Our hotel was walking distance from the train station. We ditched our gear there and caught a taxi to the Olympic speed skating center. We rented skates and paid admission for 600 yen --- roughly 6 bucks and skated a few laps. Indy was good about giving skating a try. He was not a big fan and was done fairly quick. This was all after a pretty full day of travels as well. Jodi was pretty dang graceful on the ice. I got smoked by 12 year olds on speed skates...I thought for sure I could keep up! The next morning we ate a breakfast of muffins that we packed and then hit the streets. We walked a good while in the snow to make it to the Zenko-ji temple. It was really peaceful with the new snow falling. The temple complex was really large with uber intricate architecture in every direction. Iron statues. Gold ornaments. Wooden figures worn smooth from people rubbing them for good luck/fortune. There were also two massive statues of fierce, super muscular dudes carved out of wood that just couldn't be captured in a photo. My favorite was seeing snow mounded on the heads of statues wearing stocking hats.
No comments:
Post a Comment