After the excitement of yesterday we took it slow today. We awoke to a snowy world which was a surprise but a fun one. When we checked Monkey cam it had also snowed up on monkey mountain, which we wish we'd seen, but it doesn't matter as nothing could have made yesterday any more fun.
We spent a few hours catching up on looking up train times and things and booking our final place to stay. We've had to shift our plans slightly and have decided not to go all he way up north to Sapporo as its a really long way and the overnight train we were planning on getting costs an extra £100 each!! So we've booked somewhere to stay in Matsumoto instead which is just south of Nagano. It also means we've got ourselves one more night in Tokyo which is fun.
We thought we could check out at 11:00 however at 10:00 we got the message that check out was in fact now! So we hurriedly got ourselves ready and got out and up the road to Nagano's most proud site. Zenko-ji is thought to have housed the first image of Buddha to arrive in Japan, it is 1300 years old and a welcomes Buddhists of all sects so has become particularly popular with the pilgrims. Inside there is a small dark tunnel that you can pay to get lost in and scramble around in and hunt for a latch on the inside to let yourself out. The tunnel is a metaphor for the darkness of life and hunting or enlightenment. We decided to do our hunting outside in the snowy sunshine...
The temple is at the top of a long straight road that leads from Nagano to station to it's front gate. It is on a gradual hill so it really feels like you walking up to a grand old thing. The temple itself was stunning and is the second biggest wooden structure in Japan.
You may notice the smoke bellowing out of the big black burner Everyone was buying incense and throwing it into the burner and then trying to bathe it the smoke that came out. More religiousness passing me by. You may also notice the reverse swastikas on the banners hanging off the temple. The symbol actually represents the "Heart of Buddha" and was used in Buddhist art for thousands of years. It's a real shame that us European's wince on first site because it looks like a Nazi symbol. It's funny how symbols, even when there not the same one can make you feel uneasy.
The surrounding area was very grand with some little temples of sorts orbiting around the main one.
Of course, any temple complex wouldn't be complete without some super elaborate gates. Ame went a little arty again on this one.
There were statues and a lot of hungry pigeons. This little girl nearly lost a finger or two.
The gardens were beautiful and we were lucky enough to see the cherry blossom in the snow. We felt it was a rare gorgeous sight even if it isn't completely uncommon.
The cemetory around the temple had lots of plaques, memorials to the dead and graves. However, one stood out to me. Read this:
Post has souls too apparently. Someone better tell Royal Mail! The postal strikes must have left a lot of post in limbo!
The next thing to do was to try some local snacks. In North Japan Soba (wholemeal flour) is popularly used and so we tried soba galettes (kind of crepe thing with a filling; we chose caramel and almonds) and a dough ball with a spinach filling.
We then went on to have Soba noodles which were lovely. We planned to get a train at 13:47 and although it was a little earlier than that we decided to get our bags and go down to the station and have a coffee. When we got there, there was more weekend station entertainment. It must be a big thing here! It was manic and felt very manga. Check out these little crazy girls...
After all that excitement, we got on our train, then on another train and before we knew it, we were up north in Morioka (pronounced Moriorca). We immediately found the tourist office, got a map and some info, walked about 10 minutes and arrived at our lovely Ryokan, our home for the next 3 days. There was not much English spoken but we felt extremely welcomed by the house lady. After been shown the traditional restaurant that is attached to the Ryokan, we decided that it would be cool to stay in and have a 1000Yen meal set here. There was a local party going on in one of the room and locals at the bar. It was pretty cool atmosphere. The waitress spoke quite good English and we managed to establish what we were eating: starter pickles, veg, squid and tofu; rice and miso soup; sword fish and fried chicken! Brilliant meal. One of the most authentic and cheap for what we got.
We were then entertained by the little dog of the house. He is only 8 months and what is amusing is this breed of dog cannot jump. So in order for him not to be in the way but feel part of the action, they put him on this little stool that he can't get off! He can go upstairs but when he gets up there, he can't get down! He also likes standing on his hind legs. Funny creature.
So it was another lovely day. Tomorrow we are off to a traditional Samurai town...
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