A sunrise circle around Fuji

We set out early before the sun

To have a bit of early fun

In the car we went west

In order to see Fuji best.

It was very cold so we turn the heat high

As in the east brighter was the sky

Onwards to Yamanakako lake

Waiting for the sun to wake.

Story is Fuji turns pink

As the sun meets its brink

So in the cold we watched swans swim

While the sun came over the mountain rim.

But as luck would have it, that day was not the case

Fuji remained white as the sun gave chase

For in the east the clouds had come

And all the while our hands had gone numb.

So off to the onsen, we were frozed

But sure enough it was closed

So why not carry on into day

To circle the mountain we did stray.

On our travels we did see

A pretty waterfall beneath Fuji

And a shrine dedicated for the mountain

Surrounded by water from a fountain.

I loved the many bridges to cross

And some bread to the fish I did toss

Before stopping to say a prayer

As around us the weather turned fair.

 

 

Around the mountain that did tower

Still in need of a nice warm shower

At last we found one after noon

A onsen with a view was our boon. 

It looked over our Fuji while we bathed

In the water that kinda scathed

But in the sun we had a nice nap

Under the blissful water tap.

And so the day did wear on

As the sun was almost gone

We stopped for an oishii dinner of curry

There was no reason at all to hurry.

And then a bit of shopping on the way home

We were finished our lovely roam

Circle the whole mountain we had tread

And now it was a good time for bed.

The days between Christmas and New Years have been nice ones and thus I have graced them with poetry.The weather has been mostly nice and only a little cold and we have had some nice travels. After one day of rest we decided a second sunrise was in order. but this time from an onsen! The downside, no cameras… the upside, it was beautiful!

steam cascades over stone

dipped in an onsen of dawn

sunrise of Fuji

And then we went for breakfast at Starbucks before Rhee and I parted from Sheena and a new girl, Chelsea, and went to see the Zenkoji temple of Kofy. For when Takeda Shingen and the Nagano warlord were at war, he feared the war might destroy the temple we went to last week so he had another built in Kofu. Luckily that was not the case but it still make for a second gorgeous temple! Then we went home to bed for the rest of the day so we can sleep all night tonight and wake up tomorrow only to spend all night awake to hear the temple bells of New Year’s and watch the first sunrise of the year. But that is a different story! ... and yes... 'frozed' is a word!

A very monkey Christmas

This past weekend was the much anticipated and totally awesome, Christmas which exceeded all expectations! Early on I had plans to attempt to make this Christmas as much as home as possible until I realized that was never going to happen... home is home and Japan is Japan, both wonderful in their own rights. At home I would celebrate with 'It's a Wonderful Life,' Carolyn's and coffee, a warm fire and family but as those were still an ocean away I thought I'd celebrate with what I do have here: Bailey's, good friends, onsens, and snow monkeys! Thus as the time grew closer this trip got dubbed the a very naked Christmas!

A Naked Christmas Eve

My story begins Christmas eve morning when Sheena met up with me at my house and together we ventured through Yamanashi to collect Rhee and head north to Nagano. As we climbed through the mountains it got snowier and snowier until the expressway popped us out in Yamanouchi where we made for our ryokan at Yudanaka onsen. First impressions after pulling in, and sliding about ten feet into an icy parking lot, was that we had booked ourselves into paradise. The ryokan was absolutely, amazingly, supremely, totally fantastic! It was a quiet little inn run by the nicest old man and his family and was built horse shoe shape around a little snowy garden and the main bath, a Heian style bath that was built at the same time as the inn over 100 years ago. It was warm and cozy and we hadn’t even made it to our room yet. Our room was breathtaking and we all squealed a bit as the doors slid open to a large tatami room with our three futons occupying half of it and a fabulous kotatsu occupying the other half. A kotatsu is the most amazing invention ever designed by the Japanese. It is essentially a table; however, a table with a heat source and a blankets so that when seated at a chair on the tatami mats with your legs stretched before you, you are as warm as one can possibly get without being in the onsen itself! This was all before we had even been to inspect the bath!

After all our excitement in the room we needed a little walk to play in the snow and really sink into the peaceful little town at the foot of the mountains. Rhee made a snow angels and we took turns throwing snow up in the air and had snow ball fights and admired the last of the persimmons and found a little shrine in the snow and then headed back to buy Christmas eve dinner and snuggle into our beautiful room! For dinner we had chicken from a combini, wine and salad and it was perfect! Next it was bath time. First we went for the Heian bath where the grandmother of the ryokan had just put fresh Nagano apples into the hot water filling the room with an amazing aroma and giving us something, not unlike rubber ducks, to play with! We frolicked in the water for a bit and then deciding we were too hot, climbed out only to find that it had begun to snow. Wasting no more time we made for the outdoor bath. There is nothing wuite like good company, a hot spring, a cold winter’s night and fresh flakes of white drifting through the steam as the garden around us collected the snow. Sublime. We finished the superb evening with Christmas cake, thanks to Sheena, champagne and strawberries and Baileys, all this after the ryokan owner brought us steamed sweet potatoes, and watched a Christmas movie before curling up into bed for a long winter’s nap.

 

Christmas Day with the Monkeys

It was most definitely a white Christmas as we drank our coffee, ate some sweets, bathed again in luxury and apples and made for our grand adventure to the snow monkeys! Scraping off the snow from the night off my car and enjoying the blue skies we headed deeper into the mountains, left the car and proceeded through the snowy forest in search of the infamous monkeys! We passed a beautiful shrine with its red torii gate clad in white, and hills just dazzling with snow, a tiny stone shrine tucked into the roots of a giant snowy tree and another little ryokan, where spotted our first monkeys, up the valley with a jet of onsen steam soaring into the crystal clear sky and then after all our travels we saw them! Monkeys! Snow monkeys! Onsening monkeys! Monkey monkey monkey! It was like being in the middle of a National geographic shoot, it was so amazing and they were adorable and funny and so cool to watch! They had such personalities! Like one baby monkey kept getting out and then going back in and wanting to cuddle with mom until a time came when he attempted to crawl back into the hot water and mom’s arms… she pushed him off the rocks! I just about teared up laughing so hard but then they would have frozen for I was shivering pretty madly by this time. I watched them a while more and giggled and awed and, oh it was just so cool! before heading up to the little hut and warming up before we trudged back through the kilometer and a half of snow back to the car. So well amazingly worth it!

 

  

 

 

 

 

Then we took the long way home past a temple with a Kannon statue, and when we returned we lounged about the ryokan room and drank Baileys and ate Tim tams and my chocolate ‘S’ and curled up with the kotatsu for the afternoon and watched a movie and napped a bit. Around this time we felt it important to go for another outing lest we never emerge from our cozy den and we hit the snowy night streets in search of a foot bath and warm meal. As it turned out the foot bath was closed for winter but the meal was as hot as I wanted and for Christmas dinner we feasted on ramen, yuzu sours and later back at the ryokan, leftover Christmas cake! Another bath in the snow and then to bed for us as it was our last night in paradise.

 

 

Boxing Day at the Temple

If you guessed the day began with another bath you would be right as there is no such thing as too many at a hot spring resort! More snow! More hot water! And then we packed up and said goodbye to our lovely inn and the staff that ran it and grudgingly got in the car to leave. The last thing on the itinerary was Nagano city! Home of the 1996 winter Olympics and Zenkoji temple, a 1300 year-old temple which was the reason the city was built up in the first place. It is one of last remaining true pilgrimage sites in Japan and was always open to women even at its time of founding unlike many others. Anyways, so now we are in Nagano and it’s snowing like crazy and we are walking up the beautiful snowy street lined with little shops and shrines and statues to deities and it was just beautiful. The main building itself is said to be one of the biggest in Japan and is unique for beneath its floors is a completely dark passage way where one must venture and seek out a metal key on the wall that will provide enlightenment. It was really awesome and I was able to find the key (which was a little bit easy considering all the Japanese shouting ‘yatta yatta yatta’ (I did it. I did it. I did it.) so it was only a matter of following the sounds lol) and emerge again into the beautiful snowy world. We wandered about the ground a long time, admiring the way the snow emphasized the peaceful beauty of a pink pagoda in the corner of the grounds, the trees, lanterns, the large wooden gates leading up to the temple, a statue atop an incense burner and little pink flowers that are somehow still alive after all this time in the cold. We passed by an image of a man said to cure eye disease and a Kannon statue with offering of toys and an altar to Jizo, the deity of children. I fed the pigeons, which are apparently close enough to doves (the bird affiliated with the temple), that warrant a daily feeding, I still think they are rats with wings but I did it all the same and happily at an old man’s urging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most perfect Christmas weekend in Japan ever finished in a cute little shop that sold homemade oyaki, mmm these little delicious tofu and vegetable dumplings cooked over an open fire, sipping tea and miso soup and nibbling on the little pasties as we talked with the owners and warmed up around the hearth. We left that afternoon and headed back south to home and out of the snow and we were greeted by our beautiful Fuji at sunset!

 

So thus concludes my story of the time I spent Christmas in Japan and despite missing my family dearly, had a wonderful time! Now I have a couple weeks off before the new term begins next year. I plan to spend my time onsening and watching sunrises and listening for the 108 temple bells of the new year and finishing the vacation off with a warm trip far far south to the southern-most prefecture, Okinawa! Yoi otoshi o!