parents arrive!

My parents have safely arrived in Tokyo!   After lugging 10 pounds of peanut butter, 5 pounds of magazines, 5 pounds of wine from the vineyard where we were married, and some of their own stuff across the city, we made it to our apartment where, in spite of my assertions that it was, in fact, really tiny, my mom was stunned at how small it was. 

We took them out for some ramen and, with the time difference catching up with them, set up the pull-out couch so they could get some much needed horizontal sleep.

We've got a fairly open day tomorrow of exploring Shinjuku, one of our favorite parts of Tokyo, and doing some sakura viewing while there are still some petals on the trees.  It was a gorgeous day today so here's hoping tomorrow is good to us as well!

Mata ne,
Melissa

lunaversary number seven!

Tuesday we celebrated our seven month lunaversary and as is the custom in this family (established precisely seven months ago) we celebrated in style.

We spent much of the day walking around enjoying a beautiful Tokyo day.  The sakura are in full bloom and we were able to take in some hanami (flower viewing) in the Imperial Palace gardens.  Of course, on a beautiful day the garden, which is only open at select times of the year, was packed with both Japanese and foreign tourists.  It was worth fighting the crowds though!

 In the evening we went out for a nice dinner at a small restaurant right in our neighborhood that I've been wanting to check out for some time.  We're sure glad we did!  The servers were very attentive, the food was amazing and very reasonably priced, and the sake pouring, as you can see, was quite generous!

Not only is the good sized cup overflowing, but the dish under it is completely filled to the brim!  Let's just say I only had one.

It was a great find.  I wish I could share with all the world the name of the place, but unfortunately, I have no idea what it was.  I'm fairly certain that it doesn't have one.  At least not one advertised on the outisde of the building.  It is instead distinguished by two large dried fish that grace the front of the facade.  We will be going again.  Very shortly in fact!

We spent the whole cold and rainy day Wednesday cleaning our whole entire apartment from top to bottom and doing every piece of laundry we could find in preparation from our next set of visitors....

Mata ne,
Melissa

Editor's note: Jeff claims it does have a name.  I'll check this out tomorrow.

philosopher's walk

On our recent trip to Kyoto we thinkers enjoyed a contemplative stroll along this path. 

The Tetsugaku-no-michi, also known as the Philosopher's Walk, is found in northern Kyoto, just outside the Ginkaku-ji (sliver temple).  It's about 2 km long and a pleasant path for an afternoon stroll, particularly in sakura (cherry blossom) season.  Unless it's a particularly overcast, dark and dreary day.  And it starts raining on you while you're walking it.  The picture doesn't do it justice. 

We plan to give this one another shot in a few days with my parents.

Mata ne,
Melissa

zen gardens!

There are plenty of Buddhist temples in Kyoto and thus several fine examples of zen gardens.  These intricate rock gardens are more complex and on a larger scale than I imagined.  It is said they are best viewed on a rainy day, so Kyoto nicely prepared one for us.

Remember, it's all made of tiny pebbles and sand!

Notice the very nice looking trees and well-kept mossy areas?  The rocks are not the only things they take very good care of - Jeff told me the last time he was here they were sweeping the moss!

I can't imagine the kind of time it takes to get this right.  It would drive my perfectionist self nuts!  Notice how the lines are so straight separating the smooth and rough bands.

Further along in the garden area behind the temple there were beautiful paths to wander.  (This one was blocked off, possibly because of the rain/mud?)

Oh, I guess I should mention that this was at the Ginkaku-ji or Silver Temple.  Do not let the name mislead you!  There is no silver here.  Having seen the gold-leafed storehouse I mistakenly assumed that this temple might actually be made of silver.  Turns out there was a plan to cover it completely in silver leaf, but it was never carried out.  Classic case of "don't count your chickens before they hatch."

Mata ne,
Melissa

gold leaf in Kanazawa

(So I said I would write about all the fun stuff we saw and did while we were exploring the wilderness rail system in Japan,  but I made no promises to do so in any sort of orderly fashion.)

On our way to Kyoto, we snaked our way around western Japan and visiting a city that had been (and still is) known for producing gold leaf.  This is the kind of stuff that you might see on decorative paper  or china.  

They apparently were quite successful and skilled at this craft, and decided to gold leaf everything in sight.  The outside of this store house (for what else - gold) was not immune.

 As it turns out, neither was the inside

We didn't get to see any cool gold leaf making facilities (from what I was able to gather, it is not, in fact, the most exciting process) but we did get to see a lot of places trying to sell us gold leafed goods.

Moving on..... to the train station.

Tracks 3 and 4 for McCain.

Mata ne,
Melissa