I haven't had Internet for a few days so I'm posting a few consecutive posts tonight while I can.
Ise day 1
This morning we snuck one last visit in to the Nishiki Market in Kyoto, known as Kyoto's Kitchen because of all the different little food stalls. Most of the stores were still closed but I bought a few trinkets, including a few beautiful hand painted wall scrolls for my condo. I had been admiring some different ones in a small shop in the higashiyama district so Kimiko-san wanted to take me to this one to look at some of their selection. I wish I could've bought ALL of them, they were so pretty!
Caught a quick Shinkansen to Nagoya then transferred to the Toba line, where we were to meet James and Chako at the 3rd stop, close to Ise. Ise is Japan's oldest town, and home to one of the most elaborate and famed Shinto Shrines in the entire country. We will visit that on Friday, along with the Mikimoto Island pearl farms as Ise is also famous for their cultured pearls.
Tonight was the 88th birthday celebration for Chako's father, attended by 28 of her closest friends and relatives. We felt extremely honoured to be included in this intimate gathering in the ballroom of this beautiful seaside resort hotel. The food was incredible, very traditional Japanese celebration feast with multiple courses and the most intricate dishes. We were totally stuffed by the end of the evening, which was commenced with a rather bizarre but highly entertaining Thai showgirl variety show... Using the word "girl" rather loosely...
Our rooms are traditional tatami style, so we get to sleep on futon tonight which I'm very excited about. Last year we has the option of sleeping on futon or in the amazingly fluffy and comfortable beds at the Hakone ryokan, and by that point it was March 13th and we were EXHAUSTED. We came back from dinner, sat down on the bed at 7:30pm and woke up 11 hours later in the morning, ha! It was a thoroughly rewarding experience though, staying at the ryokan. I would highly recommend it to anyone thinking of traveling to Japan. I would suggest you learn some basic Japanese language skills first though, as they typically do not speak much English. They had a good laugh at us last year trying to navigate our way through the check in process. Thankfully we have our wonderful friends here this year to help us, but the hostess was extremely embarrassed when she was trying to explain our rooms to us and Dad and I just stared at her blankly. From what I managed to decipher, something was going to happen at hachi-ji han desu, so at 8:30... My best guess was that that's when they would set up our beds in our rooms. One point for Krissy!
Sang karaoke for 2 hours after dinner and the show, Dad did his usual - wanna guess? Daydream Believer, Love Me Tender, and Blue Hawaii. The only 3 English songs all night unless you count the lip synching dancers. Oh lordy that was a funny experience!
Bedtime now, another long day of sightseeing tomorrow. The hot springs arent nearly as hot here, so I spent some time soaking in the sauna tub and then the outdoor tub overlooking the bay. It is unbelievably gorgeous here. I feel so grateful everyday that we are getting to experience so much of this incredible country, and it has been very rewarding learning a little bit more about my heritage at the same time. I also figured out that karaoke is a great way to learn hiragana and katakana, but following along with the characters on the screen! I'm getting much much better, maybe I'll actually be able to read a little bit by the time I get home. (Lisa, Megan, we can practice lots together!)
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