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  Tokyo, Kanto, Japan
Saturday, October 11, 2008

We're in Tokyo!!!  For those of you paying very close attention to my, ever so subtle, build up to this holiday will be painfully aware as to how - as thoroughly amazing everything has been up to now - this is the big one for me.  I am, therefore, a little bit excited.  But more about that later...

Last night was spent in the Eko-in temple in Koya-san and the second of our nights with the dreaded public baths.  Our cunning plan this time... to take it in turns.  Genius!  Of course we still had to have a bath with the Buddhist monks, but any future awkwardness between ourselves was successfully avoided.

We also had access to much cooler robes this time round (pictures to follow) and a similarly awesome meal - only this time it was fully vegan.  After dinner we took a nighttime stroll around the local cemetary.  It was a lot bigger and spookier than any graveyard we'd ever seen before and it was all a little bit Night of the Living Dead.  We were brave throughout though and, aside from a few jumps and a rather embarassing slip down the stairs for yours truly, we made it through unscathed to the end - and another temple full of lamps!  This time they were lit though and extremely impressive.

After heading back we watched some hilarious Japanese TV (mad woman chucks plates at man till the police come) and went to sleep for our early morning Buddhist ceremony.  The ceremony was very simlar to the previous one but we were given better access to the shrine (still no photos allowed though) and there was a second part where they made a fire and hit a drum.

And so our relaxing middle section came to the end and we took the long seven-ish hour train trip to Tokyo.  Now here, I hope to find myself a young, disillusioned bride, looking for a connection in a city she doesn't understand.  We'll go to sushi bars, karaoke rooms and the hotel lobby bar, striking up an unusually close friendship with an overt sexual undercurrent, despite the percieved age gap.  Then the moment will come for us to separate and I will wisper something so sweet, so delicate, into her ear that it will change both of our lives for the better, forever.  Or maybe I'll just go to a Love Hotel.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

Dinner Koya-san Style	Eko-in Temple	Koya-san "Traditional" Style	The Don
The Lit Lamps	Through The Cemetary

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