TokyoGinger

the three monkeys. hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.

last weekend, dana, edith and i stayed one night in the beautiful town of nikko. it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful weekend - nice weather and great sightseeing. we visited nikko's most famous shrine, the toshogu shrine, saw the kegon falls and shinkyo sacred bridge. we also went for an afternoon hike to the kanmangafuchi abyss, where we saw about 70 jizo statues wearing red hats staring out onto the river.

the orange torii gates at hakone shrine - japan. 

a few weeks ago, dana and i went to hakone for the day to see lake ashi and visit the hakone shrine. although it was raining the entire day, we still had a pleasant trip, which included a fantastic meal and view at a restaurant called "bakery and table".

before work on thursday morning, dana and i enjoyed a pleasant lunch under the cherry blossoms.

monkey park - arashiyama, japan

arashiyama, japan

bamboo forest - arashiyama, japan

last month, mackenzie came for a two week visit. it was amazing. during the first week of her stay, she wandered around my town while i had to work. i took her to our local izakayas and introduced her to traditional japanese karaoke. the following week, during my vacation, she, dana and i ventured to kyoto for two nights. we saw a lot of shrines and temples, we mingled with monkeys at the arashiyama monkey park, and we rented traditional kimonos to wear as we walked through kiyomizu-dera. it was a fantastic kyoto trip. 

kannami, japan. a goodbye picnic lunch under the cherry blossoms before myles headed home for canada. 

mt. himoriyama, japan. on a beautiful sunday afternoon, dana and i rode our bikes to mt. himoriyama in order to get some exercise and to check out the view at it's peek. the view of our town and the epic mt. fuji were absolutely beautiful. it was a steep and difficult walk, both up and down the mountain, but the view and experience was totally worth it. japan is so beautiful. i am in love with this country. 

the ghibli museum, japan.  this weekend, myles and i visited tokyo for the last time together before he goes back to canada. although we left during japan's worst snow storm since 45 years ago, we still had an excellent time. we danced, partied and visited the famous park hyatt hotel where 'lost in translation' was filmed. on our last day we visited the ghibli museum where my dream of meeting totoro finally came true!

christmas in japan - this is again, long overdue.  unfortunately, christmas isn't a big deal in japan - it's not even a national holiday. on december 25th, children still go to school and their parents go to work. people don't get together with their families to eat an enormous meal, and they don't decorate their house with lights. it's merely an excuse for children to receive a gift or two from their parents. however, we did not let this break our christmas spirit! myles and i decorated our apartment with a small christmas tree and a few ornaments we found at the 100 yen store. we spent my two week holiday baking christmas cookies and chocolate truffles for friends. we also made homemade eggnog because it does not exist anywhere in japan - christmas is just not christmas without eggnog! on christmas eve, our friends, edith and dana, slept over so that we could all wake up on christmas morning to open gifts together. we later ate dinner at edith's community church where we had a fantastic meal with great company. it was a memorable christmas away from home. 

owakudani - hakone, japan. a view of mount fuji from owakudani. 

owakudani - hakone, japan. after our night at the ryokan, myles and i set off early the next morning to check out hakone's famous volcanic mountain - owakudani. it was a short commute to the chairlift, where we took a ten minute ride up to reach the summit. it was extraordinary. when we reached the summit, we were not only surprised by the repulsive smell of sulphur, but also by epic view of mount fuji, which looked enormous. we treated ourselves to owakudani's famous black boiled eggs which are boiled directly in its hot springs - they were very delicious. 

aura tachibana - hakone, japan. in celebration of our six year anniversary together, myles and i spent a weekend in the beautiful hakone. we stayed a night at a traditional japanese ryokan which included a bath on our balcony, an onsen, a ten course japanese dinner, and a breakfast. when we first arrived to our train station in hakone we were picked up by a shuttle bus that delivered us right to our ryokan. this place was absolutely gorgeous and the hospitality was excellent. at around 7 o'clock that night we put on our complimentary yukatas and headed down for our japanese course dinner which took us over two hours to finish. our stay at aura tachibana in hakone was an absolutely beautiful way to celebrate our many years together. 

kinkaku-ji, kyoto. the golden pavilion. this temple was absolutely beautiful. after spending half of our day at fushimi-inari, we weren't sure if we were going to make it to see this golden temple. fortunately, after checking in to our second hostel, a train trip and a 15 minute speed walk, we just made it before closing time. it was perfect. the sun was slowly setting and the temple was glowing.