What does New Year's eve, a zoo, Kevin's birthday and Nikki
day all have in common? Well lots actually so that was rather anti-climatic.
For starters they were all done over winter break, it was cold, I had a lot of
fun and Nikki was there with me!
So, I drove back from the west coast in records time and
made it back in time to pack up and go to New Year's at Laura's. We stayed up
late with umeshu, nabe and this New Year’s TV program the Japanese apparently
always watched that did all sorts of songs and dances. It was a lot of fun and
we brought in the New Year with lots of cheering and sent the boys out to do
their thing and all went off to sleep.
The next morning we woke when it was still early into the first day of the year to go to hatsumode. I decided to forgo on the 'watching the sunrise' tradition out of sheer exhaustion from the busy week prior to the holiday. Instead we bundled up, had McDonalds for breakfast and went to the Fuji Sengen shrine. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with the sky a clean blue and the sun fresh and new. We walked down the path to the shrine between the huge pine trees and old stone lanterns until we came upon the line to wait to make the first prayer of the year. I didn't mind the wait though, it wasn't that cold nor that long and there was plenty to watch. Children in their beautiful little kimono and the way the light rippled through the forest, the disposing of last year's charms (I gave up my little arrow from Enoshima may it rest in peace) and the shrine maidens running about with the new charms and fortunes. The music was soft and ghostly in a peaceful way and there was an anticipatory hush in the air. Two old ladies held our place in line as Nikki and I rushed off to purify at my dragon fountain and then at last it was time to pray. All I asked for was happiness for all I love. But ya know, some money wouldn't be missed. After we went and tested our fortune with omikuji and Nikki and I both got 大吉 'big luck!' Finally, we got to go pick our new charms for the year. Only Japan can make snakes look so darn cute! I got a new arrow with a snake plaque that I could just cuddle and giddy with happiness from renewal we went on our way. We finished the morning with purikura and then went home for a nice long relaxing nap.
I can't remember now if it was the next day or the day after
that but after New Year’s Kevin and I put all our heart into planning Nikki
Day. The concept: we have missed so many holidays not living on the same
continent as her that we would make up for all of it on a single day: Nikki
Day! Before she'd arrived Kevin and I worked super hard on decorations and
banners so on the day I sent her next door to Kevin’s and quickly pinned it all
up before calling them back. Now, we thought it would be really fun to have
poppers with exploding streamers but I didn't read the package that carefully
and it turned out that they were just explosions so when she walked in the door
and we let them loose it rather just sounded like gun shots! XD Poor Nikki, we
terrified her, but after she recovered she really did appreciate our efforts.
So we explained the point of Nikki day, to give her the option to do whatever
she wanted. In which case we got in the car and set off to her favourite temple
in Minobu. It was a very cold but clearish day however when we got there we
were in for a surprise we didn't anticipate. It was soooo busy because we were
still in the first days of the New Year. So in the end we had to go park by the
river and take a bus up to the little village in the mountains. My favourite
part of Minobu is when you leave the main road and turn up this narrow one that
passes under a temple gate and suddenly you are transported into the narrow
mountain valley that unless you knew how to find it, you'd miss it every time.
We strolled through the little town, snacking on festival food and I bought a
cute snake charm to go with my collection (I have the rabbit and the dragon
too~) and then we climbed the death stairs up to the main temple precinct. It
was hard work, and I almost fainted when I lost to janken and had to run up a
flight, but well worth it for enlightenment! It was too busy to go inside so we
just wandered about and looked at charms, people watched and I admired the
buildings with a blue sky for it seems to have only rained when I've gone
before. A nice visit before hurtling ourselves back down the stairs, to the bus
and off to Kofu.
The next part of Nikki day was Coco Curry's. Not much to report there. It was delicious. Then the animate store, the mall to get Subway and dessert and then home. A good day. The next couple of days were spent doing little bits of nothing, hanging out with friends, Kevin's crazy (belated) birthday party where lots of people came and it turned out that some of my teachers were in the booth across the way and came to drink with us and then we went to the zoo.
Not just any zoo. The Tama Zoo. But the name isn't as
important as the fact that they had snow leopards! I love snow leopards! They
are so beautiful and cute with most gorgeous tails. I dragged Nikki through the
park at top speed bypassing ducks and bears, goats and deer, just to see the
snow leopard. There was one male and he was by himself but in the other pen there
were three younger ones and they all played about and were very active! I
wanted to watch them all day! But finally Nikki pulled me away so we could see
elephants, wolves, tigers, lions, giraffes, zebra, cheetahs!, bugs and well I
you (being me in the future) get the idea. It was great! And at the end Nikki
bought me a really cute leopard plushy which I creatively name Yuki, which
means snow.
We took the train back to the previous station and after the zoo we went to check out this temple that I’ve passed a million times and never stopped to explore. Again it was super busy with the holiday but this meant I got beniimo oyaki which trust me is delicious!!! Not only was this temple magnificently beautiful but it's infamous for being a gathering place of the shinsengumi prior to them moving to Kyoto and gaining popularity. The members were originally from Hino and thus the temple is famous for them with a statue of Toshizo Hijikata. Yay! So we hung around there a bit longer, then went to Hachioji for food and shopping and headed home.
I gave us only on day to recover for on Monday our plan was to head to Nikko!
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