Cherryblossoms in the land of the rising sun.

Friday, March 28

In Kyoto we stayed 3 nights. It's a beautiful city with lots of interesting things to do and see. 1 Night we stayed at a regular hotel and the other 2 days we stayed in a Japanese style room. It wasn't a hotel, only a room with our own front door in an apartment building, but it was cheaper. Japanese style means no chairs, only a small low table, and you sit on pillows on the floor. You wear slippers inside, never your shoes.

We went by bike to a golden temple and a typical Japanse Zen garden (everything is perfectly arranged and in balance). We also spent some time in the park, where some cherryblossoms were now blooming...
We visited Gion, an old neighbourhood where there are still some Geisha's working and living, we even met some in the streets.
The second day we went to Nara, the first capital of Japan many centuries ago. It has some beautiful temples, shrines and the largest wooden building in the world. Inside that building is the largest enclosed Buddha statue (In Lantau, near Hong Kong, we'd seen the largest bronze Buddha statue which is outside) :). Funny thing to see were the numerous deer walking around. They are regarded holy, because they were messengers of the Gods, that's why they get all the freedom they want and all the cookies they want! Tourists can buy special cookies to feed the deer and they know it; we couldn't even eat our own sandwich because they tried to eat it out of our hands!

The last day we went to an area with a bamboo forest and another beautiful Zen garden. In the afternoon we took the train to Nozawa Onsen, a small town in the Japanese Alps. Because we missed our regular ski holiday in Europe, we wanted to try and ski in Japan...and we did!
The weather wasn't great and the ski area is pretty small, but it was a lot of fun. And what made it even better were the Onsen. These are hot water springs originating in the town, and they have made bath houses around them. So there are 13 free Onsens to use and they are scalding-hot! It's a lot of fun to walk around the town with your towel and shampoo, going from one Onsen to the other, and meeting many other people (mainly locals) doing the same thing. A lot of people living in the town don't even have bathrooms because they use the Onsens as their bathroom. And it's still Japan, so everything is very clean, people first wash before getting into the Onsen, they all take off their shoes before stepping into the dressing area, etc.
We met a group of young girls in the street and they excitedly asked if they could take a picture of us. Ofcourse, no problem, so immediately there were 5 camera's out and on the side a guy also quickly taking a picture. They found us very interesting and were giggling the whole time, saying goodbye about 4 times and waving until we were around the corner...we felt like moviestars!

Tuesday April 2

We've arrived in Chile this morning, after a 27 hour journey. After the busy 11 days in Japan, we want to take it a bit easier here. But first here's the story of our days in Tokyo.
After our day skiing we took the train to Tokyo, arriving there at 10 o'clock in the evening. A few hotels we called were full, so we decided to take a Love Hotel. These are very kitschy hotels in different styles (romantic, hardrock, greek, etc) where many Japanese hire a room for only a few hours (to "rest") to escape their small house full of family, but you can also stay the whole night for a relatively cheap rate. We ended up staying 2 nights, as the next day was also difficult to find a normal hotel. The only disadvantage of a Love Hotel is that you can only check in at 12.00 at night if you want to stay the whole night.
Tokyo is big, modern, busy and was very rainy when we were there! We didn't have a sightseeing plan, so we just walked around, went to a beautiful park (in the rain) and visited several electronics stores full of gadgets. In the land of Nikon, we couldn't leave without buying a nice souvenir ofcourse ;-). So our camera bag is a bit heavier and fuller now, with a nice macro lens.
We tried out the new lens on the ... cherryblossoms! Tokyo is full of cherryblossoms at this moment and the Japanese are crazy about them. They go to the parks for a picknick, all crammed together on small grass areas and they take millions of pictures of each little flower. And when in Japan, do as the Japanese, so we did the same :-)

We also wanted to try another typical Japanese thing: sleeping in a capsule hotel. There you rent a capsule the size of a big coffin, stacked on top of each other, where many Japanese stay when they missed the last train home. It was a funny experience to do, but especially Jeroen had trouble sleeping in the small, warm capsules.
So the last night we spent in a family ryokan, a typical Japanese guesthouse. After a last look at the cherryblossoms, finally in the sun, we left for the long journey to Chile. For some more extraordinary findings on Japan and its people, we'll have another story ready in a few days.