I'm tired of monkeyin' around!

In one of our many efforts to be proactive about seeing everything we want to see in Japan, Blake and I took off for a little weekend mini-break the first weekend in January to Nagano prefecture. Nagano city hosted the Olympics in 1998, and there were nods to the 20th anniversary present around town.

We left early Saturday morning, took a couple of regular trains to Tokyo, then boarded a shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagano. On this leg of the trip, we learned how to find seats on the shinkansen when you didn't buy your tickets early enough to reserve a seat. Fortunately, we found seats together and were in Nagano in no time.

View from the train

Our first stop was Zenko-ji Temple. Actually, that's redundant, even though you'll hear it a lot - (Name)-ji Temple. Ji actually means temple. So, it's like saying ATM machine. But back to the temple! Zenko-ji is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan - according to legend, its golden triad was the first Buddhist image to arrive in the country from the Korean peninsula in 552. After some dispute between warring clans, it was rescued by a man named Yoshimitsu Honda (whose name reads as Zenko in Kanji) and enshrined in Nagano. The main hall currently dates from 1707.

Main hall of Zenkoji

We had arranged for a free guided tour from a volunteer, which we really appreciated. After visiting 14 temples earlier in the week, I was definitely feeling a "templed out" and she helped us learn some new things and find the top things to see within this complex. One such experience was a walk down underneath the altar in the main hall, passing through a pitch black tunnel with our right hand on the wall, searching for the Key to Paradise. One touch apparently ensure eternal salvation, so I guess we're set! This is still a very active temple with many pilgrims attending it throughout the year.

Inhaling the smoke from the incense is meant to purify the soul

Roku-Jizo (Six Jizo) each representing the attendant to the six worlds after death - realms of hell, starvation, beasts, carnage, human beings, and heavenly beings

Ringing this bell marked the beginning of the 1998 Olympics

A statue representing Zenko carrying the triad to Nagano

At this point in the journey, we learned about how to buy shinkansen tickets in advance from the ticket machine at JR stations (super easy when you can press the English button first!) and got all our tickets for the rest of weekend arranged. Also helpful, since a lot of the public transportation in the Nagano prefecture does not accept the prepaid train cards we use at home. Then, it was time for a quick and delicious lunch of katsu-don (tonkatsu or fried pork cutlet over rice) and then north to the snow monkeys!

We were picked up at the train station by our ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) and after checking in, they dropped us off at the snow monkeys! It was about a 25 minute hike in, and we definitely scurried as much as we could despite the snow, since the park was closing an hour later, but we made it and it was delightful!

Snowy trail to the monkeys

As we hiked back down, the snow started in earnest, but we missed the bus (and didn't want to wait more than an hour for another) and chickened out in calling a cab with the language barrier (hailing one is fine), so we just hiked all the way back to the ryokan and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the snowy town in the twilight.

It was a little snowy

Once in our room, we warmed up under the kotatsu (heated table), changed into the provided yukata, and wore them to our traditional Japanese dinner.

Suminoyu Hotel - our ryokan

Kotatsu

We had an menu in English to help us know what at least most of it was, and we at least tried all of it (except the plum wine).

After dinner, we went to the onsen on the top floor of the ryokan. It was small, with just one bath inside and one outside, but we each had the place to ourselves (still separated for men and women) and it gave Blake a chance to finally try one! I especially enjoyed the outside. It was night, the snow was falling and collecting just outside the tub, which was made of stone. The snow was falling on my head and shoulders, and as I leaned over the edge and looked out over the town below the partition, the snow fell on my back. I felt like a snow monkey myself, and it was magical! We actually could have walked around town (called Shibuonsen) and tried nine different onsen with different healing properties, but we were just too tired from a very long day. Being exhausted made it pretty easy to fall asleep on the futon on the tatami floor of our room.

They made up our bed while we were at dinner

Sunday morning, we enjoyed a Japanese breakfast before getting a ride to the train station and heading to Matsumoto.

We had the best seats on the train! The train engineer was actually in a compartment above our heads, so as not to impede our view. I called my nephew and Eilonwy's kids on video chat to let them "vroom" with us! We had spotted these seats on the train on Saturday, so we made a dash to them on the train back.

Our destination for the day was Matstumoto Castle - the most complete of any of Japan's historical castles - and its history dates back to 1592. The castle keep still stands, which was for use by the samurai defending the castle, and it was a bit of a challenge to climb all the stairs which were more like ladders, but it was worth it!

View from the top of the keep

Taikoman Gate

We also enjoyed the Matsumoto City Museum, since we had some extra time.

The legend is that the seven lucky gods arrive in a boat every year - this used to be paraded through the town in celebration.

Our train back wasn't for a little while, so we decided to have lunch at McDonald's (I did try the ginger pork burger to make it interesting!) and relax there. The upstairs of many fast food places in Japan are popular for eating and just spending time, maybe or maybe not being productive. We talked a lot and played Carcassone on the iPad. Others were napping or studying or reading, so we were in good company. The train ride back was also relaxing - it's really nice not having to drive or navigate.

Fuji-san!

It was definitely a full and fast weekend, but we loved it! 

Roll round with the year and never stand still

Last year, we completed our first Shichifukujin, or Seven Lucky Gods, pilgrimage for luck and happiness in the new year. You can read all about our 2017 pilgrimage and more about them in general here.

This year, I wanted to complete our neighborhood Shichifukujin, as I felt it would be more meaningful than some other location, so this year we visited seven temples in Zushi and Hayama. This time, we were able to complete it in only a few hours in one day! We used this blog from a previous military family's experience and this site in Japanese as our guides. It would probably been faster if we had a car, but between our feet, trains, and the bus, it was still easily doable.

Toshou-ji Temple - Fukuroku-jyu

Enmei-ji Temple - Benzaiten

Soutai-ji Temple - Daikoku

Choun-ji Temple - Hotei

Senkoin-ji Temple - Bishamonten

Gyokuzouin Temple - Ebisu

Kousho-ji Temple - Jyurojin

Happy Pilgrims

Our completed stamp sheet and the figurines and branch we collected

A few days later, I led another Shichifukujin with friends from church in Shinagawa, Tokyo (route and information here). This is one of the most walkable pilgrimages that I know of (good when leading a group of 15 people!) and with cute little figurines to collect and a boat to display them in. Here, you could get all the figurines and completed stamp sheet all at once at any of the temples, or collect them along the way. Had I never done one before, I might have collected them as we went, but for time's sake, I (and most of the women I was with) got them all at once. One of us collected them along the way, and we all visited all of the temples, so that counts for me!

Shinagawa-jinja Shrine - Daikokuten

Pilgrimage begins! Shinagawa-jinja Shrine - Daikokuten

I wore my rainbow hat so that my friends could follow me easily. The Japanese tend to wear muted colors and blend in, so I knew it would stand out. It worked! Apparently, I didn't get myself into the this group selfie as much as I thought though.

Yogan-ji Temple - Hotei

Isshin-ji Temple - Jyurojin

Ebara-jinja Shrine - Ebisu

Honsen-ji Temple - Bishamonten

All the pilgrims were great troopers!

Tenso Suwa-jinja Shrine - Fukurokujyu

Iwai-jinja Shrine - Benzaiten

Huge panda donut I found along the way. Sadly, it was filled with red bean paste instead of chocolate. It wasn't terrible, but chocolate or cream would have better.

Completed boat and stamp sheet

Fourteen temples in one week is quite a lot (and it wasn't even the final count! More on that later), but all the luck and fortune that should bring our family this year will be worth it! Do I actually believe in it? Probably not, but it sure couldn't hurt!

I'd love to get you on a slow boat to China

Our last full day in China was a bit more low-key. Our hotel was quite close to the Beijing Zoo and that’s where we started - just to see the pandas. They have two panda houses and they are rather close to the main gate, so they were truly the only animal we saw that day.

Our guide has only ever seen six pandas in one day at the Beijing Zoo. Together, we saw eight! That brings our grand total for this trip to 64! He said we were very lucky to have seen 8 that day and I completely agree.

Blake captioned this photo: "Hello? Yes, I have a brought a pizza. Please let me in."

Height marker

Eventually, I tore myself away and we went to the Hutong area - a older, more traditional neighborhood where you can get a glimpse of what residential life used to look like. Our guide had arranged a bicycle rickshaw ride around the neighborhood, which was a neat and efficient way to get around.

At some point, our driver stopped, got off his bike, rummaged through what looked like a pile of garbage or a homeless person’s stash, pulled out a bottle of anti-freeze, put it on the rickshaw at our feet, then got back on the bike and carried on. A little bit later, we stopped at a nice place on the river for photos and when Blake and I returned the rickshaw, the driver was pouring the antifreeze into some other container. We drove a short ways, then the driver got off, took the antifreeze bottle and placed it behind a short fence into what looked like someone’s yard.

So whether it was foraging or stealing, we don’t know. Was it really antifreeze? Or is there some sort of rickshaw driver moonshine trade happening? We will probably never know the answer to these questions.

Spending time on the frozen river - picnics, speed skating, and more!

After our ride and a quick jaunt through the Lotus Market (which was pretty much all closed up, possibly permanently) we were taken to a pearl market. I wasn’t planning to get anything, but once I was told that pink and purple pearls are only found in China, I changed my mind.

Lotus Market

Lunch was hot pot. We had so much food and we at least tried it all. At some point, a staff member came over and corrected Blake on how to use his chopsticks (they are longer and thicker in China than Japan). We both tried it their way for a few minutes with some success but went back to ours soon enough.

We couldn't possibly eat all this food, but we at least tried it all.

I'd like to pretend this was right after the server corrected Blake's chopstick form, but it was probably just poorly timed on my part.

Our last stop for the day was the Temple of Heaven. The building is gorgeous, but the grounds were also quite lovely and very popular for recreation, even in the cold.

The 70-year-old door - Built by an aging emperor who need a closer way to enter the Temple of Heaven. To prevent his progeny from being lazy, he proclaimed it to be the 70-year-old Door and only to be used once the emperor reached that age.

We were done for the day as contracted with our driver and guide relatively early (mid-afternoon), so we were taken back to our hotel. Theoretically, we could have rested and then gone out for some night time exploring, but after a week of adventuring and not having had to navigate ourselves in Beijing yet (and some not feeling well on my part), we ended up staying in for the rest of the day - napping, playing games, watching movies, and ordering surprisingly reasonably priced room service. It was, for us, the perfect way to wind down. 

Room service!

In Beijing, they try to reduce traffic congestion by restricting what days certain cars drive on certain days. During the week, the last number on the license plate is banned from driving one day a week. Our guide can’t drive his personal car on Mondays and our driver can’t drive the van we’d been taking on Wednesdays. So, our guide took us to the airport himself. On the way, we stopped for a quick look at 2008’s most prominent Olympic venues - the bird’s nest and the water cube.

Water Cube and Bird's Nest!

Our fantastic guide - Tristan - If you're heading to China, we highly recommend his services and can get you in contact with him.

Our flight and train home was quick and we were home and reunited with Malcolm by dinner.

You're home! Let me sing you the song of my people!

It was a wonderful and dream come true kind of a week. We aren’t sure how we will top this for any future anniversaries, or if we will even try. Blake continues to be the best adventure partner I could ask for though, so I know that whatever is next, it will be amazing!