Japan

[Drunk Monk]

Yesterday began with us checking out Kannin-ji, which had an area where we had to take off our shoes to see the inner temple chambers. Those had a lot of famous murals including some dragons and the wind and thunder gods, which I’ve seen in books. 

Then Tara went to make a ring from a coin. They said people often make them from coins where they hope to visit, so she made one from a S. Korean coin from her birth year. It came out really nice.

Then we left Gion for Kita ward. The AirB&B guesthouse is over a century old, beautifully decorated with traditional art, with funky architecture like a staircase that’s more of a ladder and low ceiling beams between rooms which are thoughtfully padded because I would’ve knocked myself out several times already with out that.

I crashed hard - I had a nap nightmare that I was being flattened by a giant iron. I fell asleep so fast that I neglected to turn on the AC. But it was good to get some rest. Tara spent the time strategizing our stay here.

When I woke we made a snack run to 7/11. Tried about of unique food offerings there. It’s the epitome of convenient. How the brand lost its way in the US  is beyond me. Here it’s so next level. The open hours for most restaurants is very limited so the 24 hour convenience stores fill the gap. Tara actually read the instructions for the onigir and it turns out I’ve been opening them wrong all this time. If you do it properly, the rice lands in the seaweed wrap perfectly. People must’ve watched me do it wrong and thought ‘dumb tourist’

It started to rain again, not as hard as the typhoon earlier but significant. Fortunately the guesthouse provides umbrellas. We went to a real onsen. It was filled with locals and a few other tourists. Multiple tubs, including an outdoors section (Tara said the female side had a koi pond; the male side was built with rocks). Admission grants you unlimited time, plus we got towels & soap for less that $9 each. The tubs wer hot. One was electrified. The sauna was extremely hot. I went in for about 2 minutes and it broke me. I started to get dizzy and had to leave. I went out and poured cold water over myself at one of the showering stations but couldn’t get back into any of the tubs after that sauna, so I did more cold water and left to the cooling down lounge. I got some drink from the vending machine (sort of an apple soda) and watching baseball on tv with some locals. Tara came out about 5-10 mins later. We both really enjoyed it although after walking in the heat all this time, it got intense for me.

Only 6.5 miles. A restorative day.