was officially surprised I didn't know yet - why spiral staircases are usually clockwise. It's so that defenders of the castle would be able to use their dominant hand (usually the right hand) to wield their sword against attackers who would be forced to fight with their non-dominant hand or run into walls. I took stage combat in college and love sword fighting as a result and I love trivia, so this was great to learn!

Before catching our bus home, we shared a Coke in a limited edition Shonan bottle. The Shonan region is essentially our backyard and it felt appropriate to buy one on a day we were exploring it!

In case I haven't made it clear, I love living here - learning both the ancient history and more modern and experiencing this fantastic culture. I also had a chance to practice my Japanese language more than usual today, since we helped clean the church before our outing and the sister missionaries are having a no English day today to work on their Japanese language skills. I responded a lot in English, but enjoyed practicing my listening skills!

It's been two years now since we moved here and it's gone by fast. We will still be here for a little bit, but it's not forever, so I still have more learning and exploring to do!

A cave with a few small shrines on the hike to the lighthouse

Lookin' for some hot stuff, baby this evenin'

For some reason or another, every time Blake and I have planned a trip to Hakone, a mountain town southwest of Tokyo well known for its volcanic hot springs resorts and views of Mount Fuji and only a couple of hours away from us, something has come up and we've had to cancel. We kept hearing of friends' adventures there and seeing beautiful photos and just never making it ourselves.

Just walking around the town is charming!

Until this weekend! We finally made it! We could make it one long day trip, but that would mean close to five or six hours on trains and buses just getting there and back, not to mention any travel around. We chose to make it a little more relaxing of a getaway and did the long trip out there Friday after work and stayed the night at a hotel to rest up before a day of exploring. We found a nice western-style hotel with an onsen, instead a more pricey (but definitely worth the experience when you're in Japan) traditional Japanese inn or ryokan. I took advantage of the onsen before bed for even more relaxation, and we both enjoyed the breakfast provided in the morning.

One night away from home and we accidentally pack the same shirt (our family reunion shirt from when Blake's entire family came to visit us this summer). Luckily, we both wore hoodies most of the day.

The first few hours of our day seemed like just going from one mode of transportation to another, but the variety of transportation methods and the lovely views of the fall leaves in the Hakone National Park were the point. The joy is in the journey, after all.

Our first stop was Hakone Shrine and the gorgeous torii gate submerged into Lake Ashi, a volcanic crater lake.

Then, even though it hadn't been high on our priority list, we took a reproduction pirate cruise ship north on Lake Ashi. It was included in our Hakone Free Pass, a pass we decided to buy at the last minute that covered most bus routes and all the other transportation we took plus discounts or entry at a variety of other places in the area that was well worth the money, and it was going from where we were to where we wanted to be for the next leg of our adventure, so why not? It was a lovely little cruise with excellent leaf peeping opportunities. On clearer days, we would have seen Mount Fuji.

The ship Victory

The same torii gate from earlier!

It dropped us off at the beginning station of the Hakone Ropeway, which we took all the way to the end and then took a cable car.

We stopped at Owakudani, a volcanic valley with active sulphur vents, including a new one from a small eruption in 2015. Here, you can eat black eggs that have been boiled in the sulphuric water. Each one you eat is said to add seven years to your life!

After lunch at a Ninja Cafe, where the staff were dressed as ninjas, we headed to Yunessun, which was conveniently only a few minutes by bus from the end of the cable car line we had just chosen to take to the end and go from there. It's almost like I planned that! (Maybe part of me knew this, but I did surprisingly little advanced planning for this trip. I knew what we wanted to do and kind of where stuff was, but we figured out the travel parts as we went.)

Yunessun is basically a onsen themed water park. There is a traditional onsen portion, though we skipped that this time, but the main attraction is the family friendly, bathing suit area with a variety of different themed baths. We tried just about all of them! It was a chilly day, so relaxing in a warm bath was just what we needed. Besides the ones pictured below, we tried a few different tea baths, one in a cave with an aquarium of jellyfish, and more!

Coffee bath (sorry about the water on the lens)

Sake!

Wine - This one was probably our favorite. Fun color and nice temperature, so we started and ended our bath exploration here.

Then, though there were many other attractions in the region that we could spend days locating and enjoying, we decided that we would also be well served by not completely exhausting ourselves and heading home in time for dinner (which we picked up on the way).

It was a great day and we're so glad we finally made it! Hopefully, we can go back and see some of the things we missed!

You only see him when you're very young, a magical adventure for you!

Between the holidays and travels and life, I haven't been on a good solo adventure for a little bit. I am quite pleased with opportunities for outings with friends and of course I savor the time I get to spend with Blake, but I also need to do things on my own sometimes. I'm an introvert, after all, and solo time is how I recharge. So, today, I got out on my own for the afternoon and found Fushimi Hakuseki Inari Shrine.

I first found out about this shrine from a local blog I follow call Deep Yokosuka, and they suggested it might be a place you would find Totoro. Since I've finally seen that movie and now that I've been there, I can completely agree with that connection (and have titled this post with a lyric from the movie's English version theme song)!

The back side of the first section - inscribed with who donated the gate and when

According to another source I used to locate the actual shrine, Fushimi Hakuseki Inari Shrine is related to the more famous Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto, which we visited over Memorial Day weekend in 2017 (and I failed to blog about) and is known for its 1000s of vermillion torii gates. They both are built in reverence to the deity Inari, the Shinto god of rice.

Foxes are said to be messengers to Inari

This shrine is located near the Taura station in Yokosuka, which is much closer to me than Kyoto! Even though it was reportedly built early in the Showa period (1926-1989), it is still in use today by locals.

My sources warned of its many stairs, and I got warm hiking them even on a cool January day. According to my Fitbit, I climbed the equivalent of 23 flights of stairs to get to the top. It had rained yesterday, so it was pretty slick and maybe I should have brought my hiking boots or walking stick, but I managed.

Ultimately, I counted that I walked through 56 torii gates, which are believed to purify your soul. What's charming about this one was that even though it's not even a century old yet, it's certainly in more disrepair and overgrown than it's more famous Kyoto counterpart. To me, it just added to the magic.

Looking from the top back down the trail - you can see it curve off to the right through the trees

Even though I took my time, I was up and down in a little more than 30 minutes, but the walk to and from the station is about 20 minutes each way. Not a bad walk, but I definitely recommend carrying water.

It was a small outing, but just what I needed today.

The milk flavored ice cream I got on the way home was pretty good too